Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1912-12-12
THE FARM VS.. CITY
GREAT MISCONCEPTION HAD AS
TO GAIN TO BE MADE BY
MOVING TO CITY.
PLAN TO Make FARM LIFE HAPPIER
Good Roads Make Frequent Visits
Between Neighbors a Pleasure
Easy Access to the
Schools.

For many years the magazines, dali
les and even country newspapers have
been full of articles telling of the sue
cess and victories of country boys who
left the farm and went to the big cities
to win fame or fortune. They have
had practically nothing to say about the
many thousands OF country boys who
went to the big cities and were buried
boys who stayed at home-on the farm
or in the home town-and became sue
cessful, prominent citizens and leaders
in their communities.
Not only do such articles foster a
misconception of actual conditions, but
they are disastrous to the best interests
of the nation. They are untruthful in
their implications and utterly bad in
their effect upon the minds of the
youth of the country. The point of
view should be reversed and country
newspapers at least should lead in IA
movement to chronicle the exploits and
successes Of the boys that stayed at
home-on the farm and in the home
town. Caesars statement that cit is
better to be first in little Iberian vii
lage than second in Rome" has never
yet been successfully refuted.
One of the greatest dangers that to-
day haunt the American people is the
almost universal desire of the American
boy to leave the farm and go to the
bright lights of the cities and crowded
centers. And the "pull" of the big
city upon the country boy is not the
worst feature. 1t leaves country COM
munities without the right kind of So
cial advantages, without the proper
proportion of boys and girls, and max es
it increasingly difficult for the girls to
meet desirable young men and make a
good and respectable marriage in her
home community. Probably the coun-
try girls themselves do not realize it,
but this may be reason why many
Of them are leaving the farm or the
home town and seeking education or
employment, according to their finan
cial circumstances, in the larger cities
A large firm in Chicago employs
something like 600 girls. Eighty five
per cent of these come, not from the
big city of Chicago itself, but from the
country districts and approximately
one-third of the girls employed by this
firm has to be recruited every year.
And many of these girls never find in
Chicago the healthful and moral So
eial advantages that the home town
should, but does not, offer them.
So the way to keep not only the
country boy, but the country girl also,
at home, is to make farm life more
pleasant, emphasize in print and other
wise the fact that the farmer is really
the king-pin Of them all and improve
the social advantages of the home
town. Why not encourage home ORA
matte and musical talent7 Have anna
teur plays occasionally. A state mill
tia company is often good feature
and an armory might be made social
center. The boy scout movement can
be used as advantageously in the small
towns as in the large cities for the
proper amusement and occupation of
the younger boys and in making better
citizens. Community picnics, baseball
things for the home town. A gymna-
SUM and school athletics should be en-
couraged and every town of any size
should have park, playground, public
tennis court and good library.
One way to make farm life more at
tractive is to improve the highways.
Good roads make it possible for the
farmers son and daughter to ~enioy
these advantages and participate in the
social events of the home town and
community.
Farmers Son Should Stick to the Soil.
The following excellent points were
made in an address delivered by w. II.
Miller at Ottawa, ILL.,, last Fourth of
July:
Our schools, our farmers Institutes.
and a whole lot of other very good
things are putting too much emphasis
on the dollar side of farming and of
life in general. We think it is better
for boy to run an adding machine in
a bank than to run manure spreader
on the farm. And yet the latter opera
tion is Just as honorable and great
deal more profitable, and it requires
more brains. At the very start they
have to make the adding machine alb
solutely fool-proof.
I don't believe that the greatest rea-
son for improving the agricultural pro-
cesses of this country is to make more
money; to pay more interest on more
high priced land The real reason that
we should strive to better conditions
on the farms, to increase their produc-
tivity, is that we need food for the
constantly increasing inhabitants of
this land of ours.
TO keep the boy on the farm you
must give him some greater inducement
than mere money. To keep the boy on
the farm we must not have less of the
science side of farming, but we must