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About Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1903-1919 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1914)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Home and Farm Magazine Section Editorial Page Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Foil Hints Along Lines of the Trend of World News; Suggestions of Interest to Readers; ogressive Farm Thought. - ; TO ADVERTISERS. ' Advertisers in this locality who wish ' to fully cover all sections of Oregon and Washington and a portion ot Idaho vrlll appiy to local publishers for rates. General advertisers may address O. tu Barton, Advertising Managor of Farm Magazine Co., Publishers Oregon-Washington-Idaho Farmer, 411 Panama Build ing, Portland, Oregon, for rates and information. TO READERS. Readers are requested to send letters and articles for publication to The Edi tor, Oregon-Washington-Idaho Farmer, 41 1 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 are welcomed. No letters treating of reli gion, politics or the European war arc solicited, for the Farm Magazine pro claims neutrality on these three matters. Comparatively brief contributions are preferred to long ones. Send us also photographs of your live stock and farm scenes that you think would be of gen eral interest. We wLsh to make this magazine of value to you. Help us to do it. 0$t$$sSS$,c$.$.$S$S.$. IS IT PERSECUTION? FARM IMPLEMENTS of the best mato rials and at tho lowest prices are necessary for tho prosperity of tho American farmer. If both can best bo se cured from a largo 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 Europo at a lower price than in America, 1ho investigation carried on by the Federal Government would be iu order. If, however, such a condition does not exist, the con tinued attack on this corporation mado by members in Congress would be in tho nature of persecution. There is a type of politician today who builds up a reputation on his strenuous op position to "trusts." Ho 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 bis uncalled-for attacks. Such an agitator should 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 tho other hand there is many a man frequenting Congressional halls today who is sincere in his conviction that large organ isations or combines of capital are dctrimcn- . tal to tho welfare of the nation. We do not hold a brief for "big business," for its sins aro many, but wo do object to a persecution of any corporation just because It is a cor poration. Wo believe that conscientious members of Congress, whether or not thoy ro among tho strongest supporters of "anti trust" movements, will agreo with us in this stand. We stand for fair play. While tho agitator is crying that the In ternational Harvester Company is the dead ly enemy of the fanner, floecing him at every opportunity, many American farm ers have written letters of protest, declaring that tho corporation had been eminontly air in all its dealings with them, Of tho 'decision of the ease against the International Harvester Company some have gone so far as to stale that it was in tho faco of tho fact that tho 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. Tho supremo tribunal of tho land will now have an opportunity to sit upon this case, Whatever its finding may be, it is certain that tho company docs not go into court without the sympathy of many American farmers. The policy of man-handling cor porations for little cause does not meet with uuivorsal approbation. A manufac turing concern is entitled to the same ' hearing as an individual. Ii dishonest, it should bo severely punished. If found to be operating on a clean, honest, business liko basis, a decision in its favor should be KYeu. as wide publicity, as one condemning it, SPECULATION VS. INVESTMENT. FORTUNES have been made by specula tion. But a great many more have been lost from the same cause. In speculating, a man takes a chance, and in the event of success the returns are great And in this lies the lure of speculation. Speculation is the greatest of American gambling games that has not been severely dealt with- by the law. And when it u 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 cost of the men who believe in his schemes, that the head of ruin 'rears. It is this man that tho 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 Slates mails for fraudulent purposes. Then, too often, conviction has merely meant a small fine, easily paid. Thero 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 mado 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 mado 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 ho invests, Tho speculator "takes a chance." The advertiser who encourages speculation in that which he has to sell is only objection able when ho promises that which ho 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 tho 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. Ho needs something to happen to him, to jar bis 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 Parmer. Not by any means. A man could Bit down for an hour or so in tho 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 viow 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 ho has an uncomfortable sense of opportunities neglected. He doesn't believe for a minute that be doesn't know enough to produce a eolt or a calf as good as thoso that captured the blue ribbons. Then why hasn't he done itt Ho has a doxen excuses to offer, but down in his heart he knows that it is simply because he has neg lected his opportunities. lie resolves to make a feed box for tho colts as soon as he gets home and he changes his mind about cutting off tho calf's allowance of skim milk. He decides to drive around by the feed store on the way home and order some ftankage for the plga. IIo had better blood than tho neighbor who won firat 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 plana for rais ing the biggest crop of corn the county has ever seen. He has taken part in the com and stock judging contest, perhaps, and while probably he did not get first place, he 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 tho whole family the fair is a badly needed outing. They meet old friends and make new ones. Thoy come home tired, but happy. They wako up the next morning re solved to make the coming year count for more than the one just past. The fair that can send people home feeling good and keep them fcoling good until they get the fences fixed and the yard cleaned up is well worth while. THE POOE PLANTER. THOUGH the Southern members failed; to induce Congress to vote $250,000,000 or some other huge sum of publio 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 bis announcement that the new regional reserve banks will bogin operation Novem ber 16, though their directors asked for two weeks more for preparation, Secretary of the Treasury MoAdoo 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 ppaaiblo," where it will be available for loans to bank customers. "By this means," Bays the sec retory, "and through the agency of tho 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 busmen men of the South." Simultaneously with Mr. MoAdoo 's 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 same. Though the Department of Agriculture has been urging thorn for years to raise food crops, the loi ter states, both classes refuse to plant any thing but cotton, the legislature lias failed to limit the cotton acreage and, though con taining some of the most fertile land in the world, Texas docs not begin to produce he own food supply. Cotton, of course, is Btaplo well adapted to use as collateral ot subject of speculation. On it, the writer a leges, the Texas banker has built a systoM of usury forcing the cotton grower to pa 13 to 20 per cent for loans. It is a dismal picture. That it overdraw the shortsightedness of the planter, the gred of the banker and the sorry future of the industry can at least be hoped. Anolhcf natural hope is that the government's huge subsidy will not reach the cotton grower n tho fonn of 12 to 20 per eont loans, with the lion's all are of the benefit going to the loeeJ( money lender. For, it will be a pity that the regional bank syBtom, which was ex pected to do so mtich for the whole country, should be so largely devoted at the outsot to the benefit of a single sectional industry,, The way to make the country home at tractive to the young follis is to have the linmo surroundings conducive to comfort Money and time spent in this department of tho farm is well spent.