Oxford High School - Ravelins Yearbook (Oxford, MA)

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RAVELIN 'S Yellowstone Park is the ideal place. Remem- ber, Yellowstone Park is yours. This property is ours, and we hold it in feeg And all of this earth shall its majesty see. The deer and the elk unmolested shall roam, The bear and the buffalo each have a home. The eagle shall spring from her eyrie and soar O'er crags in the canyons where cataracts roar, The Wild fowl shall circle the pools in their flight The geysers shall flash in the moonbeams at night, Now we christened the country-let all nations hark! We named it the Yellowstone National Park. THE FARMERS' PROBLEM By Robert Helliwell N view of the obvious turmoil of the Ameri- can farmer I feel that a philosophic, econom- ic and political explanation of his situation is necessary. My task is, I believe, to state the problem and so far as possible to indicate how the farmer may redeem himself as a person, as a shareholder in the country's capital wealth, and as a producer. However, before going to the farmer I think it is best to give an interpretation of the pres- ent crisis, and I assure you that it is a crisis and not merely an economic depression. In the first place, if we don't change our manner of attack and our goals it will be insurmount- able. And second, we are in the crisis because our instruments of control have failed to Work. They are out-dated and have outgrown their usefulness. Representative government which is based on a naive conception of democracy is hesitat- infr and failing everywhere, and countries are drifting toward dictatorships and bureaucra- cies. America has gone far enough in her lafssez-fiire policy in economics. At the present time there are several alterna- tives open to the American people. First, they can continue to drift and then they can adjust tlrmselxes to lower standards of living. Or if they wish they Call step boldly to a revolution --'t h'ch will only substitute one class for an- other. And finally, they can turn to a program ot fundamental reforms of our institutions-a program of radical gradualism made effective by national planning instituted without force. Now to turn to the farmer. The farmer is the under-dog of under-dogs and the following examples will show how he has borne the brunt of the expenditures of this country. He paid for the American Revolution with the tarii of l789g and the VVar 'of 1812 with the tariE of 1316. He paid for the Civil War with the Mor- ill Act, he ably financed the Spanish War with the Dingley Tariff, and of late years he has been paying for the 1Vorld War by the Ford- ney-McCumber Act. He has paid for all of them in spot cash-taken out of the soil. But that is not all that the farmer paid for. What did the Railroad Companies do with the large grants of land they received fr'om the gov- ernment? Why, they sold them to the farmers, of course. For how much? For enough to build the railroads. And when the railroads were built it was the farmer who had to pay the high rates to send his bulky products to the eastern markets. When the railroads made monev they issued watered stock and who bought it? The farmers. When they needed more money they floated bond issues and who bought them? The farmers again. For the last seventy-five years every census report has shown that land values have gone up--up in tremendous leaps and bounds, and with this increase up, up went taxation. Now let us take the man who got 160 acres of land for nothing under the Homestead Act and let us presume that he can raise 1600 bush- els of wheat. In a few years time, the land value has shot up to SB30,000, but does he get 30.000 times more wheat? No, he gets just about the same amount and also the prices are about the same. As taxes went up, he received less and less for the labor until he had to mort- gage his farm. Durinff the nineties the farmers had hard times and they were content to try to cure them by lsglslation. But now, when their very homes are in danger, they have taken the only sensi- ble course-direct action. They can't pay, won't be able to pay, and should not pay, and l?5l

