HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Home and Farm Magazine Section Editorial Page
Timely. Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, FolL
the Trend of World News; Suggestion! of Interest to Headers;
Hintt Along Line of
ogressive Farm Thought.
TO ADVERTISERS.
Advertisers in this locality who wish
to fully cover all sections of Oregon and
Washington and a portion of Idaho will
apply to local publishers for rates.
General advertisers mar address C. L.
Burton, Advertising Manager of Farm
Magazine Co., Publishers Oregon-Wash-
inston-Idaho Farmer, 411 Panama Build-
ing, Portland, Oregon, for rates and in- t
iormation.
TO READERS.
Readers are requested to send letters
and articles for publication to The Edi
tor, Oregon-Washington-Idaho Farmer,
411 Panama Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions and prob
lems that bear directly on the agricul
tural, live stock and poultry interests of
the Northwest, and on the uplift and
comfort of the farm home always ore
welcomed. No letters treating of reli
gion, politics or the European war are
solicited, for the Form Magazine pro
claims neutrality on these three matters.
Comparatively brief contributions are
preferred to long one9. Send us also
photographs of your live stock and farm
scenes that you think would be of gen
eral interest. We wish to make this
magazine of valuo to you. Help us to
do it.
IS IT PERSECUTION?
FARM IMPLEMENTS of the best mate
rials and at the lowest prices are
necessary for the prosperity of the
American farmer. If both can best be se
cured from a large corporation, it is to the
benefit of the farmer that such a concern
exist. If it is true that the International
Harvester Company sold farm machinery in
Europe at a lower price than in America,
Ihe investigation carried on by the Federal
Government would be in order. If, however,
such a condition does not exist, the con
tinued attack on this corporation made, by
members in Congress would be k the nature
of persecution.
; There is a type of politician today who
Inilds up a reputation on his strenuous op
position to "trusts." He proclaims his undy
ing hatred for all "big business" and seeks
every opportunity to harry large money in
terests, sometimes bringing on a panic by
lus uncalled-for attacks. Such an agitator
6hould be suppressed and suppressed with
finality. He does no one any good but him
self, and his work is one of destruction
rather than construction.
! On the other hand there is many a man
frequenting Congressional halls today who
js sincere in his conviction that large organ
izations or combines of capital are detrimen
tal to the welfare of the nation. We do not
hold a briof for "big business," for its sins
Bro many, but wo do object to a persecution
J)f any corporation just because it is a cor
poration. We believe that conscientious
members of Congress, whether or not they
are among the strongest supporters of "anti
trust" movements, will agree with us in this
stand. We stand for fair play.
While the agitator is crying that the In
ternational Harvester Company is the dead
ly enemy of the farmer, fleecing him at
every opportunity, many American farm
ers have written letters of protest, declaring
that the corporation had been eminently
fair in all its dealings with them. Of the
decision of the case against the International
Harvester Company some have gone so far
as to state that it was in the face of the fact
that the company was found honest and
square in all its dealings and of admitted
.value to the American farmer. Two judges
'decided against the company, one for it.
The supreme tribunal of the land will now
have an opportunity to sit upon this case.
Whatever its finding may be, it is certain
that the company does not go into court
.Without the sympathy of many American
farmers. The policy of man-handling cor
porations for little cause does not meet
Jrith universal approbation. A manufac
turing concern is entitled to the same
hearing as an individual. If dishonest, it
should be severely punished. If found to
he operating on a clean, honest, business
like basis, a decision in its favor should be
iveii u vide publicity as one condemning it, '
SPECULATION VS. INVESTMENT.
FORTUNES have been made by specula
tion. Bat a great many more have
been lost from the same cause. In
speculating, a, man takes a chance, and in
the erent of success the returns are great
And in this lies the lure of speculation. v
Speculation is the greatest of American
gambling games that has not been severely
dealt with by the law. And when it ii
carried on without false representations and
by honest men, it is fully as deserving as
any line of business. It is only when the
unscrupulous man enters the field, deter
mined to make money at the coat of the men
who believe in his schemes, that the head of
ruin rears. It is this man that the govern
ment will not tolerate, but it is difficult to
prosecute 'him and the majority of convic
tions have only been when he has been found
to have made use of the United States mails
for fraudulent purposes. Then, too often,
conviction has merely meant a small fine,
easily paid.
There is little - objection to' legitimate
speculation, except that it fosters the gam
bling spirit, which is a tendency which
should not be cultivated. Legitimate specu
lation is closely related to investment, though
investment savors not so much of the ele
ment of chance.
Investment of money is to be advised, If
the investment be a wise one. Too often the
mistake is made of "investing" money in a
proposition that is obviously a gamble a
speculation. Speculation and investment are
sometimes used as synonyms, which they are
not Investment implies investigation of
possible returns. Investments are made with
a reasonable chance of a successful outcome.
Neither of these are implied in speculation.
If not merely a blind chance, speculation in
fers the placing of money in the hope of
getting much larger returns than would be
possible from a legitimate business proposi
tion or the ordinary conservative investment.
