Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-07-19
Both Sides TO the Question. Food
for Thouqht Here.

correspondence schools are perhaps trl-
file overdrawn. AT any rate the follow
ing quotation from one of the journals
of prominent business college, would,
if taken too seriously, have tendency to
divert many young people from their
comfortable county homes and &C ID
postione-for there are good positions to
be had in the county, regardless of the
claims of the pr g agents and "runners-
in" of large city institutions-and set
afloat in the cities large number of
otherwise capable young men and women
who, if they only knew it, would be far
better off in the communities that they
left in order to pick up the elusive pot of
gold at the end of a rainbow. OF course
the cities will have to draw on the county
districts for large amount of their good
red blood in order to lubricate the big
wheels of industry. But a comparison
of the two articles which we print here
with would seem to indicate that the
majority should take the view of John
Gould, who, in the Mirror and Farmer of
recent date, sets forth many excellent
reasons for the young people to stay in
the country.
The following bombastic theory is a
trifle off color at the present time because
farm wages are much higher, sometimes
double, the amount stated in the article,
and also because a farmer does a few
other things besides Saving wood and
hoeing corn" though he doesn't always
get credit for it.
Imagine two toys with equal advan-
tages and as nearly equal ability as boys
usually have. One decides to stay on the
farm and saw VIC cd and hCe corn at the
usual wagcs-$15 to $50 per month-con-
soing himself with the fact that bird
in the hand is worth dozen away up
among the clouds. The other borrows
$500 and enrols at "E---" for year.
The money ccsts,hin six per cent-$30
per year At the end of one year he pro
cures a position at $50 Fer mOnth-$600
per year. This sum, less what he pays
$500 is, at SIX per cent, the annual in
come of $4,000. Follow these two boys
through five years work and note their
respective conditions at the end of thai
nerio1. The fist will still be drawing
S15 to $50 Fer month, with but little pros
pect of improvement. The second will
command at least 500 per month, in a
POSITION which he can hold as long as he
does his work faithfully and we'll.
The following article is on the other
side of the question:
1.-The morning train to the city was an
hour late . About the station platform
were dozen or so lusty young men, only
recently fam boys, impatiently awaiting
the tram, each lamenting that he would
he late at his 'pCSition' in the city; bank
clerks, tooblleeI els, and statesmen, al
exhibiting an anxiety to get "to bust
rcss" never dicovercd in their farm
work. An almost equal number of
young women were also awaiting the
same train-typewriters, stenographe- 8
and salesladies, "a-going" to the city 70
work in hot, stuffy offices, the whole as
sembly glorying in the fact that they
were ''salary" people and were not work
ing: and not one of the crowd was get
ting the wage of first class artisan.
They were our commuters" who are
engaged in the city days and sleep in the
country nights, and this morning emf
grafton to the city can be witnessed at
fifty other stations on the various roads
that concentrate in the city.
Here is another picture. In our town.
ship alone is to be found one thousand
acres of full average farm land, lying
idle this year because of lack of help.
Diaries are either being cut down or sold
out entirely because of it, and yet in the
last five years farm boys have gone to
the city sufficient to have titled these
acres to their full limit, and their income,
if fairly looked after. would have bought
over and over the SALARIES" received in
the p lace of the acres. "Oh, but the
long hours of the farm ~ These commu-
tiers must turn out at 6 a. m. and reach
their homes in return at 7:30 p. m, a
ten-hour day, surely But that does not
count. They are not tied to the farm.
Last month the Standard Oil Company
put down an S-inch pipe line through
this section. Never was line laid I'M
der rainer. muddier or more distressing
conditions; dirtier, greasier, more
drenched men at work never saw; yet
there was no end of men on hand anxious
to work at 81 80 day and board them
selves and all through the same terli-
tory men were Offering $50 to S36 a
month and board for good men to worl,
on dairy farms. Would any farmer ask
men to work even an hour on the farm
under the conditions imposed by the
Standard OIL Company? Wherein is the
inducement greater to work in a muddy
ditch, handling greasy pipe, than on a
dairy farm? 1t can be accounted for on
ly on the ground that there is drift in
opinion, that the farm is no place for any
one who wishes to do better and get
ahead in the world.
Another fact is rapidly forging to the