Hodgdon High School - Aurora Yearbook (Hodgdon, ME)

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HODGDON HIGH SCHOOL -x I 15 J '- general prosperity during the Coolidge administration was the condition of the farmer. He had grown poorer while the rest of the country was growing richer. In the five year period 1922-1927, it was estimated that over 1,000,000 people had left the farms for the city and that the value of farm property had decreased from 379,000,000,000 to 359,000,000,000. Wliile the government guaranteed the railroads an income of 6W, made the manufacturer safe by tariff, and protected the laborer by immigration laws, the farmer, who made up 2273 of the popula- tion, received less than SW on his capital and held less than 10? of the money. His income was estimated at 3800 a year, that of the teacher 31300 g that of the govern- ment employee 31650g and that of the preacher 31675. These are all poorly paid professions. In 1928, although the American people paid 322,500,000,000 for 17 food prod- ucts, the farmer received only 173 of this amount. The remaining 273 went to the middlemen. VV hat, we wonder, is the cause of this condition? Looking back to the time of the war, we find government officials en- couraging farmers to plant large crops. They guaranteed 32.20 a bushel for wheat and the price of potatoes was high. They claimed that over-production was impos- sible, since there would be a hungry Europeu to feed after the war. The guar- antee on wheat prices stopped with the war. Europe was hungry, she was also impoverished. VVhile our tariff discour- aged her from buying in the American market, it enabled the manufacturer to maintain prices for shoes, clothing and farm machinery much higher than the pre-war levels. The price of wheat dropped from 32.14 in 1920 to 93 cents 1 in 1922g that of corn from 31.25 to 86 cents, that of hogs from 314 a cwt. to 37.80, and that potatoes from 311-310 in 1919 to from 34 to 50 cents in 1920. The actual cost of raising grain and pota- toes was larger than the selling price in 1922. Taxes steadily increased while prices of farm machinery were kept high by tariff. The demand for food was strict- ly limited by population, and little could be gained by high-pressure salesmanship and alluring advertisement. In 1921, one hundred Representatives and Senators of both parties from the agricultural states appeared in Congress, and in the mid-term election of the next year they cut the Republican majority from 68 to 14 in the House, thus securing something like a balance of power. That Congress passed several measures for farm relief-acts to prevent future specu- lating in the grain supply, to protect the dairymen from adulterated milk, to legalize cooperative agricultural societies, and to assure the farmer fair treatment at the hands of the agents of the stock- yards and the packing houses. ln 1922, thru the revived War Finance Cooperation, the government appropri- ated 3433,000,000 for the exportation of agricultural products, and the credit of the Federal Land Bank was extended to farmers who wished to borrow on the security of their livestock and their crops on the way to market. These measures were by no means satisfactory to the farmers. They demanded the creation of a National Agricultural Export Company, with a capital of 3200,000,000, authorized to buy up surplus farm products and sell them abroad for what they would bring, while the tariff would be high enough to prevent re-importation. This, the Mc- Nary-Haugen Bill, was vetoed in Febru-

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THE AURORA -it I: 14 1 1- members of the class of 1930? As a strange feeling came over me, I saw, as in a mist, the letters fall from the pages of the book to the table before me. Guided by an unknown power I picked up the letters and placed them again in the old AURORA. I watched, spell- bound, the letters grow into words. Frank Benn, from Hodgdon. Frank went to the University of Maine, special- izing in agriculture. He returned from Maine to take up his fatheris business. He is now on the farm doing successful work with the help of his several sons. I waited. Nothing 'more came. Then letters again dropped to the table. News! Extra! Miss Geneva Adams, first woman senator from Maine moves Congress to immediate action on farm re- lief. Solution to the farm problem which has hung fire for many years, seems cer- tain. In a speech which was heard by millions, Miss Adams stated with unusual clarity, the principles upon which agricul- ture reform must be founded. Nothing more, the letters slipped silent- ly to the table, and I was left to ponder, Geneva a politician. Well, well. Not even marriage has deterred Verna from her determination to set up a first- class school. She is the head of a most successful private school for girls in the West. She places great emphasis in the training and culture of nightingales. Marietta Nason. After several years of complete lack of information as to her whereabouts we find her the private sec- retary for the mayor of New York. There are rumors of her taking over that posi- tion in a few months. After years of preparation in normal school, universities and finally under masters in Rome, Thelma Turney has returned to Hodgdon, to take charge of the Hne new Latin Department there. From Paris to Houlton in ten hours. That is the record of Albert Nightingale, who is now chief pilot of the mail Heet of airplanes running from Hodgdon, Maine, to Paris. When the mist had cleared a bit 1ny trembling fingers spelled out the name Inez Turney. Entering a hospital in Port- land she trained for a nurse. She gradu- ated from the hospital and for so1ne time practiced her profession in that city. She later left Portland and is now matron of the New York Hospital of Radiotherapy. Evelyn Manuel is famous for her sing- ing and dancing pictures. She can still make real love scenes though she has a diHerent partner than he way back at Hodgdon. Slowly the name Ralph Herron grew upon the page. Fish is star catcher for the Yankees. It is his seventh year with them and they have held the pennant for four of the seven years just past. The letters moved no more. The story was complete. Slowly the mist drifted away and I again was looking at the old copy of the AURORA. Nearly all that night I sat and mused over the lives of my former classmates. Each one was doing his bit, something good, something useful, something for which the class of '30 might well be proud. BYRON BRITTON, '30. AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES Probably the most serious domestic problem since the last war has been the The one conspicuous exception to the distress of our agricultural population.

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THE AURORA -r I 16 1 1- ary, 1927. Coolidge did not think the law was sound and workable. A second McNary-Haugen Bill was passed in Congress in the spring of 1928. This bill required the government to pur- chase the surplus grain, cotton and to- bacco. This would have given the farmers a chance to sell within the country, thus getting the beneht of the 42 cent tariff. As this plan would still make the govern- ment a farmerf' it was vetoed in May, 1928. Up to the present time, the only effec- tive and lasting farm cooperation in America is the California Fruit Company. In contrast to this we find our many well- organized manufacturing companies-for example, the General Motors Automobile Company. ln an organization of this kind, the beneficial acts are backed by every member. Un the contrary, when one farmer decides to better conditions by raising half his usual number of acreage of grain, potatoes, tobacco, another farm- er thinks he can make more by doubling his acreage. A Farm Board has recently been or- ganized in Wlashington, having at its com- mand Five billion dollars to use for farm relief. The western states have already been much aided, and it seems now that with the cooperation of farm and govern- ment, better times for the farmer are coming. EVELYN MANUEL.