Evening Star Newspaper, March 31, 1929, Page 31

' ISTHMIAN CANAL PROJECT HOLDS GRAVE PROBLEMS Construction of Channel Linking Atlantic and Pacific Long Dreamed of Before Panama Route Was Opened. BY REX COLLIER. HOULD Uncle Sam make his pres- ent canal in Panama larger or should he dig a second “big ditch” across the Central American isthmus? ‘That is the question which Army engineers have been directed by Con- gress to solve during the next two years. Almost before the ink of the President’s signature was dry on the newly enacted measure the War Department’s tech- nicians in khaki had begun to weigh the problem and to sense its serious proportions. On their solution hinge many grave questions. Involved in the problem, aside from engineering difficulties, are considerations of international diplo- n;ncy. of national defense, of trade and of cost. Jadwin to Supervise Steps. First steps in the Investigation of these issuss will be taken under the supervision of a man who had an im- portant role under Goethals in the digging of the Panama Canal. He is Ma). Gen. Edgar Jadwin, chief of Engineers. “It is an interesting study that we must undertake,” Gen. Jadwin told the writer. “We must find out whether it 1s best to widen and deepen the Panama Canal so that it will meet the demands of present and future traffic or to cut another canal through Central America. “The advisability of lowering the present canal to sea level must be considered, for one thing. If we did that, we could make the canal any width we desired, and no locks would be required. It would mean sinking the present bed of the canal 80 feet—a tremendous excavation project, Believes Job Could Be- Done. “We had enough trouble cutting the canal to its present level. To dig it deeper would bring new slides, without & doubt. Yet I would not say that a sea-level canal is an engineering im- possibility. The job could be done, but whether it would be the best solu- tion of the whole canal problem is another matter. We are going to look into it, just as we are going to look into all other possibilities.” The “modernization” of the Panama Canal would satisfy those who deplore the growing congestion at Panama, but it would not satisfy those who contend that an alternate ocean-to-ocean route is essential to our national safety. ‘Speaking of the latter contention, Gen. Jadwin said: ‘It is true that with two canals, con- siderably separated, the chances of an interruption of traffic between the oceans would be lessened. An earth- quake might destroy one canal, but hardly both canals at once. A canal through Nicaragua, moreover, would shorten the ship lane between the East and West Coasts of the United States.” Route Follows River Line. ‘The proposed route through Nica- ragua follows the line of the San Juan River from Greytown, on the East Coast, to Lake Nicaragua and thence to the Pacific Ocean at Brito, or by way of Lake Managua to the Gulf of Fonseca, The San Juan River forms the boun- dary line between Nicaragua and Costa Rica and part of the projected canal works would invade Costa Rican terri- tory. The United States already has paid $3,000,000 to Nicaragua for the right to bisect her domain, but nego- tiations for the Costa Rican concessions remain to be made. President Hoover learned during his South American tour that Nicaragua and Costa Rica are ready to co-operate to the fullest ex- tent, for both countries expect to de- rive trade benefits from the project. Isthmian canal history is replete with interesting and romantic sidelights. It is a record of fantastic engineering schemes gone wrong, of hopes of men and ct;r{)onflon.s blasted, of filibustering Tun riot. . Dream Long Before Reality. Men long had dreamed of a short cut for ships between the North and South American continents before the vision became a reality. One of the first of the dreamers was James B. Eads, famous Mississippi River engineer. Considering the possibility of a ship canal through Mexico across the narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec, between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, he hit upon a plan for a “ship rallway” 2s _a substitute proposal. Capt. Fads suggested the startling plan of placing the steamers on rail- road cars and hauling them over the heights of the isthmus—cargo, n- gers and all. Eads was enthusiastic in advocating his ambitious project and he received some support in engineering circles. Critics of the scheme pointed out that, apart from engineering ob- stacles, the undertaking would be | chief of the armies of the republic. Be- nhndmflnt, for the cost of transporting ! the ships over the 150-mile mountain- ous route would have been prohibitive. The Tehuantepec canal plan was dis- cussed seriously for years, but was abandoned finally in favor of the Central American isthmus route. e | heigths of Tehuantepec reach an alti- | tude of 765 feet and the terrain is rugged and forbidding. Besides, there was no water inland for canal pur- poses, Disease and Revolt Imperil Plans. ‘The survey which Army engineers are { to make of the lower isthmus will be about the twenty-fifth, according, to the records. Surveyors have been run- | ning lines across various parts of the neck since before