as every man seems, who is faced by impossible conditions from which no effort of his own can free him. No more pathetic sacrifice has been made at Liege or Verdun than on the farms of New England. The "successful" business man-that is to say the business man who has been fortunate, rides over country roads in his highpriced car, notes the sign of unthrift and neglect, and says that the decadence of the farm is wholly due to the farmer. He buys a farm to show how it ought to be done. Then he discovers what he should have known in the first place, that no adequate organization exists for marketing farm products, and that his acres need to be fertilized with dollars, just as a business insufficiently capitalized needs to be, before it will yield a return. His pride gets a good jab, but not so savage a one as it needs for that kind usually has a tough hide.

We hear much about justice to the farmer. What is needed is justice to farming as a business-simple justice, nothing more.

But simple justice is quite a com

plicated thing. It requires organization, careful and painstaking. Hence the Eastern States Agricultural and Industrial Exposition.

It is a dastardly thing to send a fine army into a wilderness to accomplish an impossible mission, and leave them there without backing, without provision, without succour when surrounded by hordes of savage enemies. But we have sent out an army, albeit one by one, of greater proportions than was ever sacrificed by ambitions state-craft, to struggle against the rocks and bitter winter cold of New England, with no adequate organization to keep them in touch with the great bases of credit, of trade and of information. And most of them have gone down. Don't let us console ourselves by thinking otherwise, the exceptions are comparatively few. There are almost as many tragedies in New England as there are farms. But will the present organization accomplish anything? Those charge of it are able men. Their literature claims not only that it will, but that it actually has, through its affili

in

ated organizations. I have not personally investigated their claim, and with the names back of this enterprise I do not think it necessary to go back of their word. Here is what they say:

"Nearly three years ago the citizens of Hampden County got together in a practical endeavor to overcome the critical situation. Town and city people joined hands, specialists were employed, organizations created and set into operation. As a result of this a new spirit and life is manifesting itself.

The 1915 Massachusetts census shows that all but three towns of Hampden County are now increasing in population whereas nine towns had been losing from 1860 to 1910 and losing more rapidly with each succeeding decade. One of these three towns is losing because of industrial conditions so really only two rural towns are now losing and these are being organized in a way that bids fair to start them on the growing side. No other county in Massachusetts can show anywhere near such as record.

A prime mover in our enterprize has been Mr. Horace A. Moses, president of the Strathmore Paper Co.

Mr. Moses tells an interesting story of the manner in which he became interested in this movement for better agricultural conditions. About four years ago he was chosen chairman of the "rural committee "of the Springfield Board of Trade. He was anxious to do his full duty, and so he asked his fellow directors what the rural committee was supposed to do. Several answere were given, the best one being a "guess" that it was this committee's business to see what it could do for the benefit of the suburbs.

This did not quite meet Mr. Moses, ideas. He gave the matter a good deal of thought, and then called together a number of men and asked them to discuss with him some plan by which they could improve the conditions in the rural districts of the county. This was the origin of the Hampden County Improvement

League, the pioneer of its group in this state, the model on which all the others have been organized and which has led to the organization of county leagues in other New England states.

As a result of the first year and one half of the efforts of the League ending December 1, 1914, there has come to Hampden County over $546,000 in the increase of crops and farm values that would not have come had it not been for the League. This year there has come to Hampden County more than $655,000 increase in crops and farm values that would not have come without the League. $546,000 and $655,000 equal $1,201,000.

If such a report as that does not justify an enterprise, it is difficult to offer an argument. To me it appears that this organization can do the thing that we have been talking about doing for a long time. If the next ten years do not show a tremendous boom in New England farm values, it appears to me that the fault is that of our people who refuse an obvious opportunity. The effort is worth time, thought and millions in money.

"When this league started, it was the only one in Massachusetts and Connecticut had none. Today there are more than 15 of them in the two states, and the Hampden league was the reason for all the others being organized. How great, then, is the promise of an enterprise which in effect will be a New England league, doing for every community in a large way what the local leagues are doing.

THE EXPOSITION AND ITS PLANT

The Exposition is a New England and Eastern States institution whose purpose is to become an instrument in the hands of the agricultural and industrial interests to co-ordinate all forces and to work out practical, longterm programs.

