Part 12

In the report of the National Conservation Commission, made through President Roosevelt to Congress in January, 1909, Mr. J. A. Holmes (now director of the United States Bureau of Mines), in reporting on our mineral resources, said:

In considering the conservation of resources, it should be held in mind that:

(1) The present generation has the power and the right to use efficiently so much of these resources as it needs.

(2) The Nation’s needs will not be curtailed; these needs will increase with the extent and diversity of its industries, and more rapidly than its population.

(3) The men of this generation will not mine, extract, or use, these resources in such manner as to entail continuous financial loss to themselves in order that something be left for the future. There will be no mineral industry without profits.

In his message to Congress, 1910, President Taft, speaking of the anti-trust law, said:

It was not to interfere with a great volume of capital which, concentrated under one organization, reduced the cost of production, and made its profit thereby, and took no advantage of its size by methods akin to duress to stifle competition with it. I wish to make this distinction as emphatic as possible, because I conceive that nothing could happen more destructive to the prosperity of this country than the loss of that great economy in production which has been and will be effected in all manufacturing lines by the employment of large capital under one management. I do not mean to say that there is not a limit beyond which the economy of management by the enlargement of plant ceases; and where this happens and combination continues beyond this point the very fact shows intent to monopolize and not to economize.

Let us consider these questions as business men, weighing the good as well as the evil that the different powers can afford that bear on conservation, and utilizing and encouraging all that will promote the great ends which the conservation movement was started to serve.

President WALLACE—It was expected that the National Grange would be represented on this platform. Neither the president nor the gentleman whom he recommended could come. I have therefore taken the privilege of appointing Mr. B. G. Holden of Iowa, who will give us an address this morning, not on the Grange itself, but on the Grange and other movements that tend to the uplift that we stand for. We will now hear Mr. Holden, who is the evangel of the corn gospel in all these inner states. We will hear him for half an hour.

Mr. HOLDEN—Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of this Congress: You came here to listen to the great people of this country, and you are anxious to hear them, so I will take just as little time as possible, for I have already been warned by the president that I must be brief. I have laid my paper upon the table, and I am going to forget all I can and say the rest to you. I am going to be something like the Irishman who was painting a fence. He was working as hard as he could putting on the paint. A neighbor Irishman came along down the street and said, “Pat, what are you hurrying so for?” Pat kept right on putting on the paint. And he said, “Begorra, I am trying to get my job done before my paint runs out.” I am trying to get through before my paint runs out this morning.

SOCIAL LIFE ON THE FARM.

To conserve humanity—to make humanity worth more to itself; to direct human forces so that each person wastes the least possible energy, and accomplishes the greatest good for himself and for others—this is the most vital problem before our country today.

No nation can long remain great whose rural people are oppressed, or for any reason have degenerated.

It was Goldsmith who said:

Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay; A bold peasantry, their country’s pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied.

It is not that country life on the farm is bad in the United States, for it is not, but it can be greatly improved, and in my opinion it is the greatest question before the Nation today. I am sure that when history is finally written it will place foremost among the many good things that President Roosevelt did, the inaugurating of the Country Life Movement. Three things are necessary: First, and most essential, is an awakened and serious interest on the part of the rural people themselves; second, there must be encouragement by both the nation and the states in the way of better laws and financial aid; third, there must be leadership—men and women who are willing to devote their lives to this great work.

Just how is this work of bettering country life to be worked out? In my opinion it must be done largely by the following agencies now in existence:

First. The church, and allied organizations, such as Y. M. C. A., Boy Scouts, etc. Second. The schools, libraries and county superintendents. Third. The Grange, farmers’ clubs, and other organizations of the kind which have for their main object the betterment of farm life educationally and socially.

THE GRANGE AND THE FARMERS’ CLUB.

The president has asked me to put particular emphasis on the Grange and farmers’ clubs as factors in the improvement of the social life of the farm. It is my opinion that one of the most important steps in this great forward movement, especially in the corn belt, is the organization of granges and farmers’ clubs in every community. There is need of a tremendous awakening to the importance of organization as a means of agricultural advancement. The effect of these organizations on the community is most remarkable. Men and women in such communities grow up with strong attachments not only for the business of farming and home-making, but for the people of the community in which they live. They remain on the farm instead of moving into town or out of the state. But these organizations do more than this. They furnish exactly the social and educational advantages so much needed by the rural communities. They enable young men and women to discover themselves and their powers of usefulness to humanity.

Michigan has nearly nine hundred such organizations, most of them granges, with a membership of 70,000. In each of the forty agricultural counties there is an average of twenty-five live, active organizations. New York granges have a total membership of 90,000. Quebec has nearly six hundred clubs with more than 55,000 members. In strong contrast to this, the corn belt, peculiarly and above all else agricultural, has but a few dozen such organizations scattered throughout the entire area.

