Evening Star Newspaper, June 19, 1932, Page 69

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 19, 1932.° THE WAY OUT For the Farmer Every third year, says Mr. Lowden, land should be planted in clover or some other legume, and allowed to recuperate. State and Federal Governments, he adds, should give the farmer financial inducemenis to do this. BY OREN ARNOLD. F you could spend two hours with him, you'd surely conclude that what this country needs is to squat on its haunches over there in the shade and enjoy a whit- tle and talk with Farmer Frank Lowden. Frank Lowden is a distinguished tiller of the scil from down Illinois way, and also from over in Arizona. Either address is good for he has had crops in both States. Fact is, he's about the biggest farmer in America, in many ways, and besides being ex-Governor of Illinois, he almost got put into the White House a few years ago! For three years Farmer Lowden represented 8 rural district in Congress. For four years he was Illinois’ Governor, and that State is fourth in value of agricultural products. He has studied farm problems in the United Sates and in Europe intensely for 15 years, and his own big experimental farm at Ore- gon, Ill1, is internaticnally known. “American farmers pay six billion dollars for manufactured goods each year,” says he. “They supply one-cighth of the railroad ton- nage and one-half the total value of our exports. “They comprise nearly 30 per cent of our total population, but they receive less than 10 per cent of the national income and pay 30 per cent of that for taxes! Those are just some of the things we might mention. “Still, we cannot lament a situation and leave it to right itself. Happiness and prosper- ity won't flourish as volunteer crops.” UT Mr. Lowd:n has learned some good tricks about cultivating prosperity and happiness. Right. now he calculates he can see some big changes coming along for the farmer, probably for the better, and he has some really startling suggestions to be consid- ered. Here, sit down on this bale of alfalfa, and let's listen: “I've discovered that city residents really love the farm, after all, and yearn for it.” (He's talking casually now from his cottage porch in Chandler, Ariz.) “This means they are sympathetic at heart. “It's an old story to say that city people and farmers are mutually dependent, but it's true now more than ever, and both groups had better admit it. In the civilized world it is only among rural peoples that the birth rate is keeping ahcad of the death rate of mankind. “Hence we see that our cities must con- stantly get new recruits from the farms, where health conditions are different and ‘the good life’ is more attainable. We all recognize, too, the obvious fact thot the country must clothe and feed the teeming populations in our indus- trial centers, indeed, must furnish the very raw products upon which those industries thrive. “But all that is material, What I'm getting at is something deeper, something spiritual, I suppose. Something stronger. (1 OU know the myth of Antaeus? No matter how often he was overthrown, his strength was always miraculously renewed whenever he touched the earth. That's the point—human society must persistently keep its contaet with the earth, or it is doomed. “If we let anything break this contact, well fall; remember that Hercules discovered the source of Antaeus’ strength and, by holding him aloft, easily achieved a victory over him. Keep close to the earth, this year and in all the years to come.” And that’s Gov. Lowden's “philosophy of the One developement in American agriculture which has interested him greatly, especially in the past three years, has been farm electri- fication. This interest doubtless was increased because of a somewhat startling application of electric power to farm life in Arizona, where for nine years he and Mrs. Lowden have made their Winter home. ‘There in Maricopa County, where their farm 1s located, every major roadway is threaded with power lines, carrying inexpensive elec- tricity to the front gate of every farm home. There the rural housewives have been eman- cipated by this modern miracle of pressing a button and seeing the milking, the churning, the cooking, the cooling, the washing, the sweeping, all silently and efficiently done. Decentralizing Our Lopulation by the Spread of Electric Power, a Federal Bounty for Acreage That Is Allowed 10 Rest, and Zoning and Restricting of Rural Reyions Are Frank O. Lowden’s Recipes for a Return of Prosperity to the Farm. “Agriculture was much less distressed when the farm was a self-supporting home. Those I suppose are the ‘good old days’ often referred to. But when the factories came along and began producing commodities in quantity the farmer could buy them easier than he could make them at home. “At first glance this looks like an admirable situation. But the hitch arose when the farmer found himself unable to maintain a fair basis of exchange. “That is, the exchange value of his farm produce fell way below the value of the things he had to start buying from the factories, and 0 the new ideal failed in practice. Thus our big American problem is to help him stabilize this rate of exchange.” And Mr. Lowden believes he sees an oppor- tunity for the farmer to retrace the steps taken toward impractical “factoryization.” He thinks electricity is about to enable Mr. and Mrs. Hank Farmer eveywhere to do at home again many of the things they had recently rele- gated to the factory. AN instance he names is bakery bread. Be- cause neat-appearing “factory” wagons came to deliver bread almost everywhere cheaply, many families, in town and country alike, came to rely upon them, and the art of home breaed-making has waned. But now that farmers have electric mixers, electric beaters and automatic electric ovens that even cook to perfection while the house- wife is away from home, the old art is being revived, minus the bulk of drudgery. It is possible again to cite a specific example of this right in the Salt River Valley of Arizona where Mr. and Mrs. Lowden have spent the past nine Winters. The irrigation association of about 9,000 farmers there operate thier own retail electric appliance store, and Roosevelt Dam, key 1o Arizona’s farm electrification program, which Mr. Lowden cites as a great boon to the farmer. HERE the electricity comes from the farmer- owned hydroelectric power plants, a part of the great power and irrigation system headed by Roosevelt Dam, so that a farmer-user of electricity is buying his “juice” from himself and pocketing the proceeds. It is a new depar- ture in the application of domestic electric power, and Frank Lowden has seen the im- portance of it. “Everywhere electricity is fast replacing steam in the industrial world,” said Mr. Lowden. “Electric power, like steam, can best be gen- erated in large units, but unlike steam, elec- tricity is easily