Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1908-08-21
BETTERL|FE ON FARMS
President Roosevelt Plans Fed.
eral UpIift For Farmers.
SUBJECT TO BE WELL PROBED
Commission Appointed to Investigate
Social, Sanitary and Economical Con-
ditions - PIessanter Conditions as
Vital as Raising Bigger Crops, He
Contends-Visws Of Experts.

Vital as Raising Bigger Crops. He
Contends-visws Of Experts.
With a view 10 bringing about bet.
ter social. sanitary and economic con.
ditions on American farms, President
Roosevelt has requested four experts
on country life TO make an inveStiga-
ton into the whole matter ana TO re
port to him. with recommendation for
Improvements. The report and recon.
mendations. with any additional recon-.
mendations which the president him.
self may desire to make, will he incor-
porated In a message which the presi-
dent will send 10 congress, probably
early next year.
The men President Roosevelt has
asked 10 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. la; President Kenyon L.
Butterfield OF the Massachusetts Agri-
cultural college. Clifford Pinchot of the
United States forest reserve and Wal
ter Fl. Page. editor of the Worlds
Work, New York. In a letter to Pro
fessor Bailey asking him to accept the
chairmanship 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 well being of the
great farmer class, the men who live
on the soil, for 1t is upon their welfare.
material and moral. that the welfare
of the rest Of the nation ultimate
rests. In the United States. disregard
ing certain sections and taking the ma
ton as whole. | believe it TO be true
that the farmers In general are better
off today than they ever were before.
We Americans are making great prog
ress in the development of our agricul,
tural resources. But ii is equally true
that the social and economic institu-
tions Of the open country are not keep
ing pace with the development of the
nation as whole.
"The farmer is, as a rule, better off
than 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
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 portions of the south,
for example. where the department Of
agriculture. through the farmers CO.
operative demonstration work of Or.
Knapp, is directly instructing more
than 10000 farmers in better methods
Of farming there are nevertheless
much unnecessary suffering and need
physician who is also a careful student
of farm life in the south. writing TO me
recently about the enormous percent
age of preventable deaths of children
due to the insanitary condition of
certain southern farms, said:
Personally, from the health point
of view, would prefer to see my own
daughter, nine years old, at work in
cotton mill than have her live as ten
ant ON the average southern tenant
one horse farm. This apparently ex-
treme statement is based upon actual
life among both classes of people,
81 doubt If any other nation can
bear comparison with our own in the
ernment. both federal and state, to ag.
ricultural matters. But practically the
whole Of this effort has hitherto been
directed toward increasing the produc-
tion of crops. Our attention has been
concentrated almost exclusively on get
ting 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
has 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
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 open the door to good
kind of life On the farm.
This problem Of country life is in
the truest sense national problem. In
an address delivered at the semicen-
tennial Of the founding of agricultural
colleges in the United States year
ago last May 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 tiller Of the soil, the
farmer. II 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.
1.-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 chill
dren Of the United States are born
and brought up On farms. How can