Golden Age, August 3, 1921
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August 3,1921, Vol II, No. 49 fSB PuftHaAerf every ofAer ■EM week at SS Myrtle IvenMt ViF Brooklyn, X. F, V. * X Ten Cents a Copy—{2.00 ■ Tnu Canada and Tonita Conntriaa, |XW
V«lcM« 2 WEDNESDAY, ACGUST X 1991 Ncmbeb 49
CONTEXTS of the GOLDEN AGE
LABOR AND ECONOMICS • Iri.ds Uoecuutoyinent ...... -
MANUFACTURING and mining
Crooked at Both End*.—.......—........—..............—
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Home Customers Blockaded—„.—..—
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
England in Terrible Straits 651 Sinn Fein Reprisals
The War in Ireland_______652 Dublin Custom House
The ••Irish Republican Burned
Awrnu'* 41^*1 FurAna'i ImaH \nillftiML. G5H
Michael Collins 655 Sinn Fein Outrages in Sinn Fein Arsenals..........653 England
Callous Murders in Ireland <>53 Au Irish Vendetta
The Black-and-Taus ..........(»54 Belfast Boycott
Heavy Casualties —.—...634 The Term •'Boycott" ,,
Buildings, Bridges ud Executions of Rebels-
• Roads Destroyed _____ 654 War Uncivilised ______——-G53
British Forces in Ireland 654 Law.......— --
Reprisals by British
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Cincinnatus and the Del- Those Wool and Hide uge . -------A1* ShorUi-ges
City People Interested—..643 Why Not Cry “Away From Crop Prospects 644 the Land**?649
Best Customer Ruined___644 Farm Wages are Down—U 30
More About WUeaU-—......G47 Sundry Farm Items
What is the Fanner to do? 648 Destruction of Creameries G55
HOUSEWIFERY AND HYGIENE
Allopath!*—Homeopathic The Eclectics
—Eclectic ..661 Symptoms —
The Proper Remedy.------601 Prevention of Tuberculosis 663
‘ SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Atoms, Electrons, and Other Forces ---_ ,
Spirit --------------- ..663 A Border T-nnH
The Source of Energy—-664 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Why Fear ths Truth? 1_ ------- _ san
What is ths Spirit of Man* __________________flfl?
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The Golden Age
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Cincinnatus and the Deluge
TN THE days of Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, ■*’ 519 B. C., the Roman people were much weakened though strife raging between capital (the patricians) and labor (the plebians). The Roman army was surrounded by savages. In despair the Roman senators went to Cincin-natus, offering to make him dictator until the country should be saved. They found him at the plow. He saved the day, marched the army back to Rome, laden with the spoils of victory, and returned to his farm. What a fix the Roman people vould have been in without the help of Cincinnatus! They would have been in just the fix in which the American people find themselves today because of the ruin of the American farmer by the Federal Reserve Bank.
Of course the Federal Reserve Bank can be expected to say that it did not ruin the farmer; but it did, nevertheless. It encouraged him a year ago to put in the most expensive crop ever planted in American fields, and then used all its great powers to force him to sell the products of those fields the moment they matured and at prices which have knocked the bottom out of the farming business.
The Federal Reserve Bank boosted interest rates, thus parftally repudiating the Liberty Bonds which it had helped to place in the hands of the people; it refused to loan money upon those bonds except at exorbitant rates of interest^ it scared the banks of the country into shutting down upon the farmer and the small business man, and it is- still following ths plan.
It is evident that a grand attempt, a colossal attempt,, is being made to subject the entire Americah pepplq to slavery to a money oligarchy; a<id that the Federal-Reserve Bank is the instrument Else what' is its motive in continuing to withdraw and hoard capital at a time when capital is so desperately needed f
The percent of reserve which the Federal Reserve Bank is required by law to carry ia thirty-five percent, and experience has demonstrated that it is ample. Now why it if then that at the close of every month, beginning with October, 1920, the reserve la that institution has climbed steadily as indicated in the figures: 48.1, 44.4, 45.4, 49.9, 49.9, 50.8, 55.0, W.6 and 60.8 percent! .
The same desperate attempts, to withdraw support from the business of the country and to pile it up in the bank is shown in the Federal Reserve percentage of gold to notes for the same months: 47.2, 48.8, BOB, 58.5, 58.1, 60.7, 67 J, 71.7 and 763. What is the occasion of all thief It is either a determination to squeew out the farmers and small business men or an effort to prevent being squeezed out themselves by some calamity seen as impending.
The Schenectady Citizen is out with, a story from Washington that the latter is the case; and that the conference of bankers at the White House, May 27th, was not a conference, as alleged, for furnishing the financial resources to rehabilitate the world, but a conference of the greatest bankers in the country to see what could be done to stave off the greatest financial panic ever produced. We say "produced"; for if it does really come the Federal Receive Bank will be more entitled to credit for producing ft than any other peace agenoy.
City People Interested '
WHEN the Federal Reserve Bank applied the thug-cord to the American fnnwrto neck in the fall of 1980 it had a definite plan in mind. It wanted to reduce the price of rood to
American factory workers, so that an excuse could be found for reducing the wages of those workers; and it wanted to reduce those wages so that the American factories could continue to compete for world business after Europe’s warring nations had resumed the employments of peace time. But -the end desired was not worth the effort that has been made. The world business has gone to pot, and the ruin of the American farmer has sent American business the way of all the rest.
,We are all interested in this question. It is vital to us. The people of the cities are even more interested in the material welfare of the men who. raise what they eat than are the men who raise it. City people cannot live at all without the work of the farmer. And if real famine were to come, the city man would get nothing at all to eat until after the farmer and the fanner’s family had been fed.
There is another reason why city people are interested in the farmer’s condition, and this is that the' farmer is the best customer of the things made in the city. The moment the buying power of the ‘farmer is reduced, that moment depression begins in all industries. The farmers represent thirty-five to forty percent of the population and anything that seriously affects their buying power brings trouble to all the people who make or deal in or transport the things the farmer buys, and that is everybody in the coun-tiy except those “financiers” who produce nothing at all and live off the sweat of the multitude.
