The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1917-05-17
MlLLlONARES COULD
SOLVE THE H.C.L BY
DONATING TO FARMS

Jefferson City, Mo-, May 1.-THE
Missouri Bureau of Labor Statistics
is of the opinion that millionaires
could readily solve the high cost of
living by literally donating towards
a fund to be used in making the first
payment on farms for deserve
ing Americans, and Belgian and other
European refugees, willing to take up
agriculture as a pursuit. Twenty
five million dollars could quickly and
easily be raised if all the millionaire
philanthropists of the country would
heed this patriotic call for settling
and improving the vacant fertile lands
to be found in the States of the South
and West.
The tirst-aid idea is conveyed in q
letter of the Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics to Miss VI. j. Boelin, Sal 3Oth
street, New York City, who wrote to
this Missouri State department offer
ing to do her "little Bit towards colo
nizing vacant farm lands with desira-
Bile settlers. In her communication
she quotes from an editorial in a New
York paper that-"A suggestion that
refugees from Belgian and other small
European countries devastated by war
be coloniZed on vacant farm lands in
this country is made in bulletin is
sued by the Missouri Bureau of Labor
Statistics"
The Missouri Bureau of Labor Sta
ltistics in replying to the letter and the
New York newspaper comment, states
Missouri has plenty OF fertile, unset
! tied land good for agricultural pur-
poses, open to Belgian or any other
refugees, and, in fact, also American
born farmers. No attempt is being
made by the State authorities to colo
nize any nationality or clan in Mis-
souri,. These lands are cnen to any
one with sufficient funds to make the
first payment. They are not govern
ment homestead areas but are private
ly owned. A small first payment will
secure possession of a fair sized tract
and standing timber will pay for all
agricultural tools and implements, fur
aish enough lumber for Jhe home,
barns and fences, and the sale of the
surplus, in shape of logs and railroad
ties, will provide funds for living ex-
penscs until the first crop is gar
nered.
Philantrophic Americans able to do
so. and there are thousands of them in
this country, could donate towards a
fund to be used to help desirable set
tiers make their first payments on
farming lands, not alone in Missouri,
but also in any other State of the
Union, and thereby enable many per-
sons anxious to and capable of becom-
ing farmers to take up the 1N~suit.
The women of the land can start the
movement by appealing to and inter
esting millionaires to donate towards
such a fund and by doing so they will
accomplish much for America through
increasing its agricultural possibilities
and annual food supply. Enough funds
to make a first payment supplied an
allen or native-born person who is
willing enough to become farmer and
stick to his task with the proviso that
the money is not to be refunded in
case agreement is carried out, will
cause thousands to heed the call and
lure of the land and become prosper
Gus farmers. This "little bit" under
taken by American women, if the first
aid plan succeeds, will certainly start
a movement which will greatly benefit
pos.erity.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics fur
thcr states that whatever steps the
women of Missouri take towards such
a ph:lanthropic movement it will do
its share, through newspaper publicity
and otherwise, to further their efforts.