Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1916 — BACK TO THE FARM. [ARTICLE]

BACK TO THE FARM.

It is gratifying to learn from real estate men in different sections of the country that there is at last a pronounced movement “back to the farm.” They report large numbers of city men of moderate means purchasing farms and moving their families to them to escape* the burdens of the present high cost of living. 1 This is commendable and all right as far as it goes, but the movement is not general enough. And then it is not owners that are needed on the farms, but workers. For several decades past now there has been a rapid exodus from the farm, until in many sections of the country it is almost impossible to- secure farm help at any price. This has had the inevitable result or ctiTtaiJing the output of the farms, high prices noturally resulting.

We have seen a table of statistics of the per cent of urban population as compered to rural, at the present time and fifty years ago. It showed startling growth of the cities and towns, with not, nearly an equal growth of rural population. But, you say, those workers who have deserted the farms «for the city are now engaged in manufactures. Why, then, are not manufactured articles cheaper in price instead of being right up along side of food stuffs?

The answer is simple, and will have to be taken into consideration In any scheme to lessen the cost of living. The farm is the barometer of the national life. Touch the farm and you touch the national pulse. It matters very little the scarcity or plenty of manufactured products, if the. farm is over productive the prices fall; if the farm falls, all prices rise in sympathy. We know this is not at all acceptable to the politician, who would have us believe that party policies are responsible—all of which is the veriest rot, as the American, people are fast finding out.

When we as a people attack the farm problem in a sensible way; when we devise some plan to restore to the farms of this country

the valuable human brawn that they have lost —then and not till then will we be in the way of reducing the cost of living again to the normal. Perhaps the movement reported is the beginning, and indicates that the pendulum is at last started on its backward swing. Let us devoutly hope that such is the caee. The California State Federation of Labor has instructed its executive board to investigate the feasibility of organizing Asiatics, both Chinese and Japanese, under the banner of the American Federation of Labor. Metallic titanium, it has been found, will cut and mark glass, leaving an ornamental silvery streak where it has, been used. ■ Since new telegraph cables to Ceylon have been opened messages have been transmitted from London Within half an hour. The government of Argentina has made the heating of passenger cars on railroad trains in the winter months compulsory. ' The new bridge across the Tiber at Rome, having a span of 328 feet, is the longest reinforced concrete arch in the world.