Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1913-04-26
MOST IMPORTANT euREAu.


MOST IMPORTANT BUREAU.
| What will be easily the most i'm
/ portant bureau OF the department OF
agriculture is the rural organization
service now being organized by the
new secretary, David r Houston. The
bureau of rural organization is the
idea Secretary Houston brought with
him when he came from St Louis last
month to take charge Of the depart
ment.
/ Through the aid OF the general ed
ucation board DR. Houston was en-.
ablcd to put his idea into effect al
most as soon as he arrived in Wash
ington. In a short while the Rural
Organization Service will take its
place as one of the most important
factors in national life Or. Hous-
tons plan has the hearty support of
President Wilson.
The primary purpose OF the new
service is to. attack the high cost OF
living And IL will attack It funda-
mentally 1t will go TO the farm
where the necessities of life are pro
duced. For one of the chief factors
in the high cost of living is the fact
that production has not kept pace with
demand.
The aim of the new service is to
make the farm more attractive, and
in this statement is included the
scores of reforms which economists
have been urging for rural life
II includes better schools, better
roads, wider distribution OF agrieul-
tural technical education. more PEG.
pie on farms, more intelligent farm.
ing, better marketing conditions,
closer relations between producers
and consumers in short all Of the
activities for rural betterment now
scattered through a score of Official
and semioiicial organizations will be
concentrated in this one bureau
The task will be a tremendous one,
The work is bis enough to enlistNthe
attention of a whole federal depart
ment. While the stated purpose OF
the service is abstract, in actual work
the bureau "will get down to cases.
1t will teach better rural life by ac
tual demonstrations.
While no specific plans have yet
been made it is expected that the
service viii conduct actual model
schools in different sections or The
country. 1t may construct modal
country roads for demonstration pur
poses BY actual demonstration il
will show how the rural school can
become the farm neighborhood cen.
ter where the country population can
go for entertainment instruction and
social intercourse.
Marketing associations will be stud
led, and the Service may organize co
operative marketing associations OF
farmers along model lines. The whole
purpose OF the work will be TO stim
ulate the movement from the cities
back to the fran and to check the op
posite movement
Success in this work would be to
increase farm production and thus
bring down the cost Of living.
I'VE are not predicting that this
work will result in reduced cost OF
living said Secretary Houston. "The
cost OF living is the result Of such
diverse and intricate causes that it is
impossible to predict the result OF
such diverse and intricate causes that
it is impossible to predict the result
of changing any one of them. We
only hope to do some good. We
might be getting real results and then
other circumstances might offset all
we could do. The price Of gold might
continue to decrease, for instance.
We see certain needed reforms and
we are going to try to make them"
Because of the niggardliness of the
government toward salaries OF scien'
lists it is next to impossible for the
department to hire men Of note in the
scientific world, or to keep men after
they become eminent wilhelm the gov
eminent service. Only occasionally
do such men as DR. Harvey w. Wiley,
for instance, consent to serve the PEG
pie on a government salary and then
only through sheer patriotic love Of
Their u.nrk