The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-09-30
STORY OF MRS. JENNIE MORAN USED
BY WRITER TO POINT OUT BRIGHT
FUTURE FOR STATE OF NO. DAKOTA
Helen Built Lowry, Writing
In the Worlds Work, Pic
lures Dakota Farm Life,
and Declares That There
Are Better Days Ahead -
Good Opportunities Here
For Immigrant, She Says

One Of Burleigh county's farms.
and farmerettes, has stepped out
into the pages oil the Worlds Work,
the current issue of the magazine
having lot to say about the farm
of Mrs. Jennie Moran and the pro-
spects for farmers in North Dakota.
The story incidentally contains a
boost for North Dakota immigration,
and holds out the promise to farm
ers Of the Middle West Of good pro-
spects here.
The story, at it's inception, de-
scribes Mrs. Moran. 1t says:
"Out where the silver dollar be-
gins, where the Non-Partisan League
was foaled', and where the mort
cages climb up the indignant wheat
farmers backs, Mrs. Jennie Moran,
rosy and Irish and forty-five, plies
her successful trade of honest-to-
goodness farmer. Sitting in her
comfortable farm kitchen, adorned
with separator and an incubator
instead of with radio, she answer
ed my questions regarding the why
Of the success which | saw all about
me with my two eyes.
Modest Success
"A modest success, if YOU will.
But, nevertheless, financial security
and glowing red-cheeked out of door
life for her and for the two boys
who were washing up with jolly
splashes at the washstand behind
the door. A success that included
fried chicken and fluffy home-made
chocolate cake and whole bucket
of yellow cream for supper-a sup
per served on the kitchen table by
the window which looked out on the
spacious vista of trolling treeless
prairieland-tans and browns and
patches Of bright young green fields
and the purple of distant horizons.
A view warranted to send aesthetic
reactions up the spine-or else to
drive one mad with its lonely, re-
lucrative majesty.
Busy Farm Life
"Out side the window, too. IS the
busy farm life-proudly stepping
ROSTERS and foolish scampering
hens. pretty little black and-white
calves scratching their backs
against the corner of the white
frame cottage, turkeys. deigning to
come back to civilization after rang
ing the newly planted fields for
grasshoppers. And inside shoe box
freshly Matched little turkeys I'M
der the stove for warmth. Here
surely was life as far removed
from the luxurious, darkey-served
existence of gentleman planter of
the South, as it is aloof from the
barren gasoline otored, idle life of
the bored wheat farmers. A full life
l had stumbled onto-a life that she
and her children had builded for
themselves literally with their own
hands-quite contrary to the custom
Of the country in which they were
settling"
The writer then describes Mrs.
Moran's early life, her advent into
farm life, rearing of her family, and
how she. on capital of $500, sue
ceeded in her farm adventure dur
ing the> hazardous years from 1914
to 1924.
Tries Diversification.
"Ten years ago, then, this woman
stood at the turn Of the road" writes
Miss Lowry. AT that first turn
she deviated from the standardized
system of the Northwest's wheat
farmers. This approved system had
been to get land-as much land as
could be bought on credit. Land,
and more land. has been the wheat
farmers idea of wealth and security
and prestige and social positions The
land-hungry peasant of Europe and
the landless man of the older Amer
lean states have alike seized with
avidity the cheap prairie lands in
600 to 1000 acre gobbles. Nor has
the system ever been to buy just
as much land as he had the money
for. He used whatever capital he
possessed only as first payment
then got title to as much land as he
could get mortgage on. Thereby,
when land values scared Gas they
were sure to soar-hadn't they soar
ed in Wisconsin and IowaD he was
the one who got rich on the in
crease, instead of the other fellow.
In other words, he bought on a mar
gin. Thereby, too, have many
wheat farmers sold out and retired
to California, rich men, Meanwhile,