Anyway, there seems to be a lantern-jawed panic headed toward the American people. It was, as usual, d e 1 i be r at.e 1 y manufactured. Whether it can be as deliberately stopped remains to be seen. Students of economics have •for a generation or more looked at the production of pig iron as representing business conditions. This is because pig iron.is largely worked up into structures of various sorts, and one of the first tilings a concern halts if in trouble financially is its building operations. It Cancels its orders for building materials and equinnfent, and this goes all the way back to the blast-furnace. Now it is a significant fact that the production of pig iron is down to the smallest output in thirteen years, being only about forty percent of the production of last year. This is th^ worst of showings.
Allowing for a three percent annual increase in volume of business, the present industrial depression is twenty percent worse than the terrible depression of 1908, at its depths in the summer of that year. That depression followed the so-called “Rich Men's Panic” in 1907, when a group of Wall Street pirates attempted to take control of the Northern Pacific Railway Company away from the great railroad builder, James J. Hill.
The direct interest of the ironmongers in the farmers is a considerable item in itself., The farmers are large users of implements, nearly all of which are made of iron and steel materials. In their present predicament they are getting along with the old implements and are not buying anything new. This hits the implement makers and they in turn are clamoring for lower priced steel and other materials so that they may find a market "for their goods.
Crop Prospects
REPORTS differ as to crop prospects, but a lamentable feature of the situation is that the American farmer is now so depressed that he takes a gloomy dew of things even when the Government itself tries to tell him that everything is all right. Farmers the country over talk in a very discouraged way about the prospects of getting a crop and of getting anything for the crop after it is gathered, but the Government seems to think the crops will be all right.
It is known and generally admitted that the apple crop for 1921 will not be half so large as in 1920, and the peach crop will also be less, though the apple crops in Maine and New Hampshire will be above the average. The corn crop in Iowa gives prospect of being one of the finest in its history; and although the wheat acreage of the country as a whole.is a little less than last year, yet the crop outlook at this writing is declared by the Government to point to 43.000.000 more bushels than last year, with excellent crop prospects for Western Europe in general. Japan, North Africa and the Argentine. Aiist ralia had a record harvest last January. In India the outlook is unsatisfactory, due to insufficient rain. .
Best Customer Ruined
W HEN a family spends its entire time for a
Tew years fighting to see who is to be boss over the family premises there comes a time when it can no longer pay the grocer, and no matter how much food the grocer has on his
■helves he does not feel like putting it out on time to such a family. He supplied cash and credit to get the food in the first place; he wants cash or acceptable credit in return. Europe is such a family, and Uncle Sam is the grocer. Moreover, the family already owes more than it can pay.
There is fio longer enough gold in Europe to pay the annual interest owing to the United States. Europe desperately needs the food and raw materials which America has in such abundance, but it has neither the money nor the credit to buy. America has both the food and the money. Europe is destitute of both. It would like to pay in manufactured products. It is beginning to do so, but American manufacturers are frightened at the prospects and are putting up a fifty-six percent tariff to dam the flood, and to raise prices correspondingly.
The other day, in a store window in Lynn, Massachusetts, the writer saw a large display of beautifully woven stockings for children, in attractive colors and designs, all sizes, at twelve cents per pair; and stamped across the toe of each was the familiar word "Germany” to indicate the country of origin. American manufacturers would like to stop this. They would like to send stockings to Germany by the shipload, and to brin& back from Germany butter and other agricultural products by the shipload, to keep down the cost of living in America. And this the farmers do not want. Germany has no money. She must pay, if at all, in manufactured or in agricultural products. How is she to pay! Either the one American interest or the other must suffer, or else the debt must be cancelled.
Shortly after fighting ceased, the export demand for United States surplus products - faded away. The buying machinery of the world ceased to function. Within the past year the exports of corn have fallen to one-half what they were the year previous, wheat to onefOUrth, mineral oil to one-fifth, cottonseed oil to one-sfeventh, cotton to one-fourteenth, flour to one-sixteenth and oats to one-twenty-second of what they were in 1920. The result is that the United States markets are dogged. Experts claim ttyere.is now enough unspun cotton on the market.to last the world two years if it continues buying as little as at present. Evidently the need for large crops of cotton, which has long stimulated the South, is disappearing.
Home Customers Blockaded. .
RESENT railroad rates are prohibitive.
They prevent the farmer from disposing of his products to even his own countrymen. The rates put into effect a year ago have been tried and found wanting. Supposed to produce more revenue, they have produced less, for they have killed the goose that laid the golden egg. The country as a whole owns the railroads as a'whole. They were built on land donated by the people and were built with the wealth and credit which the people supplied. The new rates were fixed for the benefit of those persons who, when the. country was at war, tried in every possible way to make the roads as unremunera-tive to the Government as possible. Ask any railroad man of your acquaintance; it is common knowledge. These same men who, during the war did their best to prevent the Government from making a good showing in railroad operation, have it in their power to crush any. farming community by so regulating the flow of cars as to shut it out of market.
Livestock producers have been unable to market their product at any profit at all since the increased freight rates went into effect The worst case we heard of was of a farmer in northern Missouri who shipped a carload of sheep to Chicago, and they failed by $26 of bringing enough to pay the freight bill. The farmer wrote that he had no money, but would be willing to ship a second car in payment of the freight due on the first car if the patriotic packers who received the first car would cancel the debt.
Hay cannot be moved more than 15G miles without the freight eating up the margin between cost of production and the market price, thus leaving nothing at all for the farmer’s toil. Forrest Luther, Cimarron, Kansas, shipped three cars of hay to Kansas City, and after paying the freight and terminal charges, and expense of baling, had to. put up 50 cents a ton out of his own pocket in order to get rid of his hay. •
The rate on corn is so high that com can be shipped from the Argentine Republic, at the opposite end of the world, and landed in New York at one-third the cost at which it can be shipped from Iowa cornfields to the same point. The rates in the West are just as bad. California farmers cannot afford to keep up their stock because Oklahoma maize which brings only 60 cents per hundred pounds at home costs them $3.00 per hundred in California; and Oklahoma cannot afford to eat California grapefruits which are rotting in California because the growers are offered but one-fifth of a cent apiece plus the transportation. .
