River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-01-07

by the cattle running by the doorways
must be chopped down before the sta
bles can be gotten into, and the boy is
delayed until eight O'Clock in spite of
the fact that he was up before five
O'Clock.
| tell you, fathers, such conditions
as these which l know used to exist
on many farm, if they do not now,
breed discomfort among the boys with
amazing rapidity and great many
pleasant things are required to over
shadow them.
Do you say that it is the shiftless,
lazy and thoughtless boy who is irri-
tated by the surroundings ] have
named! Quite the contrary. IL is the
boy of keen sensibility, the boy whose
mind realizes its contact with the
world, and because it does is irritated
by the extreme untitness. Such boy
does not whine or complain, he does
| not shiTk his tasks; these are entirely
foreign to his nature. The father
| and mother honor him and think he
is a remarkable lad, and they are
right about it, too; but there is grow
ing in the boys mind, uncOnsclOusly
both to himself and his parents, a
bent which, when the time for the
choice of an occupation comes, is al
most certain to carry him away from
the farm.
But suppose the strong boys do leave
the farm and make the world feel
their power through other channels!
What of il! Ought this not To be 50!
Let us reason together. Suppose he
is a lawyer by profession but repre-
sents you in the legislature or in con-
gress. Are your interests not more
likely to be justly represented by him
because he was bred on the farm, and
because his father and mother and
brothers and sisters are still there!
Suppose he is an editor and your in.
terests are to be made known through
the press. Are you not likely to get
fuller Justice for the very reason that
he can feel, through his own expert
ence, that the demands you make are
Imperative! Suppose he is mer-
chant, and buys your butter and eggs
and sells you your groceries and cloth
ing. Will he be as likely to mark his
goods as high and yours as low as the
"dude" who has been brought up TO
believe that farmer is hardly human
anyway, and owes his existence TO the
fact that the people need him to feed
upon, and whose eXtravagant habits
make higher per cent. of profit nee
essary to SUGGEST
| think you will agree with me that
that would be a bad country to live in
in which only minister sons could do
the preaching, III which only lawyers
sons could mete out justice and do the
swindling, in which only the pOliti-
clans SONS could hold the offices and
grow fat in them.
We need the change of occupations,
the cross. breeding in industries to
keep intact these vital bonds of friend
ship, of common interest by which
the great and numerous industries
and occupations must be knit together
and without which the best results to
the race cannot be had, without
which each and every business must
suffer.
1t is of vital interest to you as farm
ers, then, that some of your sons
and daughters, t0o--should leave the
farm, and these should be among the
strongest you have, but it is at the
same time of the utmost Importance
that they should leave with the
warmest possible affection toward its
interests.
Now, while what | have just said
must, | think, be accepted as true, the
same logic would require the reten.
tion of "a large number of your very
strongest minds upon the farm, and
just here is where matters are not
moving right. By far too large pro-
portion of the strong young men are
lost to the great business of farming
and made to swell other ranks even
beyond due bounds.
But what is to be done about it,
How are you going to keep the young
men of brains in the business! BY
doing just what you are trying to do
here to-day. only in a hundred fold
more intensified forms and by vastly
better means. Let it be understood
that this business as well as others
has as much need of brains and uses
| them; let it be understood that there
is abundant room for culture and re-
finement and less of the boys will look
elsewhere.
Do you say that man who has
worked hard all day has no energy left
for reading and reflection! That is
true, but you cannot i'll these days
afford to live that way. That is the
same fallacious argument we use IN
our profession. We say after we have
studied hard all day we are too tired
for physical exercise and do not take
it. The result is many of us become
physical imbeciles, strong minds but
puwerless because we lack the ma
chinery to work through. If you
spend the whole energy your bodies
are capable of generating in driving
muscles you must inevitably become
mentally weak, strong of body and
limb but almost rs pOwerless for good
results AS one of those pOnderous EN-
gints fired up and turned loose with
out the needed intelligence to direct
1t. Just as a strong mind in strong
body can do more work in an hour
than strong mind in a puny body, so
strong body directed by a strong
mind will do more work in an hour
than "a strong body directed by weak
mind.