Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work

The meeting was disposed to be fair-minded and

quite willing to give Mr. Forbes a chance to explain his position.

"The arguments of our distinguished Representative are well worthy of

your consideration," he began, quietly. "It is only by understanding

fully both sides of an argument that you can hope to arrive at a just

and impartial decision. Mr. Hopkins has advocated advertising signs on

the ground that your financial gain warrants permitting them to be

placed upon your premises. I will not deny his statement that three

thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three dollars have been paid the

farmers of this district by advertisers in the last five years. It is

quite likely to be true. I have here the report of the Department of

Agriculture showing that the total amount paid to farmers of the eighth

district in the last five years, for produce of all kinds, is eleven

millions, five-hundred thousand dollars."

A murmur of amazement rose from the audience. Kenneth waited until it

had subsided.

"This seems surprising, at first," he said, "and proves how startling

aggregate figures are. You must remember I have covered five years in

this estimate, as did Mr. Hopkins in his, and if you will figure it out

you will see that the yearly average of earnings is about six hundred

dollars to each farmer. That is a good showing, for we have a wealthy

district; but it is not surprising when reduced to that basis. Mr.

Hopkins slates that the farmers of this district received three

thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three dollars during the last five

years for advertising signs. Let us examine these figures. One-fifth of

that sum is seven hundred and fifty-six dollars and sixty cents as the

income to you per year. We have, in this district, twenty-five hundred

farmers according to the latest reports of the Bureau of Statistics, and

dividing seven hundred and fifty-six dollars and sixty cents by

twenty-five hundred, we find that each farmer receives an average of

thirty and one-quarter cents per year for allowing his fences and

buildings to be smothered in lurid advertising signs.