Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-01-14


sands Of young farmers who know the
game and have taken courses at agri-
cultural schools and colleges will be
| driven from agriculture by this last
blow at an industry that is already the
hardest worked and the smallest paid
Of any class Of labor; because the
Lane plan promoters admit that only
so Of the demobilized armies will be
likely to have anything to do with
farms anyway-and we would ask,
then what Of the others?"
Is anybody scheming to subsidize
the $50 in shoe factories, cotton
mills, machine shops, or bankers Of
fees?
Then why the assault on an indus
try that at present embraces hundreds
Of thousands Of families that are
barely keeping their heads above the
mire Of defeat? Why not urge thou
sands Of these soldier boys to enter
| the grocery business. and furnish
them capital? They know as much
| Of the grocery business as of farm
ing. Why not set them up in manu-
featuring or canning. with govern
ment funds and government super
vision? One is as sensible as the
other.
! But the grocery business and other
lines suggested do not promise whole
sale development, at expense Of the
whole eountry's taxpayers, Of great
Southern and Western tracts that
now lie unproduetive and useless.
The bill offered provides that the
soldier entering the governments sale
! Of a gold brick to him. must so culti-
vate the land as to meet the approval
| Of a board Of three, one to be named
by the governor of the state where
| the land is occupied, one a college
president, and one a state engineer.
! Now. dear reader, don't you think
! such a commission could direct the
operation of grocery business or an
underwear factory as we'll as it could
direct a farm of any size or descrip-
| ton? Some one member Of such
commission might know a Plymouth
Rock from a Holstein.
Again the title to the land does not
pass until ALL payments are made.
so the soldier boy not only faces the
results of his farm gamble as failure.
| but loss, when he gives up the ghost,
of all that he has paid in.
| We say to the soldier boys: Think
we'll, and then DON'T. If you desire
farming experience put your money
in the bank, or into life insurance. or
| at interest where security is good,
and then hire out on a farm for a
year or two. In that manner you can
! find out if you like the long hours and
drudgery necessary. you can judge OF
the returns from such a farm as you
could buy under the Lane scheme
and you can acquire experience that
will prove invaluable to you should
you finally decide to tackle the agri-
cultural gamble with pests, frosts
drouths. hailstorms. trade and traffic
sharks. and the greatest problem OF
all-marketing surplus.
Our honest conviction is that the
farm for soldiers schemes promise
only greater hardship for those now
in the industry, but disaster for nine
tenths Of the inexperienced young
men who enter 1t. We believe those
who induce inexperienced men to en-
ter the farming game at this stage are
performing anything but friendly acts
toward them. The whole thing smells
strongly Of Southern and Western
development scheme at public ex-
pense and promises rich picking for
land agents and investors.
II farming had paid as other indus
tries pay why are millions Of acres in
New England alone. abandoned tc
weeds and bushes, the buildings 60
ing to decay?
The feed starving Europe" cry is
being worked to the limit by hungry
profiteers and their tools. If not
why did feeds jump SIS or $40 ton
the minute the food regulation re-
strictions were spectacularly declared
removed?
We believe Maine and farm inter-
ests all over the country should pro-
test to Congress against these
schemes to further exploit the farm
ters and the taxpayers for the benefi.
OF land holders and spectators. At
least the soldier boys should be ad-
vised against the chap with the yellow
rectangle.
Spsakin' Of TrundIe Beds
Old A.. @. s. In tho L., J. mad Little
Talk about trundle beds the other day,
nice piece. breathing sweet clean