The Yale expositor., 1907-06-07

Lansing, Mich.-At the semi-centen-
NAL celebration of the founding of
agricultural colleges in the United
States, President Roosevelt deliv-
cred the address. In part he said:
The fiftieth anniversary of the found
Ing OF this college is AN event of ma
uonal significance, for Michigan was the
first state i'm the Union TO found this, the
first agricultural college in America. AS
people there is nothing in which we
take a Juster pride than our educational
system. Nevertheless, for at least a gen.
Grafton we have been waking to the
knowledge that there must be additional
education beyond that provided in the
public school as IT is managed to-day.
We hear great deal of the need OF
protecting our workingmen from compe-
ution with pauper labor / have very
little fear Of the competition of pauper
labor: The nations with pauper labor are
not the formidable industrial competitors
of this country. What the American
workingman has to fear is the competi-
ton of the highly skilled workingman Of
the countries of greatest industrial eff
cheney.
Advice for the Workers.
The calling OF the skilled tiller OF the
soil, like the calling OF the skilled me-
chanic should alike be recognized as pro-
LESSONS. just as emphaucally as the call
merchant of clerk. The printer, the cleo
trical worker, the house painter. the
foundry man, should be trained just as
carefully as the stenographer or the drug
clerk. They should be trained alike in
head and hand. They should get over
the idea that TO earn Sl2 a week and call
IL salary" is better than to earn SIS
week and call ii wages" The young
man who has the courage and the ability
70 refuse to enter the crowded field OF
the so-called professions and to take TO
constructive industry is almost sure OF
an ample reward in earnings in health,
in opportunity to marry early, and to
establish a home with reasonable free
dom from worry.
There is but one person whose welfare
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
tiller OF the soil-the farmer. II there
is one lesson taught by history II Is that
the permanent greatness OF any state
must ultimately depend more upon the
character OF its country population than
upon anything else. No growth OF cities.
no growth OF wealth can make up for a
loss in either the number or the charac-
ter of the farming population. In the
United States more than in almost any
other country we should realize this and
should prize our country population. In
every great crisis OF the past peculiar
dependence has had to be placed upon
the farming population; and this depend
ence has hitherto been justified. But II
cannot be justified in the future II agrl-
culture is permitted TO sink in the scale
as compared with other employments.
We cannot afford to lose that pre-em-
inently typical American, the farmer who
owns his own farm.
Social Side of Country Life.
Everything should be done TO encour-
age the growth in the open farming
country of such institutional and social
movements as will meet the demand on
the best type of farmers. There should
be libraries assembly halls, social or
CARNATIONS of all kinds. Tie school
building and the teacher In the school
building should. throughout the country
districts. be of the very highest type. able
a. gafss1aH FnW %.
live I'm, but thoroughly to enjoy and to
make the most Of the county. The
country church must be revived. All kinds
of agencies, from rural free delivery 10
the bicycle and the telephone, should be
utilized to the utmost; good roads should
be favored; everything should be done to
make IL easier for the farmer to lead the
most active end effective intellectual, po-
litical and economic life.
But much has been accomplished by
the growth of what is broadly designated
as agricultural science. This has been
developed with remarkable rapidity dur
Ing the last quarter OF century, and
the benefit to agriculture has been great.
The cornerstones of our uneXampled
prosperity are. on the one hand. the
production of raw material, and its man.
ufacture and distribution on the other.
The production of raw material from the
surface OF the earth is the sphere in
which the department of agriculture has
hitherto achieved such notable results.
or all the executive departments there is
no other. not even the postotfice which
comes into more direct and beneficent
contact with the daily life of the people
than the department of agriculture and
none whose yield of practical benefits is
greater in proportion to the public money
expended.
Field Of Usefulness Ahead.
But great as its services have been In
the past, the department of agriculture
has a still larger field of usefulness
ahead. 1t has been dealing with growing
crops. 1t must hereafter deal also with
living men. The government must recog-
nize the far-reaching importance of the
study and treatment of the problems of
farm life alike from the social and
economic standpoints; and the federal
and state departments OF agriculture
should cooperate at every point.
How can the life OF the farm family be
made loss solitary, fuller of opportunity,
freer from drudgery, more comfortable,
happier, and more attractive? Such a
result is most earnestly to be desired.
How can compelling desire to live on
the farm be aroused in the children that
are born on the farm? All these ques-
lions are of vital Importance not only TO
the farmer but to the whole nation: and
the department of agriculture must do
its share in answering them We hope
ultimately to double the average yield
OF wheat and corn per acre; IL will be
great achievement: but II is even more
fort, and standing Of the farmers life.
Need Of Cooperation.
Farmers must learn the vital need of
cooperation with one another. Next to
| this comes cooperation with the govern
ment and the government can best give
| ifs aid through associations OF farmers
Ind