The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-06-25

ent in the race. We must take it into
consideration in discussing any move
ment involving human activities, and
we must do our work in cooperation
with il.
Our pioneer farmers have not been
fortunately situated for the cultivation
of the social instincts. The summer is
a busy season, and much of the winter
weather does not entice a mother with
a family of children TO venture far
from home. However, with the rea IN
able degree of prosperity the western
farmer now enjoys and with a little
more leisure thar his father had in the
earlier days we may look for a greater
development of sociability, in rural
communities. Here the country news
paper man may do his share, in the
encouragement of social festivities.
The educational facilities of many
rural neighborho0ds are not at their
best. Farmers rent the farm to a
stranger and move to town to educate
their children" Most of the small
towns of the state are taxing them
selves to the limit to make their school
just as good as they can possibly be
made. The average rate of tax levy
for school purposes in the country dis
tricts is hardly one-third what it is in
the cities. If the farmer should spend
the same money in the country that he
spends after he moves to town he
could have pretty nearly as good a
school, and in some cases it would be
conducted under surroundings and in
fuences more likely to produce sound
scholarship. You need not expect the
newspaper man to discuss this. He is
too loyal to his town and too glad to
see more families moving into it to
i%nterpose any argument in opposition.
But the schools are not the only
educational facilities to be improved
in the country. The farmers reading
matter forms a liberal part of the fam
lily education. Many men of today who
were farmer boys of yesterday find
themselves called upon to explain
things to their children, and it is as
often that they draw upon
laid up in casual reading in their own
boyhood, if they have had the right
sort of reading, as that they use infor-
nation remembered from their school
books. There may have been an old
volume of an encyclopedia or a history
on the home book shelf from which
they got ideas or facts which persist
in their memories long after the de-
mon~strations of cube root or allegation
alternate have Sunken beyond the
reach of effort to resurrect them. The
country newspaper man can be very
helpful in the selection of good reading
,,ottnr For fha 70 MN, ho"n Won no
in doubt don't be afraid to consult him.
He will be glad to be of assistance to
you and he a usually saw you some
money, too Many of the most de-
sirable publications quote special rates
to publishers and your local editor is
probably familiar with all the best
periodicals and can help you in choos-
ing just what will be of the most SER
vice to the particular needs of your
family.
The country debating and literary
society is an excellent feature of coun-
try life in the winter time. Oratory of
the old fashioned, spreadeagle type is
not as effective as it was one but the
quiet persuasion of the speaker who
has something to say and knows how
to present it is just as effective as it
was in the days of the old Romans.
The man who learns to think on his
feet and to say what he thinks, clearly
and concisely has acquired something
of value, not only to himself but to the
public. The citizen who can put his
thoughts into words that convey them
clearly and fully to the mind of an
other is an asset to his community.
Instances in which the ready speech
of one man has crystallized the
thought of a neighborhood will occur
to most of you. The instances in