The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-07
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL,
INFORM ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. Director.
Washington, d. C
wANrED--MoRE FARMERs.
d. C


1.-The Farmer and the Cost of Living.
Washington. D. c., NOV. AVERY
responsible American citizen who
wants a. farm shall have one. fully
equipped, provided he can pay the
government as a first. fnsta'lment
small percentage of the value of the
land. He will be given q long time to
pay the rest of the. price. and that
price will be based ufOh the actual
producing power of the land, and not
upona speculation as to its future val
ue. The farmer shall further be CIV
en- every possible assistanceto make
his farm pay.
That in brief outline, is the method
by which the present administration
expects TO solve, after the war. the
problem Of feeding America, and also
in part that of replacing In civilian
life the soldiers returned from Europe.
The plan upon which 1t is working,
thru the department OF the INTERIOR,
| is based upon one which has proved
successful in Australia, and also as
state measure in California. DR.. Eli
wood Meade, chairman of the Cali
fornia land settlement board, has been
called to Washington by the secretary
| of the interior, and isenow here study
| ing the problem Of applying the Aus
tralia- California plan to the whole
United states. At the same time. the
| interior department has several land
| experts in the field, studying arid, cut
| over and swamp lands which may be
reclaimed and made fertile for this
purpose. The department has an APP
preparation of 100000 for carrying
out these Investigations And indie
pendent study, but also under govern-
ment auspices. is being made by Ben
| ton McKaye, an expert in forestry,
whose studies look to the application
of this colonization scheme to lumber
ing and mining as Well as farming.
Several measures have been intro
duced into congress which embody the
| general idea, but these will undoubt-
eddy be superseded by an "administra-
| ton" bill, prepared by the experts who
are now studying the problem.
Altho this land settlement plan goes
| under the name of measure to pro-
vide farms for soldiers, it is really
great deal more than that. 1t is a
plan to forestall food shortage in the
United States.
It aims to do this by establishing q
scientifically planned system of rural
development. which will in every pos
sible way insure the success Of the
farmer and thereby the productivity of
the farm. Heretofore we have had no
| ordered system of rural development.
The country is awakening to the
longer by the haphazard method. The
kwar has shown that there are limita-
| tons to our resources, SO often called
boundless. The American people have
experienced want. Yet we undouDt-
edly have the land to feed a popuia-
The trouble, then, must be in the way
the land is cultivated. 1t is.
Land in nearly every state of the
Union lies uncultivated or pestly Gull
tivated, 0r wastefully cultivated, be-
cause god& farming in many parts of
this country does not pay. There are
two principal reasons for this. In
the first place, the price of the land
is so high that an Investment in land
cannot possibly pay. In the second
place, our system of distributing the
products of the land is such that a
does not reach the nah who produces
them.
The price of land alone IL enough
to check the development of farming
which is necessary to feed the United
States in the future. The difficulty is
that land is commonly held at a price
based upon what it may be WORTHY in
the future. due to changed conditions,
} and not on what it will produce now.
Thus. if a man buys a hundred acres
of land for $4,000, he will do exceed
ingly well to make net profit of
$1,000 year by farming it. If his
time js considered to be worth only
$500 year, he has then made on his
investment only $500, or about 4 per
cent. He could invest it in O first
mortgage on city real estate and make
twice that amount. The case is hypo-
, thetical but typical. 1t is\usual to say
that the farmers thousand dollars is
worth more than the same amount in
; the city; that he feeds his family with
, the products of the farm, and so on
c h fr-xy 1~i to
cry possible factor of profit the fact
remains that the farmer cannot make
both day wages and fair return or
his investment. The natural result Is
that he quits farming and goes to q
, city. Or else he stays, from force OF
r habit, farming as best he can, finan-
cially crippled. Or else he sells his
farm and rents land. which enables
1 him to make more money but quickly
exhausts the land, which he does moi
= own, and about which he cares moth
. ing.
s The problem of distribution is no
SO simple. 1t is generally admitted
D Even now. with the prices he gets fol
E staples regulated by the government
| he often does not get his share, tho h,
sometimes gets enough to make hin
temporarily prosperous
s The ~middleman" and the prof
| 80 81 6CHCldAy pldIueu- lot INT
farmers losses in distribution. Their,
is not much in this. The middlenar
0 is generally necessity, and the prof
1 teer a myth. The trouble is that tn,
n forces OF distribution are organized
= and the farmers are not. An organ
lied force will always and inevitabl,
= exploit an unorganized force
X For these reasons, then, the farme
is quitting the farm. Even now, whey
I farmers are popularity supposed to b,
AEinR h NJ 80 q
a steady flow of young men from tn,
a country to the cities The fact tina
thousands of young countrymen woult
: rather run street cars and work be
: hind lunch counters than farm show
about how attractive farming is t,
them.
r All serious students of the problem
have fonD recoo1i1oa fh;u o