Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1921-11-02
sy JOHN OLIVER Ia GORGE.

With unsettled Russia Just over her
border. and the border itself in dis
Vute Rumania Is conducting a watch
on the Dniester. the boundary which
she claims. as vigilant as any that was
ever Set GA the Rhine. Rumania has
Organized her government In Bess-
arabia. but the Russians have never
CONSENTED % the severance II this for
mer Russian province. and each move
ment % soviet troops toward the
IDniester has st Europe afiutter for
fear a new war viii break cut In her
southeastern corner.
However. r. Is not BessarabIa nor
the other war-gained territories that
have doubled Rumauia's size. that are
I'm the mind Of the average person
when Rumania j. mentioned. lie
thinks rather II the pre-war nucleus,
the little kingdom that since the Turk
was pushed south. has stood EMBODIED
hy the lower Danube. the River Pruth
and the Tmnsyiyanian Alps.
In the whirlpool II racial rivalries
q southeastern Europe-where Ro-
man and Goth. Hun and Slav. Magyar
and Mongol. with an ~ their descend
ant peunics. have run over one anoth-
er and been run over In their turn
fate left the Rumanlans In the major
fly In a territory ~ more than 5000
square miles. II scattered more than
120O0O00 ~ them over these lands
more than 100000 IN old Rumanla
and some 100000 elsewhere.
The old Rumanla was country 81
E1.ODO square miles. with a population
'of less than S.OoOOOo. II was thus
slightly larger than Pennsylvania. al
though Il had half a million fewer
people than the keystone state. The
new Rumanin has an area ~ $4,000
square miles and a population ~
100000.
The country Is governed by a king.
Who + a constitutional monarch. and
parliament made up II a senate and
q chamber ~ deputies. The pre-war
cunstituiIin was rather reactionary,
with the masses practically disfran-
chlsel. The new constitution. how
ever. l. more liberal. permitting voting
by nll citizens over Il years of age,
paying taxes.
Small Farms and Big Estates.
I IndustriaIly Rumania Is almost en-
tlreiy given over a. agriculture, and.
ARA for area. % produces more cereals
than any other great grain-prciucing
nation H. the world Before the World
war its farm lands were about equally
divided between the small farmer and
rlrh landowner. There were about q
million farms with an average size of
eIEht ncres. and then there were over
4u1l estates with an average size 81
aenn acres. since the CONCLUSION ~
the World war steps have been taken
80 break up many - these large Is
rates and 90 create holy u peasant
pr0pTietsrs.
The result ~ the occurrence 81 both
fure estates and tiny farms is that
one finds the strnn-est contrasts In
Turning methods Here Is q bic estate
where every sort ~ farm machinery
that the United States has 20 offer i
10 WW EWNtlA-AAAN NAAakAN@s &AtN AAtNfAA As
she steam gang pillow. the riding culu-
rafor. the manure spreader and even
the steam header and thresher. And
then hard ~ are a hundred small
farmers who stun harvest their grain
with the sickle. thresh Il with the fail.
or tread Il ont with oxen aud winnow
A. With the homemade fork. They
nov their grass with the scythe. rake
Il with the hand rake and haul u In
with ux-carts. But even with the very
primitive methods that characterize
half o. the farming 81 the country
xhey manage % coax rather honnu-
ful crop out II the soil.
The great bulk ~ Rumanla's popula-
tion belongs % the peasant class. Tor
there are comparatively few cities and
usoSt of them are small Many Of the
peasant families have lived for genera