The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-12-06
american industry win be held Sc

I
protective policy for ourselves
making it impossible for our debt
| ors to discharge their obligations
/ to US. This is a contention not
now pressing for decision. II we
must choose between a people in
/ idIeness pressing for the payment
OF indebtedness, or people re-
Stunning the normal ways of employ
ment and carrying the credit. let US
j choose the latter Sometimes we
apprafse largest the human i'll most
wildly in oun minds. We have
been giving, and are giving now, of
our influence and appeals to min
imize the likelihood of war and
throw off the crushing burdens of
armament. 1t is all very earnest,
t with a national soul impelling.
But a people unemployed and gaunt
with hunger face a situation quite
! as disheartening as war, and our
greater obligation today is to do
! the governments part toward re-
Stunning productivity and promoting
/ fortunate and remuneratiye en-
ployment.
/ Lift Farmers Burden.
/ Something more than tariff pro-
/ lection is required by American
agriculture. To the farm has come
| the earlier and the heavier burdens
of readjustment. There is a con-
/ mercial depression in our agricul-
| hural industry while agricultural
prosperity is absolutely essential to
the general prosperity of the coun-
/ try.
| Congress has sought very earn
estly to provide relief. It has
promptly given such temporary re-
/ lief as has been possible, but the
call is insistent for the permanent
/ solution. 1t is inevitable that large
crops lower the price and short
crops advance them. No legisla-
ton can cure that fundamental law.
| But there must be some economic
solution for the excessive variation
in returns for agricultural produc-
ton.
1t is rather shocking to be told,
and to have the statement strong
! ly supported, that 100000 bales of
cotton, raised on American planta-
tons in a given year, will actually
| be worth more to the producers
/ than 1900 900 would have been.
/ Equally shocking is the statement
/ that T0G,000,000 bushels of wheat
raised by American farmers would
bring them more money than a bill
lion bushels. Yet these are not ex-
aggerated statements. In a world
where there are tens of millions
who need food and clothing, which
/ they can not get, such a condition
is sure to indict the social system
which makes it possible.
Remedy in Marketing.
In the main the remedy lies in
distribution and marketing. Every
proper encoura cement should be
given to the cooperative marketing
program. These have proven very
helpful to the cooperating com
munities in Europe. In Russia the
cooperative community has become
a recognized buIwark of law and
order, and saved individualism
from engulfment in social paral-
, ysis Ultimately they will be &C
credited with the salvation of the
Russian state.
/ There is the appeal for this eI-
{ pertinent. Why not try it? No one
] challenges the right of the farmer
( to larger share which the con-
sumers' pay for his product; no
/ enc can dispute that we can not
live without the farmer He is jus
tilted in rebelling against the trans
| portation cost. Gwen a fair return
/ for his labor. he will have less Oc-
casion to appeal for financial aid
and given assurance that his labors
shall not be in vain. we assure all
! the people of a production suffi-
Gent to meet our national require
ments and guard against 4 disaster
Men Drift to Cities.
! The base Of the pyramid of civil
! iZat4On which rests upon the soil is
/ shrinking through the drift of pop
ulation from farm to city. For a
( generation we have been express
/ ing more or less concern about this
/ tendency. Economists have warn
! ed and statesmen have deplored.
! We thought for a time that modern
/ conveniences and the more init
mate contact would halt the move
ment, but it has gone steadily on.
! perhaps only grim necessity will
correct it. but We ought to find i
| less drastic remedy.
/ The existing scheme OF adjust
| ing freight rates has been favoring
/ the basing points. until industries
( are attracted to some centers and
repealed from others. A great vol
une Of uneconomic and wasteful
| trans portatiou has attended. and
the cost increased accordingly. The
! grain milling and meat packing iii
dustries afford ample illustration is
and the attending concentration is
readily apparent. The menaces in
| concentration are not limited to
the retarding influences on agricul-
ture. Manifestly the conditions
and terms of railway TRANSPORTS
ton ought not TO be permitted to
increase the undesirable tendency
We have a just pride in our great
cities, but we shall find a greater
pride in the nation, which has a
/ larger distribution of its ,popuIa-
! ton into the country. where COM
paratlvely sufficient smaller
communities may blend agricultar-
al and manufacturing interests in
harmonious helpfulness and en-
HANGED coed fortune. Such a
movement contemplates no de-
struction of things wrought, of in
Vestments made, or wealth invoIv-
ed. 1t only looks to a general moi
icy of transportation, of distribu.-
ed industry, and of highway con-