Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-11-14
Secretary Houston Points
Out Neglect of Soil to
Convention.
IS 40 PER CENT RETURN
Business Methods Must Be Ap-
piled and There Must Be
State and Federal Aid.

Manchester, n. H, Nov. 14.-Less
than 40 per cent of the cultivated land
the United States IS reasonably well
cultivated and less than II per cent is
yielding maximum returns. Secretary
Houston of the department of agricul
ture told the National Grange of Pa
irons of Husbandry, in 47th annual
convention here today that the best
figures he could procure led 10 such
a conclusion and that only in a very
few localities had conditions been de-
veloped to insure maximum returns.
Secretary Houston touched upon rur-
al credits, marketing methods, eXten-
sion of agricultural education, and the
cost of living. He 5poke of 'manipula-
tions OF those middlemen vino perform
no useful or necessary service, as one
of the causes of soaring prices.
Il do not entertain the thought for
a second that we have approXimated
the limit of out output from the SOIL"
said he. We have not even reached
the end of the pioneering stage. We
have been so bent on building up great
Industrial centers by every natural
and artificial device that we have had
little time to think CT the very founda-
tion of our industrial existence.
I'VE had better frankly face the
fact.that we are relatively inefficient,
take stock of our shortcomings and
earnestly seek the remedy. That we
have practically reached the stage
where we have ceased to be an eX-
porting nation of food products and
are becoming dependent on foreign ma
tions for the necessaries of life, is a
sad commentary upon our use of the
opportunities bestowed upon us"
FARMER Is BLAMED.
Speaking of what the agricultural de-
partment hopes 10 do to solve the prob
lem of the increasing cost of living, I
Secretary Houston expressed the opin-
ion that the existing chaos and conse- {
quent wastes result from faults on the
part of the farmer in the growing and .
of his products; from the /
machinery of distribution including !
physical equipment and physical han
ding; from the manipulation of those (
middle men who perform no useful and .
necessary service; and from ignorance
on the part of the consumer and of
the producer of the character of the
product which is placed upon the mar
ket"
Secretary Houston urged coordina-
tion of federal and state agricultural
agencies as essential to success, de-
Tlored the jealousy which, he declared,
exists in many states between the
state agricultural commissions and
the agricultural colleges, and decried
duplication of work in many locali-
ties.
In the field of marketing, he de-
clared. there was danger that pressure
would be brought to bear to force the
department to act everywhere before
IL was inteIligently prepared to act
anywhere. He explained that his de-
partment which started last summer
10 make a careful study of the market
ing problem, was studying it from
every angle.
There was the same danger in re-
gard to the question of rural credits.
4 am not impressed" he said, with
he wisdom and justice of proposals
hat would take the money of all the
people through bones or other devices
and lend IL to the farmers or to any
)ther class as a rate OF interest lower
han the economic conditions would |
formally require and at a rate of in {
crest lower than that at which other !
.lasses are securing their capital. ]
This would be legislation of a par /
icularly odious type, and no new ex- I
.ursions in this direction would be
,aIatable when we are engaged in the {
-igantic task of restoring the simple {
ule of equity" /
Before the problems Of rural credit I
nd marketing the secretary declared Z
he individual farmer acting alone was Z
elpless. Nothing less than concert q
d action would suffice, he said, and ?
he sane business sense and the same
rganizing genius which have placed T
mis- nation in the front rank of indus
~ must be involved in agriculture"
NEED OF BUSINESS SENSE.
The problem of the individual farm n
r said the secretary, had reached d
cant systematic attention and the I
robIem of rural life as a whole had O
ntil recently been practically ignored il
rom every section of the country, he e
eclared. came the stOT-- OF increasing T
anancy and absentee ownership, of n
Oils depleted and exploited, OF made
uate business methods, of chaotic
larketing and distribution. of inferior
pads, o. lack of supervision of pub Il
c health and sanitation, of isolated n
nd i'll organized social activities and Il
7 inferior intellectual provision he n