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Show MAIN STREETS OF V. S. DOMINATE AMERICA SOMEWHERE I have read a statement to the effect that the Main streets of America are more powerful power-ful than the Broadways. That is very, very true. The hard, horse sense of our Main streets dominates America. From them are recruited recruit-ed the larger proportion of our college col-lege students, a great proportion of our industrial and political leaders. From the Main streets are elected a trifle more than 50 per cent of our representatives in congress. Progress is found on our Main streets quite as much as on our Broadways. The hitching rack and watering trough of a generation ago have given place to the automobile parking place, the gas station and the garage. The kerosene lamp has been replaced with the electric light bulb. The wash tub in the kitchen for the family Saturday night bath is no more. In i,ts place is a modern bathroom. Every convenience that Broadway has known is also found on Main street. There are a larger number of automobiles per Main street homes than per Broadway homes. Yes, there is progress on Main street, but with the advance in material ma-terial things there has been retained that hold on cultural and spiritual things which makes the Main street perspective so different from that of Broadway. Main street gives serious seri-ous consideration to the problems of life and of the nation. Its social life is built around the school and the church. Broadway is largely frivolous. frivo-lous. Its social life is that of the night spots, the bright lights and the country clubs. It is not easily brought to a serious consideration of national or governmental problems. The Main streets of America represent rep-resent the future of the nation. They have the virtue of progress, without the frivolities and the bright lights. From them comes most of the sane thinking of the nation. FARMERS' REACTION TO AID PROGRAM ON A RAILROAD TRAIN between Chicago and the West coast, I had, among others, seven farmers as fellow fel-low passengers. Four of them got on at Chicago. One was from Michigan, Michi-gan, one from Wisconsin and two from Illinois. One got on in Iowa and two, one from Missouri and one from Kansas, boarded the train at Kansas City. Of the seven, five were definitely opposed to government bonuses to agriculture, although four of the five were accepting government payments. pay-ments. The farmer from Wisconsin was not. He was operating a dairy farm and was bitter in his denunciation denuncia-tion of the government's effort to induce in-duce American people not to eat cheese so there might be a greater supply for England. The Wisconsin co-operatives had spent a million dollars in an advertising campaign to create an increased market for cheese. The man from Iowa expressed the views of the five opposed to government govern-ment payments: "Farmers are not mendicants any more than are merchants," he said. "Some farmers fail at farming because be-cause they are not capable farmers. Some merchants fail at storekeep-ing storekeep-ing because they are not capable merchants, but the government does not subsidize merchants because of the failures. As farmers we want a protected American market. We do not want to compete with farmers farm-ers in countries with a much lower standard of living than that of America. Amer-ica. That protected market and new markets, through the development of the scientific application of agriculture agri-culture to industry, is all we want. With that we want to stand on our own feet. The government should save the more than a billion dollars a year now being paid as farm bonuses." The two- farmers who favored the bonus plan were equally definite in their insistence of the necessity of its continuance. "The farmer," said one, "is entitled en-titled to a standard of living he cannot can-not achieve without government help. It is what I get from the government gov-ernment that makes it possible for me to make thvs trip to California, and my wife and I are entitled to such a trip." Did those seven farmers represent a cross-section of the farmers of America? I do not know. I give you the story as I received it and without comment, other than if it does represent the attitude of a majority of American farmers, the billion dollars would aid materially in financing the war. - GOD MAY BLESS AMERICA with victory in this war if each of us does his part to assist. PROFITS AND PRICES IN WARTIME THERE ARE SOME THINGS that cannot be normal in war times. It Is not normal for our boys to be dying on the battle fields or to be serving their country all around the globe. There are three things that should never be above normal in war times and they are- Prices Profits and Wages. We should not ask our boys to fight and die for us and we take advantage of the conditions to increase the wealth of those who stay at home. |
