Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-10-03

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away from the farm and the. shop.
We should reverse this process
Specific training of practical kind
should be given to the boys and girls
who when men and women are 70
make up the backbone of this nation
by working III agriculture, In the me-
chanical industries, in arts and trades,
In short, who are to do the duty tn,t
should always come first with all of
us. the duty Of home-making and
Housekeeping. Too narrow literary
! education is, for most men and wom-
en-, not a real education at all; for
q real education should At people pri-
marily for the industrial and home
making employments in which they
must employ the bulk of their activ-
tiles. Our country offers unparalleled
opportunities for domestic and social
advancement, for social and economic
| leadership In the world. Our greatest
national asset is to be found in the
children. They need to be trained
to high ideals of everyday living, and
to high efficiency In their respective
vocations; we can not afford to have
them trained otherwise, and the ma
ton should help the states to achieve
this end
| Now, men of Iowa, I want to say
| just word on matter that concerns
not the states of the Mississippi val
ley 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 70
which now intend to allude; but aft
er all anything that affects consid
cradle number Of Americans who live
under one set of conditions must be
of movement to all other Americans,
for never forget, friends. that in the
long run we shall all go up or go
| down together.
Laws Should Favor Home Maker.
The states of the high plains and
| of the mountains have a peculiar
claim upon mo, because for number
of years I lived and worked in them,
and | have tnat intimate knowledge
of their people that comes under such
conditions. In these states there 'S
need of a modification Of the land laws
that have worked SO well in the we'll
watered fertile regions to the east
ward. such as those in which you here
dwell. The one object in all our land
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actual settler, the actual home maker.
who comes to dwell on the land and
there to bring up his children to in
herit it after him. The government
should part with It's title to the land
only to the actual homemaker-not to
the prof1t-maker, who does not care
to make home. The land should be
sold outright only in quantities suf-
ficient for decent homes-not 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. No temper
airy prosperity of any class of men
could in the slightest degree atone for
failure on our part to shape the laws
so that they may work for the pei
manent good Of the homemaker This
is fundamental. gentlemen and Is sim
ply crying out the idea upon which
l dwell in speaking to you Of your
own farms here in Iowa. Now in
many states where the rainfall Is light
it Is simple absurdity to expect anN
man to live, still less to bring up a
family, on one hundred and sixty
acres. Where we are able to intro
duce irrigation. the homestead can he
very much less In slze-can, for In
stance. be. forty acres; and there Is
nothing that congress has done dur
Ing the past six years more important
than the enactment of the national !r
rigation law. But where irrigation
is not applicable and the land car only
be used for grazing, 1t may be that
You can not run more than one ste=l
to ten acres, and it is not necessa :!
to be of much of mathematician il
order to see that where such is the
case homestead Of one hundred anG
sixty acres will not go far toward the
support Of family In consequence
of the fact, homesteaders do not take
up the lands in the tracts in question
They are left open for anybody le
Craze upon that wishes to. The re
suit is that the men who use Their
moderately and not with a view t.
exhausting their resources are at tn.
mercy Of those who care nothing fo
,, the future and simply intend to Skin
the land in the present