Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-12
DIR. JOSEPH kRAUSKOPF
On OPPORTUNITIES on Farm Lands

TN ORDER 70 avoid having to bar great
i numbers of the food Of immigrants which
will soon start to flow in from Europe the
United States should throw open the vast
farm lands of the west to the incoming for
eigners, according to DR.. Joseph kraus-
the founder and president Of the National
Farm School, near Doylestown. which Is
project along the lines of the doctors argu-
mcnt.
Not only would such a plan prove to be
the best way of taking care of the im,ni,
grants who. DR.. Krauskopf believes, will
start coming in much increased numbers
when peace is officially effected, but 1t would
also effectively combat the nations hunger
menace.
"Thc food status Of the United States
declared DR.. Krauskopf, ''is giving
serious concern to thinking people. In this
land of ours. whose praises were. untll
recently, sung far and wide for its mex
haustihlc supplies Of food, there are sections
in which the want Of 1t Is painfully felt.
Food Supply Dwindled
1.-THE dwindling Of our food supply began
two or three decades ago, when the exodus
from the farm to the city first set in, when
city attractions and high city wages lured
the farmers sons and daughters from the
rural homes and rural labor.
Later the war came and called into life
gigantic war industries, at wages never
equaled before, which decimated yet more
the numbers Of those who had formerly
lived and labored happily and benefcially
upon the farm. Thousands of other farm
lads were summoned overseas or to camps
at home, of whom but a small percentage
have returned to the farm. Grown accus-
toned to living masses. amidst the hustle
and excitement of camp life, the resumption
of farm life has no attraction for them.
bn
theatres and dance halls, They choose to
increase the number of food consumers by
deserting the ranks of food producers.
"This is a condition that calls for i'm
mediate remedy, il we would heed the signs
of the times. Help cannot come from
Europe. Even in pre-war times European
countries depended largely on our country to
make up their deficiency in food. Before
the war England raised but one fifth of her
needed food supplies, France about one
half Italy about two thirds. Before the
war the United States and Canada exported
annually about 200, ,000, 900 bushels of wheat.
Before the war Russia supplied to western
Europe, on the average, some 400 900, 900
bushels of cereals, mostly wheat. Today
Russia is starving for the want of food
Refugees Sure to Come
Conditions in Europe can only make
matters worse here There will be n tre-
mendous influx Of refugees to our country.
They are already coming, especially from
the war cursed lands. They will come to us
by the tens and hundreds Of thousands. Who
can blame themf
Much in disfavor in recent years, the
immigrant Ia special object of dislike at
the present time. Men fail to recognize in
him our country's great need or the large
place he would fill in this land. They think
of him only as q keen competitor in the
labor market, as one who is sure to increase
vet more the price of food by decreasing yet
more it's limited supply.
"There is little remembrance that all that
this country is is largely due to the work
of the immigrant. There is little remem-
brance of the fact that there is nothing of
which our nation is of greater need than
Of the immigrant to develop our well nigh
inexhaustible resources, to fill our broad and
fertile acres.
"The National Farm School has demon
strated, during the twenty three years of
its existence, that there Is q cure which,
had 1t been applied on large scale and
widened in its application, would not have
cost one -thousandth part which the other
attempts aud failures have cost the r,,r
that would have taken the poor out upon
the broad fields, where nature fairly calls
for them, where there is room and work and
health and wealth and happiness for MANY
thousand times their number.
Had our philanthropies taken differ
ent direction, there would have been few
vacant farms today. During one year. he.
fsFs the war, some one hundred millions Of