FRAUDULENT AND UNINFORMED PROMOTERS
T. P. Littlepage, Washington, D. C.
MR. T. P. LITTLEPAGE OF INDIANA
President of the Association
In the beginning, let me assert my confidence and interest in agriculture in general. This is one of the basic industries, upon the proper understanding and growth of which depends the food supply of the nation. It is admitted by scientists that, other conditions being equal, an adequacy or inadequacy in the supply of proper food makes the difference between great people and undesirable people. This being true, the various operations of agriculture must always be of the greatest concern to those who are interested in the nation's welfare.
The "back-to-the-farm" movement is being discussed today in various periodicals, but back of the "back-to-the-farm" movement is a philosophy that has not been generally understood. It is not proper here to take time to discuss the reasons why the man in the "steenth" story of some magnificent office building, with telephones, electric lights, elevators, and all modern conveniences, longs for the time when he can roam again amidst the green fields in the sunshine and fresh air, but suffice it to say that in my judgment a majority of the professional men, and men in other walks of life, would, if they could, abandon their various employments and turn again to the soil. The boy on the farm dreams of the days when he can be the president of a bank, have a home in the city, own an automobile, smoke good cigars and go to the show every night. The bank president dreams of the day when he can turn again to the farm and walk in the green fields, where he can shun the various artificial activities of life, drink buttermilk and retire with the chickens.
It may be asked what connection these statements have with the subject, and the answer is this—that in the minds of many thousands of people there is this supreme desire to some day own a portion of God's footstool to which they can retire from artificial and vainglorious environments to those under which they can be their real selves and follow pursuits to their liking. It is this that makes it possible for the promoter of various horticultural enterprises to succeed in interesting in his schemes the clerk, the merchant, the doctor, the lawyer, the school teacher, the preacher, and all others whose occupations confine them within the limits of the great cities.
In the beginning, let us distinguish between the fraudulent promoter and the uninformed promoter. The fraudulent promoter is he who recognizes this great and worthy ambition of many people to buy a spot to which they can some day retire and work and rest and dream and enjoy the coming and going of the seasons, and the sunshine and the shadows, and who capitalizes this ambition, with that industry as his stock in trade which, at the particular moment, happens to offer the most attractive inducements. Those familiar with the industry he is exploiting, can tell him by his actions, by his words, by his nods and winks. It is hard for the crook to disguise himself to the informed.
Distinguished from the fraudulent promoter is the uninformed promoter, but, so far as results are concerned, there is not much difference between them for the innocent investor. They both lead him to failure. They are unlike only in this, that the pathway of the one is lined with deception, crookedness and chicanery; of the other, with blasted hopes based upon good intentions but bad information. Both lead to the self-same sepulcher which in the distance looks white and beautiful but when reached is filled with the bones of dead men.