The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1917-04-20
BY BOLTON HALL.

In the First Place From Land by La
borrower Cost of Living.
BY BOLTON HALL.
copyright. 1917, by Bolton Hall. All
rights reserved.l
The flowers that bloom in the spring
look sweet in the public parks, but to
a mother with starving children not so
sweet as potatoes and onions and beets
The easiest way to bring down the
prices OF food Is to raise more of it
and yet more. But today there is a
prospect of less acreage. The farmers
are planting less land because of the
high price Of seed, In some places po
tato seed cannot be had at all. The
Gamers are reducing their output Of
vegetables because of the shortage of
tins.
Ii you and | don't remedy this, food
will cost twice as much next winter
even il the European war is stopped.
Thirty millions of fighting men are
now consuming and destroying produce
land from which their labor should
produce it, And each soldier requires
the entire earning of at least four per-
sons to keep him in the field of battle
instead of in the field Of crops. Is it
any wonder that, while wages have
risen they only climb the stairs, while
prices go up in the elevator? 1t is go
$1 %oly fn
prices down.
Baron Devonport, the English food
controller, with the despotic powers of
the defense of the realm law has com
mandeered all lands in London which
are needed for cultivation by women,
children, invalids or old men.
He has followed our Mayor Pingrees
potato patch plan and has had them
divided into small plots and expects to
have quarter of a million people en-
ployed in London alone.
Richmond park, where William "
and Mrs. Fitzherbert made love, is now
making food for the people. Hyde
park and lots of others are to be plow
ed up. A new cemetery at East Hamp
Oxford and Cambridge college gardens
are beginning to furnish nourishment
for the body rather than delight for
the mind.
All this would be a flea bite, but the
ministers of agriculture III England,
France and Italy have followed suit
Germany did it long ago. If England
ho, : m
will be cheaper in England in spite of
the submarines than ever before and
England will be richer in spite of the
wastes of war for not only food, but
all wealth comes in the first place from
land by labor Like case, like rule; if
we use our land we will have more
money and will get more for it.
But you can help yourself even if
others haven't sense enough 30 help
Is there an unsightly vacant lot near
your house? Wouldn't you like to i'm
prove it this spring and in improving it
save the 5000 Won will otherwise have
spent for vegetables
Don't yOu think the owner should be
glad to have it cleared of rubbish and
spectiye buyers:
Don't you know that one hour of that
sort of work every evening or four eve
nings or mornings "a week will improve
you as well as the lot. make you
stronger, give you better sleep and in
crease the respect in which you are
held by your neighbors and by your
neighbor's wife?
Sure thing!
The trouble is that many aren't
smart enough 20 find the place and the
wise ones haven't time to show them
or they just don't care.
But they will care next winter when
they have to foot the bills for vegeta
bles-instead Of for other jewels.
Vacant lot cultivation takes the sting
out of charity by putting men and
their families on the vacant lands and
make them self supporting and at the
same time provides pure air and health
full living for the ailing wives and chill
dren.
For the home owners: Why not i'm.
prove the block in which you live, sup,
ply your dinner table and supply your.
self with an appetite that will be JOY
In itself?
For the asylums, sanitariums, hos
pitfalls, reformatories, prisons and char
ity associations; why not put the
down and outs" to work in the alb
sence of other labor and in helping
them teach them to help themselves
and your
Not only the unemployed or the dis
employed, but the sick, the respondent
the consumptive and the inebriate car
produce $500 or $500 worth of food or
each acre. Yet we are appointing end
less commissions TO inquire into the
cost of food las if we didn't know al
about that and are always trying tC
indict somebody for conspiring to raise
prices. No one In this country seems tx
have thought of inquiring why so many
available parts Of the earth are KEEP
idle, the very places where food should
be produced and raw material pro
cured
Idle lands that are needed mean idle
hands that are in need.
How shall be able to rule over 9th
ers that have not full power and com