The growers of vegetables are in the same predicament. In June, 1921, magnificent cabbages were being plowed under in the vicinity of Newbern, North Carolina, because it did not pay to ship them the 500 miles to New York; and at the same time several cars of finest varieties were abandoned to the transportation companies because the wholesale price was unequal to the freight rate of'$1.35 per crate of 120 pounds. -
During the past season millions of bushels of potatoes were sold in New York city which did not return to the growers more than ten cents a bushel over-the freight; hundreds of cars of the finest onions ever grown were refused as not worth the cost of the freight; and W.-H. Walker, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, reports one instance where a California truck farmer received just 36 cents in cash as his reward for raising, packing and shipping eight cars of vegetables. The rate today on a box of a trifle less than a bushel of apples from the state of Washington to Philadelphia is $1.12.
Crooked at Both Enda
THE Chicago packers, those purveyors of things which we used to- think were necessities, but which we nowtind are not so good for us as are the cheaper and coarser vegetables, fruits and cereals, continue to demonstrate their 100% (profit) Americanism, the kind that won them such undying fame in the embalmed beef of the Spanish-American war. .
Those among them wrho belong to the Holy Empir&outlined in Golden Age Number 46-47, and who contribute sufficient to its exchequers, may be sainted some time, as was Joan of Arc; but they are two removes from saintliness now, one as buyers and the other as sellers. As pirates or the commercial world the packers give no quarter, and the people offer none in return. »
In the eight weeks from the middle of February to the middle of April the price of good beef steers at Chicago dropped $2.05 per hundred pounds; and the packers, those shining; • examples of American progr essiveness in political and financial circles, celebrated the event by shoving the price of dressed beef of the sama quality up to the extent of $2.50 per hundred.
From the Washington. Bureau of Markets we learn, under date of March 22nd, that while, ■ during the first two weeks in March, the average price of good beef steers on the Chicago markets declined 25 cents per hundred, during that same time the average price at three of the principal Eastern markets was advanced $1.16 per hundred. If these patriots found that they could and did boost the price to consumers, why did they at the same time continue further to rob the farmer of all he possessed? ' .
The only way we can account for the curious conduct of these saints in.the packing business is that in their extremity over the country going dry they have, some of them, become addicted to the use of cashew juice. This drink is produced by the natives of South Africa from the fruit of the cashew tree. It has the effect of reversing the motor nerves and causing the drunken man to walk backwards. If this is true we are sorry—for the natives. Good bye to their cashew. Anything that the packers get hold of is gone forever. •
All the principal things the farmer has to sell —corn, oats, hogs, cattle, cotton, wool, hides— are now bringing the farmer less than they did before the war, but the things which-he must purchase are still abnormally high. On this point Secretary of Agriculture Wallace has made the very forceful statement following: . “The talk of bringing prices, whether farm or other . prices, back to the pre-war normal is morally wrong and economically impossible. We incurred a heavy national debt on inflated prices. If we could force all prices back to the pre-war normal (which we cannot do) it would be equivalent to just about doubling that ' >t. We can pay off our debts much easier if we maintain a . price level more nearly the level at which the debts were incurred.”
One reason why prices cannot go back is that ' dealers will not let them. Each seems determin- -ed to maintain war prices Just as long as possible. When a New York dealer in lemons had his attention called to the fact that lemons in California are bringing but 12| cents per
bushel, and ought to be sold at a retail price less than 5 cents apiece, his reply was an impatient, "I won’t take a cent less, for I can get it”. The war (that thing of blessed and hallowed memory to the war-boosting preachers) taught * the people how to profiteer, and they will not unlearn the lesson until they must.
The farm-implement makers, in an effort to square themselves with the farmers as to why when the farmer is back to hardpan, they have not followed him, try to get the farmer to see the advance in labor at the factory and set forth the following as the percentage of advance in price of materials over 1915 in the principal things they use: .
Bessemer steel bars, 106% Sheet steel
Plow steel -
Coulter blades
Yellow pine '•
- Cold rolled steel
• Common iron bars
Disc harrows
Old rail steel
Pig iron
. Malleable iron ' 264 Cotton duck 286 ~
• k • ’
How it happens that a cotton-grower gets the same for his cotton that he did before the war, but pays much more for his shirt, becomes clear as we think that thejbale of cotton is sent away by a railroad .that charges twice as much for freight, partly because it pays twice as much wages and twice as much for much of its coal and other supplies. Arrived at the cotton mill it again finds wages twice as high and eoal twice as expensive as before the war. Then the shirt comes back by a circuitous route, paying expensive freights each time, through the hands of a multitude of wholesalers, jobbers and retailers, none of whom are satisfied with profits such as they^were accustomed to during the days before the war. As a result an acre of cotton will return the grower in manufactured goods and other merchandise only sixty-one percent of whatvhe obtained in normal times.
In June, 1921, the price of wheat was one-half what it was in June, 1920, corn was one-third the price, oats one-third, barley one-third, rye sixty percent, potatoes one-sixth, hay one-half
and cotton one-quarter. An acre of corn would produce only seventy-three percent in other commodities of what it normally produced, oats would produce seventy-four percent and wheat eighty-one percent. Bice retails in the City of Washington at ten cents a pound, and yet the growers in Arkansas receive for it only twenty-five cents a busheL Restaurants all over the country regularly charge more for one lamb chop than the farmer receives for an entire lamb.
More about Wheat .
NON-PABTISAN Leaguers tell the story that one year in North Dakota the wheat
was shrunken because of drouth. The elevator . men said it was fit only for chicken feed and bought it as such. When the millers at Minne-
' apolis made it up into flour they placed slips in. the sacks pointing out the unusually fine quality of the flour. This one job cost the farmers of North Dakota fifty million dollars. .
The Leaguers tell another story of a little town in North Dakota where the local elevator purchased during the season nine thousand .. bushels of wheat, grading none of it higher than / number three; but when the elevator man sold the wheat there were but 97 pounds of it which sold at lower grade than number 2. This job netted the elevator man $1,080, every cent of which was stolen from the "farmers of the neighborhood as truly as though he had stuck them up at the point of a gun.
Labor, Washington, D. C., prints the follows ing scathing editorial on the way the farmers are treated by those who have the power in their hands:
HOW FARMERS ARE BOBBED
An ounce of fact is worth a pound of theory.
When the price of wheat slumped some months ago, the spokesmen of “Big Business” told the farmers that the trouble was due to a falling off of foreign demand.
