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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta, Ga.
President Wilson’s Wise Policy
Toward Our Southern Neighbors.
The policies set forth by President Wilson in his
address at the Southern Commercial Congress in Mo
bile should inspire among our Central and South
American neighbors that hearty confidence which is
-the essense of all profitable relationships in both di
plomacy and trade. As the dominant Power of this
hemisphere, the United States owes a peculiar re
sponsibility to the Latin republics and to the world.
It is from the United States that those countries
have drawn their Ideals of government and to the
United States they look for friendly counsel and
support in working out their destiny. Our oppor
tunities to serve them and, through them, ourselves
are unbounded; but it is important first of all to
assure them that our purpose is not that of a self-
seeker but of a friend and neighbor, indeed; and
that the guiding motive of this Government in all
its dealings with Central and Sougi America is ijn-
tinged by any dream of aggrandizement.
The President aptly chose this occasion to make
clear this important point. The meeting of the South
ern Commercial Congress this year is devoted pri
marily to a consideration of the new era which is
ushered in by the opening of the Panama canal, the
closer relationships that will henceforth exist be
tween this country and the people of Central and
South America. It was peculiarly seasonable that
the President should say at this time: “The United
States will not seek to secure one additional foot of
territory by conquest•” So emphatic and straight
forward an announcement should set at rest any
latent suspicion which any of our Southern neigh
bors may have felt; and to imbue them with this
full sense of trustfulness will do more for our trade
interests than any amount of dollar diplomacy could
ever acomplish.
Even more significant and assuring was the Presi
dent’s declaration that “morality, not expediency”
must guide us in our dealings with Central and South
America and that "iniquity must never he condoned ”
He made it vididly clear that this Government will
not be used as a tool of particular interests in the
commercial or politcal affairs of these Southern
countries. He emphasized the duty of the United
States to assist them “in emancipating themselves
from the material interests of other nations, so that
they could enjoy constitutional liberty unrestrained.”
, The world will not be slow to interpret these ut
terances and to connect them more or less definitely
with existing conditions in Mexico. It was the code
of “morality not expediency” that constrained the
Administration^ to refuse recognition to the Huerta
regime and that steeled it against the clamors of a
few financial interests for forcible intervention. It
was the immorali.. and injustice of the Huerta
regime that provoked the cool scorn of our Govern
ment; and, as President Wilson indicates, no such
regime in any part of Central or Gouth America may
expect the sympathy of the United States.
Under this policy all the relationships between
our Government anc the governments and the peoples
beyond the Caribbean will be prosperous and secure.
We shall live as true neighbors and as such we shall
thrive in our common business.
V
Canada’s Rural Problem.
It is surprising to learn that within the last ten
years more than six hundred and forty thousand peo
ple have deserted the rural districts of Canada. The
Dominion has conducted an aggressive campaign,
both through the Government and through private
enterprise, to secure settlers for its vast area of un
developed lands. Immigrants have been offered glow
ing inducements to which thousands, particularly in
the United States, at cne time responded. The popu
lar impression ccordingly has been that Canada was
growing steadily and rapidly in agricultural interests.
Records show, on the contrary, that while Can
ada’ urban population is increasing remarkably that
of its country districts is at a standstill, if not de
clining. Energy vi.ich is needed for the upbuilding
of farms is being absorbed by towns. Despite the
number of settlers who in the earlier years of the
last decade swarmed across the border from the
United States, drawn by the belief that they were
entering a new land where agricultural affairs would
be supreme, Canada now faces the same problem that
confronts this country in the cityward drift of popu
lation.
The report that more than six hundred and forty
thousand persons—some sixty-four thousand a year—
have left Canadian farms within the decade opens an
interesting field of speculation. Of this number,
m what part represented Americans who had crossed
the border to try their fortunes and had found condi
tions less favorable than they had hoped? Certain
It is that the tide of American immigration to Canada
nas Deen steadily decreasing in recent years. Home-
seekers are learning to their profit that the freest
and richest opportunities lies, not to rigorous north,
but beneath the genial sun and in the wondrously
acapraDie soil of tho South.
If Huerta doesn’t mind he’ll be Sulzerized.
The Flight of Felix.
