Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06

TX a farmer. Who does not honor
Il the statesman who recognizes
the importance of labor on the
land? Mussolini is not only a farmer
by birth, but he operates a farm to-
day on land which, in my boyhood, was
q peStilential swamp.
In the two talks that he gave me !
was much impressed by his genius in
the field of political economy. In a
world that has gone madly in the direc-
ton of machinery, Mussolini stands
almost alone in defense of the small
old-fashioned farmer cultivating his
acres intensively and rearing family
devoted to this healthy life.
When I told him that in my part of
New York State there was a steady
diminution in farm values and a per-
sistent stream of young people aban-
doning the countryside for city or fac
tory life, he could not understand It..
His policy has the small farmer as the
basis of national proSperity-woe to the
land where abandoned farms are
abundant!
Gave Him Full Data.
It is, perhaps, the best evidence of
MusSolini's genuine feeling in regard
to farming that he detailed two high
officials of the Agricultural Bureau to
motor me to every part of the Roman
Campagna and explain to me what had
been done since the beginning of his
ministry, eight years ago.
In general, it suffices to know that
whatever was done by successive gov
ernments in the last Is centuries. the
total is negligible compared to what
Mussolini has accomplished in less
than one decade.
The other great capitals of the world
London, Paris, Toxic, New York
have this in common, that we pass
from urban to rural conditions by
gradual stages-residences become less
crowded-gardens more frequent and
we finally come to the borderland Of
the semi-farmer class-the limit of
habitation for those who go daily to
the city.
Rome was also thus in her days of
imperial glory. Her swampy suburbs
were scientifically drained and thus
made habitable for population such
as would naturally encircle the then
capital of the known world.
Old Roman Customs.
She then had rulers of common
sense and financial foresight-they rea-
Lied that it was we'll for the city If
the suburbs we're kept fertile ard
healthy. The well-to-do had their coun-
try homes on their farms and there was
q better balance for the tax collector.
The mosquito mania did not frighten
them as 1t does today-the Romans of
1000 years ago wasted little time on
seruns. but they cleaned the bitches
and pumped out the stagnant water.
When the Roman Empire was
wrecked all the splendid hydraulic ma
chinery that was one of the worlds
xxy1,,
rellus, was allowed to decay. Malaria
followed as a matter of course and
the population steadily dwindled
Mussolini has called thousands of
peasant farmers back on to this once
cursed soil. have seen goodly por-
ton of them-and they are pleasing to
look at-about 1000 prosperous FAM
lilies where in my childhood no family
could live and show rosy-cheeked chill
dren
Italy set us a good example-and the
Rockefeller Foundation can do good by
going to school here and copying Mus
solini's methods in our own malarious,
river-bottom territories, where quinine
takes the place of common sense.
Farmers Seen in Need.
Indeed, Mussollni would probably call
together the various financial groups
who send missionaries of a quasi-medi-
cal nature to the ends of the earth, and
ne would talk to them somewhat thus /:
Gentlemen. before you distribute any
more American money amongst Chinese,
Africans, Armenians or even Europeans,
pray consider the deplorable condition
OF our own American farmers"
But missionaries prefer China to the
swamps of the Mississippi-it's the lure
of the far away. Only a Mussolini is
capable of correcting this evil tendency.
He would forbid Americans from doing
sanitary work abroad until they had
first made our own land fit for habita-
ton
Mussolini now has excellent village
schools throughout the Roman suburbs
vastly better than those in similar parts
of the United States. Also he provides
hospitals at convenient intervals.
Had the millions, would have a
hospital, however simple, at the center
of every county in my native State,
wherever the population labors on the
land.
In cities are hospitals for disabled
factory folk, but the isolated farmer is
uncared for in case Of broken leg. He
is a poor man usually. and If his family
manages to carry him to a town he
may have to mortgage the farm to pay
1or medical assistance.
Way Wealth Is Divided.
America seems to be richer than Italy.
but the wealth of Italy is more intelli-
gently observation-disclosures is not so great
gulf between rich and poor.
1t is about 80 miles across this newly
reclaimed Campagna of Rome, yet every
small farmer of that once lonesome area
has material and spiritual advantages
rarely afforded the farmers of my own
country, even in Ulster County of New
York State.
have referred to the sanitary condi-
tons. They might be classed as emer-
gency hospitals, with first aid to the
injured. That is to say, places where
the farmer can have a bone set or a
wound washed and bandaged by
trained nurse. Much depends upon the
very first attention given to an acct
dent case, while waiting for the doctor
or an ambulance, and accidents rnultiply
as machinery increases.
The Romagna peasant of today is not
limited to spade and rake, a wooden
ploW or harrow. He handles the same
tractors and reaping machinery that we
are accustomed to see on our own big
farms. Electricity is a commonplace ali
over Italy, not merely for lighting. but
for hosting grain to the storage ware
house and water for irrigation.
Homes Are Comfortable.
I would not leave the impression that
Americans are less intelligent or less
industrious than the farmers of Italy.
I am simply pointing out that in the
land Of Mussolini the farmer is en-
couraged, while in the State of New
York we legislate him into pauperisn.
Every farm I have seen about here has
a comfortable homestead of stone or
brick with tile roof, and outhouses con-
structed on the most up-to-date nat
tern. The government constructs these