The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-02-10
Roosevelt in Special Message to Con-
gress Says Condition of Country
Life is Highest of
Any Time.
NO OTHER PLACE so GOOD
While Progress Has Been General it
Has Not Been Uniform and
There Still is Room
For Advancement.
To the Senate and House of Repre-

To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
l 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 reports shows the general con-
dition of farming life in the open coun-
try, and points out its larger prob
lens; it indicates ways in which the
government, national 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.
Judging by thirty public hearings, to
which farmers and farmers wives
from forty states and territories came,
and from 100, 900 answers to printed
questions esnt 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 It's 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 encouragement.
Farmers as class do not magnify
their calling, and the movement to the
towns, though, I am happy to say, less
than formerly, is still strong.
Under our system, it is helpful to
promote discussion of ways in which
the people can help themselves There
are three main directions in which
the farmers can help themselves:
namely, better farming, better bust
ness. and better living on the farm
The national department of agricul
ture, which has rendered services
equaled by no other similar depart
ment in any other time or place, the
state departments of agriculture. the
state colleges of agriculture and the
mechanic arts. especially through
their extension work: the state agri
cultural experiment stations; the
Farmers Union; the Grange; the ag
ricultural press; and other similar
agencies: have all combined to place
within the reach of the American
farmer an amount and quality OF agri
cultural information which. If applied
would enable him. over large areas, t.
double the production of the farm.
The object of the commission or
country life therefore is not to hell
f; the farmer raise better crops, but Il
call his attention to the opportunitie:
for better business and better living OF
the farm. If country life is to become
what it should be. and what ! believ.
: It ultimately will be-one of the mos
dignifed desirable, and sought-afte
ways of earning living-the farme
must take dvantage not only Of thu
agricultural knowledge not only of III
disposal but of the methods which
have raised and continue to raise til
standards of living and of intelligenc
In other callings.
Those engaged in all other industria
and commercial callings have found
necessary, under modern economi
conditions, to organize themselves 70