The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-13

of too many farm wives and mothers are summed up In the first line of Hamlin Garland's poem, Born and scrubbed, suf- fered and died
 /"The hardships of the mother on the farm are shared in part by the girls of the household. From the reports submit ted, numbers are compelled to assume
 the burden of field work, labor to which they are unsuited, under which their
 more delicate mechanisms cannot hold out, and which in their creation it was not intended they should do.
 ''The farm is no place for drones; there Is work for every member of a family; buc leisure for self-improvement and rec res,tion Is just as necessary as Is the work. Reading circles, social gatherings, organized play and other movements conducive to contentment must have place in the lives of rural folk.
 As sanitary campaigns are being Taced throughout the length and breadth Of the state, the deadly house fly and disease carrying mosquito are being
 eliminated from the homes by screening.
 The supply of drinking water is being more carefully guarded, sanitary meas
 ures are being taken to prevent soil pol lution and gradually thousands of our people slaves to continuous i'll health are being relieved through simple sani- tarv practices.
 nave enucdNOFeu to DISCUSS tnlS SuD- ject from the position taken at the out
 set that a solution of the problem of coun- try life may be had through education. However, that education must be such as
 will bring forth results from the field,
 the home, the school and the church, af- fecting health, crop yields, cooking, sew ing and social intercourse, one in which minister and teacher must take more than passive interest, and which will de-
 VpOn leaders Of the paOnlp from their
 own numbers
 "A solution Is possible when every
 phase of country life has been touched by
 the educational methods which are now being injected into it by the farmers CO., operative demonstration work for men and boys on the farm and for women ana girls in the home: by the state health department, through It's health campaign, and indirectly by the national government through its rural free delivery mail sys- tenn. The bettering of school grounds and buildings through the efforts of tle women of Alabama by their School Inn provement association, and the building
 of good roads, work that Is being care fully directed by the state highway com mission. are factors in this new educa- tion which will be felt in the school it. self as it trains the child for the life he will live. This new education must stress the importance of hand training along With head training, leading the child to know that there is dignity in
 labor intelligently directed.
 Funds for educational purposes ire needed, local taxation by counties and districts, compulsory attendance, con- solidation of schools and better super vision are the remedies. These ad- vance steps will result in the organized | rural community, which in turn. should result in prosperity and contentment in | tahe rural home and community Living conditions in rural Alabama. had as the evidence of these reports | show them to be, are no worse than in number of other states. For the past 12 years. I have come into personal contact with life in the country, and primitive as conditions may now ap- pear wonderfully progressive strides have been made The educational s:t- uation in rural districts has undergone marked improvement during that timo. For this improved condition and for | the present advance, credit must be | given the educational forces of the
 state under the leadership of the state !, fnd county superiatendents of educa- | tion. The greatest of their great serv- | ices has been to improve the states
 rural school system.
 l ITO the motto of the Alabama Land l Congress. "A billion dollars added to | the landed wealth of Alabama, let us | add Fifty per cent of The drudgery | removed from the shoulders of rural Alabama womanhood, and 100 per cent added to the happiness and content
 ment of the boys and girls of her rural population"