Omaha daily bee., 1921-01-09

Oakland, Neb., Jan. S.-To the
Editor of The Bee; In the issue
of The Omaha Bee dated December
Is, / have read with interest the ad-
dress delivered before the Nebraska a
| Farm congress by the vice presi-
dent. Charles Croft of Bancroft. II
your paper printed Mr.. Groff's state
ment correctly, ! personally think
| they are unjust and unfair to the
farmers of Nebraska. He states that
the farmer must quit his wild
orgy" of spending and his joy-rid-
ing and buckle down and work Just
/ slittle bit harder in order 70 help
| solve the serious financial problems
4 now confronting the country Does
! Mr. Croft, mean to intimate that
! the farmers are to blame for condi-
tions as they are today? II not,
what does he mean?
+ | am speaking now for myself and
believe my fellow farmers In this
community will join WITH me when
I say. that to work just little bit
harder would be quite out of the
! question. During the past year. In
particular, we have worked from
4 o'clock in the. morning. until many,
! many nights, Nj o'clock and have
then gone to bed too tired to sleep
and finally when we didSdo off it
was to be rudely awakened by the
ringing Of the alarm clock, telling
us 1t was time ato start the same
old routine all over again. am
convinced that. If Mr.. Croft had come
out to our farms the past summer
ana followed US from morning until
night for Just, one week. he wouldn't
have been at the. Farmers congress
at all last week. Instead he would
have been at some hot springs OF
summer resort somewhere recuper-
ating.
AS to the '.joy rides" he says the
farmers, have been taking, the gas
they have burned. the rubber tires
they have worn out, I question his
statement again. OF course there are
some who are guilty. but one
shouldn't Judge the majority by the
few. But even il the farmer does
take a joyride ONCE in awhile, who is
better entitled toesa day of rest and
recreation than he. is?, / honestly
believe that there is a smaller per-
centage of the farmers taking joy
rides than any other r'ciass Of people
in the country today. If it is such
sin to joyride where will Mr.. Groff
stand in the Judgment ] believe
he has taken two or three trips west
III his Tin Lizzie" and at least one
east that T. now call to- mind, but
/ can't say whether he classed these
as joyrides orr not, and then again
maybe he is a privileged character.
In regard to this wild orgy" of
spending, and wild cat" specula-
ton. I again take the farmers side
of the question. 1t is true that
some Of ,our number spent their
money with the idea in mind Of
speculating. but the majority in
vested in the Skinner Packing Co..
and other such concerns not for
speculation, but because 1t was rep.
resented to them as a good invest.
ment by men with more brains than
conscience, who knew at the time
that they we're misrepresenting the
proposition, and they did it for the
sole purpose of getting the farmers
money. sometimes think the
farmers are the least suspecting of
any class OF human beings and for
that very reason fall easy victims
to these "smart fellows" / will have
to admit that we as farmers make
many mistakes, but ] believe that II
we would look around a little that
we would find that many others.
and from all walks of life, had in-,
vested in the Skinner Packing Co..
and Others like companies; also I
have been Seongratulating myself that
1 did not invest any Of. my hard
earned cash in the Skinner Packing
Co, but this fall my. brother and i
put about $4,000 into the Armour
Co, in the shape of 46 head Of big |
fine steers, and we+realize now that
our chances of ever getting any of 1t