The farmers started an investigation and found that more than 200,000,000 bushels had already been exported and 100,000,000 bushels had been purchased for future delivery. "
This was 80,000,000 bushels more than our estimated surplus. -
Then the spokesmen of “Big Business” presented another excuse. ■
Purchases of wheat for export, they said, had been made by the British Royal Commission in such a way as to eliminate competition and hold down prices.
Again the fanners started an the trail of the facts. They found:
The-export price of wheat during November, 1919, averaged $2.31 a bushel.
For the same month in 1920 the average was $2.61.
The average price received by the farmer in November of 1919 was $1.70 a bushel.
The average price received by the farmer in November, 1920, was about $1.00 a bushel
THE EUROPEAN BUYER PAID 30 CENTS A BUSHEL MORE FOR WHEAT AND THE AMERICAN FARMER RECEIVED 70 CENTS LESS.
Somewhere between the American farmer and the starving millions of Europe some one took an extra “rake-off” of one dollar a bushel on approximately 300,000,000 bushels of wheat.
It -is estimated that $60,000,000 of this went to the railroads in. increased freight rates under the Cummins-Esch law.
THE REMAINDER WAS POCKETED BY THE PROFITEERS WHO CONTROL THE BANKS AND MANIPULATE THE GRAIN EXCHANGES.
And still there are men who wonder why the Nonpartisan League retains its hold on the farmers of the Middle West
It must not be supposed that the farmers are taking their losses calmly. They are wide awake now and boldly claiming that the speculators, gamblers and transportation agencies, posing as financiers,, are taking two-thirds of all the wealth produced on the farm or in the factory and using it to pay'interest to themselves, on the capitalized sorrows of mankind. They are claiming that out of the dollar which the worker pays for the product of the farm the farmer gets only 38 cents, arid out of the dollar which the farmer pays for the products of labor the worker gets only 35 cents. And they are wondering whether there is not some way by which they can get along entirely without anything but the railroads standing between farmer and worker. They are undertaking marketing on a scale never before attempted, and all this with the opposition of those who should be helping the movement
A sample of the progressiveness of some so-called business men can be seen in the resolutions of a body of them at Fredericton, New Brunswig, umpng the government of that province agaigst ue passage of legislation providing for compensation in case of accident, restriction of child labor, establishment of an eighthour day and greater educational facilities for
workers* on the ground that it would encourage more workers to migrate from the farm to the city, and that their legislative efforts should be ' * v devoted to turning the stream in the other direction.
• । J What is the Farmer to Do? *
VEN if the crops are as good as the Government seems to indicate (and which our
acquaintance and correspondence with farmers seems to dispute), it does not show the way out. Mr. Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture, has declared that the only hope he now sees for the farmer is for the individual farmer to go ahead and raise all he possibly can, in the hope that -some one will come along and pay him enough for his crop so that he can afford to put in . another one. Almost in the same breath Mr.
Wallace tells us that the United States has been using up the fertility of its lands, the future capital of our descendants, by too steady use.
During the war the farmer who worked his own land and saved his money forged afiead. The five years prior to 1920, taking the country as a whole, were profitable years, especially to grain-growers who had good crops. They were not so profitable to livestock growers, because of the high cost of the grain fed to the stock. The livestock growers got the worst of it all . around; for when the bottom dropped out of the livestock market last Fall these growers lost in a few months, in the average value per head of the stock which they llhd on hand, one and one-half times as much as they gained during the participation of the United States in the war. s
The farm-renter did not fare so well as the owner. His rent was increased, and if he had to pay a cash rent last year he was probably cleaned out entirely. It is claimed that the average farm-renter in the United States last year, after paying his rent did not receive for his own labor more than five cents per hour; and it may be added that, judging from the grain futures at Chicago and the cotton futures at New York, he will be fortunate indeed if he receives more than ten cents an hour for Ins labor in 192L
Some sections of the country were hit harder than others. We can find none that was hit harder than the cotton district of Central Geor-
gia, where the wages of workers have dropped to five cents per hour and the poor fanners can not pay even that amount.
_that district in the spring of 1920 at $350, and forced on the market in the fall of the same year, brought only $50 a head.
The prices of land still hold up quite well, in spite of last year’s reverses. The value of plow . land per acre in various states of the United
States in March, 1921, is given as follows:
Alabama $ 26
Mississippi 26
Georgia
. South Carolina 50
Kentucky
California
Illinois
Iowa
The Nonpartisan- League is fighting a hard-contested but winning fight for a more equitable deal for both farmer and consumer. One of its features is cooperative elevators. These are spreading all over the grain country. There are now 260 of them in Kansas alone. In marked contrast to the narrowness of most Eastern papers, the New York World, in its issue -of April 21, 1921, said: “The Nonpartisan League, with its, doctrine of cooperation, has, after all, pointed the way out for those who make their living on the land”.
Those Wool and Hide Shortages
IT MAKES us all sick now when we think aboufe how -unmercifully we were lied to • during the war about those wool and hide short-• ages that never existed, except for the purpose of profiteering. We wore our old clothes, patched our old shoes, and saw $20 suits sold for $100 and $3 shoes sold for $20, and counted it all joy to be thus "patriotic”. And now we find who it was that got the extra $S0 on the clothes and $17 Or the shoes. It was not the-visible government that was benefited, nor yet the producer nor the worker-consumer. It was the invisible government which manufactures our "news” for us that was benefited. The merry tale goes on, of wnichWe have already had some samples in the Golden- Age:
Charles Rezeau, of Cullison, Kansas, shipped a yearling calf hide to a hide and fur company at Hutchinson. The hide weighed 11 pounds,
and the price paid for it was 7 cents a pound.
The freight charges, 67 cents, were deducted Mules bought in from the munificent sum, and Mr. Reseau received the princely sum of 10 cents in stamps for his hide. '
Then again there is Mr. Frank Herman, of Dubuque County, Iowa. In April he sold twenty-two calf-skins at six cents a pound, totalling $13.20. Out of the sum thus attained he bought one pair of shoes for $12, leaving him $1.20, and leaving an astonished American public to wonder what must be the size of Mr. Herman’s feet if twenty-two calves will barely suffice to pro. vide him with leather enough for one pair of shoes. .
