The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1917-01-08
REDEEM THE WASTE PLACEs-AND MEN.

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.
Is it a matter for wonder that food supplies
are held at almost famine prices when we are con-
fronted with the spectacle of hundreds of thous-
ands 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, a hundred
million dollars worth less in 1916 than in 1915.
We may twist and squirm and wriggle all we
please but we can not escape the fact that the
law Of supply and demand will regulate the cost
of 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 live on the fat of the land on a farm
would rather beg at the back doors of city
UWSllGIS tudA W 1NOC al GIAC O"A
on the country roads.
Harsh words, but true!
We read Of congress appointing committees to
Investigate the high cost of living" But
about the only Investigation" that is done is to
see just how much money can be extracted from
the public till in the shape Of committee expen-
SEES"
If you want to know why you are paying so
dearly for the supplying of your table inst step
into q car and spend one day in driving around to
the farms of this township. Question the farm
ers and see how many would like to employ more
help-IF THEY COULD GET 1T.
Then 60 home and use your own brains in
stead Of allowing others to do your thinking for
you.
If every idle man in this state could be put to
work on 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 overburdened war, and every other
thing except the right thing.
We repeat, food spectators are partly respon-
sible, and they would be in jail if w had the
energy and the courage to put them there. But
we have neither.
The middle man is a hog and should be kicked
into the pen with his brothers. But we are too
Indifferent to do the kicking.
The commission man will rob you blind even
if you have no eyes. And we turn the empty
sockets for another gouge.
The railroad demands it's pound of flesh and
takes two. And all we do is to groan.
These things all have their bearing, 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 squaor and want in
the cities Of our immediate section Of the coun-
try. They are strong men, capable Of enduring
any hardships 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 Of this section at least
get together and devise ways and means Of bring
ing these half starved people to the country where
they can be put to work tilling the soil-where
they can LIVE instead Of merely EXISTING?
It might cost q few dollars to get them here,
but the waste places would be cultivated and the
waste men would be converted into useful citi-
Gems.
lax II shOut N-iet IL Ting 1IoM every
hoousetop: OUR LANDS MUST BE CULTlVAT-
ED AND MADE TO PRODUCE!
It is the only solution.
For years WI 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.
II Is time for our leaders to get together and
outline ! plan whereby we may rob the cities and
1{aed the fatrn-withF men.
Everybody would Be the gainer-the farmer
most of II.
Com 10 think about II, New York didn't pull
IN aginsiS monkey dinner N 1916. NY. y i'm
I11syi1E