St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-12-02
The President on Farming.
Uplifting of Farm Life.

Following is the abstract of a paper
by President Roosevelt read at the recent
dedication of the Phelps Publishing Co.'S.
new building at Springfield, Mass.
President Roosevelt's paper first
touched upon the need for selthelp and
mutual cooperation between the nation
al and state governments and the
farmers for the uplifting of farm lite. He
said II am striving for the principle OF
combining selfhelp with mutual helpful
ness. OF course the prime thing to be
done for the farmer, as for everyone else,
is to help him to help himself.
Continuing the president said: 1--WE
have been in the past, and we are yet, a
people with whom agriculture has been
! the most important business. Through
| that most wise economic statute, the
| homestead law, we have been enabledto
develop the family farm the most i'm
portant and the most American of all
| our institutions. But now that the
more desirable areas OF our public land
have been settled the homestead law
does not meet the new conditions and
we adhere best to It's spirit when we try
to modify the system OF land ownership
in such way as to insure continuous
progress and upl1ft. so that the American
farmer may not only obtain material
prosperity, but on it build high type of
civilization. Important the city is and
fortunate though it is that our cities
have grown as they have done, it is still
more important that the family farm,
where the home making and the out
door business are combined into unit,
should continue to grow.
Now, when | ask that the nation
cooperate with the states and with the
farmers themselves for the steady growth
and uplift of farm life, am not so much
asking that the state help the people rs
| am that it shall provide free oppor-
tunity for the people to continue their
upward course through sell-help and
associated effort.
THE farms of America are worth some
thirty billions OF dollars and their annual
produce amounts to about eight billions,
For this present year, 1908, the crops as
a whole do promise the largest aggre-
gate in quantity, quality, and value ever
produced in our history. This means
that the six millions and over of farm
families, more than thirty millions of
farm people are in a good position
already; but | wish this position to be
made sure and better.
1T would be very great wrong to al
low our country people, who have pros
pered so much, whose welfare has meant
SO much for the nation in the past, in any
way to fall off from their former posi-
ton. Within wise care of our natural
resources our forests will grow better
each year, our rivers more available for
navigation, while the soil of our farms
will improve with wise use instead OF de
tereorating While as a nation we are
growing weather. and weather., we
should see that the schools and the
roads-in short all of what may be called
the rural realty-should be improved
Here, as everywhere else, our prime OBJ
ject should be the development of the
highest type of average citizen. The
country school is therefore OF even more
importance than the higher college So
tar as it is possible we should strive for a
common sense cooperation in institu-
tions which shall do what the isolated
farms cannot we'll do by themselves. As
an example we can refer to the exper-
iments recently carried on, by private in
dividuals and by the national depart
ment of agriculture and by the state ex-
pertinent stations, to show the extra
ordinary possibilities in improving the
breeds of food plants and OF our animals,
In all of this we have to grapple with
one foot which has made both the
strength and the weakness of the Amer
lean farmer, and that is, his isolation.
"Our object must be so far as prac-
ticable to do away with the disadvan-
tages which are due to the isolation of
the family farm, while conserving its
many and great advantages.