Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1917-04-21
The FARMER LOOMS AS A NECESSITY!
. farmer for tne possible prens he may

a, farmer for the possible prens he may
securely
"Ard % IL goes and 90 II ls" a.
my old friend Manning used to say
when he was Confronted by some pro-
position which he couldn't approve
feel az liberty to make fun Of.
AZ. usual In this country, whare
wind IL the chief product evolved
sometimes niecaZled men = most OF
the stuff which 10 now filing the pub
| lie prints Is impractical. M-Judged.
founded on abysmal ignorance OF
farming fundamentals. and buifded
As the hrst waves of q. rising storm
break on the sea-beach In frothy
spume, SO the first tides of any pop
ular movement in such a country as
ours are sure to be white-capped with
the sudsy spin-dri Of mal4nfo-nna
ton which, by reason OF their light
ness and worth1essness, rise easiest
TO the surface.
It is the hair-brained and the
empty-headed whose Illustrations IN
yArfably come to the front first They're
most strikingly In evidence, right now
So far as all these outpourines of
one great central truth hasn't yet
dawned upon them that the trouble
with farm production is largely, nay,
chiefly of their own making.
BY their own conduct in permitting
the devslopement OF a system of mis-
handling rural products s11ch as. IN its
inemciency, its greed and Its dishon-
esty. has had no equal Since the out
rageous economfco- financial idiocy
which drove France to the Revolution
(ff haVa mr. Il
ted the producing farmers OF the
country to be robbed, year after year,
OF their just dues in the way of hon
est prices for their products.
Now that they are beginning at
last, to reap the results Of their own
ghortsightedness, or worse, they
want the farmers to save them:-the
very farmers whom they have for
Is ignoramuses. or denouncing as Shy
hayeeeds."
Let them clean their own houses
before attacking ours!
understand that the New Haven
County agent reports, after careful
census of the farmers of his county,
that their annual labor income" lie.
thefr-waEes after farming expenses
are are. ded.Actsd.r AVERAGED $3.50 year
That is Just trfde over ss5 a month
Legs, you'll observe. than the average
wages. including privileges" Of the
most ordinary farm iaborer.
Do you know many city industries
which are being managed on a basis
of Paying the employees higher wages
than the managers?
When the country was new and its
cumIIated fertility of millions of i'm
titled and uncropped years, any fool
could farm it"-AN that was needed
was to tickle the ground with a noe
and 1T would laugh with a harvest
Bat now, after SONS years,-in
cases, some centuries.-of fool farm
ing which has at last exhausted in un-
intelligent wastefulness the stored-up
fertility of the past,-now farming has
become an art, not to say a science,
which t-anys fooi"- can't tackle
It requires a different sort of skill
and training to manage a factory or a
railroad or steel mill from that re-
CURED to manage a farm. But not
or training.
The successful farmer Of today must
know, and know with close and eff
Gent comprehension, the tnsides of a
larger number of intense problems
than the manager of any factory or
mill devoted to producing one special
hne of goods.
XeI mat farmer, IN one OF the most
densey populated and intensely C1I-
tiEated counties of New England q
county full OF cities and busy maau-
featuring towns which furnish unlin-
tied markets almost at the farmers
ooor,-that farmer averages, in a year
of exceptionally high prices, less wa zes
for his managing ability and his tech
meal skill and his actual hard labor
all combined, than the hired man
than half what railroad employees earn
who swear they can't I've" on their
wages He acquires only about e
quarter of what the entire working
force OF Bethlehem steel mills average
N EaSes>
And the one reason for h Is that
the consumers, mostly Of the cities
have IN the past permitted and en-
couraged the in-between toll-takers
and market controllers TO bludeeop
the farmer out of from fifty TO sixty
per cent. OF his true earnings This
not even for their own advantage as
consumers. but solely for the glory and
gain of the middiemen and market
sharks
When the conditions Of marketing
and OF pay collecting are SO reformed
that farming snail again become a
paying business. then the trained and
on-the-job farmers OF the country win
supply the gcods.-an that are wanted
or can be wanted under any possible
combination OF wars and rurnors OF
wars.
But you can't cure disease ov
putting~a plaster ON the symptoms
You must remove the cause:
THE FARMER
They Seem InvfneibIe.
Try as they may. the allies can't
halt the German retreat The kaiserss
army sweeps VIGOROUSLY on toward
home.-Philadefphia North American.