The precipitate flight of Felix Diaz for refuse
aboard an American gunboat at Vera Cruz is in
keeping with the sharp ironies of Mexican ad
venture
A few months ago, Diaz, a nephew of the re
nowned old dictator now in exile, was a bosom ally
of Huerta and the apparent successor in the Presi
dency. It was Diaz’s bold sortie upon the capital
that led to Madero’s fall. It was to him that Huerta
betrayed the established government. He was the
moving spirit in the reign of terror that held . Mexico
City trembling through days ’ filled with battle and
nights filled with conspirarcy. If there was one
man entitled to claim reward from -all that bloody
intrigue, it was he.
But today he is a fugitive from the course of
events he set in motion. When Huerta was declared
provisional President, it was generally suspected
that Felix Diaz would be the power behind the
scenes. He was rather a dashing soldier and, though
possessed of little real ability, he had a certain
swaggering air that was not unpleasing to the
crowd. Furthermore, there was a touch of the heroic
to his career. He had led a former rebellion against
President Madero, had been captured and, after sev
eral months of imprisonment, set free. With char
acteristic ingratitude, however, he organized a second
revolution and in that he _ was finally successful-
Whatever may have been uie ties between Diaz
and ’Huerta in the outset, they soon weakened.
Huerta’s taste of power determined him to hold his
station at all hazards. Diaz, on the other hand, grew
continually more jealous and suspicious. It was re
ported at one time that he was preparing to lead an
open attack on the so-called provisional President.
When the date for an election was set, he announced
his candidacy. Then came the decisive break be
tween him and his former confederate, Huerta.
The latter, having assumed full dictatorial powers,
began aggressive measures against every public man
who questioned his course or who was likely to stand
in his way. A few days ago the rumor spread that
Diaz had been marked for death, if not by assassina
tion, then by a mock trial.
Forthwith, the one-time hero’s mettle failed him.
He eagerly seized the chance for safety on a United
States "vessel and low his wily ambition apparently
is to get a safe distance from the turmoil he
brought on.
Few tears are worth their salt.
Getting Ready for the Canal.
The idea most emphasized by the Southern Com
mercial Congress now in session at Mobile is the need
of definite preparation for the new trade era that
will open with the Panama canal.
The tact that .this plea has been iterated and re
iterated for several years does not lessen its impor
tance or timeliness. Now more than ever before
does it behoove tha business interests of the South
to get in intimate touch with Latin America, to
study the tastes and needs of its peoples an.d to de
vise practical means for supplying them. The day
is close at hand when merchant ships will be plying
the canal and when the shores of South and Central
American, countries will become a theater for world
commerce. What part is the South to play on this
fresh stage of opportunity? •
The answer depends primarily on the energy
and intelligence with which the South prepares to
claim its natural due- The trade of the canal will
not be wafted to our ports and inland centers; it
must be brought thither by persistent, organized
effort.
For many years past the nations of Europe have
been systematically making ready for the opening
of the Panama canal. They have sent embassies to
South America tft learn the peculiar needs of the
people and to cultivate their business . friendship.
They have built ships and planned a hundred differ
ent means for establishing regular lines of trade.
Such methods the South, too, must employ, if it
is to enjoy its share of the opportunities the canal
presents. Its merchants and manufacturers must
know first what the Latin-American trade demands
and then he ready to supply these demands in minute
particulars.
There are cheering signs that the importance of
such preparation is being realized. A number of
progressive cities are planning to send trade expedi
tions to South America in the near future. The
Southern Commercial Congress itself will conduct
such an expedition, following its adjournment at
Mobile. This is the sort of enterprise that will
produce definite results and secure for the South its
rightful measure of the canal’s blessings.
But a woman doesn’t care to boss the job if she
can boss the boss.
A Home-Rule Compromise.
Compromises that satisfy complaiqt without sac
rificing principle are the rare work of high states
manship- Premi’er Asquith seems to have hit ufion
such a plan for unclouding the stormy isSue of Irish
Home Rule.
For long decades the great majority of the Irish
people have striven for the right of self government
in their internal affairs, a freedom similar to that
enjoyed by the individual states of the American.
