Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1902-09-06
LAUDS THE FARMER.
President Declares the Rural Districts
Produce Truest Americans.

President Declares the Rural Districts
Produce Truest Americans.
President Roosevelt spoke to an i'm
mense crowd at the State fair grounds at
Bangor, Me. The tenor of his remarks
was that the farmer is the mainstay of
the republic, and that the truest Amerl-
canism and the greatest Americans have
come from the rural districts. The Pres
ident said
Conditions have changed In the country
far less than they have changed In the city
and in consequence there has been little
breaking away from the methods OF HE
which have produced the great majority OF
the leaders Of the republic in the past. AL
most all of our great Presidents have been
brought up in the country and most of them
worked hard on the farms in their youth
and got their early mental training in the
healthy democracy Of farm life.
The forces which made these farm-Ored
bows leaders Of men when they had come
to their full manhood are still at work In
our country districts. Self-help and lndi-
vidual initiative remain to peculiar de-
gree typical of life in the country, life on
a farm, in numbering camp, on q. ranch.
Neither the farmers nor their hired hands
can work through combinations as readily
as the capitalist or wage-Workers or cities
can work.
It must not be understood from this that
there has been no change In farming ana
farm life. The contrary is the case. There
has been much change, much progress. The
granger and similar organizations, the farm
ers' Institutes, and all the alliances which
promote intelligent cooperation and give
opportunity for social and intellectual In
tercourse among the farmers, have played
a large part in raising the level or lie ana
work in the country districts.
In the domain of government the Depart
ment of Agriculture, since Its foundation,
has accomplished results as striking as those
obtained under any other branch OF the ma
tionaI administration. By scientific study OF
all matters connected with the advancement
Of farm life; by experimental stations; by
the use Of trained agents, sent to the utter
most countries of the globe; by the practical
application of anything which In the Or
binary has been demonstrated to be etti-
cient; in these ways and in many others
great good has been accomplished in rails
Ing the standard of productiveness In farm
work throughout the country.
We live in an era when the best results
can only be achieved, if to Individual self
help we add the mutual self help which
comes by combination, both of citizens IN
their individual capacity and OF cltzcns
working through the State as an 1nstru-
ment. The farmers Of the country have grown
more and more to realize this, and farming
has tended more and more to take Its
place as an applied science-thOugh, as with
everything else, the theory must be tested
in practical work, and avail only when
applied in practical fashion.
But after all this has been said, 1t re-
mains true that the countryman, the man
on the farm, more than any other of our
citizens to-day is called upon continually
TO exercise the qualities which we like to
think of as typical of the United states
throughout it's history-the qualities of rug
ged independence masterful resolution, ana
| Individual energy and resourcefulness. He
works hard, for which no man is TO pc
pitied, and often he lived hard, which may
not be pleasant; but his life is passed IN
| healthy surroundings, surroundings when
| tend to develop fine type of citizenship p.
Every one of us slips on some occasion,
| and shame to his fellow who then refuses
! to stretch out the hand that should always
| be ready to help the man who stumbies. IL
! is our duty to lift him up; but it is also our
| duty TO remember that there is no earthly
use in trying to carry him. If man will
! submit to being carried, that is sufficient to
show that he is not worth carrying ,
J In the long run, the only kind or neIp
| that really ayails is the help which teaches
man to help himself Such help every
man who has been blessed IN hfe shoulo
| try to give to those who are less fortunate,
| and such help can be accepted with entire
| self-respect.
The aim to set before ourselves in trying
to aid one another is to give that aid IN
der conditions which will harm no mans
| self-respect and will teach the less for
| tunate how to help themselves as tnef
Is necessary not only, to possess the rIghSS
kind of heart, but also the right KIND or
head. Hardness of heart Is dreadLul
| quality, but it is doubtful whether IN the
| long run 1t works more damage than soft
ness of head. at any rate both are unde-
| sirable.>
The true line of cleavage lies between the
| good citizen and the bad citizen, and the
| line of cleavage may, and often does, run at
right angles to that which divides the rich
and the poor. The signs of virtue lie in
mans capacity to care for what is outside
himself.
The man who gives himself up to the
| service of his appetite the man who. the
more goods he has, the more he wants, has
surrendered himself to destruction. 1t
makes little difference with him whether
he achieves his purpose or not. II his
point OF view Is all wrong, he is bad
Citizen, whether he be rich or poor
| THE worth of civilization is the worth
Of the men at its center. When this man
lacks moral rectitude, material progress only
makes bad worse, and social problems stia
1 darker and more complex.