The news-democrat. (Providence, R.I.) 1906-1909, 1907-12-03

W
to the welfare OF all other citizens are
the wageworker who does manual la
Dor and the tiller Of the soil. the farm
er. There are Of course kinds of labor
where the work must be purely men,
tai, and there are other kinds of labor
where under existing conditions very
little demand indeed Is made upon the
mind, though l am glad TO say that
the proportion Of men engaged in this
kind of work Is diminishing But In
any community with the solid, healthy
qualities which make up really great
nation the bulk Of the people should do
work which calls for the exercise of
both body and mind. Progress cannot
permanently exist I'm the abandonment
of physical labor, but in the develop
ment of physical labor, so that II shall
represent more and more the work of
the trained mind In the trained body.
Our school system Is gravely defective
mere literary training and tends, there
fore, to train the boy away from the
farm and the workshop. Nothing Is
more needed than the best type of in
dustrial school, the school for mechan-
ical industries In the city, the school
for practically teaching agriculture In
the country. The calling of the skilled
tiller of the soil, the calling Of the
skilled mechanic, should alike be recog-
nized as professions just as emphatic
ally as the calling Of lawyer. doctor,
merchant or clerk. The schools should
recognize this fact, and Ii should
equally be recognized In popular opin-
ion. The young man who has the far
sightedness and courage to recognize
II and to get over the idea that it
makes a difference whether what he
earns is called salary or wages and
who refuses to enter the crowded field
of the so called professions and takes
to constructive industries instead is
reasonably sure of an ample reward I'm
earnings, i'm health; In opportunity to
marry early and to establish a home
with a fair amount of freedom from
worry. 1t should be one of our prime
objects to put both the farmer and the
mechanic on a higher plane of eff
cheney and reward, so as to increase
their effectiveness I'm the economic
world and therefore the dignity, the
remuneration and the power of their
positions in the social world.
No growth Of cities, no growth of
wealth, can make up for any loss in
either the number or the character OF
the farming population. We of the
United States should realize this above
almost all other peoples. We began
our existence as q nation Of farmers,
and In every great crisis Of the past a
peculiar dependence has had to be
placed upon the farming population,
and this dependence has hitherto
been justified. But it cannot be justi-
fed in the future If agriculture is per-
mitted to sink in the scale as COM
pared with other employments. We
cannot afford to lose that pre-eminent-
ly typical American, the farmer who
owns his own medium sized farm. To
have his place taken by either a class
Of small peasant proprietors or by a
class of great landlords with tenant
farmed estates would be a veritable
calamity. The growth of our cities Is
good thing but only I'm so far as 1t
doec not mean a growth at the ex-
pense Of the country farmer. We must
welcome the rise Of 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 re-
suits, but they are as yet in their in
fancy. The national government
through the department of agriculture
should do all it can by joining with
the state governments and with inde-
pendent associations Of farmers to en-
courage the growth In the open farm
ing country of such institutional and
social movements as will meet the de-
mand of the best type of farmers, both
for the Improvement OF their farms
and for the betterment Of the life it.
self The department of agriculture
has i'm many places, perhaps especially
in certain districts of the south, ac-
complished an extraordinary amount
by cooperating with and teaching the
farmers through their associations on
their own soil how to increase their In
come by managing their farms better
than they were hitherto managed. The
farmer must not lose his independence,
his initiative, his rugged self reliance,
yet he must learn to work I'm the heart
lest cooperation with his fellows, ex-
actly as the business man has learned
to work, and he must prepare to use
to constantly better advantage the
knowledge that can be obtained from
agricultural colleges, while he must
insist upon a practical curriculum in
the schools In which his children are
taught. The 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 IL In
tha rav Stata auI of tbnsa who mann