Norwich bulletin., 1914-10-17
THE MONEY QUESTION FROM THE FARMERS
 POINT OF VIEW

, of the ends money will enable farmers to attain.
 This may be regrettable necessity. It may sound sordid. It may make the moralists gulp.
 But there's no use shutting our eyes to the facts. In this matter the facts are what our imperfect social and governmental order has made them. And our imperfect social and govern mental order is what our worse than imperfect human nature" has made it.
 There you are. Up against a stump And no stump -puiler in sight! It may be connmendable for those of us who think we see a better way to try to improve our fellow men and women and meliorate our environ l we've accomplished that purpose. we've got to live with men, women and facts as they are, not as we think they should be.
 One solemn and sorry fact is, as I've remarked, that the average farm CT. obtaining neither just wages for for his product, is almost invariably short of the money his conditions de-
 mand and his aspirations inaplore. Is it any wonder that, gripped in SuCn SnacKleS or snlnQTdIc6, He SuOuIQ l give to "the money side" of his call l ing an amount and degree of attention I not theoretically desirable? | Is 1t any wonder that those who practically know his conditions and i sympathetically share his burden | bearing should also share his constant worry over ''the money side?" We've qot to take things as they are. And as things are, the average farmer simply must give that money | side' a disproportionate share Of thought. As things are, it is not being 'too greatly emphasized"
 | What is not being sufficiently efn- l phasized is the unfortunate fact that l the average farmer doesn't get the l money which justly belongs to him for | his work and the service he renders. The first and greatest help such agencies as the Department of Agri- | culture could render him would be to 1 find out exactly why he is thus inn poverished. and suggest practical
 methods by which the money naturally ] due him would naturally come to him, 1 thus obviating his present necessity
 of too greatly emphasizing" the hunt for it.
 So long as he has to work morn | ings and moons and nights, weekdays | and holidays and fishing days, just to l scrape together money enough to live on and feed the dog-just for an aver age wage less than is paid an ignorant l Slovak for digging coal in Pennsyl- vania, so long he'll think most of his time about the money side, e,"-because he has to.
 man not himself an actual farmer. de- l pendent on his farm for existence, to | tell him he ought not to, either! | shl----
 l This last season has been a pretty 1 good one for eastern farmers. Even helped us out. Many of our crops are unusually good. Those of us who I have tried to increase our yields by ! improved farming methods might be I expected to rejoice over the results I of our good work combined with the good weather.
 l But, really, now, how much advan- 4 tage are these results going to be to
 us?
 While almost everything we don't
 l produce but have to buy has gone up
 in price, our products are either nc
 higher or are actually lower than or
 dinary. Near me there has been a
 record crop of potatoes. And some
 of my neighbors, who simply must
 have the money to pay workmen's
 wages and interest due are selling
 them by the wagon-load for just forty cents on the dollar of what they got
 year ago for poorer tubers. Apples
 too, are in profusion. And there i:
 about as much chance of selling then
 as of selling salt water to fleet ol
 | oyster dredgersi
 l A big crop, which involves extra
 cost in harvesting, is not likely tt
 prove as profitable as a smaller crop
 gathered at less cost and sold at :: higher prices.
 People in big cities and conaestet
 centers of population are actually sui fering from the high prices of foot 1 to them, while my neighbors can't sel their crops of food products for enougl to pay the cost of raising them. | Marcellus. Hamlet's friend, is re ported to have said once that Some ] thing is rotten in the state of Den mark Something is rotten in tn } market conditions of the countr. where such a state of affairs exists. T Instead of criticizing farmers fo , paying too much attention to "th r money side" of farming, officials wh
 are being paid to work for the inter X ests of farming and farmers would d. better to seek after methods whicl 7 would relieve us of what is now tn , harsh and grinding necessity of doin just that thing.
 iS THE FARMER.