HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
A Page of Editorials for the Home and Farm Magazine Section
TO ADVERTISERS
Advertisers in this locality who wish
fully to cover all sections of Oregon
and Washington and a portion of Idaho
will apply to local publishers for rates.'
General advertisers may address C. L.
Burton, Advertising Manager Home
and Farm Magazine Section, Oregonian
Building, Portland, Oregon, for rates
and information.
TO READERS
Readers are requested to send letters
and articles for publication to The Edi
tor, Home and Farm Magazine Section,
Oregonian Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions and prob
lems that bear directly on the agricul
tural, livestock and poultry interests of
the Northwest and on the uplift and
comfort of the farm home always are
welcomed. No letters treating of re
ligion, politics or the European war are
solicited. We proclaim neutrality on
these matters.
Comparatively brief contributions
are preferred to long ones. Send us
also photographs of your livestock and
farm scenes that you think would be
of general interest. We wish to make
this magazine of value toyou. Help
us to do it.
GIVING THE CHILD A CHANCE
THE importance of the child is
gradually being recognized by
organized society. The wonder
of it all is that the child has been
neglected for so long. The resources
of the powerful United States Gov
ernment have always been at the
command of those seeking to stamp
out an insect plague, or those desir
ing to improve the breeds of cows,
hogs or chickens, but how much
time has been given by Govern
mental authorities to improving the
breed of children ? And which is the
more important to the coming gen
eration, that better grades of
domestic animals shall be raised or
that a more virile manhood shall
come into its own?
The work of breeding children is
to a certain extent conducted by
state or private organizations. It is
a work that cannot be commended
too highly.
Juvenile courts are aiding now in
dealing with the wayward child.
"Child labor" laws have been passed.
Schools have been formed with the
object of teaching girls how to care
for babies schools in "mother
craft." Widows' pension bills have
been passed by 23 states. Conven
tions of physicians now find an im
portant subject for discussion in the
welfare of the child. Leaders in
educational work are considering
the training of the child.
Year by year, the demand has be
come stronger for a square deal for
the child in his right to be well bom,
in his right to have good health, a
strong body and proper training.
With a fair chance for the child, the
results arc certain to prove of in
estimable value to the country.
CAN WE HOLD OUR OWN?
AMERICA'S opportunity lies be
fore her today as it never has
lain before. The terrible war
that is devastating Europe has
opened a wide door of opportunity
to us, with a world of conquest lying
behind it. These conquests are the
peaceful conquests of industry. Can
we grasp the situation and do the
work before us?
There are three things necessary:
'A large population, skilled in the in
dustrial arts, an abundant capital
to pay them and also to stimulate
business in foreign countries, and a
plentiful supply of power.
In the earliest ages of our indus
tries water power was about all
there was. Then came coal, and in
spite of the discovery of oil and the
inventions that apply electricity to
industries, coal may still be said to
constitute the most important source
of all our motive power.
The production of coal in 1913 in
the United States was 509,000,000
long tons, nearly twice that of Great
Britain, our closest competitor. At
the present rate of growth we shall
soon be turning out as much coal as
all the rest of the world together.
We are not only able to compete
with Great Britain and all the rest
of the world in the quantity and
price of coal for home use, but also
for export. When the last century
closed the total exports of coal from
the United States were 7,000,000
tons. In 1913 this was increased to
21,000,000 tons.
The figures answer emphatically
in the affirmative the question of
our ability to compete for the busi
ness of the world in one respect at
least, that of the great motive
powerT
Is there any question about our
ability in other respects? To coal
we add fuel oil, and to these two
electric power from our wonderful
streams. As to capital, we are well
supplied, and our production of solid
money annually is very great. Then
for our population, it numbers today
in our continental territory 100,000,
000 of the most intelligent, quickest
witted, best-fed and therefore most
energetic people on the earth.
WISDOM AND WAR.
NINE HUNDRED years ago a
dispute between Modena and
Bologna over a well bucket
began a war which devastated
Europe. A Chinese Emperor once
went to war over the breaking of a
teapot. Sweden and Poland flew at
each other's throats in 1654 because
the King of Sweden discovered that
his name in an official dispatch was
followed by only two et ceteras,
while the King of Poland's had
three. The spilling of a glass of
water over the Marquis de Torey led
to war between France and England,
and a small boy, by throwing a peb
ble at the Due de Guise, led to the
massacre of Vassy and the 30 years'
war.
LAZY FARMERS, DON'T READ
THIS.
Editorial in Polk County Itemizer.)
THE United States Department
of Agriculture, the state boards
and the experts all over the
country are urging the farmers of
America to cultivate every available
acre during the coming year. The
war. in Europe assures the sale of
almost everything that can be
raised. Every article that is ex
ported to feed the soldiers and the
citizens and the stock ' of Europe
means that just that much less for
home consumption, therefore, even
with big crops of everything, the
price will be high.
If it is not a good crop year the
farmer will at least raise enough
for home use and will not have to
pay the high prices"that will pre
vail. Utilize every available acre
for grain, grasses and vegetables. It
should not be necessary, under
proper conditions, to import potatoes
into any agricultural county.
