Mcallen Daily Monitor

TAKING VETERANS BACK TO THE LAND
That plan for a vast back-to-the-land movement for thousands of pensioned unemployed World War veterans, now being worked out jointly by the Veterans' Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, reads well on paper.

Perhaps under present economic conditions there is no better method for helping the veterans to occupy their time. But one wonders just how efficient as husbandmen these veterans will become if that is really what the two administrations hope.

Efficient farming of any kind nowadays means much more than dropping seeds into the ground and waiting for the harvest. The farmer has many enemies in the form of insect pests, fungous growths, weeds, forces of nature. If by scientific manipulation of the ground to avoid mid-Summer aridity he brings his crops toward maturity, then suddenly a deluge of rain and hail or a terrific wind lays them low and his season's handiwork is destroyed in an hour, or even minutes. Yet if he emerges from these difficulties and harvests his crops, then great care must be taken to prevent their spoiling before he gets them to market. Once in the market he must depend on the honesty and ability of produce merchants to sell them for him at best advantage.

How many veterans would be psychologically able to withstand the discouragements of a farmers' life is, of course, a question. Certainly not a high percentage of those already mentally or physically ill could possibly be fitted either by training or temperament for a life of that kind.

Probably a back-to-the-land movement with financial assistance from the Government might be of value to their health. But let it be hoped the Government officials are not so optimistic as they seem to appear in believing that every one of the veterans will become competent and enthusiastic agriculturists.