The gay days of $100 suits are over; but while they lasted the American Woolen Company, that arch-patriot of all 100% (profit) Americans, feathered its nest so completely that it need never worry again. Now we are calmly told that enough wool is stored up to last two full years, that huge stores of foreign wools have been brought in and added to the surplus, and that there is no market for any more wook Hence American sheep raisers are ruined, and there is no help for it. .
.Word comes from Minnesota that wool there is ten cents a pound (with eggs fifteen cents a dozen and hides 2 to 3 cents per pound). And from Jefferson City, Missouri, comes the news that Dr. J. E. Jose, of that city, sheared a flock of 173 sheep, and the net amount received for the wool was only enough to buy a four-pound tailor-made suit of ordinary quality. Just think of the size of a man that requires the wool of 173 sheep to provide him with one suit of clothes I
Why Not Cry “Away from the Land”?
HOSE who cry “Back to ’the Land” are neither helping the farmers nor solving the
problem that now confronts us. It is better for the farmers that as many people stay in the cities as possible. It makes more consumers and less competitors. The development of agricultural machinery more than offsets the farm-to-city movement. .
In 1830 it took 64 hours and 10 minutes of man’s labor to produce an acre of wheat. In 1896 it took only 2 hours and 43 minutes, although the normal labor time to the acre is 10 hours. In
/
1830 the man had to work 4 hours and 30 minutes for each bushel that he produced. In 1890 only 10 minutes of the man’s time was required. In this time the labor cost per bushel fell from 17| to 3$ cents. __
In countries where there is little modern farm machinery, as in France, and where the crop production per man is low, the bulk of the population is still on the land. In the United States, where the per capita production of the farmer is high, there is a larger percentage of people in the cities. '
In the realm of cotton not as much can be done by mechanical contrivances as in some other crops, and yet such progress has been made that whereas the labor time for producing 1,000 pounds of ungmne,d lint in 1841 was 167 hours and 48 minutes, in 1895 it had fallen to 78 hours and 42 minutes. -
- - I
Farm Wage* Are Down ,
IT WAS inevitable that the .wages of farmhands should come down with the so-called "deflation” of the farmers. It is a pity that such a "deflation” was ever undertaken. It makes no difference to the farmer, in actual result to him, whether the panic through which he is passing was accidental or intentional. The effect on the farmer is the same—‘ withholding of credit, suit for debt, foreclosure of mortgage and loss of home and property. .
' The drop in farm wages in New York State is over 40 percent. Last year the farmers were paying their laborers $60 tv $100 a month without board; now the wages are $50 to $60. With board the wages are about the same as paid in Kansas and Nebraska, $30 to $50. In Wisconsin wages are reported as $50 compared with $80 a year ago; in Montana as $40 to $55 compared with $75 to $95 last year.
In Maryland colored farm-labor is receiving . $1 pfe^day, in Arkansas 75 cents to $1.00, and in Macdh county, Georgia, in the latter part of May, 1921, 60 cents per day of 12 hours; and even at that much colored labor was forced to leave the state, being unable to find any employment at aU. This is due to the fact that cotton thereabout? is the only crop. '
The South has been forced to give more attention to diversified farming than before, with a great reduction in cotton acreage and more attention to the raising of corn, hay pastures, truck gardens, orchards, livestock and poultry for home use.
The Arkansas Profitable Farming Bureau has laid out the following as a model program for a 4t) acre farm having a team of mules, a cow, brood sow and pigs and two dozen hens: 14 acres of cotton, 14 acres of corn with velvet beans interplanted, 6 acres of oats or hay followed by a second crop of cowpeas or soy beans, 4 acre sweet potatoes, J acre Spanish peanuts, 1 acre Irish potatoes, planted twice, i acre garden truck planted three times, J acre sorghum and 4 acres pasture. * _
Sundry Farm Items
THE cow has been developed from a range animal with scanty milk production to a living machine for milk production limited only by the amount of feed she can consume. The average herd of cows, penned up in a cow barn, is estimated to throw off in two weeks as much water through the lungs, through the pores of the skin, and in the urine, as falls upon the roof of the barti in a year. It is to the cow’s welfare that the barn be dry. The bam must be sunshiny, too, and yet there must not be too many windows; for the more windows there are the more animal heat will be lost by radiation and the more food will go for naught but fuel. This is causing modern barn-builders to give more attention to ventilation than was ever done previously. .
Now that timber is becoming more valuable, farmers are coming to care for their wood lots more scientifically. Trees, in order to produce' high-grade sawlogs, need to be close enough together so that their tops will be in contact. Young trees rising well between the older ones should-be encouraged by the cutting out of all defective trees and the reaping and marketing of all mature timber. Grass In the woods is a sign that the forest is not thick enough to produce good timber. In making choice of trees that are to be culled out,* always remove the inferior varieties of lumber-making woods.
Mr. A. G. Adams, Banstead Grange, Ban-stead, England, claims a world record for what can be done with one pound of potatoes. Mr. Adams planted each eye of his pound of seed potatoes in a separate hilL 146 plants resulted, and these 146 plants yielded 853 pounds of tubers. Can anybody beat this showing! We wait to hear from Montana and Wyoming, in the confident belief that when figures are available and the raisers of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific “Great Big Baked Potatoes” are heard from there will be some potato figures that will astonish mankind.
Experiments on a large scale in Germany have demonstrated that the- gas from blast furnaces, scrubbed to remove its sulphur, and released in small quantities in the foliage of growing plants increases the fertility by more than 100 percent. This is not unlikely. It is merely reproducing earth’s Carboniferous Era on a small scale.
Amateurs who hope to succeed in farming are warned to locate in sections where the land is good and where the farmers are prosperous, and'to seek and follow local advice, but not to attempt to specialize for the first few years.
Within the limits of the city of New York are 800 of the most costly farms in the world. Their average value is $1600 per acre and their average acreage 40 acres. The principal crops grown on these expensive acres are hay, corn and potatoes.
The general discontent of the farmers does not auger well for Satan’s empire. There is a growing conviction on the part of these true yeomanry of America that they, have been double-crossed by the "financiers”, and the Scriptures justify their conclusions. When they correctly identify the combination of Big Busi* ness, Big Politics and Big Churchianity as the cause of all their woes they will help mightily in preparing the way for the Golden Age.
