Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-06-09
OPINIONS OF OTHERS
PIONEERS CHILDREN SHOULD
GET THEIR FARMS

An Iowa man who once lived
in Minnesota, after receiving a
copy of the Greater Minnesota"
edition of the American, likely
sent to him by an acquaintance,
writes as follows about farm con-
ditions as he views it:
Editor Askov American:
A copy of your paper dated May
26, came to hand which took great
pleasure in looking over, as am al
ways trying to better the conditions
of myself and family, having lived in
Willmar three years and in st. Paul
two years while clerk in the railway
mail service. Am always glad to
visit Minnesota or hear from any
part of it. Of course, as it has been
many years since lived or visited
there, am out of touch with condi-
lions and opportunities for people to
own their home and perhaps a bus
mess.
While my folks are, most of them,
contented in Iowa, the time has come
when opportunities are not what they
were % or so years ago, and some of
my people would no doubt be glad
to locate in a place where it was not
so crowded. We were most of us
raised on farms but the farmers (pio-
neers) here have for various rea-
sons left the land and congregated in
tho oifinc or6 oil n
be farm-shy, am unable to find out
just why, unless the living condi-
lions were intolerable and most of
them were unable to hold the younger
generation on the farms because
there did not seem to be anything but
plenty of labor and poor renumera-
ton. And the land that should belong
to the descendants of the pioneers is
in alien hands and some of those
descendants are in a bad way fnan-
cially, living from hand, to mouth,
while if they could have owned the
land in entail they would still be
where they could be useful and at
least have a place called home. If
only dugout or hog shed, it does not
speak we'll for any community to let
the food producers lose out after
many years of all their privations of
pioneering. The real lovers of the
farms are the people who took the
virgin soil and shaped it into farms
and improved it with cultivated field,
orchards, fences, and buildings. If
you are a middle aged man you know
all about these conditions.
At So 1 would go all through it
again Che pioneering) if could be
assured that my children would reap
the reward and continue to own and
operate the farm or ranch, but things
in many states are very unsettled
and unstable as yet. Too much
Roman Law" and greed uncurbed.
Such conditions do not speak we'll for
a system. OF course this is only an
infant country where the hope of all
the present day immigrants is to get
rich quick at the expense of whoever
they may in the majority of cases,
and these people seem to forget the
ones who made it possible for them
to reside in this greatest land of this
period. Am sorry to say there are
people here who can not speak Eng
lish or American who have no con-
sideration for us who made America
possible. Their only idea seems to
be: "How can 1 get a dollar the
easiest and quickest and then some
more" And we accommodate these
people by moving westward and al
lowing them to usurp all our forbears
suffered for. A very bad system, as
most of the pioneers of western Iowa
have discovered. And 1 sincerely
hope that those states yet unsettled
will take warning and make a just
effort to protect the offspring of peo-
pie who make them possible as a
homeland.
If you will kindly send me the name
of the gentleman who sent me the
copy of your paper l shall personally
thank him, and if l could be of SER
vice to the state of Minnesota in any
way would feel honored on account
of the past.