Put the hens and the turkeys to
work and give them a square deaf.
Ptaise hogs, cattle and horses in as
large numbers as the accommoda
tions of your farm will justify and
any losses that any fanner, planter
or rancher may have sustained last
year will be more than made good.
The war in Europe may last for
months or years, and while it con
tinues there will be an active de
mand for everything we produce.
Should the war end this week the
nations engaged will need all our
surplus products for a year at least.
Take our advice, for once, and do
not permit good, tillable land to lie
idle in 1915.
IF THERE MUST BE ALLIANCES
IF THERE must be European al
liances though tragic events
have proved them to be danger
ous we may hope though hardly
expect in view of the bitterness that
will follow war a new alignment
when peace once more ragns over
battle-ravaged Europe.
Why is it not possible to have an
alliance between France, Germany,
England, Italy and the lesser pow
ers with its sole aim the beneficent
development of Europe and the
peaceful curbing of the less ad
vanced nations of Europe and Asia?
Not an alliance for the offensive,
not for conquest, not to deprive
Russia or Asia of a "place in the
sun," not to limit their right to de
velopment, prosperity and enlight
enmentbut to keep them in check
until they have risen in culture and
democracy to the level of Western
Europe and to help them rise, if it
is not asking tor much.
It should be a league for develo)
ment, not for repression; for civi
lization and peace, not for barbar
ism and war.
The bitterness between England
and Germany affects us in America
like bitterness between two of our
good friends and neighbors, both of
whom we love and respect, and for
both of whom there is room and
honor and glory. It is not good for
England, for Germany or for the
world.
Such a league, formed honestly
for peace and working for peace,
not hypocritically for peace and
working for war, would help each of
.its members, would help Russia,
would help the Balkans, would help
the world.
It would spread enlightenment,
intelligence, civilization and the as
piration for human liberty. It would
dispel the cloud of fear that kept
the nations armed and on the brink
of war, and that cast the shadow
of coming tragedy over the fields
and factories and into the homes.
But will international hatred,
born afresh by the war, remain to
make this impossible?
the telephone? You consider you
are getting your money's worth
when you pay for the telephone, now
don't you?
Then almost any sort of a water
system, even if it is no more than a
pump on the porch, costs more in
hard cash than it did to carry water
from a spring or brook, but it is a
whole lot more convenient, and you
are willing to pay the price.
It costs quite a bit more to build a
comfortable modern home than it
would to put up a log house, but we
go on building our up-to-date homes
just the same. And it costs more to
furnish our modern homes than it
did a two-room log house, but we go
on furnishing them, adding quite a
bit to the high cost of living.
We dress better than we did once,
and we live better and have more
privileges, and it all costs. We travel
more, entertain more, hear more
lectures, see more plays, read more
books and spend more money on
many things that make life worth
living than we did even a few years
ago, and it all adds to the high cost
of living.
Then there is the automobile. No
one will deny that an automobile is
an expensive luxury, yet everyone
buys one that can afford to, and a
good many buy them that ought not
to, and yet we go on complaining
about the high cost of living. Still
it looks as if we were getting our
money's worth, and if we must com
- plain, why not complain about the
cost of high living? That would
seem more consistent, but really
why complain at all ?
Why not live as well as we can
within our income, enjoy all the con
veniences and privileges of this
golden age, and so far as we can af
ford, pay the price of high living
cheerfully, ' instead of grumbling
about the high cost of living?
The farmer who makes only his
living is said to be losing money, be
cause he is not making a percentage
on his investment or getting good
wages for his time. Nevertheless, a
man may toil away in the city day
in and day out and at the end of the
year find he is' not anything ahead
of the game, yet he is never spoken
of as failing to make his living.
Isn't there a little inconsistency
here?
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.
WE HEAR a great deal these
days about the high cost of
living, and it certainly does
cost us a good deal more at the pres
ent time than it did only a few years
ago. But before we groan too much
about what it costs us to live these
days, we would better stop and con
sider what we are getting for our
money.
You know we have a few things
at the present time which seem to
be necessities, that our fathers and
grandfathers could not afford, even
as luxuries, as only a few years ago
they could not be had at any price.
For instance, there is the tele
phone. That adds quite a bit to the
high cost of living, but how would
you like to try to get along without
The only sentiment in Briton's
famous sea song, "Rule Britannia,"
which appeals to the German fancy,
is that part of the refrain which
runs:
"And he mar-ri-ade a mer-mi-ade
In the bottom of the deep, blue sea."
We read that a great many of the
22-carat European opera singers are
detained in this country on account
of the M'ar. Yet this does not seem
to affect the high cost of music.
Noting that the Russians are
throwing "Jack Johnson" shells into
Ossowetz, we may infer 'that there
is a stiffer punch in black powder.
In the matter of advertising, it
seems to us that the English and
Germans . are getting the" best of it
out of this war.
There will be some demand for
harbor improvements when the
allies are through with the Darda
nelles, i
A learned authority says this will
be the last war. Unquestionably
for many thousands I -