Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-02-07

an. took all possible help from him
by CONSUMPTION process supplemented
by rake off wages in GUARANTEED
industries which no farmer could meet
and live. They worked hin, lG to is
hours a day on his patriotism and
permitted or enabled middlemen to
gobble 65 cents out of every dollars
worth of product between producer
and consumer.
Now the wise old Transcript talks
about what the government could do
with the farms. 1t must sometime
have heard of, You can lead horse
TO vater'-but it is cheaper in the
end not to try to make him drink.
The big job ahead of the govern
ment, the wise ones and the consum-
ers, is to deal with existing condi-
tons until farmers can save as much
from their is hours labor as favored
industrial labor receives for eight
hours labor. Then they might at
tempt to guarantee sufficient profit
for agricultural cndeavor TO make the
industry attractive.
The Transcript refers to the COM
mon acceptance Of farmers that no
one is to come after them on the
farms. Does it know the average age
Of the farmers of Massachusetts? 1t
would receive Il shock if it made d
canvass. In Maine the average age
OF farmers is probably we'll above SO
years, probably s.. What does it
mean? What has brought it about ?
Why is it so.
There's a reason!
II fe& more metropolitan papers
would interest themselves in this
problem and actually LEARN some-
thing of the facts they could help in
the solution. Here is what the
Transcript SAID, ed:torially:
Many people are troubled about the
from day to uay. but of the most serI-
Gus str!Ae ct au, Mnicl is in piOspect.
one hears Nery little. We can mana &c
10 stand d strike i'll the textile mills ana
ING tiothins Industry, because, II worse
comes " "o:st. We could make out with
our Oh garments for u Wnole year A
strike OF electrical workers woulu EN-
pafEAsS INC country Eleatiy, but so Ion.
as mere was food 10 eat the public
iElSht "oFI| aiLnS somehow. Eut wnat
should We ali do If the farmers STRUCK
Work Oh raising 1000 crops TO sc.l!
starvation "ouiu follow. And precisely
Sacn strike rs that is tnrea tened.
III fusSia, the PEASANTS IN whose
iai.ds The land nov is, have put lust
SUCH q strike into effect. They are no,
sivlnS UP .leir tood products. Thea.
eiaiii Is III their bins, stored up against
me mediate, neeus Of their own ram
lilies. They VIII sell neitntr their lat
cattle, tue.r pigs, their mix, nor 1hei.
WOOL! why snould they! iEe money
tNered t.lem Is worthless. Means VI
TRANSFORMATION are paraiyzed. Still
ant keeps his products. even hiding
them tcneath the eartn il necessary,
me American tanners situation is not
precisely similar to that Of the Russian
the agricultural journals. through lac
grange meetings, and privately to ali
and sundr,, that he is iueu OF pioiuv-
1ns lood tor other people and letting
eAS AAiuNiC-iiidii iLdhG dil Inc
II, and he Is not going to do it any
more. SAID a northern Massachusetts
farmer to the writer of This: II can get
enough for myself and ray FANNY out
o: this i.iace without selling any foou
crol. ana 1 am cong to GO il after this.
Tie lana is mine, ana not the couutry' >.
am through working early and late 10
kAtten somebody else"
In, tAis tneory Aroostook decides that
il viii raise no more potatoes. t'arme. 4
al through the East are killing or get
ling rid of leir poultry STOCK, except
what they want for their own tables.
DairEing is being given ny. In New
England there are plenty of farms
"ntre the sacrifice of tne timber would
furnish clothing and all requirements
Of the family OUTSIDE of its food re-
Quirement, and the farmer does not
mind sacrificing the timber, because
there is nobody to come after him ON
the farm.
1t is easy to see where the adoption Of
this philosophy, if it prevailed AL over
the country. would lead. The farmers
still somebow-and everybody else
would perish. To answer it, the 1ues-
ton would have to be asked whether
the farmer really has any right TO be-
ton no interest in his production OF fo ID
TO sell as well as to have? The English
law. on which our institutions are
founded, says that it has. 1t recognizes
no absolute private ownership Of land.
The absolute title is in the Crown. and
the ownership OF land in fee simple is
but tenancy. The sam, principle pre-
walls in this country. with the State in
the place of the Crown. The law gives
the Legislature the supreme power over
the land. 1t may readily be seen, there
fore, that the state will have something
TO say about the farmers addication OF
his function as producer Of food. Il
the farmer should attempt it.