The Glasgow courier., 1921-02-04

conservative east, was merely a case
of perverted democracy and idealism.
" U fish t
Kansas was then, as now, common
wealth of farmers, and anarchy and
social revolution never get very far
with farmer He is curious CONTRA
diction of radicalsm as regards the
social and economic problems which
adversely affect his welfare, and is
ultra conservative on the score of land
ed property, which is staff of life. Over
and over again there have been associ-
ations of farmers who have startled
the reactionary and conservative ele-
ments by the theories they advocated.
But nothing ever resulted from them,
for these movements came to an end
when the midsummer madness passed
and the natural conservatism and good
sense of the dweller on the soil assert
ed itself. Possession of property, es-
pecially farming property, from which
one makes his living, is the one sure
mune to anarchy and revolution.
Not only was the average Kansan a
| farmer, but was likewise an educat-
ed man. Education has always been a
name to conjure with in the Sunflower
State. 1t is a commonwealth of read
ers. The actual attendance at schools
has always been very high in propor-
ton to population, while students at
colleges, universities, and other higher
institutions of learning rank higher in
attendance per capita of population
than any state in the Union.
It's percentage of illiteracy is the
third lowest of any of the forty eight
states, despite the large influx at one
time of negroes from the south. More
over, it was, and is, country of ideal
ism.
Nor could it be otherwise in Kansas,
from their environment and history In
the beginning they came to a new
land that happily had neither history
nor precedent. They were not bur-
dened with traditions, which are beau
tiful and picturesque in literature and
art but too often mere millstones hung
around the neck of social and economic
progress. Means of communication
were everywhere easy because of the
topography of the state offered no OBJ
stacles to road building. Local pre-
JUDGES and provincialism could no,
thrive under conditions where there
was constant and free intermingling of
the inhabitants.
Judging COmmunity's intelligence.
1t stands first among the states in
the percentage of mileage of all public
roads to its area, and in the per capita
ownership of automobiles it is close
to the top. 1t is a curious and inter
esting fact, brought out by an exhaus-
tive study of the automobile situa-
ton, that the percentage Of the owner
ship of automobiles in any community
or state is determined primarily, not
by the presence of good roads and the
possession of wealth, but rather by the
intelligence and progressive spirit of
its people.
| There is something, moreover, in the
unbroken stretch of the horizon and
the endless sweep of the winds from
the far distant rockies, that typifies
the breadth and freedom of thought
that characterizes the people of the
state.
Long ago the inhabitants of Kansas
were disillusioned as to an ever ben
efcent nature. They saw Nature in
her true garb, sometimes kindly, some
times cruel. and in all her ever-varying
moods utterly Indifferent to man and
his works. So mans job, especially in
Kansas, was to measure Nature as to
her laws which could not with impun-
ity be violated, and those which could
be met and overcome by adaptation to
them. For the entire remedy lay in an
| ak Il, |,
with the climate and the soil.
The student of that day saw the an
swer clearly enough and the results
which must follow when that answer
was made. For people so constituted
would never rest till way out was
found. There were, in fact, four ways.
all of them akin in purpose, and they
came about in the slow process of time,
largely with the aid and initiative of
the Federal Department of Agriculture
and the State Agricultural College.
| These ways We're:
The use Of dry-farming methods.
The cultivation of ougth-resisting
plants.
The employment of irrigation where
possible.
The building of silos.
Ry these means Kansas agriculture
was adapted to the ways of the eli
mate.
Dry-farming is as old as agriculture
and was her handmaiden in the cradle
Of the race in the semi-arid Far East
in the dim, historic past. The uttermost
parts of the earth were ransacked fo,
drougth-resisting plants, the non-sac-
charine sorghum grains, Kafir, Milo
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