William Rheem Lighton

“ Net income, though, is what counts. The net income of a farm is what remains after all cost of crop production and all cost of family maintenance are taken away from the gross income. The average Mississippi valley farmer, after paying the cost of operating his farm and keeping his family, has nothing whatever left out of his crop returns. He's been growing rich upon the increase in the value of his land, not from the profits of farming. The Oregon Agricultural College has carefully compiled actual figures covering this proposition in the Willamette valley. ”

“ Anybody may see that, merely by looking out of the car windows. Prosperity is written unmistakably across the whole face of the land—in the beautiful farm homes, in the neat towns, in every sign by which prosperity is interpreted. ”

“ Its mouth is at Portland, at the junction of the Willamette river with the Columbia; its upper end is in the highlands of Lane county, off to the south. The valley proper holds about 5,000,000 acres of the most fertile soil in the world, a soil equal to any demand that may be made upon it. Today it is carrying a population, outside the city of Portland, of about 200,000 people. Brought to its fullest development, this land will one day support one prosperous, happy human being on every acre—five millions of people whose life will embody the highest and best things in civilization. ”

“ For most of us, the real thing has seemed to lie always somewhere beyond the rim of the horizon, forever coaxing us on, forever vanishing, just ahead of us, in the mists of distance. Lots and lots of us have come to the point of thinking that in holding out the hope the gods have been mocking us. ”

“ What we've been looking for, more than all else, above all else, has been a place where we might come to rest in peace; a place of refuge from the heart—burning, soulracking, tormenting wandering. Appearances are against us, but in our heart of hearts we're home-makers. ”

“ The best blood of America pioneered this country of the Willamette, making the first really permanent settlements something more than sixty years ago. Wheat-growing was the chief concern of those pioneer farmers, and wheat-growing held first place for a long time, to the exclusion of almost everything else. The land holdings were large in those days, and the production of wheat was carried on according to the old methods of extensive farming—wheat, wheat, wheat, year after year. Wheat was just about the only farm product that figured then in shipments out of the valley. ”

“ The production of a single crop over a wide area, to the exclusion of others, is unsound in theory, tremendously wasteful in practice. "Bonanza farming" sounds mighty fine and large and princely. Fortunes have been made at it—by the favored few; but that sort of farming has always spelled industrial and social stagnation for the region indulging it. Exclusive cotton—growing has kept the farm life of the southern Gulf States at a standstill for generations. While the states of the Upper Mississippi valley were devoted exclusively to growing and selling grain. life there was hardly worth living. ”

“ What have we been hunting for? We haven't been spending all this time and money and blood on a mere hunt for change and excitement and adventure. It isn't the dream of wealth that's enticed us, nor yet the vision of empire. ”

“ Almost to a man we're cherishing fond sweet hopes of finding, some time, somewhere, a place where the sword of anxious endeavor may be beaten into the tools of the home-builder; a place where we may walk jocund through golden days of dear delight, finding that life has broadened, deepened, become large. ”

“ But mark this, in contrast to the old wheat-growing days: this valley is now feeding its 200,000 people in abundance, and is marketing besides, every year, food-stuffs of the value of $42,500,000. That's an annual cash income of $42.50 per acre on the cultivated land. That's an annual cash income of $212.50 for every man, woman and child in the valley, from farm products alone. That's an annual cash income of $1033.80 for every farm of the 22.000 farms of the valley. ”

“ The sentiment of the people in the whole Willamette valley is dead against that sort of thing. They know what it would mean, and they don't propose to stand for it. They're bent now solely upon having the lands occupied by good farmers. If a stranger in the valley gets stung in these days by a land speculator, it's his own fault. ”

“ Lots and lots of us are about ready to give up the quest with a regretful sigh and try to content ourselves as best we can with some sort of a compromise. Lots and lots of us have made up our minds that the thing we've seen in our visions is after all absolutely too good to be realized. ”

“ The average farm of 5 to 20 acres has a gross income of $1451, and a net income of $852; the average 20 to 80-acre farm has a gross income of $2474, and a net income of $1511; the average farm of 80 to 160 acres has a gross income of $2970 and a net income of $1762; the average farm of 160 to 320 acres has a gross income of $3487 and a net income of $1908. ”

“ Nobody can tell this story adequately, no matter who he is nor what his gifts. It seems absurd to try. When the pen has done its utmost and begins to stutter impotently, the best must still remain unwritten. ”

“ They wanted useful men to come in, men of initiative, men whose coming would contribute to the city's real strength; but they didn't want the sort of men whose coming would mean a relaxing of the civic fiber—the speculators, the get-rich-quick artists, those eager for unearned profits. ”

“ So long as the Plains country was abandoned entirely to stock grazing. there was no social life worth mentioning. That's inevitably true everywhere. High civilization always waits on the development of many and various resources. ”

“ They offer great opportunities to men with constructive ideas. There's a wealth of raw material all around, wool, wood, leather, and all sorts of farm stuff. One-fifth of the standing timber of the United States is in Oregon, within arm's reach of the Willamette valley; and in the flow of the streams of this valley there's about 620,000 horse-power going to It is working An over-grown town Doesn't that spell opportunity? ”

“ They're not over-grown-not one of them. They're serving a big, useful purpose, playing their full part in the big work, steadfastly restraining all foolish ambition to outdo one another in mere mushroom growth. That's a bully good sign, don't you think? always lays an extra burden upon the surrounding country. ”

“ All he need do to protect himself is to go to one of the commercial organizations, to the officers of the State Immigration Commission, or to the State Agricultural College, and he'll be in the hands of friends. ”