The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-04-06
BOOKINGS, SOUTH DAKOTA, APRIL 6, 1922

soned that 1t was a new country, and
the future was promising.
About three generations away from
he pioneers the real exodus begins.
A little visiting back and forth with
the members of the family who had
cast their lot in the cities and towns
makes the children wonder if the lot
lily homestead is the one to be cher
ished.
And by this time there is a little
less hope for the future. Three or
four generations Of unfulfillment is
not very conductive to the virility Of
hope. The old homestead is rented
to a class of people not quite pro.
gressive enough to get away. The
community Immediately loses much
of it's stability. There is no com.
munity pride for these people except
to move again in a year or so and
naturally do not feel responsibility
in their temporary arrangement. And
where the profits Of the land must
be shared between two families, Tie
landlord and the tenants, there is
nothing left to devote to the ideal
community center. The taxpayers
live away from the land and are
therefore not personally and subjec-
lively interested in the church, school
and social phase Of their neighbCr-
hood. There is such a constant shift
ing Of residents that organization is
difficult. There are no local allure
ments and ties and as oon as a mem.
Der rises above the level Of his en-
vironment he goes to the city, where
more is promised him, gel If It is
not always given.
In the meantime the descendants
of the first farmers have either lost
out in the demands of city life and
are finding their mess Of pottage as
day l%aborers, or they have ~prospered
and forgotten the farm from which
they received their birthright. And
most of them do prosper. 1t has
been said that "a per cent Of the
leading citizens of one Of our large
eastern cities were brought up on a
farm. OF a group Of 100 representa-
tive men, commercial and profession
al, in Chicago, l found that IS per
cent came from the country. More
than 60 per cen of the men and
women listed in who's Who" are
likewise from the country.
The successful ones return to the
country and build palatial homes and
estates and constitute the highly
educated landlord class. Is the
country slowly differentiating into
this and the propertyless laboring
/ classes? If America becomes the
home Of landowners and peasants we
will have failed our Pilgrim fathers
miserably and inexcusably.
l have not been discussing the
United States on an average. l
have chosen the wornout community
and the wornout farm as signals Of
danger ahead. Like we sometimes
go through the barrel and pick out
certain apples.
There is no doubt but that the root
Of the evil is the prevailing economic
injustices dealt the farming industry.
Inc farmers themselves are the ones
who will have to change this system.
They cannot all walk off and leave
it. Moving to town may solve the
problems and better the finances Of
the individual but toll will be taken
later on a national basis.
The farmers who deny their chill
dren the emancipation Of liberal edu-
cation likewise drain the fertility Of
the neighborhood. The physical labor
is returned with the personal inter-
est in the individual farm; the wheat
is usually properly stacked, and the
hogs well housed. But these are the
farmers who ride the pillow in dis
gruntled objection to the world mar
ket conditions with which they are
untitled to combat. Their vision is
as narrow as their lanes. They are
the farmers whose blind refusal to
join in cooperative marketing, be-
lieve in the Farm bureau, and be in
dependent in politics, holds back
rural progress. BY the hardest work
and the closest saving they usually
manage to get more or less ahead
financially, but they do not go about
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