The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
Blu r AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. D. C
THE HAsiPDEN COUNTY LEAGUE
Making the Farmer Pay.
Washington. D. C

bacco crop. They did not know what |
they ought to get; whether they ought t
to sell at once or hold. A few years
ago each of them would have acted !
alone and ignorantly. In this case
they first got together, and then re- |
ferred the problem to the Hampden |
County league. The league put Its
machinery into action. and gathered
every bit of information that was
available and to the existing and prob |
able future state of the world tobacco
market Three tobacco experts went
out to a meeting of the farmers and
explained it all to them.
The farmers do not pay the salaries
of these experts. either. The bankers,
merchants and manufacturers of this
and other nearby towns pay the greater
part of them. There is probably no
other place in the world where the
business man shows such tender and
intelligent solicitude for the welfare of
the. farmer as he does here in Hamp-
den county.
There is no aItruism about this So
licitude, real or pretended. 1t simply
indicates that the local business man
has discovered that farmers are neces-
sary, to his own existence, and that
the more of them and the more pros
porous they are, the better.
This is equally true OF the whole |
United States; and that is what makes
the Hampden County league signifi-
cant. The problem of the county Is
the same, on a small scale, as the-
problem of the nation
Everywhere. before the war. farm
ing was a proposition which PAID les
and less. The middlemen got most OF
the profits on the crops, and the iand
was held at such a. high valuation that
a man could not make a fair interest
on an investment In a farm. The re-
suit was that more and more people
crowded into the cities and more ana
Il.
sedge Then the war came along, and
showed us that we barely had enough
to eat while millions of acres of land
lay idle
But New England had been feeling
this same pinch for long time before
the war. Its farms were among the
first to be deserted. because the hard
est to cultivate. Thet abandoned
farm of New England became sta
pie of magazine fiction. And New
cent of all its foods. And this food
averaged about ten per cent higher in
cost than food in any other part of
the United States.
The result of this condition was that
New England manufacturers had to
pay their workmen higher wages in
order that these people might live. At
the same time the New England man
ufacturer was paying more for his coal
than manufacturers in most, regions,
In word, he was being seriously
| handicapped.
! These facts. combined with a super
| ior intelligence, led the New England
| business man to turn thoughtful eyes
upon that rare, tin1id and rapidly dis
| appearing creature, the New England
| farmer. He realized that if he could
| induce that farmer to raise more corn
| and potatoes and fruit and truck; and
| if he could find a way to get that food
/ To nv md coll wit mi n
\ dlemen getting in on the deal and
boosting the price-if he could do
| these things, he could get labor in the
said town for lower wages, and could
| induce moro 1abOrerS to come there
and live. In a word he saw that every
dollar spent on the farmer might well
return to him several fold in the form
| of wages saved and more contented
wohkmen. This may not have been
philanthropy, but it was certainly
| logic. And it is logic which is not
! limited in its application to New Eng
| land.
l. The result of these cogitations on
the part of the New England business
man in this particular section was the
1 Hampden County league. The purpose
of the Hampden County league can
best be stated by saying that it does
for the farmer what the county agent
of the department of agriculture tries
| to do. The department plants one
| d
all matters of agriculture, stock rails
ing and marketing. The Eampden
County league has eleven experts on
it's staff. and they have four automo-
| biles in which to travel about. 1t has
| subsidiary organizations in each COM
munity and the league has a repre-
sentative in each of these commune
ties. If the community cannot solve
any given problem for itself, 1t applies
to the league for help. The main
tenance of this league machinery costs
; s37, 900 a year. of which the federal
: state OF Massachusetts half of the re-
mainder, and the manufacturers
bankers and merchants of the county
the rest
This league exists for the intensely
. practical purpose of producing more
towns. and selling it at a reasonable
r price. To this end it maintains a mar
: keting division. which both buys and
sells. Tt buys, at wholesale and sell:
at cost such things as fertilizer and
| seed It bought two thousand sheer
and sold them ito the farmers in small
lots at cost, so that long deserted hill
pastures might be converted into nut
ton. It has distributed hundreds o.
= hlooded hogs in the same way It he.
2 opened A local market which consist:
S simply of a. large store room. It's rem
guaranteed by the league, where an,
farmer can have n stall and sell hi
own produce. Thus do the Hampder
county peoDle ACCOMPLISH that much
e talked-of thing. the bringing togethe
t Of producer and consumer, in Il sim
pie and direct manner
n The HeInpder County League NJ
|. | initiate almost any sart % ectis,:
4 that promises to help a;cre the eur
= nose of its existence. It fre2ua-1tl
finances needy farmers OUT of a re
: volving fund kept for the purpose 7
= boasts that it can take a man VIII
4 never farm ed. who has three o. fou
:. thousand dollars, n fair inteiiiEene
Il and Willingness to work. and make
e successful farmer out of him A ne:
D farmer in Hamnden county Is IT'S s