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RAVELIN 'S ture lakes are gardens of mushrooms, banks of goldenrod, or clusters of asparagus, which ap- pear t'o be growing here, created by the Archi- tect and colored by the Artist of these mineral springs. The most renowned of these is called Emerald Pool. Another beautiful sight is Lake Yellowstone. It is an inland sea nearly eight thousand feet above the ocean level. If the White Mountain monarch, Washington, were planted in its depths, there would remain two thousand feet of space between its summit and the surface of the lake. This lake has only one real rival. It is Lake Titicaca in the Andes of Peru. To appreciate the beauty of Lake Yellowstone, one should see it when its waves are radiant with the sunset glow. It is not only beautiful at this time, but mysterious. Let us leave the lake and enter the loveliest portion of the park.-a level sheltered area of some fifty souare miles to which has been given the name of Hayden Valley, in commemoration of the distinguished geologist, Doctor Ferdi- nand V. Hayden, who did so much to explore this region and to impress upon the HOVGFII- ment the necessity of preserving its incompar- able features. This part 'of the park also con- minq fierv forces, but they manifest themselves in different wavs. In the midst of this natural beauty is an object known as the Mud Geyser. Unlike the gevser which spouts steam, this gey- ser spouts mud. Another striking feature of our National Park is its Petrified Forest, where, scattered over a large area, are solitary columns, which once were trunks of trees, but now are solid shafts of agate. The substance of Wood, how- ever, is still apparent, the bark, the worm-h'oles, and even the rings of growth are distinctly vis- ible, but every fibre has been petrified by the mysterious substitution of mineral deposit. An excavation on a side hill proves that there are eleven layers of such forests, one above an- other, divided by as many cushions of lava. Think of the ages represented here, during which all these different forests grew and were successively turned to stone! Yellowstone Park is above all a great animal refuge. In fact, it is the largest and most suc- cessful wild-animal preserve in the world. Since its establishment in 1872, hunting and fishing has been strictly prohibited. Elk, bear, deer of several kinds, antelope, bison, moose, and bighorn mountain sheep roam the plains and mountains in large numbers. Thirty thou- sand elk, for instance, live in the park. Ante- lope which are nearly extinct elsewhere, abound here. These animals have long since ceased to fear man as wild animals do everywhere except in our National Parks. Few tourists who follow the beaten road see these animals, but those who linger in the glorious wilderness see them in an abundance that fairly astonishes. Very different, indeed, from the beasts of the after-dinner Story and the literature of adven- ture, are the wild animals of the Yellowstone Park. Never shot at, never pursued, they are comparatively as fearless as song-birds nestling in the homestead trees. Large wilderness bears cross the road with haste a few yards ahead of the solitary passer- by. Deer, by scores, lift their antlered heads above nearby thickets to watch those who come that way. Herds of antelope on near-by hills watch. but hold their own. Only the grizzly and the mountain sheep, besides the predatory beasts, still hide in the fastnesses. VVith the founding of Yellowstone National Park, a new wonderland was found and Con- gress decreed that this territory where Nature had assembled so many of her marvelous crea- tions, this land she had so long shrouded in mystery, should be set apart as a perpetual plav ground for the Nation. No one who has visited National Park ever doubts the necessity of having soldiers there. One of the most important duties of the United States troops stationed there is to save its for- ests from destruction. They also have to pre- serve the game within the Park, and build and repair its roads. The park has entrances on four sides. Three have railroad connections. Five hotels are lo- cated at points convenient for seeing the sights, and are supplemented by a dozen or m'ore pub- lic camps at modest prices. If you wish to study nature in her myriad wealth-and live, l24l

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RAVELIN 'S they are not going to forfeit their homes be- cause of it. Congress failed to anticipate this crisis and its inefficient measures such as the Reconstruc- tion Finance Board, the Home Loan Banks, the Crop Production Loans and Seed Loans, have been of little use for they are only increasing debt and postponing the inevitable day of reckoning. The so-called Farmers' Holiday, which is spreading in the NVest, means that the farmers can't pav the interest on their mort- eaeras 'or the tarfes on their farms. The direct action of the farmers so far, has more or less frustrated the legal action against them. The difference between the farmers' dollar and the dollar of Industry must be eliminated. The farmer has to pay lndustry'S price for manufactured goods, but when he is selling his efoods he gets what Industry will nav him. Property tares are easilv moved and the sum ot' all taxes is nut 'on the manufactured goods and then paid by the consumer and when the consumer is the poor farmer he has to pay it, because he has no one on whom to shift the tariff. Now when the farmer is faced by these prob- lems what is he to do? First, to use the com- mon vernacular he can lie down and take it, second. he can beg for help: and third. he can take direct action. The first course is an old road to the farmers and they have been tak- ing it for years and years. The farmer has alwavs been easily led by politicians and would- be reformers. The second method is also fa- miliar. Farmers have sent representatives to Vifashington to beg. but it has been 'of little use. They got a farm bloc which could stop some measures from going through it, but it, in itself, was not powerful enough to get any real aid for the farmers. They got a Farm Board which loses S240,000,000 'of its revolving fund while prices continue to fall. And now, when they have seen the helplessness of these two meth- ods, they take the third. By some this is called direct action and by others passive resistance, but nevertheless it is anarchy and revolution, because isn't it going in defiance of the law? And should these farm- ers be blamed for their high-handed action? I think not, because was n'ot this country found- ed on the principle that when any form of gov- ernment becomes destructive to the ends of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, it is the right of the people to abandon or alter that form of government. VVhat is it that makes our present government so inflexible, so impotent in face of disaster? The answer is that our whole legal structure has been built up with the idea that property takes a superior stand to human rights. This must be altered, and property must become secondary. The people of the city have of late taken the farm problem rather lightly, but they should realize that it is their banks and insurance companies that hold the farm mortgages, and if the farmers default their mortgages it will be their banks and insurance companies that are worthless. It seems that most of the people think that a slight reduction in mortgage rates will cure the situation, but nothing is farther from the truth. The farmer has about SB9,500.000.000 worth of farm mortqaeres held over his head and if 800,- 000,000 bushels of wheat and 12,000 000 bales of cotton, our entire crop of these two products. were sold at prevailing prices there would not be enough to pay the interest at six per cent. In fact someone would have to put in about 514200000000 more. Vtfhat are we going to do about this? The whole system is breaking down, and I am glad that the farmer has taken the bit in his teeth. He has stayed right at home. He says, I am sorry, Gentlemen, I can 't pay, and I w'on't pay, and it won't do any good trying to collect, in fact it may be rather bad thing if you do try it. So just quit. Let us have a moratorium, or rather a complete cancellation, because a moratorium won't help this situation. lzej