Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1913-08-13
VERMONT'S PROBLEMS
Country Life Problems and How to
Solve Them Discussed by
Mr.. Green.

The following was given by G.
Leland Greene, principal of the
Vermont State Agricultural school of
Randolph. in response to toast at
the Alumni banquet Of Barton academy
last June, on country life problems.
Mr.. Greene is a native of this county
and one of our rising young men, who
is trying to solve Vermont's perplexing
problems, and the Monitor is glad to
be able to give this toast of Mr..
Greene's in full.
''For generation, schools and
colleges in debates, class, club and
fraternity, have popularized all
phases of the city problem. the very
the country-bred boy to throw in
his life where the maelstrom was
the swiftest. The cry has ever been,
would you gain name and fame and
money and pleasure?
''If so, then, o young man. betake
yourself to the city. Only very re-
Gently have thinking men realized that
this continual drain of the country's
best blood to the city has produced
rural problems really more serious in
their nature than the city problems
And why more serious? Because the
whole fabric of city life depends
directly upon the country for it's very
existence. In spite of the growth of
the cities the nation is still rural.
Agriculture is still the main business
of our people. The nations prosperity
still depends upon bumper crops
The nations character still depends
upon its country conscience. In 1912,
| 500 leading business and professional
of New York city met at Y M. C. A.
banquet when it was discovered that
nine-tenths of these influential city
leaders claimed the country as their
birthplace. They were born on farms
| in the open country or in villages of
$500 or less. 1t has been estimated
that three generations of city life
without the infusion of vigorous
suffer complete decadence. The city
has been termed the graveyard of
national physique With it's moral and
industrial overstrain, health is buried
as we'll as youthful ambitions and
hopes. The country could get along
very well without the city but the city
could not exist one month without the
country. A railway strike last fall in
England revealed the fact that Birm-
ingham had only one weeks supply of
food. The philosophy of one of the
sages of China, uttered ages ago is
profoundly true. The well-being of q
people is like tree; agriculture is its
root, manufactures and commerce are
it's branches and its life; but if the
root be injured. the leaves fall, the
branches break away and the tree
dies You cannot continually skim the
cream off a pan of milk and still have
good milk left. The continual drair
of the country's best blood to the city
then, has made the country life prob
lem more pressing than any Other
North American problem. President
Roosevelt realized this when he inau
gurated the policy of conserving oul
natural resources and appointed the
country life commission. President
Wilson and Secretary Houston realize
it and we ought to thank God tonight
that the rank and file of the people o1
America are today turning their atten
tion to the needs of the rural commun
tiles as never before.
"Let us, for moment, study the las
census report. We find that the rura
population of the United States in 1851
was thirty-five millions in 1904, forty
five millions and in 1910, fifty millions
This shows general increase in tn,
rural population so that rural deca
| '.sF-- CONTrNTrEn ON pA o1r mxx,o