The Oskaloosa herald., 1907-10-03

means OF transporting youf cunincu Ut
ties to market win be steadily ifnpfoy-
ed; but this win be OF no use unless
you keep producing the commodities,
and In the long run this win largely
depend upon your being able to keep
on the. farm a high type Of citizenship.
| The effort must be to make farm life
mot only remunerative but attractive,
so that the best young men and girls
win feel inclined to stay on the farm
and not to go to the city. Nothing IS
more important to this country than
the perpetuation of our system OF me-
ldium-sized farms worked by their own
ers. We do not want to see our farm.
ers sink TO the condition or the peas-
ants OF the Old World, barely able TO
live on their small holdings, nor 40
we want to see their places taken by
wealthy men owning enormous es-.
tates which they work purely by tens
ants and hired servants.
AT present the ordinary farmer
holds his own in the land as against
ny possible representative Of the land
lord class of farmer-that is, of the
men who would own vast estates-be,
cause the ordinary farmer unites his
capital, his labor. and his brains with
the making of permanent family
home, and thus can afford to hold his
land at value at which it can not be
held by the capitalist, who would have
to run it by leasing it or by cultivate
ing it at arms length with hired labor.
In other words, the typical American
farmer of today gets his remuneration
in part in the shape OF an independent
home for his family, and this gives
him an advantage over an absentee
landlord Now, from the standpoint
of the nation as a whole it is pre-
eminently desirable to keep as one of
our chief American types the farmer
the farm home maker, of the mediums
sized farm This type OF farm home
is one of our strongest political and
social bulwarks. Such farm worked
by the owner has proved BY expert
ence the best place in which to breed
vigorous leaders alike for country aud
city. 1t is matter of prime econoni-
ic and civic Importance to encourage
this type of home owning farmer
Nov, men of Iowa | want to say
just a word on matter that concerns
not the states of the Mississippi Valley
itself. but the states west Of them, the
states of the Great Plains and the
Rocky Mountains Unfortunately /
am not able ON this present trip to visit
those states. or | should speak to
their own people on the point TO which
| now intend to allude: but after all
anything that affects considerable
number of Americans who live under
one set of conditions, must be of mo-
ment to all other Americans, for never
forget, friends, that in the long run
we shall all go up or 60 down together.
The states Of the high plains and
of the mountains have peculiar claim
upon me, because for a number OF
years | lived and worked in them. and
have that intimate knowledge OF then
people that comes under such condiA
tons. In those states there is need
VI ~ luz Ittll 4lilttL
have worked so well in the well-wat-
cred fertile regions to the eastward.
such as those in which you here dwell.
The one object in al our land laws
should always be to favor the actual
settler, the actual home maker, who
comes to dwell on the land and there
to bring up his children to inherit it
after him. he government should
part with its title to the land only to
the actual home-maker-not to the
profit-maker, who does not care to
make home. The land should be
sold outright only in quantities suffl-
cient for decent homes mot in huge
areas to be held for speculative pur-
poses or used as ranches, where those
who do the actual work are merely
tenants or hired hands,