St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-07-16
PRESS COMMENT
VeI.mOnt's Rural Rebirth

NOrIUOnLS tGural tO6DlTIn
As the counter-set of the tide
from city to country gathers force
it is we'll to consider what has been
happening in Vermont. Like the
other upstate districts of New
England, Vermont, in the last de-
cades of the nineteenth century,
lost it's attractiveness for young peo-
pie. They were Apologize about
living in the country. Rural bore
stigma, easily guessed as the re-
suit of the call of the ambitious to
the cities. Vermont, however, I'M
like the other states of New Eng
land, had almost no urban life and
therefore came in for more unenvi-
able notoriety when the debate of
rural decadence" became rife.
Vermont was under a cloud.
Then the superintendent of edu-
cation began his New Vermont
tours. He was criticised as a play
er of politics. But he went on,
taking with him men of prominence
/ in the state who knew the special
needs and special resources of Yer
speeches. Of this was politics, make
the most of it, One of the New
| Vermont" tourists did make the
most of it. He has been sent to
Congress largely as a result of this
program, which need worry nobody
but his political rivals. Into the
remotest hamlets, up by-rOads and
mountain lanes, into the district
school houses and village halls
went this propaganda of education;
this news that it was no longer mat
! ter of apology to be a farmer, but
matter of profound congratulation.
] NIL 81 Of 5vo+n
! sive cultivation, of good schools and
| live churches, of neighborhood en-
| deavor was delivered in the halls
and under partriarchal elms at the
crossroads. In that form the cam
paign was continued for years. 1t
! continues now under other agencies.
Vermonters were told what they
lacked, but they were also told what
! they possessed. Much of this was
news to them. The state was
learning that it pays to advertise. 1t
was learning something even more
| interesting, and possibly more i'm
portant; that it pays to advertise to
ourselves.
Then the harvest began to come
in. The towns and the country-sides,
| the people of the hills and the. inter
wales began to rise to a rural self
|
their position and their opportu-
mites 1t was borne in on them,
too, that they were pioneers; that
| theirs was to be as definite a con-
| trfbution as that of the hardy colo
nists, who had left these hills for
the broad plains of the MISSISSIPPI
| pi a generation ago. They rolled
up their sleeves and went to work
| for the New Vermont. Instead of
lame acquiescence or resentment of
| the metropolitan comment on
the usefulness or the hopelessness
of life in the country, they answer
ed in a language which the world
can understand and which it is
bound to respect-the language OF
deeds. They even established a
bureau of publicity in connection
with the office of the Secretary of
State to carry the war into Africa
the propaganda beyond the borders
! of their own state. Much to the
same purpose a State Board of
Trade was organized. Vermonters
are talking their state cup" and not
down. The truth had made them
free The truth was not in every
instance pleasant; but it was slim
illus to ambition, and a justification
of self-respect and pride. Much has
been heard through the nation of
"the Countrywide movement" More
is destined to be heard. But it might
be we'll to remark in the light of
the foregoing that the only valid
country life movement is one based
on an appreciation of country life
as it is, proceeding thence to coun-
try life as it may be made
Boston Transcript.
Vermont Still Going Ahead
This will not appeal in it's every
detail as correct to every individual,
but the general tone of it is pleasing
and truth rejecting. Vermont is
coming into it's own. 1t has been
awakened, and awakened by its
own sons. The man who went to
Congress was the first to preach
the New Vermont" doctrine, and
like all preachers of new things he
did not at first get the credit that
belonged to him. But he went at
it everlastingly, in one way or an
other, until his doctrine became pop
uIar and was on the tongue of all
Vermonters. If the superintendent
of education's New Vermont
Tours were political, those who
participated in them did not recog-
nize it. 1t was mission of patriot
ism 1t was a crusade to open the
eyes of the state. Those trips were
not junkets. They we're not easy
rides into pleasant places. but often
involved physical hardships. So
much may not be granted by those
who wish to write politics into the
movement but it is the truth of