The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-05-05
FARMS FUTURE.

IeTmlneu through ledrneu cOm-
mission that the lot of the farmer,
and especially the lot of the farm
er's wife, is an unhappy one.
The commission finds that the
average farmer is unhappy; that
his wife is lonesome; that his sons
do not want to stay on the farm
because the district school teaches
. him that he should go to the city;
that "hired help" cannot be de-
pended upon to work from "up to
down" as regulated by the sun, and
that the man who rents a farm is
constantly moving in search of a
better lease.
Unfortunately, we are afraid that
all of this is true. But we fail to
see how the Government is going
to regulate it, even with the APP
preparation of $4,000, as suggest
ed by the President in his message.
There are many excellent recon-
mendations in the report of the
ommission-things which the Gov
ernment would do well to look af-
ter at some time when it has finish
ed with appropriation bills. But the
scope of the present inquiry was
too great. You cannot legislate the
farmer into happiness any more than
you can legislate the city dude"
into a "hired man" on a farm.
What Is needed Is means to
make the farmer recognize his own
dignity-his own position as a land
holder and producer of wealth,
and his own dignity as one of the
most important factors-not only
in his own community, but in the
world.
The curse of the farm in the
past has been it's poverty. Ignor-
ance has been the principal cause of
that-ignorance and shiftlessness.
We can scarcely blame the boy
raised on farm, with no pleasures
allowed; with nothing save hard
work from sunrise to sunset; with
no money for his youthful pleasures
no "store Clothes" no shoe pol
ish-if he prefers to go to the city
of which he reads and earn money
which is his own and which he can
spend in any way that he chooses.
Some farmers make hard fathers.
Their life is hard and they forget
that if they want the boy to stay
on the farm they should interest
him in the business of running it
and give him a share in it's profits
no matter how small.
Every boy has his period of
gypsy longing-his desire for the
gaudy things of life-his desire to
scatter the wild oats" while the
soil is ripe for the crop. Fathers
in contact with the world recognize
that fact, but the fathers on the
farms are too far away from the
world and they blame the boy who
is forced to leave them forever in
order to have the little temporary
fling which his heart Graves.
Our race has cause to rejoice be-
cause of the fact that it is usually
the boys who would not make good
farmers who are most certain to
break the leash and run to the
city. The good, steady boy will
usually remain under the parental
restraint-no matter how harsh
or at least he will come back home
after little while and take up his
work again.
This, however, is mainly a mat
ter of temperament, and many a
farmer is wasting his life as bar
keeper, or clerk in a dry goods
store.
AS the President says, one of the
greatest needs of the farm is social
bility. We might add to that
LESS work"
There is no life more ideal than
the life of prosperous and liberal
minded farmer. There is no life
more narrow and more prison-like
than that of the farmer who is both
narrow-minded and short of money.
We are glad to see provision made
in the recommendation of the
committee for change in the usu-
al style of education in the country
schools. What is needed there is
course of instruction along lines
which will lead the boy to the am
bition to become a successful farm
er rather than a successful business
man in great city.
What is needed there is a train
ing which will make the farmers
daughter willing and glad to be
farmers wife rather than to ad-
venture into the city with the idea
of wearing fine clothes at a price
which she cannot reckon and end
ing in rags bedraggled by worse
than mud. What is needed there
also is course of education which
will fit the farmers boy and girl for
work in their own community.
The city boy in his city school
might profit by the same line of
education, but it is scarcely avail
able. The country boy not only de-
serves, but should have this educa-
cation, and the farmer who sup
ports his own schools is in a posi-
tion to demand that he should
have it.
When the boys and girls of the
farmers are brought up along the