The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-05-30
PEOPLES FORUM
The Press Can Help Farmers


 of the readers of your paper when I say that under your management and administration it has become one of the leading journals of the south. This estimate is abundant ly justified by the fact of the great improvement in the news department, not only relative to the state, but to the entire country and the world. It is a matter of
 common comment that your edi- torials are of the highest practical order. and that they are seasoned
 with a fearlessness of expression. the most commendable. It is grat. flying that you maintain stead . fastly the tradition of states rights. and of equal rights to all classes irrespective of condition or of position.
 Besides still, while you encour-
 age the spirit of industrial enter prise, you indicate a worthy sym pathy for the farming classes who | have been disseminated against for the last fifty years, yet as Mir Webster says. they are the foundation of civilization. By the aid of journals like yours. and they are multiplying throughout the country, the farmer will yet come into his own. It cannot be denied that the farmer has been largely neglected by all other classes, who seem to have been indifferent to his welfare. Why did fifteen thou sand farmers leave Alabama in 1922. and why for ten or more years have they been going north, in quest of employment in the large industrial centers of that region? The answer Is easy--be- cause they get large wages, and because living conditions are bet ter. With the prospect of owning a home. and of laying up some- thin for a rainy day, he has found that it is better for him to labor for wages than to encounter the difficulties of farming. with the possibility of foreclosures of mort gages, whereby land and stock are swallowed up at the close of an unfortunate year. We may~say what we please. but there is an element of responsibility attaching to the public and the government respecting the fact that the farmer is often tempted into lawlessness by the character of the treatment so often meted out to him. In a number of states farmers are in condition. many of them being entirely dissolvent.
 The ordinary politician knows but little of the farmers in the back districts, and his statements and estimates made on the floors of congress and the legislatures are often wide of the mark. It is one thing to make political speech for the public ear and quite another to know actual conditions. What the country sorely needs is men in our legislative bodies who are familiar with the needs of our agricultural population-men like B. B. Conner. the late J. H. Bank head and Joseph F. Johnston. Nor must I overlook the fact that the daily business editorial of The Age Herald is not only illuminat- ing. but inspiring. to the readers of the paper. well written and di- rect in tone, these articles are eagerly read.
 It is pleasing to know that wherever l go about the state. The Age-Herald Is alluded to as the friend of the farmer. What 1t sets forth Is encouraging to the farming, interest, and is duly ap- preciated. It is a worthy example to other papers. It would be a commendable policy for the press of the country to make a thorough investigation of the farming inter ests of the country, even down to the one-horse farmer in the re- motest district. Unless relief of some kind is afforded the time will come when the government will have to pay the farmer to stay on the land and till 1t, in the main tenance of the country, and to feed the people of the towns and cities. The cost of farming has immense ly increased, while the market value of his productions have de- creased, and he has to be a shrewd financier to make ends meet at the close of the year. If stipulated prices are paid for the industrial products of the country. and if they are regulated by the govern ment. why should this not apply to the products of the farm? My own conviction Is that the farmer should be paid forty cents for his cotton. and a corresponding price for his other products. in order to equalize conditions with the man ufacturer and other business. and laborers.
 Unless the press comes to the rescue of the planting interests, my opinion is that we are bound to see the farming districts more and more abandoned. When the lands are constantly decreasing in valu- ation, and when they can be bought at 50 per cent less than they sold for ten years ago, there is something alarmingly wrong. l know whereof I speak. for l my self have been engaged in farming during the last ten years. Hence speak from experience. Again commenting the attitude of The Age Herald concerning the farm CTS of the state, I am, most faith fully, w. N. MALONE.