The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1908-06-19
FARMER BOYS
NOT CRIMINALS
Farming Based on Rugged
Self Respecting Honesty
~
S0Siety Not an Enemy of Country
Boy But a Friend
And Helper.

worth anything. These seem to be
days when the farmer is coming in %
his own, as regards his relative stan
ding in the social fabric, and the
largest praise of the farm is the fact
that has lately been brought before
the country, to the effect that crime
does not flourish on the soil.
Recent figures show that Of all of
the convicts confined within the prison
of New York State only one per cent
were born on the farms. OF the total
population of the state probably for
ty per cent were born in the country.
Thus sixty per cent.of city bred popu-
lation furnishes ninety-nine per cent
of criminals.
The virtue of the agricultural COM
munities is not an accident. There
Is reason for it--seyeral of them,
in fact. Without a single figure it
would be easy to demonstrate that the
standard of honesty and integrity and
virtue are higher in farming commune
ties than in cities. IL does not re-
quire a profound student to get at
the basic principles of this condition
of affairs either in the cities or in
the country.
Probably the greatest incentive TO
do right comes from being known in
the community, from having an iden-
tity as it were. 1t is an old saying
that In rural communities everybody
knows everybody else's business That's
the secret of it. Everybody knows
everybody else's business and a man
whose business is known is going TO
struggle nightly TO have a respecta-
BILE business. 1t is harder for him to
commit crime and escape punishment
or detection and that is itself curb
upon criminal tendencies. The easier
it is for people TO sin and escape de-
lection, the greater the inducement
to sin.
But there is still better reason
why the farmer and the children of
the farmer aren OF inclined to be cri-
minals. There are no sharp practices
in the art of making a living upon
the farm. When a manundertakesio
secure his sustenance from the soil,
"smartness" and cunning do not avail
anything. There is no chance to prac-
tice duplicity. There is but one way
to secure food and raiment from the
farm that is by hard work. There
is no chance for the laggard to cover
up his laziness as is the case with
other artisans. Nature cannot be laid
out of harvest. Bluffing and brag-
ging and deception never produced
bushel or corn. Weeds do not fear
any trick except a hoe in honest hands
The very art of farming is based
upon honesty, rugged, self-respecting.
honesty. There can be no padding OF
accounts, no poor workmanship palm
ed off on the filed and orchars no de-
fusion WIN it ecomes 10 causing things
to grow. And those things-all of them
are the landmarks of the crimes
that are fostered in the cities.
1t is a notorious fact that the STAN
dard of virtue is highest in the more
sparsely settled communities, and that
the standard of virtue is lowest in
those communities where the popula-
ton is most congested. That is not
only true in this counry, but all over
the world, in India ,inEngland,i in Franc
in Russia-everywhere. 1t may be due
primarily 10 the fact that want cause
selfishness, and selfshness is a crime
and begets other crimes, but it is true,
nevertheless. There is less want and
misery in the country than else
where,less of selfishness, more of kind
Mesa higher regard generally for
the rights of others. There is more
of cooperation in the country and CO.
operation makes people kin. Crimes
are not as a rule committed against
the members of criminals family;
rather against strangers. A farming
community is more nearly one great
family.
These are all conditions tending to
make agricultural people necessarily
more honest than the people of the
cities. But there are still other rea-
sons why the boy born upon farm il
less likely TO end his days in prison
than is the boy born in the city. Those
reasons are more due OF Nature than
to others.
The farmer boy is in harmony with
his surroundings. The bounding blood
of youth has room for its desire. The
city boy is circumscribed in his every
action. He cannot throw a stone
without running the risk of some on's
displeasure. He may not pluck flow
or twig or leaf without opposition.
Any healthful sport he may mant to in
dulge in is resented. His shouts of
laughter call down upon him the curse