The Falls City tribune., 1910-04-01
Conservation Of BOYS.

Conservation of Boys.
The first mar | ever married was
a farm hand, and | was always proud
of the job. lie was under twenty,
however. and at first | h%estitatod. His
father objected, because the old
man was accustomed to collect the
boys wages. He preferred to have
the money rather than hat the son
have a wife. But / made the girls
father consult a lawyer. and We went
ahead, married them. and rescued
the boy from his exploiting father.
The result demonstrated hat the
evils of early marriage we're less
than those Of "%skinning' The boy
of his personal rights. lie had TO
become a woman's husband to es-
cape from being his fathers prop
erty.
Boys are natural resources
They can be worked out as soil
can be impoverished by forever ex-
acting the same thing of them
and never fertilizing them with play.
Country boys need rotation OF ex-
p%erience as fields need rotation of
crops. Boys are exploited. like a
timbered hill when the nobility that
crowns them is cut off and turned
into money. And when the crop of
boys is exhausted in the country
town the community produces less
of everything else.
Boys leave the farm because
they are made work cattle. They
sleep in the house, but they work
like horses When a boy feels most
AT home in the barn, his father ought
to ask the question, what am | do
ing to make him at home with me
instead of the hired MANI"
When a boy smells like a COW ev-
cry time he ome into a closed
room his mother, instead of scolding
him. should help him to find associa-
ties among ladies rather than bovines.
That boy is in danger of leaving the
farm for hatred of it, of sinking to
an animal level and ceasing to care.
In the former case the farm loses
him. In the latter case the church
loses him; the school. the grange
and the social gathering lose him.
and the stable gets him. In both
cases the community loses him.
The great men at Washington say
that all classes must work together
for the conservation of natural re
sources. The boy is a natural re-
source for whom the church should
ummon all kinds of people to work
together in order tina this soul may
be saved for the heavenly city and
his body saved from the earthly city.
His mind should be conserved by a
knowledge of the world about him.
The country school should teach him
the mysteries of the soil. the habits
and value of birds, and the marvellous
wealth of the vegetable world about
him. Unfortunately the country
school in America has wasted more
boy property than all predatory cor
po%rations have wasted in the way of
timber and water power.
The country church and school
should make the community enjoyable
for the boy. My first and most val
ued words of praise as a minister
came to me from the father of a big
family who thanked me for giving his
sons an opportunity for wholesome
recreation and happy social life. I
had no difficulty converting the
souls OF his family, because their
minds and hearts were starved for
social enjoyment and healthy hui
man company,
Profit-shariug, too, IS good on the
farm as in the steel industry. Ey-
cry fathers son should have an allow.
ance. even if the farm has to be
mortgaged to pay it to him. If he
were a laborer you would be Obliged
to pay him, and as he is both your
son and your farm hand. he has
rights of ownership as we'll as wages
to his own credit. If you do not
give him a square deal in the way of
r.oney, he will desert you when you
need him most, and go out to prac-
tiee upon the rest of the world the
same unfair closeness which he learn.
ed on the farm where he was born
and broYubt nn-Ear RIM Mapa7ipa