Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1917-07-19
COUNTY AGENT SYSTEM SPREADS.


The demand for county agent in
Lamoille county, which Dean Hills OF
the State university college Of agricul.
ture reports. is an endorsement Of the
agricultural extension service.
Already ten counties have agents
and certain towns in Essex have ere
this availed themselves. by a law pass
ed by tho Legislature, Of the services
of tho agents Of Orleans or Of Gale
donia county. according to proximity.
As Dean Hills says. there is no reason
similarly why Grand Islo county towns
shouldn't use the agents Of Franklin
and Chittenden counties. Good roads
and the automobile make conditions
very different from what they were
years ago. and many Of the agents now
find they can do double tho work pos
sible without their little cars.
The general public docs not realize
the extent to which the county agent
system has spread all over the coun-
try. The Evansville. ILL.,. Courier in a
recent number we'll described the sys-
tents beauty when It said:
Above everything else the revised
idea Of farming has had its far.rea CHI
ing effect in interesting the boys and
girls in the pig pen. the garden and
the orchard.
1t has brought about a new View
point and a new attitude that is maxi
ing the youngsters Of the country see
the attraction in the business of farm
ing.
Through organization in communi.
ties and neighborhoods, interest in up.
to-date farming has been stimulated
to redoubled effort which has realized
surprising reward.
The farmers club meets as regular.
ly as the manufacturers association
or the chamber or commerce. Each club
has its subsidiary bodies, as the cham
Der of commerce has it's specialized
bureaus. There are the boys pig clubs
and the girls canning clubs: commit
tees on variety crop tests and groups
to encourage better corn, stock and
wheat growing.
The advantage of farm bureaus Is
that Of any organization: 1t enables
the members to exchange ideas and
experience. SO that all may avail
themselves Of the improvements Of
each. 1t makes the short cuts possible
to everybody. without the necessity
of everyone discovering them for himself.
The world is almost as much in the dark
as to the nature Of events now in progress
in connection with the internal affairs Of
Germany as 1t was short time ago con-
corning Russia. Many reports come out
of Berlin. but they are so filtered and CEN
sored in their progress through various
channels. that nobody can say at the time
what is true and what is to be taken with
many grains Of salt.
One of the most sensational reports, i'm
mediately pronounced a canard, was that
the Kaiser had abdicated in favor of
Prince Joachim. his sixth and most pop
ular son. It 10 not true that the Kaiser has
and yet It is true that he has
called the Crown Prince into the handling
of the present situation in behalf Of the
House Of Hohenzollern to a degree ap-
proximating abdication as compared with
his stern autocracy. when he was ban
ishing the Crown Prince for brow-beating
the chancellor.
According to all accounts the Crown
Prince IL responsible for tho resignation
Of Bethmann Hollweg as chancellor d.
rectly after the latter had said he would
not get out now because the safety Of the
empire demanded his presence. That an
is important as indicating the
extent to which the Crown Prince has at
least temporarily displaced the Kaiser.
1t is also significant because the Crown
Prince Is an ultra-conservative. diametri-
cally and bitterly opposed to the progress
sive and peaceful policies Of Bethmann
Hollweg. If he has become a dominant
power. then the present movement in Ber-
lin 10 to be taken as a reactionary step,
and a victory Of Prussian junkerism of
the most pronounced kind.
This development Is being hailed by
some people as a disaster for the cause
Of democracy. So far as we are concerned,
however. we would fear concessions like
the electoral reforms decreed by the Kai.
ser for Prussia alone. as better calculated
to win the German people as a whole to
the continued support Of his dynasty than
the defiant and autocratIc attitude Of the
Crown Prince which will open the eyes of
many at this time, when parliamentary
government and electoral reforms are in
the very air everywhere in Germany. II
the long and incessant verdun
slaughter OF hundreds OF thou
sands Of Germans to no purpose is
what the German people have to expect
from the Crown Prince. then they will
hardly relish the prospect. and his domi-
nation ought to hasten the overthrow of
autocracy.
We can not AFFORD to make the mistake
Of expecting too much from political de.
velopments In Germany in the direction Of
= political revolution following a cabinet
crisis. As we have already pointed out