The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-09-22
IF WE HAD TEN-YEAR EYES
Rv tho Editor
By the Editor

The other day | CHANGED to pick up a small newspaper
published in Wyoming, by a woman. In her editorials she
dispensed with the ridiculous and antiquated hangover
custom of saying 1--WE" when she referred to herself. 1t
struck me she had grabbed onto a sensible idea and had
the courage to use it. That woman was not actuated by
egotism and most surely | am not. If you met a friend and
stopped for a chat, and he said, WE think we will go to
town tomorrow; or we think we will have some fine wealth
Ell, YOU would conclude he was a little dusty in his dome.
Well, that is all l am doing, just chatting with you. But
the matter of pronouns is not what | started 70 talk about
Have you not many times, during the hard grinding
years just past, wished you could see just what this coun-
try will be in ten years? 1t is doubtful if the power to see.
ten years ahead would be of much value to most people.
1t would make them feel so we'll armed, so confident, that
they would let success slip away.
But, in a way we can look ahead-ten years or TWEEN
ty, if not too youthful. A few weeks ago | visited a part of
the country had not seen or heard much about for eleven
years. Previous to that | had lived there for ten years. In
1901, the time of my going there to live, it had a discourag-I
ing and desolate ~aspect-drouth stricken, weed possessed.
Eighty per cent of the settlers had gone, farther vast or
back to where they came from. If they could borrow 5000
on their farms before they left they thought they were
lucky and in most cases did not expect to come back.
The country had opened up with a bang about 1885,
and fine crops were harvested for several years. They
went wild over wheat and as deep in debt as they could
get for land, machinery, horses, etc. Then dry years came
and the stubbling in methods that had brought big results
brought only thistles and disappointment. This continued
over a long porlOu Oh years. moi every ycdI DIS uy DIS q Z
and 1918 but dry enOught to cause very short crops with
the methods used. Practically nothing was known then
about dry farming methods. All cussed the country and
all who could left. Those who staid managed to trade for
a few COWS and fought off starvation. About 1900 the
tide began to turn. 1t rained more, and a few were learn
ing how to use their country. The land all changed hands
two or three times and an almost entirely new set of farm
ers came in and settled down permanently.
When | left there in 1910 it was a wonderfully chang
ed country. They were raising corn and cattle and hogs
and waxing prosperous. Farm land that went begging
at S. to SO an acre in 1898 sold readily for $40 to $50. The
country had arrived, found itself. / continued to think of
it just as I left it-a fairly good country, fairly well i'm
proved.
Well l went back the other day and what | saw gave me
the surprise of my life. Every acre is included in a farm.
One fine farm beside another. Big barns, good houses,
splendid corn fields, tame grass, well bred stock. Trees
of many kinds had grown to surprising size where only
bare land had been. Farmers cars almost blocked the
streets, some days and there were a string of jitneys and
wagons unloading cream at a big creamery.
The change in the town was just as marked. New
houses, fine yards, trees, grass, flowers, new buildings
new businesses. And as | beheld it | ask myself: IF this
can change so vastly since the desolate days of the nineties
what will the Wolf Point country be in ten years, or TWEEN
typ" The section | speak of undoubtedly is one of greater
normal rainfall than this, yet what | saw gave me greater
confidence than | ever had before. | saw, or thought |
saw, with ten-year eyes.