The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1907-04-17
"RUBE" IS NO MORE
FARMER FULLY THE EQUAL OF
THE CITY MAN.
March Of Progress Has Done Great
Things In Broadening Out the
Dweller in the Country
Is Now a Leader.

Our comic papers will continue for
q time to represent the countrymen as
person with hay In his hair, double
handful of beard on his chin, clothing
with many patches and boots of COW.
hide. This bllthering pumpkin is de-
picted as buying green goods of city
men, whose wickedness is supposed to
count as wisdom. But the truth is
that the country man of to-day has cut
his eye teeth upon, experience and
keeps them sharpened on books and
newspapers, for which he has more
use and reverence than those who have
hourly editions thrust upon them.
The rustic can no longer remain the
clodhopper of comedy, even II he
would Those material changes that
we fondly count as progress are as In
escapable among the hills as they are
in the tenement. The village now has
its telephone, its electric light-some-
times as many as two--its free library,
its high school, its Improvement asso-
citation, its health officer and its occa.
sional lecturer on cows and agrlcul.
ture whereas the sole center OF au-
thority, intellectual endeavor and So
cial activity was formerly the church.
Nor Is the farmer distinguishable by
his recent acquisition Of hand.me-down
clothes, for they are shaped after re-
cent patterns and are made Of as good
materials as are other folks. Indeed.
IL he lives near one OF those New Eng
land mills, where they weave wooden
cloth that Is three.fourths shoddy the
chances are that he knows better than
the city man what to avoid and gets
better clothes for less money. He
drives a shiny carriage. has a melo.
deon-if not piano--in the house,
takes a daily paper as well as a coun-
try weekly and has been to Boston or
New York or Chicago.
Differences between the farmer and
the city man are even less in respect
Of ways of life and modes Of thought
than in these matters of clothing and
custom. The farmer has brosdened
out of late. He has a concern in the
business of the nation, although he
does not view problems and complex
ties at close range, having In his farm
enough for his needs and fewer eX'
penses than the person who Is deep
in society and whose station or calling
demands a large and constant outgo
IL Is the farmer who for years has
been receiving the least for his prod
uct and paying most for his bought
en-" necessities, and II Is the farmer
who has been systematically over
looked by the politicians he has helped
to Office. The material gains which
have been forced from capital by trade
unir have reused his interest, per
haps his envy, and as he broadens and
becomes increasingly worldly minded
his demands and his needs must be
needed.
The sons of this ruddy-faced ant
hearty citizen fiji the pulpit and tn,
bench, and they are known on change
and they head companies. When he II
chosen to congress, as men of strength
and merit always risk Icing chosen
the once pumpkin will have a vote,
in the conduct of affairs.
And this is as Il should be. Mel
must be grounded firml.' in nature o.
they decay, individually and socially
All that will lead men back 10 thu
SOIL to places of strength and health
to calm, to readiness In self.resourc,
makes for the endurance of the stat,
and of the institutes of civilization
Crime and discomfort do not pertain 4
the tillage Of our fields; envy is not
trait of villages; small places hav,
small vices, 1t is true, of which tipplini
and gossip are the worst, but they arr
nurseries Of men who take the place
of those weakened by the life of towns
And 1t is for these men of red bloc,
nd free spe CHI that p'"ce must b.
made. The outward marks that pre-
claimed them country men being lost
we shall the more freely concede thos
merits that qualify them for station
The pumpkin has passed because hi
age and his country have called to hin
to be not a man among cattle, but
man among men.-Brooklyn Eagle.
E~elvl'cs-