the Declaration of Independence. Most of the surveys | have been followed by brave construc- tion efforts, all ending in disaster, save that which was instituted by Gen. Goethals. ! Disease and revolution have been the | ‘worst enemies of the venturesome canal | pioneers. Panama formerly was one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, and Nicaragua's penchant for revolutions is rather well known. The Nicaraguan route has attracted | engineers and capitalists from the be- | ginning of canal agitation. The chain of lakes and rivers stretching across the 160-mile stretch of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean was an irresistible lure. As a matter of fact the original Isthmus Canal Com- mission at first recommended the Nica- raguan route in preference to the Panama route, the decision being due partly to the “exorbitant” price de- manded by the private interests holding the canal concession. The Panama Canal Co. eventually agreed to reduce the concession® from $109,000,000 to $40,000,000 and the commission then reversed its decision, Vanderbilt Tried Canal Project. One of the most intensive attempts to build the Nicaraguan canal was made by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1855. He organized and financed the Atlantic & Pacific Ship Canal Co., but its oper- ations were cut short by that most famous of American filibusterers, Wil- liam Walker of Tennessee. Walker's amazing conquest of Nicaragua with an army of nondescript soldiers of fortune from the States furnished the inspira- tion for many a novel. Walker and his band of 58 adven- turers descended upon Nicaragua in June of 1855, ostensibly to establish an American “colony.” Finding a revolu- tion in progress, they joined forces with the faction in power and plunged reck- lessly into the strife. In four months Walker become commander-in- fore his spectacular career was over he had risen to the dictatorship and pro- visional presidency of Nicaragua. His greed for power led to several colossal blunders, however, and in the end he faded from the picture against an adobe wall in Honduras—riddled with bullets from a firing squad. : Confiscated Commodore’s Property. One of Walker’s blunders was the confiscation of Vanderbilt’s canal prop- erties. Vanderbilt had been one of Walker's most valued allies, and only a few days before the canal incident the American financier had shipped 250 recruits for Walker’s army. Walker annulled the charter granted the Van- derbilt company, seized the property of the company and announced he would appoint a commission of his own to butld the canal. His actual purpose, it ap- pears, was to make use of the Vander- bilt transportation facilities for “na- tional defense.” At any rate, the proj- ect collapsed. ‘The work done by previous canal ploneers in Nicaragua will not be of much value to the United States engi- neers in their present investigation. All previous surveys were for canals that would be wholly inadequate today. The engineers will proceed as though they were the first to tackle the job. In | some ways their task should be easier, for today the airplane may help in mapping the mountainous country through which the canal would go. Furthermore, the health and political situations are vastly improved. Jadwin to Retire Next Fall While the latest surveys will be initi- ated under the guidance of a veteran canal builder, they will be completed under the supervision of some one else. Gen. Jadwin will retire from the Army early next Fall with the three silver stars of a lieutenant general on his shoulders. He will be satisfled to have directed even the preliminary work in what undoubtedly will be one of the world’s greatest engineering enterprises—whether it involve recon- struction of the Panama Canal or the cutting of a second gigantic shipway across the “throat” of the American impracticable from an economical continent. Central Europe Slowly Recovering From Demoraling Effects of World War BY A. R. DECKER. VIENNA —The war shook the moral fiber of Central Europe, there is no doubt of that. But the fundamental structure has not been altered. Changes did not go to the very foundation, and with the return of normal conditions the old ideas of morality are triumph- ing. There are even evidences that the people of. Central Europe are today not as liberal regarding morals as they were before the war., All peoples of Central Europe are very natural and their ideas of moral- ity and immorality might not coincide with, let us say, American views. An American might be greatly shocked should he or she visit one of the bath- ing beaches on the Danube or the Mol- dau in the height of the season. A man who wears an upper part to his bathing suit is thought to be out of place; he is not conforming to custom. And the Viennese never heard of such & thing as a policeman measuring girls’ hathing suits to see that they covered the right amount of limb. There is even an orchestra on the shore of the river and people dance in these abbre- viated costumes. They even sit around in beach cafes and restaurants with no thought of impropriety. Economies Affect Morals. If the number of illegitimate children any measure of a laxity in morals, | ruli is then it is interesting to note that about 12 per cent of the children in Prague! are illegitimate, and the close to 25 in Vienna. It its. art unemployed, and it is safe to say that the great majority the out ah existence. of under ‘The great number of illegitimate chil- dren has necessitated a broad viewpoint as to their status. There is no discrim- ination made either in schools or in rivate life. Where paternity is estab- lished the father must support the child.