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About The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1915)
m i - I ; 1 ; I Stocks r : 1 us A SailTOge Sale StocGi Of tine Big Vjohtenbe Consisting of Ladies' Ready to wear, Dry Goods, Notions & Shoes, combined with Stock of Mens and Boys Clothing Furnishings and Shoes These two large Stocks were purchased for about 30 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR by ROY F. ALEX ANDERj, who was very fortunate in securing them at such a low figure. Thousands oi dollars worth of high-grade, seasonable Merchandise to be sold at less than MANUFACTURER'S prices; this being possibCjawlng to the extremly low purchase price for CASH. With no former exception, the greatest Sale that Pendleton and surrounding Community has ever known will begin 2 I Big Stocks in 1 I .SATURDAY, WL 17, 9 LM To miss this Sale, wil be doing yourself an injustice. Come, bring the entire family. We can outfit them for less than half you are Compelled to Pay Elsewhere Notice No Goods Sold to Merchants; the pub lic receives entire benefit of the radi cally reduced prices Sale Conducted in the Room Formerly Occupied by The WMentag Department Store Notice No Goods Sold to Merchants; the pub lic receives entire benefit of the radi cally reduced prices If H' hA' -a. caMiota wSr J, '.' ... J :r.l 1' ' . - ifi- ' i (&,v, j. J ,( Ed. V. Price Clothes Made to Order Our new Spring and Summer cloth samples are now on display and we invite your inspection. We guaran tee a fit and general satisfaction. Cleaning and pressing given prompt attentiod. Reasonable charges. Main St. Booher & Piersol, Athena VP " . j it cA. J. Parker Bverrthluc First VIrm - Sloderu Mod Up-to -date S3UTH SIDE MAIN STREET ATHENA FLEECY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN SOM INTO THE COFFERS OF WAR. &11 th LmQinrofthe iestigKspmgatme cost Wrt flAMMOCHNG NO t!UM MOCKING NO SAGGIiNU LH See theVsJfee'Bed 'Spring rtf A- ji it " I - in - i NO BAGGING NO DRAGGING NO PITCHING l.ilL Nation Rings With Crle of 8trlcken Industry. By Peter Radford Lecturer National Farmer!' Union. ; King Cotton has suffered more from the European war than any other ag ricultural product on th American continent The shells of the belllger- j ents have bursted over his throne, frightening his subjects and shatter i log his markets, and, panic-stricken, : the nation cries out "God save the king!" ' People from nrery walk of life have contributed their mite toward rescue work. Society has danced before the king; milady has decreed that the family wardrobe shall contain only cotton goods; the press has plead with the public to "buy a bale"; bankers hare been formulating hold ing plans; congress and legislative bodies have deliberated over relief measures; statesmen and writers have grown eloquent expounding the inalienable rights of "His Majesty" , and presenting schemes for preserv ing the financial Integrity of the stricken staple, but the sword of Eu rope has proved mightier than the pen of America in fixing value upon this' product of the sunny south. Prices have been bayoneted, values riddled and markets decimated by the battling hosts of the eastern hemisphere until the American fanner has suffered a war loss of 1400,000,000, and a bale of cotton brave enough to enter a European port must pay a ransom of half its value or go to prison until the war is over. Hope of the Future Lies In Co-opera- Won. ! The Farmers' TJnion, through the columns of the press, wants to thank' the American people for the friend ship, sympathy and assistance given the cotton farmers In the hour of dis tress and to direct attention to co operative methods necessary to per-. manently assist the marketing of all LLER'S FURNITURE STORE. WSS-,-.- 1 v' M V ' w ' grave a sHu&Usp, jecflntottted tne AmeTVVm tanner and from the viewpoint of the producer, would seem to justify extraordinary relief meas ures, even to the point of bending the constitution and straining business rules in order to lift a portion of the burden off the backs of the farmer, for unless something is done to check the invasion of the war forces upon the cotton fields, the pathway of the European pestilence on this continent will be strewn with mortgaged homes and famine and poverty will stalk over the southland, filling the highways of industry with refugees and the bank ruptcy court with prisoners. : All calamities teach us lessons and the present crisis serves to Illuminate the frailties of our marketing meth ods and the weakness of our credit system, and out of the financial an guish and travail of the cotton farmer will come a volume of discussion and a mass of suggestions and finally a solution of this, the biggest problem In the economic life of America, if, indeed, we have not already laid the foundation for at least temporary re lief. More Pharaohs Needed In Agriculture. . . Farm products have no credit and perhaps can never have on a perma nent and satisfactory basis unless