Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-06-19

assistahce and through encourage
ment to the maintenance of q .;an-
dard worthy Of that assistance, we
must COM to the relief OF the more
scattered communities. We must do
with our schools just what we have
done with II roads: the strong must
help the weak, ana all must take a
share in bearing the burdens OF all.
we have heard u good deal about
keeping boys or the farm. What
farm? On many farms in Vermont
yea. and there Is no particular Diff
Guilty in getting boys to stay on such
farms. or in inducing Others TO go
there. But on man! other forms in
this State, a thousand times no, and
he is no friend of the boy, nor true
flicnd Of Vermont. who would try 20
persuade him to stay there or to it,
cline another to take his piece. Would
you went your boy to start out In life
in one Of those communities which
has been losing Rroun for MY years.
exc ort the scanticSt livelihood as the
mon and women are doing to-day,
starVe With the carrcnness 0: It's
community life, bring up his children
in their schools. and lay his bones at
last in the weeds of its neglected
cemetery? Then before God you
ought not to want the boy bor,i in
that community TO say there. The
town that Is not good enough for my
boy to go to Is not good enough Cor
any Vermont boy to stay in. Any
policy whose purpose Is to keep
young people at home by preventing
them from learning Of the privileges
and nnInrftrniti.g V-at frnn, h.te4. -
immoral and Well-nigh criminal in it's
cruelty
RIGHT METHOD TO BE PURSUED.
Not by keeping the boy down, but by
lifting the life to which we invite him up,
must We labor for the restoration of the
hill towns Of New England. Boys have
not left the farms because We have not
taught them the grasses and trees in the
schoolhouse yards. but because the farms
were not titled and managed so as to
furnish them opportunity for a decent
livelihood. Vermont boys are not afraid
Of work. They are naturally as dearly
attached TO their State, their town. their
own home. as the boys anywhere. But
they are ambitious and they want a
chance. They want to measure their
strength with others in some of the large
undertakings of life. They are eager to
live in an atmosphere Of progress ana
in environment which calls for effort and
achievement.
W must establish such an environ
ment right here. The creation Of oppor-
tunity is the only cure of our evils. When
1t is worth while to live in a town. YOU
will find people enough to live there. and
when it Is not worth while no amount OF
sentiment or appeal to patriotism will
maintain its roll in the census. The
farms themselves must ~re-populate the
farms. and they are the only agency
which can do IL.
II believe that by this agency it can
be done. and that the atmosphere of
progress and the spirit of prosperity can
again be restored to the rural regions of
our State. The old stock is here still, in
greater proportion to the total population
than in any other commonwealth of the
north. The old spirit is by no means
dead. All we need is organization. the
power and the habit Of working together
and holding together for a fixed and de-
termined purpose. And all we need for
organization is leadership. leaders who
see the goal plain. and who will conse-
crate themselves to its attaining in high
patriotic devotion.
II would ike to call n haystack prayer
meeting of a few devoted college men
of Vermont, no; for the sake OF peoples
Of a distant cline, but for our own pco-
pie, who have been laboring under UNI
oward conditions, who nave loved their
country not wisely but too we'll, and nave
poured out their life too freely for its
a,Ix- i 49, H.. ---
our own Green mountains as sheep not
having a shepherd. Why not social settle
ments in the losing towns of Vermont.
The idea, as | understand II, IS 10 go
among people and live there, not to preach
to them, but to share their life, Who
of YOU will 20 20 1--we In a hill town Of
Vermont, not whore there Is the best job,
but where is the greatest need Why not
take our training and our spirit there
and work out the problem Not to live
as they live. and be contcnted as they are
contented, but to show first yourself bow
n more generous livelihood can be at
tanned, and more generous thoughts cul-
ttvatcl, ana then to communicate these
10 others. one man of the riCh: calihre
and the right power. CnnacCratcd 20 the
work as only religious faith can ccnse-
crate him, could UT a whole
ity. and one community so 'lusp!rcd would
change a whole Coun;y, and one unt
leading the way. tho whole State would
follow.
The call Of Vermont to-day Is for vol
unteers. as truly ~ from CT 80 Is. They
! paid men only s1S n month ;hen, and they
sent them to hot and shell and 10 the
ranl, prison holes OF Virginia. There
were found 80. 600 sircs OF the children
who to-day need your help O1r college
emptied It's halls into the ranks. And
now the call is from the children of the
mountains. Their faces viii look up at
YOU first In wonder, then IN the answer
OF understanding, then in me deep graft
tude of sympathy. Zach one of you
could take n school IN some farawoy
valley and make It a beacon for a coun-
try-side. And then you might be master
of a score of schools and the lcadcr ot
the life o. "A group of towns, and get
them to throw away the old books and
repair the shattered building, and bring
new life 20 their industries, their
churches, their whole society, ana some
day they might lay you to res. in the old
cemetery, is weeds cleared away. tho
trees all pruncc ana neatly tsndcd and
under the great hills a community rs-
stored to Its heart and continuing on
many days In the prosperity of 1caOe in
grateful recognition OF the leader who
showed It the way.
"Mombers of the Graduating Class:
You 60 into a world in which +: is diff
! cult to see Tho far and the npar in