© Very little trouble is encoun- tered on this score, for the father is usually just as proud of his offspring as though legally bound by marriage. Probably he would have married any- way if economic conditions had per- mitted. There are 1,000,000 women to about 870,000 men in Vienna, and this has doubtless something to do with the attitude toward the relations between the sexes. Living Conditions Bad. Most of the divorces in Central Eu- rope are laid to the distressing eco- nomic conditions which have forced familles to shift for themselves. Dvr- ing the last 10 years there have beén 50,000 divorces in Austria, more than f of them in Vienna. Crowded quarters did not make i ther easy, especia if the mother-in-law was present. The majority of the Cen- tral European peoples are Catholics, ’w that div;ree is d!meulg‘ u'gdm.;rz; ing again is a very complicat % ‘There are many who dnpnot know but what they are bigamists. Indeed every New Boss of the Army James W. Good, Through Study of Military Organization and War Problems, Is Well Fitted for Job BY ANNE HARD. HIS 4th of March which inaugu- rated President Hoover and in- stalled the new cabinet marked also the twentieth anniversary of the first coming to Washing- ton of James W. Good. He came then as a member of Congress. He returns now as Secretary of War. Within the 12 years of his previous residence in Washington, from 1909 to 1921, he rose from the position of a private in the congressional ranks to the importance position of chairman of the appropriations committee. When he resigned in 1921 to go into the private practice of law in Chicago he had amply demonstrated those per- sonal interests and qualifications which make his appointment to his new post another demonstration of President Hoover’s capacity for fitting the man to the expected deed. Few men have ever entered the cabinet of a President with greater previous knowledge of the department they were to administer. Two Facts Prove Merit. In order to substantiate that state- ment we have only to glance at two facts. One is general and one is spe- cific. The general fact is that Seldom can a man step out of private life di- | coas rectly into bureaucratic Washington with so acute a knowledge of its ways as even the ordinarily lively Congress- man. his daily intercourse with the de- partments in the process of looking after his consituents’ interests in those various offices. The specific fact is that Mr. Good was far more than an ordinarily lively Congressman. Further, an . gral part of his eminent work in Con- gress concerned the working of the War Department, and his pet measure at the outbreak of the war was also one which concerned every common soldier BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended March 30. * ok ok K GREAT BRITAIN.—A party of 85 business men representing 155 British companies with an aggregate capital of about $6,000,000,000 is in Russia to investigate opportunities for British trade in the Union of Soclalist Soviet Republics. Of five recent by-elections to Parlia- ment the Conservatives lost three, all five constituencies having previously been strongly Conservative. Their two victories afforded little consolation to the Conservatives, as the pluralities were dangerously small. The Liberals won two seats and are correspondingly cockered up. The victorious Labor can- didate is Miss Jenny Lee, 26 years old, pretty, a graduate in law of Edinburgh University, a school teacher and daughter of a miner. Alanson B. Houghton has retired as American Ambassador to Great Britain. British emigration fell off very substantially in 1928, L FRANCE—Poincare is winning out in Parliament in the bitter contest on the “foreign missions” issue, but -the government may ultimately come to grief on the cost of living issue. The cost of living is near the high point of July, 1926. One could wish to witness the Joan of Arc pageant to be held in Paris, April 12 and 13, Some 3,000 persons will participate, dressed in costumes of the saint's period, 500 years ago. The grand featuré will be a tournament of Lnights armored, armed and accoutered as then. The lists will be up and the jousts conducted precisely accord- ing fo the ancient rules. Imagine the competition to break a lance as of old for St. Denis and ones lady. On Palm Sunday the body of Marshal Foch lay in state beneath the Arc de Triomphe_beside that of the unknown soldier. In the evening it was taken to Notre Dame, whence on Tuesday, after a funeral service, it was conveyed, with ~unexampled obsequious pomp. down the Rue Rivoli, through the Place de la Concorde, up the Champs Elysees and across the Pont Alexandre III to Les Invalides, its final resting place. The coffin rode upon the car- riage of & French 75; very properly, s Foch, like Napoleon, was