The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-06-24
DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY RIGHT
REVEREND JOHN p. CARROLL,
D. D., BISHOP OF HELENA, AT
THE COMMENCEMENT ExER-
cisEs OF THE MONTANA STATE
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
AND MECHANICAL ARTS, BoZE-
MAN, MONTANA, WEDNESDAY
MORNING, JUNE IA, 1922.

L
MAN, MONTANA, WEDNESDAY
| MORNING, JUNE IA, 1922.
The University of Montana is com.
| posed of several schools, each having
it's special aim and purpose, and
avoiding as far as physical separation
and distance permits, the courses
| taught in the others. The Butte school
| specializes in mining and metallurgy
The Dillon school prepares teachers
for their work. The Missoula school
is chiefly cultural and professional
The Bozeman state college is essen
TALLY practical. It's courses in elec.
trical, mechanical, architectural and
| civil engineering, and in chemistry
| botany, bacteriology, home economics
and secretarial work prepare for ca.
reers in both country and city. But
| its dominant aim is to fit young peo-
| pie either to be>good farmers or to do
or to teach things that will in the last
| analysis rebound chiefly to the agri-
! cultural interests of the great state of
| Montana. To it's professors and stu
dents, therefore, gathered here to
witness or take part in these impor-
| tant exercises, l may with propriety
| address the words with which Virgil
| hailed the tillers of the soil in his
| day:
20 fortunatos nimium, sua 81 bona
| norint,
| Agricolas!"
30 thrice happy farmers, if they
| only knew what good things are
| theirs!''
| A Roman Lament.
| The Roman poet bemoaned the drift
| from the farms to the city. Is not
| this an evil of our own times, of our
country, of our state-an evil accen,
tuated during the war and from which
we are too slowly recovering? In
contrast to the crowding, the bad
housing, the poor ventilation, the un.
employment, the nervous tension, this
uncertainty, the artifciality, the
wealth and poverty and crime and
mortality of the great centers of pop
ulation, the poet pictures the rich re
turns the earth makes to the labors OF
the husbandman, the broad acres, the
pure air, the living water, the cool
valleys, the peaceful sleep, the simple
life, the spirit of work, the sense oil
| independence, and morals so pure that
when justice herself was quitting the
earth, she chose to spend her last
days among the hardy children of the
soil. Happy, indeed, is the farmer
if he only realizes the good things he
| has!
The mines may give out and the
wheels of industry cease to revolve
but the soil will never fail. Old moth
| er earth is always fruitful. She il
the unfailing source of wealth ant
material prosperity. Upon her, under
Gods Providence, depend the children
of men for food, clothing and shelter
1t is this sense of dependence upo1
the soil that impels congress and state
legislatures to come to the relief O
the farmer in the day of his adver
sity.
Thanks to improved farming ma
chinery, the old time drudgery of farm
life has disappeared. Isolation is ais,
a thing of the past. The AUTOMOBILE
and good roads have practically an
initiated the distance between coun
try and city. Rural delivery ha
brought the daily paper and the dahl
mail, and the telephone has establish
ed speaking communication betweel
the farmer and his neighbor in tow
and country; whereas electricity, a
light and power and heat, has adde,
enormously to the home comforts
Happy the modern farmer beyond hi
brother of Virgirs day in that he ca
combine the real advantages of tn
city with the ideal life of the cour
try!
An Agricultural State.
I may be told that Montana is NO
. an agricultural state. I resent tn
statement. In 1918 the products G
, Montana's farms surpassed the tots
value of her mineral products an
Montana is the greatest mining stat
, in the Union andrejoices in the grea
est mining camp on earth. In 191
Montana's farm products were value
at $150,0O0,00O.
Il At the state fair in 1909, Mr.. Jane
]. Hill prophesied that Montana woul
. yet become the greatest of the agr
, cultural states. His prophecy forme
? the thesis of the most important a,
I dress on agriculture ever delivered
!. the west. He proved his thesis by tn
simple argument: Leaving aside hi
> 37,000,000 acres of grazing land an
! her 26,000,000 acres of mountainou
1 or forest land, Montana has 30,000,0(
acres of arabic land-land that ca
be brought under the plow and mad
to produce nearly everything that ar
other state can produce. This is abol
the area of Iowa, which is now CO
sidered to be the best of the agricI
" tural states. Now, turn to the repo
: Of the United States department
o agriculture and you will find that Mo
q tana produces about twice as mus
o per acre of what 1t now grows assdo'
it Iowa. Therefore, when The whole 3
q 100000 acres are brought under cl
tiYation. Montana will produce in 7