The Springfield herald., 1917-04-06
Country life

of the past has been entially d
man of the intelligent middle
class. Owning a good standard
OF living; educating his children;
and him self interested in neigh
borhood and local affairs. The
question of today is how to pre-
serve this standard and how
to develop this in the young
farmers. To do this we must
keep tie best type of American
manhood and wonanhood on the
farms.
The rurel interests are human
interests and are really important
questions in rural life problems.
These are how to improve the
conditions in the country. Free
them from drudgery and make
them full of opportunity not on
ly for the vouns people but also
for the old. If this were so, there
would be m )re comfort, happi-
ness and attract eveness of life
on the farm to the farm
er and hs family. The farmer
and his family are more impor.
tant then his crop. So he should
have the best coadi, ions possible
around his family. About half
Of the people of The United States
live on the farm. Nearly half of
our country children have only
a rural school education. To
meet these requirements of the
country people certain rural
needs must be met. They may
be briefly Summarized as follews:
Tue great economic success of
the farmer in certain places has
tended to draw him away from
the rural comm unity away from
the standard by which to meas.
ure pleasure attrac tions. He
also pays less attractions to the
educational problem. The NOV
ing of the most successful farm
ers to town has tended to rob the
country. One thing that will aid
in keeping the people on the
farm, is the social life. If the
community does not have social
entertainments and different
things of this sort the country
life seems lonely and monoto-
ness. Poor roads, poor residence
poor schools and churches, all
tend to reduce the plumber of
farmers. To Remedy this con-
dition is one of the problems be-
fore US. The school is one of
the chief agents of turning the
currant in the right direction
The social instincts of youth,
recreation, play, friendship and
social life must be provided for.
The lack of this has driven many
a buy and girl from the farm.
In many communities there is no
community life, no common
meeting place, no church no
store, no society. Sports and
games, social meetings for the
young & in rural club of difficent
kinds should be provided. The
older people also need to be
brought together.
For the women and the girls,
too. life in the country is too often
unattractive, Too often the man
takes all the advantages and
gives the woman few or none, he
buys the best of machinery,
drives good horses, builds good
barns, often he has machinery
for pumping water and other
labors, sometimes the houses are
small g. inconveniently arranged.
Tie narrow life of the woman
With it's drudgery and lack of
outlook, is seriously in need of
improvement, Domestic labor is
aeriously in need, so the wo-
mans part should be simplitied
if possible. New farm: houses
should be built with view to
make the house work easy. A
little money put into houses to
make the work easier will aid
much toward making rural life
more attractive. Another thing
that will add to the com fort is to
have lawn with flowers and
U. S might under the same rule.
n