Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-08-17
President Roosevelt TO the Farmers.

De interested In the work OF the COM
| mission which President Roosevelt
has just appointed to Investigate
conditions in the rural sections Of the
country with the object of increasing
the desirability. the comfort and the
standing of the farmers life" He
declares that it is more important to
increase these things, if it can be
done, than to increase the crop
averages per acre The tendency of
boys to leave the farm on which they
have been reared and rush to the
cities, is one that has brought about a
throughout the rural sections, and it
| is nowhere more marked than here in
| New England. That President Roose-
welt should start out to grapple with
this problem in a campaign year well
illustrates his tireless activity and .he
wide diversity of his interests The
commissions task is to gather
material upon which it can make re-
gress next winter.
To some people an investigation Of
this kind may appear to be academic,
but it is intensely practical after all.
Scores of measures before Congress
already deal directly with this subject
Rural free delivery is in its last
analysis device for subsidizing the
farmer to remain on his farm, by
making it slightly more comfortable
for him to do so in this age of the uni
versal daily newspaper. The rural
telephone, which has had no federal
aid, contributes in the same direction.
The good roads movement, under
whatever auspices, looks toward max
ing it pleasanter than it used to be to
live in the rural regions. Much has
therefore been done within the last
generation to improve the lot Of the
farmer in these aspects, which touch
closely the comfort of everyday life.
Considerably more remains to be
done, some of 1t by public authority,
but more Of 1t by private initiative.
A writer in the Boston Transcript
calls attention to the fact that the
great agricultural regions of western
which thisacommission should draw.
Three institutions there contribute
nightly, other things being equal, to
comfort of farm life. The first of
these is the Northwestern mounted
police, Government force trained al
most like our West Point cadets,
knowing no fear of local politics.
Their work gives a degree of security
to life in the isolated farmhouse,
which few localities on this side the
boundary line are able to claim.
This system is probably out of reach
here, unles perhaps by State agencies;
| Of law might properly be taken up by
the commission. A second Canadian
institution is the hospital. Such is
the difficulty in getting trained nurses
and often physicians, for the farmer
remote from any town, that the
system Of taking those who are i'll to
local hospital has gained surprising
headway there. While by no means
uncommon in the United States, this
iv,ct f,,tin hnu a
towns on the frontier to the extent
that prevails in the Canadian West.
A third institution is the branch bank,
which brings accommodation of
very useful kind within surprisingly
easy reach of the farmer.
Much may also be learned by
ferent sections here. The parcels post
would further the purposes of the
rural delivery. Federal control of
freight rates should ultimately lead
to the better adjustment Of their
charges to the conditions of rural de-
velopment. But perhaps the greatest
tnlnE JnaL the farmer DOy HeeuS "
learn is how to weigh monetary re-
turns The wages and salaries of the
city expressed in dollars seem very
alluring He does not ordinarily
know the financial burdens, in the
rearing of children and the support of
old age, which urban conditions i'm
pose by contrast with the easily
obtained subsistence OF the farm and
it's abundant space. Every year the
city Is drawing thousands of young
| men who if they only knew it, would
be better off to stay at home; they go
| to the city because they have not yet
had sufficient life experience to
measure the relative advantages of
the two courses which are open be-
fore them Thus the commissions
study may become many-sided.
The Portland Press speaks Of Sheriff
~, hi