The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1914-05-07
Vanderbilt, president of the National
City Bank of that city, said:

RkNdAAClt vi luS ANattOlpl
sity Bank of that city, said:
III a railroad manager lis culpable
and Is a~nswerable to society for any
thing less than q hundred per cent of
efficiency what OF the farmer and
planter, holding the great agency of
utilizing it
with but forty per cen OF efficiency
That is the indictment that stands
against no small part of the agricul-
tural cOmmunity-a conduct OF their
business on a basis of forty per cent
Of efficiency.
sit would not do to say that rail-
road managers and corporation heads
are the representatives OF publicly
subscribed capital and are therefore
subject, in the interests of society, to
a surveillance that applies only to
the affairs of a public corporation,
while farmers represent only person
al investment and may be left to
work ont with such ignorance or "
Ate1ligence as they choose to bring to
bear the conduct of their own affairs.
Farmers and planters also owe some
thing to society in the way of intelli-
gently conducting their business.
They hold the means OF production in
their control. The public interests
and the common good demand that
they exercise that trust with intellig-
ence, efficiency and thrift quite as
rightly as does public opinion de-
mand efficiency and honesty in bust
ness administration.
Prices of produce go up In answer
to the in%exorable law of supply and
demand; values of the great agency
OF production--farm lands-have
risen in our memery two or three
hundred per cent, not because those
iandsswere more efficiently managed.
but because the demand OF hungry
mouths and backs to be clothed have
made prices that permitted much in
creased values, wen when not ac-
companied by Increased efficiency of
management.
rs 1T not time for the maligned
business man to direct some attention
to the honest farmer, and to ask
whether the people, whose demands
the politicians r so fond of formul-
atIng, should not have directed
against them and their small bnsi-
ness methods some of the same analy-
.tical criticism that ii has been the
order of the day to direct against
big btsiness?"
This, of course, Is an entirely new
kind Of agitation for more efficiency
on the farm. Heretofore practically
fetrN-l t&iIa Ell-LI a-.@rL rnals 4.
every appeal has been directed to-
ward the self-interest Of the farmer.
Experts by the thousands have been
trying. to help him, constantly urging
the greater profits to be derived by
the farmer. Probably it has never oc-
CURED to the averaged landowner
that 1t is a.duty to society for him to
produce in the greatest possible
quantity at the lowest possible cost.
And yet, as the available land is
taken up and cultivated, as the num-
Der to be fed increases steadily year
by year, is It not within reason to ex-
meet that mare and mora vii, l.
heard the cry that the farmer must
obtain the maximum Of results from
his land? VIII It not, in fact. be.
|coMean necessity fof nm to do TIA,
very thing II the world IS not to &C
hungry
II is a TACT easily ascertained, that
the greater the demand for land, tn,
more tits regarded as q natural mo
nopoly. the more are heard agitatin,
communal ownership. Soft is not al
Itogether y a reason TO foresee tn
lsoay WneA the sfarmer WILDE tn
subject 81 some such efficiency dc
manu as That made today from Tn
rallroads. A. least u IS a fruitful u
lectS 9 stnougnt'
sss,ooo LOST BECAUSE OF TIL u
CONSTITUTION.
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itE AHsT NEt. LrfG WN.E3TA Is.