The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-05-20

IhuSt the Two lodQln& eXpOnenLS
of public life in America plead
against the migratory movement OF
the boys and the girls of the farm to
the factories and the cities. How to
prevent this movement has been a
subject of study by statesmen, soci-
ologists and political economists for
years; but as factor of national inn
portance it has never before assumed
the proportions it reaches today
Contrarily, every effort is being
made to induce residents of large
| cities who are unable to get work to
seek employment on farms in the
west and the southwest. Strange as
it may seem these people who, in a
great majority of cases are reduced
to state of dire poverty and distress
refuse to leave their crowded and
filthy tenements, which breed dis
ease with every succeeding day for
place where they can satisfy their
wants and breathe the pure air of
J freedom.
The situation is a paradoxical one
and well worth the great amount
of attention being given it. 1t may
be said, however, that efforts toward
the correction of this evil can hardly
be expected to meet with any marked
success for years to come.
i Reasons for this are many. Soci-
ologists may advise what action to
take to make the farm boy salts
1 fled with the calling they would
4 force upon him. Statesmen may
/ enact legislative measures which
7 would make that calling more at
tractive; but what can they offer the
country boy which will make his life
I so promising financially as a business
!, career in the city?
| The mistaken idea is prevalent
i that the farm boy leaves his home
because he is discontinued with his
social environment, and that his
country life does not offer enough Oh
; amusement, in other words that he is
dissatisfied with his home life This
I is not true. The farm boy loves his
home, its surroundings, loves his
! parents and it causes him many
; hearts aches to leave them, but he
does leaves because he sees in the
city more opportunities for CONNER.
cial and financial enterprises, better
I social advantages, more opportunities
] for meeting people financially, so
cially and politically prominent, and
more opportunities for making mark
in the world.
/ The desire of the farm boy to en-
i ter commercial life of the city is, in
a vast majority of cases, first instilled
in him by his parents With a ma
tural pride they over-estimate his ca
| pability and believe he can establish
name for himself that will be as
i illustrious as that of many farm
boys who have preceded him. The
result in large percentage of cases
is that he ekes out a bare existence
at some small clerkship from which
he can not or never does rise.
OF course this is not true in all
cases. Men who have been most sue
I cessful in business careers spent
their boyhood days on the farm. But
a great many farm bred boys would
/ have been better off and far more
contented in life had they been salts
fled to be "a big toad in a small
pond, rather than small toad in a
big pond"
Agriculture is the foundation of
our national prosperity To safeguard
that posterity some financial induce
ment must be offered the farm-bred
boy to follow his fathers occupation.
| The North Atlantic States farmer
raises 1884 worth of produce from
farms averaging So acres each. The
South Atlantic States farmer raises
only $484 worth of produce on farms
averaging 108 acres. The farmer
of the North Central States raises
$1,074 worth of products on farms
averaging IA acres, while the South
Central States farmer raises but
$536 worth of produce on farms
averaging 155 acres each. These
figures are of the last census year
Therefore it is easily seen that
the farmer must learn intensive Guilt
walton of the soil and turn from the
extravagant methods of the past
There should be fuller scheme of
public education, but a new kind of
education adopted to the real needs
of the farming people.
To improve conditions that may at
tract the large body of Americans
who turn from farm life every year,
the rural free delivery ysytem must
be improved and exended; states
should adopt a more liberal policy
for road Development and farmers
should be educated up to the great
advantages which accrue to all mem
bers of the household and in fact to-
the work of the farmer himself by
the installation of a telephone.
In this latter respect it is not
amiss to mention the fact that the
Western Electrical Company, the larg-
est manufacturers Of telephones and
telephone supplies in the country,
through the wide distribution of its
instructive literature has done
much good work in educating the