The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1909-02-12
POINTS OUT IMPROVEMENTS
FOR COUNTRY COMMUNITIES
Special Message of President Of Utmost Inter-
est to Farmers.
Urges That Social as Well as Productive Side of Farm Life
Be Built Up--Work for the Federal
Department.

prime agent the ideas the commission
stands for must reach the people. should
become without delay In fact a depart
ment of country life, fitted to deal not
only with crops. but also will all the
larger aspects OF life In the open country.
From al tina 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
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, 80 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 a 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.
Duty of the Government.
The commission points out, and I con-
cur in the conclusion, that the most i'm
portant help that the government, wheth-
er national or state, can give Is to snow
the people how to go about these tasks
of organization, education and communi-
cation with the best and quickest results.
This can be done by the collection and
spread Of information. One community
can thus be informed of what other com
munities have DONE. and one country OF
what other countries have done. Such
help by the peoples government would
lead to a comprehensive plan of organi-
cation, education and communication. and
make the farming country better to live
in, for intellectual and social reasons as
we'll as for purely agricultural reasons.
The only recommendation l submit Is
that an appropriation of $4,000 be pro-
vided, to enable the commisison to digest
the material it has collected, and to col
lect and to digest much more that is
within it's reach, and thus complete It's
work. This would enable the commits
sion to gather in the harvest of sug-
gestion which Is resulting from the dis
cussion 1t has stirred up. The commits
sioners nave served without compensa-
ton, and I do not recommend any ap-
preparation for their services, but only
for the expenses that will be required
to finish the task they have begun.
To Develop Country Community.
To improve our system of agriculture
seems to me the most urgent of the tasks
which lie before US. But 1t cannot, In
my judgment, be effected by measures
which toucn only the material and tech
meal side of the subject; the whole bust
ness and life Of the farmer must also
be taken into account. Such considera-
lions 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 ad1uncts TO TINS
end must be the country church.. and j
invite your attention to what the COM
mission says of the country church and
of the need Of an extension of such work
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 DC
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 b'
realized without sufficient income to pro
vide adequate foundation; and where thu
community at large is not financially
prosperous It Is impossible to develop &
: high average personal and community
ideal. In short, the fundamental facts
r of human nature apply to men and WON
1 Gil III v III tlS Nootihh US 49, Nhf~T
, apply to men and women who live in thu
towns. Given a sufficient foundation o
material well being. the Influence of thu
farmers wives on their children be
/, comes the factor of first Importance l.
determining the attitude of the next gen
/, Grafton toward farm life. The farme
: should realize that the person who mos
needs consideration on the farm Is hi
!, wife. I do not in the least mean that sh'
, should purchase ease at the expense o
duty. Neither man nor woman is reall!
: happy or really useful save on condition
q of doing his or her duty. If tie woH,
3 an shirks her duty as housewife. a
I home keeper, as the mother whose prim
: function is to bear and rear a sufficien
number of healthy children, then she !
e not entitled to our regard. But II sh
r does her duty she is more entitled to ou
o regard even than the man who doe
his duty; and the man should show spe
n cial consideration for her needs.
e Welfare of Nation at Stake.
: I warn my countrymen that the grea
recent progress made In city life is nc
q full measure of our civilization: for on
. civilization rests on the wholesomenes.
: the attractiveness, and the completeness
as well as the prosperity, OF life in tn
country The men and women on III
, farms stand for what is fundamental
best and most needed In our America
. life. Upon the development of countr
2 lift rests ultimately our ability, by metf
= DDS of farming requiring the highest II
= telligence, to continue to feed and cloth
y the hungry nations; to supply the cit
= with fresh blood, clean bodies. and cleo
= brains that can endure the terrific strai
~ of modern life; we need the developmeI
y of men in the open country, who will /
- in the future, as in the past, the sta
y and strength Of the nation in time
y war, and its guiding and controlling spii
1t In time of peace.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The White House. February 0, 1909.