Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1904-03-30
The Country Bred Bow.
From the Des Moines Register and Leader,

From the Des Moines Register and Leader.
President John II. Finley is not
a believer in the country-born boy.
This is the more remarkable because
he is himself the product of an
Illinois farm. He says the chances
of the city-born are greater than the
country-born, and then he draws
this picture of life on the farm:
eff you know about the life Of the
country boy, how he has to sleep in
an unheated room in winter with
the temperature degrees below zero
and in the summer time work in the
fields in the heat of the sun from
ten to fourteen hours day, you
would probably see that the city
boy has an immense advantage.
They tell you that the hard work Of
the country boy makes him splen-
did man physically. Of the country
boys | knew fully one-half are under
the sod they plowed or are old men
in the village streets at the age of
forty. ] believe that the best man is
developed through association and
struggle, and not in the country
solitude. The farmers boy is
caught in the endless circle where
he raises corn to feed hogs, more
corn to feed more. hogs. OF course,
the city-born may substitute stocks
for crops in an endless chain
of anxiety, but the city boy of New
York has at hand the history of the
world, as a lesson, and the voices of
the greatest men within the reach of
his ears rather than the cricket and
the country night sounds. There
are dirty streets and dark rooms in
the city, but they are illuminated by
ambition, and even these dirty
streets are as dear in after years as
the country is to the successful
farmers boy"
That there is certain sug-
gestion Of truthfulness, in this
portrayal of the hardships of
farm life, no one who knows the
prairies can deny, but over against
it must be taken into account the
substantial fact that the men who
rule today in politics, commerce,
law, the pulpit and the press were
country born.
i Senator Dolliver once remarked
that half the American people live
on the farm and Of the other half
all who amount to anything come
from the farm. That is rather
broad generalization, hattering to a
farm state. But submitted to the
test Of stlict accuracy, it is a more
truthful statement than President
Finley's. 1t comes much nearer tc
portraying actual condition in oul
American life.
The hardships of the farm do no
undermine the physical vigor of tn.
boys to half the extent the vices O
the city do. The solitude of til,
country does not compare with til,
seductions of the city as a blanke
on ambition. President Finley say.
the best men are developed through
association, but it will not do to for
get that mere association with natur
is great educator, for the mint
that is open to it.
But in the end we cannot escap
the one established fact, the mel
who are doing the business Of til
United States in this generation
were country bred. Where tn
successful men Of the next genera
ton will come from remains to b
seen. But it is not necessary to g
beyond the nearest college and loo
over the boys who are winning iron
rank, to feel warranted in maxim
! ! the prediction that the country-bre
are going to give good account {
themselves, for some time to com,