pre-eminently an artilleryman, and seeing how large a part_of the credit for the victory Marsha! Foch assigned to the 75. The guard at Netre Dame consisted of officers with drawn swords and four little Boy Scouts, representing France of the future. What a memory for those lads! At Les Invalides a funeral oration was delivered by Premier Poincare, probably the finest orator living. It was 11 years before to the very day that Poincare, then President of France, seventh marriage in Vienna is made under the dhgenuuon clause. ing on lispensation that “it is not il does not legal and a womsn living with common household. It the wishes of both, their inten! the attitude they assume. Crime is Diminishing. sided at the conference which made Foch imo. The oration was worthy of the occasion. It was followed the concluding ceremony of the i ! 2 ] & H is : ] ! : 2% § ; 552 i sg 2 R sg ; it 2EF 53 Efls? A i 8 He gains that knowledge from | SECRETAR who enlisted in the service. Let's look at history, and then take a look at the man. Familiar With Details. Under the old system there were sev- eral committees on appropriations in the House. Each of these committees made specific studies of the technical requirements which called for appropri- ations for the Navy, for agriculture, for Indian affairs, for foreign relations, and s0 on. Mr. Good was chairman of that committee which had to do with the military defense of our far-flung sea- ts. He had to familiarize himself with the countless details concerning the lo- cations of such defenses, their guns, the ammunition for those guns, the ar- n;orl:d cars they needed and all the rest of it. In the course of those studies he came frequently into contact with numerous Army men. We are looking at Mr. Good on a fleld and a scene which the -public is not accustomed to seeing him frequent. The public thinks of him as the genial, tactful marshal of the Western front during the campaign last Fall. It thinks of him as the skiliful politician. which conduct no controversy is pos- sible. If was heroic and efficient. There has been much solemn debate of late in Parliament over the drift of the rural population to the town. It had become serious even before the war, and since it has been accelerated alarmingly. The situation is worse in the south- west, especlally in the Cepartments of Dordogne, Gers, Lot-et-Garonne, Tarn- et-Garonne and Lot, but it is bad enough through the south. Eighty years ago 75 per cent of the population of France were agriculturists; now the percentage is 50. Between 1900 and 1928 the cultivated area was reduced from 6,875,000 hectares to 5,175,000. Prance has ceased to be self-supporting in respect to food. The effects of the decline of the countryside and the in- Y GOOD. —Underwood Photo. He is certainly the skilliful politician. That is true. But in what does his skill consist? Primarily in his insight—both into situations and into human char- acter. His manner is so kindly, his stories are so amusing, his tact so un- failing that the superficial view of him readily finds these things enough to account for his political success. Yet they are only the subordinate accom- plishments of his insight. A man of that kind did not deal with Army officers without learning some- thing about the Army. He was at the same time observing the labors of the other appropriations committees of the House. . It was out of his experience in watching the . allocating of moneys through these many committees to de- partmental needs that Mr. Good saw the necessity for centralizing govern- mental expenditures. Protagonist of Budget. He became the protagonist in the House of the budget system. And, most exceptionally, he was made chairman of the select committee on the budget, al- though he was still chairman of a com- mittee on appropriations. creasing urbanization and industrializa- tion are manifold—social, economic and political. Also (and not least impor- tant) ethnical, for the abandoned farms are being bought up cheaply and op- erated by Italians, Spaniards and other allens. Of course, the townward drift is a planetary phenomenon, but it probably presents a more serious prob- lem in France than in any other coun- try and to one who savors history more poignant. * X ok ok GERMANY.—On March 28 a kind of crisis was reached in the proceedings of the international experts’ committee, which, sitting at Paris, is attempting a definite settlement of the problem of German reparations. Quite naturally the German delegates (of whom Dr. Schacht, head of the Reichsbank, is chief) have been maneuvering with a In Appreciation of Mothers BY BRUCE LADY asks me whether | am in favor of woman suffrage. My answer is that | favor of mothers. Maving been a voter for a number of years, and something of a student of politics, | am under no illusions about the ballot. a very clumsy weapon. ccomplishes a minimum a maximum of expense and nois s many other avenu more quiet, more pleasant, and far more effective. But if the mothers of America believe that the ballot will help them to widen their influence; if suffrage will extend the atmos- of pol into the home; ballot will help women to make the working conditions of girls better, enable them to lead happier, bigger