The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-05-25
Ellis County Has Benefited Greatly by
This Westward freak.
Hays, Once Rough Frontier Town, Now the
Cynosure of all Eyes Because of the Push
and Progress of Its Citzenry.
(By F. Kennel Evan
(By R. Kenneth Evans)

western half of the state which is
still in the process of development,
but the portion has been altogether
too small in view of the inducements
the state has to offer.
Agricultural Possibilities
The disarmament conference, labor
unrest, railroad situation, financial
and national economic problems have
been side tracked today by one class
of citizens-the agriculturists. He
has a question to solve, the import
ance which has forced into existence
all his mental strength. He is con-
fronted with the situation different
from anything he has previously ex-
perienced. Due to local demand on
account of high food stuffs, his fac
tory-his farm-of production reach
ed an Unprecedented value. In thou
sands of cases additional lands were
purchased, so as to prevent others
from owning what he had long de-
sired.
Today grain and food stuffs prices
are down to a pre-war figure when
land was much cheaper. There still
remains the annual overhead expense
of an interest charge on invested
capital that present day prices for
farm products cannot keep pace with:
The situation has become so acute
that the serious side of facing an
annual loss, has not only been real
lied by the farmer but by the gen
eral public.
The Importance of the condition
and how to bring about a change
that will afford solution is a prob
lem that has worried the minds of
economists, expert and otherwise, but
without definite results. No COM
mercial enterprise could long exist
where the revenue and profits were
not in keeping with the invested cap
ital, though the farmer with his char
acteristic patients and born fortitude'
holds in hopes of higher prices for his
products. This has come in meas
ure and since March there has been
some advance, but there is always
the uncertainty that gives not pres
ent relief or permanent cOntentment.
After all is said and done there is
a solution, and the state of Kansas
offers that solution, if those earnest
" seeking it desire to take advantage
of it.. The farmer must raise his pro-
ducts on lower priced land; he must
seek for lands which can be pur-
chased at less than one-ifth of the
value of the high priced lands from
which in other states, and some sec
tions of eastern Kansas, he is vainly
trying to extract a profit, and which
will produce as many dollars per acre.
The knowledge of the present con-
hition is apparent to everyone. |
Many may not admit it, but never
theIess the situation must be faced.
In Justice to the natural desire to get
the full return for labor and invest
ment, Western Kansas submits its
fields for investigation. Farm lands
are raising in value. Each county in
the wetern part of the state offers its
advantages to the prospective resi-
dent. If he is a farmer he may find
these conditions to which he is most
accustomed and which he believes
essential to success, with his exper-
ience as a guide.
Certain it is that the soil of the
state is rich and productive and will
hold forth no Turing promise that it
will not fulfill. Be the crop old or
new to them, the new resident farmer
may be sure of a successful crop if
he viii but observe the rules which
common sense prescribes. Kansas
holds out a welcome to rich land
with the comforts of life, yet one
where the prices are just beginning
to aspire towards those for which
similar lands in older, longer settled
states are sold; TO a land where sue
cess is certain if the man be willing