Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1919 — Back to the Land! The Nation’s Duty and the Citizen’s Opportunity. [ARTICLE]

Back to the Land! The Nation’s Duty and the Citizen’s Opportunity.

By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN

When the American 0f.38 years of age was born the United States had a population of 50,155,783. Thirty out of every hundred people lived in the cities; the othet seventy lived in the country. Year by year the cities have gained in population at the expense of the country. n the population had increased ta 93,402,151. and 46.3 per cent of it was in the cities. The census of 1920 is expected to show that we have a population of about 110,000,000 and that more than half live in the cities. In the decade between 1900 ad 1910 our whole population increased 20.9 per cent, the- urban 34.8 and the rural 11.2. The city popu ation therefore increased nearly twice as fast as that of the ■whole country an more than three times as fast as that of the rural districts. In six states there was an actual decrease in the rural population. These figures show that the cities have taken more than their share of the immigrants and have also lured farmers from the farm. This rapidly increasing disproportion between the food-producing population of the rural districts and the food-consuming population o the cities has long been recognized as a danger signal to the nation. Moreover, to allow it to continue is to reject the greatest opportunity in the history of the nation. The nation should bestir itself to keep every farmer on the farm; to get onto the farm every returning soldier who wants to plant every city man who belongs on the soil. This is a large undertaking but one easily within the power of the nation. Certain conditions make the time ripe for it. Earning as a business now offers inducements second to none and better than most. The federal government, with its farm loan board, its experiment station in every state and its farmers'* bulletins; the states with their agricultural colleges; thd counties, with their expert agents and demonstrators—all stand ready to give the farmer service adequate to his needs. . ~ There is good money- to be made in farming. Until very recent y less brains has been mixed with farming than with any other business. Now, with brains and modern scientific methods, farming is one of the best-paying businesses on earth. There are. still millions of acres of unoccupied farm awaiting the plow- the public domain contains 230,657,755 acres of unreserved and unappropriated land, of which a large proportion is suitable for agriculture There are 15,000,000 acres of arid land for irrigation. There are 60,000,000 acres of swamp and overflowed lands which can be reclaimed. There are 200,000,000 acres of cut-over land fit for cultivation. The nation’s administrators and lawmakers should wake up to the situation that is at once a danger imd an opportunity. France and Great Britain and all her colonies are busy getting their people on the soil. America lags behind when it is to her that a large part of the world must look for food for many a year. Congress should pass Secretary Lane’s great reclamation measure .for work and homes for soldiers. The railroad administration should resume railroad advertising of farm lands and the work of colonization agents. Good roads, extension of agricultural education, betterment of country living conditions, development of farm labor supply, assurance of fair profits, financial assistance—all these should be the immediate policy. to the lan<N Every man on the farm is an asset and not a liability. Agriculture is the foundation of the prosperity of this country and always be. is the fundamental natural resource from which this nation draws its life. And the farmer is the bulwark of the nation. Moreover, farming is a business in which a man of parts niay take delight. It is an honest'business. The farmer does not climb up by pulling others down. He has his place in the sun. If he chance to have an eye for beauty there are the recurrent miracle of the spring and the pageantry of the seasons. And Mother Nature is likely to throw in health, efrpngth and happiness for good measure. - t \