The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-02-13
HE FEEDS US ALL
THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF
THE FARMER.

He Furnishes the Raw Material from
Which Our Food and Our Clothes
Are Made.
Very few peoples stop to think
OF the vast Importance the farmer
is to the world unless their atten-
ton is called to it pointedly.
This is exactly what the report
and recommendation of the country
life commission, which President
Roosevelt transmitted to congress a
few days ago, does.
The commission held thirty public
hearings, in which the farmers from
forty different States were repre-
sented, and one hundred and twenty
thousand replies were received from
inquirers sent out by the depart
ment of agriculture.
The Atlanta Journal says the re-
port brings home to us the lmpor-
tance of the farmer in our national
life.
Do we realize that there are only
two clases Of people in the world;
people who live on farms and people
who live on farmers?
Do we realize that ever in the
worlds history there have been more
farmers than there have been of all
other people combined?
Think, then, that not mill, mine,
factory, shop, theatre or railroad
could exist were it not for. the
farmer.
He furnishes the raw material
from which our food and our cloth
es are made. All our luxuries repre-
sent the profit on the farmers pro-
duce. =
There is just man and the earth
in all this great problem of life. The
earth yields living to man and
exacts his labor as her price.
The farmer applies his labor to the
earth and brings forth grain and
timber and wool and leather and
| meat.
Then the rest of us take what the
farmer has wrested from natures
storehouse and giving him as little
as possible in return, proceed to Jug
gle with the fruit of the farmers
toll in order that we may each have
an excuse for eating three meals,
wearing clothes and sleeping shell
tered.
The mines are needed to furnish
material or machinery to work up
the farm product; for railroads and
ships to haul it; for coin to measure
it with; for wires with which to
fence the land or upon which to tel
egraph market quotations.
The brokers gamble in it; the
bankers. loan on it; the lawyers ar
que about it; the judges split hairs
over it; the doctors care for the
bodies of the farmers and the rest
of the world which is working over
farm produce.
The preachers are paid out of the
crops to care for our souls.
Stop and think IL you can con-
ceive of human being-including
hobos-whose very life does not de-
pend daily upon the skill and indus
try of the farmer. There is no one.
President Roosevelt did really
big thing when he appointed his
country-life commission-and all the
funny men half-soled lot of old
jokes about it.
This commission has reported that
there are really only three grave
needs of the American farmer:
First-Co-operate or organiza-
tion.
Second-A new kind of schools
for country children; schools that will
prepare the pupils for country life
rather than for city life, and,
Third-Better means of commu-
nication; especially good roads and
parcels post.
Organization will come when the
farmers children take at their real
worth-or worthlessness-our jokes
about farm life. When they see that
we are only jealous. When the
farmer realizes his dignity and his
independence.
The schools can be improved so
that they fit boy to judge rotation
of crops as we'll as to keep conduc
tors cash slip on trolley car.
America will bloom, prosper and
flourish in the exact ratio that its
people become tillers Of the soil.
When the fresh air of the fields is
les Of life to half the world we can
all have more luXuries at home.
When the fresh ari of the fields is
the breath of life to our children
instead Of the sickly vapor of the
tenements the health of the nation
will be robust.
ISs When the farmers boy and girl
realize that in the city awaits them
the crush of industrial competition,
the mockery Of artificial pleasure
and the loss Of human fellowship
and neighborly love, then the jay"
iOke will lose its mower.
Rut tho farmer is antitlpd TO on