The Greeley tribune., 1906-12-13
WAGE FARMERS AND 1LLERS OF THF sol,
MUST BE SPECIALLY CARED FOR
Says No Industrial Development Can Atone
for Any Falling off in the Character and
Standing Of the Farming Population
Some Education Recommenda.
tions. A Strong Message

The message delivered by Presi-
dent Roosevelt last week to the
second session of the tifty-ninth con-
gress covered many vital points, and
one that was of especial Importance
to this section, as, perhaps the great
est farming district in the United
States.
Having just made some excellent
recommendations in regard to the
rights of the wage earners he says:
1.-The only other persons whose
welfare Is as vital to the welfare Of
the whole country as is the welfare
of the wage workers are the tillers Of
the soil, the farmers. 1t is mere
truism to say that no growth OF
cities, no growth of wealth, no In
dustrial development can atone for
any falling off in the character and
standing of the farming population.
During the last few decades this fact
has bean recognized with ever In
creasing clearness. There Is no
longer any failure to realize that
farming, at least in certain branches,
must become technical and scien-
titic training, not theoretical merely
but of the most severely practical
type. The farmer represents a
peculiarly high type of American
citizenship, and he must have the
same chance to rise and develop as
other American citizens have.
Moreover, it is exactly as true of the
farmer, as it is of the business man
and the wage worker, that the ulti-
mate success Of the nation Of which
he forms part must be founded not
alone on material prosperity but
upon high moral, mental and physi-
cal development. This education of
the farmer-self education by prefer
ence, but also of education from the
outside, as with all other men-is
peculiarly necessary here in the
United States, where the frontier
conditions even In the newest states
have now nearly vanished, where
there must be substitution of
more intensive system of cultivation
for the old waSteful farm manage
ment, and where there must be q
better business organization among
the farmers themselves.
Several factors must cooperate in
the Improvement of the farmer $
condition. He must have the chance
to be educated in the widest possible
sense-in the sense which keeps ever
in view the intimate relationship
between the theory of education and
the facts of life. In all education
we should widen our aims. 1t is Il
good thing to produce certain
number of trained scholars and stu
dents; but the education superin-
tended by the state must seek rather
to produce hundred good citizens
than merely one scholar, and it must
be turned now and then from the
class book to the study of the great
book of nature itself. This is espe-
cially true of the farmer. as has been
pointed out again and again by all
observers most competent to pass
practical judgment on the problem
of our country life. All students
now realize that education must seek
to train the executive powers OF
Young people and to confer more real
significance upon the phrase dig
nifty Of labor" and to prepare the
pupils so that in addition to each
developing in the highest degree his
individual capacity for work, they
may together help create a right pup
lie opinion, and show in many ways
social and cooperative spirit. Or
-yanization has become necessary IN
the business world; and 1t has ac-
complished much for good In the
world of labor. 1t is no less neces-
sary for farmers. Such movement