The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1909-02-12
ON COUNTRY LIFE
SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM WHITE
HOUSE TO CONGRESS-.

nOOSG ~ SON1hESSs
President Suggests Social and Busl.
ness Improvements for the Bene-
fits of the DwelIer in Agri-
cultural: Communities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the re-
port of the country life commission
the president sent a special message
to congress, substantially as follows:
To the Senate and House Of Represent
atives: 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 condition
of farming life in the open country, and
points out it's larger problems; it indi-
Gates ways in which the government, ma
tional and state, may show the people
how to solve some of these problems; and
1t suggests a continuance of the work
which the commission began.
Those engaged in all other industrial
and commercial callings have found it
necessary, under modern economic con-
ditions, to organize themselves for mu-
their own particular interests in rela-
ton to other interests.
Now, whatever the state may do to-
ward improving the practice Of agri-
culture, it is not within the sphere of
any government to reorganize the farm
ers' business or reconstruct the social
life of farming communities 1t is, how
ever, quite within it's power to use its
influence and the machinery of publicity
which 1t 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 farmers
to the growing monopolization of water
power. The farmers, above all, should
have that power, on reasonable terms, for
cheap transportation, for lighting their
homes, and for innumerable uses in the
daily tasks of the farm.
Necessity for Cooperation.
The cooperative plan is the best plan
of organization wherever men have the
right spirit to carry it out. Under this
plan any business undertaking is man
aged by a committee; every man has
one vote, and only one vote; and every
one gets profits according to what he
sells or buys or supplies. 1t develops in
dividual responsibility and has moral
as well as a financial value over any
other plan.
I desire only to take counsel with the
farmers as fellow-citizens. 1t is not the
problem of the farmers alone that I am
discussing with them, but a problem
which affects every city as well as every
farm in the country.
From all that has been done and
learned three great general and immedi-
ate needs of country life stand out:
First, effective cooperation among
farmers, to put them on a level with the
interests thew
business.
Second, a new kind Of schools in the
country, which shall teach the children
as much outdoors as indoors and per-
haps more, so that they will prepare for
country life, and not as at present, main
ly for life in town.
Third, better means of communication,
including good roads and parcels post,
which the country people are everywhere,
and rightly, unanimous in demanding.
To these may well be added better san
itation; for easily preventable diseases
hold several million country people in the
slavery of continuous ill health. I,
To Develop Country Community.
To improve our system of agriculture
seems to me the most urgent of the tasks
which lie before us. But it cannot, in
my judgment, be effected by measures
which touch only the material and tech
nical side of the subject; the whole bust
ness and life of the farmer must also
be taken into account. Such considera-
tons led me to appoint the commission
on country life. Our object should be
to help develop in the country commu
nifty the great ideals of the community
life as we'll as of personal character. One
of the most important adjuncts to this
end must be the country church, and I
invite your attention to what the COM
mission says of the country church and
Il - ,o,so 0fc h y0vIy
as that of the Young Mems Christian as
ISOLATION in country communities. Let
me lay special emphasis upon what the
commission says at the very end of its
report on personal ideas and local leader
ship. Everything resolves itself in the
end into the question of personality.
Neither society nor government can do
much for country life unless there is vol
untary response in the personal ideals
of the men and women who live in the
country. In the development Of charac-
ter, the home should be more important
than the school, or than society at large.
When once the basic material needs have
been met, high ideals may be quite in
dependent of income; but they cannot be
realized without sufficient income to pro-
vide adequate foundation; and where the
community at large is not financially
prosperous it is impossible to develop
high average personal and community
IDEAL In short the fundamental facts
of human nature apply to men and wom-
en- who live in the country just as they
apply to men and women who live in the
towns. Given a sufficient foundation of
material we'll being, the influence of the
farmers wives on their children be-
comes the factor of first Importance in
determining the attitude of the next gen.
Grafton toward farm life. The farmer
should realize that the person who most
needs consideration on the farm is his
wife. I do not in the least mean that she
should purchase ease at the expense of
duty Neither man nor woman is really
happy or really useful save on condition
of doing his or her duty. If the wom-
an shirks her duty as housewife, as
home keeper, as the mother whose prime
function is to bear and rear a sufficient
number of healthy children, then she is
not entitled to our regard. But If she
does her duty she is more entitled to our
regard even than the man who does
his duty; and the man should show spe-
cial consideration for her needs.
Welfare of Nation at Stake.
I warn my countrymen that the great
recent progress made in city life is not
a full measure of our civilization; for our
civilization rests on the wholesomeness,
the attractiveness, and the completeness,
as well as the prosperity, of life in the
country The men and women on the
farms stand for what is fundamentally
best and most needed in our American
life.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The White House. February 9, 1909.