The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-07-13
A TRIUMVIRATE OF REAL EVILS
Factors Which Affect Well Being of Farmers
Bad Book Worst Robber

Copyrighted, 1914. by Thomas j. sullivan.l
Weather, books and roads contribute
largely to the influences of rural life.
Bad weather and bad roads mean
books.
And books they say are the light
houses erected in the great sea Of
time. They are masters who instruct
us without rods or ferules, without
words or anger, without bread or
money. If you approach them they
are not asleep. If you seek them they
do not hide. II you biunder they do
not scold. If you are ignorant they
do not laugh.
But the worst robber In all the
world is a bad book. 1t has long been
the devils policy to keep the masses
Of mankind in ignorance; but, finding
that they will read, he is doing all in
his power to poison their books. Now,
let's see what our rural friend is read
ing. oh, rara avis! Oh, book without
parallel In the history of commercial
destruction! 1.-THE book" is huge pic
torial tricolored retail catalogue.
! The catalogues of mail order houses
are kind Of leaky boat on the waters
of temptation; some of the temptation
will get in anyhow.
Mud a Great Help Too.
What is more natural with gloom.
darkness, rain and mud surrounding
farmer or suburban dweller, when to
venture forth means either sacrifice
of self or faithful horses, than for him
to turn to the alluring catalogue for
both pastime and means of procur-
ing the necessaries of life? Thus it
can be seen that the third and best
factor in favor of the catalogue houses
is mud.
Man is measured by his deeds, and it
seems strange that after mastering the
art of reading the stars, discovering
the course of the planets, Controlling
the iron monster. the lightning, the
sea and the wind, man shows his in
ability to conquer the one great prob
lem which is proving such draw
back to the best expression of his life
In rural districts as far as social and
commercial conditions are concerned.
Poor roads seem to be his heritage, his
master.
A country's stability is measured by
its agricultural Importance, as the
well being of a nation is like tree
agriculture is its root; industry and
commerce are its branches and its life.
If the root be injured the leaves fall.
the branches break away and the tree
dies. Community pride begins where
agriculture leaves off. and both are
equal and inseparable in their impor-
lance to a healthy, happy, successful
existence for man.
Blue Grass Roads Are Best.
1t is a pleasure to drive through the
blue grass district of Kentucky, where
they have what they call macadam-
lied turnpikes. These roads are the
equal of any paved city street and
of course are passable at all seasons
of the year. They cost approximately
$1,000 per mile. The highways In Ken
lucky are from thirty to sixty feet in
width. 1t is estimated that were the
highways of Illinois regulated to fifty
feet $25,000,000 could be added to the
wealth of the farmers of the state.
That alone would build more than 5000
miles of road
Spend $15o0oo,ooo.
This country today has about 1885,
$50 miles of public highway, on which
it is estimated that the people of the
country are spending $150,000000 an
nually. Statistics say we also spend
So, OO0O0O0O0 for alcohol, $9,000O00,000
for tobacco, and it is said that the
ladies spend $365,oo0,000 yearly for
candy. If all this money could be APP
propriated for road building we could
have q turnpike to the moon.
The principal cause of the Roman
empires downfall was its neglect of
agriculture-the exodus Of its men and
women from the farm to tls. city, the
life there TO be spent in extravagant
and riotous living. Go to any Of our
cities today and view the extravagant
dress and general trend of life for
pleasure and you will feel that the old
Roman times are being repeated.
1t would seem that the remedy lies
in building good roads. narrow II ad
visable, but firm and hard, and have
them all lead to your trading center