England in Terrible Straits
Gbxeral Booth, of the Salvation Army, is said to have recently made the statement that at this time the masses in England are Buffering privations without a parallel within the memory of the living, and that their misery is unbelievable. The London Daily Herald points out what it believes is the cause of this misery. It says:
THE GREAT WAR
There is no Longer any concealment. The alliance between Big Business and the Coalition Government ia open. The attack on the workers is open. War on the community ia declared. But it was begun—on the best militarist model—before it was declared. '
The Coalition has neither brains, nor knowledge, nor will. But the people who give its orders have brains, and knowledge, and will. Don’t let ua under-rate our enemy. Our enemy is organized, cdhtralized Big Business- .
And the Coalition does what Big Business tells it It plactes the organization of civil and military life, the whole apparatus of government (far which YOU pay) unreservedly at the disposal of Big Business In the war span YOU.
. that "comruxm”
The men who wage war upon you declare, through the Preas/ both Tory and "Liberal”, which is so subservient to their interests, that when you defend your children from starvation you are “waging war oa the community”. .
What is the community? Who is the community? YOU are the community. '
No precise figures are available later than the census of ten years ago; but; roughly speaking, the population of this country is 45 millions, and the manual workers, with their dependents, constitute two-thirds of that number. '
It ia on the workers, organized and unorganized—on two-thirds of the community—that Big Business has declared war; and IT talks about YOUR wax on the community.! ■
THB MULTIPLE OFTENSTVB
Over a million workers are engaged in the coal industry. Big Business has locked them out
Half a million workers are engaged in the cotton industry. Big Business has locked them out.
A quarter of a million workers are engaged in the wool industry. Big Busrnww is on the point of locking them out
A million and a half workers are engaged in, or have employment directly affected by, the engineering industry. Big Business is on the point of locking them out.
A million and a half workers are engaged in the agricultural industry. Big Business, through the Government, has dealt a smashing blow at their standard of life.
The Transport Workers number roughly half a million; the Railway workers well over half a million. Against both of these the attack ia preparing.
Here ia a grand total of five and a half million workers. But the attack does not end there.
There are over two million registered unemployed, to say nothing of the unregistered and of those on short time—probably a further million and a half.
These to a certain extent overlap with the previous numbers, but by no means altogether. And at these, more than three millions, a gm^hing blow has been delivered in the sudden decrease of the insurance benefit.
The great essential industries—seven million workers at least—are simultaneously, brutally attacked; simultaneously, brutally threatened with semi-starvation. War on the community, indeed I And why does the reduction of the unemployment benefit coincide with the attack on wages? BECAUSE BIG BUSINESS HAS TOLD THE GOVERNMENT THAT IT WILL BE EASIER TO REDUCE WAGES FOR THE EMPLOYED IF THE UNEMPLOYED ARE NEARER STARVATION.
• THE LUBS '
How is the war against you conducted by Big Business? By force when it thinks you weak, by lies when it thinks you strong.
All during the war and,in the days of infiation and apparent prosperity immediately after the war, Government and employers spoke smooth words and made fair promises.- Every promise has been broken.
There was the Joint Committee of the National Industrial Conference of 1919, which decided the eighthour day and the minimum wage. The promise was broken.
There was the Coal Commission of 1919, whose recommendations—the miners were given to understand—> would be adopted by the Government, and whose recommendation was for the nationalization of the industry. The promise was broken. .
There were the Corn Production Act of 1911 and the Agricultural Act of 1920, which established the Wages Boards and the minimum wage for agricultural laborers —first, till 1922 ; then (subject to four years’ notice) “permanently”. The promise was broken.
There was the pledge not to decontrol coal before the end of August, 1921. The promise was broken.
There was—do you not remember it too well—the
promise of a land fit for heroes to live in.
sconomt and extravaoance
Big Business says it cannot afford to pay you a living % wage. Cannot afford? ■ ■
What has it robbed the community of by the coal । • lock-out?
Coal would have been produced all this $ime, roughly, | at the rate of four million tons a week. .
So the stoppage has cost 40 million ton*. Pit-head % price of coal in March was 38a. 9d. This means that— . quite apart from the devastating effect on other indue-tries — the stoppage has cost in money Tt million ' pounds. Frank Hodges estimated that it would cost . only 30 millions to meet the whole of the miner's is demands and carry the industry over its abnormal time. I By decontrol and the lock-out the Government has not merely denied the miners their rights, their just share of what they produce, but has robbed the rest of ua of -47 million pounds net. .
Economy!
The total estimated expenditure for the present year
on the armed forces of the Crown is over 207-J millions.
Economy! ■ '•
The Allied Financial Conference at Brussels estimated ' the national income of-this country at 112$ a head, or, roughly, 450 a family. Some families have much less ; than that because some have much more. And those who have vastly and grotesquely more plunge the country into ruin in the attempt to make you take lees stUL ' ’•
When you are told there is not enough to pay you a i decent wage, you know it is a lie.
Look at what the rich spend, even amid the ruin to ■ which they are bringing you I
They save on the poor: they are limiting the Trade
Boards for sweated industries: they are curtailing the
educational opportunities of your children.
More economy!
But, if you stand together as they stand together, you j can get a living wage for all. If you do not get it for ‘ all, you will lose it for all. The battle is joined.
The War in Ireland Frederick J. FaUdner (Dublin) '
IN PREVIOUS articles [G. A. No. 39-40 and 42] the writer endeavored to lay before the readers of The Golden Age an unbiased view of the Irish question and of the tragic events now transpiring in Ireland. The ensuing remarks are intended to afford a further insight into the internal conditions prevailing in that country where so mtich bloodshed and wanton destruction have occurred in the course of the past few years. _
* STATE OF WAE
At the present moment what is tantamount to a state of war may be said to exist in Ireland. The "Irish Republican Army” is waging'a resolute insurrectionary warfare upon the armed forces of the British Crown in occupation of tha country. It is hoped that, by this and other means, England will be ultimately compelled to recognize the right of Ireland to take her place amongst the independent nations of the world.
Sinn Fein, which has sought to build up an administration of its own in supplantation of the British system, no longer demands an Irish Republic. It declares that it possesses one already and that it is determined to keep it. It now seeks merely recognition.
