Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-08-28
con A BETTER LIFE
~" ON THE FARM

,.tH the draining of the country
W. The city, which a distinguished
r.onch economist declared was the
.hyss into which country popula-
80 had been falling for hundreds
voars. and in all countries. This
s.s sometimes been to the benefit
= tho city, and always to the damage
:, the country; and this is true, not
only in our own land, but in all
lands.
This drift has been excessive in
..o last 20 or 80 years. The pro-
,octiye tariff, which has overstimu-
,oted manufactures. the apparently
rroater enjoyment of life in the
city, the opportunity to see life in all
,s aspects, which farm people nat
nrolly desire, the amusements, the
ushted and paved streets-all these
,ond to drive 1.-The children of the
Helds"into the town, to increase and
multiply unpaturally the children
If the house" this, of the city.
Economists have bewailed it.
Rusiness men who a generation ago
we're eager to employ healthy, vigor-
ms boys and girls grown in the
country, are beginning to see that
the movement has become excessive.
The cry back to the land" is not
neeuliar to the United States. 1t is
ouite as loud and vociferous in
Europe as in this country.
What farmers fail to see, and
what business men fail to see, is
that there can not be any check to
this excessive movement until life Is
made better worth living in the
country. We say excessive" for
the country can always grow more
people than it needs, and tho cities
would not survive without more or
less of this constant iuflux of new
life from the country, with its cool
nerves and firm muscles and clear
heads.
The problem is how to make life
better worth living in the open coun-
try 1t was hard problem 80 years
ago. The profits OF farming we're
then so small, and life was so re-
stricted on account of bad roads and
bad schools and the isolation of the
farm, that the movement was then
irresistible. Things have changed.
For the last Is or IS years, the
opportunities for making money in
the country, putting, so to speak, an
economic basis under country life,
have greatly increased. The price of
land has been advancing by leaps
and, partly because of the higher
prices of farm products, and partly
because of the chances for speeula-
ticn In farm lands. We hope this
period Of speculation has run its
course, and that the speculative
value will soon go out of farm lands,
and that land will sell because of it's
productive value and Its social value
We can then begin to develop sat
isfactory social life On the farm; and
III our Judgment this Is the only
thing that will check the excessive
drift of the farm folks to the towns.
Opportunities for realizing u bet
ter social life out in the country than
much because of any action of the
farmers themselves, but because Of
movements which are national in
their scope. We mention some Of
them' These began years ago with
the rural mail delivery. This tend
Ell to break up the isolation of the
farm life. The farm is now in touch
with the city. Better than that, the
farmers are now in touch with each
other; for there is scarcely a farm
nome that does not have its tele-
phone. This has its uses-great
USES 1t has its abuses as we'll. For
When farmers can talk with each
other freely over the telephone,
tney are less likely to go to see each
ether. The telephone tends to break
up to some extent the old social life
which existed in farm communities.
l. also tends to develop a habit of
thoughtless. often malicious gossip,
which is one of the banes of town
life.
Following on this has come parcel
post for which farmers fought for
many years, and finally secured by
sheer force of public sentiment. The
farmer can now do his small mar
keting in both buying and selling
through tho parcel post, which
brings him in closer touch with the
people of the cities. One of the
'nlngs of quite recent interest is the
experiment. being made in perhaps
dozen different cities scattered
over the United States for getting
'he farmer in direct touch with the
consumer In these cities through the