distributed over a wide area. “In the past, with steam power, the ten- dency was toward a centralization of pop- ulation. It seems very likely that the rapid application of electric power will bring about just the opposite—a decentralization of peoples, and perhaps the greatest beneficiary of this movement will be the farm. “We find an increasing number of farms employing electric power. In these farm homes a great portion of the drudgery which hereto- fore has been inseparable from farm living is being abolished, and when we abolish drudgery we make the farm the most attrac- tive place in the world to live. " UCH talk is heard now of ‘factoryizing’ the farm. If this means to replace man- power with mechanical power wherever pos- sible, then I'm heartily in favor of it. “But if this ‘factoryizing’ means allowing large corporations to take over the land and specialize on one or two crops, thereby forcing out the family-sized farms of the area, I think it is neither desirable nor practical. In that effort we have, perhaps, gone too far already. the electric range and electric mixer are among the most popular items. “It is, of course, well known that the farmer receives a ridiculously low price for much of the raw material he grows, and buys back the finished product at a high price,” says Mr. Lowden. “All consumers profit but little by low-priced wheat or cheap cotton. The profits are spread around too generously between the two ends. “Thus, to the extent at which the farmer makes his own commodities for home use does he escape the loss spread between the price paid at the farm and the retail stories. He may even be able to make a profit, in some instances, by himself retailing a finished product made in his own individual ‘factory.’ These I hope and believe are some of the benefits of decentralization which the farmer will receive, as a result of a new machine-age application based on electricity. NOTHER far-reaching problem which has concerned Mr. Lowden for many years, and which seems to be growing in importance annually, is that of farm taxation. It was alarming to him to discover that farm- ers receive but 10 per cent of the national in- come and then pay 30 per cent of their net income in taxes. But the cause of it, and the correction, is a serious thing which cannot be dismissed in a brief conversation. Still another national disgrace, which must inevitably be paid for, is that the steady de- terioration of American farm land is being ignored, says Gov. Lowden. “It is imperative that we awake to the need “Agriculture was less distressed when the farm was a self-supporting home.” of proper and persistent re-fertilization,” this distinguished farmer declares. “We have been taking strength out of our soils, and putting nothing back, for too many years. “Our lands are losing their richness and, of course, their productivity. Land that is over- worked through constant cropping loses its hu- mus or organic matter, and erosion sets in at an increasing rate. We must quickly adopt some plan to conserve cur scil's strength. 't |UST think what it would mean in the conservation of our soil if every third year we would plant every acre in clover or some other legume. But that will be well-nigh impossible. “Suppose, however, that the States, recog- nizing the threatened danger to all arable lands, made this agreement with the farmers—to ex- empt from taxation all lands planted to some good legumes. It would not only be practica- ble, it would be highly advisable. Even the Federal Government might well add its encour- agement by paying a reasonable bounty to the owners of land on acres that were a'lowed to rest and recuperate their strength for future service. “More than 360,000,000 acres of land are cultivated in the United States. If we could plant just 20 per cent (a very minimum of what is needed) of this to legumes, and pay a Federal bounty of $2 per acre on the soil so resting, the cost would be under $150,000,000. This amount is considerably less than the Govern- ment now receives through customs offices in the supposed interest of farming.” Another grievous error committed in America is the persistent farming of lands that could not be profitable under any circumstances, and the persistent growing of crops of which there already is an oversupply. Call it stubbornness, call it ignorance, call it what you will, but the fact remains that it causes a tremendous national waste. UT Mr. Lowden again has the germ of an idea which may, ultimately, be the solution to that problem, too. “Something comparable to our city zoning systems must come to rural regions of the United States,” he predicts. *“As cities became larger and larger it was found necessary to restrict the cititzen in the use of his land. Building restrictions of many kinds followed. City zoning was introduced. “I will not venture to say in detail just how this zoning idea can be applied to our farming areas, but for our own good some sort of resric- tion and orderly planning of crops on a big scale must be considered. “I suspect the answer may come through the farmers themselves, through organization and co-operation.” Incidentally, Florence Pullman Lowden, the ex-Governor's wife, quite agrees with him about the advantages of rural life. “If Mr. Lowden were a poor man again, and we had to choose between a humble farm and a job in the city,” she says, “I wouldn't hesitate a minute. I'd choose the farm home, how- ever small.” Bacteria Aid Farms THE subject of waste is one attaining ewen greater importance in these times when margins of profits are no longer so great that a certain carelessness toward waste can be countenanced. It is natural, then, that the farmer would seek to recover on some of the waste which has, if not actually drained away part of his resources, at least shut the door to a possible source of revenue. The utilization of corn cobs, wheat straws, corn stalks and other such waste materials has been the object of much research. It has been found that these things may be converted into a gas suitable for heating and lighting and the residue pressed into fiber board. The hitch in the development, however, was the fact that the chemicals necessary to treat and reduce the waste were oo expensive to make the process feasible economically. Chemists have now discovered, however, that a bacterial action can be set up which will serve the purpose admirably at little cost. The bacteria are those which aid in the decomposi- tion in city sewage disposal plants. Boston Not So “Be(m-y 2 THE use of dried beans in this country shows a decided increase, if the production may be taken as & basis for estimating. In 1922, 7,600,000 bags of 100-pound weight were pre- duced, while last year the total had jumped to 12,700,000 bags. Boston, famed as the city eof the bean, is far down the list of consumers, De- partment of Agriculture statistics indicate.