The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-10-17
Whither Agriculture !


S@S7@G~ez~r1~
panies desire. A similar, perhaps
aggravated, situation exists in AL
berta. What will happen to the
entirely eliminated 2"
The Other Alternative
Look at the other alternative:
"Or be relegated to the poorer dis
tricts where the land is rough"
Shades of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and
his immigration agents-to say
nothing of DR.. H. w. Wood! Have
we spent our youth in conquering
one frontier, making towns and
cities possible, building palatial
banks and offices for loan compa-
MES, even houses of parliament
and universities; have we spent
tine, energy and money in estab-
fishing huge cooperative enter
prises and putting representatives
in our legislatures, only to find
ourselves superfluous in middle
age; or, as a reward for our
achievements, directed to a new
and more difficult frontier where
our fondest hopes can only be that
our bones will be laid in its soil
before the machine can Dust US
from even there? Is there nowhere
limit to our patience and oul Ca
pacity for suffering?
Another Point of View
Let US consider another point of
view. This from the deputy min
;ster of agriculture of this prov
ince (Alberta): "The successful
farm of the future will be the
moderate-sized family unit operat-
ed on a balanced basis. Farming
in the main should be considered
essentially a home-making enter
prise where families can be rear
ed and educated in comfort and
under reasonably prosperous con-
ditions. If we undertake to COM
mercialize our farming activities
to too great an extent, with the
natural consequence that farm
units will become increasingly
large we shall lose the effect
Of the home atmosphere, and the
splendid and beneficient relation
ships which obtain in closely
settled and prosperous farm dis
trict."
Can the Ideal Be Realized?
This is unquestiOnably the ideal;
but how is it going to be realized
when farmers are under the neces-
sity Of obtaining money to carry
on from institutions operated for
private profit, to which nothing is
sacred but interest and dividends;
when under the aegis of govern
ments a man and his family can
be turned out of their home with
nowhere to go but the breadline,
compelled not only to give up
their shelter and means of obtain
ing a livelihood, but pne-third of
their crop as well. Read the pitt
full letters which now and then APP
pear in the press from the re-
turned soldier placed on the land,
and note what consideration is
given even these by a capitalistic
government. One thinks of the
words of Tiberious Gracious of
old in a similar connection: "The
wild beasts of Italy have their
dens, but the brave men who spill
their blood for her are without
homes or settled habitation. Men
of Rome, you are called lords OF
the world, yet have NO right to a
square foot of its soil"
A Glance At History
Large estates ruined Greece,
just as afterwards large estates
ruined Italy-note the "Latifundia
perdidere Italian" of Pliny-and
the small farmer and his sons,
elected from the land, helped to
swell the ranks of the unemploy-
ed to whom the state had finally
to furnish free grain. Their de-
scendants merged into the worth
less Roman rabble. Solon of Ath-
ems ONE of the wisest administra-
tors the world ever saw, checked
this tendency in his day by can
ceiling debts. restoring the land t.
its original owners, and parcelline
out large estates in family sizeC
units" Three great administra
tors in different periods of Ro.
man history had to revert to sim
liar schemes in order to rebuild
their yeomanry, whom they right
| ly considered the backbone of the
nation; and in every case a perioC
of prosperity followed. But tn,
process of the rich becoming rich
er, and the poor, poorer, wen
steadily on until their civilization
no longer worthy 10 survive, fel
before the barbarian. The histor,
of the ancient civilization repeate,
itself in the Europe which aros
from the ruins.
The Few In Control
1t is said that today 10000 mel
have legal right to expel the who'll
population from five-sixths of tn
DI1llSn lSldluS, anu Tile VAST Hid
jority of the British people hav
10 right whatever to their nativ
land save to walk the streets o
trudge the roads. Is there not
direct relation, think you, betwee
, such a condition and the "dole,
which alone precents a revolutio
in these islands, just as there is
direct relation between the swift
ly declining. rural population
the United States and its six mi
lion, more or less, unemployed
From their ranks will be draw
the new barbarian, if the civilizs
: ton today must go the way {
former ones. 1t is they who wi
; storm another Bastile if revolt
; ton comes; and a declaration {
war, such as happened in 191
: when conditions were similar
: many respects to those of toda
will only make more CHASTITY Il
g Establishments of canitaliSrn