Arizona republican., 1920-09-16

The average citizen has come to pie ture this movement as an hegira of country boys, leaving the blow in the
 furrow and the old folks weeping on with its fleshpots and high wages, leaving the nation to sJarve.
 Farmers Like the Country
 The reactionaries and mossbacks generally treat this movement as
 proof of the declining moral stamina
 of the nation Nobody wants to stay
 on the farm and do a hard days work. They all think they have to go to the
 movies every night and wear a stiff collar and work only six hours a day. It's disgusting. CThe author of tnls outburst often works one hour week clipping coupons off bonds.)
 The farmers. on the other hand,
 while they paint an equally alarming picture of this national migration. say
 it is all the fault of our economic sys-
 tenn, and that these young fellows are leaving the farms because they can't
 make living there.
 The farmers are right in their last contention. Yon can easily prove that for yourself by going into the country districts anywhere and talking to the people. It is very doubtful whether any more boys leave the farms now adays for the cities. out of deliberate preference for urban life, than have always. done so. Here and there is a boy born in the country whose greatest
 usefulness and happiness is naturally found in the city, and he usually gets there. But if there is one thing cer- tain about country people. especially men, 1t is that they like the country. They like the freedom, the old clothes,
 the outdoor life the animals. They do not have to work as hard as city folk,
 despite the popular belief to the con.
 trary. They work hard in harvest
 time, but in January they go coon
 hunting.
 Why They Leave
 Why then, do so many country boys
 go to the cities. Chiefly because there is no other place for them to go. Go into any old. settled farming district,
 such as eastern Maryland. Talk to l farmer who has four boys. Three or I them. he will tell you. are going away.
 The fourth boy will stay and inherit the old homestead. Why don't the i others buy farms2 For several req sons. In the first place, the good farms are not for sale, and they don't want 1 the poor ones. In the second place, to l buy unimproved land and put 1t under cultivation takes more capital than 1 they can command.
 | So the boys go to New York or to l Philadelphia and become automobile l mechanics or electricians, or else they | eo west in search of land. But gong west is getting to be poor expedient. l The greater part of its arable lands are as crowded as those of the East | Of it's public lands little is left but desert Just as the East has it's i swamps and cut-overs which might be made into farms so the West has it's | irrfgable deserts. But in both cases It 1 will take the strong hand of govern ment to make these lands available.
 There is no mystery in this so-called | movement of the country population ! to the cities. nor does 1t represent any great change in the feeling or view | point of the people. or any new rest | Iessness. The simple fact is that there are just so many farms in the United | States Every one of them that VIII | yield a living for hard work is being titled. and a good many that will not yield a living in the long run are being l tiled The area of cultivation is be- l ing extended slowly. which is the oniy
 way it can be extended by men work
 ing singly, with little capital and upon
 the least desirable land in the country. | It is true that the population is in creasing faster than the food supply. l Nevertheless the food supply is still | adequate It's high price is due all most wholly to the way it is dis tributed.
 The movement from the country to the cities will go on steadily and for | a long time It is inevitable in a nation
 which is changing from an agricultural | basis to a commercial and manufactur- ! ing one. But the farms will always be | titled, and as soon as the government gets down to the necessary work of l creating more farms, those will be tiled, too.
 Investigate some of the many West
 ern'' Diesel Engines throughout Ar-
 zona before you buy power equip ment. It