Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) dom of dividing the available employment among the greatest possible number of people.

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It is not perfect, but it is logical, sane, and workable. It plans and pretends to be nothing more than an emergency measure to help get the nation through this time of distress. In time of famine there is no question as to the legal and moral right of a community to divide the available food supplies. We have a huge famine now. One fifth of our people are without means of support. Why should there not be an equitable d stribution of the available employment as far as that can be accomplished?

Ask the nationally oroL,rr*".lrromist what is the trouble with agriculture, and what should be done about it, and he will make more funny noises with his mouth yet produce not a single thing that-even under a powerful microscope-could by any stretch of the imagination be construed as an idea. Ask the bell-mouth politician, and it's far worse. He just sputters. No one knows what to do for the farmer because they haven't the faintest idea of what has happened to the farm business. It's hard to suggest remedies when you are totally ignorant of the trouble.

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Get a load of this ! The census of the Department of Agriculture of the United States in 1910 showed 26,000,000 horses and mules in this country. Do you know how many there are today? About 7,000,000. A loss of 19,000,000 in that length of time. Do you know the comparative consumption of farm products of horses and men? The average horse or mule consumes two and one-half times as much volume of farm products as the average man. Get the idea? Two and a half times 19 is 47%. The effect on the consumption of farm products is exactly as though 47,500,000 people in this country had left, or quit consuming farrn products. Do you wonder the farming business has been flattening out?

Have you read that tremendous fact in any of the expert opinions that are being offered by those supposed to be students of the situation ? Naturally not. Have any of the big politicians mentiong6 it? How could they? In the old days the farmer raised the feed for his own work stock.

He sold himself a large part of his crop. Today he has to try and find a market for that same feed. He can't raise gasoline on his farm. He has to buy and pay cash for it. So he has to try and sell what he used to feed his mules and horses to get cash to buy his present-day fuel for his tractor, etc.

And 80 or 90 millio" *n* nl"n* in the country who used to use horses and mules are also using gas-burning transportation instead; so they don't buy hay and oats. What the farmer needs is for some intelligent bureau of information to really diagnose his case and tell him where and why his markets have changed, so that he may alter his crops to fit the new situation.

Again have schoo, u.; ;-:, and our institutions of learning are thronged with seekers after facts, past and present. The rich and poor children alike, seek knowledge. Let us hope that the men and women who, as teachers, guide these young minds in these schools and colleges, will not forget to hold out THIS shining mark and inspiration to the children of the poor; to those who come threadbare and at great sacrifice to their parents, to find knowledge.

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That most of the intellectual giants of history have been nursed at the loving breast of poverty. Genius is much more likely to be found in a hut or hovel than in a mansion. Most of those who climbed highest on the shining ladder of fame, started at the lowest round. In the midst of toil; in the din and sweat of labor; and on the verge of want, most of the great souls of history have been fashioned and forged. Tell your scholars that, you teachers of men ! They have a right, as a compensation for things that they lack, to be so reminded.

Know anything about*r,i"oJrn""r", Most of us are like the cannibal chief, whom the missionary asked-"Do you know anything about religion?" and he 3n5ws16d"Well, we got just a taste of it when the last missionary died." But this Shakespeare was the world's greatest marvel, in more ways than one. Think of this: he was an intellectual ocean that touched all the shores of thought. Yet in all his tremendous writings he never mentioned any con- temporary person or event. Yet he lived in, an age that was packed with wonders. Cervantes and others v/ere making literary history. Bruno, the great martyr' was teaching in England, and was then burned in Rome. Drake was circling the globe. Galileo was tearing down a tiny world, and giving us a mighty universe in its place. Michael Angelo was setting the world afire with his brush. Kepler was educating the world. Those were the days of the Spanish Armada, the execution of Marie Stuart, the massacre of St. Bartholemew, the Edict of Nantes. The world fairly flamed with great men and events. Did he mention any of them? Never! Figure that out, you scholars!

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Think of a mind like Shakespeare's, immediately following the era of Copernicius, yet never mentioning the man who taught us that the earti is only a grain of sand on the infinite shore of the universe; that ever5rwhere we are surrounded by shining worlds vastly gteater than our own, all moving in unison and in accordance with law. Before Copernicius, the earth was'the center of the universe, and all the stars were just company for this insignificant atom. Copernicius put the earth in its place, and taught us not only how it moved, but how it revolved. He made the earth small; but he MADE MAN BIG. If I had been Shakespeare, I would have written at least one play around him and Galileo, and Bruno. What a play that would have been ! What a tragedy !

Raihay Lumber Use Report in Brisk Demand

Besides regular R.F.C. loans for selfJiquidating projects an efrort is being made to interest the railways to apply for R.F.C. loans to repair and add to rolling stock. Railway officials estimate that 25O,000 cars in need of repairs will require 250,000,000 feet of lumber. A number of railways have already applied for such loans.

Some time ago the National tumber Manufacturers Association, through its Trade Extension Department, issued a voluminous report on "Promotion of Lumber for Railway lJses." This report, covering both hardwoods and softwoods, rvas prepared by an N.L.M.A. engineer after obtaining data from 500 railway officials of 52 roads during two years of continuous effort. Recently Trade Extension subscribers, to whom only the report is available, were circularized apropos of the R.F.C. financing, and 61 per cent asked for additional copies of the report. One sales manager wrote: "I think so much of the report that I keep a copy on my desk all the time. Every sales manager or anyone who sells lumber to the railways should have a copy of it."

The report is only one of many practical reports made by N.L.M.A. engineers with a view to helping lurnber companies to find markpts and fill them intelligently-