Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1919-09-10

are in good shape. The buildings are
mp to date. On the other hand, your
neighbor bought his farm last year. It
4 has been rented to shiftless tenants for
= quarter century. Every thing is run
down, and the land greatly Exhausted.
Clearly you have the right to feel
that your own planning and skill and
labor have given value to your farm.
But, hold on! Don't get too much
puffed up. 81 I8s.'8 s5s.
When you come to think of it, your
farm is on the state road. Every day
the r. r. d. postman drives past. You
have telephone. Only mile and a
half away is a thriving town with its
creamery, its market, its schools, its
II library and it's churches Your neigh
Dor though almost as near to town, as
the crow flies, cannot use the air route,
but must drive along the apology for a
road for mile or more to a bridge
when he would go to market, SO that
actually he is more than twice as far
from town as you are. There is no
i telephone on his side Of the river, and
4 his mail is left in a box at the corners
half mile from his home.
Surely there can be no doubt that the
location of your farmN has much to do
with it's value. If it were not for the
town near by, your land would be worth
much less. Uncle SANS free mail de-
livery and the road built by the state
also add dollars to the salable price Of
your acres. al
But there is still another reason for
the value of your farm. Your land
has just the right slope for effective
drainage and the soil is rich and deep.
Your neighbours land is fat and the soil
is light and shallow. It is not clear
that the Creator has given to your I'm
B something which he did not give the
land across the river?
You say your farm is your own, and
you do hold deed to your land. AS
matter of fact, however, you are only a
part owner Of your farm. The three
factors which have given the chief value
to your land-God, society and your
self really own your farm, as you call
it, in partnership.
At first. thought you naturally sup
pose that the income from your farm
is all your own to do with as you
please. It is not very long, however,
before society reminds you that it is
partner in your farming enterprise,
and this reminder takes the form of a
tax assessment.
You don't like to pay taxes. No one
does And yet taxes are simply divid-
ends paid to one of the partners Oper-
ating your farm. Without the post
Office, without roads, without schools,
without police protection, without the
whole machinery of government, your
income from your farm would be so
small as to be almost negligible. When
you pay taxes therefore, you are max
ing possible the value which society
adds to your land. In time of war the
taxes become exceedingly heavy. Only
50 can you be guarded from the danger
that your property will be confiscated
by a victorious enemy ne ~
But how shall God, the divine part.
ner. receive dividends for the value he
has given your farm. Here is where q
farmers contributions come in: When
you generously support the church and
its various activities; when you give
largely to the Red Cross and other
great humanitarian causes :; when you
pay out money freely, SO that there
shall be no unrelieyed distress in your
community, you are recognizing the fact
that in the tilling Of the soil you have
silent partners who never demands q
share in the proceeds, but to whom you
owe a debt unspeakable great.
Down in Central Texas there is a
country church with only twenty nine
members. 1t owns an acre of b land.
Borings on that land recently opened up
an oil we'll which brings to the little
church a royalty Of from three to four
hundred dollars day. l( 4. S,3
To whom does this money belong?
Well, the Texas church decided thatSit
b did not belong to them. They voted I'M
animously that all the proceeds OF that hat
well should be devoted to- the larger
work Of that branch Of the Christian
church to which they belong. This lis
country church, made up Of Abraham ali n
4 Lincoln's kind Of people, is thus giving
America striking remind Ter Of the fact
that to the Create a large part OF the
land is due.
Since three partners have contributed
to the worth Of his acres, no farmer l has
q right to want all the income for him
SELF. Cheerfully he should pay to so
ciety its dividends in the form Of + taxes s a
Gladly BY his generous gifts he IS should b El
\ seek to pay dividends to Natures God
i and his GOD. Country Gentlema n. g
NATIONAL DEBT NOW Il
us GREATLY N XCESs 5{s