The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1909-02-18
ROOSEVELT TELLS
FARMERS NEEDS
SPECIAL MESSAGE
President Transmits the First
Report Of Country Life
Commission.
SCHOOLS TEACH OUTDOORS
Too Much Indoors" Education
Neutrality-suspicious. Trench
ant Suggestions.

0Au
Washington, Feb. 11.-Three especial
needs of country life in America are
stated by President Roosevelt today in
q message to congress transmitting the
first annual report of the country life
commission appointed last year. They
are:
First. effective cooperation among
farmers, to put them on a level with
the organized interests with which they
do 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 hat they will prepare
for country life and not as at present,
mainly for life in town.
Third, better means of communica-
ton, including good roads n a parcels
post, which the country people are
everywhere. and rightly, unanimous In
demanding.
ITO these may we'll be added. says
che president. better sanitation; for
easily ~preventabie diseases hold evera
million country people in the slavery Of
continuous i'll health
The Message.
President RooSeYelt'S message fol-
lows:
10 the Senate and House Of Representa-
ttyeS:
i transmit herewith the report of the
commission on country life. At the outset
] desire to point out that not a dollar of
the public money has. been paid to any
commissioner for his work on the COM
mission.
The report shows the general condition
of farming life In the open country, and
points out it's larger problems; it indicates
and state, may show the people how to
solve some of these problems; and it sug-
Eests a 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 10000 an
Bwers to printed questions sent out by
the department of. agriculture, the COM
mission finds that the general level of
country life is high compared with any
preceding time or with any other land. II
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 1t ought to
discontent in the country, and in places
encouragement. Farmers as a class do
not magnify their calling. and the move
ment to the towns, though, l am happy to
say, less than formerly, is still strong.
Help Themselves.
Under our system, it is helpful tn pro-
mote discussion of ways in which the peo-
pie can help themselves. There are three
main directions in which the farmers can
help themselves: namely. better farming,
better business. and better living on the
culture, which has rendered services
equaled by no other similar department in
any other time or place; the state depart
ments OF agriculture; the state colleges of
agriculture and the mechanic arts, espe-
cfally through their extension work; the
state agricultural experiment stations; the
I'll ~ pm "a TIniHnsEt3l, q IRA npa. tho 1prip111-
tural press, and other similar agencies,
have all combined to place within the
reach OF the American farmer an amount
and quality of agricultural information
which, If applied, would enable him, over
large areas, to double the production Of
the farm.
The object OF the commission on country
life therefore is not to help the farmer
better living on the farm. II country life
As to become what it should be, and what
j believe it ultimately, will ozone of the
most dignifed, desirable, and sought-after
ways of earning a living-the farmer must
take advantage not only of the agricul-
tural knowledge which is at his disposal,
but of the methods which nave raised and
and of intelligence in other callings.
the farm occupies as good a position in
dignity, desirability and business results
as the farmers might easily give it if they
failure of country life, as it exists at pres
ont. to satisfy the higher social and in
tellectual aspirations Of country people.
SO much Of the best elements in the rural
population into the WI is due chiefly to
This cause or to the superior business OPP
portunities of city life may be open to
question. But no one at all familiar with
farm life throughout the United States
can fail to recognize the necessity for
building up the life of the farm upon it's
social as well as upon Its productive side.
How 1t Has improved.
1t is true that country life has improved
fort, and that the armer' earnings are
higher than they were. But city life is
advancing even more rapidly, because OF
the greater attention which is being given
betterment. For Just this reason the in
PRODUCTION of effective agricultural co.
operation throughout the United States is
OF the first Importance. Where farmers
are organized comparatively they not
only avail themselves much more readily
of business opportunities and improved
lions which bring them together in the
work Of their lives are used also for So
cial and intellectual advancement.
The cooperative plan is the best plan
of organization wherever men nave the
right spirit to carry 1t out. Under this
plan any business undertaking is managed
by a committee; every man has one vote
and only one vote; and everyone gets
profits according to what he sells or buys
Tor supplies. 1t. develops individual re-
sponsibility and has a moral as well as a
financial value over any other plan.
/ desire only to take counsel with the
farmers as fellow citizens. 1t is not the
problem of the farmers alone that / am
discussing with them. but a problem which
in the country. it is a problem which the
working farmers will have to solve for
SAMpc0M,c RR0THER