Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-06-05
Occasion Is Taken to Rap
Politics In Connection with
State Road Building


gon State Grange in Salem yesterday
1T is sixteen years since the State
Grange met in Salem the capital city
Of our state and in locking back to
that time we find that this city and
our state have made great progress
such as could be accomplished only in
new state and by progressive, en-
ergetie people.
We are pleased to meet again in
this the original home of the State
Grange, and trust that this session will
be as pleasant and profitable as was
that session sixteen years ago.
lh looking over the proceedings
of that session | find that some of the
problems that were under cOnsidera
tion have been solved while many
more remain to be worked out in q
practical way.
Great progress has been made in
our methods and system of farming
With the assistance of the agricultural
college and thru the experience of in.
teligent farmers natural obstacles
have been over come and we are bet.
ter able to take advantage of the op.
portunities and advantages offered IN
the state.
"On the other hand we find many
acres of good agricultural land unde
veloped, waiting for some sturdy hand
to clear off the stumps, drain the land
or prepare it and supply the water for
irrigation.
"We find that the population OF
towns and cities is increasing at a
much greater ratio than that of the
country and that there is greater diff
ference in the rate at present than
there was sixteen years ago.
In order to carry out our deelara-
ton of purposes II is Necessary that
we make a survey of the conditions
which cause this unnatural growth of
the cities and the undevelOped eondi-
tions in the country.
"It must be admitted that by the
increased use of improved machinery
and more scientific methods of farm
ing the production of farm crops per
man is greatly increased, but on the
other hand we find a condition of grad
ually decreasing production of farm
crops per capita, of all the population
with an increase in the cost of produc-
tion and in the cost to the consumer
Even in this comparatively new
state we find farmers, both young and
middle aged, moving to the cities for
what they claim to be greater social
educational and economic advantages
This situation is more apparent in some
eastern states where good farms, are
abandoned and are on the market for
less than the buildings cost.
"With the coming of good roads
and the automobile the social and edu-
cational part of our problem will be
largely solved if the roads are built
so as to connect the farming commu-
mites with the marketing and ship
ping points, while on the ether hand
if the craze for scenic highways and
pleasure boulevards continue to absorb
our available funds, the agricultural
conditions will only be aggravated.
SIN eastern states as well as our
own the determining factor which ex-
erts the greatest Influence in keeping
people on the farm or in driving them
to the cities, is that of economies, or
dollars or cents.
"If there is no money in it, no
amount of persuasion will keep people
on the land. If other vocations have
better incomes and shorter hours and
more entertainment, there is where
people will 90, and who can blame
them?
"Thc fault is not all the farmer S
for he often gets less for a bumper
crop than he does for half a crop, and
frequently his produce rots ON his
hands for want of market while peo-
Pile not many miles away are suffer
ing fer that very product, or the price
which they are required to pay is so
high that they can not afford to buy.
'EThen, large part of the. fault
lies in our system of distribution. A
government report shows that when
the consumer pays one dollar for farm
produce on the average, sixty five
cents goes fer distribution and thirty
five cents to the producer. In other
words, it costs nearly twice as much
to handle farm produce as the farmer
gets for it.
"There is no more important serv'
ice rendered society by any class of
people than that of producing the ne
cessary food and clothing required for
the protection and sustenance of man.
kind If those who are engaged in
that important service are not as well
or better paid than any other class
there is something wrong with the
farm. with the farmer, or with the sys-
tenn under which he is working.
1t has been shown above that as
q rule it is not the farm, nor the far
mer as class, but the marketing sys-
TEN that is to- blame for the economic
condition of the farme~.
eff this be true, it is the duty of
the grange to do all in its power to
find remedy for existing conditions
claiming as it does to be the oldest
and mcst Influential of all farm organ
izations, or failing in that, to at least
assist any other organization that pro
poses O practical remedy.
Is Coop Hration the Remedy?
"National Master Oliver Wilson, in
speaking Of cooperation in his address
at the last session Of the national
grange, said that this vital question
has been discussed in all its phases
since the organization of the grange
and yet it remains an unsolved prob
lem.
"We believe the grange in Oregon
has made a good beginning towards a
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