Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-12-27

ourselves in our present plight. Reck-
lessness and waste have been incident
TO our breathless conquest of CONT
nent, and we have had our minds too
exclusively directed to the establish
ment of industrial supremacy in the
keen race for competition with for
eign nations. We have been so bent
on building up great industrial CEN
tiers by every natural and artificial
device that we have had little time to
think of the very foundations of our
industrial existence. 1t has been
assumed that we have had a natural
monopoly in agriculture; that it could
take care of itself, and for the most
part we have cheerfully left it to
do SO.
The problem of the individual far
mer has received scant enough syste-
matte attention, and the problem of
rural life as a whole, has, until re-
Gently, been practically ignored.
The story that comes from every
section is substantially the same; it
is a story of increasing tenancy and
absentee ownership; of soils depleted
and exploited; of inadequate business
methods; of chaotic marketing and
distribution; of inferior roads; of lack
of supervision of public health and
sanitation; of isolated and i'll organ
lied social activities, and of inferior
intellectual provision.
The Country Child Versus City Child.
Consider the position of a child in
any of the more remote sections of
the rural districts in America today,
and ask yourself what his opportuni
ties are for training and development
and efficiency as compared with those
of a similarly endowed boy in an ur-
ban community. The latter lives in a
house supplied with running water,
the purity of which is protected by
ample means; walks on sidewalks free
from dust and mud drives along ade-
quate roads; has access to many of
the things that minister to the legi-
innate pleasures of living; has at
hand the best trained physicians and
surgeons; publicly maintained hos
pitfalls; well planned schools of every
grade from the kindergarten to the
professional school or college. And
most of these things he secures at
minimum expense through relatively
low rate of taxation. The other pic
ture is easily drawn. If we may con-
fine our thought for the moment to
the schools alone we find that outside
of New England, which has solved
the rural school problem largely by
the rural population, all
that the average country boy has ac-
cess to is an ungraded school, usually
taught in one room by girl with less
training than high school graduate
receiving $40 or $50 a month for
seven or eight months in the year,
teaching all ages in 30 or more classes
a day. If by any chance a boy sur
wives this and desires to go further
it is necessary for his father to put
him on a train, buy his transportation
send him to a town, pay his board,
his tuition and lose his services dur
ing the session, and probably lose him
permanently from the country. |
have said it before and | am not
afraid to repeat it that | do not quite
see how a father and mother who
are ambitious for their children can
gain their own consent to continue to
live in remote rural districts under
existing conditions.
The People the Greatest Undeveloped
Resource.
The greatest undeveloped resource
of any community, as our great am
bassador to Great Britain has so en-
phatically said, is the people. And if
we devote more enlightened attention
to the conservation and development
of the people we shall be relieved of
much of the concern about the con-
servation and development of our
natural resources.
Some Colleges Not Doing Their Duty.
Now this problem of the develop
ment of agriculture and of rural life
is one which requires the most serious
thought of the best agencies in the
nation. 1t is one primarily for the
farmers themselves, and | clearly
recognize that they have done most
and will continue to do most to solve
It. But they need, deserve and de-
nand assistance and will have it. The
nation has created certain responsible
for their assistance
Among these are the State depart
ments of agriculture, and the State
of agriculture. That all of
them have done good work no one
can question; that some of them have
done superb work many will gladly
that some of them have not
lived up to their opportunities admits
Of no manner of doubt.
Those colleges that are not doing
their duty to their States are not
wholly to blame, but in my judgment
they are largely to blame. The
trouble in too many of our States has