Union; and now the British parliament is on the eve
of passing a hill vouchsafing this right. In the
province of Ulster, however, there is a group of peo
ple who threaten open rebellion if they are placed
under the administration of a Home government.
They refuse to acknowledge any authority of this
kind except that of the Empire and contend, mis
takenly hut none the less vehemently, that Home
Rule would jeop. ra.ze their religi >us liberty. Under
the leadership of Sir Edward Carson and others who
are opposed to • all liberal policies of government,
they have organized a volunteer army, evidently with
a view to forcible -esistance if their protests are not
heeded.
Mr. Asquith now suggests that these Northeastern
counties of Ulster be allowed to remain outside the
Home .Rule plan for the immediate future at least.
He believes that they will not he very long in realiz
ing the disadvantages of such isolation from the com
mon country and i: time will seek broad Irish fellow
ship as heartily as they now reject it. At the same
time the greater part of Ireland would be enjoying
the freedom which has been its dream.
Whether this proposal will satisfy the Ulster men
or will be altogether acceptable to the Irish Nation
alists remains to be seen. The Premier is emphatic,
however, in stating that if Ulster rejects this com
promise, the Home Rule bill will be put into effect
for Ireland as a whole-
it’s improper to eat pie with a knife—but an axe
is permissible.
Roosevelt and Tammany
By Savoyard
Manifestly Colonel Theodore Roosevelt does not
subscribe to the condition that exists when the tail
wags the dog. He made this plain before he sailed
j from North America bound for South America. Lkst
j year he received 4,119,538 votes of the people to sup-
i port his candidacy for president of the United States
| against 3,484,980- for his Republican competitor, Wil-
liam H. Taft, and in the electoral college his vote
was 88 against 8 for ^Taft, or eleven to one.
And, therefore, Colonel Roosevelt announces that in
■i* the affairs of the opposition to the Democratic regime
j his Progressive party must take the lead and the
! standpatters take orders from the Progressives. Nor
: does he stop at that, for he serves notice on the Re-
I publicans that they must not only accept his “prin-
j ciples,” but that they must surrender their party name.
. . .
' A consummate politician is Teddy. He knows that
• all his life the G. O. P. was sectional. He knows that
the south has become a full partner in the grand sis
terhood of sovereign states that make up our great
republic, and he knqws that the manhood of the' north
has found its magnanimity, and that in future the
north intends that our union of heart and hand shall
extend from the Penobscot to the Rio Grande as well
as from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and moreover, ne
knows that there must be two parties. Hence, he
would lead a party with some hope of lodgment at the
south which seceded in 1861, numbering eleven states.
The Republican party, under that name, can never
get lodgment there, where generations yet to be will
execrate Thad Stevens and resent the humiliations to
which he subjected their fathers. The south long ago
forgave the victory of the north, accepted it, and came
to realize that it was for the best; but the south will
never condone or forget th e negro domination such men
as Sumner and Stevens, Wade and Butler, Morton and
Chandler, Conkling and Sherman, sought to fasten upon
her when after the most heroic struggle she fell over
whelmed by numbers and by the world’s resources.
Against the world in arms she was prostrate.
In New York City at this time is a fusion municipal
ticket headed by John P. Michel, candidate for mayor.
This ticket is opposed to Tammany and has the in
dorsement of the political respectability of the town.
Mr. Mitchel is the collector of the port, in some re
spects the mo^t responsible position under the civil
service of the federal establishment. He was ap
pointed by President Wilson and has the good will
and support of the Democratic administration.
Tammany is a free lance. It is to our politics
what a notorious raider was to French arms in the
days of Joan d’Arc, and his prayer was: “O God, do by
Le Hire on this expedition as Le Hire would do by
Thee, if Thou wert Le Hire and Le Hire God!” And
that is Tammany’s prayer. All it looks to is spoil, all
it cares for is the majority. It seeks contracts and
that is its only principle.
• • •
Well, Roosevelt knows Tammany and he insists
that every Progressive in New York vote for Mitchel,
though he also knows that the triumph of Mitchel will
redound to the advantage of the Democratic adminis
tration at Washington. It takes a pretty big man to
do that.
