Show n n nn rown AND r PEOPLE WORK to E R 0 Z j ar W W V 10 MI A xe MM 4 JN athie th ir it ic an article about the farm and city get together feasal at jamestown Jame Jamea toWn oton A chere Y dohert alo ome mee enterprising dream err er r turned their talents to practical P cacti cal purpose r N TOO many cases country peo people and town rind and city people misunderstand one another and both lose As a consequence urban dwellers buy oregon apples p and california grapes and rural folk buy their furniture farm machinery and supplies life from chicago mail order houses sirs sa here and there however some of the more farsighted far sighted men and sv women of both groups are mak ji aili Li ing determined efforts to supplant distrust and contempt with fellowship and co operation cooperation and it works arks ladles ladies and ana gentle gehue men it works beautifully 1 the enterprising citizens of jamestown N Y and the farm people who live in the counties surrounding the city which have a population of about joined heads beads hearts and hands this last autumn in a great farm and city getto get to gether festival and the affair was such a huge success that a permanent organization was formed and the festival will be held annually hereafter here Is an illustration of how misunderstanding Is bred and why it persists sometimes james mason a city dry goods merchant drove out in the country one pleasant sunday afternoon in october and was astonished at the number of apples he saw on the ground in orchards along the roadside 1 I cannot baygood buy good apples at the grocery next my store he complained unless I 1 pay alaska prices for them 6 5 cents each yet here they are rotting on the ground mason jumped to the conclusion that the farmers did not try to save the apples or to help the thO city man and his family get food they are both selfish and lazy he asserted when he be told of the experience simon newcomb lived on a farm near where mason drove that sunday he had been lu town saturday after afternoon noan with a load of apples the looked them over and offered newcomb 50 cents a bushel newcomb had read in his farm paper that apples were scarce and he thought he ought to have a dollar a bushel but your apples are not sorted there are several kinds in the one crate and many of them are inferior in size and some badly worm eaten objected the grocer you au leave them with me for 60 50 cents a bushel or else take them somewhere else newcomb looked at his watch rind and saw it was nearly chore time and he sold them but when he pot got home he told his wife the grocer took advantage 0 of him and was little better than a robber but both men were wrong the orchard owner was not lazy nor selfish he had other problems worse to handle and more necessary to him than picking up and nd saving a few bushels of apples a rm r M y 1 T 5 T k 1 0 ec aa wi nor was the grocer a robber ile he had a trade which required certain standards and the stuff offered him did not conform to those standards all wrong almost from the start just as the foregoing illustration makes plain the problem more than pages of generalities so the experience of jamestown in its first farm and city festival will show how the effort to get together succeeds better than more pages of platitudes t u d ea first of all jamestown had a live board of commerce and a secretary with a vision not bounded by the factory chimneys odthe of the city nor its city limits secretary fred clayton butter butler had bad been studying some united states census reports on chautauqua county N Y and lie he discovered that most of the rural towns of the county and nil all its rural villages but two or three that had a lot of factories had decreased in population in the last three decades he did not need to be told about the increase in cost of living that was self evident in surveying the field he found that there was an active apple growers association in cha chautauqua atau county also a n milk producers association a farm bureau a lot of big granges and a number of farna farmers ers clubs the maringer manager of the farm bureau was hawley B rogers and mr rogers was called into conference with mr butler you do not need to tell roe me anything about decreasing rural populations interrupted rogers when butler started in on his pet paragraph knew all about that before you city people awakened but what can we do about it right here the city roan man had the farm bureau man beaten we can get together and find out was his reply 1 I know that the city people have a double stake at issue the cost of what they must hove to eat and the market for a large part of their goods I 1 think your people have something at stake also you want good roads and good schools and good markets perhaps we can get together out of this conference grew a bigger conference present at which were representatives of most of these rural organizations and some active bustness business men from the city of jamestown the proportion at this time and so far as possible in every succeeding step up to the big banquet which closed the festival finally and successfully held was just fifty fifty half city people half farm people on every committee and in every conference this conference held in august decided to hold a farm and city festival a real get t 9 gather la in november not a county fair but better than a county fair with the vaudeville features omitted was themay it was expressed at the initial meeting it was decided to carry out this get together idea by making the exhibits of an educational character as far as possible in every Tr instance istance to do this and to finance it several committees committee were named A street was closed and covered with tents other tents were put up on vacant lots and the state armory was used all sorts of exhibits prize livestock poultry dairy products grains fruit vegetables etc were shown and prizes awarded state experts in all phases of farming tn in domestic science in child welfare in dietetics etc delivered lectures to the city and country people A railroad traffic expert discussed plans for helping producer on the farm to get his products directly and expeditiously y consumer in the city the government sent abood a good roads exhibit and motion lectures ures were used to make many of the lectures more graphically interesting and then there was a great closing dinner five hundred persons representing every part of the county rind and city attended this affair there was ivaa fine music for one thing orchestral and choral work led by cornell university music instructors and solos and gov diaries charles S whitman who was in the city on a campaign trip left politics behind and he be and mrs whitman attended the banquet operation cooperation co and get acquainted were the watchwords of the occasion two weeks afterward the committees met and decided unanimously to hold another farm and city get together festival next nest year |