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Show if The Farm Value Or it' Patience Termors hare always been very J :-. ', patient folk and they have now more " "y reason than over, perhaps, to manl- "' . feet this, their traditional trait. No- V thing Is 'going quite right, from the w "' clouds in the sky to' the clouds of $ HBJP" regulation of farmers affairs upon , &; earth, for both are working Just nov BW' 'n wayB wnlch do not seem to give BsL' rP producers a fair chance. Regu-Kjfii' Regu-Kjfii' latlons which are promulgated s with' HK the utmost sincerity to serve patriotic SjIJBKt and philanthropic purposes, eeem KI$ sometimes to reach to'ofar or to. fair -V Wg&&'' 8nort an in that way impose hard- l, jjf9ff ships which were neither Intended '4 IpS' ' nor 'orcBeen j SrSV' '' Action which was Intended to ln- fi- BBf?' aura a farmer sale at a profitable m W&& ' jrice has sometimes made it impos- SU Brai?' Ible for him to sell at all. Adjust- it Wise V aieati made to secure a farmer a $ Hh&C margin above cost of production have WL fallen short of his unavoidable out- J?; '4 lay to get the crop. $g- "Such things do not make farmers a J3ftt , feel TeT good nor very safe in In- 53r dressing production, but they will ffT so on to the limit of their ability for HjK?L two very different reasons; one, b 9 ' cause they are patriotic, enterprising h nd hopeful; second, because It is l&jjfv? the Inveterate habit of farmers to Prp, take chances. Their business makes E-" tthem gamblers. Every time one of wJk them puts a seed In the ground he SsNt'' bets that the clouds are wet, that a X&&- hug will not bite that the market' gJ, will want hlsicrop.-etc. And so i$'. when regulations make him more j M, trouble than he had before he will fe- "-' bet 'that they will not continue to iff" work that way or that something' ' - else wll lhappan and help hinv to '&. poll through and he will go on"try- V-, lng to make all the crops he can. If . farmers had not been persistent, yea- t ' turesome, and optlmlstlo the world W' would hare starred long ago. ''A And while the foregoing Is gener- ally true about the farmers resolute and heroic attitude toward the execution exe-cution of his business In tho world, It Is worth saving that there are particular par-ticular reasons why he may go forth to his accepted duty with more hope-, fulness and satisfaction than ever before, perhaps, In the world's history. his-tory. The greatest of these rcasoui Is that he Is rendering Indtspensablo, patrlot!c"service. That he- knows, feels and cheerfully accepts; it requires re-quires no exhortation or enfdrcomont for tanners as a class will recognize and discharge a'dutyUf It Btripa thorn of all ',, possessions. - They will not seize a public extremity as a good tlmo for a strike, which soems to bo tho measure of some people's Idea of patriotic opportunity. They 'will finish their job If It Is humanly possible. pos-sible. But there are other hopeful things than patriotism which may now encourage a farmer to hold to his traditional patience with things as they are. Let him thing of these. Certain public attitudes toward the farmer which he 'haa hoped and striven for for generations have been assumed by the government and the peoplo with overwhelming accord as war measures. It Is Impossible Impos-sible to say how long they might have been deferred otherwise. "Bucn a thing Is the recognition of a farmer's farm-er's right to count his cost and to j base market value upon it. No mat--Iter. what mistakes may be made, thru Ignorance or self Interest of others, in the enforcement of this pTlnctplo; no matter what Injustice or hardship may be lmmediatell vialted upon him by such enforcement, the recognition of tke principle will never recede to lis old Ignoring. There win be continued con-tinued advance of the principle until there will be no doubt anywhere that the baslo price of a product should be fixed on the farm that produced It, Just, as the basic value of a fac- tory product is, and it will be cost of production plus a profit. Legislation is trying to efrforcr this as ix war measure for patriotic purposes; legislation will enforce it. Indirectly perhaps, whon the war is over, becauso It Is seen to be essential essen-tial to Justice and fairness to all the people. The trader will take hli proper place as the servant not tho master of distribution, and his doc-trrine doc-trrine of tho divine right of trumped up supply and demand will fall Into the pit with the other autocracies. And thoro Is another reason why the farmer can afford to be patient. I His right and title to speak for him-. 'self is being moro widely recognized than ever and he Is-lemrnlng to. apeak in a way to command public heed. It will not ho possible to put oft hit protests and claims, as they hava been tin tho pist, with tho slur, that the farmer has to complain; ho !s always growling about something. This popular dismissal of his fault finding aB chronic 'and fatuous was perhaps excusable because -it was usually us-ually basecT upon no specific knowledge knowl-edge of the facts and embodied no Intention of correcting existing evils. What is being done now by many groups of producers leaves no doubt that aimless growling Is giving way to definite demonstration and effective ef-fective Insistence. This change should be persistently promoted and patiently patient-ly awaited. Pacific Rural Press. |