• On the other liana, it is preached—and nobody de
nies the heresy—that the standpat Republicans’ eggs
are in the Tammany basket. Take a partisan like
. Barnes and he honestly believes that the triumph of
Boss Murphy in the city election is to be preferred to
any result that would tend to strengthen the Demo
cratic administration at Washington. Barnes is play
ing the game like a politician, and a New York politi
cian at that, for it is under cover. W'hatever he may
protest, the fact remains that if Tammany prevails it
will be not only witn the passive assent, but witn the
active support of the “party of Great Moral Ideas.”
* * *
Roosevelt will hav e none of that. He knows that
Tammany In the very nature of things is necessarily
corrupt, tfe knows th^t Tammany as a political force
would have become extinct years ago but for the
countenance and support it got from the Republican
bosses. He knows that Dick Croker and Tom Platt
were at a perfect understanding, each aiding the other
and both sharing the spoil of victory.
Tammany prevented the renomination of ^Tilden in
1880. It very nearly defeated Grover Cleveland in
1884. It did defeat Cleveland in 1888. It fought for
the Democratic ticket with a halted round its neck in
1892. It would have defeated Woodrow Wilson if it
had been in its power.
• • *
Tammany has got no politics but this: Give me
the city government of New York that I may loot by
forms of law the most opulent community on the
planet. To that end the ranks of its Pretorians are
swelled by tens of thousands of men who vote the Re
publican ticket in all party contests.
Teddy understands it, and hence he urges the Pro-*
gressives to vote for Mitchel.
DEMOCRACY IN ENGLAND
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
(Copyright. 1913, by Frank Crane.)
Slow is the descent of the glacier. Slow is the rise
of the tide. Slow is the march of democracy. Yet the
glacier descends, the tide rises, democracy marches.
Democracy is the leveler. It is the steam-roller of
destiny. It is the resistless fulfillment of the vision
of the old Hebrew prophet:
“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain
i and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be
; made straight, and the rough places plain.”
This does not mean the dead level of mediocrity;
j it means the living level of opportunity..
I It means the casting down of the peaks of privl-
J lege, and the filling up of the pits of prejudice.
Nowhere can the- student of his times see democra-
i cy grinding on in more striking ways than in England.
The English are the most caste-cursed people in
civilization. Class is in their very bones. Yet down
in the English heart is that shattering ideal called
Justice. By and by it has its way.
The report issued the other day by the government
sounds the death knell of feudalism. Upon the facts
stated David Lloyd George, chancellor of the ex
chequer, bases his demands for revolutionary land re
forms.
All through the island are' vast stretches of waste
and uncultivated lands held as the playground of the
privileged. Fourteen million acres were thus enclosea
by the landlords of the eighteenth century.
Before that time the British peasantry were “Hearts
of Oak,” free and independent. Now their condition
is pitiable.
“England’s pleasure grounds,” said recently Judge
Holdrom, of Chicago, “must be brought within tne
wealth-producing sphere. They must be taxed out of
idleness; trees, underbrush, and grass must yield to
tillage and the vacancy must be peopled by contented
families. Only thus can the overbalance of urban in
dustry be redressed, and omy thus can Britain be
come rooted as a first-rate power.”
The government report recommends a minimum
wage for farm laborers, a land court to Qx rents anu
insure security of tenure, and local authorities or the
state to build cottages, with land attached, for the de
cent housing of the workers. The investigators assert
that 120,000 such cottages are needed in addition to
the improvement of great numbers of existing houses
which are unfit for habitation.
The present wage is placed at 18 shillings ($4.50)
a week and the minimum wage required is placed at
20 shillings 6 pence $5.12).
Undercultivated and waste lands are declared to in
volve an intolerable handicap on agriculture and, there
fore, on the interests of the nation.
Injustice, misery, social wrong and national impov- •
erishment are recounted with tragic detail in the re
port as resulting from present agricultural conaitlons.
This land : on, together with the demands for
woman suffrage, nome rule for Ireland, religious lib
erty for Wales, better wages for labor, and a better
federal system for the whole empire are some of the
unmistakable evidences of the forward march of dem
ocracy in England. *
GUNTRY
OME topics
CoHVQCTtt Bff jTO&UlLrSLTOrt
HENRY WATTERSON'S BRAVE WORDS.
