The Snyder signal. (Snyder, Tex.) 1887-????, 1911-10-06
AMERICANS AND THE SOIL,

wen informed puDnclStS nave
asserted that "'the people who
till the soil, will in the course Of
time will own and control the
destnies u the country "
It has long been admitted that
our strongest soldiers, statesmen,
professional and business men
have come up from the American
farms. The youth who grows up
on the farm is Injured to hardship
and is close to nature. The indi-
vidual whose physical and moral
being is fed from the purer foun-
tains of nature s stores is apt to
set up a standard of honesty and
economy that becomes a part of
his own nature.
The youth brought up in the
city is accustomed to sham and
superficial accomplishment and he
takes into his own moral compost
ton the poison of deception IN
social and business life
Thetendency Of American peO-
pie to go to the cities is leaving
the cultivation of the soil to 9th
ers. In many countries these til
lers are foreigners or negroes en-
gagged either as poems, hired hands
contract laborers or sub tenants
OF course these tillers do not
probably aspire to ownership.
they may be grovelling in power
ty, harboring an increasing spirit
Of enmity toward the landlord.
This may go ON for two or three
generations but change is al
most sure to come. After awhile
the owners Of these vast holdings
| will pass away and the title to
the lands will pass to profhgate
sons who feel no sympathy for the
tilling classes. Then will come
bad management, mistreatment
and general neglect of the rights
o tfhe tenant population. Heirs to
lands will fritter away their her
itage or becoming drunken with
luxury will evince a spirit of con
tempt for the sweat covered plod-
der who ploughs the field.
These conditions will beget in
the hearts of the Plebiean class
feeling of animosity and some
where along the line new states
men and soldiers will come from
the burrows and effete circle Of
the cities will be confronted by
an assertion of the doctrine; BY
the sweat of the fact shals thou
eat bread. ~
Then will come contest be-
tween plebe and patrician and the
history of Rome will be rewritten
in America. Perhaps not in the
blood, but in politics and com
merce.
The man who feels now that be-
cause of his vast possessions he
may control men, may find that
he has neglected the basic point
i'm American power-familiarity
with the soil and with the ma
ture. The people who till the
earth are the feeders of the world
and when this truth becomes
well fixed in the mind, he begins
to expect to possess it, and he !
will. II may be several genera
tionS coming, but the history of |
human activities bears out the |
prophecy that it will come unless /
the American people make some
changes
There is hope, however, that a
change is shaping and that the |
white people of our country are |
getting back to the soil.
The agricultural forces are Civ
ing more encouragement TO the |
youth to look to the farm. Agri- /
culture is receiving more atten-
ton and country life is becoming /
more attractive. Schools and col
leges are taking up lines of train
ing for the farm and there are
grounds upon which To base a
hope that coming generations OF
Americans will be the tillers Of
their fields and that intelligent !
patriotism may take new life and .
that the prestige and chivalry
of American Yoemanry may for
ever command the destinies of our
country.
Insurance rates will be lower