Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1917 — WHERE TOWN AND COUNTRY PEOPLE WORK TIGETHER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHERE TOWN AND COUNTRY PEOPLE WORK TIGETHER

Ar an article about the Farm and Gity GetTogether Festival at Jamestofam 9 jy. &•* be here some enterprising dreamers turned their talents to practical purposes : :

1 . *_■ , -J . I Too many cases country peopeople and town and city people misunderstand one iinitther, ami both lose. As a conseq uenee urban dwellers buy Oregon apples and California grapes, and > rural- folk buy their furniture, farm machinery ami supplies laity vM from Chicago mail-order houses. > Here and there, however, some <,f tl,e ,l,ore fi,r ' si K hte ' ! ™ en antl women of both groups are mak1 ing determined efforts to supplant distrust and contempt with fellowship ami co-operation. Auditworks—Ladies trad gentlemen, it works beautifully I The enterprising citizens of Jamestown, N. Y., and the farm people who live in the counties sur- : rounding the city (which have a population of about 40,000) joined heads, hearts and hands this last autumn in a great “Farm and City Get-To-gether Festival,” and the affair was such a huge success that a permanent organization was formed and the festival will be held annually hereafter. Here is an illustration of how misunderstanding is bred and why It persists sometimes: James Mason, a city dry-goods merchant, drove out In the country one pleasant Sunday afternoon in October, and was astonished at the number of apples he saw on the ground In orchards along the roadside. “I cannot buy good apples at the grocery next my store." he complained, “unless I pay Alaska prices for them, 5 cents each. Yet here they are rotting on the ground.” Mason jumped to the conclusion that the .farmers did not try to save the apples, or to help the c ity man and his family get food. “They are both selfish and lazy," he asserted when he told of the experience. Simon Newcomb lived on a farm near where Mason drove that Sunday. He had been iu town Saturday afternoon with a load of apples. The groceryinan looked them over, and offered Newcomb 50 cents a bushel. Newcomb had read in his farm paper that apples were scarce, and he thought he ought to have a dollar a bushel. “But your apples are not sorted. There are several kinds in the one crate, and many 'of them are inferior In size, and some badly worm eaten,” objected the grocer. “You leave them with me for 50 cents a bushel or else take them somewhere else.” ’ ' Newcomb looked at his watch and saw ft was nearly chore time, and he sold them. But when he got home he told his wife the grocer took advantage of him and was little better than a robber. But both men were wrong. The orchard owner was not lazy nOr selfish. He had other problems worse to handle and more necessary to him than picking up and saving a few bushels of apples.

Nor was the grocer a robber. He had a trade which required certain standards, ami the stuff offered him did twt conform to those standards. All wrong, almost from the start. Just us the foregoing illustration makes plain the problem more than pages of generalities, so the experience of Jamestown in Its first Farm and City festival will show how the effort to get together succeeds better than more pages of platitudes. First of all Jamestown had a live board of commerce, and a secretary with a vision not bounded by the factory chimneys of the city nor Its city limits. Secretary Fred Clayton Butler had been studying some United States census reports on Chautauqua county. N. Y.. and he discovered that most of the rural towns of the county and all it? rural villages, hut two or three that had a lot of factories, had decreased in population in the last »tlinee decades. He did not need to be told about the Increase in cost of living. That was self-evident. In surveying the field he found that there was ■ an active apple growers’ association in Chautauqua county, pl so a milk producers’ association, a farm bureau, a lot of big granges, and a number of farmers’ clubs. The manager of the farm bureau was Hawley B. Rogers, and Mr. Rogers was called Into conference with Mr. Butler. “You do not need to tell me anything about decreasing rural populations.” interrupted Rogers, when Butler started in on his pet paragraph. "I knew all about that /Jefore you city people awakened. But what can we do about It?” Right here the city man had the farm bureau man beaten. “We can get together and find out,” was his reply. “I know that the city people have n double stake at issue; the cost of what they must have to eat. and the market for a large part of their goods. I think your people have something at stake also. You want good roads, and good schools, and good markets. Perhaps we can get together.” Out of this conference grew a bigger conference, present at which were representatives of most of

these rural organizations and some active business men from the city of Jamestown. The pm- - portion at Tli is Nine, and so far as possible <n every succeeding step up to the big banquet which Hosed the festival finally and successfully held, was just “fifty-fifty”; half city people, half farm people on every committee and In every conf'-'" ence. This conference, held in August, decided to hold a Farm and City festival, a real get-together. In November. “Not a county fair, but better than a county fair, with the vaudeville features omitted," was the way it was expressed. At the initial meeting It was decided to carry out this get-together Idea by making the exhibits of an character as far as possible in every instance. To do this and to finance it several committees were named. A street was closed and covered with tents. Other tents were put up on vacant lots, and the state armory was used. All sorts of exhibits—prize livestock, poultry, dairy products, grains, fruit, vegetables, etc. —were shown and prizes awarded. State experts in all phases of farming, in domestic science. In child welfare. In dietetics, etc., delivered lectures to the city and country people A railroad traffic expert discussed plans for helping producer on the farm'to get his products directly and expeditiously to consumer In the city. The government sent a goodroads exhibit, and motion pictures were used to make many of the lectures more graphically interesting. And then there was a great closing dinner. Five hundred persons representing every part of the county and city attended this affair. There was fine music, for one tiling—orchestral and choral work, led by Cornell university music instructors, and solos—and Gov. Charles S. Whitman, who was in theeity on a campaign trip, left politics behind and he and Mrs. Whitman attended the banquet. “Co-operation” and "get acquainted” were the watchwords of the occasion. Two weeks afterward the committees met and decided unanimously to hold another “Farm and City Get-Together Festival” next year.