The Mankato free press., 1911-09-08

their homes, and their home com.
forts and surroundings. The peo-
ple of the country are slow and be-
hind the times in this respect;
hence the poverty of the roads, and
the poverty of the schools, the pow
erty of home comforts among our
farmers. The gospel of good roads
you preach is but part of the ad.
vance movement of the country.
From all sides come the complaints
that the people of the farms are
leaving for the cities, and that it.
is impossible to get and retain hired
help on the farms any more Peo.
pie go TO the cities because there
they find shorter hours of labor;
more comforts, better educational
facilities, and generally more of
the things that make life worth liv-
ing. 1t is not their fault, for blind
ly but intuitively, they are grasping
the true philosophy of life. The
sooner the farmer realizes this the
better for him and his interests.
He must shorten his hours of labor
for himself, his family and his hired
help; he must secure more and
better comforts and home surround
ings; he must secure more and bet
ter community comforts, amuse-
ments and recreations; he must Sc
cure better educational facilities
not by sending children to the city
school, but by providing better
schools in the country; in short he
must provide in the country the ad-
vantages of the city. How is he
going to do it? He must learn the
great lesson of the new age; CO.
operation and combination In the
educational line he must abolish
the small isolated school distric;
and the school house because they
can no longer give the education
the ties demand, and have become
a disgrace to us. Ele must cooper
ate and combine over a large area
to substitute in their places the
township rural schools and the
training in agricultural and home
economics added. He must make
the township school the center of
social as well as educational cen.
ter, and provide there a place for
comforts, entertainments, and places
for outdoor sports such as baseball
tennis and other games. II is safe
that such an educational and so
Cial center can be secured in Il
township for not over $4,000 with
the land equipment. If this cost
be added to the $4,000 for good
roads it will give a total cost Of
$4,000, which is a little less than
two dollars per acre for the town.
ship, exactly three per cent of the
taxable raluation of the township
as above estimated. If the money
should be raised by bonds running
twenty years at four per cent it
would requie tax of $4,000 per
year to pay the interest and Gre
ate "a sinking fund to pay them off
in twenty years. That would amount
to tax of a little under three mills
on the dollar There is not farmer
in his right mind who can be found
who will not, admit, if he will stop
to think it out, that such an under
taking alone will add at once two
dollars an acre to the selling value
of every acre in the township, to
say nothing of doing it in twenty
years when the bonds shall mature,
This being so, the improvements
of the township will cost the peo-
pie nothing, and at the same time
will go far toward bringing the
country to a par with the cities.
The cities have these advantages
because they are willing to pay Tor
them and to mortgage the future to
do So Why should not the country
do likewise? There is no reason
whatever save alone the lack OF
of the necessity for them
among the farmers and their lack
of cooperation. Such bonded debt
would be far below that of any
city of any size in the country in
to the property valua-
ton. Further than that, there is
scarcely a township that could not
handle it with money available for
right at home.
There is an old true saying that
he who makes two blades of grass
grow where but one grew before,
is a benefactor to mankind. The
average yield per acre of our agri-
cultural lands are becoming dis
grace to us. That is plain talk
but it is true. We are doing pio-
neer farming after pioneer days
have long since gone. There is a
new gospel of agricultural coming
on with a rapid pace. We can, i'll
we will, with the knowledge now
available, double our production per
acre in comparatively short time.
The farmer may laugh at this i'll
he wants to, but if he does he will
simply be putting himself with
those who in all ages have laughed
at all progress. The progress will
go on Notwithstanding the laugh |
and he will find himself in the ditch
by the side of the road. This gos-
pei will go along side by side with
the gospel of good roads and better