Evening star., 1932-05-01
DEPRESSION TO DETERMINE
RESULT OF NEXT ELECTION
Demand for Cheaper Money and Lower
Taxes Presages Return to Farm
Living Standard.

, But America is still far short Of the
| degree Of citification in which the city
| worker who dwells in a rented fat can
| prevail over the suburban owner of
homes and the rural owner of farms.
/ The farm owner combined with the
| suburban home owner and the village
home owner is still supreme in America.
Mr.. CooIidge's Farm.
! In spite of many changes that have
come in America, in spite of the impor-
! tation of European thought which is
/ given out in the metropolis, and from
New York flows out over the country it
still remains true that the dominant
| political and social conviction in Amer
| lea begins with the desire of the home
| owner and farm owner to have security
| in the possession of his home That, in
America, IS near TO being Our funda-
mental sentiment.
| There must be many cases just now
OF city workers, of white-coIlar workers
| everywhere and even of some who three
/ years ago thought themselves we'll to
do-there must be many such who long
Tor the security they might have had
If they had been content with a simpler
way OF life, If they had been willing to
buy their fundamental security by going
without the city frills and so-called
| pleasures which today seem dust and
ashes-and unattainabIe.
Once last Summer and several times
during the past nine years, the writer
has visited and observed a farm IN
| Vermont. From the point of view Of
rural Iowa or Nebraska or Kansas or
Minnesota, this Vermont farm isn't
much. True, its acreage, 200, Is 40 more
than the number in good many Mid
western farms. OF the 200 acres in
this Vermont farm, however, over 100
Is woodland and mountainside, or hill
side too steep for the plow. About 10
acres Is paSturage for cattle. Only
about 80 acres are kept in cultivation.
tiny farm-but it raised a family
that produced President of the United
States. Mr.. Coolidge with his habitual
exactnesS, was careful to tell me that
in the generation in which he was a
child, while his family got most of their
food from the farm, his father had an
income from keeping the little country
store. The distinction is immaterial,
That little Vermont farm, during gen.
Grafton after generation, provided a fine
American family with all they needed
or desired At least it provided them
with the security which they desired
more than they desired the diversions
or so-called advantages" of city life.
1t provided them with food in such
abundance as city dwellers rarely know.
1t provided them with Winter warmth
that was not dependent upon a janitor
or a landlord. When visited it last,
though the time was early August, one
Of the most agreeable sights of that
and hundreds of other Vermont farms
was the flrewood already cut and neatly
piled in the wcodshed This farm
provided the Coolidges, and to this day
thousands Of other Vermont farms
&IlOfIeayHHc IF ~ Co -
the Coolidge type, with as much cash
revenue as they needed to buy from
| outside, because they kept their wants
simple.
To this day, if a Vermont farmer
feels he has not enough money to buy
an automobile, he gets along with a
horse and wagon. Vermont is one of
the few spots left in America where
the roadside watering trough is still q
familiar and constantly used sight.
Mr.. Coolidge this Spring is having
electric wires extended to his farm.
but his neighbors will continue to use
lamps until they are sure they can have
electricity without peril to their funda-
mental security. To Mr. Coolidge oil
lamps and water acquired by hand
pumping was good enough for a Sum-
mer home at time when his Winter
home was the White House.
Not only city dwellers aspiring for
security. not only all who are willing
and eager to attain their security on
an individual basis without waiting for
the Government to gear them into the
mechanism of State Socialism-not only
these, but the Western farmer as well
ought to study those Vermont farms.
Why is it that so much of the farm
uprising" occurs in Iowa and Okla
homa. and none in Vermont? Whoever
arI %f f,v.
political flames in the Green Mountain
State? Whoever heard of a politician
making his living by telling Green
Mountain farmers their lot should be
improved by the Government?
For one thing, they keep their taxes
low in Vermont. The State, like the
individual. buys only what it can pay
for. Mr.. Coolidge told me the taxes on
his farm are about SIS on the 200 acres,
and that is much higher than the aver
age-though to an Illinois farmer 1t will
seem low, indeed. He told me the tax
rate in his neighborhood is $50 on the
thousand of valuation, and the valua-
ton is kept low.
That IS one secret of true prosperity
that the Western farmer should have
learned years ago. He thought and said
his farm was worth 5000 or $500 an
acre, while the prudent Vermonters
called theirs worth $50 to $50. The
Western farmer spent in proportion to
his valuation. and soon was paying
taxes on the same proportion. Present.
ly the Western farmer borrowed money
on his farm. put mortgage on 1t. Or.
in many cases, he sold the farm. taking
a mortgage for an unpaid balance.
Sometimes the sale was made to his
son or son-in-law. The farmer went off
to live in Southern California, while the
heir or purchaser struggled on under q
mortgage that is today an impossible
burden.
There was none of that in Vermont,
or certainly very little. do not have
by me the figures about farm mort
cages in the State. but we can be sure
they are low. If the Vermonter put a
mortgage on his farm at all-and 1t
was not in his nature to do so-it was
of size small enough to let him pay
the interest without danger Of dispos-
session.
That Vermont farm, that security,
that way of life, looks good today to
city workers, to white-collar workers,
and to many who a little while ago
thought themselves rich. Maybe it is
still a practicable way out for many.
Vermont farms, farms everywhere,
should be in demand.