The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-30
Co-opeyafion of School Church
 and Society Needed on Farms
BY WARREN H. WILSON, rH. D.

| 5t.f .sf | BY WARREN H. WILSON, rH. D. Tn the march of American rural in.
 dustry the pioneer has been succeeded
 by the exploiter of the land. and ths
 exploiter is followed by the systematis
 and scientific husbandman. These l three types of countryman have ere ated each his system of life. All in. stitutions have been adopted to ths characteristics of these three types toi men. Z,
 The church. the school. the social organizations; lodges, granges. instf- tutes and faremers' unions have fol
 lowed one another in regular order
 their character maturing from pioneer
 conditions to expioiter. to systematic
 forms which correspond to the highest
 type of farming. k.
 The pioneer who broke. the sod and
 feiled the forest trees was lonely
 worker. The sound of his axe had no
 echo. Between his house and his
 neighbor's intervened miles of wilder
 ness. Ills hand was against the beasts
 of the wood. the destructive forces of
 nature. the diseases of the swamp, and
 the plaques of the forest. and most Of
 all his hand was against his brother
 man. He became. therefore. q strong th4ANiab&hSts CtSVhSs ESH@A " eSA -
 dominated over social character. He
 had little thought of obligation. and
 much thought of self-reliance and ag-
 gressive se1f-defense.
 | The pioneer's church and public school were like the pioneer himself :.
 His theory of religion was personal salvation. His method in religion was emotional revival. In the school the pioneer demanded training for per-
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 was adapted to the old days when every individual was the same as every other. and required the same training as every other Those days have gone. but the school which served those days stiM remains. sls
 The expIoiter. was the man. who dis covered the value of wealth. He ob- served the ore pit, and from 1t he smeited and built up trade among his pioneer ,neighbors. and made fortune. The institutions of the country have alized the value Of wealth. Churches. sch ools. colleges, libraries and are gal leries have ali been the creation of the exploiter. He believed sincerely in the power of money What you. need is money" has been his honest statement for generations repeated. Today we have reached the end Of our doctrine of money. We realize that for spir-s itual and intellectual things money has a diminished value. But in his day the exploiter who mined the hillside, who stripped the mountain of the best timber. who farmed the land hastily without enrfching the soil from which he took q fortune. who saw his oppor- tunity to make money in transporta- tion--the exploiter has been a donlfnat-1 ing figure in the past generation. Let us say no i'll of him, though we come now to recognize the limits in the principle of his belief in wealth. s
 Many country people who have made fortunes in the exploiting way have not been converted from the pioneer methods of giving They are exploit CTS to get, but not exploiters to give. Country institutions generally need to convert the wealthy people of the country from the methods Of giving which are more becoming to the wood- cutter or to the shanty man than to successful farmers.
 The country school Is constructed on the plans of the pioneer. The farmer who has been enriched has not yet discovered his duty to the country school. He is grudging in his payment of taxation. and opposed to progressive changes In too many cases, which would consolidate. the schools. and give higher grade of training for the boys and girls Of the farms. All ready the country school Is unfit for training young men and women Tn the towns and cities. but for the life they would live on the farms. The effect of the influence of the country schoolfs dissatisfaction. It awakens in the young an unrest with their life as they find 1t in the country, for which 1t gives them no introduction and no adequate preparation. Few Of those who have been enriched through agriculture have learned in the country that which the city millionaire mas done: the duty Of giving their wealth for the capitalizing of the community. and organization are the gospel for all farming populations in the dawnfng era of systematic agricul- ture. The principles which, applied to the soil. spell systematic and scien- tIfc farming, mean when applied to rural life. the brotherhood of all coun- try people. and the federation of school. churches, granges and farmers unions.
 The grange and other farmers as- sociations. while but rudely organized today. and confined to certain States, give great promise for the days to come in the revival of country life. Their social cordiality, democratic spir- 1t. the large place occupied in them by the women of the farms. and the op- portunity they offer for the mingling of landowners and tenants and labor CTS. are all prophetic of better days.
 The systematic rural life of the farms recognizes the workingman and the tenant farmer. There Is great danger that those who do the work shall be separated into classes by them selves, for whom all others draw away. It is greatly to the honor of certain of the unions of farmers that they recognize in their membership on an equality both the owner and laborer of the agricultural population.
 The Rural Problem" as def1ned by President Kenyon L. Butterfield is as follows: Tt is the maintaining of the status of the farming population in- morally. spiritually and so- cially on level with all other classes of the American people," The dan ger pointed out by this prophet of rural revival is the danger of an American peasantry. The rural revival must the people on. the farms It's great purpose Is to inspire them with the American spirit. through the the school. the grange and the farmers union.
 The co-operation of all these insti-
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