Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1922-06-22
..The Farm Blu redu
MOUenent'
A Striking Book Review
by
John l.. Heaton in the New York Eve
ming "World"

.g,le over obstacles that would turn New
,rk taxicab artist pale with fright lie
goes everywhere, in any weather lie can
give advice on bugs, blights, soil inocula-
ton, DAIRY methods. He is the County
Farm Agent
Down in Washington a group OF Sena-
tors and Representatives, elected by one
party or another disregard party to do
the bidding Of new lobby, arisen to power
in a single extra session so suddenly that
the city public scarcely realizes it. This
lobby, to which the Anti-Saloon League is
an amateur, recently bumped into Presi-
dent Harding himself by marshailing
the votes OF ninety-four Republican Repre-
sentatives against the lowering of the SO
per cent. surtax on very rich men, which
Mr.. Harding had recommended.
From the modern knight Grant in the
tanned hivver fighting the modern micro
scopic dragons to the great organization
in Washington that commands and We
toes legislation is only two short jumps.
According to Orville Merton Kile, late
Assistant Washington Representative OF
the American Farm Bureau Federation
THAT is the new power), in The Farm
Bureau Movement" Macmillan, the
first County Farm Agent in the United
States on the present plan was John II.
Barron, in Broome County, n. Y Funds
were provided by the Bjnghamton Cham
Der of Commerce, the United States De-
partment of Agriculture and the Lacka-
wanna Railroad. Cornell offered scientific
guidance. The date was 1911.
Now there is Farm Agent in most OF
the counties, usually with an assistant or
two Associated with him, but indie
pendent. is often young woman who also
drives a wicked motor car up the side OF
boulder when necessary, and who can
tell the farmers wives about science APP
piled to housekeeping, And let not city
people suppose that they despise the Home
Bureaus book larnin'" They do not.
Any more than the farmers repel the OF
fered aid Of the agent lie is their man.
For behind him is the Farm Bureau
organization, local to the county 1t in
Guides practical farmers When the World
War sucked the United States into its
maelstrom, the Farm Bureaus became
sources OF war strength. II was only
when they combined, first in State and
now in a national organization completely
represented in every state and with presi-
dent who issues orders to Congress that
the famous bloc" appeared TO which
President Harding devoted awe-struck
consideration in his message.
Mr.. Kile describes farmers movements
of the past that have sought power and
vanished from sight or, like the Grange.
! have been diverted to sociabIlity He is
cruel enough to point out many demands
Nof those temporary organizations, satir-
lied then in cities, that have become law.
Call the roll Regulation of railroads.
popular election of Senators, the r, F.
D. mail, parcel post, postal savings banks,
Federal improvement Of roads, Anti
Trust Laws, the land bank, panic proof
currency. We take all these things for
granted now, yet how bitterly every one
was once fought as 'socialstic.
1t is easy to call the farmers bloc
Soviet 1t is, in fact, about ffty-hfty-
half Soviet or guild socialism as demanded
by c. II. d. Cole and others in England.
ald half regional representation as at
present; only regional representation 10
itself often OF a guild nature for farm ia
sues are sectional. Wall Street is a sec.
ton North Dakota is another And.
as Mr.. Kile's book will demonstrate.
North Dakota experiments Fave been
dispraised for the wrong reasons
Most of the things North Dakota sought
to do were proper and would be for the
public as well as for the particular interest
If the league could only do them. IL
should be condemned not for radicallsm
but for nefhcienby 1t bit off more than
il could chew IL is no more immoral tor
the farmer to demand legislation in his
interest than it has been for the manu-
featuring trust to demand protection
in the past, while the staple farmer sold
his product at free-trade prices and was
double-crossed
Says Mr.. Kile The Farm Bureau,
being moderate in its demands, got from
Congress in the session just ended prac.
tically everything it asked for '--Capper
Tincher Grain Exchange, Packer Control
Bill Federal Aid to Roads Bill, Farm
Financing and Crop Exporting Bills In
addition, THE plans for sales tax we're
blocked The book went 70 press too
early to chronicle the browning achieve
ment that scared MIR Harding the defeat
OF the effort to reduce income super-tax
on very rich men How the country has
wept over the sorrows OF these poor tel
lows
People generally avoid important books
But il they really wish TO know how James
r Howard suddenly has more power over
legislation than the President OF the
Lnitcd States. the story /, taIA bY Mr.