The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-02-25
Placing the Blame For Farm Conditions.

from various angles, and we have seen
thrashed out, In the public prints at least
hfty-slX reasons why: boys and girls won't
stay on the farm why women are discon-
tented on the farm; why the farmer can't
make any money! on the farm; why improve
ments of counties benefit the farmer SO little,
and maybe guess or two as to why the farmer
and his wife are usually old and rheumatic
at fifty or thereabouts.
In the first question we have, perhaps, the
most important query of all; when the young
people become dissatisfied with conditions and
surrounding, and leave the places where they
have been part of the scheme of things, it is
bound to work hardship on those who have
depended on them for any of the things young
people belong to.
How much is the farmer-as a parent to
blame for the conditions which exist?
How many farmers have forgotten their
role Of parent, in that of farmer, and have
neglected to look after the welfare mental and
physical, of their children, once they have
become obsessed with the welfare of the cattle
and the crops?
Young people are the same the world over,
they like life, and new interests, and they are
not content with taking their pleasures second
hand, through the medium of the newspapers,
though these may be of great interest and
value.
IL uldAeS Uue elueT, thinking person SAD, TO
think of the numbers of young men and
women who have given up living in the clean,
sweet healthy country, for the close, stutfy,
llly-ventllated and smoky dwellings of the
city-but the ''life'' Of the store or the fac
tory, or the workshop is sufficient atonement
for the country air, the good wholesome food,
and the close intimacy that the city never can
give.
There is Railways something doing" and the
fact that that something may be the moving
picture show, at five cents; or the cheaper
vaudeville house for ten cents and more. or
the dance halls at low cost, or the excursion
trips to near by resorts as compared to the
long, drab winter nights when reading is the
only diversion, and ''early- to-bed," the IRON
bound maxim, answers fully the query as to
why boys and girls leave the farm. You may
elaborate the picture almost illimitably and
find conditions in many farm houses, Just like
that.
The women: how much thought is given
them, by the average farmer who farms be-
cause his father did, and who thinks the con-
dltlons under which his mother lived, should
suffice for the wife? How many women do
you know, living on the farms of the not-too-
wealthy class, who ever have a thought
given them as to the position of the
wood box, the pump, kitchen sink
to carry off the kitchen waste, wash
ing machine, to Tighten that most hor-
rible drudgery-the family wash; stove of
the up-to-date sort, that would cook more than
one pot full of victuals without worrying the
housewife to death, lest it burn, or would not
cook?
How many of the plain, ordinary farmer
brand, ever takes moment to plan for little
diversion for his home folk? don't mean the
visit to the annual fair, or to protracted meet
ing or preaching-I mean a real frolic with
real nannn1 to c1an1ad and c11nctin,ac nclzod