The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1909-02-12
POINTS OUT IMPROVEMENTS
FOR COUNTRY COMMUNITIES
Special Message Of President Of Utmost Inter-
est to Farmers.
Urges That Social Well as Productive Side of Farm Life
Be Built Up---Work for the Federal
Department

the country life commission President
Roosevelt sent the following mes
sage to both houses Of congress:
To the Senate and House OF Represent
atives: | transmit herewith the report
of the commission on country life. At
the outset l desire to point out that not
a dollar Of the public money has been
paid to any commissioner for his work
on the commission
The report shows the general condition
Of farming life in the open country, and
points out its larger problems; it indi-
Gates ways in which the government ma
tional and state, may show the saOple
how to solve some Of these problems; and
it suggests continuance of the work
which the commission began.
Judging by 80 public hearings, to which
farmers and farmers wives from 40
states and territories came, and from
l2O,OOO answers to printed questions sent
out by the department of agriculture
the commission finds that the general
level of country life is high compared
with any preceding tine or with any 9TH
err land. If it has in recent years slipped
down in some places, it has risen in more
places. Its progress has been general, If
not uniform.
Yet farming does not yield either the
profit or the satisfaction that it ought
to yield, and may be made to yield. There
is discomfort in the country, and in places
diScOuragement. Farmers as a class do
not magnify their calling, and the move
ment to the towns, though, / am happy
to say, less than formerly, is still strong.
Under our system, it is helpful to pro-
mote discussion of ways in which the
people can help themselves. There are
three main directions in which the farm
ers can help themselves; namely, better
| farming, better business and better living
on the farm. The national department OF
agriculture, which has rendered service
| eQualed by no other similar department
| in any other time or place; the state
! departments of Agriculture; the state col
| leges of agriculture and the mechanical
| arts, especially through their extension
work; the state agricultural experiment
stations; the Farmers union; the Grange
the agricultural press: and other similar
agencies; have all combined to place with,
| in the reach Of the American farmer ar
amount and quality of agricultural infor'
nation, which, II applied, would enable
him, over large areas, to double the
| production of the farm.
For Better Business and Living.
The object Of the commission on coun
| try life, therefore is not to help the
| farmer raise better crops, but to call his
attention to the opportunities for better
business and better living on the farm
| If country life Is to become what i
| should be, and what believe it ultimate
ly will be-one Of the most dignifed, de
sirable, and sought-after ways of earn
! living-the farmer must take advan
tage not only Of the agricultural knowl
| edge which is at his disposal, but Of thu
methods which have raised and continue
to raise the standards of living and In
telligence in other callings.
Those engaged in all other industrial
and commercial callngs have founds !
necessary, under modern economic con
ditions to organize themselves for mu
tual advantage and for the protection o
their own particular interests in rela
ton to other interests. The farmers o
every progressive European country hav
| realized this essential fact and hav
found in the cooperative system exactl
the form of business combination the,
need.
Now, whatever the state may do Ito
ward improving the practice Of agri
culture, it is not within the sphere o
any government to reorganize the farm
ers' business or reconstruct the socia
life Of farming communities. 1t is, how
ever, quite within it's power to use it
influence and the machinery Of publicit
which it can control for calling public at
tention to the needs of the facts. For ex
ample, it is the obvious duty of the gov
eminent to call the attention of farmer
to the growing monopolization of waite
power. The farmers, above all, shouf
have that power, on reasonable terms. TO
cheap transportation, for lighting thei
homes, and for innumerable uses In tn
daily tasks Of the farm.