The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 15, 1918, Page 14

; 1 i B Associate Editor of the Breeders’ Gazette Sees Progress Leaving the Average Agricultural Journal Far in the Rear PPROXIMATELY 550 journals de- voted to the agri- cultural arts are published in the United States. With few excep- tions they are lo- cal in circulation and consequently limited in useful- ness. Many of them have no provo- cative or inspirational influence. They are obviously parasitic and therefore pernicious. Farmers for the most part are unsuspecting, unassertive hosts. In the aggregate the insidious taxation of farmers by publishers of journals bearing agricultural titles runs to a huge sum. Most farm pa- pers are much more interested in what they can get than what they can give.” ¢ Who said that? Some one with a grouch be- cause he has been fired from a petty job on a farm paper? Not much. The author of that criticism is none other than the associate editor of the Breeders’ Gazette, DeWitt C. Wing. He was writ- ing in a professional magazine, The Quill, which circulates only among newspaper men, and hence runs no danger of letting the reading public peep at the skeleton in the closet. ; Now, the Breeders’ Gazette is head and shoul- ders above 540 of the 550 agricultural journals. Like the Pierce publications and the Rural New Yorker, considerable intelligence is displayed in its publication. Thus, its associate editor is with- out personal fear when he writes: : THE EDITORIAL MIND A STAGNANT POOL “Make a survey of their editors and publishers; look at their libraries, if they have any, and look into their community life; ask them where they have been, what they have read, what the range and quality of their experience has been, and what they know about science, literature, economics, history and art. Many of them, it will be found, know a great deal about farming, and could tell, in --the terms of practical farmers, something about the science of agriculture, and much more about local peolitical action and organization. If investigated in this fashion, they would classify as average men, with no larger view, further vision or higher aspiration than that of the farmers who read their journals.” i Note that Mr. Wing, who does not think highly of his fellow editors, seems to think just as little of the average farmer. He admits, how-- ever, that the average farmer knows as much as the average editor. He goes on to say: “Can new ideas, new hopes and new am- bitions grow out of this common stagnation? Can the blind lead the blind?”—Hold on there, Mr. Wing, have you never heard of the Naticnal Nonpartisan league, that you call the farmers blind? Do you not know that there is not a farm editor in the whole Middle West that is not be- ing educated by the newly organized farmers? You can call the editors blind, but you had better make another diagnosis of the farmer. ; But there is so much that is good-in " Mr. Wing’s confessions that it would be unfair to disparage him any more. He looks thus into the future: \ LESS ABOUT CROPS, MORE ABOUT POLITICS . “The farm press that is in the mak- ing will seek to gather and offer to its readers the agricultural facts and ideas of the civilized world, to the end that more productive and dependable community systems of farming may be adopted and developed, and a finer and ‘more abundant personal life in the country unfolded. Editors will write and publish more about community -organization and action, and less about the elementary crop, livestock and soil problems of/the individual.”? . .. . Very good, Mr. Wing, very good. The ing charges, The indifference of the average farm press to progress is proved by the editors’ attitude toward the National Nonpar- tisan league. One class of farm editors never has hinted to its readers that there exists such a thing as a League farmer, much less a movement backed by 200,000 League farmers. Another class of editors pretends to support progressive prin- ciples such as those indorsed by the League; but it carefully avoids supporting the League, which is the only means of _putting these principles into effect. A third class brazenly attacks the Nonpartisan movement, generally trying to re- main in favor with the individual farmer while trying to con- vince him that he is a fool to follow such leaders. a small but growing group of farm editors who recognize the Nonpartisan league as the greatest force for progress today; they are defying advertising boycotts and giving their readers the truth. all;ticf,le grows better the farther we read. What's this ?— “Farmers are not influential in political life be- cause the majority of them have no political judg- ments of their own; they have not the tinie or the inclination to inform themselves upon state and national issues which may have a profound effect upon their business and life. Whatever happens, the man with the greatest brain power will con- tinue to rule and prosper.” Bless us, and the man seemingly never has heard of the Nonpartisan league. He has got the idea from somewhere, though. Listen to this: “I am more interested in what is on the way than what has come. Farmers are the only merchants who have practically nothing. to say concerning “the prices received for their goods. The prices of all commodities, except- ing farm products, are or may beé fixed by those who offer them for sale. Farm- ers produce most of . the necessities of life, and yet trade instrumentalities This is the Equity elevator. and flour mill at St. Paul, Minn., built, owned and operated by farmers ' co-operatively. ' Through handling and cleaning: their: own grain, and then ‘grinding it into flour, the Equity farmers save outside commission men’s charges, clean- and save for themselves the dockage, worth thousands of dollars a year. The elevator has a capacity of 450,000 bushels :and cost approximately . ' PAGE FOURTEEN = - € UIC There is I CO-OPERATION l N over which they have little or no con- trol determine the prices which they receive. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Some day, through organization, farmers will stand pat on their own prices. Price- fixing commissions will then be con- stituted, and a little more justice and fairness in the relations of men will follow. Questions of this species do not seem to interest farm press edi- tors, because, being quite human, they are averse to sustained thinking. It is hard work.” Well, well, here is ‘a Nonpartisan who hasn’t paid his dues and doesn’t even know he is a member, or that there is such gn organization. And he is a farm editor! But it is well-to remember that this article was not ~printed in the magazine for which Mr. Wing works. And it never will be, nor will these principles be urged there with any degree of force. For the owner of the paper is to be considered, and this owner believes that - the sun rises and sets in the Chicago stockyards, and he was never known to speak a word in criti- cism of the methods of the packing trust. The insiduous influence of his unhealthful sur- roundings crop up in one sentence toward the end of his article: “Better farming is not a business, but a life.” You see, he is probably a young man, and one of those old editors has got hold of him and told him that. You get the idea, money should be no object to the farmer— he should take his profit in the - pleasure of seeding, harvest- ; ing and milking. SEES SYNDICATE FARMING COMING Few farm editors could have as has Mr. Wing. It is mar- velous that one sitnated as he is could see the truth shining behind the clouds of error. It - would be a fine thing if every farm editor, even Mr. Wing himself, would print his article in his own paper. Let us quete one more paragraph from Mr. Wing: “The age of applied science, with _its demand for the rule of reason and purpose, will be born when the world war dies. The peace that follows war is a greater test of men than war itself. I expect to see the inauguration of syndicate farming in America. Farmers will organize, capitalize, and function as communi- ties. If they do not take this step off their own bat, the captains of industry, seeking new fields for the safe Tenancy is increasing and farms are grow- ing larger. All ‘the primary conditions of industrial evolu- tion foreshadows big business farming. Remember- that we have today no Napo- leonic code, and no Napoleons; other- : wise ‘we should en- . act " and throw our- agricultural . own. ress written as progressive a piece investment of their : wealth, will impose-a - system of syndicate farming upon them. favor and the trend selves behind laws - limiting the area of ‘lands which a citizen could