The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-11-15
Frederick Haskin's Letter
Our Departing Farmers.
tspecial cerre.pondenee ID The Arrn..

| Washington, D. c., Nov. IL
American farmers are beginning to
| leave the United States in consider
! able numbers for countries where
good land is easier to get.
Recently a colony composed OF
over 200 families left for Peru
where the Peruvian government has
granted the colonists a tract OF
$4,000 acres of agricultural and
| forest land. More and more Amer
can farmers are going to Australia
and the Australian government is
making every effort to have them
come and stay. In Mexico land OF
the richest kind may be had for a
very low price, and many enter
prising young American farmers
are taking advantage of the fact,
as confidence in the present Mexi-
can government grows American
farmers have been going to Canada
for years, and the number of them
who cross the northern border is
always on the increase.
The reason for this emigration is
obvious. In this country there IS
no longer any free government
land which is worth the taking.
while private holdings of land are
held at such high valuation that an
investment in them for agriculture!
purposes will not pay a fair return
The young American, farm-raised
VINO mas from two to ten thousand
dollars TO invest in a farm, soon
learns, if he is alert, that he cannot
get profitable start for that money
in the United States, and that he
can get one in another country.
Americans are poor colonizers.
ioath to leave home, slow TO learn
new languages and customs. They
lag behind almost all of the Euro
pean peoples in colonizing the I'M
developed parts of the earth. But
the need for land is the primary
need of the human race. Men will
go, IN the long run, where they can
get the best land for the least
money.
Europeans 60 Elsewhere.
At the same time that our farm
ers are leaving. record breaking
numbers Of Europeans are coming
in. But they are not. to anv CON
siderable. extent, taking the place
OF he departing farmers. II is ner
iectiy well known in Europe that /
all OF the free and cheap land in !
the United States is gone 1t is !
known that South America and .
Mexico and Australia are now the
ravens of the land hungry and the /
dlspossessed. The intelligent Ger /
man and other European farmers
OF the type that came to the United
states 40 years ago, are now going
to Brazil and Mexico. In bot,1
those countries there are large Ger
man colonies. Italian and Spanish
farmers head for the Argentine !
which is now full of them. Mean
lime We are getting. not farmers
who feed US, but immigrants of the
type who hope TO make a living in
the large cities, chiefly by petty
trade. While our farmers go ouf /
1 most of peddiers, taiIors, shop
keepers, bootblacks and walters is
in
1t needs no special argument To
prove that this is not a Desirable
The question is to whaf
extent it may be improved.
In part, no doubt it is inevitable ,
As the country fills up the amount
II land available for settlement is /!
pound to decrease. Men seeking
and are sure to go elsewhere. both
rom this country and from other
Countries. No doubt the next two
with population in
'reasing at its present rate. must {
zee re United States become more
nd more land which men leave t
The unhealthy and avoidable part
L the situation is that, although our $
aTmers are leaving US, our land IS s
My half cultivated If our agri- 5
ultural lands were all in the high f
st possible state of productivity. il /
ne nation were doing all in its !
over to feed itself, like Belgium E
r the Netherlands, for example.
hen it would be inevitable that /
Dung men seeking farms should go /