River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1919-01-02
WORLD NEEDS FOOD
Demand Makes Opportunity for
Returning Soldiers.
Thousands Will See Glorious POSI-
biIities in Settlement of Avail
able Farm Land in This Coun-
try and in Canada.

The war is over. peace will soon be
signed, the fighting nations have
sheathed their swords, and the day of
reconstruction has come.
What of it?
Hundreds of thousands of men,
taken from the fields of husbandry,
from the ranks of labor, from the four
walls of the counting house, and the
confines of the workshop, taken from
them to do their part, their large part,
In the prevention of the spoliation of
the world, and in the meantime re-
moved from the gear of common every
day life, will be returning, only to find
In many cases old positions filled, the
machinery with which they were for
merly attached dislocated.
Are they to become aimless wander
ers, with the ultimate possibility of
augmenting an army of menacing
loafers? If they do it is because their
ability to assist in laying new founda-
lions, in building up much-reQuired
structures, is undereStimated. Men
who fought as they fought, who risked
and faced dangers as they did, are not
of the caliber likely to finch when it
comes to the restoration of what the
enemy partially destroyed, when it
comes to the reconstruction of the
world, the ideals of which they had in
view when they took part in the great
struggle whose divine purpose was to
bring about this reconstruction.
Injured to toll, thoughtless of fatigue,
trained in initiative and hardened by
their outdoor existence, they will re-
turn better and stronger men, boys will
have matured and young men will have
developed.
They will decide for themselves
lines of action and thought, and what
their future should and will be. On
the field of battle they developed
alertness and wisdom. and they will
return with both shedding from every
pore.
Action was their watchwOrd, and it
will stand them in good stead now that
the din of the battle no longer rings
in their ears, or the zero hour signals
them to the fray, and it will continue
during their entire existence.
But if they return to find their old
avOcatiOns gone, their places filled,
the institutions with which they were
connected no longer existing, new
walks of life and employment must be
opened to them. It may be that the
counting house, the factory, the
workshop will have lost their attrac-
ton. The returned soldier will look
elsewhere for employment; within his
reach there is always the Forward
to-the-Land" necessity. In this lies
the remedy that will not only take care
Of a multitude of those who may not
be able to return to their former Occu-
patiOns, whose desires are not to do so,
whose health prohibits them from in
door life or whose outdoor habits from
the past one, two, three or four years
have given them such taste and de-
sire for it that confinement would be
unbearable. Farm life will thus ap-
peal to them, and the indications are
that it will be taken advantage of by
thousands. It means much to them as
we'll as to the continent Of America
that provides the opportunity to the
world at large, and to the stricken and
famished nations of Europe, who, not
only. today, but for years to come, will
require the sustenance that can only
largely be supplied by the United
States and Canada. By following the
pursuit Of agriculture the returned SOL
der will continue the cause he so
greatly advanced when fighting on the
field Of battle. Both countries have
undeveloped areas yet open to settle
ment.
| There is little need here to direct
attention to the wealth that has come
to the farmers of Canada within the
past few years. 1t is not only in grain
growing that unqualified and almost
unequaled success has followed honest
effort, but the raising of horses, cattle,
sheep and hogs has been large source
of profit. These are facts that are
well known to the many friends and
acuuaintanceS of the thousands of
| farmers from the United States who
/ nave WCdAtA Oh IAC ~ OAAAOc
Of Western Canada. Farms of from
one hundred and sixty to six hundred
and forty acres of the richest soil may
be secured on reasonable terms, and
with an excellent climate, with a
school system equal to any in the
world, and desirable social conditions,
little else could be asked.
/ Canadian statesmen are today busily
engaged planning for the future Of the
returned soldier with view to making
him Independent of state help after the
immediate necessary assistance has
been granted, the main idea being to
show in the fullest degree the coun-
trys appreciation OF the services he
has rendered.
But now that the war is ended, and
the fact apparent that Of all avoca-
lions the most profitable and independ-
ent is that of the farmer there will be
a strong desire to secure farm lands