Milford chronicle., 1957-06-21
A WAY OF LIFE

Everyone has heard honest fears express
ed that the family farm is going down a road
that leads to ultimate extinction. Yet no
less an authority than Secretary of Agri-
culture Benson has said that the family
farm "has always been, is now and, think,
always will be the backbone of American ag-
riculture."
There is every indication that those who
are pessimistic about the future of the fam
lily farm have lost perspective. They are
seeing a kind of farm that belongs to the
past-not to today or tomorrow They have,
in other words, failed to take account of the
enormous and beneficial changes that have
been brought about by mechanization, vastly
improved seeds and fertilizers, and other
comparatively new developments
This has turned farming into a business,
requiring substantial investment along with
high skills and knowledge on the part of the
farmer if he is to succeed. There is little
room left for incompetent people or those un-
suited by temperament, background or train
ing to agriculture.
The developments mentioned also have
brought a new concept of the size of the
family farm. A farmer with modern me-
chanized equipment, for instance, can handle
a much greater acreage than did his grand
fathers. But he can still run family farm,
in the full sense of the term, and the oppor-
tunities are greater than ever before.
section of this country family farms are do
ing well, and way of life that is typically
American is being maintained and improv-
ed
SMALL COMFORT FOR SOCIALIZERS
Every time candidates who speak favor
ably of public power development are elected
to high office, it is claimed that this stand
was practically the sole reason for their sue
cess and that there is popular mandate to
put government deeper into the power busi-
ness.
That happened in the State of Washing
ton in the last November elections. But some
people were skeptical-and so public opin-
ion poll was taken by an independent, ma
tionally known survey organization.
One of the quotations listed the principal
issues of the campaign, and asked which
were most important to the voter person
ally. The answers included world peace, 81
per cent; cost of living, 50 per cent; taxes,
SO per cent, and so on down the list. Only
9 per cent-less than one in ten-had con
sidered the power issue dominant.
Another question was phrased in these
words: "When private companies want to
build electric power dams, should they be
permitted to 90 ahead and build them 2" F'if-
ty-three per cent of the voters pOlled said
yes, as against 20 per cent favoring govern
I10nI OdIIlS. 1uC IOIlld1uOSI gave IllASU dIlo-
werS or had no opinion.
Various other questions were asked-and,
in every case, the answer indicated that the
power issue was a minor one in the voters
minds; that the voters are generally favor
able to the rates and services standards of
the utility companies, and that sentiment for
socialized power is held only by compara-
lively small minority.
When facts are sought and produced, the
socializers find small comfort in them.
<&&@&&
DON'T INITIATE FAILURE!
Writing from London, labor columnist
Victor Riesel says: Socialism has failed
here They nationalized the steel industry,
coal mines, railroads and the health service.
All these lost money. Wages didn't go up.
Profits went down. There were strikes And
the Socialist managers were as tough as
any old-fashioned capitalist manufacturers
group-mOre so, believe me-"
There is a moral in this for all Ameri-
cans-and especially for American labor,
unionized or non-unionized Everyone gets
hurt by socialism-and the masses of work
ing people get hurt most of all. We should
have tha iOtnlliCpncp not tO initiate failure