The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-11-27
By n QUICK

In OA114CAL upledVaIS come
from some sort of what the
IL socialists call class conscious
ness"-in our day at least There
is little of this consciousness now as
between farmer and farmer or farmer
and landlord in America.
Some of the blanket toters" who
do the seasonal labors on farms be-
long to the I. w. W. They have a
rabid class consciousness. I think
there was a tenant revolt in Iowa,
Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas and
some other States in some recent cleo
tons which affected the result.
In the main, however. in the United
States farm tenants and those who
are losing out to their mortgages,
while they feel despair. hold to their
old political ideas so far as they hold
to any.
But class consciousness is coming.
When it comes, look out for attack
on existing conditions. Now, the de
spair of the submerged third or half
in the country takes the form of mi
grations. The burnt-out farmers of
the drought-stricken districts of Mon
tana have lost their farms by thou
sands. They have. l am informed in
letters. gone to the Pacific Coast to
get work. They have Joined the pro
letariat.
Answer Is Obvious
IF you We're to throw into the
passing crowd a handful of diamonds,
they would in the main be picked up
by poor people. But who would have
them in a week or a month? The
answer Is obvious. They would pass
into the hands Of people able to
wear diamonds.
Farms in good farming regions
have become mor precious than dia-
monds. They are not for people in
ever moderate circumstances as
working people go. Lands on which /
lived in my boyhood. and which sold
FOR IS ar acre. have been sold in re
cent years for $500 an acre. Yet I
remember when young men used TO
buy these lands after saving their
wages as month hands on farms for
two Or three years, and equipping
themselves with a team and wagon
buy them and in a few years pay
of the small mortgage. They would
be laughed at for trying his now.
Rich people in country towns and
cities bid with unvarying success
against the farmers for the owner
ship Of farms. Farm ownership
brings social distinction 10 such town
jewellers. AS with diamonds, they
like TO wear q necklace Of farms
about their necks. And moreover
they can buy farms knowing that
every increase in population or
progress in society will make them
more valuable.
When the owning farmer dies 1t
sends his children to town, in part,
or plunges them into debt. One will
try to buy the farm from his brothers
and be sunk in debt, and the others
will be lost to farming. Or they will
all refuse TO take the farm and the
land Will be added to some landlords
necklace OF farms.
Subject to System
Thus our rural life is becoming
Mexicanized-in the old Mexican
sense. Our rural dwellers become
o and more subject to our rental
system-which is the worst In the
world.
II a mar had dyspepsia, sinus trou-
BILE abscessed teeth. infected gall-blad-
der. stone in the kidney and cataract
in each y he might think If he got
rid Of these he would be well; but IL
at the same time a great vampire bat
were to be coming every night and
sucking his blood, getting nd Of these
other ailments would do him some
good, to be sure. but mainly it would
only give him more blood for the YAM
pire.
And that illustrates in a way the
state Of the farmers as I see it-and
I have been looking at It for a long
time.
The vampire is land values. That
is what Is really the real trouble with
the farmers. 1 have never seen in
any discussion of the depression of
the farmers any Intelligent recogni-
ton of this on the part Of any of the
men Who are proposing remedies for
Congress or the State Legislatures.
Those VINO know the truth dodge 1t.
Yet no man who knows the situation
a fail to see the truth once it is
called to his attention.