Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-01-12

Iowa have met every requirement that
could DO expected Of wives. mothers and
daughters. Every inducement should be
held out both to the girl and to tho boy
who show q disposition to interest
themselves In those things pertaining
to country life. to get them to stay up
on the farm. 1t Is not, however, every
farmers boy who would make good
farmer nor every girl who would make
a good farmers wife any more than it
Is every merchants son who would
make a good merchant or every law
yer's son who would make a good at
torney It used to be thought that If
a boy did not show an aptitude for any,
thing else ne would make a good farm
err, but the day Of such way Of thinking
has passed. 1t requires brains and
energy to make good farmer. just as
II does to succeed at any other line Of
business. The boy who can succeed at
farming will find no more honorable or
profitable occupation.
How can we encourage people to re-
main upon the farm? BY making farm
life more attractive. The farm home
should be the equal in all respects to
the town or city home and with the in
dependent systems Of light, heat and
water it is possible to so equip the
country home as to make it the equal
Of any other.
THE Improvement Of our highways
so as to bring the country home into
closer relation to city and town life
would. in my opinion, prove potent
factor in lessening the tendency to
abandon the country. In this too we are
making progress.
I'VE have reached the period in our
country's development when farm life
means more than the raising OF horses
cattle and hogs. It means all that and
it also means the development OF the
highest type of American manhood and
womanhood. Nowhere In all the realm
of professional or business life do we
find more successful men and women
than those who came from the farm.
The atmosphere surrounding the coun-
try home means the development OF
strong minds and bodies. What is 1t.
then, that causes constant stream OF
young people, as we'll as those Of older
years. to leave the farm and seek en-
ployment in the cities and towns?
While there may be many answers to
the question, it seems to me that there
are few very potent and obvious rea-
obtainable, the shorter hours of labor,
employment usually thruout the year.
better social advantages and the fact
that the high price of lands makes 1t
difficult for the man OF small means to
equip himself with land. machinery.
etc. necessary to engage in farming
upon his own account.
This again furnishes reason why
our state has lost in population. The
young man seeking employment other
than farming, falling to find II in this
state, goes elsewhere where manufac-
turing is engaged in more extensively.
or where the kind Of employment he
desires may be found. This loss can
only be overcome by the establishment
OF such industries as will keep our
young men in our midst.
ITO check the drift Of people from
the country to the cities and towns
will. in my Judgment. require a revival
Of social life in our rural communities
Many of the old time social features of
the country have disappeared and a
sufficient substitute therefor has not
been found. The natural result is for
the people to seek places OF entertain
ment and amusement in the nearby
city or town. and eventually these
things draw them away from the coun-
try.
Too Much Politics.
II shall not say that there Is no mer-
it in the suggestion that our political
strife has had an unWholesome effect
upon the state. While these things
may not have driven any one from
US. do not apprehend that
they have in any way encouraged peo-
pie to locate here. No business man
ever seeks a battle ground, either
bloody or bloodless, upon which to
make an investment. at least not until
the battle is ended, and certain it is,
that capital is not going to flow readily
to a state where uncertainties exist as
to the conditions under which it may
be invested and handled. Neither do
believe 1t to be any encouragement,
to our business interests to have our
state better known away from home
by reason of its political and fractional
feuds than for It's broad acres and i'm
nense crops. The terms progressive"
and "standpats" as used in this state
to represent discordant elements, have
never induced one man or one woman
to locate in the state. There is evil
dence upon every hand and from al
most every county that these bitter
factional alignments have had their in
duence upon local conditions of the
various communities. Men have been
known for these reasons to change
their places of banking. Of purchasing
goods and transacting business in gen.
eral. Even the harmonious and united
efforts Of business mems organizations
have been interferred with because Of
Intense factional feeling. The man who
suggested that these things have had
a bearing upon the population Of the
state had much ground upon which to
base his conclusion.
Nothing better could come to our
state than that there should be an end
Of these matters. Give the business in
terests of the state precedence over tho
ambitions of men and let the people
join in a united effort to promote the
welfare of the commonwealth.
Advertise and Educate.
Much has been said recently about
the possibilities of our
state. I doubt not that much good
could be accomplished by judiciously
m ut,,%, OF Iovu Tho