Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-08-11
ROOSEVELT TO
AID FARMERS
PRESIDENT SAYS CONDITIONS
CAN BE IMPROVED
FOUR EXPERTS ARE ASKED TO
MAKE REPORTS
Financially, Socially, Physically and
Otherwise Executive Believes
TilIers of the Soil Can
Be Assisted

| American farms, President Roosevelt
| has requested four experts on country
| life to make an investigation into the
situation and to report to him with
recommendations for improv ements.
The report and recommendations with
any additional recommendations which
| the president himself may desire to
make, will be Incorporated in mes
sage which the president will send TO
| congress probably early next year
The men President Roosevelt mas
asked to act as an investigating COM
mittee are Prof. A. L. Bailey of the
New York College of Agriculture;
Henry Wallace of Wallaces Farmer
Des Moines, Iowa; President Kenyon
L. Butterfield, Massachusetts, Agricul-
tural college; Clifford Pinchot of the
United States forestry service and
Walter H. Pare, editor of The World
Work, New York.
In a letter to Prof. Bailey asking him
to accept the craftsmanship of the
committee the president outlines his
desires in the direction of improve
ments on the farm. The letter fol-
lows:
my Dear Professor Bailey: No
nation has ever achieved permanent
greatness unless this greatness was
based on the WELL being of the great
| farmer class, the men who live on the
soil, for it is upon their welfare, ma
terial and moral, that the welfare OF
the rest of the nation ultimately rests.
I'm the United States, disregarding
certain sections and taking the nation
as a whole, 1 believe 1t to be true that
the farmers are better off today than
| they ever were before. We Americans
| are making great progress in the de-
| yelopment of agricultural resources.
but it is equally true that the social
and economic institutions of the. open
country are not keeping pace with the
| a Of fhn nation whole.
1.-THE farmer as a rule, is better off
than his forbears, but his increase in
well-being has not kept pace with that
of the country as a whole.
Suffering In South
while the condition of the farmers
in some of our best farming regions
leaves little to be desired, we are far
from having reached so high level
in all parts of the country. In por-
lions of the south, for example, where
the department of agriculture, through
the farmers cooperative delnonstra-
ton work of DIR. Knapp. is directly
instructing more than 10000 farmers
in better methods of farming, there
is, nevertheless, much unnecessary sur
fering and needless loss of efficiency
on the farm.
"a physician who is also careful
student of farm life in the south, writ
ing to me recently about the enormous
percentage of preventable deaths OF
children due to the insanitary condi-
ton on southern farms. said: Person
ally, from the health point of view, |
would rather see my own daughter,
years old, at work in a cotton mill
| than have her live as tenant on the
average southern one-horse farm. This
apparently extreme statement is based
upon actual life among both classes of
people,
II 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
agricultural matters. Little part of the !
effort has hitherto been directed to
the increasing of production of crops. |
Our attention has been concentrated
almost exclusively on getting better
farming. In the beginning this was
unquestionably the right thing to do.
1.-THE farmer must first of all grow
| good crops in order to support HIM
self and his family, but when this has
| been secured the effort toward better
| farming should cease to stand alone
and should be accompanied by the eff
/ forts for better business and better
living on the farm.
Terms 1t National Issue
"It is at least as important that
the farmer should get the largest pos
sible return In money. comfort and So
cia1 advantages from the crops he
grows as that he should get the largest
possible return in crops from land he
| FARMS Agriculture is not the whole
of country life. The great rural inter
ests are humane interests, and good
crops are of little value to the farmer
unless they open the door to a good
kind of life on the farm.
"This problem of country life is in
4 H. 4rt1a cf q national
1.-THE farm grows the raw material
for the food and clothing for all of our
citizens; it supports directly almost
half of them, and nearly half the chill
dren of the United States are born
and brought up on farms. How can
the life of the farm family be made.
! less solitary, happier and more at
| tractive? Such results are most ear
nestly to be desired.
| "How can life on the farm be kept
on the highest level and where it is
not already on that level be so inn
proved, dignif1ed and frightened as to
awaken and keep alive the pride and
| LOYALTY of the farmer boys and girls,
OF the farmers wife and of the farmer
himself? How can a compelling de-
| sire to live on the farm be aroused in
| the children that are born on the
farm? All these questions are of vital
Importance not only to the farmer but
| to the whole nation.
ave hope ultimately to double the
average in yield of wheat and corn
per acre; that will be great achieve
nent, but it is even more important
to double the deslrability, comfort and
standing of the farmers life.
The Farmers Wife
at is especially important that what
ever will serve to prepare country
| children for life on the farm and what
ever will brighten home life in the
country and make it richer and more
attractive for the mothers, wives and
daughters of farmers should be done
promptly, thoroughly and gladly.
There is no more important person,
measuring influence upon the life of
| the nation, than the farmers wife; no
more important home than the country
home. and it is of national Importance
| to 40 the best we can for both.
| "The farmers have hitherto had less
than their full share of public atten-
| lion along the line of business and So
| ciaI life. There is too much belief
among all our people that the prizes
Of life lie away from the farm.
at am therefore anxious to bring be-
fore the people of the United States
the question of securing better BUSH
ness and better living on the farm,
whether by cooperation between farm
ers for buying, selling and borrowing:
by promoting social advantages and
opportunities in the country or by
any other legitimate means that will
help to make country life more gain