The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1925-09-21
Invention HAS.
GREAT EFFECT
UPON FARME:R
President of R. C. A. Tells
of Benefits in
Speech.
BIZ Times SDectal

of farm life, Gen. ]. G. Harboard,
OF America, asserted before a recent
meeting Of the Advertising Club Of
New York here.
No other invention since the steam
locomotive is destined to have such
widespread influence upon rural life,
because no other has carried so
much comfort, enjoyment and po-
tential prosperity to the farm, in
General Harboard's estimation.
"Of all that may be said Of radio
in its variaus relations, the best is
that it will tend to keep the young
people on the farm" said General
ftarhoard.
THERE'S true independence; there
is the real throne Of the American
sovereign. Entertainment and cul-
ture, and the throbbing life of the
metropolis, carried to the farm by
radio, helping to make rural life
more attractive and desirable, will
sustain that class which is in ours,
as in all other free countries, is the
very backbone of our national ex-
istence."
Speaking As Farmer
General Harboard said he was
speaking as more or less of a
Kansas farmer" since he spent his
boyhood on the Kansas prairies, went
from the farm to an agricultural
college, where he graduated. How
ever, he explained that he had
missed several crop seasons, during
his thirty-four years of absence, in
the army, and several more in the
radio industry.
Tho immediate reason for the
recent exodus from the countryside,
aside from it's part as possibly one
of the great cycles of history, lies
primarily in the greater oprortun'
tiles for recreation and interest af-
forded by life in the city," he said.
"Tben, too, city lie has more com
forts to give its workers. One must
have lived on the farm, especially in
winter; must have dug fodder from
hIdCl bil6 ollOWs VI nave SCCii bhN
sun rise down the long vista of a
corn row with the mercury in its
teens. or have harnessed mules in
the dark to appreciate the life of a
farmers boy Of the old days And
even with the improvements of re-
cent years, life on the farm is not
for the soft handed weakling.
Made More Attractive
Something has had to be done to
cherish our farm life and safeguard
our great farming industry. The
farm has had to be made more at
tractive, both in the actual work
done, and in the actual living Of the
life Much has been done, and much
remains to be done.
"The rural telephone came first,
and to some extent helped to end the
Isolation Of farm life. The gasoline
engine has had a marked influence
on the farm in doing the hardest and
meanest chores, and in saving valu-
able man-power. Electricity, via
the rural service line, has brought
many advantages to the farmer and
his wife. Pumping plants and run
ming water have become common.
Among the other modern
agencies which are redeeming farm
life let us not overlook the auto
mobile. What the rural telephone
started, the automobile has con.
tinued.
Radio broadcasting, / devoutly
believe, is the greatest force vet de-
Veloped by man. Since Gutenberg
devised his crude wooden type and
made printing possible nearly five
centuries ago, there has been no
single invention so closely touching
human interest and human welfare
as this miracle of the ages. The
voice of radio broadcasting pene-
trates the cottage of the humblest
farmer as readily as it does the
palace Of the Fifth Avenue million
aire. 1t laughs at distance.
For fraction Of the cost of his
notorcar the farmer buys his seat
in the radio audience, in the form OF
a receiving set. Thereafter the farm
house is in touch with city life; its
isolation has forever gone. The
great men of the nation, the Presi-
dent himself, will speak in the
farmers house.
Myself son of the soil, 1t viii
be D great satisfaction to my later
years if, through radio, 1 can in