Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1917-03-16
Farmers Out
Of A Job
by James H. Collins
CONTINUED from last week.

Investigation began with the retail
lumber merchants in country towns to
find out why they were selling less
building material than ten or fifteen
years ago. In most cases the lumber
man attributed falling off in business
to some vague outside agency like
mail-order competition. Careful esti-
mates showed, however, that not
nearly so much building material was
being used in the country round the
town. A new state of affairs existed,
plainly seen in the state of farm pro-
perty. When the farmer lived OIL his
own farm he took pride in the appear
ance Of his buildings and fences. If a
board worked loose or paint wore of,
he made repairs. But now, with a
countryside worked by tenants, and
himself in town, he saw the old place
only two or three times a year, When
a board came off it stayed of. The
tenant had no financial interest in re-
placing it, the owner made no allow
ance for painting or repairs. Bit by
bit the countryside became shabby,
then disreputable, and in spots de-
cayed, and settled into country slum
which is about the worst sort of a slum.
In town, the retired farmer quickly
developed as an influence against
progress. For year OF so after his
arrival, while he was building up and
fitting new home, his expenditures
would be liberal, bringing a false
sense of prosperity that kept the COM
mercial club hustling for more retired
farmers, as desirable citizens. But
once he got settled, and woke up to
some of the realities of town life, such
as increased cost of living, he became
a conservative. AS a taxpayer, he
took stand against any public i'm
provement that involved an assess
ment, and in many communities his
vote was sufficient to kill progressive
measures. "Organized to maintain a
solid position of anti-everything," as
one { orn Belt merchant expresses it.
Through the Corn Belt today there
is a very keen understanding of the
retired farmer as problem, brake
on community development. There
are towns and cities where, with
welEto-do settlement of retired far
mers on one of the outskirts and a
ramshackle slum of immigrants on
another, the slum will be pointed out
as presenting the easiest problem. For
the immigrants are working them
selves out of it, progressing toward
better conditions while the trim col
ony Of retired farmers is standing pat.
And their reactionary influence by no
means stops in town. For as land
lords instead of residents, they are op-
posed to improvements and taxes
back in the country, and therefore to
be held largely responsible for the de-
cay of the country school and the
country church. ~
Most startling of all, perhaps, is
the change that takes place in the re-
tired farmer himself, and in his wife.
For he rapidly goes to seed, while his
helpmate develops broader life. An
Iowa physician who has kept records
for twenty years says the average life
OF a farmer after he retires and moves
to town is less than four years. He
has no work to keep him busy and
happy. He loafs, becomes disconten-
" 0SA'u AASOAao1es lIeCS ana ruStS out,
and eventually passes into the Great
Beyond, in obedience to the law of
averages. His wife, however. still
has her household work to keep her
occupied, and in addition enjoys more
society aud entertainment. She
spruces up, goes in for self improve
ment and takes new hold on life.
When the husband dies she stays be-
hind. In one of the Corn Belt towns
there is long street of prosperous
homes built by retired farmers where
this process of elimination has worked