Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-31

cooperation with one another Next to
this comes cooperation with the govern
ment, and the government can best give
its aid through associations of farmers
rather than through the individual farmer;
for there Is no greater agricultural problem
than that of delivering to the farmer the
large body of agricultural knowledge which
has been accumulated by the national ana
state governments and by the agricultural
colleges and schools. Nowhere has the
government worked to better advantage
than In the south, where the work done by
the Department of Agriculture in connec-
ton with the cotton growers of the south
western states has been phenomenal In its
value. The farmers In the region affected
by the boil weevll, In the course OF the
efforts to fight 1t, have succeeded in devel-
oplng most scientific husbandry, SO that
in many places the boil weevil became a
blessing In disguise. Not only did the In
dustry of farming become of very much
greater economic value In its direct re-
suits, but 1t became immensely more inter-
esting to thousands Of families. The meet
ings at which the new subjects of interest
were discussed grew to have distinct So
cial value, while with the farmers We're
Joined the merchants and bankers Of the
neighborhood. 1t is needless to say that
every such successful effort to organize
the farmer gives a great stimulus to the
admirable educational work which is being
done in the southern states, as elsewhere
to prepare young people for an agricultural
life. 1t is greatly to be wished that the
communities whence these students are
drawn and to which they either return
or should return could be comparatively
organized; that is, that associations OF
farmers could be organized, primarily for
business purposes. but also with social
ends in view. This would mean that the
returned students from the institutions of
technical learning would find their envi-
ronment prepared to profit to the utmost
which they had learned.
Field Open for Work.
The people of our farming regions must
be able to combine among themselves. as
the most efficient means of protecting their
industry from the highly organized inter-
ests which now surround them on every
side. A vast field is open for work by CO.
operative associations of farmers in dealing
with the relation of the farm to transporta-
ton and to the distribution and manufac-
ture of raw materials. 1t is only through
such combination that American farmers
can develop to the full their economic and
social power. Combination of this kind has,
In Denmark, for instance, resulted in bring
ing the people back to the land, and has
enabled the Danish peasant to compete in
extraordinary fashion not only at home,
but in foreign countries, with all rivals.
Agricultural colleges and farmers insti-
tutes have done much in instruction and
Inspiration; they have stood for the nobility
Of labor and the necessity Of keeping the
muscles and the brain in training for indus
try. They have developed technical depart
ments of high practical value. They seek
to provide for the people on the farms an
equipment SO broad and thorough as to fit
them for the highest requirements of our
citizenship; so that they can establish and
maintain country homes of the best type,
and create and sustain country civiliza-
ton more than equal to that of the city.
The men they train must be able to meet
the strongest business competition. at home
or abroad, and they can do this only If they
are trained not alone in the various lines
of husbandry but in successful economic
management. These colleges, like the state
experiment stations. should carefully study
and make known the needs Of each sec
ton, and should try to provide remedies for
what is wrong.
The education to be obtained in these
colleges should create intimate relation
ship as is possible between the theory Of
learning and the facts of actual life. Edu-
cational establishments should produce
highly trained scholars, of course; but in
country like ours, where the educational
establishments are so numerous, 1t is folly
to think that their main purpose is to pro-
duce these highly trained scholars. Without
In the least adisparaging scholarship and
harrington the contrary, while giving
hearty and ungrudging admiration and sup
port to the comparatively few whose pri-
mary work should be creative scholarship
it must be remembered that the ordinary
graduate of our colleges should be and
must be, primarily man and not a
scholar Education should not confine IT.
self to books. 1t must train executive
power and try to create that right public
opinion which is the most potent factor in
the proper solution of all political and
social questions. Book-learning Is very i'm
portant, but 1t is by no means everything;
and we shall never get the right idea Of
education until we definitely understand
that a man may be well trained in book
learning and yet in the proper sense of the
word. and for all practical purposes, be
utterly uneducated; while man of COM
paratively little book-learning may, never
theless, in essentials, have good educa-
ton.
Agriculture's Level.
It is true that agriculture in the United
States has reached a very high level Of
prosperity; but we cannot afford to disre-
gard the signs which teach us that there
are influences operating against the estab-
nshment or retention of our country life
upon a really sound basis The oVerexten-
sive and wasteful cultivation of pioneer
days must stop and give place to more
economical system. Not only the physical
but the ethical needs of the people of the
country districts must be considered In
our country life there must be social and
intellectual advantages as well as a fair
standard of physical comfort. There must
be in the country, as In the town, a multi
plication of movements for Intellectual ad-
vancement and social betterment. We must
try to raise the average Of farm life, and we
must also try to develop 1t SO that 1t shall
offer exceptional chances for the excep-
ional man.
OF course the essential things after all
are those which concern all of US as men
and women, no matter whether we live In
the town or the country, and no matter
what our occupations may be. The root