THE “IRISH REPUBLICAN army”
The “Irish Republican Army" represents the extreme wing of the Sinn Fein movement. It has broken away from the control of the most able leaders of the organization. It is an army only nominally; for it does not function as an army, in the usual sense of the term, nor does it concentrate to fight. Its intangibility constitutes its greatest source of strength.
MICHAEL COLLINS
The reputed leader, or comnwuider-in-chief, as he is called, of the “Irish Republican Army”, is Michael Collins. He has so far succeeded in eluding arrest’ despite the many efforts which have been made to capture him. Collins is stated to be the son of a farmer in County Cork. He was born in 1890. At.the age of twenty he left home and lived for a while in the city of Cork. Later on he went to London, where he was employed in the sorting branch of the General Post Office. He quitted England to evade military service in the British Army under the conscription measure necessitated by the European war, and participated in the Sinn Fein Insurrection of Easter, 1916. On the collapse of the rebellion and the surrender of the insurgents, Collins was interned with his confederates at Fron-Goch. In December, 1916. he was unconditionally released. From that time he has been indefatigable in his service of the Republican cause. He exercises great influence in the ranks of the “Irish Republican Army”. If apprehended by the military authorities, Collins will probably be executed.
The fact that the majority of the Irish people are’ ^sympathy with the Sinn Fein movement has been of invaluable assistance to the rebels in their various enterprises and of great embarrassment to the military forces of the Crown in their efforts to annihilate this association which has be$n proclaimed illegal.
A SINN FEIN ARSENALS
Considerable supplies of arms and ammunition appear to be in the possession of the insurgents. Arsenals are scattered throughout the country. They have been concealed in such an effective manner as to defy the most persistent efforts to detect them. On a few occasions the authorities have succeeded in capturing big quantities of munitions which usually consist of rifles, revolvers, ammunition and bombs. The largest discovery of this kind, so far made, took place towards the end of last ApriL A detachment of troops raided some stables at the rear of a prominent Dublin street and in a loft discovered :
11 Rides.
52 Revolvers.
11 Shotguns.
13,000 Rounds of revolver ammunition.
14,700 Shotgun cartridges.
8,950 Detonators. -
49 Rounds of Winchester ammunition.
18 Boxes of various explosives.
59 Tubs of ammonite.
1 Verey light pistol.
' 7 Swords.
18 Un-detonated bombs.
16 Detonated bombs.
90 Coils of fuse.
2 Tins of aluminium.
1 Bullet-making machine.
2 Magne toes.
11 Coils.
There are probably many similar arsenals in Ireland. The favorite weapons of the "Irish Republican Army” are the revolver and the bomb, owing to their conveniency and incon-spicuousuess. In advantageous circumstances rifles, machine-guns, and land-mines are employ- -ed for the tunbush of British troops.
CALLOUS MURDERS IN IRELAND
In Ireland numerous murders have been committed during the past few years. Some of them have been most revolting in their callousness. For crimes of this nature no one side alone can be held responsible. Murder is murder, no matter whether it is perpetrated by the armed forces of the King or by the “Irish Republican Army”. In no circumstances is it justifiable.
The rebels have shot down soldiers, police and civilians — many of whom were unarmed. Several detectives engaged in political work and a number of secret-service men have been assassinated. Women and children have not been exempt Incidents are common where men have been taken from their homes and shot dead at the door step. Others have been riddled with bullets as they lay sleeping in their beds. Frequently the body of a man has been found in some secluded spot with a labej attached bearing an inscription after this style:
“Convicted spy. Traitors beware. By Order L H. A.”
For an individual to be known to supply information to the authorities concerning the activities of the “Irish Republican Army” would mean certain death. The insurgents regard such a one as an enemy of the “Republic” and deal with him accordingly. A number of civilians have been shot on this score. The rebels are well informed through their system of espionage. They regularly intercept the mails and in this manner acquire much valuable information.
THE BLACK-AND-TANS
It is generally accepted in Ireland that the British Forces, particularly the “Black-and-Tans,” have on many occasions been guilty of deplorable excesses. The latter body, as hitherto explained, consists of ex-soldiers and ex-, officers recruited in England for the strengthening of the Irish Police force. They are so called because of the original eccentricities of their uniform. These men at times have taken the law into their own hands. In revenge for the murder of companions, they have killed numbers of those whom they believed to be prominent members of the Sinn Fein organization and have wrecked many buildings.
' Indiscipline amongst the “Black-and-Tans” qoon became a serious menace. General Crozier, the original commandant of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, resigned from office on the grounds that his efforts to enforce discipline amongst those under his command were being hindered by others in higher authority. Eventually the Government endeavored to retrieve its mistakes and to restore ebntrol over the force. Within three months 28 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and 15 members of the Auxiliary Division were removed as the result of prosecutions, whjle 208 members of the former, and 59 of the latte?, were dismissed as unsuitable for service^as police officers. Trials’ on the charge of murder were held in a number of cases, but in only one instance has the death sentence been pronounced and executed.
HEAVY CASUALTIES
The total casualties incurred in Ireland dur- ‘ ing the period from January 1st, 1921, to June 10th, 1921, has been estimated as under:
Killed Wounded Totals
I. R. A. and civilians 567 501 1,068
Crown .Forces 322 450
•
889 951 -
This death roll of 889* inside a little over five months, is heavy. If it be remembered that the present population of the country is about 4,390,-
000, or less than that of the city of New York, .
some idea will be gained of the extensiveness of these distressing occurrences. There were hundreds of other casualties prior to January 1st, 1921.
BUILDINGS, BRIDGES AND ROADS DESTROYED '
The island covers 32,586 square miles. Within this area, which is a little more than that of the state of South Carolina, nearly 80 courthouses and 550 police barracks have been destroyed in pursuance of the policy of the Sinn Fein extremists. Hundreds of other buildings have been demolished. Bridges have been blown up. Roads . ' have been trenched. Trees have been felled. The . main object of this devastation is the impedance ' of military and police transport and the oonse- ; quent hindrance of the work of the British 1 Forces. In its effect it reacts unfavorably upon the country, for it depreciates the nation’s - '
wealth. This point seems to have Ettle influence j upon the actions of the “Irish- Republican '' ■ Army". __ <
BRITISH FORCES IN IRELAND '
: In addition to the normal police force, the ! number of troops stationed in Ireland was 1 recently declared to be 56,000. Their strength j is soon to be considerably augmented. 1^500 ’
Auxiliaries (“Black-and-Tans”) are apportioned j among eleven out of the thirty-two counties of !
the island. They form mobile columns which •
are sent to the most disturbed areas as local ; conditions require their services. These forces ; form the means whereby the policy of the Got- 1 emment is enforced in Ireland. The methods of Great Britain in an effort to suppress the “Irish Republican Army” are really having the A effect of swelling the ranks of the insurgents.
