The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-06-04
SOME ROOSEvEIlTTsMs.

! a
problems of agricultural life in keep
| ing with his activities along other
| lines. Among other things, he point
ed out that future problem to be
worked out is how to make farm life
more comfortable. and attractive-to
give the rural dweller those things
which make city life agreeable. Some
of them the farmer already has, to-
gether with much that the city man
| has not.
Here are some of the extracts from
| the speech:
We hear a great deal of the need of
protecting our workingmen from COM
petition with pauper labor. I have
very little fear of the competition of
pauper labcr The nations with pau
per labor are not the formidable in
dustrial competitors of this country.
What the American workingman has
to fear is the competition of the high
" skilled workingman of the coun-
tries Of greatest industrial efficiency.
BY the tariff and by our immigration
laws we can always protect ourselves
against the competition of pauper Ia
Dor here at home; but when we con-
tend for the markets of the world we
can get no protection, and we shall
then find that our most formidable
competitors are the nations in which
there is the most highly developed
business ability, the most highly de-
veloped Industrial skill; and these are
the qualities which we must ourselves
develop.
The calling of the skilled tiller of the
soil. the calling of the skilled mechanic,
faG-
sions, Just as emphatically as the call
ings of lawyer, of doctor, OF banker,
merchant. or clerk. The printer, the
electrical 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 in hand They should
get over the idea that to earn twelve
dollars a week and call it salary" is
better than to earn twenty-five dollars
a week and call it wages"
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. 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.
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 can not be justified in
the future if agriculture is permitted to
sink in the scale as compared with other
employments. We can not afford to
lose that prominently typical American,
the farmer who owns his own farm.
Considered from the point of view of
national efficiency, the problem of the
farm is as much problem of attractive
ness as it is a problem of prosperity.
1t has ceased to be merely problem of
growing wheat and corn and cattle. The
problem of production has not ceased to
be fundamental, but it is no longer final;
Just as learning to read and write and
cipher are fundamental, but are no
longer the final ends of education. We
hope ultimately to double the average
yield of wheat and corn per acre; it
will be a great achievement; but it is
even more important to double the de-
STABILITY, comfort and standing of the
farmers life.
Rook-learning is very important, but
it is by no means everything; and we
shall never get the right idea of edu- |
cation until we definitely understand
that a man may be well trained IN |
and yet, in the proper |
sense of the word, and for all practi- |
cal purposes, be utterly uneducated; |
while a man of comparatively little |
book-learning may, nevertheless, in es-
sentials, have a good education.
Reform, like charity, while 1t should |
not end at home. should certainly begin |
there; and the man, whether he lives |
on farm or in a town, who IS anxious |
to see better social and economic condi- |
tons prevail through the country a
large. should be exceedingly careful /
that they prevail first regards his
own womankind. 1 emphatically be-
lieve that for the great majority of wo-
men the really indispensable industry
In which they should engage is the in
1ustry of the home There are excep-
tons. of course; but exactly the |
first duty of the normal man is the
duty of being the home maker. So the
first duty of the normal woman is to be
home keeper: and exactly as no other
learning is as important for the aver
age man as the learning which will
teach him how to make his livelihood,
so no other learning is as important for
the average woman as the learning
which will make her a good housewife
and mother. But this does not mean
that she should be an overworked
drudge.
You young men and women of the
agricultural and industrial colleges and
for that matter. you who
90 to any college or school-must have
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