Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1925-04-02

Siby q udiiuiOu hiiiSo away, VI az
California, or Florida, or over
across the ocean. But wherever
we go, our desire to go other
places, follows US, and we will be
continually on the move, until we
at last are taken out to the grave
yard and given our allotted space
three feet by six. And this
wanderlust is implanted in our
children. That is why they leave
the farm and go to the city where
the glitter calls them, and where
they think they can create a
Paradise of their own; not know
ing that only a very very small
minority succeeds, while the
great majority is fed to and de-
voured by the greedy monster
called industry.
We then find that the farmer
and the city man who must earn
his living working, are about on
a level as far as money making
is concerned. 1t appears that the
city worker receives little more
money per day but that he at the
same time must necessarily spend
more in order to subsist. Now
what are the underlying causes
of this state of affairs? | Won
der if they are the same in both
instances. In the case of the
farmer the causes are easily
pointed out. ! might as wen name
them right out. 1t is the high
tariff that protects industry so
well that it is impossible for the
farmer to buy anything from the
foreign nations where he must
sell his surplus and that are on
the same price level as he him
self; it is the railroad legislation
enacted during and after the war
which has enabled the transpor-
tation companies to boost rates;
and it is the closing of our coun-
try to free emigration from Eur
ope.
These are the causes that ham,
per the farming industry of
America now, and these are the
ills that must be cured before
agriculture will come into its
own. Capital, industry, labor
and farmers have all of them
helped to have these laws written
on our statute books. The gain
from these laws has been to in
dustry and capital. labor may
have held its own; but agricul-
ture has been the loser. ! sup
pose that labor is working under
the illusion that the restricted
immigration has been a help to
it. and it has insofar that it has
kept them from going back, kept
them from starvation; but it
seems selfevident fact that the
higher remuneration it has re-
ceived does not warrant all the
increased drains which have been
added to its expenditures from
every side. If the European was
allowed free access to our shores
wages might tend downwards;
but after all it is not the amount
of dollars you make a day that
determines whether or not you
are prospecting. but the pennies
you save out of every dollar. 1t
is better for us to make two dol
lars a day and save fifty cents
than to make six dollars day
and spend seven. As it now is
the great corporations and the in
dividuals composing them grab
our just earnings.
1t looks plain to the farmer
that if those artificial barriers
built up by Congress for the
benefit of capital. industry and
labor, were removed or lowered
somewhat. he would be able to
get along very well without hav-
ing to ask Congress for any spec
ial farmer legislation in his favor,
because then he would be on an
equal footing with them. But to
remove these barriers altogether
might cause havoc, especially