Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-06-20

| that IL VIII most cOnduce to the good OF
the same, and then fail to give him
in his youth such training of mind and
conscience as will enable him to deter
mine what will conduce to the good of
the same We are as cruel as Pharaoh,
and it is bricks without straw in every
election in Vermont, and must be for
years to come.
In self-protection the State must move
toward equalization of educational OPP
portunity, not diminishing the advan-
tages in the larger communities but
bringing up those of the smaller places
to the level of the best. The cities and
larger towns are recruited constantly
from the smaller places, and the intelli-
gence and worth of the favored com
munities, as well as the quality Of the
men we send beyond the State, depends
upon the education and the quality of
life IN remoter hamlets. No State can
rise much above its legislation, and the
interests of the whole State demand an
efficient State system of education ex-
! tending to every last school house in our
246 towns. Years ago it was seen that
the back districts in the towns could
not be left to themselves. They needed
and had right to the support of the
villages of the towns in which they
were located. On the same principle,
we see now that the smaller towns can
not be left to themselves in providing
schooling for their children Not by
way of coercion, but through financial
assistance and through encouragement
to the maintenance of standard
worthy of that assistance, we must
come to the relief of the more scat
tered communities. We must do with
our schools just what we have done with
our roads the strong must help the
weak, and all must take a share in
bearing the burdens of ALL
We have heard a good deal about
keeping boys on the farm. What farm ?
On many farms in Vermont, Yes, and
there is no particular difficulty in getting
boys to stay on such farms, or in induc-
ing others to go there. But on many
other farms in this State a thousand
times No, and he is no friend of the
boy, nor true friend of Vermont, who
would try to persuade him to stay there
or to incline another to take his place
Would you want your boy to start out
in life in one of those communities
which has boen losing ground for fifty
years, exc out the scantiest livelihood
as the men and women are doing today,
starve with the barrenness of its COM
munity life, bring up his children in
their schools, and lay his bones at last
in the weeds of its neglected cemetery ?
Then before God you ought not to want
the boy born in that community to stay
there. The town that is not good
enough for my boy to go to is not good
enough for any Vermont boy to stay in.
Any policy whose purpose is to keep
young people at home by preventing
them from learning of the privileges
and opportunities away from home is
immoral and well nigh criminal in its
cruelty.
Not by keeping the boy down, but by
lifting the life to which we invite him
up, must we labor for the restoration
of the hill towns of New England. |
Boys have not left the farms because we
have not taught them the grasses and |
trees in the school house yard, but be-
cause the farms were not titled and |
managed so as to furnish them oppor- |
tunty for decent livelihood Vermont
boys are not afraid of work. They are
naturally as dearly attached to their
State, their town, their own home,
as the boys anywhere. But they are
ambitious and they want a chance.
They want to measure their strength |
with others in some of the large under
takings Of life. They are eager to live
in an atmosphere of progress and in
an environment which calls for effort !
and achievement.
We must establish such an environ
ment right here. The creation of oppor-
tunity is the only cure of our evils.
When it is worth while to live in |
town, you will find people enough to
live there, and when it is not worth
while no amount of sentiment or appeal
to patriotism will maintain its roll in
the census. The farms themselves
must re-populate the farms, and they
are the only agency which can do it.
/ believe that by this agency it |
can be done, and that the atmosphere |
of progress and the spirit of pros
perity can again be restored to the
rural regions of our State The old
stock is here still, in greater proportion
to the total population than in any
other commonwealth of the north. The
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