The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-17
Farming as An Occupation
JENNINGS BRYAN COSMO
POIITAN MAGAZINE FOR JANUARY

admit, is the overthrow of liberty. Dis
persed over such an immense space as
that on which the people of Spanish
America are spread, their physical, and |
believe also their moral condition, both
favor their liberty
In enumerating the advantages of farm
life, it is not necessary to say that the
farmer enjoys all the benefits that are
now within his reach. There is probably
no field in which there is greater room
for improvement. But if the farm as
it is has been the nursery of merchants
and ministers, orators, statesmen. the
farm as it may be and should be is
still more inviting. The introduction of
acetylene and other kinds of gas, and
the perfection of electrical apparatus,
will enable multitudes of farmers to sub
stitute a modern light for the dim candle
and the smoking lamp. The windmill and
the supply-tank are not only saving the
muscle of the man, but are contributing
to the convenience of the housewife.
With water running through the house
and supplying both the kitchen and the
bathroom, the lot of the farmers wife
will be very much improved.
Another invention is likely to have
marked influence upon farm life, namely,
the telephone. No one who has not lived
remote from a physician can appreciate
the anxiety which mother feels in case
of accident or sickness in the family.
The telephone reduces by one-half the
time between injury and relief and in
addition to this makes it possible for
the farmer to communicate with his
neighbors, receive and send kilograms,
and be in constant touch with the out
side world. The writer's attention has
been recently called to the telephone as
time-saver among farmers, and one
now wonders how people could have done
without it so long.
The electrician line has already begun
to link city with city and to supply the
farmers along the line with cheap and
rapid transportation for themselves and
their products. 1t will be surprising if the
electric lines and the telephones do not
result in the next few years in arge
increase in the volume of suburban prop
! erty.
In this connection, the Good Roads,"
movement cannot be overlooked. The
value OF permanent and at all times
passable road is beginning to be appre
ciated, and the farmer is likely to de-
mand that this consideration be shown
to his material intellectual and moral wei.
! fare. The mud embargo is an expensive
one to the farmers purse, and not less
obje ctionable in other ways. With good
roads it is possible to have larger and
better schools, and then will follow the
joint intermediate school, with its library
and its public assembly room The rural
delivery is another boon which the farmer
appreciates The state universities are
giving increasing attention to studies that
Will fit young men for the intelligent pur-
suit of agriculture. and what could be
more gratifying? If a father is able to
start his son in business with ten thousand
dollars, what business is so safe as farm
ing? Given young man with a
thorough education, good habits, willing
ness to work, and a desire to make him
self useful where can he fare better
than on farm? He can apply his brains
TO the enriching of the soil, to the d-
versification of his crops, and to the i'm
provement of his stock, and at the same
Inv SiNO ACdSI luuulSeHCS W his
taste for reading and study. He will have
all that contributes to health of body,
vigor of mind and to cultivation of the
heart-what occupation or profession can
offer him richer rewards?
True, the soil will not yield him the
fabulous wealth that he might secure
by cornering the production or supply of
some necessary Of life but it will respond
to his industry and give that of which
dishonest gains would rob him-"a con
science void of offense toward God and
man." Ii he must forego the sudden
gains that sometimes come to the stock
jobber, he is also relieved of fear of the
sudden losses that are still more fire.
quent to those whose fortunes rise and
tall with the markets; and the terrors Of
flood and drought and wind and hail are.
all combined, less to be dreaded than the
conscienceless greed of the monopolists
who wreck the business of competitors
and swindle confiding stockholders
To the briefess barrister who is not
ashamed to work, to the pale faced clerk
who is not afraid of drt-to all who can
| labor and be content with moderate re-
turns, the farm offers a welcome. Even
the dumb animals are more wholesome
companions than the bulls and bears
| OF Wall Street, and the harvests give
! hack smile for smile.