A tract of about 170 acres, within 20 minutes' walk of the Springfield post office, has been purchased and is being developed by the Eastern States Exposition. The corporation is capi

talized at $750,000 to furnish an adequate plant and working force to carry out its great program. Springfield is in the very heart of the region the Exposition seeks to benefit. The city has splendid railroad facilities, having three trunk lines running in all directions, first class trolleys and state highways and adequate hotel accommodations.

The proposed buildings afford about 500,000 square feet of floor space. They will be of brick, concrete, and steel. The principal building, south of the Court of Honor, will be a Coliseum, 300 feet long and 200 wide, containing a covered arena 200 by 100 feet in the clear, and having a seating capacity of more than 5500 persons. This Coliseum will also contain halls for demonstration and lecture work.

Other principal buildings will in clude one for dairy products and machinery, with an area of 60,000 square feet; the Cattle and Horse Show buildings for 2000 animals;

Sheep and Swine buildings, covering 30,000 square feet; a Horticultural building, with 26,000 square feet; an Agricultural building of 30,000 square feet, and a fine large Poultry building.

North of the Horticultural building, there will be several acres of open and tent space for farm machinery, tools, implements, etc. Near this there will be a large area of fertile ground devoted to demonstration plots in grasses, grains, orcharding, etc.

Bordering a lagoon, will be a magnificent Boys' and Girls' building, adjacent to which there will be more than 20 acres laid out as a model playground.

At the western approach there will be a parking space for more than 5000 automobiles, with a service garage and club house, affording every facility.

Overlooking the racetrack and athletic field, will be a roofed steel and concrete grandstand with seats for 7500 persons. Movable bleachers will

RESH air work of the Salvation

F Army at its camp in Canton,

Massachusetts, is to be continued this summer on a greatly augmented scale. Not only is there the regular growth of the enterprise; the Army has taken over the work of the Boston Traveler Outing Fund, which has been an important item of social service in the metropolitan district for many years. The transfer began last summer. This year it will be complete. While the Traveler retires from Fresh Air Work, the social workers who formally co-operated with the Outing Fund will continue to seek out worthy cases, but will report them directly to the Canton Camp.

Two large new buildings have been erected as dormitories for the boys, who slept in tents during past summers. They are of the portable type, like all the other buildings of the camp. The garden has been extended somewhat, too, for there will be more hungry ones to feed than ever, and the price of living steadily rises so that even the famous Salvation Army thrift will be strained to its utmost.

Last year 2751 persons were given vacations and outings at Canton Canton Camp an increase of 699 over any previous season; an additional increase of 1000 or more is expected for the coming summer. The custom is to give vacations of ten days to two weeks to all the children, of a family and their mother together whenever possible, so that the general stock of renewed vitality may have a practical value. Now the babies are to be "featured" especially, as a part of the great "Save the Babies" campaign organized by the National Congress

of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations. But at the same time the grandmas and grandpas are not forgotten.

Three ends have to be sought in the location of an ideal camp for freshair work, viz.: inexpensive transportation, beautiful surroundings, in the open country, and perfect sanitary arrangements. In all these particulars the Canton Camp is ideal. Only a few miles from the heart of Boston, but with the lovely range of Blue Hills lying between, one might well suppose oneself far from the madding crowd indeed. Dr. Frederick M. White describes it as "a little patch of heaven on earth to many a city boy and girl." From the hot pavements and crowded stifling rooms of the tenement districts in less than two hours' time the guests of the Salvation Army and its contributors are transported to broad fields and pastures and woodlands where there are birds, wildflowers, and berries in abundance, and where the weary lungs may be filled for days with pure air, and the famished stomachs with good nourishing food. It is inspiring to see how the color comes back to blanched faces and strength and vigor to the languishing bodies. There were several cases last summer where it is quite certain that even the lives were saved.

The children are taken out to Canton in trolley cars chartered for the purpose-parties of one hundred or more at a time. There is need of an automobile to be used for conveying supplies to the camp, and for taking the babies and the little toddling kiddies from the trolley line on rainy days over the half-mile or so along Dedham Road to shelter.