The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-03-06

have us be q ''little republic,' more
independent sof state authority than
Senator Lodge and his die hard col
leagues have succeeded in making the
United States independent of any
league of nations. Mr.. Ryther says,
"Don It worry, we II soon be extinct. y
1 am in the common state of being
able to find grave faults in all these
schemes without suggesting a work
able solution myself. The Reformer s
plan might do for Somerset and STRAIT
ton but never for u.s. It's only benefit
would be to eliminate one representa-
tive at Montpelier But would you ex-
pect us to vote for such a desirable
end? Most small town residents have
sneaking hope that their turn as rep
resentative will come sometime and
those who have no such aspiration like
to read the free Free Press our repre-
sentative sends during the session and
see his name and the name of our
town. Besides, we raise the same tax
as Londonderry at present. Our schools,
roads and other business could not be
conducted any cheaper if administered
by people the. other side of the noun
tain, and it is very evident our taxes
would go on Londonderry s Blue Book
roads and ours would be left unfit for
automobile travel This community
would largely lose its identity, pay just
as high taxes, and get much less bene-
fit therefrom. Mr.. Dewitt s remedy
would make the conditions much worse.
Small towns justly get more back from
the state than they pay as taxes, and
no small town resident ought to favor
making each town sufficient unto it
self His scheme would reduce school
efficiency tremendously.
Mr.. Ryther is too near the truth, but
it is not sensible to lay the small
towns decline to professional eduea-
tors and other professionals. The cause
seems to me to lie in the changed eco
monte conditions, which it is beyond
our power to buck against. The towns
! which are declining are the hill towns
where agriculture is the main occupa.
ton. The decline is contemporaneous
with the development of machinery
Manufacturing industries have grown
and attracted most of the farm help
| At the same time, farm machinery
makes it possible for one man to farm
many more acres than formerly. One
/ small family now farms about the ter
ritory formerly carried on by three
large families. Social and sentimental
reasons might call for the return of the
old order, but there is no economic
basis for it, As machinery is further
| developed the process will continue un
! til there are so few farmers that they
will make perhaps half as much as city
mechanics. The hill towns where ma
chinerv is less used naturally declin,
| more than more favorable farming re
/ gions
Meanwhile what shall we few re
naming rustics do? As farmers, W,
must cultivate more area, farm extern
sively rather than intensively, III spit
of advice of metropolitan newspape
editors. The law of diminishing return
hinders making money intensively oil
cheap land Most of us back tow
farmers exc out our farming by lum
4 bering or working on the road If w
can live without cutting off our lumbe
we let it grow until we can sell tn
farm for its lumber 1t is thereupol
q skinned" by some lumberman, th
II hay cut until run out, and anothe
farm is deserted. Practically all ar
merely waiting to get good price
then they intend to sell out.
Under such circumstances our com
munity spirit can never be as good o
our success as a community as grea
as under the old order But we ca
never bring back the old order. A
small town residents we must worr
along with our high taxes The Mon
tors remedy is better than Mr.. DE-
Wits. Let the state functions il
crease in Importance, let the state tax
es be higher and the small towns re
turn from them higher in proportion
When we get to the stage of Stratto
of Glastonbury let there be some sin
pier form of organization like tn
Maine plantation. -
Our condition is pathetic, we gran
Most small-town inhabitants, as ind
viduals, find the solution in movin
away 'not that they love the gree
hills less, but they love the greenbacl
more. -
Very truly yours,
PAUL P. JONES.
Windham March <