Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-23


of the man who lives in the open coun-
try. 10 make il more attractive. TO give
it every adjunct and aid 10 develop
ment which has been given TO the life
of the man of the cities.
Therefore. friends. the conservation
and rural life policies are really two
sides of the same policy. and down at
the bottom this policy rests upon the
fundamental law that neither man nor
nation can prosper unless in dealing
with the present he steadily take
thought for the future.
Problem Old One.
IN one SENSE this problem with
which we have to deal is very. very
old. Wherever civilizations have hith-
erto sprung up they have always tend
ed TO go through certain stages and
then TO fall. No nation can develop a
real civilization without cities. Up to
| certain point the city movement is
thoroughly healthy. Yet it is a strange
and lamentable fact thar always hith-
| erto after this point has been reached
/ the city has tended to develop at the
expense of the country by draining
the country of what is best in it and
making an Insignificant return for this
best.
In consequence in the past every CIV
fifZation in its later stages has tended
really to witness those conditions I'M
der which THE cities prosper and the
men decay" There are ugly signs that
| these tendencies are at work in this
nation of ours. But very fortunately
we see now what never before was
seen in any civiliZation-an aroused
and alert public interest in the prob
lem. recognition of its gravity and a
desire to attempt its solution.
The problem does not consist merely
in the growth of the city. Such a
growth in itself is n good thing and
not bad thing for the country. The
problem consists in the growth of the
city at the expense of the country. and
even where this is not the case in so
great an equality of growth in power
and interest as to make the city more
attractive than the country and there
fore apt to drain the country of the
people wbn ought To live therein.
Make Life Attractive.
The human side of the rural life
problem is 10 make the career of the
farmer and the career of the farm la
borer as attractive and as remunera-
tive as corresponding careers in the
city. Now. / am well aware that the
farmer must himself take the lead in
bringing this about. a century and a
quarter ago the wise English farmer.
Arthur Young. wrote of the efforts to
improve French wool:
"a cultivator at the head of a sheep
farm of 5000 or 1000 acres would in
a few years do more for their woods
than all the academicians and philoso-
piers will effect in ten centuries" 1t
is absurd TO think that any man who
has studied the subject only theoret-
ically is fit 70 direct those who prac-
tically work at the matter. But.
friends. l wish to insist to you here,
to you practical men who own and
work your farms. that it is an equally
pernicious absurdity for the practical
man 10 refuse 10 benefit by the work
of the student.
The English farmer I have quoted
Young-was a practical farmer. but he
was also a scientific farmer.
FaEmerS
One reason why the great business
men of today, the great industrial lead
ers. have ,--.... ... while the farmer
has tended To sag behind the others is
that they are far more willing and in
deed eager 10 profit by expert and
technical knowledge-the knowledge
that can only come as a result of the
highest education From railways to
factories no great Industrial concern
can nowadays be carried on save by
the aid of Il swarm of men who have
received high technical education in
chemistry. in engineering. in electrici-
ty and in one or more of scores of spe-
cial subjects.
The big business man. the big rail-
way man. does not ask college trained
experts TO tell him how TO run his bust
ness. but he does ask numbers of them
each to give him expert advice and aid
on some one point Indispensable to bis
business. He finds this man usually
in some graduate of technical school
or college in which he has been trained
for his life work.
In just the same way the farmers
should benefit by the advice of the
technical men who have been trained
in phases of the very work the farmer
does. l am not now speaking OF the
man who has had an ordinary general
training. whether in school or college.
While there should undoubtedly be
such training as a foundation lex
tent differing according TO the kind of |
Il NJ
1t is nevertheless true that our educa-
tional system should more and more |
be turned in tbe direction of educating |
men toward and not away from the |
farm and the shop
During the last half century we have |
begun to develop system Of agricul- |
tural education at once practical and |
scientific. and we must go on devel- |
oping it. But after developing ii II |
must be used The rich man who /