The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-09-01
NEW YORK FARMERS HEAR
ADDRESS BY ROOSEVELT
Starting on His Western Tour, the Colonel
Speaks to Agriculturists Near Utica, Dwell
ing Especially on Need Of Bettering
the Condition of Country Life.

!
Roosevelt took an opportunity this
! evening to show that he is in earnes,
In his desires to better the conditions
Of farm life in America. He deliv
cred the first address of his tou,
through the west to gathering of the
farmers of Oneida and Herkimer coun
ties, and much of his talk was about
existence in the country and the ways
in which 1t may be made more toler.
able.
Mr.. Roosevelt reached Utica in the
afternoon and was given a hearty re.
ception by the citizens. He did not
stop here long, however, but with his
party boarded trolley cars for Oris-
kany and thence to Summit Park,
about ten miles out, where he talked
to the farmers. His add1 ess follows:
TherG 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-
Their 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 as the great natural resource: and
equally. of course. it 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
1t, and make their living out of it, is
suffered to starve and languish, to be-
| come stunted and weakened and inferior
to the type of life lived elsewhere. We
are now trying to preserve. not for eX-
ploitation 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 a means Of adding
to the fertility Of the soil; although in
each case there is great secondary use
both Of the water and of the forests for
commercial and Industrial purposes. In
the same way it 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
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
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
civilization In its later stages has tend
ed 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 ma
ton of ours. But very fortunately we
see now what never before was seen in
any civiization-an aroused and alert
public interest in the problem, a 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 corre-
spending careers in the city. Now, I am
we'll aware that the farmer must himself
take the lead in bringing this about. A
century and a quarter ago the wise Eng
lish farmer. Arthur Young. wrote of the
efforts to improve French wool: "A cult
vator at the head of a sheep farm of 5000
or 1000 acres would in few years do
more for their woods than all the aca-
demicians and philosophers will effect in
ten centuries" It is absurd to think that
any man who has studied the subject on
ly 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 1t is an equally PERTH
cious 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 scientific farmer. One reason
why the great business men of todav-
the great industrial leaders--have gone
ahead, while the farmer has tended to
sag behind others, is that they are far
moro willing, and indeed eager, to profit
by expert and technical knowledge-the
knowledge that can only come as a. re-
suit of the highest education. From
concern can nowadays be carried on
save by the aid Of swarm of men who
have received high technical educa
ton in chemistry, in engineering, in cleo
tricity. In one or more of scores OF spe-
big railway man. does not ask college,
trained experts to tell him how to run
his business; but he does ask numbers of
thG,n 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 |
! 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 (the extent differing accord
Ing tn me kind ~ VuorH ooch hox, 1p%orAc