From: Raleigh, Grant County, ND
27 January 1922
Worthy Editorship!
Once again I want to let myself be heard after a long silence so that all will know that we are still alive here. So far we are in good health. Only a rash exists on the faces and bodies of the children. It is abscess-like. Because of it some children could not attend school through the winter. My neighbor’s son had to be taken to the hospital in Bismarck.
The harvest of 1920 was bad, and the one from 1921 was worse. The cutworms ate whatever had not dried up. There are 100 German/Russian families among us. Most of us do not have seed, and also no fodder for the cattle. A lot of the cattle will perish if this cold winter prolongs. Some people still have enough fodder for about a month; however, others do not.
There is also none that could be bought, because there is a shortage of money. The way it is with us Germans, whenever we have a harvest then immediately land will be bought and all money will be invested in that. When a failed crop comes along then one has to, as the saying goes, hang one’s mouth on a hook. Many will say that one has sold his land at a good price and now resides in the city, but dear friends this is the way it really is.
A few years ago the tax for 160 acres was up to $12. Now for the same land the taxes are ten times that amount. (*Editor: If this is the case then Grant County is an exception.) In those days one paid $500 to $1,000 for 160 acres of land. Now you have to pay $5,000 to $8,000, but there were and now again there are too many swindlers.
If a farmer wants to buy a piece of land then he seldom can buy directly from the owner. There are agents and bankers as brokers in between. The buyer will have to work for a whole year just to pay for the commission that those people have earned. Now taxes were imposed on the land so that the land speculators will have to pay taxes as well. And yet it does not happen in reality and in the end the farmer buying the land has to pay the total amount.
By the way, I think that the county commissioners as an example could be a little thriftier during these expensive times, then much could be put into savings. Just to mention something, why do so many culverts have to be laying around along the side of the road without having them installed? There always seem to be those at the wheel who only work towards their own interests and could care less about the farmers. The latter only have to pay. Then it happens that we German farmers have to sustain while many others just sit back and smoke big cigars.
When you travel through the land you will notice where there is a German settlement. To the south of our town there reside only Germans and to the north only Englishmen, who have just as good land as we do, but during the war you could see what they were. While the German farmers raised 85% of farm products and transported them into town, the English brought along only 15% of farm products. All the while we were treated like barbarians (Huns) and were not supposed to speak German. If there weren’t any German farmers in North Dakota, then the rest of the populace would have perished some time ago. When the children of English farmers come of age, they then will run off and the seniors in all possibility will live off the county. If there weren’t any German taxpayers, well then good night!
Why does the State bank, having money to do so, not help the farmers? However, if someone asks for information then he is given the answer that the bank is not yet in the clear. That’s when I would like to know what all these rattle machines are doing if nothing ends up in the clear. Just keep on going like that! If you wait to feed a horse until it is worn out then it is hard to tend to farming. If you intend to help a farmer at a time when it is already overdue, then you too will hang your mouth on a hook and look for what you might be going to get.
At the time, we have evening classes in three schools. The German farmers also attend to learn the American language. If you do not master the vernacular then you will be a jackass regardless of how much you have learned in the old homeland. Therefore keep learning you German farmers! It can be of great help and advantageous should a time come again over short and long. Haven’t many already signed something that they couldn’t read and then had to pay bitterly for that experience? You never learn enough of how not to get cheated. (*Editor: For stories and narratives we do not have any space right now. We will save it for later.)
In closing, I greet my friends in Krasna, Bessarabia and especially our old reader Anton Gedak, whom I ask to correspond diligently.
With a farmers greeting,
Lorenz Loeb, son of Peter