The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1920-02-04

q
Of saying things. Reading his Small
Town Stuff" in the last issue of the
Saturday Evening Post we came a.
cross this:
He was old and bent and his hands
were gnarled by six decades Of labor
with the soil from which he dug
living. He stood at my side as / fed
sheets of paper into a printing press,
and marveled that such wonders
could have existed without his know
ledge. AS I finished the run anu
threw the belt on the idle pulley he
touched my sleeve.
'T am an old man." said he, and
yet this is the first time I have seen
a printing press. I am very Ignorant
AS I looked at him it occurred to
me that he had been plowing and har-
rowing and planting and reaping all
these years in order that might eat.
From him and his like I had got my
living, giving in return few columns
of reading matter to furnish them
an hours entertainment. He was CAL
laborator with Natures God, and I a
court foot.
Nothing we had ever read brought
out so strongly and strikingly the
fact that the producer is the prime
necessity of mankind. All other oc-
cupations-al professions and call
ings, no matter how worthy or how
exalted-depend on him.
There was an old doggerel that we
haven't seen so long we nave forgotten
how it ran, bnt it WAS something like
this:
When Adam delved and Eve span,
That was the golden age of man.
But the man Of today doesn't like
to dig and delve and plow; and the
woman has forgotten how to spin
but Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like her. We have gone far
away from that golden age-too far.
We have come to the place in the
worlds history wnerc the producer is
disappearing; he mas been almost civ
ilized out of existence. So many things
pay better: so many things are easier;
so many things are more honored, that
the tiller of the soil has sought an
easier and more lucrative calling and
the consequence is-the High Cost of
Living.
There are not enough producers to
make bread and meat enough to feed
the world, and thousands and millions
of people are going hungry, and star
vation stalks through a large portion
of the earth. Congress is on the eve
now of voting fifty millions to buy
bread for the starving people of Euro
pean countries where food is not suffi-
cient to keep the people alive. The
president recommended one nundreu
and fifty millions; but congress fear
ed to make the amount SO large, for
our own people are feeling the scar.
city of food; some are in dire distress
in teh cities, and prices are very, very
high everywhere.
There are not enough producers.
They haveg one from the farms to the
cities to look for easier jobs: to get
into the bright light of the electric
lamps; to enjoy the advantages of
convenient schools and churches; to
be near the movies and other attrac-
tions, and nearer "the centre of
things" Every man that quits the
farm for. the town takes one from the
producers and adds one more to the
consumers.As this has been going on
on large scale for years, it. is easy
to understand why living is high.
Maybe a change will come. Since
farming has become so profitable the
cry of back to the soil may mean
something. Farming is the ideal life.
It is the mosti Independent life. 1t is
the most useful life. In very many
respects, it is the easiest life. The
worst thing about farm life is its iso-
lation. which is due to the inconven-
ience of getting about through the
country. If we had good roads, it
would be altogether different. With
telephones, electric or other modern
lights, automobiles, ten miles or even
twenty counts for nothing; but as
roads are now, every. winter and
o ooOd mart of tho yaar baSi6eS a f9 r.