Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1922-03-09

Y timated total of 100000 The SEN
ate committee reconstruction es-
Inmates that five billion dollars are needed to build
homes.
The abandonment of farms, an old story in New
England is also becoming an old story in the Mid
die West-one Of the garden spots of the world.
In Michigan in two years the vacant places have
grown from II ,S31 to 1922 and 10000 men have
left its farms
In such conditions any man who has helpful
or suggestive message should have an attentive
audience. William e. Smythe author of THE Con-
quest of Arid America" constructive Democracy"
etc, has written book with the title, City Homes
on Country Lanes: Philosophy and Practice Of
the Home-in-a Garden" (The Macmillan company
New York, 1920. He believes in THE Garden
City"-it suburban communities with small gar
den for every home. Following some of the
points he makes, without regard to the context:
l am an Optimist. l believe the world is going
to be better world for common humanity
in the next decade-the next generaton-the next
century--than ever before in the long history Of
the race. And believe the next passion of man
kind will be for the soil-that there we shall take
Occasion by the hand and make the bounds of free
dom wider yet" But if there is to be transition
in the life of the land-if forms of industry
ana society are to emerge-then this will be due
to the fact that the old life on the land has failed
is breaking down. and is doomed to pass away
mat Is what believe to be true. In saying So
oOulIu llO NIUE vi pGSSllllSD, out Tdlner note
or nope of confidence of boundess faith in what
the future is to bring forth. l know the land is
to be the healing and the saving of the people
OF our people and Of all the peoples There is no
other refuge.
But before can build the new life we must
clearly understand that the old life has failed and
why it has failed. Then we must proceed to dis
cover the principles upon which the new and better
life is to be founded. In doing So must we not
inevitably draw nearer to the Divine Purpose in
making the gOodly earth and setting man in the
midst of it? And shall not thereby evolve the
Spiritual Man of the Soil, who, conscious of his
partnership with God, enters at last into his true
dominion?
majority of hundred million people now
dwell in town.
Why? Because
man make more of himself in the city
than in the country; can earn more money; do bet
ter for his children; live in better surroundings:
drink deeper from the cup of human happiness.
The city draws into its Unsuitable nav the best of
all the country produces-men and food alike
But let it be understood that in all have said
I am speaking of rural life as it is, not as it
might be-not, please God as it shall be.
The conclusion reached by the highest govern
ment authority is that, allowing for all the ma
chinery and improved methods we have or are like
ly to have another 10 years will see America alb
solutely dependent upon the outside world for
food. To quote Mr.. Cline:
Fifteen years is the period of grace given us
unless conditions change materially, before we will
become dependent upon overseas imports of bread
and meat and other staple foodstuffs
Fifteen years before the peril of famine NAV
hang like a black shadow over the land
Fifteen years before keeping the ocean-ways
open to our food ships may be vital to our nation
al life, calling for ornaments which would be an
ever-increasing burden!
And it Is fifteen years we have In which to
evolve and put in operation an agricultural nolicv
which shall save us from the fate of Europe"
Fifteen momentous years, big with the fate of
American civilization!
True we must be fed but man does not live nv
bread alone. 1t is neither wise nor necessary that
should be fed under a system of agriculture
that destroys the home on the land abollshes non.
ular propretorship creates a nation Of tenants.
cripples individual initiative shackles the shirt
of family independence and degrades the charac
ter of our citizenship. These are the swift and
sure consequences of rural depopulation on one
hand, and the growth of congested cities on the
other.
AS in the past half-century the country has been
the nursery Of the city, so in the next half-century
the city will he the nursery Of the country The
movement will not be Back to the Land but
Forward to better things than men have ever
known in the past. Production important as it
is, will be merely incidental to the evolution of
higher forms of social and economic life with a
great deal Of emphasis on family life--is hearth.
stone restored its affairs relighted.
These things will come to pass because they
are essential to the preservation and continued
development Of democracy in America.