lives, and found finer homes—then | am for suf- - frage now and forever. an interesting thing to that the whole process single accomplishment—the development of a mother. Nature an with the pro- tozoa, the plest form of life; then she made the worms; then the mollusks; then the amphibia; then the birds; hat? , as science calls them—the mother. Having made the mothers, Nature has never made anything since. She considered her task comple All up through the vario of life she had struggled gradually toward motherhood. In the lower stages there is no t. Not much chance for motherhood there. The land-crab marches down from her mountain home to the seashore once a year, lays her in the sand, and marches in.. (There are Feminists, way, who contend the land-crab has the right idea—that motherhood ought to be only an incident in the wom- an’s life, as it is in the land- crab’s life.) S (Copyright, 1829 BARTON. Even with the higher animals the young are dependent on the mother for only a few days or weeks or months. They come quickly to self-reliance; they are ready almost immediately to feed themselves. For man alone Nature reserved infancy. And infancy created motherhood. For years the child is depend- ent upon its mother absolutely. It is k, helpless, unable to feed itself, unable to walk, an easy victim to a single hour’s neglect. Out of its helples: Ifishness was born i an’s heart; out of its pain grew sympathy; out of its long years of weakness came patience and self-sacrificing devotion. Women, bending over the of their young, learned rtues first: Little by little, they have passed them on to men. And the world's progress is measured by the slow record of their growth in the world—the growth of a patience and un- selfishness .and devotion and love. Unless each new cradles of their young, the world would soon forget. The weakness of infancy is the source ‘of all social progress. “Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” We men in business get to thinking of our: i portant in the sche but we are not. Hi and the trains on his railroads stop for five minutes and then rush on again. We men can be killed by millions, and the ranks close up and move forward. The world cannot ‘manently damaged, so long it has its mothers. # “What does France need most?” they asked Napoleon. “Mothers,” was his reply. “All that | am | owe to my mother,” Lincoln said a hundred times. ; And what was true of Lincoln is true in large degree of every other good man in the world. Fortunate” are those men who know it Wilson vetoed the budget system measure. Good has been a fighter in more than one campaign. But this was to be, up to that time, his hardest. In order to promote the establish- ment of the budget system, after Wil- son's veto, it was necessary to amend the rules of the House. This Good helped to bring about. The rules were changed and subsequently the budget was established, with Good as its au- thor in the House and Medill McCor- mick of Illinois its author and man- ager in the Senate. Showed Attitude During War. Under the new system that is now in operation the old numeroys competi- tive appropriations committees were consolidat into one unified general appropriations committee of 35 mem- bers. Good was named chairman of it. In a greater degree than when he was studying certain restricted sections of Army appropriations Good came into broader contact with the whole area of Government expenditures for the War Department. ! It was during the war itself that Good demonstrated his attitude toward national defense and toward our diers, and, at the same time, demon- strated another aspect of his own char- acter. When the national defense act was introduced Good made a fight on the floor, against the bitterest opposition. to put teeth into that measure. The principles he then enunciated, and the series of amendments he then intro- later, to have been so throughly pro- phetic that they now have become a recognized and accepted part of our current thinking upon national defense. ‘While many of his colleagues were wrangling _over detalls Good saw ‘Continued on Sixth Page.) view to the fixing of a low total for the | German obligation. . Vaguely hoping that postponement would help them, they have postponed proposals, appar- ently it has virtually been agreed that Germany shall pay to the allies the total of what tl must pay to the United States plus a sum to compen- sate for damage to property, and ap- parently the Germans would reduce the latter sum to a figure far below the | most modest allled valuation of the ! damage wrought, far below the aggre- | | gate of what has already been spent for restoration which is by no means yet complete. The burden of the German song is “German Incapacity to Pay” to which | the allies (especially the French, the chief sufferers of material damage) | retort that they are still less able to forego payment. On March 28, just before adjourn-| ment of the committee over Easter, Mr. Young, the chairman, told the German members that the other members ex- petted definite proposals from them immediately on reassembling of the committee on April 4, not necessarily final, but implying an offer high enough | to furnish a practicable basis of dis- cussion—otherwise the committee might as well adjourn sine die. Our information to the above effect is not perfectly authenticated, as the committee’s are behind closed doors, and only one official com- munique (that regarding the proposal of an international bank) has been issued, but almost certainly the cabled dispatches respecting the proceedings are very trustworthy. (The communique referred to exactly bore out prior dispatches.) * ok kX ITALY.