Mohave County miner., 1918-03-16
SWORDS INTO PLowsHAREs"

Warren c. Harding of Ohio, one of the Republican leaders in the United States senate, is in favor of a conver- sion of swords into plowshares when the war has run it's course and the American soldiers return to peaceful pursuits.
 That every United States soldier when he returns from the war should be given an opportunity to become an owner of a farm has been urged by Senator Harding ,who advocates that the distribution of land to the veterans be part of a general plan to convert the maximum number of citi- zens into productive farmers. The senator says:
 Every thoughtful man realizes that the proper distribution of the land is the very basis of national well-being. The land should, so far as possible, be in the possession and ownership of the men who work it. A nation of owners of small farms which support sturdy families is the ideal. The mag nificance of France when the supreme test came has been due largely to the sturdy folk of her farms. These were the people who paid the price of the loss of the Franco-Prussian war. But for the solution of the land question and its partition into small divisions in the ownership of the people, France probably would have ceased to exist before this.
 ''The weakness of England, the in ability of that nation to feed itself in the present crisis, the internal unrest, the growing masses of the dependent classes, the fHooligans' of the slums of London, have been admittedly caused by the ownership of the land by the few.
 "In the United States the drift of the people to the cities, the drift of farms into operation by tenant farm CTS, into ownership in large acreage by absent landlords, has been recog- nized as a dangerous tendency of the times. The stress has not been such in the past that action has been fore ed. The man on the street will appre- ciate his rights more clearly and will be more ready to demand them. Among his most probable demands will be his right to the land. The quicker and stronger he makes that demand the better for the nation.
 "The situation in the United States today is about this: Vast quantities of good farming land near the best markets in the world are not culti- vated. In New England there are 3O,- OOO,O 900 acres of unused land that might be growing crops. There are 5,O00,OOO acres in the middle states that might be farmed, but which are lying idle. In the Pacific Coast states there are 10,OOO,O0O acres of unused but unstable land. In all 500,000,0O0 acres or whereabouts are lying idle, to say nothing of that which is made ouately farmed. This would make five acre farms for million families, and this little farm life is the greatest need of the nation.
 'When the 2,OOO,0O0 men to be  trained for the war come out of the ranks there will be an unparalleled opportunity to work out this scheme on a wholesome basis, Not every one, possibly not 25 per cent would be 5OO,OOO farmers, 5OO,0OO farm houses. for the future, where they were none before. If only 10 per cent wanted to go on farms there would be 2OO,- 900 farm homes established. This would be no mean asset to the nation.
 "In the meantime, the experiment might be tried of placing the depend ents of soldiers on the little farm. The maimed soldiers who will soon be re- turning must be placed on the way to- ward being made self-supporting and these, wherever possible, should be sent to the farms"
 THEN AND NOW