‘‘I would compromise war; I would compromise
glory; I would compromise everything at that point
where hate comes in, where love ceases to be love, and
life begins its descent into the valley of the shadow
of death. But I would not compromise truth; I would
not compromise the right.”
When I remember the little we gained by the Civil
war and the immensity of the losses, I cou4d apply Mr.
Watterson’s brave words and understand the illustra
tions that fell under my own observation. I discover
also the folly of trying to adjust national affairs by
the sword. I understand the distinction and the differ
ence. If you are violently attacked on your own
threshold you must defend yourself, and if the sword
is drawn on your own doorsill against you or the in
mates of your home or who are 'dependent on you for
protection or support, ther e is no choice left you. You
must defend your rights and protect tfye helpless.
The common law of the land everywhere recognizes
this duty. But it is different when two stubborn fac
tions refuse a settlement of difficulties, when they re
fuse to compromise and their refusal involves homes
and neighborhoods and states and nations, and necessi
tates blood and carnage, and a conclusion only where
“might iriakes right.”
I would compromise every time with war. Not as
a coward compromises, but because the interests of
family and home and state and nations are always sacri
ficed to blood thirstiness and passion in fomenting war.
War is interesting to those who think more of revenge
than of justice and peace. War appeals to those who
refuse to listen to reason, and who are afraid of truth.
I lived through our Civil war, where fratricidal strife
engendered horrors, and where the Angel of Peace
turned away her weeping face and bowed her head in
sorrow. Billions of values went up in smoke, and tens
of thousands of human lives were sacrificed because
we were afraid to compromise to avoid war.
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall see God.”
AGAINST TAG DAYS.
in reading the pages of a popular magazine of med
ical topics, I was somewhat startled to find £ violent
criticism of “Tag Days,” and a call for suspending
them.
The reasons given may be exaggerated, but they
are worth thinking about. After stating the facts, that
many persons dislike to be held up in public places to
extort money, and also that it is not possible to ex
plain one’s opinions without being supposed to be hold
ing a grouch, the writer proceeds to say: “The tag-day”
custom of sending young girls to accost all sorts and
conditions of strange men and ask them for money is
so wholly objectionable that one wonders what mothers,
society leaders and directresses of charities are think
ing about. It has been whispered that members of the
demi-monde take advantage of the sjime opportunity,
personating the authorized solicitors and take advan
tage for their notorious vocation’s furtherance.
“The manners if not the morals of young girls are
not likely to be enhanced by such performances, inno
cence is not always an effective defense against the
wiles of the libertine.
“And familiarity with such encounters takes away tne
bloom. To say the least op .this subject, if these girls
are obliged to do this thing, for pity’s sake, let every
one of them be chaperoned by a husky brother.”
Perhaps I am a very old-fashioned person, but u
felt commissioned to copy these words and send them
forth for the information of our young' lady Journal
readers. Perhaps I should explain I am one of the
poorest of public beggars, and feel naturally averse to
the begging business for young women, but I read this
protest in a medical magazine, where it was placed by
a physician who, we may assume, knew whereof he
was writing,„and who had no reason to write anything
but the facts and ttoe truth.
MAD DOGS.
I like a dog in its place, and admire a dog’s fidelity
to its owner, but we are all aware that dogs are fre
quent subects of hydrophobia and a menace to every
body nearby.
The disease always comes from some other animal,
usually another dog. If cows and horses were per
mitted to go at will, segregate with all sorts of like an
imals, it is likely tney would have communicated dis
eases as troublesome and fatal as rabies, or canine
rabies.
It is the history of this malady that the dog does
not become violent as soon as bitten, but as days roll
on he becomes ill-tempered, growls, and acts unnatural
ly restless. He does not fight other dogs; he simply
bites them and goes on,. Sometimes he wanders off,
comes back looKing miserably, growls, is emaciated and
refuses to drink. He is thirsty, wants water, but his
condition forbids the swallowing. He will bite any
thing in this stage, human or animal, living or inani
mate. Generally these dogs die in convulsions. The
human sufferer cannot drink; he is restless like the dog,
and he generally dies in convulsions.
