The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-09-14

| cent had not been able TO pass on ac-
of i'll health About per cent of
| these failures had bad teeth adcnoids.
| defective vision. and other things
! which kept them back. He found that
! tlic children who had bad teeth were
| on the average six months behind those
! with good teeth. Indeed, DIR. Osler says
| that more damage is done TO our health
/ by bad teeth than by alcohol | think
/ every child should be examined as to
! sucn matters. whether his parents wish
i; or not. and that ne should be put on
/ the road to health.
I lin another investigations" the Sec
/ rotary continued. IS, 900 children were
/ examined. and of these over $4,000
| proved defective either as to their
breathing. eight, tonsiIs, teeth or as
to the working of the skin. Thirty
/ three thousand out OF the $1,000 had
bad teeth. This condition prevailed
/ largely throughout the country schools
/ II is being investigated and remedied
/ 10 some extent in the cities. The work
/ should be extended to every ehool
! in the land
! But how about the rural school
/ from an educational standpoint?' said
4 l. Il thought one of the proudest
/ things of which America could boast
was the country schoolhouSc.'
That may be so i'll widely separat-
I cd individual instances" replied the
/ secretary of Agriculture. 1T is not so
/ of the country school generally. In
! deed, / believe our rural school is a
| national failure. The largest part or
! the money spent on education in this
/ country goes to the cities. II sounds
! we'll when we say that the United
States has l7,00U,0oO school children,
that it has sSO0,0o0.O0o invesed In
l.. -
more than Sl,o000o0 4 day Cor every
day of the school year upon training
our children. but when you come to
the details as TO the country communi
ties, voices sink and our faces
blush The country school enrolment
lis more than ca per cent of the whole.
but its annual expenditures are less
! than 40 per cent 1t has sixty seven
, out of every hundred school children.
| and ii receives only $50 out OF
! every hundred appropriated. The
I cost Of teaching child in the
/ cities averages $23 year. The money
spent upon him in the country aver
! ages only SIS. In other words tina
city child gets almost three times as
, much for his education the country
child.
Il have before me SOME figures as
TO this matter of our cty and rural
education continued Mr.. Houston.
Here are n half-dozen states where
the city children are annually receiv-
ing for their schooling several times
as r.uch money as the country chill
dren. In North Carolina the city child
gets SIS, and in Tennessee he has $50
Toy his education. In each of those
! States the country child receives only
$3.50. In Mississippi the annual cost
of educating every city child is Sill,
L while only $3.50 a head is spent on the
II children who 20 TO school outside the
/ cities In Ala pama, the expenditure
| on the city child is $40 and upon the
country child $3.50. In Mossouri the
average cost of teaching the city boy
is S33. while that OF the country boy
is less than SO. In some States the
proportion is less in favor of the city.
although the city child Away scenes
out ahead. III Wisconsin the city child
i gets s32 year and the country child
SIS. while in Kansas the city child re-
ccivcs S36 and the country child less
than SEQ. Now It seems to Inc that
this is all wrong. The child of the
country should have as good oppor-
tunities for education as the child OF
the city. 1t Is our children who form
our greatest national asset and l be-
lieve II will pay the nation to take
care of all of them. irrespective OF
the fact whether they live in the city
or country.
schools 10 the crops. and from the
crops TO the best means of getting
money out of them. He talked of CO.
operation and organization as regard
| ing farm life. and then took up the
depa rtment of markets, for which Con-
Eress has just appropriated $4,000. and
for which more money Will be advanced
as needed
The secretary believes in co-opera
ton among the farmers He says that
the farmer has the biggest business on
earth in the amount of the product
that he gives to the world. and that in
comparison with other big businesses
he gets the least out of H. He thinks
this is~largely due to the lack of or
ganization. The farmer does not know
how to buy nor how to sell He pur-
chascs in small quantities under an eX-
pcnsive and Objectionable credit system.
and everything he buys is from organ
lied capital, which is often operated as
n monopoly. Almost everything he sells
is to organized capital, or it goes to
middlemen or spectators or to COM
mission merchants whose operations as
semipublic agents are almost unreEu-
lated.
The Department of Public Markets
will look into these matters 1t VIII
| be directed by experts. who will in
1 vcstigate the conditions under which
the various products are sold, and Will
give information to each locality. 1t
will Deal with grading and packing and
with the position OF the iniddlemen.
I'm such matters, the secretary says,
/ the government can only suggest and
show the farmers how to go to work.
1t cannot act as marketer, nor VIII
II buy the produce of the farmers 1t
will only show him how to make the
] most money out of his goods.
AS II Is now, the secretary believes
that our farmers arc raising enough
4 IN "a bai we'll Our