The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-04-27
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ON THE FARM
By DR.. ElWood Mead.

CDR. Mead, who is head of CALIFORNIA; Educational com
mission, recently made a tour of investigation in Montana)
The outstanding problems of rural life in America
are economic and social. Agriculture in this country
faces harder conditions than it has for nearly a century.
Thousands of farms are being sold under mortgage fore
closure. Tenants, unable to pay their debts, are desert
ing their equipment with their debts and moving else
where. OF all the countries engaged IN the great war,
the American farmer has been hardest hit by It's after
math. That is largely due to his being unOrganlzed. lie
lecks the credit and selling arrangements that have tided
over other exporting countries like Australia ana New
Zealand.
Because we have given most of our thought to produc-
ton and to buying land while it is cheap, we neglected
the business and social institutions needed in farm life.
Our situation can be illustrated by a story. A dalrynlan,
wishing to improve his herd, wired a breeder, "Send me
rs one year old registered Holsteins." The message was
mixed in sending and what the breeder read was, 'Send
me one Is year old Holstein." He pondered a while and
wired this reply. "There is no such animal in the state
and what want to know is what would you do with it il
you had lt!
between colleges and legislatures and the people on the
farms. It is their task to help work out, explain, and put
into operation the institutions needed IN an organized
rural. life. In this task it is finding and will lind that the
individualistic American is refractory human maIeTlal
Nevertheless, it is a task which cannot be long evaded or
long postponed. AS the country gets older, as we are
crowded closer together, the people in rural communities
must submit to restraints and assume obligations Tor the
common good. If they are to hold their own with or
ganized commercial interests and enable the small Gull
tivator to have the same business chance as the larger
farmer. This task OF teaching farmers to combine IS
made harder because in the past they have neglected the
business side Of farming more than any other hlghly CIV
ilized country. The American farmer raised crops With
out knowing who was to buy them or where they were
to be used. We have left this to the shreWd aTd re-
sourceful men of the cities who come to the farmer With
offers for his stock and with markets for his produce.
They took over the manufacture of his ham and bacon,
canned his fruit, made his butter and baked his bread.
In this way, they took from the country many OF It's arts
and crafts, many of it's intellectual interests and left 1t q
matter of monotonous production almost like the massed
industry of the city. The business Of the farmer fell into
hands whose interests are in conflict with those OF the
producer. Organized business in the city wants to buy at
the lowest possible price and the farmer wants all that the
consumer can afford to pay. No satisfactory result can be
expected out Of this unsatisfactory conflict so long as eacn
individual farmer acts for himself, hoes his own row, and
lets the devil take the hindmost.
There are other losses in this evolution besides money.
Our methods of selling to the city buyer keeps the Amer
lean farmer out of contact with the consumer and in many
instances has led to misunderstanding which the dealer
does not lessen. Our selling methods are not as educa~
tiOnal as those of some countries. AS an example, the
auction sales of livestock, which are features OF the mar
keting system Of nearly al European countries and Of
Australia and New leland, do more than any other single
influence to teach stockraisers to know the difference be-
tween we'll and poorly bred animals, how stock should be
fed and cared for to bring it into proper condition. Where
we sell to the itinerant buyer or ship to the distant market!
we lose all contact with those stimulating influences which
local stock auctions afford and which come from the busI-
ness mind of the country organized to meet the business
mind of the town.