The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1910-09-12

The Power to Think and the !
Power to Do-Educational
Committees Report.
At the convention of the Nat !
ional Farmers Union in Charlotte
last week the committee on ed
ucation, composed of DR.. D. H.
Hill, of the A. and M. College at
Raleigh, Mr.. B. F. Montgomery
of Colorado and Mrs. B. F. Orr |
of North Carolina, made the fol-
lowing report, which was accept
ed by the convention:
Men will always be measured
by their power. The dominating
man must have power to think
and power to do. If a man has
power only to think, he is apt to
be dreamer; if he has power
only to do, he is limited in his
conception of what should be
done. Hence, if farmers are to
exercise the influence which their
numbers and the nobility of their
calling entitle them, they must
ACQUIRE both of these powers.
They have always had 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 a trained
thinker as we'll as a trained doer.
With soil starved and quilted by
centuries of undergraduates;
with labor high-priced and un-
satisfactory; with diseases of
plants and animals increasing so
rapidly that every planter must
intelligently reckon with them,
with the healthy and desirable
expansion in transportation max
ing competition continually more
fierce by bringing almost every
product in competition with the
best products of the world, with
success or failure frequently de-
pending on skill in packing; with
marketing becoming yearly more
and more a scient VIZ rthy of the
shrewdest brain; with farm
machinery increasing annually in
thought-tasking complexity;with
fertilization recurring each season
fuller knowledge of soil con.
ditions with all these newer con
ditions confronting him, the
farmer requires for success {
more thoughtful. a more con
tinuous, a more masterful train
ing in the technicalities of hi!
profession than ever in the his
tory of soil working. In addition
the enormous increase in popuI
alton from decade to decade de
mands a corresponding increas'
in the farm output. If, there
fore, the farmer is to fit himsel
for these new conditiogs, h
must be mentally as broad as tn
conditions. He must rise to NEE
the conditions or sink under tn
load imposed by them. He mus
not be left the only mere doe
in competition with thinkers AM
doors.
FARMERS OUGHT TO RETAINED
If the men who build an
manage great railway system
are trained with consummmat
care, the men who supply tn
freight for these roads ought
be equally we'll trained. If tn
men who manufacturers C. o. rel
resent the best thought and til
best discipline Of industri;
schools. the men who make tn;
crop must be, to cope with then
their peers in mental power.
it require time and pains to lear
how TO make fertilizers and me
are willing to take the time ar
pains to do it, ought it not als
require corresponding amour
OF time and pains and willingne.
for men to learn how to use tt
fertilizers? If the brains of fl
anciers are whetted with infni
care to buy and move the farm
ers' crops, should not the farm
ers' brains be whetted by car
full training to raise and sell TIL
crop? The bulk of the world
trade consists in buying, hauiin
manufacturing and selling far
crops. 1t is monstrously absur
then, not to give to the men WI
are destined to raise these Gro
the wisest and the broad
special training for their st
pendous task. They should