Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-11-02
Perpetuity and Improvement
of Rural Life Must Come
From Its Population
KEEP YOUTHS ON THE FARM
Agricultural College Unjustly Charged
With Educating Young Men Away
From tho Rural Life-soIution OFFS
fered BY President w. o. Thompson,
of Ohio Agricultural College.

A)So AhAIAASoS awe - w .'NSs' ~
hope there is for the rural districts
must eventually come from the rural
districts themselves. 1t Is to the popula-
ton on the farm that we must turn
for the perpetuity and improvement
of rural life. 1t may be very entertain
ing and quite fashionable to chat in the
city parlor about the beauties of ag-
riculture, but the real problems Of ag-
riculture are on the farm, and not in
the drawing ROOM"
This was the solution Of the problem
of growing out Of the tendency to leave
the farm for the city, suggested by
President w. o. Thompson OF the Ohio
Agricultural College at Columbus, pres
identf Of the Association Of Agricul-
tural colleges and experiment stations,
in his annual address to that body at
the Chamberlain hotel last evening.
He favored the Introduction Of agricul-
ture in the rural schools as being of
great benefit to the community.
More than 100 agricultural college
presidents and professors from all
parts of the United States are attend
Ing the eighteenth annual convention
Of this association which held Its OPEN
ing session yesterday morning. 1t Will
continue in session until Thursday af-
ternoon, when the body will be the
guests of the Iowa State College at
Ames. Yesterday morning reports Of
officers and standing committees were
heard.
In his speech President Thompson
said in part:
THE tendency to go away from the
farm Is so manifest as to be the cause
of great anxiety in many communities.
There can be no doubt that our cities
have half as large accession of the best
material in the rural districts. These
persons, with certain moral superb
ority and excellence of nature endow-
ment and with manifest inferiority in
education, have forced their way to
the front in the cities and have become
the living examples Of the splendid
quality of body and mind and heart
produced on the farm.
This efficacy is to be accounted for
In part on the theory of personal taste.
Not every person born on the farm is
adapted to agricultural pursuits. Peo-
pie are disposed to follow their likes
and avoid their dislikes This, how
ever does not completely account for
the marked tendency away from the
farm. We recognize the prejudice there
is against the drudgery associated with
much of rural life. We recognize also
that the rural population has not Gull
tivated just appreciation of its own
Importance and Of Its own dignity.
This restless discomfort and unwilling
ness to solve the problems of life in
spite of our surroundings is an evil
that grows by what it feeds upon. I
do not undertake to discuss the reas-
ons in the case, but think we shall
agree that the facts warrant the state
ment that many farmers boy lacks
the opportunity for individual initiative
SO essential for independent positions.
desire to be his own hand and to
conduct his own business helps the
young man in his decision toward the
business world and away from the
productive world.
1.-THE agricultural college has been
unjustly charged with educating the
young man away from the farm. We
may as well recognize, however, that
in spite Of the agricultural colleges this
tendency continues. 1t is no small part
Of our work to cultivate such senti-
ment as will retard this tendency.
However, there should be free move
ment toward the city and an equally
free movement toward the farm. Farm
ers should not expect all their children
to follow the pillow or be queens in the
kingdom of domestic economy. But
farm life must not be the last resort.
1t must be the refuge Of necessity;
it should be the life Of choice, and
may say of enthusiastic choice. 1t is
evident that it has not always been
such choice, but In many instances
men have dignified themselves and the
farm by deliberately choosing to lead
an. independent life rather than to rush
into the miserable artificialities of much
of our city life. 1t is to the population
capable Of such choice that we must
look for the elements that will check
the too strong current away from the
farm
He spoke of the difficulty In bringing
town or city people to rural life. Many
of them are quite willing to live at a
convenient distance from the city with
large investment in a small area of
ground for personal comfort and GER
tain type of luxury that only the coun-
try can bring but that are not easily
brought to do the actual farm work
necessary for the development of agri-
culture We cannot conceive of a
country as a city made up Of town lots
of ten to twenty acres in area. The
truth is that the city bred people have
but little conception Of what rural life
really is. The excitement of city
life unites to unfit an individual for the
peaceful pursuits of rural living. What
ever hope there is, therefore, for the
rural districts must eventually come