Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-08-10
President Appoints Com
mission to Investigate
With View 10 Improving Social,
Sanitary and Other Conditions.
Wants Report by December-..wiII
Recommend legislation.

Oyster Bay, n. Y, Aug. with Il view
to bringing about better social, sanitary
and economic conditions on American
farms President Roosevelt has requested
four experts on country life to make an
investigation into the whole matter and to
report to him with recommendations for
improy ements. The report and recon-
mendations with any additional recon-
mendations which the President himself
may desire to make will be Incorporated
in "A message which the President will
send to Congress probably early next
year.
The men President Roosevelt has asked
to act as an investigating committee are
Prof. l.. Ii. Bailey of the New York Col
lege Of Agriculture: Henry Wallace of
Wallace's Farmer, Des Moines. Iowa
President Kenyon l.. Butterfield of the
Massachusetts Agricultural College; Gift
ford Pinchot of the United States forest
reserve and Walter II. Page, editor of
The Worries Work. New York. In a let
ter to Prof Bailey, asking him to accept
the craftsmanship of the commission. the
President outlines his desires in the d.
rection OF improvements on the farms.
The letter follows:
''Nly Dear Professor Bailey:
| mo nation has ever achieved perma-
nent greatness unless this greatness was
based on the wellbeng of the great
farmer class. the men who live on the
SOIL for it is upon their welfare, mate
rial and moral, that the welfare Of the
rest of the nation intimately rests. In
the United States. dsregarding certain
sections and taking the nation as a whole.
I believe it to be true that the farmers in
general are better off today than they
ever were before. We Americans arc
making great progress in the development
of our agricultural resources But it is
equally true that the social and economic
institutions of the open country not
keeping pace with the development of
the nation as whole. The farmer is, as
rule. better off than his forebears: but
his increase in wcllbcing has not kept
pace with that of the country as whole.
While the condition of the farmers in
some of our best farming regions leaves
little to be desired, we are far from hav-
ing reached so high level in all parts of
the country In portions of the South.
for example. where the department of
agriculture. through the farmers cooper
| alive demo nstration work of DR.. Knapp.
| is directly instructing more than 10000
| farmers in better methods of farming.
| there is nevertheless much unnecessary
| suffering and needless loss OF efficiency on
| the farm. A physician who is also a care
| full student of farm life in the South,
writing to me recently about the enor-
nous percentage of prcventable dc aths of
children due to the unsantaly condition
of certain Southern farms. said:
| " Personally. from the health point of
! view, 7 would prefer to see my own
| daughter. nine years old, at Work i'm n
| cotton mill than have her live as tenant
on the average Southern tenant orc-horse
farm. This apparently extreme statement
is based upon actual life among both
classes of people
"T doubt if any other nation can bear
comparison with our own in the amount
of attention given by the government,
both federal and state, to agricultural
matters. Put practically the whole of
this effort has hitherto been directed to-
ward Increasing the production of crops.
Our attention has been concentrated al
most exclusively on getting better farm
lHS, III tllt Ih'SHlHIllS l1llS WIS uIutltS~
tionabv the right thing to DO The
farmer must first of all grow good crops
in order to support himself and his fam
lily. But when this has been secured the
effort for better farming should cease to
stand alone. and should be accompanied
by the effort for better business and bet =
ter living on the farm. 1t is at least as
important that the farmer should get the
largest possible return in money, COM
fort ard social advantages from the crops
he grows as that he should get the larg-
est possible return in crops frcm the
land he farms. Agriculture is not the
whole of country life. The great rural in
terests ere human 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 the
truest sense IL national problem. In an
address delivered at the scmi-centennial
of the founding of agricultural colleges
in the United States a year ago last May,
I said:
There is but one person whose vel
fare is as vital to the welfare of the
whole country as is that of the wage
Nplhtl WHO uotS Itldlluil LABOR. ana tflHL
is the tiller 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 a
loss in either the number or the character
of the farming population.
THE farm grows the raw material for
the food and clothing of all our citizens;
1t supports directly almost half of them
and nearly half the children of the Unit
ed States are born and brought up on
farms. How can the life of the farm
family he made less solitary. fuller of cp-
portunty, frecr from drudgery. more
comfortable. happier. and more attrac-
tive? Such d result is most earnestly to
be desired. How can life on the farm
be kept on the highest level. ana where
it is not already on that level be so i'm
proved. dignified and frightened as to
awaken and keep alive the pride and 10y
atty Of the farmers boys and girls. Of
the farmers wife. and of the farmer MIN