Evening star., 1932-08-14
THOUSANDS RETURN
TO WESTERN LAND
Leaving Cities for Farms to
Regain Financial In
dependence.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


N.A).-The man Of the hour is the
man with the hoe.
Thousands of people have gone and
are going back to the land in the States
of Washington, Idaho, Montana and
Oregon in search of the security that
the farm gives.
The Federal Land Bank of Spokane.
that operates in these four States, esti-
mates that $4,000 people. since 1929.
have left Northwestern cities to return
to the farm, either as part-time or full
time farmers.
In this back-to- the-land movement
there Is little migration. People are
leaving cities of the Northwest to seek
the nearest land at hand. There Is no
mass movement of land settlers, moving
from one section of the country to an
other. as in the day of the covered
wagon. when the lure Of free land
brought men and women to the vast
acreage of the West. Nor are people
following the reckoning finger of the
speculator of a later date, whose Utopian
schemes of colonization attracted ten.
derfeet to the soil with the prospect OF
reaping fortunes from green pastures.
Elemental Needs Felt.
This present movement is actuated
by the elemental needs of man to estab-
lish himself and his family in security.
For quarter of a century the exodus
has been from the farm to the city.
In the Pacific Northwest, as in other
sections, the city and its industrial
growth have been developed at the eX-
pense of its agricultural districts: Men
turned their backs on the farm for the
shorter hours of labor and the higher
wages of the city.
Today the tide has changed. The
industrial machine of the city Will not
support the urban population, and men,
forced to seek elemental security, are
returning to the soil.
The movement Is benefting both the
city and its agricultural communities,
building up hinterland without Whlcn
no city can exist.
Although some families are coming
into the Northwest from stricken areas
of the Middle West to seek more SUIT
able climatic and agricultural condi-
tions, it Is not anticipated there WILL oe
any wide intersectional moveme~nt, ~
People are moving from SPOKANE.
Portland. Seattle. Tacoma and smaller
cities of the Northwest to the outskirts
of the cities, where they can augment
th7ir living with garden tracts.
They are changing from these cities
IN adjacent irrigated tracts such as Is
the case in Spokane, where 1t IS estl-
mated that its irrigated valley OF some
10000 acres, from the city nmlts 10
the Idaho line, has increased its popu-
lation 20 per cent IN the last le" yeai'
CITY Houses Empty.
There are many empty houses In all
the cities named But. If you drlve
through the farming areas OF these
four Pacific Northwestern STATES, you
see few abandoned homes. ana, III
many instances, you discover 1aImnls
country dotted with tar paper sliacas ~
that mark the beginning OF an eHorI "
exist off the soil. ,+-;,,c
farming where man is able 10 maxi
a down payment and then wrest tne
second from the sweat OF his pro" anu
that of his wife's and children S:
A man with a wife and six children
and savings of 5000 arrived in Spokane
last Fall in search Of land. Most men
with a wife and six children. WIN puG
5000 in savings, would crumpie up dnt ,'t
eventually land in the preao nie' Du'
this man knew land.
The man was located on tract OF
c,,t-over land, on which he mace
down pavment, pitched tent as smell
ter for himself and family, stocked II
with staples and went to work. Inc
winter was an intense one, but the man
and his family managed to clear ~
acres, ready for crop this Spring, ano
to cut enough cord wood to help toward
his second payment.
can be made to pay is to be seen, put
many families in the Pacific Northwest
have undertaken to wreSt hvlngs from
such shoe-string struggles. Some Will
fail. but many undoubtedly will sue
ceed
without the speculator, this back-to-
the-land movement seems to be thor
oughly substantial. Many OF the men
returning to the farm for living are
prodigalS from the land-men, years
400 who turned their backs on the
farm to enjoy the city and its easier
life. But now that they know hard
pavements and empty stomachs, the
spurned farm achieves a new appeal
and becomes a Utopia OF bounteous
comforts.
AS one man put it, Il want my
money where can manage 1t; l no
longer want it in corporation Where
it is handled by a chairman and
board of directors"
Demands Better Land.
But it takes better land to lure the
prodigal back to the agricultural folo
and, lacking the element Of speculation
men are being placed on better land
than they left.
Land sales, conducted through the
four Northwestern States by the Fed
eral Land Bank of Spokane, with its
several million acres of cheap lano
available. are a barometer of agricul-
tural interest that indicates the trend
of men seeking land as a solution OF
their economic ills.
Sales of farms by the bank in Mon
tana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington
for the first five months of 1882 exceed
any like period in the banks history,
except 1923.
Sale of Federal Land Bank holdings
in Oregon attracted 300 men and women
to the sales Office.
The Federal sales Office in Vancouver,
Wash, where sale was conducted this
Spring, attracted 40 people a day.
A few economists sound notes OF
warning against the movement-they
fear an added burden of overproduction
and a tendency to resettle poor land that
has been abandoned. officials insist
both contentious are wrong.
E. M. Ehrhardt, president Of the Fed
eral Land Bank of Spokane, says:
We see a definite trend toward the
abandonment Of large-scale, mechani-
cal power farming. In its place there
is an increase in the smaller layouts
with teams and small tools. which use
more man power We believe that the
mechanized farming has been the main
cause of surplus production and that
with small units end more operators
less grain in the aggregate will be pro-
duced
Surplus Tends Down.
Then, too, the smaller or family unit
consumes a larger percentage of its
production. Thus with the production
diversified and largely concentrated by
feeding operations on the farm, the
market surplus, particularly wheat, will
tend downward and the price go up.
las to the resettlement Of the poorer
class of lands, abandoned since home