The semi-weekly messenger., 1907-12-06

Gators. or clergymen, who condone
and encourage the first kind of wrong
doing. are no more dangerous to the
community. but are morally even worse
than the labor men who are guilty oi
the second type OF wrongdoirg. be-
cause less is 20 be pardoned those who
have no such excuse as is furnished
either by ignorance OF by dire need.
FARMERS AND WAGE WORKERS.
When the department of agriculture
was founded there vas much snering
as TO its usefulness. No department Of
the government, however, has more
emphatically viudicated its usefulness,
and none save the postoffice depart
ment comes so continually and init
The two citizens whose welfare is in
the aggregate most vital TO the well
fare of the nation, and therefore 10
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 NJ
labor where the work must be purely
mental. and there are other kinds
of labor where, under existing condi-
tons, very little demand indeed is
TO say that the proportion OF men en-
gagged in this kind of work is dimin-
ishing. But in any community with
the solid, healthy qualities which make
up a really great nation the bulk cf
the people should do work which calls
for the exercise for both body and
mind. Progress scan not permanently
exist in the abandonment OF physical
labor, but in the development of ply
sical labor, so that it shall represent
more and more the work of the
ed mind in the trained body. Our
school system is gravely defective in
so far as it puts a premium upon mere
literary training and tends therefore
to train the boy away from the farm
and the workshop. Nothing is more
needed than the best type of indutrial
school, the school for mechanical IN
dustries in the city, the school FOR
practically teaching agriculture in the
country. The ealing Of the skilled
tiller Of the soil, the calling Of the
skilled mechanic, should alike be rec
practically as the callings of lawyer,
doctor, merchant, or clerk. The schools
should recognize this fact and it
should equally be recognized in popu-
lar opinion. The young man who has
the farsightedness and courage TO rec
ognize it and 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-caned professions, and takes
to constructive industry instead. IS
reasonably sure of ample reward in
earnings, in health, in opportunity to
marry early, and ro 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 in 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 iI
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 nation of farmers,
and in every great crisis of the past
peculiar dependence 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 permit
ted to sink in the scale as compared
with other employments. We cannot
afford to lose that prominently typi-
cal 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 a good thing but only in so far
as it does not mean a growth at the
expense of the country farmer We
must welcome the rise of physical
sciences in their application to agri-
cultural 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 are, as
yet, in their infancy. The National
Government through the Department
of Agriculture should do all it can by
Joining with the state governments
and with Independent associations OF
farmers to encourage the growth in the
open farming country of such institu-
tional and social movements az will
meet the demand Of the best type Of