Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-05-28
A NEW WORLD SERMON FOR
THE OLD WORLD.

(From The Irish Homestead, Dublin,
Ireland.
There is one country in the world
where strong man has championed
the cause of the farmers, and used a
vigorous intellect and the authority
given by unique position on their
behalf. 1t was as inevitable that the
neglect of rural life in our modern
civilization should finally draw atten-
ton to that neglect. The United
States with a social order yet in the
making, is lucky to have had man
Of such fearless independence of spir-
it, with such confidence in his own
diagnosis of what was wrong with
country life, as President Roosevelt.
In Europe, where some states are so
old that their beginnings are lost in
myth and mystery and fabels of d.
vine origin, the accumulation of So
cial economic and political tradition
has tended to make kings, and en-
perors and presidents mere figure
heads-the man is lost in the office.
He murmurs polite things. His life
is so regulated that an automatic hat
lifting machine made in human image
could adequately fill his place on pub
lie occasions.
Last of the Divine Right of Kings"
We have seen but yesterday the
muzzling Of the last fearless voice
from throne in Europe. The last
advocate of the divine right of kings
was silenced when that brilliant SEN
satiOnalist the kaiser sang the swan
song of unfettered monarchy into the
ears of an English interviewer, and
three continents went mad with ex-
citement. After that Kaiser Wilhelm
became even as other kings, and said
the thing his ministers told him to
say. But in the New World, in a
democratic country which prays ev-
cry Sabbath for the release of Europe
from the tyrannies under which it is
grOaning, Theodore Roosevelt has as
serted vehemently the divine right of
presidents to be unmuzzled and to
speak out the truth which is in them.
There is a kind of volcanic energy in
the man strangely allined to common
sense. He has used his temporary
monarchy as a megaphone, and he has
made all America understand that
the problem of rural life is a problem
as great, if not greater, than any it
has to confront, and upon its solution
Of this problem, as he says, rests Ill
timately its ability by methods of
farming requiring the highest intel
. igence to continue to feed and clothe
the hungry nations; to supply the cit
les with fresh blood, clean bodies and
clear brains that can endure the ter
rife strain of modern life. The men
and women of the farm stand for
what is fundamentally best and most
needed in our American life" With
these words he concludes a special
message to congress regarding the re-
port of the commission he appointed
to investigate country life.
Concentration in Towns.
America is suffering like the old
world from the concentration of life
in its towns. 1t is a strange diseas,
TO attack new country which Offered
freely for a century its virgin sol
with its immense productivity to tn
settler. Hardly have these settler
built up their homesteads. hardl
have the forests been cleared an
the prairies been plowed, when tn
children of the pioneers grow rest
Jess, and they go away following tn
distant roar of the cities. The dag
nosis made in America is the diagnC
sis made of the same local phenome
ma in our own country. The farme
is unorcanized. The life of the ma
unattached TO one of the great organ
lied industries is full of difficulties
He runs no everywhere agains
armies. Steel is organized. oil is or
ganized. transit is Oreani7nd: indee,
upon all the great material resource
Of America, upon all the great dis
tributive and manufacturing indus
tries the capitalist has laid his hands