The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-05-31

my idea that it was only the citizens
of our great cities who failed to un
derstand the Importance Of agrlcul-
ture. l fear very much that the peo-
pie living in St. Matthews, like the
people living IN the great cities, en-
tirely fail to grasp the full meaning
of our agriculture, and l sincerely
hope that they will carefully read
the following letter which was re-
Gently received by the mercantile as
sociations which l represent and
which has attracted a great deal of
attention and brought home to the
business men of these cities, an en-
tirely different viewpoint concerning
American agriculture:
Is it true that very great many
of our captains of industry came orl-
ginally from farms? And if so, why
is it that so few, apparently, retain
any sympathetic understanding OF
farm life? l believe it will be found
if we go about it without prejudice,
that the gulf between city men and
farmers is created not so much by
actual or imagined class differences
as it is to environment. Men be-
! come so absorbed in business or pol
itics that they seldom give thought
! to the man who produced the steak
thew eat or the wool in their clothes.
if there chance to be any. ASK city
man where his meat came from and he
will name some packer. Back of that
he knows nothing of the source.
Mention farm and most men
think, instantly, of a place they have
seen, or the home of their boyhood.
They don't picture it as it is IN Its
world significance. Imagine the as
tonishment of a New York merchant
when I told him that if all the farm
ers in the United States should decide
to go into another business-lt they
could sell all their live stock and
crops for just one year, they would
have enough to buy all the railroads
in the nation, with all the rolling
stock and other equipment. II they
were to sell all their land also, along
with the crops and stock, they could
buv the railroads, all the manutac-
! turing establishments now on record
all the mines, and all the quarrles. IL
would, indeed, be about an even trade
between the farm property and all
other productive property in the
United States except the purely mer-
cantile establishments. With their
income from live stock and crops 1t
I is figured they could in single year
paw the entire national debt. The IN
ivestment in agriculture amounts to
about so billion dollars. In 1919 the
value of live stock and crops aggre-
gated rs billions. Worth thinking
jabout, isn't it!
Of course no business man needs
TO be told that an industry worth oo
billions is too important to be lg-
nored Business men know that when
CROPS are poor, business falls OFT.
They know that right now farmers are
not-or have not recently been-ln
huving mood. That makes sales
show up poorly. Think OF the enor-
NOUS buying power of cotton, wheat
and tobacco which, in 1919 had a
farm ve..ue of nearly billion dollars!
Think of the live stock growers whose
products were valued at more than 8
!billions! have mentioned three
crops only, and sixty Of them are
GROWN on American farms.
Don't think of a man with few
hundred bushels of wheat, or calf
or two or a load of hay when you
think of the farm. Think of American
agriculture, and what it means to your
business. Z. Did you know, for IN
stance, that products of the farm, raw
i or manufactured, make a larger con-
tribution to advertising space than all