The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-10
CONDITIONS OF .IfFE 0N THEFARN ; , resident ROOsGVe|tSendS Mes- sage on Commissions s Report GREAT FORCES AT WORK Country Life Commission Has Made an Exhaustive Study of Farm Life
 and In Report Submit Many
 Valuable Suggestions.
GREAT FORCES AT WORK

Washington. February 9.-The Pres ident today sent to Congress a mes sage transmitting the report of the Country Life commission. After the document had been read in the Sen ate MT. Hepburn moved that it be print ed and lie on the table and this order was accordingly made.
 The message is as follows:
 To the Senate and House of Represen-
 tatives
 I transmit herewith the report of the Commission on Country Life. At the outset 1 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 con dition of farming life in the open country and points out It's larger prob lems; it indicates ways in which the government, national and state, may show the people how to solve some of these problems and it suggests a con tinuance of the work which the com mission began.
 Judging by 30 public hearings, to which farmers and farmers wives from At states ana IeTI1IOTleS came, ana from 120,000 answers to printed ques- tions sent out by the department of agriculture, the commission finds that the general level of country life is high compared with any preceding time or with any other 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 uni form.
 Yet farming does not yield either the profit or the satisfaction that it ought to yield and may be made to yield There is discontent in the coun- try and in places Encouragement. Farmers as a class do not magnify their calling and the movement to the towns. though, am happy to say, less than formerly, is still strong.
 Ways of Helping People.
 Under our &stem. it is helpful to promote discussion of ways in which he people can help themselves. There are three main directions in which the farmers can help themselves; name ly, better farming, better business and better living on the farm The na tional department of agriculture, which has rendered services equaled by no other similar department in any other time or place; the state departments of agriculture the state colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, es pecially through their extension work; the state agricultural experiment sta tionss the Farmers Union; the Grange; the Agricultural press, and other sim liar agencies; have all combined to place within the reach of the Amer ican farmer an amount and quality of agricultural information which, if ap- Wo1l1d aDab1n him Ia areas to double the production of the farm.
 The object of the Commission on Country 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 tie farm. If country life Is to become what it should be and what l believe it ultimately will be-one of the most dignified, desirable and sought after ways of earning living-the farmer must take advantage not only of the agricultural knowledge which is at his disposal but of the methods which have raised and continue to raise the standards of living and of intelligence in other callings
 Farmers Organizations.
 Those engaged in all other indus Irla1 ana COn1IueICldl CdlllHBS nave found it necessary, under modern eco homie conditions to organize them selves for mutual advantage and for the protection of their own particular interests in relation to other interests. The farmers of every progressive Eu- ropean country have realized this es- sential fact and have found in the cooperative system exactly the form of business combination they need.
 Now whatever the state may do toward improving the practice of agriculture, 1t is not within the sphere of any govern ment to reorganize the farmers business or reconstruct the social life of farming communities It is, however, quite with in it's power to use it's influence and the machinery of publicity which it can con trol for calling public attention to the needs and the facts. For example, it is the obvious duty of the government to call the attention of farmers to the grow ing monopolization of water power. The farmers above all should have that power in reasonable terms, for cheap transpor- tation, for lighting their homes, and for innumerable uses in the daily tasks on the farm.
 Chief Difficulties.
 It would be idle to assert that life on the farm occupies as good position in dignity, desirability, and business results as the farmers might easily give it if they chose One of the chief difficulties in the failure of country life. as it exists at present, to satisfy the higher social and intellectual aspirations of country people. Whether the constant draining away of so much of the best elements in the rural population into the towns is due chiefly to this cause or to the su- perior business opportunities of city life may be open to question. But no one at all familiar with farm life throughout the United States can fall to recognize the necessity for building up the life of the farm upon it's social as well as upon it's productive side.
 It is true that country life has m- proved greatly in attractiveness, health and comfort, and the farmers earnings are higher than they were But city life is advancing even more rapidly, because of the greater attention which is being given by the citizens of the towns to their own betterment. For just this req son the introduction of effective agrcul- .l,,-i co-oreration throughout the United States is of the first importance. Where
 .rs arc organized comparatively they pot only avail themselves much more