The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-05-08

The railroad journeys are long, with
: stretches of miles and miles bewteen
stations. The plains seem almost
. endless before they are cleared oil
; sagebrush, and the canals leading to
them with water for irrigation are
frequently 60 and rs miles in length
The sky looks bigger here than any
where except on the ocean. The
sunshine is bigger still than the sky
of course. The herds of cattle are
big, the bands of sheep would over
flow some of our smaller states. All
of which makes an impression on the
newcomer who at once negotiates for
a big tract of land because he gets
it cheap and he thinks the value will
grow big because everything else is
built on the enlarged scale. AS soon
as he gets his ranch under water and
fence, he begins to waste. He does
not cultivate close to the fence and
bitches, and there Is waste of land.
If there Is more water in the ditch
than he needs the chances are it is
wasted. If he can find anything to
waste it on. He is not careful about
getting his rows of potatoes the
| proper distance, because he has lots
of land to plant in potatoes. He puts
in too large an acreage and cannot
give it the attention it needs and
therefore wastes acres, time and la
Dor With less ground titled, he could
take better care of crops. Horses off
the range are cheap and he raises an
abundance of alfalfa, so the chances
are, he Is extravagant in keeping
too many horses. When these large
ranches are divided up into smaller
ones our farmers will live better at
less cost, have more time to i'm
prove the civic and social conditions
,around them, take more interest in
the education of their children and
at Thanksgiving time be thankful
for more blessings with clearer
conscience. Nor is this extravaganza
confined to the country. The same
conditions exist with the man who
works on salary or owns a business
in town. But we started out with
chilren in mind Of course waste
full parents raise wasteful children.
| We could enlarge on the extravagan-
ces of the grown-ups and not tax our
thinking powers. We have heard
more about the wasteful habits of the
children of the west from school
teachers than anyone else. One of
them says the average pupil makes
good use of about one-third of the
pencil tablet she or he buys, that
pencils are daily strewn over the
| floors and grounds, that the loss of
a handkerchief is of no moment;
that really nothing counts in favor
of training of economy at home.
OF course we are not going to find
many will agree with us in this, but
they will readily conclude there is
need of a penny savings system
among the children
Moral training and the penny saw
ings system go hand in hand. There
seems to be little controversy as to
who should conduct this dual train
ing and when and how it should be-
gin. The writer has no children and
for this reason her opinion may not
be of value. During recent con-
versation on the subject with one of
our most thoughtful club women,
who, by the way, is Idaho born and
bred, she readily agreed with us on
the point of extravaganza in the west,
especially among children and she
has several She has studied and ap-
proves the penny savings system, but
thinks the teacher of the public
schools should take it in charge, that
they are paid for services rendered,
and the penny savings If properly
conducted, would add little to their
duties, that. they do and should teach
moral training, and the adoption of
the savings system would be prac-
tical way of demonstrating moral
training issues. The writer, having
no children to train, thinks this
training in economy must begin at
home with the indulgent, extrava-
CANT parents as teachers. Don't give
the child ten cents day for self in
diligence, and one cent to take to the
teacher as savings deposit. An
English mother once said to us, "the
wastefulness of the American table
Is astounding, you begin by setting
too much of variety before your
children, for they want helping of
each dish and waste more than half
of it. ! shall be glad to get mine
back home for they are now democrat
lied with American waste. You are
a charming people, but you are so
extravagant. fear for your coming
generation" A mother who is rails
ing family in Idaho, returned to her
maiden home last winter for visit,
leaving her children at her Idaho
home, when she returned she said,
Il did not realize how foolishly ex-
travagant was allowing my children
to become, until went east. 1t
would have been such good lesson
to them If had taken them with me,
! am doing entirely wrong, and must
begin correction at once"
A recent report from the woman's
club of Brattleboro, Vermont, says:
''The penny savings system has work.
ed beautifully, and is to be carried
on next year. During the past year
and half, considerably over thou
sand dollars worth of stamps have
been taken by the children, and the
greater part of that money is in