The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-09-25

D OUIbS. Inc workman IN the factory
aims to secure two or three acres on
which he can build himself home.
The growth of large cities has
ceased 10 be in the business or even
in the old residence sections, and is
entirely in the suburbs. The same
! holds true abroad. If men can not
/ have country life in the country
| they are constantly aiming to get as
much as possible of the country in the
=, "ity. While the steam railroads tend
81 concentrate population, as they
Ii. Vt. ON the beginning, the trolley
lines 70 lure the people back to-
ward the try.
Latent liz the heart of nearly ev-
cry man, be he man of business, clerk
or other employe, or laboring with
his hands, there is a yearning desire
t. have a piece of land to call his
own.
alongside of this movement back
toward if not always to the farm, the
counter movement from the farm to
the town, which has been going on
for fifty years, continues with increas-
ing and accelerated force. Farmers
all over the older west move in great
numbers or retire to the country
towns: and Notwithstanding all this
constant influx Of population from the
farms these towns, as the late census
reveals, have barely held their own
and often have lost in population, the
natural increase of the towns them
selves pouring into the larger towns
and cities, in which the majority live
with less comfort than the farmers
who remain on the farms. Vast num-
bers of boys and girls fall prey to
alluring vices of the city, and many
OF them eventually take their places
with the down and out Comparative
" few succeed and become well-to-
do. The children of these few become
wealthy; their grandchildren usually
spend gaily the fortunes they never
earned; and naturally the family dies
out at least so far as force and power
i, concerned, in another generation or
at most two or three. The city uses
up men and families as it uses up
horses. And this y true not only in
this but in the older countries as
we'll"
we are now nearing a point where |.
We will need practically all our grains !
to provide for the wants of our own
reputation. Our expor Of corn is
II erely dribbe, in our last census
year, 100 million bushels less than the
aN erage ten years before Our exports
of meats and dairy products have
shrunk in ten years over II per cent.
We sent abroad last year only about
Cne-third the number of cattle we sent
ten years ago There is not the slight
Est indication that this decline will be
checked If checked at all, it will be
but temporarily, due to an industrial
,risis. We're it not for the over 500 .
million dollars worth of cotton that
we send abroad each year, the coun-
ry would be drained of its precious
metals to settle our foreign obligl-
ions, and we would be on the verge !
)f national bankruptcy. Lands in En-
gland that have been farmed for more
han thousand years produce more
han twice as much wheat per acre
III the average as we do in the nat
lrally better lands OF the Mississippi
valley This demonstrates the differ.
'nce between farming and merely
mining the soil fertility.
All over the country there is the
beginning of great social and indus
rial awakening. The farmer is be-
'inning to magnify his office, to cut
cose from partisan bias, to do his
'Wn thinking and act for himself. He
eachers and insisting that the teach
ng have some relation to the life
IN the farm. He is buying his own
automobiles, and paying cash for
hem. He is beginning to realize that
arm life is essentially different from
he life of the town. The movement
o organize country life clubs is
preading. The boys and girls are
rganiz.ng for games. The country
hurch is beginning to realize its
lission. and in several states coun-
ry preachers are taking short cours-
IS in agricultural colleges in order
lat they may teach morals and re-
gion to farmers in terms of their
Iaily life.
I'm conclusion permit me 10 say