Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-10
HOME LIFE ON THE FARM
The Necessity of Improvement
Possible Only by the Right
Kind of Education

In ex-president Roosevelts an
nouncement of the commission to study
the problems of farm life there APP
peared this sentence:
Whatever will prepare country chill
dren for life on the farm, and what
ever will brighten home life in the
country and make it richer and more
attractive for the mothers, wives and
daughters of farmers should be done
promptly, thoroughly and gladly"
Nobody will deny this proposition,
neither can it be disputed that the
remedy for most of the miseries of
farm life lies in the Improvement of
the condition Of the children. From the
children come the men and women of
the farmers, and influence of bad liv-
ing on the child is plainly seen in our
farm life everywhere.
It is a fact, however much we may
dislike to admit that the lives of the
boys and girls on the farm in a ma
jority of cases are hard, joyless and
hopeless We have no figures to prove
that the greater number of farm chill
dren are living without pleasure and
without hope, but we base our state
ment upon personal observation and
actual experience.
There are many farmers in every
state who have ample means to i'm
prove the living conditions of their
families-to provide comfortable fur
niture, help for their wives, education
I for their sons and daughters, but who
live meanly and deny their wives and
children and themselves the common
comforts Of life
Nobody who intimately knows farm
life will deny that these conditions
exist Happily education is making it's
influence felt, but it comes slowly.
There are thousands of farmers in
every state who live according to their
| rewards-who provide good homes, hire
help for their wives, educate their chill
dren and give them the benefits Of
travel and amusement, and who make
! life ideal on the farm. But these men
are in a minority and will be for a
long time to come.
The present generation of adult
farmers who have not learned the les
son Of right living and high thinking
is hopeless. 1t is useless to spend
time in trying to drag this class out
of the mire.
VAotSNCl movement is SldFleu To re-
deem farm life from Its squalid fea-
lures must be directed toward the
boys and girls themselves. They must
be shown how farm life can be made
desirable. They must be educated
along new-lines of thought Hope must
be kindled in their hearts and their
heart hunger for clean and uplifting
pleasures of life must be satisfied.
This Is not the work of month or
a year, but of a generation. And who
is to do 1t? Can congress, as ex-Presi-
dent Roosevelt suggested, pass laws
which will help the boy and girl on
the farm to improve their condition ?
Can human sympathy and love and
visions be manufactured by law? Can
hunger for the beautiful or longing for
the real pleasures of life be satisfied
by an act of congress?
AS Mr.. Roosevelt truly says: "This
problem Of country life is national
problem. We believe it can be solved,
but only through education of the kind
that Christ taught when he was on
EARTH
If the country life' commission can
show US as nation the road-even
though 1t be long and hard-leading to
the light 1t will have accomplished a
work of human Importance greater
than the freeing of the slaves.