The investor is protected to some extent by
the reliability of that in which he invests.
The speculator '.'takes a chance."
The advertiser who encourages speculation
in that which he has to sell is only objection
able when he promises that which he is in
no position to make possible. That is, he is
objectionable when he tells his patrons that
what he has is a "sure-thing," rather than
what it really is, a "sporting chance."
THE COUNTY FAIR.
THERE are two kinds of farmers in this
country, those who growl and grumble
and let their places run down at the
heels, and those who go to the county fair.
The county fair is to farming what a revival
meeting is to a Methodist church. After a
man has plodded along at the same old tasks
for months at a time he begins to petrify.
He needs something to happen to him, to jar
his corpuscles into faster activity.
A great deal is said about the value of the
county fair from an educational standpoint
But that isn't the principal value of a
county fair, says the Western Farmer. Not
by any means. A man could sit down foi
an hour or so in the rocking chair, with his
feet on the center table, and learn more from
an old file of agricultural papers than he
could in three days at the county fair. That
is, if he didn't go to sleep.
The great value of the county fair is in its
inspiration. The farmer gets a broader view
of his calling as he walks down between
the rows of fruit and vegetables. As he
stands before the judging ring and watches
the ribbons tied he has an uncomfortable
sense of opportunities neglected. He doesnt
believe for a minute that he doesn't know
enough to produce a colt or a calf as good
as those that captured the blue ribbons.
Then why hasn't he done it! He has a dozen
excuses to offer, but down in his heart he
knows that it is simply because he has neg
lected his opportunities. He resolves to
make a feed box for the colts as soon as he
gets home and he changes his mind abont
cutting off the calf's allowance of skim milk.
He decides to drive around by" the feed
store on the way home and order some
stankage for the pigs. He had better blood
than the neighbor who won first prize.
Why not feed a little better and prove that
he has the best pigs.
The boy who went to the fair tired of
the farm and ready to look for a job on
the section, goes home feeling differently.
He has signed up for the corn contest next
year, and is already making plans for rais
ing the biggest crop of corn the county has
ever seen. He has taken part in the con
and stock judging contest, perhaps, and
while probably he did not get first place, ha
has found that there is a great deal to an
ear of corn or a horse that he did not know
before. He goes home and examines the
old work horses for side bones, and tries to
tell their age by their teeth. He learns to
look into the farm papers now and then,
and begins to see that there is something
more to farming than pulling weeds and
milking cows.
For the whole family the fair is a badly
needed outing. They meet old friends and
make new ones. They come home tired, but
happy. They wake up the next morning re
solved to make the coming year count for
more than the one just past The fair thai
can send people home feeling good and keep
them feeling good until they get the fenced
fixed and the yard cleaned up is well worth
while. x
THE POOR PLANTER,
THOUGH the Southern members faileft
to induce Congress to vote $250,000,000
or some other huge sum of public
money as a subsidy to the distressed plant
ers of the South, the poor cotton grower
does not lack sympathetic and influential
friends in Washington and is not to go with
out substantial assistance.
In his announcement that the new regional
reserve banks will begin operation Novem
ber 16, though their directors asked far two
weeks more for preparation, Secretary of the
Treasury McAdoo makes plain the reason for
his haste in distributing $400,000,000 of na
tional bank reserve funds, "as large an
amount of government funds as possible,"
where it will be available for loans to bank
customers. "By this means," says the seo
retary. "and through the agency of the
federal reserve banks I hope to give addi
tional assistance to that already given by
the Treasury Department to the cotton pro
ducers, the cotton industry and the bushes
men of the South."
Simultaneously with Mr. MeAdoo'a an
nouncement the Cleveland Leader published
a letter from a Northern man in Texas, re
lating his observations of the poor cotton
grower and his companion in distress, the
Southern business man.
Briefly, the writer pictured the Texas cot'
ton grower as more often than not a wan
dering, shiftless, impecunious tenant farmer,
operating on borrowed money and forcing
the landlord to do the Bame, Though the
Department of Agriculture has been urging
them for years to raise food crops, the loi
ter states, both classes refuse to plant any
thing but cotton, the legislature nas failed
to limit the cotton acreage and, though con
taining some of the most fertile land in the
world, Texas does not begin to produce ho?
own food supply. Cotton, of course, is
staple well adapted to use as collateral of
subject of speculation. On it, the writer s
leges, the Texas banker has built a system
of usury forcing the cotton grower to pay
12 to 20 per cent for loans.
It is a dismal picture. That it overdraw!
the shortsightedness of the planter, the greed
of the banker and the sorry future of the
industry can at least be hoped. Another
natural hope is that the government's huge
cubsidy will not reach the cotton grower in
the form of 12 to 20 per cent loans, with the
lion's share of the benefit going to the local
money lender. For, it will be a pity thai
the regional bank system, which was ex
pected to do so math for the whole country,
should be so largely devoted at the outset
to the benefit of a single sectional industry;
The way to make the country home a&
tractive to the young folks is to have the
home surroundings conducive"" to comfort
Money and time spent in this department of
the farm is well sgent.