IRISH UNEMPLOYMENT
The unemployment rife in the country at the present moment has also tended to encourage
many men to throw in their lot with the rebels. It is estimated that there are today in Ireland over one hundred thousand, or one out of every six of the wage-earning population, unemployed, in addition to about fifty thousand who are only partially employed, that is, working short time. In illustration, the statistics, set out below, show the eight cities and towns which are mostly affected by the great trade depression which has begun in the British Isles. The figures, of course, include men, women, boys and girls.
City or Town
Unemployed
Belfast
16,644
Dublin
13,853
Cork
.9,876
Limerick
4,007
Londonderry
3,908
Waterford
2,044
Lurgan
1,316
Lisburn ’
1,290
Irish unemployment has unquestionably been conducive to the successful recruitment of the Republican “Army”.
REPRISALS BY BRITISH E0BCES
Reprisals have now become a part of the program of the British military authorities in Ireland. The destruction of business or private houses usually follows an ambush in the neighborhood or the shooting of a policeman or a soldier. In numerous cases the buildings are destroyed, not as a military necessity, but as a punishment and as a'waming. It would appear that the properties selected for this purpose are those possssed by individuals known to be in sympathy with the Sinn Fein cause. The numbers of houses destroyed in this manner from January 1st, 1921, to June 9,1921, was officially stated to be 185. Many others were wrecked earlier. It has been announced that this aspect of the policy of reprisals may soon be discontinued and another course of action substituted.
In certain districts within the martial law area* the holding of markets and fairs has been prohibited on account of local outrages. These methods, which are extensively employed, inflict considerable loss upon the farmers and apparency accomplish no useful purpose.
THE DESTRUCTION OP CBBAMKRIES
The^ountry, particularly South and West, ia essentially agricultural. Dairying is one of its greatest industries. The bulk of the milk produced is manufactured into butter. The Irish
Agricultural Organization Society, an important cooperative body founded in 1894, Las ‘ j effected creameries and other similar insti-' . tutions all over the land. They have proved a I great boon; for the farmers have been enabled ’ thereby to reap advantage from the special machinery and skilled management which are provided in those establishments. "About sixty " ■ Irish cooperative creameries have been burned —most of them maliciously. A mortal Mow has ’ thus been struck at this section of Irish industry. -The effect has been ruinous. The destruction of the creameries is alleged to have been the work of Crown Forces.
SINN PEIN REPRISALS
The “Irish Republican Army” has also indulged in reprisals. The homes of a number of loyalists in the South of Ireland have been burned because of the destruction of property belonging to adherents of the Sinn Fein movement Soldiers and police have been shot indiscriminately in retaliation for the execution of Republicans. .
. DUBLIN CUSTOM HOUS® BURNED .
On the 25th of May last the Custom House, in Dublin, was sethn fire and completely ruined. * The building was attacked shortly after mid-day by over one hundred armed men. Acting on a carefully prepared plan they diffused themselves over die structure. Petrol was sprinkled about and set alight. Auxiliaries happened to be passing at the time and, being apprised of what was transpiring, immediately surrounded ' the building. A fierce battle ensued. Other Crown Forces arrived on the scene and the retreat of the incendiaries was quickly cut off. The majority of them appear to have been captured. The^casualties as a result of the engagement are officially reported as follows:
Civilians: Killed
Wounded
Detained in custody 127
Auxiliaries: Wounded
These figures include a number of innocent victims. Two public servants were killed.
To insure the success of their plan, parties of the insurgents hindered the despatch of the Fixe Brigades from the various stations in the aity, to the conflagration until it was too late to jsave
The British Army is excluded from the foregoing table. The Army estimates for 1919-20 provided for a total of 400,000 British and $ Indian troops; but this figure, with the process ■; of demobilization, has since been considerably reduced. s |
Evidently the nations of Europe-have not yet * I learned their lessons. The Great War, which claimed 10,000,000 lives, has not taught them 2 the impotency of the sword to establish endur- ; ing peace and prosperity. Europe is on the verge of a great precipice and, ere long, she shall have fallen over to destruction. The 1 German Empire has already passed away. J Austria-Hungary has been dissolved into ita . component parts— Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, j
Hungary, Austria. Russian Czardom has van- j ished. The remaining monarchies are even now -tumbling to the dust and republics are shaking , to their foundations. ‘ |
"the world to come”
The reverent and diligent student of divine prophecy can recognize that the time has at last \ j arrived when one world is due to pass away and ' another to take its place. The events current in the world show that the old order shall soon | have perished and the new have been firmly J . enthroned for the blessing of the stricken race -in fulfillment of God's Word. John, in his won- . ।
derful visions, received on the island of Patmos^ < looked down to this very day and informs us ' that he "saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-5) Peter assures ua ! that, when that world is completely inaugurated, it shall be one “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13) And for this we. are glad. We are now living in a grand period of transition.
snnsr FEIN OUTRAGES UST EWGLASD
Contingents of the “Irish Republican Army* are at work in England. On account of their activity some of the most important public buildings in the country are protected by armed guards, and ministers of the Crown are escorted j lest they should be assassinated. Apparently the Republicans have formed definite plana for ' a general campaign in Great Britain. Amongst 4 the objects of their attacks may be mentioned:
1. .Mills
2. .Warehouses ______ 3. .Power-stations ____________-
the structure. It is now only a mass of ruins.
The Dublin Custom House contained the Offices of the Local Government Board 'and other Public Departments. The attack was not merely a reprisal against the British Government but additionally an effort to cripple administrative work which will be seriously hindered through the loss of different records, etc.
The Dublin Custom House is claimed to have been, not only the most impressive building in the city, but also one of the finest of its kind in Europe. It was 400 years old, and its original cost was about £600,000. At present day prices £2,000,000 would be required to restore it. Many invaluable documents perished in the fire.
…