River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-02-11
NEEDS OF FARMER
SHOWN BY COUNTRY LIFE COM
MISSION REPORT.
Obstacles to Be Overcome Are Point
ed Out, Together. with Sugges-
tions for Guidance of the Ma
tional Government.

Washington.-Report of the commits
sion on country life, of especial inter-
est to the farmers, was read in both
houses of congress. A summary fol-
lows:
To the President: The commission
on country life herewith presents its
report The commission finds that
agriculture in the United States. taken
together, is prosperous commercially,
when measured by the conditions that
have obtained in previous years. al
though there are some regions in
which this is only partially true. The
country people are producing vast
quantities of supplies for food. shelter,
clothing, and for use in the arts. The
country homes are improving in COM
fort, attractiveneSs and healthfulneSS.
Not only in the material wealth that
they produce. but in the supply of in
dependent and strong citizenship, the ag-
ricultural people constitute the very
foundation of our national efficiency.
AS agriculture is the immediate basis
of country life, so it follows that the
general affairs of the open country,
speaking broadly, are in a condition
of Improvement.
Most Prominent Deficiencies.
Yet it is true, Notwithstanding all
this progress as measured by his
torical standards, that agriculture is
not commercially as profitable as it is
entitled to be for the labor and energy
that the farmer expends and the risks
that he assumes and that the social
conditions in the open country are far
short of their possibilities.
The reasons for the lack of a highly
organized rural society are very many
&c fIo full axnIainc The lead
ing specific causes are:
Lack of good training for country
life in the schools;
Lack of good highway facilities;
The widespread continuing dep1e-
ton of soils, with the injurious effect
on rural life;
A general need of new and active
leadership.
Other causes contributing to the
general result are: Lack of any ade
quate system of agricultural credit
whereby the farmer may readily Sc
cure loans on fair terms; the short
age of labor a condition that is often
complicated by intemperance among
workmen; lack of institutions and in
centives that tie the laboring man to
the soil; the burdens and the narrow
life of farm women; lack of adequate
supervision of public health.
Nature of the Remedies.
Congress can remove some of the
handicaps of the farmer, and it can
also set some kinds of work in motion
such as:
The encouragement of a system Of
thorough going surveys of all agricul-
tural regions in order to take stock
and to develop scientifically and
economically sound country life;
The establishing of a nationalized
system of extension work in rural
communities through all the land
grant colleges with the people at their
homes and on their farms
A thorough-go investigation by
experts of the middleman system Of
handling farm products, coupled with
general inquiry into the farmers
disadvantages in respect to taxation
transportation rates, cooperation or
CARNATIONS and credit, and the gen.
eral business system:
An inquiry into the control and use
of the streams of the United States
with the object @of protecting the peo-
pie in their ownership and OF saving
to agricultural uses such benefits as
should be reserved for these purposes;
The establishing of a system of
parcels post and postal savings
banks:
And providing some means or
agency for the guidance of public
opinion toward the development of a
real rural society that shall rest d.
rectly on the land.
other remedies recommended for
consideration by congress are:
The enlargement of the United
States bureau of education, to enable
it to stimulate and coordinate the ed
ucational work of the nation;
Careful attention to the farmers
interests in legislation on the tariff,
on regulation of railroads, control or
regulation of corporations and of spec
ulation, legislation in respect of riv-
ers. forests, and the utilization of
swamp lands:
Increasing the powers of the fed
eral government in respect to the
supervision and control of the public
health:
Providing such regulations as will
enable the states that do not permit
the sale of liquors to protect them
selves from, traffic from adjoining
states.
In setting all these forces in motion,
the cooperation of the states will be
necessary; and in many cases definite
state laws may greatly aid the work.
Remedies of a more general nature
are: A broad campaign of publicity.
that must be undertaken until all the
people are informed on the whole sub
iect of rural life, and until there is an
awakened appreciation VI IlAS AACSCo-
sity of giving this phase of our ma
tional development as much attention
as has been given to other phases or
interests; a quickened sense of re-
sponsibility, in all the country people,
to the community and the state IN the
conserving of soil fertility, and in the
necessity for diversifying farming in
order to conserve this fertility and to
develop a better rural society, and
also in the better safeguarding of the
strength and happiness of the farm
women; a more widespread conviction
of the necessity of organization, not only
for economic but for social pur-
poses. this organization to be more or
less cooperative, SO that all the people
may share equally in the benefits and
have voice in the essential affairs OF
the community; realization on the
part of the farmer that he has dis
tinct natural responsibility toward the
laborer in providing him with good
living facilities. and in helping him in
every way to be a man among men;
and a realization on the part of all
the people of the obligation to protect
and develop the natural scenery and
attractiveness of the open country.