Evening star., 1928-11-17

"The last half century has seen many
organizations formed in the name OF
agriculture, usually to relieve some loca
or national distress. When conditions
have improved, the organization mas dlS-
appeared. But the National Grange
having a much broader basis, has con.
tinued without interruption long and
useful existence. The main reason foi
\ this has been the sound foundation on
which it stands. 1t has not devoted Its
: efforts to the treatment of local ano
temporary symptoms, but with wider
and more penetrating view 1t mas
sought to eradicate causes. IL mas peeIl
interested in securing prosperity, I'M
proving living conditions and encourag-
ing education; but primarily 1t mas
stood for the development OF the men
women and children Of the farm IN
intelligence, character and moral worth
portant products of life in the open
country, it has never failed to place
upon them its main emphasis.
Grange Shows Growth.
Based on this need, which goes on
alike in prosperity and adversely, while
other organizations were committing
their life and their reputation to the
promotion of panaceaS for the relleI
of all the ills of the farm. some OF
which have been tried, some rejected
and some proven delusion. the Grange
has continued to hold sound and con-
servative position and to grow steadily
| in influence and in the public estlma-
ton. 1t has been an inspiring example
to the other successful farm organlZa-
tionS now in existence. When us
activities began the farm was isolated.
highways were bad education facilities
were poor. labor-saving machinery on
the land and In the home was scarce,
social life was almost entirely lacking.
The Grange has steadily given its sup
port to the movement for. better roads
and better schools, to developing agrl-
cultural colleges and experiment sta
/, tions, organizing the national and State
| departments of agriculture, and to the
/ general improvement of life in the farm
| home. It is entitled to great credit for
! the vast improvements which the last
! so years have witnessed.
| I'm its early days the influence OF
, the National Government upon agri-
| culture was indirect and remote. 1t
! had the sale of the public lands, through
which it opened up the agricultural
! domain of the Middle West, and it did
! something to encourage land and water
| TRANSPORTATION in those areas. But 1t
was not until the agricultural colleges
and experiment stations were eStab-
lished in 1862 that the Federal Govern
! ment began directly and specifically on
a considerable scale to contribute to
the encouragement and improvement
of agriculture The Department OF
Agriculture with a seat In the cabinet,
began on very modest scale. It is
now made up of many bureaus, employ
ing about 22,700 persons, having agents
in all parts of this country and some
abroad, giving special attention to the
culture of everything that grows on the
land and to all kinds of domestic
animals, promoting education, super
vising production, transportation and
marketing, building roads, protecting
health, regulating grain exchanges ano
packing industries and expendlng about
S155. 900. 900. All of this has been OF
such a quiet and unobtruSive growth
and development that many OF our
people, even though they are engaged
in farming, are almost unaware OF lts
existence. This opinion is so prevalent
that it is often asserted the National
Government is not doing much for
Agriculture. AS a matter of fact, this
money outlay represents only small
part of what the United States really
does for the farmer.
OverprOductI0n is blameu.
"In common with every other busi-
ness activity, this country has seen
periods of prosperity and periods OF de-
preston in agriculture. Your organl-
zation has had experience with at least
two eras of great distress. Following
the Civil War there was rapid settle
ment of the great prairie States. result
ing in so large an increase OF farm
products that they could find no salts
factory market, Notwithstanding the
vast growth of our industrial activities
at the same time. Both, however, were
operating on falling market, which
eliminated in the distress and the panic
of the early nineties. AS is always the
case in time of distress, those who
were afflicted were not always discrim-
| mating in their attacks and criticisms.
These were particularly prevalent
against the railroads, the packing
houses, the grain trades and the banks,
and finally upon the United States cur
rency During this period the country
| twice turned the two great political
parties out Of Office, sometimes voting
| to reduce the tariff and sometimes vot-
| ing to raise it. We can see now that
the fundamental difficulty was over
production, complicated by unsound
money. The United States Govern
ment was trying to fix the price of sill
yer by law, which, of course, was bound
to fail
This period ended in the last years
of the century, when sound currency
law was enacted and our great indus
| trial development began under the slim
ulation of the protective tariff OF the
Mckinley administration. This was also
| the period of the introduction on
l L. In nf 70 nrI1 1irNnN
| tuting horsepower, steam power and
gasoline power, and later some electric
power, for man power, greatly increas-
| ing the productivity OF the individual
on the farm. Scientific knowledge was
also applied to both the raising of crops
and live stock, but our industrial de-
mand was SO large that farm prices
steadily increased until at the time of
! the World War their index price was
far above the index price of other COM
modities.
Farmers War Work Landed.
with the high prices and unlimited
demand of the war period, we all know
what happened. A great artif1cia. in
! flation took place in all kinds of prop
erty. The prices of farm products and
| farm land, in common with all other
prices and rates of wages, reached a
very high level. The farmer was called
on in the name of patriotism to en-
| large his production, and the spirit IN
which he responded was determining
element in winning the war and 6 wing
the allied nations from starvation.
But this was followed by the drastic
horizontal deflation which occurred in
1920 The loss which this brought to
those who owned farm products and
farm lands was stupendous. The suf-
fering was enormous. This has some
times been charged to the efforts made
by the Government, beginning in the
Fall of 1919, to reduce the mounting
cost of living. / think it is apparent
now that it was bound to come in any
| ho Of