we build warehouses, cold storage plants, elevators, etc., for without storage and credit facilities, the south is com pelled to dump its crop on the market at harvest time. The Farmers' Unions In the cotton producing states have for the past ten years persistently ad vocated the construction of storage facilities. We have built during this period 2,000 warehouses with a ca pacity of approximately 4,000,000 bales and looking backward the results would seem encouraging, but looking forward, we are able to house less than one-third of the crop and ware houses without a credit system lose 90 per cent of their usefulness. The problem Is a gigantic onetoo great for the farmer to solve unaided. He must have the assistance of the bank er, the merchant and the government. In production we have reached the high water mark of perfection in tho world's history, but our marketing methods are most primitive. In the dawn of history we find agriculture plowing with a forked stick but with a system of warehouses under govern mental supervision that - made the Egyptians the marvel of civilization, for who has not admired the vision of Joseph and applauded the wisdom of Pharaoh tor storing the surplus until demanded by the consumer, but In this age we have too many Josephs who dream and not enough Pharaohs who build. FARMERS' UNION OFFICIALS THINK RAILROADS ARE EN TITLED TO MORE REVENUE. Billiard Tsblat on Solid Rock Klllliirrt tnnii- aupiwrted on ld rock are mrioiiu tne novel restur m a thlrty-sl room roncrete viaence located on one of the lauindx ui the Ban Jnan srcblnRlitgo to t'tigft oona Encb table rest on a uiamive roncrwe tn. which extendi) urotiKh au "I'm Ini; in the floor ana lias it rnnttnE on bedrock and Is therefore tr oim and so free from lihratlon as ir II wi-re pun of wmnri itwlt.-r'upwiM i rbSDli-K A IhiuS li:IH!iH l -l-!in ',K)0 ,,,. nafM tost tnr.t tin'" ww si!!: km ahv !,.- l-m'.ijn' l l:i tVi.l Ave r.i'Ovlnces of that cutiutrv.. Products of Plow and Farmer Who Lives at Home Should Be Exempt From Increase, J .4 By Peter Radford. ' Lecturer National Farmers' Union. The recent action of the Interstate Commerce Commission in granting an increase in freight rates in the eastern classification of territory; the applica tion of the roads to state and inter state commissions for an increase In rates, and the utterances of President Wilson on the subject bring the farm ers of this nation face to face with the problem of an increase in freight rateB. It Is the policy of the Farmers' Union to meet the issues affecting the welfare of the farmers squarely and we will do so in this instance. . The transportation facilities of the United States are inadequate to ef fectively meet the demands of com merce and particularly in the South and West additional railway mlleags is needed to accommodate the move ment of farm products. If In the wis dom of our Railroad Commissions an Increase in freight rates is necessary to bring about an improvement In our transportation service, and an exten sion of our mlloage, then an Increase should be granted, and the farmer is willing to share such proportion of tho Innrcnno OB IllBtlV belongs tO him, but we have some suggestions to make as to the manner in which this in crease shall be levied. Rates Follow Lines of Least Resist ance. The freight rates of the nation have been built up along lines of least re sistance. The merchant, the manu facturer, the miner, the miller, the lumberman and the cattleman have had their traffic bureaus thoroughly nvoaMlvnH nnA In mnnv instances they have pursued the railroad without j mercy and with the power of organ- j ized tonnage they have hammered the j life out of the rates and with unre- strained greed they have eaton the vitals out of our transportation system j and since we have naa rauroau w missions, these interests, with skill and cunning, are represented at every hearing In which their business is involved. The farmer is seldom represented at rate hearings, as his organizations have never had the finances to em ploy counsel to develop his side of the case and, as a result, the products of the plow bear an unequal burden of the freight expense. A glance at the freight tariffs abundantly proves this assertion. Cotton, the leading agricultural product of the South, al ready bear the highest freight rate of any necessary commodity in com merce, an 3 the rate on agricultural products a whole is out of pro portion with that of the products of the factory and the mine. We offer no schedule ot rates, but hope the commission will be able to give the railroad such an Increase In rates as la necessary without levying a further toll upon the products of the plow.,' The Instance seems to pre ' sent, an ,op.D.ortunItjr to the Railroad Commissions to equalize the rates as between agricultural and other classes of freight without disturbing the rateg on staple farm products. What Is a Fair Ratef We do not know what constitutes a basis for rate making and have