—The so-called election for & new Chamber of Deputies, the nrtlt of the new model, was held on March 24. Only one ticket was presented, i. e.. & list- of 400 candidates chosen by the Fascist Grand Council - of 9,650,000 registered voters, 8,650,000, or nearly 90 per cent, of whom went to the polls.: They were to vote “yea” or “nay” to the lists as & whole. All but 136,000 voted “yea,” an.astonishing business. Prac- tically all the anti-Fascist voters were cast in northern cities, Milan leading the southern provinces, going almost solidly Fascist. This reverses the sit- uation «©f the early days of Fasciamo, when the south was cold to the move- ment, \ * X X % CHINA.—Civil war seems to have been definitely joined between the central government and Wuhan Kwangsi fac- tion. It is reported that Gen. Chang (under whatever name) of the so-called republic, has as- sumed command of the forces of the mintang Congress _( is charged by the Nanking government), ended, with what accom- plishment to its credit beyond denun- ciation of the Wuhan Kwangsi outfit, does not appear. It is feared that Can- ton will throw in its lot with the Wuhan group. The redoubtable Gen. Li Chai Sum, governor of the Canton area, at Nan- 'king as a delegate to the Kuomintang | Congress, been placed in arrest by ,the Nanking government, charged with | treasonable intrigue. One G‘el:‘ :'::' l i ! duced, were to be proved, two years {HALF-BILLION FUND SEEN AS FARM RELIEF BASIS Board With Broad Powers Expected to Be Created at Special Session for Action on BY JOHN SNURE. GAIN the wheels of Government are starting over the rough road toward farm relief. The fourth Congress and the third adminis- tration are setting out to deal with the troubles of agriculture and to find & remedy for ills that have racked thfinbnlnl of America’s ablest econo- mists. ‘The House and Senate committees on agriculture have begun hearings on a farm relief bill. On April 15 gress will meet in extraordinary session for he purpose rily of passing farm lief legislation and revising the tariff. ‘The fact that President Hoover called An extra sesilon to deal with these sub- jects is a sufficlent indication that an emergency exists and that there is a widespread demand for prompt action. Ald This Year Sought. Back of this demand is the faet that if legislation is to apply to this year's crops it cannot be lon, delayed, and the further fact that if farm relief is de layed another year the already unfavor- able conditions in many agricultural sections will be still further aggravated, to the injury not only of agriculture but of general business and industry. What is coming out of the present movement for farm relief legislation? This question is giving concern not only to the millions of farmers of the United States -but to manufacturers, bankers, business men and the public generally. Leaders in the industrial and financial world are quite as keenly in- terested in the agricultural problems as are the farm leaders. For about eight years Congress and the executive agencies have been wrest- ling with farm relief, and in that time there has been, if nothing else, a dis- tinct change in viewpoint. Education has progressed on the subject, even if there has been no legislative or admin- istrative relief. The time has passed when it was necessary to argue that there was a farm problem. The exis. tence of the problem, or a series of | farm problems, is admitted. Relief Supported by Industry. 1t is also fully realized now by Con- gress, by Government officials and by | the public that unhealthy or unfavoi- | able conditions in agriculture are suce | to be reflected sooner or later in gen- eral business and industrial conditions. So today among the most earnest advo- cates of farm legislation are the lead- ( ers of business and industry whose mar- | kets are suffering from the reduced pur- chasing power of the agricultural mAi t . President Hoover during the recent | campaign referred to the farmer’s plight as “that most urgent economic problem in our Nation today.” He de- clared that it must be solved if there was to be “assurance of complete sta. bility of prosperity to all of our peo- | le.” Mr. Hoover has declared also that the farm problem is not only economic but_social. | “The whole foundation and hope of | our Nation,” to use the language of the | Presigat, “is the maintained individu- alism of our people. Farming is, and | must continue to be, an individualistic business of small units and independent ownership. ° The farmer is the out- standing example of the economically free individual. He is one of our solid materials of national character. No solution that makes for consolidation into large farms and mechanized pro- | duction can fit into our national hopes and ideals.” 