Norwich bulletin., 1914-01-10

foundation for SKY -Scraplng tower of Success. Heaven speed that day! In the meantime?
 In the meantime, what's the matter with just keeping at it,-keeping ever Iastingly at it. either till something cracks, or till the night cometh where in no man can work? Butting heads against a stone wall? Oh, well, re- member the pious old darley You say youll dc anything the Lord tells yop:' said a sneerirs wfite fellow: Suppose the Lord shai1d tell you butt a hole with your head through a solid stone wall ?"-sSS9 -ail,' said the darkes-, ''is de Lord should tell me dat. sheuid git down on my knees and go at de wall: buttin' I'd be my jcf; gestin' froo Id be de Lords
 There's a lot of basis for Old Man Grumper's criticism. We've been dis cussing,-sometimes without the pre- fix "dis-'-for years and years the way in which farmers profits were deliberately chosed out of them by the toil-ta1ers in between them and their ultimate customers. It isn't just you and I who have been thinking along that line Why. in the very last re- port of the United States Department of Agriculture, just made to congress, the disgusting conditions are frankly admitted and dilated upon. For proof, read these extracts:
 "The long line of distributors ard middlemen between the farmer and the consumer are in a position to take advantage of the market, and to a certain extent control the market, in both directions, because they are bet ter organized to keep informed of crop and market conditions and to act promptly than either farmers or consumers, who are not organized, and as individuals are helpless.
 The high prices paid by consum CTS, ranging from to nearly 500 per cent in some cases more than the farmer receives indicate that there is plenty of room for lowering the cost of farm products to consumers, and at the same time largely increasing the cash. income per farm without in- creasing farm production.
 This condition is undoubtedly a marketing problem, which will have to be solved by better organization of farmers and improved methods of marketing"
 never put it any stronger than that, did [? A difference of some times 500 per cent between what the consumer pays and what the farmer gets: a problem which will have to be solved by better organization of farmers and improved methods of marketing: the helplessness of un- organized consumers and producers: and all the rest.
 But whats the use of my saying it? Whats the use of the department say ing it? The more we say it the more things don't seem to get any for rarder,
 We'll, then, if we can't or won't organize and win out that way, how about producing more , and better crops Tn order to get better grip? Some one suggests it. Whereupon Old Man Grumper heaves one more sigh and wants to know what's the use of that? He seems to be a Twentieth century incarnation of Mrs. Job He's convinced that neither medicines talk en internally, nor washes used ex- formally, nor persistent curry comb ings will cure the durn scab. Whats left,-except to crawl into a hole and pull the hole in after him?
 There may be nothing left.-for those who believe in holes as the proper retreat for soldiers on the firing line.
 But I for one can't yet force my self to assume that all or even a majority of my fellow farmers really feel that way.
 There's a lot of resistance in tough old seasoned hickory. It'll stand a deal of bending and twisting without letting go. And the average New England farmer is quite like old nick ory; shaggy parked on the outside but with pretty good material in side.
 There's an old saying that it's all ways darkest just before dawn. Whether it actually is so. may be a question. Certainly to the wakeful watcher who losses uneasily on his bed wondering if the morning will thnSo th oF the night seem uncommon black and weary. Perhaps we are in about that era. now Perhaps the skies may have to grow even a shade darker be- fore the dawn finally lifts. We have borne much for many years. We have