Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-08-31

I large
gathering of the farmers of Herkimer
and Oneida counties heard Col. The
Odore Roosevelt talk on a subject that
has been made prominent by him and
in which he is deeply interested-the
lettering OF the conditions of life on
the farms of America
Utica gave the ex-president warm
welcome when he arrived in his spe-
cial car Republic, but he did not tarry
here, going to Oriskany by trolley, and
from there to the park. This is the
first stop and speech made by Mr..
Roosevelt on his trip to the west.
Talking to the farmers, he said:
There are no two public questions of
more vital Importance to the future of
this country than the problem of conser-
walton and the problem of the betterment
of rural life. Moreover. these two prob
lens are really interdependent. for nei-
ther Of them can be successfully solved
save on condition that there is at least
a measurable success in the effort to
solve the other. In any great country
the prime physical asset-the physical as
set more valuable than any other-is the
fertility of the soil. All our industrial
and commercial welfare. all our material
development of every kind, depends in
the last resort upon our preserving and
increasing the fertility of the soil. This
of course. means the conservation of the
soil the great natural resource; and
equally. of course. 1t furthermore implies
the development of country life. for there
cannot be a permanent Improvement of
the soil if the life OF those who live on
it, and make their living out of it, is
~ ma 70
come stunted and weakened and inferior
TO the type OF life lived elsewhere. We
are now trying to preserve, not for ex-
pIoitation by individuals, but for the per-
manent benefit of the whole people, the
waters and the forests. and we are do
ing this primarily as means of adding
to the fertility of the soil; although in
each case there is a great secondary use
both of the water and of the forests for
commercial and industrial purposes. In
the same way 1T is essential for the farm
ers themselves to try to broaden the life
of the man who lives in the open country:
to make 1t more attractive; to give it
every adjunct and aid to development
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 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 of Cities Growth.
In one sense this problem with which
we have TO deal is very. very old Wher-
ever civilizations have hitherto sprung up
they have always tended to go through
certain stages and then to fall. No nation
can develop a real civilization without
cities. Up to a certain point the city
movement is thoroughly healthy; yet 1t is
a strange and lamentable fact that al
ways hitherto 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
civilizat ton in its later stages has tend
ed really to witness those conditions I'M
der which 1.-The cities prosper and the
men decay There are ugly signs that
these tendencies are at work in this ma
ton of ours But very fortunately we
see now what never before was seen in
any civilszatfon-an aroused and alert
public interest in the problem, recog-
milton of its gravity and a desire to at
tempt its solution.
The human side of the rural life prob
lem is to make the career of the farmer
and the career Of the farm laborers as at
tractive and as remunerative as CORE
spending careers in the city. Now, I am
wei aware that the farmer must himself
take the lead in bringing this about A
century and a quarter ago the wise Eng
fish farmer. Arthur Young. wrote OF the
efforts to improve French wool: "a Guilt
-vator ut the head of a sheep farm of 5000
or 1000 acres would in a few years do
more for their woods than all the aca-
-demicians and philosophers viii effect in
ten centuries" Tt is absurd to think that
any man who has studied the subject on
" theoretically is fit to direct those who
practically work at the matter. But,
friends. I wish to insist to you hereto
you practical men. who own and work
your farms-that it IS an equally PERM
scious absurdity for the practical man to
refuse to benefit by the work of the stu
dent The English farmer have quoted.
Young was a practical farmer, but he
was also a scientific farmer. One reason
why the great business men of today
the great industrial leaders-have gone
ahead while the farmer has tended to
sag behind others is that they are far
more willing. and indeed eager, to profit
by expert and technical 11nowledge-the
knowledge that can only come as a re-
suit of the highest education. From
railways to factories no great industrial
concern can nowadays be carried on
save by the aid of a swarm Of men who
have received a high technical educa-
ton in chemistry, in engineering, In cleo
tricfty, in one or more of scores of spe-
ciaI subjects The big business man. the
big railway man. does not ask college
trained experts to tell him how to run
his business; but he does ask numbers of
them each to give him expert advice and
aid on some one point Indispensable to
his business. He finds this man usually
in some graduate of a technical school or
college in which he has been trained for
his life work.
Farmer Needs Technical AdVice-
In just the same way the farmers
should benefit by the advice of the tech
meal men who have been trained IN
phases OF the very work the farmer does
i am not now speaking OF the man VINO
has had an ordinary general training
whether in school or college. While there
shodld undoubtedly be such a training as
a foundation (the extent differing accord
ing to the kind of work each boy intends
to do as a mani, it is nevertheless true
that our educational system should more
and more be turned in the direction OF
educating men towards, and not away
from. the farm and the shop. During
the last half-century we have begun to
develop a system of agricultural educa-
ton at once practical and se1entihc, ana
we must go on developing it. But. after
developing it. it must be used The rich
man who spends a fortune upon fancy
farm, with entire indifference to cost
does not do much good to farming; but