Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1913-07-02

on and attached we open the throttle Of
the school engine and speed machinery
up to its highest pitch. ~ r-@.@ ~
certain number Of revolutions and
10, and behold, an educated youth!
Thus the craze for speed bids fair
to become a grave menace to our
schools ~.e- -. ,@,-..:
The Social Speed.
Then there is the social speed. The
craze to cut a figure socially. +
People will not wait to attain wealth
before they use it. A man buys a 40
horse car on a wheel barrow income
What think you would have been the
result If that kind Of a policy had been
adopted by the pioneers of this state?
Why is it that on every hand we see
so much Of this stflted attitude, this
uneasy feeling, this unnatural mode
of expression and appearance?
Life In the pioneer days was not this
way. Then people were free. easy and
met each other with an open hand and
| an open heart. ~
I once heard a prominent pioneer
comment upon the fact that forty
year ago, when everybody lived in dug
| outs and log houses visitors were al
ways welcome and no matter how large
the family was there was always room
| for all corners.
Now, when people live in ten and
twenty room houses and the families
as a rule are small; there is no room
for traveller; no room to house the
stranger who may happen along.
The result is that our social relations
are not nearly as pleasant and cordial
as they were thirty and forty years ago.
Hospitality Replaced by 5nobbishness.
The hospitality of the pioneer days
has been driven out to make room for
the snobbishness of the present-in al.
together too many instances. .,-.s-<.
| OF course this picture may be little
overdrawn, but who is there of those
| who have lived in a locality from the
| time of the pioneers to the present who
has not seen just this thing, who has
| not noted just this very change. Yes,
{ even some Of the pioneers themselves
have undergone the change, have como
under the influence Of the modern idea
and have altered their ways in order to
conform with the trend Of the times?
|
| false speed.
! Something might also be said about
| the speed with which farming is car
ried on at the present time. The QUE s.
ton might be raised whether extensive
farming is not INDUCED in at the ex-
pense of intensive farming.
| But am not going to raise any point
about farming. There are altogether too
many men going about the country now
| teaching the farmers how to farm. L:
has always struck me as rather pecu-
liar the number Of men who consider
themselves competent to teach the far
| mers. p.
Men who would not farm if they could
and could not farm If they would come
| out and set themselves up as teachers.
Without any f1attery let me say that I
believe that any pioneer farmer Of this
locality has forgotten more about farm
ing than one-half Of these SO called ex-
perts ever knew. -
| Why is it that so many people con-
slider themselves competent to teach
farmers? What have the farmers done
to deserve all this advice? .--;as'ss =
Of course, as DR.. Crane, of Chicago,
puts it, ut is necessary sometimes to
take club and knock some farmers
over the head" But that is not often.
The case the doctor has in mind is that
Of the farmer who is land crazy.
| False Speed in Farming.
The farmer who owns much more
land than he can till and still wants
more. In short, to use the doctors own
words: 1.-THE farmer who spends his
money to get more land, to get more
corn, to get more hogs, to get more mon
ey, to get more land to get more corn,
to get more hogs, to get more money, to
get more land and so on in one contin-
uous, widening circle. @S.. I IL.
That kind of a farmer Dr. Crane
thinks should be knocked in the head.
And I rather think that there is some
merit to the doctor contention.
That kind Of a farmer has outgrown
the pioneer idea and is exceeding the
speed limit with his greed for ground
Then there is the legislative speed
limit. >s.. ... s IL i: 81
We are people who think that we
can cure all the ills that human flesh
!. is heir to by law. !: .5.= a !. s5.#: z-
IF something looks wrong we want
to fire a law at tive want to cure the
! tn1ng Dy legislative eIlscl11AcAI.
This idea has given rise to q school OF
, thong one may dignity it by that
name-that charges the social ills up t.
} the legislative department Of the state
And this fact in turn is responsible
8 for the agitators and social and politi.
) cal reformers who are continually strut.
Z ting up and down every community witt
t some pet theory, some pet law that they
{ want to put upon the statute books.
) The minds Of the people are filled
Z with this idea that the wrong conditions
i can be righted by law. The consequence
) is that men are elected to the legisla
3 ture or the congress on 9 platform tina
/ promises this or the other reform--thi.
or the other law.
! Just as il there were not laws enough
/ And when these men get to the legis
! lature they must, perforce, rush IN 9 70