The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1930-02-06

trOpne. was prcScHt "
building of the pyramids when the
great cry went up for more and
better straw with which to build
bricks. | saw Moses and his fol
lowers wander forty long years in
Iibetter food and land enough upon
which to raise it. / was in Rome
the desert wailing for more and
when their free farmers were
ruined by the competition of the
slave labor. / was in England and
France when the agriculturalists
were serfs and the aristocrats
rode through the fields of ripening
grain after the deer and foxes.
! / came to this country and saw
the Pilgram fathers starve be-
! cause they didn't know how to
! raise grain upon the barren wind
swept hills of New England.
/ saw the settlers cross the
mountains and cut away the valu-
1 able hardwood timber and burn it
in huge fires to clear the fields in
| order to raise more and more corn
which was always sold below the
cost of production. / saw the fer
tility stripped from the virgin
prairies in the great haste to pro-
duce more wheat than saturated
world could consume. I have sat
upon the high points of the Rocky
mountains and seen millions OF
men labor nightly day and night
to build great dams to impound
the water of the rivers with which
to reclaim the deserts and make
them produce such great amount
of food stuffs that the prodigity
of the production defeated the
purpose for which it was intended.
I have seen the cows OF this
ountry improved in production UNI
til the mountains of surplus but
ter fell over and crushed out the
very life of the great industry. I
have seen the wild jungle foul
tanned and taught to lay so many
eggs year that she can no long
er pay for the food she consumed.
I have seen thousands of beauti-
full, faithful work and driving
horses give way to dirty, noisy,
machinery because they did SO
much work and did it so efficient
" that they had nothing left to
live on.
Boys, it's sure queer world and
after few thousand years one
begins to wonder why some body
don't do something about it. And
the worst of it all is that all down
through the ages there has been
a cry for Farm Relief, but they
wouldn't let me do anything be-
cause I was poor. But just lately,
my rich uncle has willed me a
half billion dollars and told me to
get busy, but / am too old. Ny
brain won't work quickly; my old
feet don't track and am bent over
by the weight Of old customs and
superstitions Iscarry.
Nobody seems to take much in
terest in me but the lawyers and
the wheat growers. The wheat
growers think / am going to do
them a lot of good with my new
wealth, but just you wait they
will get about the same deal as
the timber men. Uued to be man
could take a timber claim up in
the forest and live on it and even
pasture few stock and eventual
ly sell the trees to some lumber
company, but uncle took this right
away from the individual and
gave it to the lumber trusts. Now
the government looks after the
timber, fights the fires and pays
the taxes until the big mills get
ready to saw it up. At the present
time the big flour mills have to
buy wheat when ever it is offered
for sale and build big ware
houses and pay interest, storage
and insurance, but now in great
charitable outburst of good feel
ing for the poor down trodden
grain grower, they are going to
accord him the privilege (and ex-
pense) of holding his own grain
until such time as it is required
by the mills"
So much for Farm Relief. When