Vagabond Editorials

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mention this with sham+plow under) the rest of the world plants another acre or two of cotton. So the cash in hand of today must compensate for the lost markets of tomorrow.

Take a State like tu*"rl;; produces about one-third of the American cotton crop, and exports more than 90 per cent of what she raises. Those checks .from Uncle Sam looked-and were-like ready money when they came in. But what of the future. This year, for the first time in all history, the United States raises LESS cotton than the rest of the world. Looks like we are really abolishing the cotton farmer, and lulling him into a feeling of security with the honey of ready cash.

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A newspaper story states that in Natal, Brazil, they this year doubled their cotton acreage' and got twice as much for it as ever before. They expect to double their acreage again next year. Unemployment has been eradicated there by cotton control here. Maybe that's what our queer thinkers are driving at+uring unemployment in foreign lands.

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One of my good lumber friends writes to urge that this country give immediate and urgent attention to reciprocal trade relations with the rest of the world to the end that a market for our surplus agricultural products may be protected. He says, very properly, that when the farmer is prosperous' everyone is prosperous' Right! Sorneone has truly said that farming isn't just a job; it's a way of life. But I think we must strive for his prosperity over the long, rather than the short route' We've been taking the short route lately, and there are storm clouds lowerittg' 'i * 'i

Another friend of mine writes that even though President Roosevelt followed the advice of my Man from Mars and got on the radio and made a reassu:ing talk to the business rnen of the country, it would do no great good so long as the same group of advisers that today has the President's ear, continued there' He suggests a National Advisory council made up of "experienced practical patriotic men nationally krrown as such,'' whose advice in national afrairs would be given deepest consideration' He thinks the appointment of such a group to entirely supplant the Brain Trust and a lot of the amateur experimenters' wouldquicHyrestoreconfidenceandstartbusinessturning over.

A famous retail lumberman writes and wants to know what we are going to do about the retail lumber code. He declares, as all men know, that the retail lumber business is rapidly becoming "the chiseler's paradise." In pre-code days the honest merchants could fight the chiseler with his own weapons when they found it necessary for their own protection. Under the code their hands are tied. They can do none of the things that would help them defend themselves against the wolf who eats at their vitals. So he rambles at will, sells where he chooses for what he can get. And the honest dealer scratches his tread till it hurts and tries to figure just exactly how the law of compensation works, and whether or not the help he gets is worth the hurt that he feels.

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If the code prices and provisions could really be enforced and if there was credit abroad in this land so that people could buy enough lumber at code prices to make the lumber business really go back to work, everything would be grand. But, as I said at the beginning of the thing and have had no opportunity for doubting since, no code can be enforced. It must be voluntary agreement' or no soap. There never was a moron so utterly dumb that he could not find abundant methods of beating a code' Putting one watcher for each worker is the only method of unwilling enforcement; and that would be rather cumbersome and expensive. So I don't know.

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Hitler, a monster of blood-mad egotism, possessing neither rnorals, mercy, understanding, integrity, or honor of any sort, announces in solemn seriousness that his dynasty will live a thousand years. Let us trust that in nine hundred and ninety-nine less than one thousand years the horror that is Hitler will have passed into the promiscuity of the dust, and utterly lost in the dim vale of forgetfulness'

Every dangerous madman is a supreme egotist' That's what makes them dangerous. But Hitler demonstrates his utter madness by tampering with religion. You can trample men down and steal from them their sovereign rights in many ways and various fashions' But only the maniac fails to understand that religion is the one sanctuary he must not invade. And when Hitler takes charge of the church as well as the state, he is building a scaffold upon which the head of the builder must inevitably fall'