2 In this country there are about 6,000,- 000 farmers and a farm population esti- mated at 27,511,000. The farm relief problem is to insure a reasonable return to these millions of farmers, or indl- vidual business units; to make them | ject. measurably prosperous, or, at least, to make a much larger number of them prosperous than is the case at present. Farm Population Declines. In view of all the testimony it is not | necessary to dwell on the fact that much of the agricultural population of the United States today is not pros- perous. Not only is much of American agriculture depressed, but there is actual distress. The drift of rural population to the cities and towns is one of the most re- social and economic effects of this migration are certain to be profound. Fhe most reliable figures show there has been a net loss of farm population since 1920 of about 4.000,000. The actual migration from the farms to the cities and towns has been much greater, but it has been offset by the movement back to the farms and the excess of births over deaths among farm people. Among results of this exodus from the farms are rapid growth of the cities: fi of the citles .with unskilled workers; unemployment and social changes which are difficult to gauge. Reports of House and Senate com- mittees, utterances of farm leaders, members of Congress and high officials, Federal and State, and such reports as that of the Business Men's Commis- sion on Agriculture and that of the Land Grant Colleges and Universities are in general agreement as to the gravity of the problem. The Business Men's Commission called ‘it “a question of fundamental national concern and of permanent importance to the American people.” It declared that _agriculture ‘“affected with a clear and unquestionable public interest, and its status is a matter of national concern calling for deliberate and far-sighted national policies, not only to conserve the natural and human resources involved in it, but to provide for the national security, pro- mote a well rounded prosperity, and secure social and political stability.” The report of the special committee of the Association of Land Grant Col- leges and Universities, which includes all the agricultural colleges of the country, declared that incomes from farming since 1920 “have not been sufficlent to pay a fair return on the current ‘value of capifal used and a falr wage for the farmers’ labor, or to permit farm people to maintain a standard of living comparable with other groups.” Shrinkage in Values. It emphasized decline in land values, relatively low agricultural income, com- pared to other industries, multiplying farm bankruptcies, increased agricul- tural indebtedness and the shrinking farm population. Between 1920 and 1925 it found shrinkage in farm values | amounting to $20,000,000,000, or from ! about $79,000,000,000 to $59,000,000,000. ‘While this report, as well as that of the Business Men's Commission on Agriculture, is about & year and a half old, it is as applicable today as it was when made; Here and there may be found changes for the better, but agri~ culture as'a whole is suffering and is in } urfi:t need of governmental attention. United States in recent years toward indusf . And the conclusion drawn by most of them is that the United States can- not, afford to repeat the experience of England, which about three generatfons ago fushed into industry, neglected its iture, bought its food in the woke in the World War blockade latterly of ket, & to the fact that & few weeks' Problems. rellef will be questioned during the extra session of Congress. Both party platforms declare strongly for it. The practical question of what to do about it, however, is involved in the greatest difficulty. . ‘The difficulty of the solution is writ- ten in the last eight years of congres- sional- debates, in the struggles over the McNary-Haugen bill, in the conten- tions of the last campaign and other campaigns regarding the farm issue, in vhe widely diverging views of leaders of farm organizations and agricultural members of Congress. Some Economists Pessimistic. ‘There are, indeed, many able stu- dents of the subject who are pessimistic over the entire situation, who do not believe there is any solution for the ag- ricultural difficulties, who maintain agriculture is a declining activity, who are convinced the cld, healthful farm life of the Republic will never be re- stored, and who insist that it is an eco- nomic impossibility to increase the farm income to such an extent as to make v.h: average farm unit a paying busi- ness. | Dr. Edward Sherwood Mead, profes- sor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Bernhard Ostro- lenk, long director of the National Farm School, Doylestown, Pa.. in their publi- cation, “A Study of the Agricultursl Revolution,” say that effective farm re- lief, that sort of relief which will keep the farmers on the farm and give them living wages and & reasonable return on the investment, means an addition to the cost of living of about $6,000,- 000,000. It is held that this sum must be added to the net income of the farm- ers to put agriculture on a level with other industries. A striking point made by these au- thorities is that the savings to the farm- er effected