Charlevoix county herald., 1907-06-08

Farmers Wife.
Lansing, Mich.-At the seml-centen-
nial 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 is1an event of ma
tional Significance. for Michigan was the
first state in the Union to found this, the
first agricultural college in America. AS
a people there is nothing in which we
take 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
pubic school as 1t is managed to-day.
We hear great deal of the need of
protecting our workingmen from compe-
ttlon with pauper labor. L have very
little fear of the competition of pauper
not the formidaite 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-
fessons, just as emphatically as the call
lngs or lawyer, of doctor, of banker,
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 $l2 week and call
it salary is better than to earn $25
week and call 1t wages" The young
man who has the courage and the ability
TO refuse to enter the crowded field of
the sO-called professions and to take to
constructive industry is almost sure of
an ample reward ir earnings, in health
in opportunity to marry early, and to
establish home with reasonable free
dom from worry.
There is but one person whose welfare
is as vital to the welfare of the whole
county, as is that OF the wageworker
who docs manual labor, and that is the
tiller OF the Soil-the farmer. If there
is one lesson taught by history it 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
loss in either the number or the charac-
ter of the farming population. In the
United States more than in almost any
ether country we should realize this and
should prize our country population. In
every great crisis of the past a peculiar
dependence has had to be placed upon
ence has hitherto been justified. But it
cannot be justified in the future If agri-
culture is permitted to sink in the scale
as compared with other employments
We cannot afford to lose that pre-em-
ineptly 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 OF
the best type of farmers There should
be klibraries, assembly. halls, social or;
building and the teacher in the school
building should, throughout the country
districts, be of the very highest 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 favored; everything should be done to
make it easier for the farmer to lead the
most active and effective intellectual, po-
litcal 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 a 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
OF all the executive departments there Is
no other. not even the postoffice. 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 still larger field of usefulness
ahead. II has been dealing with growing
crops. II must hereafter deal also with
living men. The government must recog-
nize tho far-reaching Importance of the
study and treatment of the problems of
eepnom 1it' sutanMdEpon{s 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
result is most earnestly to be desired.
How can a compelling desire to live on
the farm be aroused in the children that
are born on the farm? All these ques-
tions are of vital Importance not only TO
the farmer but to the whole nation; and
he>4department OF agriculture must do
its 2fare i'm answering them. We hope
INTIMATELY to double the average yield
of wheat and corn per acre; ii will be a
great achievement; but IL is even more
important to double the desirability, COM
fort. ana Stunning VI bHt mt
Need of Cooperation.
Farmers must learn the vital need OF
co-operatiOn with one another. Next to
this comes cooperation with the govern
ment and the government can best give
it's aid through associations OF farmers
rather than through the individual farm,
or. for there is no greater agricultural
problem than that of delivering TO the
farmer the large body Of agricultural
knowledge which has been accumulated
nv the national and state governments
and by the agricultural colleges and
schools
The people of our farming regions must
he able TO combine among themselves, as
the most efficient means of protecting
their Industry from the highly organized
interests which now surround them on
every side. A vast field Is open for work
nv comparative associations OF farmers
in dealing with the relation of the farm
10 transportation and to the distribution
and manufacture of raw materials. 1t
ia only through such combination that
Amgtican farmers can develop to the
full fhefr economic and social power.