Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-10-01
BETTERL|FEO ON FARMS
President Roosevelt Plans Fed
eraI UpIIft For Farmers.
SUBJECT TO BE WELL PROBED
Commission Appointed to Investigate
diticns - Pleaaanter Conditions as
Vital as Raising Bigger Crops, He
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of Experts.

Vital as RaiSing Bigger Crops, He
CONGRATULATIONS of Experts.
With a view to bringing about bet
DER social, sanitary and economic con-
ditiouS on American farms. President
Roosevelt has requested four experts
on country life to make an investiga-
ton into the whole matter and to re
port to him, with recommendations for
improvements. The report and recon-
mcudatiDus with any additional recon-.
mendations which the president him
so'f nav do~'ra - make, will he incor-
porated in a message which the preSi-
early next year.
The men President Roosevelt has
asked to act as an investigating com
mittee are Professor l.. II. Bailey of
the New York College of Agriculture
Henry Wallace of Wallace's Farmer,
Des Moines. Ia; President Kenyon l..
Buttertield of the Massachusetts Agri-
cultural college. Clifford pinchot of the
United States forest reserve and Wal
Ter II. Page, editor of the Worlds
Work, New York. In letter TO Pro
fessor Bailey asking him to accept the
craftsmanship of the commission Pres
ident Roosevelt outlines his desires in
the direction of improvements on the
farms as follows:
NO nation has ever achieved perma-
nent greatness unless this greatness
was based on the we'll being of the
great farmer class. the men who live
on the SOIL for it is upon their welfare.
material and moral, that the welfare
Haf the rest of the nation ultimately
rests. In the United States. disregard
ing certain sections and taking the ma
zion as a whole, l believe it to be true
that the farmers in general are better
of today than they ever were before.
We Americans are making great prog
rtss in the development of our agricul-
iaoJal resources. But it is equally true
,14D-L ,U~4.. and economic inStitu-
ions of the open country are not keep
ING pace with the development of the
alation as u whole.
The farmer is, as a rule. better off
Uhan his forbears, but his increase in
well being has not kept pace with that
of the country as whole. While the
condition of the farmers in some Of
fOnr best farming regions leaves little
&c be desired, we are far from having
reached so high Il level in all parts Of
grhe country. In portions of the south,
for example, where the department of
agriculture, through the farmers CO.
operative demonstration work Of DR..
Knapp, is directly instructing more
tban 10000 farmers in better methods
Of farming there are nevertheless
much unnecessary suffering and need
less loss of efficiency on the farm. A
physician who is also a careful student
Nai farm life in the south. writing to me
Escently about the enormous percent
4 &c of preventable deaths of children
due TO the tsanitary condition Of
certain southern farms, said
" -.avAu..s, I.om the health point
IL view, | would prefer to see my own
daughter. nine years old. at work in a
cotton mill than have her live as ten
ant on the average southern tenant
one horse farm. This apparently ex-
IRENE statement is based upon actual
life among both classes of people
Il doubt if any other nation can
bear comparison with our own in the
amount Of attention given by the gov
eminent, both federal and state, to ag-
ricutural matters. But practically the
whole of this effort has hitherto been
= b., tn. ne,iv $J,o
ton of crops. Our attention has been
concentrated almost exclusively on get
ring better farming. In the beginning
this was unQUestionably the right thing
TO do. The farmer must first of all
grow good crops in order to support
himself and his family. But when this
Des been secured the effort for better
farming should cease to stand alone
and should be accompanied by the eff
fort for better business and better liv-
ing on the farm. 1t is at least as i'm
pOrtant that the farmer should get the
largest possible return in money, COM
fort and social advantages from the
crops he grows as that he should get
the largest return In crops from the
land he farms Agriculture is not the
whole Of country life. The great rural
interests are human interests, and good
crops are OF little value to the farmer
unless they omen the door to good
Kind Of lifo On tho farm
1uIs pIOuleni of country life is in
TN =. &c.,. 90 national problem. In
an address delivered at the semicen-
tennial Of the founding of agricultural
colleges In the United States year
ago last May l said:
"'There Is but one person whose
welfare Is as vital to the welfare of
the whole country as Is that of the
wageworker who does manual labor,
and that is the tiler of the soil, the
farmer. If there is one lesson taught
by history it Is that the permanent
greatness of any state must ultimately
depend more upon the character Of Its
country population than upon anything
else. No growth of cities, no growth Of
wealth. can make up for loss in
either the number or the character Of
the farming population.
""The farm grows the raw material