Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-26
IT IS SAFER DEALING WITH LUNK1IEADS THAN
 WITH RASCAIS.

"lt's about the same with every body else" said my neighbor. They seem to have got the idee in their heads that we hayseeds are combined to skin 'em alive, and nothin' Il ever knock it out of 'em.''
 Practically every single wage-earner connected with these protesting fam flies has had his wages increased more than double over pre-war time rates. That, of course. was all right,
 There was no complaint about that. No, indeed But it was kick, kick
 kick when prices of commodities dou-
 bled. Wages couldn't possibly go too high to suit. But there was no excuse
 for prices following up. It was all
 wrong, that part of the slSy-rocketing.
 Within a week I've read the story of @ Pacific coast newspaper man who was sent out to spend six months or
 a farm and report the farm side of the question. When he returned he
 wrote what he had seen and experi-
 enced. And the summing up of 1t all
 was, in effect, that the farmer as a
 rule, in California atN least, worked
 harder and longer hours for less
 wages, took bigger risks for smaller
 expectations, and secured lesser re- turns on invested capital than were
 usual in any city industry he knew of. note in one of the most widely
 circulated weekly periodicals of the
 country a long article embodying the results of somewhat similar investiga- tions in which it is demonstrated that the farmer is not only not the cause of high prices but that he is really a sorer victim thereof than most of his blatant critics. The editors opine that the article will open the eyes of city 4a taf fo Nf The agricultural delegates to the last industrial commission at Wash ington said this in their report:
 "The farmer cannots profiteer. His product, after a twelvemonth gamble in which he stakes the cost of his seed | fertilizer, equipment, land, the labor of l himself and family. against the
 weather, the elements. all plant and animal pests and diseases. is sold in | market in competition with the prod
 uct of 6.0o0.0 900 other similarly placed producers. Many thousands of farm | surveys have proven the generally in ! adequate labor income of the farmer"
 These said metropolitan news paper, commenting on them "are facts
 not recognized hv city people"
 No-o, they don't seem to be At | least, not by a. large class of city peo- ] pie. And, with all due respect to the | industrial commission and the truth i seeking and truth publishing editors, east and west. I don't think they are ] going to be recognized.
 i You can pump water till the trough l runs over. and lead the horse up to 1t | by silken halter with silver buckles | and pink plumes-but you can't make ] him drink, if he doesn't want to. Doubtless you've all noticed that the l people of a western congressional dis ! trict have just reelected to congreSs
 a man convicted of anti-Americanism and once already expelled from con- gress as an unfit member. The lunk- heads who reelected him probably un- derstand and expect that he will again l be refused seat. The governor of 1 the state has announced that if this l happens, he will waste no more pub
 lie money in calling another special election. The district will remain un-
 represented till the next regular vot- ing time.
 Now, this district is in large city, where intelligence is fondly supposed
 to flow at high tide and education is fostered in scores of costly buildings, palatial in architecture and equipment
 as compared with the little red school house" of the country district. ! And yet a majority of the voters in an entire congressional district of this city deliberately spill the fat in to the fire; wilfuny cut the govern ment under whose protection they live, mutllate their own noses to spite their faces-all from a combination of ignorance and transformation and
 brain ma ggotiness which would justi- fly even the mildest-spoken observer