Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1917-01-12
REDEEM THE WASTE PLACES
AND MEN. u

4 AND WEN.
One great, supreme question is con-
fronting the American people today, a
question that overshadows all others OF
the moment, and that is the much dis
cussed one of how TO reduce the cost OF
living.
There is but one answer:
WE MUST REDEEM THE WASTE
PLACES OF OUR COUNTRY AND
THE WASTE MEN.
Food spectators are responsible for
much of it, but waste places and waste
men are responsible for even more
1t is matter for wonder that food
supplies are held at almost famine
prices when we are confronted with
| the spectacle of hundreds of thousands
of men tramping the streets of cities
and towns, doing nothing and producing
nothing, while within a few hours
walk of any of them lie broad acres of
land that are idle because there are
none to cultivate them?
Let US stop hanging the high cost of
living onto the war. 1t may have had
something TO do with the skyrocket
rises, but very little. because We are
exporting less than heretofore, hum
dred million dollars worth less in 1916
tnan in 1915.
We may twist and squirm and wrig-
gle all We please, but we can not es-
cape Lhe ract that the law OF supply
and demand will regulate the cost or
that which we consume.
And, equally, we can not escape the
fact that millions of acres of land are
idle because hundreds of thousands of
men would rather go hungry in a city
than 1--we on the fat of the land on a
farm-wouId rather beg at the back
doors Of city dwelIers than to ride in
their own automobiles on country roads.
Harsh words, but true!
We read of congress appointing COM
mittees to lvestigate the high cost
of living" Bat about the only ''in-
vestiga eating" that is done is to see just
how much money can be extracte d
from the public till in the shape of
Committee expenses.
If you want to know why you are
paying so dearly for the supplying of
your table just step into car and
spend one Gay IN driving around to the
farms QuesJ,on the farmers and see
how man. would like to employ more
help-IF THEY COULD GET 1T.
Then go home and use your own
brains instead of allowing others to do
your thinking for you.
Ifevery Idle man in this state could
be put to work OH a farm during the
coming summer the increase in the
yield of foodstuffs for the state would
be so staggering as to be almost beyond
belief.
And yet we sit around and blame
politics, and the poor old overburden-
ed war, and every other thing except
the right thing.
Food spectators, the middle man,
! the commission man and the railroads
are all partly responsible, but they are
small as compared to the law of supply
and demand.
| Thousands and thousands of men and
women and children are living in squa-
Tor and want in the cities. They are
strong men, capable of enduring any
hardship on the farm. But they are
not on the farm and probably no one
has ever mentioned farm to them.
Why can't the farmers and land
owners get together and devise ways
and means of bringing these starved
people to the country where they can
be put to work tilling the soil-where
they can LIVE instead of merely EX-
! IISTING?
1t might cost few dollars to get
them here but the waste places would
be cultivated and the waste men would
be converted into useful citizens.
For years we have been robbing the
farm to feed the city, and the farm has
Just about reached the point where it
can no longer be robbed
1t is time for our leaders to get to-
gether and outline plan whereby we
we may rob the cities and feed the
farm-with men.
Everybody would be the gainer-the
farmer most of all.