Evening star., 1923-09-25
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

Department of Agriculture replies:
well, what of that? Does that have
any bearing on agricultural depres-
| sion of today? Was it not due to the
competition of the richer virgin lands
| of the west, plus the demand for
| New England homesteads and Mills
| for the pleasure Of summer resort
| ers?'
Senator Borah asserts that abandon
| n ent Of farms now extends through
out the west, as well as in the older
| states. The Department statiscians
ask on what authority that state
| ment is made. since no official sta
| tistics indicate anything of the kind.
and crop production does not sub
| stantiate il. If many western farms
have been Abandoned, and their acres
are lying idle, then the acres which
are still bearing. crops must have in
creased in fertility abHndantly. This
! is not a denial that some farmers
| have come to town, but 1t denies that
the migration away from farms is
personnel, because vne farmer now
| cultivRtes IL per cent more acres
| than his father did; improved ma
chinery partly explains that. The
farmer no longer QOeS INe CTuOo
tasks that his father did. He does
not hammer out his plow, mend his
wagons, grind his grist, tan hides,
make butter, nor do many other
things formerly done on the farm.
now done in town. All that relieves
farm work. and sends labor to town
| following the Job, as shown by de-
| partment statistics.
! In the Yearbook of the Secretary
of Agriculture for 1922, on page IL,
appears this statement of the eco
nomics OF farm migration to the
cities:
'HThe greatly accelerated movement
Of farmers. and especially farmers
sons, from the farms to the cities and
! Industrial oenters, is one of the hope
i full signs. II is not possible to meas
ure this movement with absolute ac-
curacy, but our best estimates indi-
cate that during the months of July,
August and September twice as many
persons left the farms for the cities
as normally.
This movement is in direct re-
sponse to the willingness of the buy
ing public to pay much higher
prices for labor in the building
| trades, manufactures and Industries.
| than for labor on the farms. When
| fair relationships between agrfcul-
ture and other prices are restored,
| and the capable worker can market
his labor on the farm, whether by
working for himself or for another
| farmer, at wages which will COM
pare favorably, all things considered,
with the wages he Is able to get in
| the city, the movement will again be-
| come normal"
| n X X y
Farm wages are now only 3s per
cent higher than they were before
the war, while city industrial wages
are double or quadruple what they
formerly we're.
| The distress among wheat raisers
will find its natural remedy in change
But that remedy is not so simple as
it may seem. The department ex-
perts advise every farmer to solve
his own problem, for no general
| counsel fits all conditions.
] In the corn belt it is easy to get
back into corn and hogs, or other
stock, but in the midwest. beyond
fall is sub-arid, it was mistake to
plow up the natural grass, suitable
for stock, and put the acres into
wheat, to meet the call of the war.
Now wheat fails to be profitable and
the natural sod is gone. There ap-
pears to be no remedy. The land viii
remain desert for many years, unless
irrigated, and there is no call for
costly irrigation. There are already
too many acres growing crops in the
limited States without adding there-
Ito. Thus say the department author~
titles,