There is rarely a week that passes when we do not
hear of mad dog victims, of dog's head being sent to
the Pasteur institutes, etc.
We allow children to fondle dogs too much. When
my oldest child (th e dear boy has been in heaven more
than forty years) was about five years old he would
“make friends” with every dog that came in the yard.
His own dog was a constant delight to him. He liked
to examine Fido’s claws an*d inspect Fido’s teeth. His
faith in them was perfect. Late one afternoon a
negro man’s big dog came to the chicken trough for a
drink. Little John ran to him to pat his head. In an
instant the child was thrown down and the dog was
snarling over his little back. We sent for the doctor,
for the brute’s teeth went in in several places. We had
the dog shot and entered upon a season of wild anx
iety. But no bad results followed, and we were spared
further suffering. Nevertheless it taught me a lesson,
and I taught the other children to beware of dogs.
Moral: You never can know where a dog has been
roaming or how he has fared outside.
Cronies
I’m old and wrinkled and gray
And he’s but a bubble of sun,
But hand in hand in the world today
Cronies together we run.
My eyes are blurry and dim,
His are so gay, so bright;
Merged in the beautiful youth of him
I go forth to the light.
I tremble in limb and voice.
And he is so lithe and strong,
But equally glad in the golden choice
We whistle together a song.
And away in the sunlit weather,
Cronies and comrades true,
We take the path of the dream together,
And drink together the dew.
I’m worn and weary and slow,
And he’s like a flashing beam;
But hand in hand through the world we go,
Cronies of song and dream.
He looks up‘ so in my face,
And I look down oft at him:
And the years come back with their golden grace
And my eyes are not so dim.
I’m queer and quiet and still.
And he is a dancing wight;
But ever away through the burning day
We walk in the paths of light.
And whatever 1 am to him,
I know what he is to me—
A bubble of laughter upon the brim
Of the ache of the salt, salt sea.
—Baltimore Sun.
RURAL CREDITS
II. HELPING THE FARMER IN THE PAST.
B. FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
It long ago became evident to those who looked be
neath the surface of things that something needed to
be done if the agriculture interests of the country
were to keep pace with its other interests. Population
has been growing by leaps and bounds, industries have
been expanding with unprecedented rapidity, and the
demands for all the things that the farmer can pro
duce has been increasing in a sort of geometric ratio.
In the days of Washington ninety-six out of every
hundred people in the country were engaged in agri
cultural pursuits; today only fifty-two out of a hun
dred are so engaged. Then the producer sold directly
to the consumer and all of the consumer’s donar
when he spent it for food; today an extensive and ex
pensive system of distribution has been established
whereby the farmer, according to the experts, gets
only 35 cents out of each dollar the consumer spends
for his food.
\ * * *
The result is that farming, despite all the word
pictures to the contrary, for the vast majority of farm
ers, is a most unremunerative calling, as well as on©
requiring very long hours and much hard work. The
farmer must be content with the poorest of every
thing. The poorest preachers fill his pulpits, the poor
est teachers are employed in his schools, the poorest
roads are the ones he must travel. He receives less
remuneration for tne hours he works than any other in
dividual in the body politic. His children realize all
this better than he does, and consequently they seek
the city in increasing numbers as urban living condi
tions for the average man improve.
• • •
An illustration of what farming actually means to
the majority of farmers is illustrated by a bright para
graph in the leading daily paper of the Shenandoah
valley, Virginia, a region famous for its farms and
farming. A state normal school has established an
agricultural course, and the paper asks: “Does ivir-
Ferguson’s course in agriculture at the state normal
include rising at 4 o’clock, getting breakfast for the
family, feeding the chickens and swine, getting chil
dren ready for school, churning, washing, gardening,
carrying water, putting up fruit and vegetables, get
ting dinner and supper, putting the children to bed,
making and mending their clothes and then having
nothing to do until tomorrow?”
• * •
The result of conditions such as are indicated in
this query has been that the decreasing number of
farmers in proportion to population has offset nearly *
everything that has been done in the direction of im
proved agricultural methods. It has long been hoped,
that the special education of the farmer would supply
the deficiencies of farm life. It is true that such spe
cial instruction has enabled many farmers greatly to
increase the annual production of their farms. But the
great majority have not had the financial ability to
utilize the knowledge, and so they have been forced
to continue along in the same old rut of life, with a
bare existence as their portion.
