Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-04
FARMERS AND WORKERS

when the department VI a5A
was founded there was much sneerins as
+o ire usefulness. No department of the
government, however, as more empnat-
icalIv vindicateA it's usefulness, and none
save the postoffice department comes 50
continually and intimately into iouch
with the people The two citizens whose
welfare is In the aggregate most vitai 10
the welfare of the nation and therefore,
TO the welfare of all other citizens, are
the wage-worker who does manual LABOR
and the tiller of the soil, the farmer
"There are, of course, kinds of labor
where the work must e purely mental
and there are other kinds of labor where'
under existing conditions, very little oe-
mand is made upon the mind, though l
am glad to say that the proportion OF
men engaged in this kind of work Is d.
,ninishing. But in any community with
the solid. healthy qualities which make
nm really great nation the bulk OF the
ueople should do work which calls Tor tne
exercise of both body and mind. Progress
cannot permanently exist In the aoan-
donment of physical labor, but IN the
development of physical labor, SO tnat II
shall represent more and more the work
AZ the trained mind in the trained body.
Praises Farmers
mo growth of cities. no growth oil
wealth, can make up for any loss IN
either the number or the character OF the
farming population. We OF the Oniteo
states should realize this above almost
all other peoples. We began our exist
ence as a nation of farmers. and in every
great crisis of the past peculiar de-
pendence has had to be placed upon the
farming population; and this dependence
has hitherto been justified. But IT cannot
be justified in the future If agriculture Is
permitted to sink In the scale as COM
.Iaxyf
.syVe cannot afford to lose that pre-
en1inently typical American, the farmer
who owns his own medium sized farm.
tn have his place taken by either class
of small peasant proprietors. or by class
of great landlords with tenant farmed es-
tates would be a veritable calamity. The
growth of our cities is good thing. but
only in so far as it does rot mean
growth at the expense of the country
farmer. We must welcome tile rise of
r physical sciences in their application to
AGRICULTURAL practices, and we must DO
all we can to render country conditions
more easy and pleasant. There are forces
which now tend to bring about both these
results, but they arc, as yet, Ill their IN :
fancy.
1.-THE national government through the
department Of agriculture should do all 1t
can by joining with the state govern
ments and with independent associations
of farmers to encourage the growth IN
the open farming country of such. institu-
tional and social movements as Will meet
the demand of the best type of farmers
both for the Improvement of their farms
and for the betterment Of the life itself
The department of agriculture has In
many places. perhaps especially in GER
tain districts of the south, accomplished
an extraordinary amount by cooperating
with and teaching the farmers through
their associations, on their own soil, how
to increase their income by managing
their farms better than they were hith-
erto managed.
sThe farmer must not lose his inde-
pendence his initiative. his rugged self
reliance, yet he must learn to work in
the heartiest cooperation with his lel-
lows, exactly as the business man has
learned to work; and he must pr pare
to use to constantly better advantage
the knowledge that can be obtained from
agricultural colleges, while he must in
sist upon practical curriculum In the
schools in which his children are taught.
rhe department of agriculture and the
department of commerce and labor both
deal with the fundamental needs Of our
people in the production of raw material
and its manufacture and Distribution.
and, therefore. with the welfare of those
who produce 1t in the raw state and Of
those who manufacture and distribute II.
'"rhe department of commerce and Ia
Dor has but recently been founded, but
has already justified its existence; while
the department of agriculture yields to
no other in the government in the prac-
teal benefits which it produces in pro-
portion to the public money expended.
IL must continue in the future to deal
with growing crops as 1t has dealt in the
past, but 1t must still further extend its
field of usefulness hereafter by dealing
with live men. through far-reaching
study and treatment of the problems OF
farm life alike from the industrial aud
economic and social standpoint. Farmers
must cooperate with one another and
with the government. and the government
lions of farmers, so as to deliver to the
farmer the large body of agricultural
knowledge which has been accumulated
by the national and state governments
and by the agricultural colleges and
schools
"The grain producing industry OF the