Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-02-25
ROOSEVELT TELLS
FARMERS NEEDS
SPECIAL. MESSAGE
President Transmits the First
Report of Country Life
Commission.
SCHOOLS TEACH OUTDOORS
TOO Much Indoors Education
Neutrality-suspicious. Trench
ant Suggestions.

Washington. Feb. 11.-Three especial
needs of country life in America are
stated by President Roosevelt today in
"a message to congress transmitting the
first annual report of the country life
commission appointed last year. They
are:
First, effective cooperation among
farmers, to put them on a level with
she organized interests with which they
do business.
Second, q new kind OF schools in the
country, which shall teach the children
as much outdoors as indoors and per-
haps more, so that they will prepare
IoI country life ana not as at present,
mainly for life in town.
Third, better of communica-
tion, including good roads n a parcels
post, which the country people are
everywhere, and rightly. unanimous In
demanding.
TIC these may well be added" says
the president, better sanitation; for
easily p~reventable diseases hold several
million country people in the slavery Of
continuous ill health"
The Message.
President RooseVelt's message fol-
lows:
TO the Senate and House of Representa-
tlyeS:
! transmit herewith the report of the
commission on country life. AT the outset
j desire to point out that not a dollar of
the public money has been paid to any
commissioned for his work on the COM
mission.
The report shows the general condition
of farming life in the open country, and
points out its larger problems; It indicates
ways in which the government, national
and state, may show the people how 10
solve some Of these problems; and II sug-
gests q continuance OF the work which the
commission began
Judging by 30 public hearings, TO which
farmers and farmers wives from 20 states
and territories came, and from $4,000 an
swerS to printed questions sent out by
the department of agriculture. the com
mission tinds that the general level OF
country life is high compared with any
preceding time or with any other land. IT
At has in recent years slipped down IN
some places, 1t has risen in more places.
Ats progress has been general, If not uni
form.
Yet farming ices not yield either the
profit or the satisfaction that 1t ought TO
yield and ma be made to yield. There is
discomfort in the country. and IN places
encouragement. Farmers as a class do
mot magnify their calling. and the move
ment TO the towns. though, ! am happy to
gay, less than formerly, is still strong.
Help Themselves.
Under our system, il is helpful TO pro-
mote discussion Of ways In which the peo-
ple can help themselves, There are three
main directions in which the farmers can
help themselves; namely, better farming,
better business, and better living on the
farm. The national department OF agrl-
culture, which has rendered services
eoualed by no other similar department in
any other time or place; the state depart
ments of agriculture; the state colleges of
agriculture and the mechanic arts, espe-
ciaIly through their extension work; the
state agricultural experiment stations; the
Farmers Union; the Grange; the agricul-
tural press, and other similar agencies,
have all combined to place within the
reach Of the American farmer an amount
and quality of agricultural Information
which, If applied, would enable him, over
large areas, to double the production of
1he farm.
The object CT the commission on country
life therefore is not TO help the farmer
raise better crops, but to call his attention
TO the opportunities for better business and
better living on the farm. If country life
fs to become what il should be, and what
I believe 1t ultimately will be-one of the
most dignified, desirable, and sought-after
ways of earning a hving-the FARMER must
take advantage not only of the agricul-
fural knowledge which is at his disposal,
hut OF the methods which have raised and
continue to raise the standards of living
and of intelligence IN other callings.
1t would be idle TO assert that life on
the farm occupies as good a position in
Ats::..s acs:::S:i:ty Gfa Susiness results
as the farmers might easily give it il they
chose. One of the chief difficulties is the
failure of country life, as it exists at pres
ent, 10 satisfy the higher social and In
telIectual aspirations of country people
Whether the constant draining away of
so much Of the best elements in the rural
population into the towns Is due chiefly TO
this cause or to the superior business OPP
portunities of city life may be open TO
question. But no one at all familiar with
farm life throughout the United States
can fail to recognize the necessity for
building up the life OF the farm upon It's
social as well as upon its productive side.
How 1t Has Improved.
IT is true that country life has improved
greatly in attractiveness, health and COM
fort. and that the farmers earnings are
higher than they were But city life is
advancing even more rapidly, because of
the greater attention which is being given
by the citizens OF the towns to their own
betterTnent. For Just this reason the IN
PRODUCTION OF effective agricultural CO.
operation throughout the United States is
OF the first Importance. Where farmers
are organized comparatively they not
only avail themselves much more readily
OF business opportunities and improved
methods. but It is found that the o~rganiza-
fions which bring them together In the
work Of their lives are used also FOR So
-cial and intellectual advancement
The cooperative plan is the best plan
of organization wherever men have the
right spirit to carry 1t out. Under this
plan any business undertaking Is managed
by a committed: every man mas one vote
and only one vote; and everyone gets
profits according to what he sells or buys
,or supplies. 1T develops Individual re-
sponsibility and has a moral as well as a
fnaDcial value over any other plan.
I desire only to take counsel with the
farmers as fellow citizens. 1t Is not the
problem OF the farmers alone that j am
-disc1issing with them, but a problem which
affects every city az well as every farm
IN the country. 1t Is a problem which the
working farmers will have 10 solve Tor