The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1922-05-25
A SHADowED PICTURE.

less nope TOT tne future. lhree or
four generations of unfulfllment is
not very conducive to the viriIity of
hope. The old homestead is rented
to class of people not quite pro-
gressive enough to get away. The
community Immediately loses much
of its stability. There is no COM
munity pride for these people except
to move again in a year or so and
naturally do not feel responsibility |
in their temporary arrangement. And
where the profits Of the land must
be shared between two families, the
landlords and the tenants, there is
nothing left to devote to the ideal
community center. The taxpayers are
away from the land and are therefore |
not personally and subjectively in
terested in the church, schools and
social phase Of their neighborhood.
There is such a constant shifting of
residents that organization is difficult.
There are no local allurements and
ties and as soon as a member rises
above the level Of his environment
he goes to the city where more is
promised him, even il it is not al
ways given.
In the meantime the descendants
Of the first farmers have either lost
out in the demands Of city life and
are finding their mess of potage as
day laborers, or they have prospered
and forgotten the farm from which
they received their birthright. And
most of them do prosper. II has
been said that "a per cent Of the
leading citizens Of one Of our large
Eastern cities was brought up on
farm. Of group Of 100 representa-
tive men, commercial and profession
al, in Chicago, found that IS per
cent came from the country. More
than 60 per cent Of the men and
women listed in Who's Who" are
likewise from the country.
The successful ones return to the
country and build palatial homes and
estates and constitute the highly ed
ucated landlord class. Is the country
slowly differentiating into this and
the properyless laboring classes?
If America becomes the home Of
landowners and peasants we will
have failed our Pilgrim fathers mis-
erably and inexcusably.
A Coon EXAMPLE.
| have not been discussing the
United States on an average. | have
chosen the wornout community and
the wornout farm as signals of dan
ger ahead. Like we sometimes 60
through the barrel and pick certain
apples.
There is no doubt but that the root
of the evil is the prevailing economic
injustice dealt the farming industry.
The farmers themselves are the ones
who will have to change this system.
They cannot all walk off and leave
it, Moving to town may solve the
problems and better the finances Of
the individual but toll will be taken
later on national basis.
The farmers who deny their chill
dren the emancipation Of liberal edu-
cation likewise drain the fertility of
the neighborhood. The physical Ia
Dor is returned with the personal in
terest in the individual farm; the
wheat is usually properly stacked,
and the hogs well housed. But these
are the farmers who ride the plow in
disgruntled objection to the world
market conditions with which they
are untitled to combat. Their vision
lis as narrow as their lases. They
are the farmers whose blind refusal
to join in cooperative marketing, be-
Ilieve in the Farm Bureau, and be in
dependent in politics, holds back rur-
al progress. BY the hardest work and
the closest saving they usually man
age to get more or less ahead hnan-
cially, but they do not 60 about it in
the way that benefits the whole COM
immunity conditions. And where silos
make proud the landscape while
house church and school squat apol-
ogetically in their shadows there is
no real wealth.
If sending our young folks away
to be educated does not pay us any
thing in our own communities; If
ignoring the possibilities Of education
is dangerous, it must be the system
of education that is at fault.
To RETAIN Color.
would not strike from the readers
the romance and the glamour of the
other worlds, but | would include
stories which throw little color
around the farmers lives. would
include in the biographies studied in
the country schools a bit more Of
agricultural detail. should like to
, see the beginner trace through the
I copy book some such sentence as, 81
am proud to be farmer" or United
we farmers stand, divided we fall
I | would bring the high schools within