The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-29

for a change meet the stock argument we've always got along this way In a sense 1t is hard argument to meet. It's the last resort in forensic oratori- calls. The farmer does many, many things in a long laborious fashion that could easily be improved by slight changes here and there and by the aid of science.
 Brains could frequently substitute for brawn for the good of all were it not for this attitude of almost fetich wor- ship. He often brides himself on his 'practcality" when a little analysis dis plays his practicality as a slavish depen- dence on tradition or custom.
 Conservatism of the true type is the safeguard of the country. but when 1t assumes the form of ancestral worship and slavish repetition, when it becomes accompanist of lrrationality, 1t loses its claim to being a virtue.
 This lack of respect for science and the rational element in farm activities has no doubt been one of the factors that drove the boy from the farm. This influence of tradition accounts for many instances of a sustained farm architecture that is out-worn, unadapted and unscientiflc.
 People still plant beans in the moon" and overlook the important truths that later science has revealed to them con- cerning the importance of obeying some of the mandates of nature In preparing the soil and pay a little less attention to flclkle moon. But if the moon does have something to say regarding the growth of beans let us know. This is what adds zest to farming and puts it in line with other vacations. There Is no coun- try problem for the farmer who has caught the vision. It is for those who haven't seen the star of hope.
 A man does not necessarily become full-fedged candidate for the Heavenly Kingdom because he is born in a flower garden or has one put around him. It helps but it cannot wholly stve the sin ner. Environment does much but it can not purge a man entirely of his sin.
 On the whole however the silent in fiuences are powerful often in inverse ra- to@ to their noisiness Waivng all sen timent. all poetical hyperbole and all ex- aggerations of the love-sick youth, we still maintain that the surroundings of the farmer are superior to any other class in the creation of noble traits of character. providing he enters into them Here is the trouble. He doesn't see these thing in their proper relation and proportions
 Again, and what Is more nearly the truth in prosperous America. he has sup piled himself with spectacles whose orbs are two gold eagles and he stumbles through the furrow blind to the truth that would come in and make him free. The dollar has caught him. blind folded him, gagged him and left him helpless so far as ability to realize spiritual free dom is concerned. The best that's In him is now gone. Everybody sees more in the beauty and the freedom of the farm than the farmer.
 This beauty is not deception. It's not a mirage neither is 1t Authorization nor Illusion. It is a stern fact. When he gets his nose somewhat farther away from the grndstone of daily toll, when he looks from corn to hogs, from hogs to dollars. and then-when he looks from those to more of life's conveniencd', to something better for his kinsmen, in- stead of casting envious and greedy eyes at the 'iinng forty will he learn the lessons that the farm has to teach