The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-03-08
BACK TO THE FARM
By Theodore Roosevelt

From the beginning of time it has
and usually the man born in the
country-who has been most apt to
render the services which every ma
ton most needs. Turning to the list
of American states men, it is extra
ordinary to see how large a proper
ton started as farm boys. But it is
rather sad to see that in recent years
most of these same boys have ended
their lives as men living in cites.
Henry Clay was a farmer who
lived all his life in the country;
Washington was a farmer who lived
and died in the country; and we CT
this nation ought to make it our
business to see that the cond ;tions
are made such that farm life in the
future shall not only develop mar u
the stamp Of Washington and Henry
Clay, but shall be so attractive that
these men may continue as farmers;
for remember that Washington and
Henry Clay were successful farmers
hope that things will so shape
themselves that the farmer can have
great career and yet end his life
as a farmer; so that the city man
will look forward to living in the
country rather than the country man
living in the city.
Church as Social Center.
The country church should be
made true social center, alive to
every need of the community, stand
ing for broad individual outlook
and development, taking the lead in
work and recreation, caring more
for conduct than for dogma, more
for ethical, spiritual, practical better
ment than for merely formal piety
The country fair offers far greater
possibilities for continuous and
healthy usefulness than it at present
affords. The country school should
be made vital center for economic,
social and educational cooperation;
it is naturally fitted to be such a cen
ter for those engaged in commercial
farming, for those who live on and
by the small farms they themselves
own The problem of the farm is
really the problem of the family
that lives on the farm. On all these
questions there is need of intelligent
study, such as marks the book of
Professor Bailey of Cornell and Of
Horace Plunkett's book on the "Ru
raj l. fe Problems of the United
States"
One feature of the problem should
be recognized by the farmer at once,
and an effort made to deal with it.
1t is our duty and our business to
far h
we consider the farmer. No country
life can be satisfactory when the
owners of farms tend, for whatever
reason. to go away to live in cities
instead of working their farms; and
it cannot be really salts
factory when the labor system is so
that there is for part of the
year a demand for labor which can
not be met, and during another part
of the year no demand for labor at
all, so that the farmers tend to rely
on migratory laborers who come out
to work in the country with no per-
interest in it and with no
prospect of steady employment. It
is exceedingly difficult to make
good citizen out of a man who can't
count upon some aeadness and
continuity in the work which means
to him his livelihood. Economic con-
ditions on the farm-in variety and
kind of crop growing, especially as
in time, and in housing
for the men-must be so shaped as
to render it possible for the man
who labors for the farmer to be
steadily employed under conditions
which better his self-respect and
tend for his development.
The Farmers Wife.
Above all, the conditions of farm
life must always be shaped with a
wife and the farm laborer's wife,
quite as much as to the welfare of
the farmer and the farm laborer. To
have the woman a mere drudge is
at least as bad as to have the man
a mere drudge. 1t is every whit as
house, as it is to introduce machines
to economic her labor within the
house, as it is to intrduce machines
to increase the effectiveness of his
labor outside the house. l haven't
the slightest sympathy with any
which looks to excusing
men and women from the non-per-
Torrance of duty and fixes attention
only on rights and not on duties. The
woman who shirks her duty as \
housewife, as mother, is contemp-
tible creature. But the welfare Of
the woman is even more important
than the welfare of the man; for the
mother is the real Atlas, who bears
aloft in her strong and tender arms
the destiny of the world. She 1e-
serves honor and consideration such
as no man should receive. She for
feits all claim to this honor and con-
sideration if she shirks her duties
But the average American woman
does not shrk them; and it is a mat
ter of the highest obligation for us
to see that they are performed under
conditions which make for her well
fare and happiness and for the wei"
fare and happiness of the children
she brings into the world