never heard of anyone who did claim to know much about it, but if the pros perity of the farm is a factor to be nnndiWaii and the railroad commis sion concludes that an Increase In rates Is necessary, we would prefer that It come to us through articles of consumption on their Journey from the factory to the farm. We would, for example, prefer that the rate on hogs remain as at present and the rate on meat bear the increase, for any farmer can then avoid the burden by raising his own meat, and a farm er who will not try to raise his own meat ought to be penalized. We think the rate on coal and brick can much better bear an increase than the rate on cotton and flour. We would prefer that the rate on plows remain the same, and machinery, pianos and such articles as the poop er farmer cannot hope to possess bear the burden of Increase. The increase in rates should be so -arranged that the farmer who lives at home will bear no part of the bur den, but lot the farmer who boards In other states and countries and who feeds his stock in foreign lands, pay the price or nis tony, We need social centers where our young people can be entertained, amused and Instructed under the di rection ot cultured, clean and com petent leadership, where aesthetlo surroundings stir the love for the beautiful, where art charges the at mosphere with Inspiration and power, and Innocent amusements Instruct and brighten their lives. To bold our young people on the farm we must make farm lite more attractive as well as the business of farming more remunerative. The school house should be the social unit, properly equipped for nourishing and building character, so that the lives ot our people can properly function around it and become supplied with the necessar elements ot human thought and activity. Education Is a developing of the mind, not' a stuffing of the memory. Digest what you read. WE ARE LONG. ON PRODUCTION, 8HORT ON DISTRIBUTION. By Peter Radford Lecturer National Farmers' Union. ' The economlo distribution of farm products is today the world's greatest problem and the war, while It baa brought its hardships, has clearly em phasized the importance or aismuu tion as a factor in American agricul ture and promises to give the farm ers the co-operation of the govern ment and the business men the solution of their marketing problem. This result will, in a measure, com pensate us for o-:r war Iosbos, for the business interests and government have been in the main assisting al most exclusively on the production side of agriculture. While the depart ment of agriculture has been dumping tons of literature on the farmer telling him how to produce, the farmer has been dumping tons of products In the nr.tion's garbage can for want of a market, Tho World Will Never Starve.. At no time since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden have the inhabitants of this world suffered from lack of production, but some people have gone hungry from the day of creation to this good hour for the lack of proper distribution. Slight variations in production have fnrrprt n rhanea In diet and 0110 local ity has felt the pinch of want, while another surfeited, but tho world as a whole has ever been a land ot plenty. We now have less than one-tenth of the tillable land of the earth's surface under cultivation, and we not only have this surplus area to draw on but It Is safe to estimate that In case of dire necessity one-half the earth's population could at the present time knock their living out of the trees of the forest, gather it from wild vines and draw it from streams. No one should become alarmed; the v world will never starve. I The consumer has always feared that the producer would not supply him and his fright has found expres sion on the statute books of our statej and nations and the farmer has been urged to produce recklessly and with out reference to a market, and regard less of the demands of the consumer. Back to the Soil. ' The city people have been urging '' each other to move back to the farm, but very few of them have moved. We welcome our city cousins back to the soil and this earth's surface con tains 16,092,160,000 idle acres of till able land where they can make a living by tickling the earth with a forked stick, but we do not need them so far as Increasing production is con cerned; we now have all the producers we can use. The city man has very I erroneous ideas of agricultural condi tions. The commonly accepted theory mat we are snon uu viimmuvu - wrong. Our annual Increase In pro duction far exceeds that of our In crease In population Old men have visions, young men have dreams. Successful farmers plow deep while sluggards sleep. The growing of legumes will retard soil depletion and greatly add to It power to produce. . , .. i mm- . i i. ... Toncher-Johunv. name some myth ical creature. Johnny-Tho goat we're always afraid some ono will gct-Ex-change. ' .; There to still enough to satisfy on In spite of all misfortunes. -Qoutlle,