The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-04-21
new SERVICE IS TO
IMPROVE THE FARM
Houston's Plan on Rural Or
ganization Service Is
Important.
SUPPORT OF WILSON
Attempt to Increase Farm
Production and to Re-
duce Living Cost.
SUPPORT OF WILSON
BY CLYDE H.. TAVENNER, M. c.

WASHINGTON, April 21.-What
bureau Of the Department of Agricul-
ture is the Rural Organization Service
now being organized by the new secre-
tary, David F. Houston. The Bureau
of Rural Organization Is the idea Sec
rotary brought with him when he
came from ST. Louis last month to
take charge of the Department.
Through the aid Of the General
Emancipation Board, DR.. Houston was
enabled to put his idea into effect
almost as soon as he arrived in Wash
ington. In a short while the Rural
Organization Service will take it's
place as one of the most important
factors in national life. DR.. Houston's
plan has the hearty support of Presi-
dent Wilson.
The primary purpose of the new ser
vice is to attack the high cost of liv-
ing. And it will attack it fundamen-
tally. 1t will go to the farm where
the necessities of life are produced
For one of the chief factors in the
high cost of living is the fact that
production has not kept pace with de-
mand
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.
1t includes better schools, better
roads, wider distribution of agricul
tural technical education, more people
on farms, more intelligent farming,
II. otter marketing conditions, closer re-
tons between producers and con-
"1mers-in short, all of the activities
for rural betterment now scattered
through score of official and semi
official organizations will be concen-
trated in this one bureau.
The task will be a tremendous one
The work is big enough to enlist the
attention of 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 actual
demonstrations.
While no specific plans have yet
been made, it Is expected that the SER
vice will conduct actual model schools
in different sections of the country
1t may construct model country roads
for demonstration purposes. BY ac-
tual demonstration it will show how
the rural school can become the farm
neighborhood center where the coun-
try population can go for entertain
ment, instruction and social inter
course
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 stimu-
late the movement from the cities
back to the farms and to check the
opposite 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 a 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
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-
fists it is next to impossible for the
departments to hire men of note in
the scientific world, or to keep men
after they become eminent while in
the government service. Only occas-
ionally do such men as DR.. Harvey
w. Wiley, for instance consent to
serve the people on a government sal
airy, and then only through sheer pa
triotic love of their work.