Great Falls tribune., 1921-11-14
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OUR DEPARTING FARMERS

Washington, d. G., Nov. 10-Amer-
lean farmers are beginning to leave
the United States in considerable mum
bers for countries where good land 10
easier to get.
Recently colony composed OF over
200 families left for Peru, where the
Peruvian government has granted the
colonists q tract of 65O,OOO acres Of
agricultural and forest land. More
and more American farmers are going
to Australia and the Australian gov
ernment is making every effort to
have them come and stay. In Mexico
land Of the richest kind may be had
for very low price, and many enter
taking advantage of the fact, as con-
fidence in the present Mexican govern
ment grows. American farmers have
been going to Canada for years, and
the number Of them who cross the
northern border is always on the In
crease.
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 agricultural purposes will not pay
fair return. The young American,
farm raised, who has from two to ten
thousand to invest in 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, loath
to leave home, slow to learn new Ian.
guages and customs. They lag behind
Ill &c
colonizing the undeveloped parts of
the earth. But the need for land is
the primary need of the human race.
Men will go, in the long rum. where
they can get the best land for the
least money.
European Farmers Go Elsewhere.
At the same time that our farmers
are leaving, record breaking numbers
Of Europeans are coming in. But
they are not, to any considerable ex-
tent, taking the place of the departing
farmers. 1t is perfectly well known
in Europe that all of the free and
cheap land in the United States is
gone. It is known that South America
and Mexico and Australia are now the
havens of the land-hungry and the
dispossessed The intelligent German
and other European farmers, of the
type that came to the United States 40
years ago, are now going to Brazil and
Mexico. In both of those countries
there are large German colonies. Ital-
ian and Spanish farmers head for the
Argentine, which is now full Of them.
Meantime we are getting. not farmers
who could feed us, but immigrants of
the type who hope to make living in
the large cities, chiefly by petty trade.
While our farmers go out, host of
peddlers, tailors, shopkeepers, boot
blacks and walters is pouring in.
It needs no special argument to
prove that this is not a desirable con-
dition. The question is to what extent
it may be improved.
In part, no doubt it is inevitable.
AS the country fills up the amount of
land available for settlement is bound
to decrease Men seeking land avail
able for settlement is bound to de-
crease. Men seeking land are sure to
60 elsewhere, both from this country
and from other countries. No doubt
the next generations, with population
increasing at its present rate, must
more land which men leave.
The unhealthy and. avoidable part of
the situation is that, although our farm
ers are leaving us, our land is only half
cultivated. If our agricultural lands
were all in the highest possible state
of productivity, il the nation were do
ing all In its power to feed itself, like
Belgium or the Netherlands. for ex-
ample, then it would be inevitable that
young men seeking farms should ge