The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-23
CLUBS FOR FARMERS
One Way to Keep the Rural
Population at Home.
PLAN PROPOSED BY KANSAS WOMAN
Mrs. James Lewis Of Kfnsley Says
Farmers Need Amusement The
Rush to the City Is Not to Make
Money, She Claims, but For Social
and Mental Improvement.

Mrs. James M. Lewis of Kinsley,
Kan, believes that farm life in Kansas
could be made more attractive by the
establishment of country clubs, says a
Topeka dispatch to the Kansas City
Star. She believes that the farmers are
as well prepared for club life as the
residents of the cities and that this
system would prevent the restlessness
among the young people which causes
them to leave the farms and go to the
city. On this subject she said at a
meeting Of the board of agriculture:
ut seems to me that the country
club, with it's meeting place, the coun-
try schoolhouse, is possible in every
community. 1t offers a plan Of COM
munal social exchange that will bring
much to our Kansas farmers. There is
something lacking in the country life
in that it fails to satisfy the young peo-
pie, and there is a continuous stream
from the farms to the cities. 1t cannot
be altogether the desire to make money
that draws the young people, because
their chances are better on the farms.
It is the desire for amusement, for re-
creation, for participation in the worlds
thought and progress-things they have
not had on the farm. A live, wide
awake club will keep them in touch
with the world. We need clubs in the
country. l lived six years on a western
Kansas cattle ranch. and l know the
people in the country are as ready to
respond to all that club life means as
the people in the towns.
"a constant stream Of strong, healthy
young men go from the farms into the
channels of industry. The country fur
nishes as good as there is in commerce
and business, but against that is a pitt
full stream Of boys and girls who go
from the farms and are swallowed by
the other side of life. Many Of them go
because a country life has heretofore
been wanting in the things that make
for dignity and the social graces, things
that ought to adorn every life. The
rural delivery route, the telephone and
the trolley car have changed this to a
certain extent, but / know Kansas
farmers with good bank accounts who
do not subscribe for a magazine, whose
library consists of a copy Of the Gal
weston Flood and Mrs. Logan's Thirty
Years In Washington and whose col
lection of art is a set of horrors labeled
family portraits. This kind of people
are those who need the clubs.
"About twenty years ago in western
Kansas Colonel j. NJ. Lewis organized
the Wayne Township Farmers club in
Edwards county. Every farmers fam
lily was eligible to membership. They
bought a large tent, for there were no
groves for picnics in western Kansas
in those days. They me- once a month
in summer. In the morning they had a
business session, and the women par
ticipated in it if they liked. The bust
ness session was followed by a cooper
alive dinner. Every family provided
something. In the afternoon a some
what formal programme vas given.
Sometimes persons from a distance
were invited to assist in this.
"Later, when a railroad came through
this township, Lewis was founded. The
fraternal spirit generated in that or
kdulZullOu uldAcS ILLS toWA touoJ SHS
center of one of the most desirable
farming communities in Kansas. The
children grew up together in friendly
intercourse, and one of the results is
a cooperative commercial company,
handling coal, lumber, grain and live
stock. 1t owns a large lumber yard and
an elevator. Stock in this company is
not for sale. The annual business meet.
ings are participated in by men and
women"