Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1912-12-19
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.

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
in oblivion, nor about the thousands of
boys who stayed at home-on the farm
or in TIE home town-and became sue
cessfulJ prominent citizens and leaders
in their communities.
Not only do such articles foster
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
movement to chronicle the exploits and
successes of the boys that stayed at
home-on the farm and in the home
town. Caesar s statement that cit is
better to be first in a 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
IL 4 ha
proportion of boys and girls, and makes
it increasingly difficult for the girls to
meet desirable young men and make
good and respectable marriage in her
home community. Probably the coun-
try girls themselves do not realize it.,
but this may be a reason why many
of them are leaving the farm or the
home town and seeking education or
employment, according to their fnan-
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
cial 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 kng-pin of them all and improve
the social advantages of the home
town. Why not encourage home dra-
matte and musical talent? 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
teams. local bands, etc, are all good
things for the home town. gymna-
SUM and school athletics should be en-
couraged and every town of any size
should have a park, playground, public
tennis court and a 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 enjoy
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. III
Miller at Ottawa H., last Fourth OF
July:
Our schools, our farmers Institutes
and whole lot of other very gooc
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 il
bank than to run a manure spreadel
on the farm. And yet the latter opera
ton is just as honorable and a great
deal more profitable, and it require:
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 thai
we should strive to better conditions
on the farms, to increase their produc
tivity, is that we need food for thu
constantly increasing inhabitants o.
this land of ours.
To keep the boy on the farm you
must give him some greater inducemen
than mere money. TO keep the boy OF
the farm we must not have less of Thu
science side of farming, but we mus
emphasize its service side to humanity
We must mix inspiration with our in
structon. We newspaper men of tn
country press must give more credi
and more encouragement to the mel
who, on the farms of America, are solv