The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1910-09-15

Meeting ut Charlotte of q
Wise and Progressive
Organization.



the schoois-The Modern Farn-
er Must be q Trained Thinker n.
Well as q Trained Doer-Increase
in Population Demands Core
spending Increase In the Farm
Output - Rural Free Delivery
Strongly Endorsed.
The National Farmers Union.
which was in session last week In
Charlotte showed itself 10 be a wise
and progressive organization. Its
officers are not only In earnest now
but also very practical
The report OF the committee on
practical education Is worth reading.
1t is as follows:
Educational Committees Report
Men will always be measured by
their power. The dominating man
must have power to think and power
to do. II man has power only to
think, he is apt to be a dreamer; II
he has power only to do, he is linn
tied in his conception of what should
be done. Hence. IL farmers are to
exercise the influence which their
numbers and the nobility of their
calling entitie them, they must al
ways have the power to do and no
men have been more Industrious.
But new conditions require more OF
the farmer than mere artisan work,
no matter how good that may be.
The modern farmer must be train
ed thinker as we'll as trained doer.
| With soil starved and quilted by CEN
turies of unthoughtfulness; with la
Dor high-priced and unsatisfactory;
with diseases of plants and animals
! increasing so rapidly that every
planter must intelligently reckon
with them, with the healthy and de-
sirable expansion in transportation
F., making competition continually more
fierce by bringing almost every pro-
duct in competition with the best
products of the world, with success
or failure frequently depending on
skill in packing; with marketing be-
coming yearly more and more a sci
ence worthy Of the shrewdest brain !;
with farm machinery increasing an
nually in thought-tasking complex
ity; with fertilization requiring each
season a fuller knowledge of soil con-
diticns confronting him, the farmer
requires for success a more thought
full, a more continuous, a more mas
terful training in the technicalities
Of his profession than ever in the
history of soil working. In addition
the enormous increase in population
. from decade to decade demands q
corresponding increase in the farm
, out put. If, therefore, the farmer Is
to fit himself for these new condi
. tions, he must be mentally as broad
, as the conditions. He must rise te
meet the conditions or sink under
the load imposed by them. He mus
: not be left the only mere doer In
competition with thinkers and doers
Farmers Ought to Be Trained.
If the men who build and manage
; great railway systems are trained
with consummate care, the men wht
supply the freight for these road,
ought to be equally we'll trained. L
the men who manufacture a crol
represent the best thought and tn.
, best discipline of Industrial schools
the men who make that crop mus
be, to cope with them, their peers IL
I mental power. II it requires time
, and pains to learn how to make fer
tilizers, and men are willing to take
, the time and pains to do do it, ough
, it not also to require corresponding
, amount of time and pains and will
, ingness for men to learn how to US,
r the fertilizers? II the brains o
, financiers are whetted with infinit.
. care to buy and move the farmers
y crops, should not the farmers BRAIN
be whetted by careful training Il
raise and sell that crop? The bull
, of the worlds trade consists in buy
ing, hauling, manufacturing and sell
? ing farm crops. 1t Is monstrousl.
absurd. then, not to raise these crop
the wisest and the broadest specia
training for their stupendous task
They should be equipped as mel
have never been equipped before.
With a clear conception OF thes'
facts, the Farmers Cooperative an,
Educational Union hereby pledge
both it's organization and its individ
ual members to strive for the fol
lowing definite educational ends:
I First, for the teaching of elemen
tai agriculture and home-making IL
our public schools to the end tha
r our children may early take an in
telligent interestin far mlife AM
8 have their thoughts bent in that di
i, rection. We insist on this trainin,
in the public schools, for so many o
9 the children of our land get no othe
@ training. Therefore it is most es
Continued on page Sd