Evening star., 1925-03-09
RUSH FROM FARMS
TO CITIES LETS UP
Farmers Holding On to Land
and Buying More-Their
Dollars Are Bigger.
BY j. C.. ROYLE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch 10 The Star.
NEW YORK. March 9.-The in
crease in the value of farm products
has not promoted any movement
! back to the farms" That fact be-
anne evident today on receipt of
dispatches from bankers and farm
'oan men all over the United States.
according to the National Association
If Real Estate Boards, optimism has
| manifested itself among farmers.
Sales of farm lands have been fire.
quent. but these have been sales not
TO city dwellers. but to farmers who
lave seen chance to improve their
bass of output at a reasonable cost.
Eighty-five per cent of the farm
communities report sales of farm
property more active. This is es
pecially noticeable in the corn and
wheat belts centering in the Missis
iippi Valley. But these sales have
not represented injection of new
capital, nor do they represent specu
alton as they did in 1920. Prices in
le older farm regions have not shown
, material advance.
Larger Loans Allowed.
This is a most encouraging report
or the farmers and since the farm
buying power of the Nation is a major
>.or an industrial activity, for the
~emainder of the American population
IS we'll Reports show that about so
per cent of the bankers in farm com
.nunittes are favorably inclined to-
ward increased farm loans. That at
itrG@ However is taken with string
attached. Bankers are insisting
',renuously on variation OF crops.
They demand that the farmer to
whom they loan money shall raise
sufficient amount of foodstuffs to sup
ply himself and his family without
'ecourse of outside markets.
Farmers Dollar Bigger.
There Is no doubt that the farmers
dollar is bigger and rounder than i.
has been in some years, but the value
Of that dollar for the purchase of en-
artainmert still is less than that of
the city dweller, despite the improve
t@ut and popularity of radio broad
'asting. Translated into industrial
movement, that means that the ordi
tary unskilled wage Garner would
rather work for 40 cents an hour or
less in the larger centers, where he
md his family can go to the movies,
1ave free entertainment in the parks
and be within reach Of Coney Island
md its imitators, than to work on the
farm, where the net return for his
:ruor may be higher. but where the
opportunity for spending that return
enjoyably is less.
No real dirt farmer regrets that
tendency. This country raises a sur
plus of farm products in most lines
The farmers prosperity. therefore, is
dependent largely on export demand.
The fewer workers engaged and the
lower production tend to stabilize
prices, and much of the gambling
element is being removed from farm
operations.
Farm Labor Apienty.
There is at present no lack of
farm labor. Even in harvest season
last year the movement of itinerant
| labor under direction of the Depart
ment of Labor was adequate to pre-
vent losses from delayed reaping and
threshing of crops. For every laborer
withdrawn from the work of the
farms machinery has been developed
which enables those remaining to
care for the work. In the battle
between man power and machine
power on the farms the machine has
always won, and that advantage is
more apparent now than ever before.
Economists agree that a large por-
tion of the suffering which the
farmers have undergone since 1920
has been due to inflated values of
farm lands. While values of those
lands now are rising, there is an
absence of imitation, which augurS
well for farm prosperity throughout
this year.
Rush to Cities Lets Up.
There Is no doubt that the tide
which was sweeping millions of
farmers to the city, has passed it's
food. A year ago nearly every farm
community reported a decrease in
population. This year only one third
report further losses. 1t is signifi-
cant, however, that 80 per cent of
those leaving agricultural communi-
ties do so because they do not like
farm life.