• • • *
The inability of the average farmer to utilize, un
der his present hampered financial condition, tho les
sons of progressive agriculture is illustrated by tho 1
fact that although there are many thousands of farm
ers who now grow thirty bushels of wheat where they
formerly grew fifteen per acre, yet in 1910 the averag •
farmer was growing only 1.7 bushels to the aero more
than in the years between 1876 and 1885. Likewise,
while there are hundreds of thousands of farmers who
have increased their per acre yield of corn from forty
bushels to eighty bushels, yet the average farmer to
day gets a crop yield ohly two bushels greater to the
acre than he was getting a quarter of a century ago.
• • •
Various methods have been proposed in th© past to
remedy the financial helplessness of the average farm
er, as it is indicated by his wheat crop of fourteen,
bushels to the acre and Ills corn crop of twenty-seven 1
bushels. One of these methods was that of allowing
national banks to loan money on real estate. This
proposition was repeatedly proposed in yelirs gone by,
but the federal government has continued for many a
year its discrimination against the chief asset of the
farmer, his land. It has been pointed out that the
banking laws of tbe p^ist not only have discriminated
negatively against the farmer, but positively as well.
Under these laws the country bank must hold 15 per
cent of its demand liabilities, mainly deposits, In cash.
It may redeposit three-fifths of this reserve with the
city bank which acts as its reserve agent, and this
bank, in turn, must hold one-fourth of its demand lia
bilities in cash, and is empowered to redeposit one-
half of this with the banks of the big cities, New
York, St. Louis and Chicago.
• • •
The effect of this has been to send no small part
of the money of the country banks to the # big cities.
The result is that in times of urgent demand, the
money that trie country bank ought to *have at home
for its own people is being used by Wall street, and
the needs of the patrons of the country bank cannot
be met. It has proved in operation a system that car
ries the money of the country out off its natural ave
nues of circulation and into Wall street for its uses.
• • r.
It is not believed by many of those who have In
vestigated the subject that it would be possible to
make over the present banking system to meet the fi
nancial needs of the agriculturist. Even a proposition
to make available a quarter of a billion dollars for
loans on real estate would not, to their minds, meet
the situation. The farmers of the country owe over
$5,000,000,000, of which three dollars out of five is se
cured by real estate mortgages, and a quarter of a
billion dollars could not, it is pointed out, begin to
take care of this.
• * *
Summed up, although much as has ^een accom
plished in the United States in the direction of tho
promotion of the agricultural interests of the nation,
the results have been but a small percentage of what
they might be. The public school has brought a fair
degree of education to farm children, and under the
present trend toward revamping it and making the'
teaching of agriculture its principal object, it prom
ises to prove a great help.
• * •
Likewise, the propaganda of the department of agri
culture has been of great assistance in what has been
accomplished, and since the beginning of farm demon
stration work it has opened up new possibiiitios. The
example of the progressive farmer in a community has
carried a valuable lesson and brought some result to
his average neighbor. But after all, what profits
knowledge if the means of applying it are wanting?
The farmer with an annual income in the gross of
only $400, however impressed he may be with the
advantages of scientific agriculture, stands small
chance of making a success at it when he can save
nothing from his farm operations and when he has no
available credit through which to make the improve
ments that are needed to recast his methods of farm
ing.
It is contended that If he be furnished with money
upon fair terms, and with sufficient time to repay it,
he will then be able to profit by the lessons the de
partment of agriculture offer him. Furthermore, it
will foster the back-to-the-farm movement that Is re
garded as one of the best steps that could be taken in
American life. By enabling the son of a small farmer
to buy a farm on terms that do not forecast foreclos
ure, it will prevent thousands from drifting to the city,
and at the same time will encourage the return of oth
er thousands who have sated themselves with city life
and are deterrred from returning to the farm only by
the knowledge that they are not able to buy a farm
under present credit conditions.
Pointed Paragraphs
When a man begins to abuse. i. f ? own tows, tt’s
time for him to move.
• * *
Don’t judge by appearances. Men who wear dia
mond pins often have money.
*