The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-06-07
MORE FARMERS
URGENT NEED
Says President Roosevelt in Speech
at College Celebration.
ADVICE TO THE BOYS
Agricultural Institutions Of Country are
Boosted an Commended--Cheer
Words for All Toilers.


Who Works with His Hands" Presi-
dent Roosevelt said, in part
The fftieth anniversary Of the
founding of this college is an event
OF national significance, for Michigan
WAS the first state in the union 70
found this, the first agricultural col
lege in America. The nation is to be
Congratulated on the fact that the
congress at Washington has repeated
ly enacted laws designed to aid the
several states in establishing and
maintaining agricultural and mechani-
cal cSlleges
For at least a generation we have
been waking to the knowledge that
Rhere mus. be additional education be-
yond that provided in the public
school as 1t is managed today. Our
school system has hitherto been we'll
nigh wholly lacking on the side Of in
dustrla training, Of the training
(which fits a man for the shop and the
farm We Of the United States must
develop a system under which each
individual citizen shall be trained so
as to be effective individually as an
economic unit, and fit to be organized
with his fellows so that he and they
can work in efficient fashion together.
But it is a curious thing that in
industrial training we have tended to
devote our energies to produce high
grade men at the top rather than in
Rhe ranks Our engineering schools,
Nor instance, compare favorably with
the best in Europe, whereas we have
done almost nothing to equip the pri-
waite soldiers Of the industrial army
khe mechanic, the metal worker, the
carpenter. Indeed too often our
schools train away from the shop and
ahe forge; and this fact, together with
the abandonment Of the old appren-
fice system, has resulted in such an
absence Of facilities for providing
iraned journeymen that in many of
our trades almost all the recruits
among the workmen are foreigners.
Surely this means that there must be
some systematic method provided for
draining young men in the trades, and
ahat this must be co.oydinated with
the public school system
There Is but one person whose well
fare is as vital to the welfare of the
whole country as is that Of the wage
worker who does manual labor, and
that is the tller Of the soil--the far,
mer If there is one lesson taught by
history it is that of the permanent
greatness Of any state must ultimate
3y depend more upon the character of
Ats country population than upon any
thing else.
Ambitious native.born young men
and women who now tend away from
&he farm must be brought back to it,
and therefore they must have social
as we'll as economic opportunities. Ev-
eryjhing should be done to encourage
the growth in the open farming coun-
AIRY of such institutional and social
movements as will meet the demand
of the best type Of farmers. There
should be libraries, assembly halls, So
Dial organizations of all kinds. The
school building and the teacher in the
school building should, throughout the
country districts. be of the very high
est type, able to fit the boys and girls
not merely to live in, but thoroughly
to enjoy and to make the most of the
country. The country church must be
revived All kinds of agencies, from
rural free delivery to the bicycle and
the telephone, should be utilized to
the utmost; good roads should be ia
Tored; everything should be done to
name 1t easier for the farmer to lead
the most active and effective intelec-
tual. political and economic life.
The farmer must prepare for using
the knowledge that can be obtained
Through agricultural colleges by in
sisting upon a constantly more practi,
cal curriculum in the schools in which
his children are taught He must not
dose his independence, his initiative,
his rugged self-suthciency; and yet he
must learn TO work I'm Tho hesrtiae+
cooperation with his fellows.
President Roosevelt delivered an
address Friday afternoon on the cam
pus of the Michigan Agricultural Col
aege at Lansing, which was the eli
max Of the semi-eentenniai celebration
of the founding Of that famous insti.