El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-08-23
BACK To The
FARM SAYS
TEDDY
Ex-President Says Country
Life Must Be Made More
Attractive to the Masses.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS
AND HER DUTIES


two questions of more vital Importance
to the future OF this country tnan the
problem of conservation and the prob
lem of the betterment of public life,
said Theodore Roosevelt this after
noon in the first address of his western
tour at Summit Park in this city.
Moreover, these two problems are
really interdependent for neither of
them can be successfully solved save
on condition that there Is at least a
measurable success in the effort to
solve the other he continued. In any
great country the prime physical asset
the physical asset more valuable than
any Others the fertility Of the soil
Must Till the Soil.
"Au 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 1T Furthermore implies the
DEVELOPMENT of country life, for there
cannot be permanent Improvement of
the soil IL the life of those who live on
it and make their living out of II, Is
suffered to starve and languish. TO be-
come stunted and weakened and in
ferior to the type of life lived elsewhere.
Preserving the Waters
I'VE are now trying to preserve. not
for exploitation by individuals, but for
the permanent benefit of the whole peo-
pie. the waters and the forests. and we
are doing this primarily as means OF
adding TO the fertility OF the soil; al
though in each case there is great
secondary use both of the water and OF
the forests for commercial and indus
trial purposes. In the same way 1t IS
essential for the farmers themselves &c
try TO broaden the life of the man who
lives in the open country; to make II
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 conserVa-
ton 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.
An Old Problem.
I'm one sense this problem with which
we have to deal is very, very old
Wherever civilizations have hitherto
sprung up, they have always tended to
decay. There are ugly signs that these
go through certain stages and then 10
fall No nation can develop real civil
point the city movement is thoroughly
healthy: yet it is a strange and Ia
mentable fact that always 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 IN
significant return for this best In con-
sequence, In the past. every civiliZa-
ton in its later stages has tended really
RI wit fhnS6 conditions under
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 pub
lie interest in the problem. a recognition
of its gravity and desire to attempt its
solution.
City Attracts From Country.
The problem does not consist merely
in the growth of the city Sucfra growth
| in itself is a 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 In
terest as to make the city more at
| tractive than the country, and therefore
! apt to drain the country of the people
/ who ought TO live therein.
1.-The human sue of the rural life
| problem Is to make the career Of the
! farmer and the career of the farm Ia
/ borer as attractive and as remunera-
! tive as corresponding careers In the
| citN Now. 1 am we'll aware that the
] farmer must himself take the lead in
] bringing this about. 1t is absurd TO
| think that any man who has studied the
| subject only theoretically is fit to direct
/ those who practically work at the mat
! ter But, friends, l wish to insist to
| you hereto you practical men, VINO
| own and work your farms-that it is a
pernicious absurdry for the practical
| men to refuse to benefit by the work
| of the STUDENT. The big business man.
J the big railway man. does not ask col
! legS trained experts to tel: him how
to run his business; but he does ask
| numbers Of them each to give him ex-
pert advice and aid on some one point
I indispensable to his business
Agricultural Education.
| In just the same way the farmers
I should benefit by the advice of the
technical men who have been trained
in phases of the very york the farmer
! does.
During the last haIf-century we have
begun to develop a system of agricul-
/ turaI education at once practical and
! scientific and we must go on develop
! ing it. / wish / could take repreSen-
! tative farmers down to Long Island
J where I live, to have them see what
/ has been done. not as philanthropy but
| as plain business proposition, by men
| connected with the Long Island railroad
, who believe ii pays to encourage the
Z development of farms along the line OF
that railway. They have put practical
| men in charge Of experimental farms
cultivating them intenSively, and using
the best modern methods, not only IN
| raising crops, but in securing the best
| market for the crops when raised.
Country Life Interesting.
| The farmer must not only make his
Hand pay. but he must make country life
| interesting for himself and for his wife
| and his sons and daughters. Our people
as a whole should realize the infinite
| possibilities of life in the country; and
| every effort should be made to make
| these possibilities more possible. From
! the beginning of time it has been the
| man raised in the country-and usually
the man born in the country-who has
| been most apt to render the services
| which every nation most needs. We OF
| this nation ought to make it our bust
| ness to see that the conditions are made