Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1907-06-05

Necessity Oh httIiuS the InuotltS anu
the brain in training for industry.
They have developed technical de
partments 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 citizen
ship; so that they can establish and
maintain country homes of the best
type, and create and sustain coun-
try civilization 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 II
they are trained not alone in the va
rious lines OF husbandry but In sue
cessful economic management. These
colleges. life the state experiment sta
tions, should carefully study and make
known the needs Of each section. and
should try TO provide remedies for
what is wrong. The education to be
obtained in these colleges should
create as intimate relationship as is
possible between the theory OF learn
ing and the facts of actual life. Edu-
cational establishments should pro
duce highly trained scholars. OF
course; but in a country like ours.
where the educational establishments
are so numerous, il is folly to think
that their main purpose is 10 produce
these highly trained scholars. With
ont in the least disparaging scholar
ship and Harrington the contrary
while giving hearty and ungrudging
admiration and support to the compar-
taively few whose primary work
should be creative scholarship-it
must be remembered that the ordinary
graduate OF our colleges should be and
must be, primarily a man and not n
scholar. Education should not con-
fine itself 10 books. II must train ex-
ecutive 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 important, but il 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. ad for all practical pur-
poses. be utterly uneducated: while
man OF comparatively little book
learning may, nevertheless. in essen
tials, have a good education
Farmers Are Prosperous.
1T is true that agriculture in the
United States has reached a very high
level of prosperity; but we can not
afford 10 disregard the signs which
teach us that there are Influences
operating against the establishment or
retention OF our country life upon a
really sound basis. The overextensive
and wasteful cultivation of pioneer
days must stop and give place to a
more economical system Not only
the physical but the ethical needs OF
the people OF the country districts
must he considered. In our country
life there must be social and intel
lectual advantages as well as a fair
standard Of physical comfort There
must be in the country, as in the town,
a multiplication of movements for in
tellectual advancement and social bet
terment We must try to raise the
average of farm life. and we must also
try to develop it so that it shall offer
exceptional chances for the exception
al 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 oc-
equations may be. The root problems
are much the same for all OF us, wide
~ though they may differ in outward
manifestation. The most important
conditions that tell for happiness
within the home are the same for
the town and the country; and the re-
lations between employer and EN-
ployee are not always satisfactory on
the farm any more than in the fac
tory. All over the country there is 4
constant complaint OF paucity OF farm
labor Without attempting TO 20 into
all the features OF this question
would like TO point out that You can
never get the right kind. the best
kind. of labor If YOU offer employment
only for a few months, for no man
worth anything viii permanently ac-
cept a system which leaves him in
idleness for half the year. And most
important of all. want TO say a
special word on behalf Of the one who
Is too often the very hardest worked
laborer on the farm-the farmers
wife. Reform, like charity. while it
should not end at home, should GER
tainly begin there; and, the man
whether he lives on a farm or in a
town. who is anxious TO see better
Iocial and economic conditions pre-
vail through the country at large,
should be exceedingly careful that
they prevail first as regards his own
wOmankind. I emphatically believe
that for the great majority of women
the really indispensable industry in
which they should engage is the in.
dustry Of the home. There are excep
tions. OF course: but exactly as the
Irst duty OF the normal man is the
duty of being the home maker. so the
first duty Of the normal woman is 10
be the home keeper; and exactly a.
no other learning is as important for
VIII teach him how TO make his liveli
the average man as the learning which
hood. so no other learning is rs Inn
portant for the average woman as the
learning which viii make her a good
housewife and mother But this does
no; mean that she should be an over
worked drudge. I have hearty sym
pathy with the movement to better
the condition Of the average tillor OF
the soil. Of the average wageworkev
and have an even heartier sympath,
and applause FOR the movement which
is To hnifnr The condition of their re-