by co-operatives, concerning which so much is said, have been great- 1y overrated. It goes almost without saying that if there must be $6,000,000,000 added to the cost of living to give effective farm relief, then such relief will not be given, at least not in the near future. But it does not follow that the farm income cannot be increased without serious hardship to the consuming pub- lic. And there is not much doubt that the processes of marketing and distri- bution can be so reorganized as to bring about .increased income to the farm without any marked increase in the cost of living for the American people as a whole. The men who have given most thought to agriculture have come fully to realize that farm relief is not one problem, but a serfes of problems. These cannot be solved by one plece of legislation. Nor can they be solved in a hurry. Senator Smith of South Carolina, a student of agriculture and economics, said recently that it would take 20 years to work out the farm question. No Sudden Cure Expected. ‘What Congress is going to do in the extra session, with the co-operation of President Hoover’s administration, is to make what it is hoped will be a sound beginning in the great task of bring- ing agriculture up to a level with the country’s strongest industries. It can only lay the foundation. The leaders in Congress realize this. President Hoover fully understands it. The im- mediate results are quite likely to be disappointing to those who are looking for a quick cure-all. Although President Hoover has taken the position that he will not dictate to Congress on farm relief and believes that body should work out the legisla- sion, he has definite views on the sub- . . Moreover, he expressed them freely in the campaign, so his attitude is well known. ‘To some extent jt became well known prior to his nomination in the course of the controversy over the McNary- Haugen bill. He was opposed to the equalization fee principle of that bill just as President Calvin Coolidge op- posed it and W. M. Jardine, as Secre- iary of Agriculture under Mr. Coolidge, opposed fit. . Mr. Hoover's St. Louis speech on last November 2 is frequently pointed to, and with justification, as indicating markable movements of the times. The |his views on important aspects of the agricuitural problem. In that speech he strongly emphasized the need for inland waterway improvement, or, &s he expressed it, “a new vision of in- terior waterway development.” He |held this would mean “a vital contri- bution to the stability of both industry and agriculture.” Transporiation Important Factor. “By cheapening transportation,” he said, “it will increase the price the farmer receives for his products. This increase constitutes a most important element of his profits. He would ob- tain this increase not alone upon the actual products that may be trans- ported by these waterways, but upon his whole crop. The reason is that the price the farmer receives for certain of his products is the world marke: arice, less the cost of transportation, and when parts of his crops can be ex- at a reduced cost it compels buyers to enhance the price paid to him for his entire production even though most of it be for domestic con- sumption.” In discussing agriculture specifically in his St. Louis speech, Mr. Hoover said the agricultural problem was “unsolved as a whole,” although the Republican party in the preceding seven years and a ‘half had undertaken a number of measures of assistance. He stressed the difficulty of finding a complete so- lution and pointed cut that the solution could not be provided by “a single formula.” “The depression in different branches of farming,” he said, “comes from widely different sources and has a wide variety of causes. The industry is not a single industry, but is a dozen specialized industries absolutely differ- :lllllt in their whole economic relation- And then he added: “If we would have sound and permanent relief it can be only through complete deter- mination of the causes which bring about the difficulties of each part. By thus going to the root of the trouble we will find that the methods of solu- tion are not through one line of action, but through many lines of action.” Among the many factors entering into a solution of the farm problem he mentioned the tariff and cheaper trans- portation; the need for ‘“greater sta. bility in prices, which are now unduly affected both by seasonal surplus and by the perlodical surplus over one year to another.” and the main- tenance of “stability and high pur- chasing power for our consumers,” “Finally,” he said, “every different agricultural product is effected by dif- ferent forces, and we must produce a has |Plan of action which will give aid to each as is required.” Farm Board Empkasied. i S cen ince of the Federal farm board. He M:M “We pi rd should have ropose this boa: | power to determine the facts, the causes, ; the remedies which should be a) pplied to each and every one of the multitude of proplems which we mass under the term ‘the agricultural problem.’ " “This program,” Mr. Hoover “further provides that the board shal have a broad authority to act and be co-operative marketing; that it shall assist in the development of houses for