The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1914-10-28

WheA normal conditions are restored
and the countries now engaged in de-
struction, change to production, with
the rehabilitation of business and a
resultant increase in imports, the Tn.
derwood Tariff Bill will abundantly
establish the wisdom of Democratic
craftsmanship.
Let me call your attention especially
to what the government has done in
direct aid of the farmer:
Government Aid In Graduating Hog
Cholera.
A very careful government estimate
made no later than 1913 revealed the
fact that six million hogs, valued at
SOS, 100000, died of hog cholera in the
United States that year. As this is a
preventable disease, 1t means that
over 700,0O0,000 pounds of dressed
meat and lard, or enough to furnish
every family in the land with about
80 pounds of meat has been. needless.
ly lost. This has been allowed to go
on unnoticed for fifty years. II re-
NAMED for this Democratic Congress
to take positive and efficient steps to
checks the awful waste caused by this
scourge. So, in February of this year
a bill was passed settling aside $780,.
600 for a nationwide application of
serum to eradicate disease that not
only costs the farmers many mil
lions annually, but also gives the peo-
pie a greatly extended meat supply.
This certainly brings government aid
directly to the farmer and lends a
helping hand where most needed.
The smith-Lever Agricultural Exten.
sion Act.
The Smith-Lever Agricultural Elk.
tension Act is the most farreaching
and progressive measure ever enacted
for the farmer. 1t takes the State
Agricultural College, the State Expert
ment Station and the Federal Depart
ment of Agriculture direct to the
farmer, the farmers wife and into the
farm home. 1t is the first Congress
sional act that considers the farmers
wives and daughters by providing
funds for teaching home economics.
This administration was the first one
to grasp-the tremendous truth that ii
all of the knowledge applicable and
helpful to farming that has been work
ed out separately by the experimental
stations, and by individual farmers
upon the farm, and by the scientists in
the United States Department of Ag-
riculture could be gathered together
and correlated and sent out to the
farmer-not in written bulletins
which they would not read-but by
personal appeal and demonstration,
that agriculture would be readjusted,
that country life would have an at
traction, a dignity and potential influ-
ence never enjoyed before. This act
makes liberal appropriation for farm
extension work. There is immediate
ly available $4,000 for each State
Agricultural College and by gradually
| increasing sums the new law appro-
| PIRATES $4,5S0,000 annually from the
Federal treasury, conditioned upon
the individual states providing an al
most equal sum. This will make avail
able after the year 1922 nearly &c.,
| 0G0, 600. In the first nine years of the
laws application, the Federal govern
ment will have given the forty-eight
states more than $23,000,00O, and the
states themselves will have given
more than $lS,000,0O0. Thus in the
nine year period now beginning,
Grand total of nearly 100000 will
go into agricultural extension work.
The cooperative feature of the bill,
| the states and Federal government
working in close harmony, is a very
valuable step forward. Efficiency is
guaranteed for the wise expenditure
of this enormous sum by providing
| that the work shall be carried on in
such a manner as shall be mutually
agreed upon by the Secretary of Agr
culture and the State Colleges
II explanation, or excuse, is needed
for the outlay of such enormous sums,
| would say that ii is high time that
such steps are being taken, if We are
to obviate one of the greatest dangers
that threaten our national existence
| refer to the deserted farm home, a
| constantly increasing tendency to.
wards a system of farming by alb
senteesm, the growth of tenantcy and
the alarming drift of rural population
towards the towns and cities. 1t is
safe to assume that not more than SO
per cent of our population live upon
the farms. This tendency will cease
only when farm life becomes as at.
tractive as urban life. There Is an
imperative need on the part of the
State and Federal government to re.
shape rural methods and ideals. We
must have better farming, better liv.
ing, better and more education, which
means better and more prosperous cit
izenship in rural communities. It re-
quired a Democratic administration
for the Department of Agriculture to
make this direct effort to get in touch
with the home life of the farmer and
to assist and improve his domestic con.
q. Al Il n. u