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Show THE CITIZEN 4 -- :ing the extra jobs. the taxes. This creates extra outlay of money and v. boostsv Wc have too many duplication of offices, yet no one will arise to suggest a reform, fearing his political head may be cut off. Our city and county government here ought to be one, which would ofput one set of officials out of business. Most of our county ficials are working in the city and pay slight atention to the county. We have an efficient police force in the city, for instance, yet wc find that the sheriffs force is making arrests and raids continually in the city. Is it because the sheriff has better men on his staff, or what is it? Thus we find two police departments doing work in the city, each along its own line and separate. We have two boards of health with distinct official heads, and so on down the line there is a duplication of offices. The load is too heavy for the taxpayers to carry, and yet the people stand by like a herd of sheep and allow their hard earned money to be spent without any check upon it. Every progressive and city in ordei in the United States has consolidated with the county to eliminate the big expense. Our former mayor, W. Mont Ferry, made an effort to bring about such a consolidation here, but he worked without material and effective assistance, and nothing came of his well deserved efforts. Everyone is grumbling over the big taxes in this city and county, and yet the people refuse to get together for their own good. If the taxpayers got together from the city and county they could bring about the necessary remedy, and this should be done at the next legislature. - up-to-d- ate FARMERS. A lie travels on horseback. Two have been galloping up and down the country now for moriths. One is the statement that American farmers, due to economic conditions in Europe, have lost their foreign markets. The other is the statement tha't farm prices go up or down as exports of arm products go up or down, and the prosperity of the American farmer depends upon an increase in his exports. These lies originated with the advocates of the League of Na'tions and Americas becoming involved in European affairs. They were invented in order to deceive the agricultural sections of the country, which are strongly against becoming involved in Europes quarrels. They are kept in the saddle largely by that group of propagandists who through the press and from the platform and pulpit are waging an incessant campaign in favor of a departure from American traditions and a repudiation of American principles, and our ivolvcmcnt and entanglement in the age-ol- d quarrels of Europe. Every official document touching upon the subject of foreign markets issued by any department of our government, furnishes conclusive proof that the farmer today is selling Europe vastly greater quantities of agricultural products than he did in any year prior to the world war. The American farmer is selling more to Europe today than he did prior to the world war, because Europe is not yet back to its normal agricultural production. The nearer it approaches the days, the less the production of crops and livestock of pre-wAmerican farmer will sell to Europe. Those who hold out to him the hope of increased markets in the event Europe is put on its feet are doing him the worst posand to ask sible injury. His trouble today is him to stimulate production in the expectation of geting a market, which he never will have, is to add to his misfortunes. The truth is, the American farmer must face the fact that he will sell less and less to Europe from now on. His problem is cither to increase his domestic market or decrease his own production. The lie tha't farm prices go up or down with farm exports is even more inexcusable than its runnning mate. There never has . ar over-productio- n, V ground for such a statement. The records of farm prices and farm exports for over a generation show that there is not the scintilla of truth in this allegation. To the contrary, the years of greatest exports have,-- , as. a No rule, been years of lowest prices in the articles exported. better illustration can be offered of that fact than the relation between cotton exports and prices. For a period of years prior to the world war, cotton exports ran from 8,500,000 to 9,500,000 bales a year, and the prevailing price was 11 to 12 cents a pound. Today,' cotton is selling at 22 cents a pound, and our. exports are record. Two years ago this month, cotton only half the pre-wwas selling at 12 to 13 cents, while exports were over a million more bales than they are today. We are exporting more pork products today than a year ago or than the average for any of the past three years, while hogs are selling at less than they did a year ago or the average for the last three years. The farmer well knows that in 1921 he received less for practically every variety of his products than any previous period for a number of years, yet the exports of farm products in that year were the greatest of any year in American history. These are the facts. Why does the Democratic national committee suppress them? Why does it send out statements to the contrary if not to deceive the farmer in an effort to gain party Why do Democratic leaders and Democratic newsadvantage papers misrepresent these fadts? Why does the literature sent out by various organizations backing the League of Nations and financed in some mysterious way, misrepresent these facts? The answer is obvious. They are more interested in gaining party advantage than in helping the farmer. They are more interested in getting the United States entangled in Europe than they are in solving our agricultural problems. They would willingly sacrifice the prosperity and welfare of our agricultural interests if by so doing they could gain temporary party advantage or tie us up with the League of Nations. been-an- ar Q COAL DISASTERS. Another coal mine disaster has been added to the history of coal production in this country. This time ninety-seve- n miners lost their lives near Kemmerer working a mile underground when a terrific explosion either killed the men outright or suffocated them by gas. The explosion shut off all escape from the horrible death by caveins; it tore up tracks, charred timbers but in the major portion of the mine there was little damage. No fire resulted from the exlives were saved by the heroic efforts of plosion. Thirty-seve- n miners and friends who responded quickly to the rescue work. Several theories have been advancedl for the explosion. 'A blowout shot may have been the cause, or a trip car on the 1700-folevel jumping the track, where the explosion occurred may have ignited the coal dust or gas with results. No matter how careful and painstaking the supervision of a coal mine is there is inevitable danger from explosions. It has O often been said that a coal miner seldom dies a natural death. Coal miners should be pensioned when they become old. They are the boys who furnish the fuel for our wheels of progress and they take their lives in their hands when they step into the mine, from which they may never emerge. ot the-fata- l According to the Department of the Interior, the United States is the largest coal land owner in the world. At the present it controls between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000 acres of coal land situated in fifteen different states. Coal is being produced in eight states from over 100 mines owned by the government. In addition Q to coal mines, the government owns one phosphate deposit and four potash deposits, all on public lands. If these facts arc correct, and there is no reason to dispute the figures of the department of the interior, the natural question arises in the minds of the people, or those who secure this knowledge, why |