The Tupelo journal., 1906-04-06
The Children Of the Farm

INV Vbotthu ~ "
In our children we may expect
to accomplish the ends for which
we are striving today. We can
only make a beginning. No great
movement can be carried to a
termination in one
generation. Everything has to
undergo a process of evolution
in which the best is saved and
added to as time goes on and
that which is not good is thrown
aside.
We must prepare these little
ones for the duties which will be
their portion when we fall by the
wayside. How shall we do this?
Keeping them at work in the cot
ton fields when they ought to be
at school? | cannot see it this
way, but | fear a great many OF
my brother farmers do, if | am
to Judge by the thousands OF
children who do not go more than
half the common school term
which is short enough to begin
with. But you say, II cannot
make cotton enough to live on
if l don't keep my children at
home to help make and gather it"
This is a mistaken notion, broth
err; you can do it. Take your
daughters and small children out
of the field, and you will make
several million bales Of cotton
per annum less than you do now,
but you will get a good many
more millions of dollars for what
you do raise. Don't think that
am trying to discourage physical
labor, for that is not my inten-
ton, but | cannot see the use of
keeping our children away from
school to make cotton when it is
being preached that we are max
ing too much and that we would
be better off financially if we
only made two thirds of what we
do now. Besides hard physical
labor for a child dwarfs his mind
as we'll as his body. You are
starting him on the road to slav-
cry, because amind which is not
developed to think and act for
the body which contains it can
never be anything but a slave
even in this free country Of ours.
We must begin by seeing that
every child has a good common
school education. This is the
best way to prepare him for the
battle of life. | do not believe
in the higher education for ordi
nary vocations. Life is too short
to spend from four to six years
in a college, but when a boy
wishes to join a profession other
than that of farming, he should
take a one or two years course
in a school that teaches the par
ticular profession he wishes to
learn We canuot expect all OF
our boys to be farmers nor should
we wish them to be, for as long
as the ranks of other professions
are recruited with farmer boys
we will have their sympathy and
respect, and in the past the best
men in all professions have come
from the farms, Shall this be SO
in the future? Yes, if we see tc
it that our boys are not deprived
of that most valuable Of assets
a good common school education,
coupled with a determination tc
succeed in anything they under
take. AS for our girls the best
profession for them is to become
the wife of some good man and
make home happy for him if she
can.
Nearly every intelligent chile
developes a taste for reading
when they get ten or twelve
years O fage. What kind of lit
erature are you providing for
them? Are they reading trashy
novels and fifteen cent monthlies?
l hope not. There are a great
many good books, papers and
periodicals which contain infor-
nation on every subject, and ey-
cry farmer should take some OF
these to supply reading matter
for his family, as good literature
is a good education in itself. and
every child should be encouraged
ro,J rood hobs ond roriO1i.