Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1912-12-04
Conser yatIon Congress Farmers
Language and Education.
BY Prof. j. N. Lenker.

3l5 -
.!The Second Minnesota Conserva-
ton and Agricultural Development
Congress- carried out its long pro-
gram and is now history, open for
free comment and criticism: It en-
phasizes how fortunate Minnesota is
in its possession Of great rivers,
dense forests, innumerable lakes, in
exhaustible mineral resources and
vast fertile prairies. It invites skill
ed and unskilled labor of every kind,
from every country and Of every
language and culture. But a state
does not consist in these material
advantages, for everywhere nature is
generous in extending tempting offers
to the hand and brain of man to earn
bread by the sweat of his brow. A
state is rather an institution COM
posed: Of civilized human beings, and
this civilization is Of all degrees from
barbarian to that Of the highest cul.
tural nationalities, neither Indian,
Negroes or Cinnamon, nor Slav, Ro-
nance or Teuton will raise with a
mixed population of good farmers
will be above one Of all poor farmers
or below a community of all good
farmers. A farming state with the
most good farmers is the most for
tunate. Good farmers is what the
Congress is after.
It is universally conceded that the
nations with the least illiteracy and
best systems Of popular education,
both practical and scientific, the
world ever witnessed, are the Danes,
Swedes, Norwegians and Germans.
They are Americas best farmers and
Minnesota and the northwest are for
tunate indeed in being settled by
these people. An American remark
ed to me at the Congress, we do not
give these people half the credit due
them. They complain not Of this
praise being withheld, but what they
do lament is, that their children, in
|spite Of their efforts to the contrary,
are turning against their home Ian
guage, culture, habits, custom and
life, and hence from the farms. And
why is this? Mainly because the coun-
try school and teacher have no due
appreciation of the German and
Scandinavian home life. The school
and teacher instead Of adjusting
themselves to local conditions, too
|pften labor to bend pupils to their
ideals, and the work Of both home
and school is largely, because of this,
a failure. The conservation Of the
states soil, mineral, timber and wat
err power is needed, but also all the
culture it possesses. School districts
of French children should not be
treated as Germans, nor districts of
Scandinavians as New Englanders.
Children of German and Scandinav-
ian farmers, who have been hasty in
selling their birth-right in becoming
Northumberland, have deserted the
farms more than children who hon
ored their parents language and cul-
ture, and were thus bound closer CO
the home and farm. In every Ger
man and Scandinavian school dis
trict the mother-tongue should r.:
taught as the law allows, one full
hour every day. half an hour in the
forenoon and half an hour in the at
ternoon; if for no other purpose tha,
to attach the children more to their
parents and to their home and neigh
borhood life, and thus to the old
homestead. The efficient teachers of
the mother tongue and it's literature
in the rural district school is one of
the best ways to keep the boys and
girls on the farm. When they think
themselves above the language and
life Of the settlement, they will be
on the move. Learning the real worth
Of the language and life Of their par
ents, will help them to stay at home
and to appreciate more their lot
The Congress said much about
consolidated schools, keeping the boy
and girl on the farm, relation of edu-
cation to life, why counties decreas~
ed in population and why it is more
difficult to secure good farmers as
settlers. An important element in
: these problems was not touched upon