The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1914-05-14

questionable means OF HvnnOO0 IN an
effort to add little of the pleasure
and comfort Of others to their sordid
lives.
The actual preparation Of boys and
girls, while they are in our schools,
for a vocation in life, should mean sew
eral things. First of all, it should
mean that because of the greater OPP
portunities and prospects for them at
the end of the course, parents would
make the necessary sacrifices to keep
their boys and girls in school three or
four years longer than they now do.
That circumstance would mean great
err development of self-reliance; pow
err to read and study problems togeth-
er with a taste for the same; and far
less desire for questionable and un-
profitable habits. !.
! The first great vocation in North
Dakota is agriculture. Hence our
! schools should provide very definitely
for training along this line. Our pres
ent law is probably very good as a
starter but it limits very materially
the possibilities of training along this
line by limiting the number Of schools
that receive a subsidy for this work,
and the action of the authorities hav-
! ing assignment of schools under this
law, I think, has been so far such as
to deprive the largest number from
direct benefit. I believe that as soon
as possible all friends of real educa-
ton in the state of North Dakota
should join hands and work thru the
Legislature for a modification of this
law which would make it possible for
greater number Of schools to be in
duced to offer thoro courses in this
fundamental vocation.
| / do not believe it is reasonable to
expect our boys and girls to become
first rate citizens unless we provide
them during their early years, with q
knowledge of the means of right liv-
ing and of how to earn an honest liv-
ing in some. fundamental vocation. In
North Dakota this must be principally
agriculture. The value of this new
education, l believe, to boys especial
ly, will be in keeping them on the
farms, because it means professional
izing the occupations of the farm
They will be agriculturists in direct
an proper sense of that term and moi
merely farmers. They will be able to
make the land produce an abundant
return for their abor so that agricul.
ture will become real profession
scientific largely, as other professions
arc. Any farm expert or agricultural
scientist of the present time will tell
you that there is very little soil in this
state that is so poor that it cannot be
made to yield a good living to the til
Ter of it, provided it is scientifically
and SYSTEMATICALLY titled
At the present time farm life is of.
ten almost synonymous with slavery
We all know what the conditions otter
are on our farms and those who have
made scientific study of agricultural
conditions are authority for the state.
ment, that present conditions are en-
tirely unnecessary. When the farm
work, both in the house and out, is
done as it should be done, the farmers
wives will have proper time for recrea:
ton and social enjoyments and will
have more means for gratifying de-
sires in these directions than the av-
erage city dweller has at the present
time.
In the second place, the value Of this
education to the girls will mean that
they will be willing to live upon the
farms and to be the wives of scientific
agriculturists, but that the will be
more and more unwilling to live upon
the farms under the present condi-
tions of near-slavery, which surrounds
the farmers wives. When the schools
of the state provide the training meth
DDS the women will positively refuse to
put in "a hours week washing dirty
clothes, with SOC wash board, 75c
tub, while the men travel over the
fields behind a traction engine. 1t is
no wonder that boys and girls leave
the farm, especially the girls. 1t is
no wonder that a colony of poor, un-
fortunate farmers wives find their
way into hospitals for the insane. The
only wonder is that under present con-
ditions more of them are not so af-
flicted. The farm should be, and un-
der proper condition is, the very best
place in which to live and farm life
should be made what it ought to be
and what it must be. In the future
the alarming increase of urban popula-
ton, which is a decidedly discourage
ing fact of our modern lives, should
cease to be a matter Of unfavorable
comment.
| HC HAUL al LCoOu1 SOo Va A>Oi Va D.-
kota are limited as compared to those
of some other states, but we have a
vast wealth in our deposits of clay
and coal. Industries involving the
us of these raw products could, no
doubt, be stimulated thru our schools
by training young men for such pur-
suits. The most common vocations
of commercial work, carpentery, iron
working, architecture landscape
gardening, forestry, etc., could be
Stimulated, no doubt, by proper edu-
cation. Courses for teachers for Ru.
raj schools should also be a part Of
the training of our high schools. l
would not advocate that all high
schools offer training in all Of these.
I simply mention these things in an
effort to show that although we are
not great manufacturing state we
are, nevertheless, state of many pos
sibilities for the practical application
of practical knowledge that might be
given to thousands Of boys and girls
in our schools today, whom the exig-
encies of life will debar forever from
high school courses such as we COM
monty maintain at the present time.