Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-12-10

lldl IL ulIl lllttllSI IlltlCH WHdC lHey
did ION a farm? Some years ago l
knew little rural community where
labor was seriously demoralized by
wealthy city family who paid extra
VACANT wages or fees, and gave their
workmen free beer"
There are evidently two sides to the
problem of summer boarding." and
farm and town would do well to get
together to discuss them.
The bicycle seems destined to be an
important factor in setting people to
thinking about great problems of
modern life. Everybody is supposed to
know what wonders the bicycle is to
accomplish in "the emancipation of
woman" whatever that may mean.
But the effect of the bicycle on the
transportation problenl-one of the
greatest problems of modern society
has hardly yet been realized. 1t
may be truthfully said to have brought
farm and town together on the mat
ter of good roads. How all of sud-
den thousands of city people have dis
covered that it is a matter of vital i'm
portance that good roads shall be
built to aid the farmer who hauls his
produce into town,-and incidentally
to accommodate the bcvclist who
rides out of town. And now that
farm and town have joined hands in
this road building, we may naturally
expect that they will fall to discussing
railway transportation by steam,
electricity, or compressed air, until
some of the ugly questions that have
hitherto perplexed us regarding the
economy and convenience of methods
of transportation for city and coun-
try business and people are settled on
the Just basis of the common interest.
The electric railway may also help to
bring farm and town together 1t
and make the conditions Oflite approx
innate toward those of country life.
Efforts to better the conditions of
farm life need the help of the cities.
The cities should interest themselves
in giving the country places good
schools, libraries, and postal facilities;
and in general should help in enrich
ing the common life of the people.
The wealth of the cities should con-
tribute toward the lettering of farm
life. 1t is not well that cities should
draw definite limits and spend all
their resources in building up and i'm
proving themselves. They have a du-
ty toward the rural communities, not
simply to yield to the demand of the
farmers whether what they ask for is
wise or not, but to take an active in
terest in their affairs and counsel with
them, so that the best plans Tor fnu-
tual benefit may be devised.
The attempt to purify city politics
and revive civic pride and selt-respect
is very encouraging. But this must
not be done to the neglect ofthe inter
ests of the State, which, after all, is
the great unit of our national life
The State government deals with the
great problems of marriage, educa-
, ton, health, transportation, indus
trial organization, etc, which pro-
foundly affect the daily life of all the
people.
There are those who think that our
greatest failure in government is in
the management of State affairs. The
legislature is not close ut hand, and so
the ordinary citizen forgets his inter
est in it. 1t is not sufficiently elevat-
ed to draw public attention TO it as
does Congress. 1t is likely to be the
refuge of mediocrity, if not of cor
ruption.
In general, to sum up, the problem
of our times is not how 10 send men
back to the farms where they are not
needed, now how to scatter popula-
lation into myriads of little communi-
ties, but how to raise the level of farm
life and farm product, to more
thoroughly organize the great towns,
to improve the means OF communica-
ton between farm and town, and to
harmonic the manifold clements
which compose the modern state, SO
that each will do its appointed work
in the best manner and the interests
of all the people will be conserved.
There is a grand old word used in
Thanksgiving proclamations in Mass
achusetts which, taken to heart,
should bring town and farm into
closest sympathy. Let US never for
get that, wherever we may dwell,
strong bonds unite ms a. members of
the Commonwealth"