Evening star., 1925-05-03
IDA GILBERT MYERS.

FARMER. BY Henry c. Wallace,
former United States Secretary OF
Agriculture New York: The Cen
tury Co.
r T is hard to think of the farmer
collectively, as we so naturally
Il do think of the manufacturer
the merchant, the financier, the
craftsman--indeed, of the repre-
sentative of every other business
than that of farming alone. And
there Is good reason for this general
| inability to consider the farmer as
anything but an individual. For
that's what he .is-the greatest indi-
vidualist on earth. A reason for
| this, too. Primarily, a physical cause
separates farmers from one another
Acres of intervening land, often miles
of land, stand in between, producing
an actual separation which In the
course of time registers upon the
mind inducing habits of independent
thought, of exclusive ways OF ap-
proach, of self-decision, of no little
self pride as well in such single
powers of achievement. That which
from necessity brought about this
clear individualism came finally from
choice to be the means of perpet-
uating it.
And the farmer either from self
| complacency or the short outlook OF
his position, held aloof from that
close getting together that, under
modern conditions, has driven all
other callinGs into the safer and
more beneficial course of association
organization---vast groups operating
with something of the simplicity OF
the individual and with all of the eff
fectiveness of highly concentrated
power. So, we see the farmer as q
unit, because he is a unit. We see
the others as dynamic bodies because
they are such. In this seeing, how
ever, we do the farmer an uncon-
scious injustice-the injustice of ig-
norance. ..
This book tells us many things
about the farmer which we could not
know without some such authority
of information. For instance, we
| find here that he makes up almost
half of our population; that farmers
exceed in number any other group
engaged in one general industry:
that the Investment in agriculture
exceeds the investment in any other
! business. The farm, without ques-
ton, breeds our strongest and most
self reliant men and women. The
open fields. the long days in the free
air, the self f-communings, the unaid
| ed conclusions-these are of the stuff
of this class. Therefore, when our
country is in the stress of war, OF
any other calamity, 1t is the farmer
| who sends the strongest youth to
! the front and who provides the food
that not only wins wars but as
suages desperate wants as well. This
| but glimpse of the bulwark behind
| the cities. comes out in this story
| of the farmer-what he is, what we
owe him, not entirely as a duty
rather as a life saving obligation in
stead.
Through this careful preliminary
study, both from the outlook of one
| whose business has been in the fields
| of planting and harvesting and from
| the high official standpoint of Secre.
| tary of Agriculture, where the entire
| field lies open before him, Henry Wal
| lace leads up to the period of depres
sion that fell upon the farmers in 1926
and within which they are struggling
| for relief. He points the outstanding
cause of this dilemma in the slow re
| adjustment following the war. Gath
| cred here in concise statement is the
story of the intensive and expanded
! production of war-food grains, of the
purchase of more land at exorbitani
| prices and under defective financial
aid for the further prosecution of the
| long war so generally foretold.
Then the sudden peace. The over
stocked market. The decline in prices
Land payments overdue. The slow
and reluctant settling back to DIVERSE
| fed crops to relieve the glut in grain
| productions Nng story of failure
disappointment and bitterness. A
| situation around which experimental
1 ho VAIo rn1 nd ,, k,l-
| political ambition has built. Here
however, the author deals expertly
with the bare facts of the situation
| stated simply, briefly and very feel
| ingly. Here is a book for every reader
who appreciates the fundamental rela
ton Of each citizen to the farmer, and
for those who, having cleaned here
and there from the daily press, wish
| to gather that scattered knowledge
into an authoritative and readable
summary of the case of the farmer
| and of the relation of the rest Of the
| country to this representative of our
basic needs.
TO BABYLON. BY Larry Barretto
author of "A Conqueror Passes. -
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
poor boy going out into the
great world to seek his fortune is
an old story, much older even than
that of Dick Wilmington, and hardly
ever so bright tale as the one that
| finally raises young Dick, the tramp
to the high Office Of Lord Mayor OF
London Town. Defeat, however, OF
at the best but partial success, gives
| the glory of the fight as well as does
shining victory. So, this has been
the theme time and time again OF
| poet and story-teller.s 1t is Larry Bar
retto's theme here. Babylon is New
York. And a youth out of the West
goes there to seek his fortune. A
gifted youth, whose dream is to create
| fine buildings-houses, churches, Of
fees, halls. the whole sum Of beauty
that, in his dreams, will crystalline tC
! fact under his hand.
Oh, this is a very old story! The
| first fine rapture of the eye, the first
heroic resolve to be faithful to the
dream, the first assault upon the in
| trenched security of Babylon, the self
denial, the brave gesture against dis
couragement-and the imperceptible
| descent. A charming boy, this one
| whose charm is his undoing. A rea
story, you see. Easy places are
opened to him, girls smile upon him
his capital for producing things of ar,
| changes, little by little, into capita
for getting along in the world quite
comfortably and profitably. Marriage
seduces him. A perfectly true story
| this And the mistakes Of marriage
pursue him. Well-nigh do him ur
| entirely. And when we take leave oi
| this youth he is trying, dubiously. tc
pick himself up and to brush himself
off and to face again upon that rea
thing which he set out to find. Thou
sands may claim this story as theii
own. Mr.. Barretto has paralleled &C
| tual life here, but at just enough of q
distance from actual life to secure
realism without sordidness, at just the