President Roosevelt, in his address at the Michigan Agricultural College, said:

Farmers must learn the vital need of coöperation with one another. It is only through such combination that American farmers can develop to the full their economic and social power. Combination of this kind has in Denmark, for instance, resulted in bringing the people back to the land, and has enabled the Danish peasant to compete, in extraordinary fashion, not only at home but in foreign countries, with all rivals.

Few people in the West realize what a tremendous influence the grange and agricultural clubs of the eastern and middle states have exercised on national legislation directly affecting the agricultural and social conditions of farmers. As an illustration, attention is called to the following laws which either had their origin in the granges and clubs or were enacted largely through their initiative: The Department of Agriculture; the position of Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet was created; the state experiment stations established; free rural mail delivery provided for; the Grout Pure Food Bill, the Sherman anti-trust regulations, the Interstate Commerce Act, the Denatured Alcohol Bill and the Postal Savings Bank Bills all now enacted into laws.

These organizations through their lecturers, legislative and promotional committees are exerting a tremendous influence in moulding public opinion and crystallizing it into definite form for new laws.

These associations are now urging the election of United States senators by popular vote, national aid for establishing agricultural high schools and the introduction of agricultural and domestic science into the rural schools; the establishment of the parcels post, postal telegraph and telephone service; and national and state aid for highway improvement.

While these influences have been great beyond calculation, yet by far the greatest effect has been in the betterment of the social and intellectual conditions in the home and in the community.

Mr. G. A. Gigault, the Minister of Agriculture, Province of Quebec, in a letter to the writer makes the following statement:

The Province has today 591 farmers’ clubs. Among the members of these associations are to be found the persons the most devoted to and interested in the development of our agricultural resources. Most of the agricultural improvements of such locality are due to the initiative of the officers and members of the clubs. In every new locality where farmers’ clubs have been organized, a butter or cheese factory has been erected and other improvements have been made. This organization causes progressive ideas to pervade everywhere, as well as contributing towards the betterment of agricultural methods.

The movement will undoubtedly assume widely different forms in different communities, ranging from local institutes, men’s clubs, women’s study clubs and reading circles on the one hand, to agricultural clubs and granges on the other. It is to be hoped that this latter form of organization (granges and clubs) will predominate, for it is only when the entire home is represented that we find the highest standards and the greatest progress in the community.

THE PLAN OF RURAL CLUBS.

The plan of operation with which I am most familiar is as follows: The membership is made up of twelve to fifteen families. The meetings are generally held every two weeks in the homes of the various members of the organization or in halls built for this purpose. During the winter months the meetings are held during the day, the program beginning about 10 A. M. At 12:30 tables of planks or boards are prepared on which the lunch is spread. Every family brings a basket of provisions. The family in whose home the meeting is held is not allowed under any circumstances to prepare a dinner, excepting to possibly furnish some coffee, popcorn, etc., as this would be a serious burden. When the picnic lunch is over, some of the little tots are boosted up on a box or chair, or on the table, to speak a piece or sing a song; thus every member of the family has a part in the meeting.

These organizations are nerve centers of progress. They develop, they educate, they push their members out of the old into the new and better ways. They set their members, young and old alike, to studying their business. This means interest in the daily work, a love for the farm life and the home life. This means a useful and happy life. It means intelligence. It means freedom from drudgery, for drudgery is “labor without thought.”

This meeting together, talking together, working together, and acting together for mutual protection and improvement brings us nearer to the great law of “loving our neighbors as ourselves.” To know that others are depending upon us, have faith in us, love us, and hope for us, is a tower of strength, of courage and of happiness.

It is not my purpose to criticise our school system. However, our rural schools can and must be improved and redirected. They do not meet rural needs. They do not interest the boy and girl in the things of the farm and home. Frequently the teachers are town girls without farm experience or sympathy. The farm children must either go without high school training or get it in the town or city. Our present system educates away from the business of agriculture instead of towards it.

THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF THINGS.

The following axioms will aid us in a clearer understanding of the failures of the present system and the remedies:

1. Education is that which trains or fits for the duties of life. To illustrate, let me ask what are to be the duties of our girls? Ninety-nine per cent of them must make homes, cook, sew, scrub and nurse. How much are our rural schools doing to equip our girls for this greatest of all duties, home-making?

2. The whole boy should be trained, not simply his head.

3. We should teach in terms of the child’s life and surroundings—things that concern him and his home. He will then be interested and will like his work, will put the best he has into his work. But instead of teaching in terms of the boy’s lifework, our schools teach in terms of brick pavement, bank notes, yards of cloth, foreign exchange, partial payments, etc., etc.

4. Boys and girls should be taught to think in terms of action, of accomplishment. There is a more or less well founded prejudice that our high school and college graduates are impractical and theoretical. They have not been dealing with the real problems of life. At any rate, few of these graduates return to the farm. The agricultural colleges are helping some through their short course schools, farmers’ institutes, literature sent out, etc., but it is a mere drop in the bucket. What we really need is a system of schools suited to rural conditions. We must pay better prices for teachers. This will be done gladly when the school sends back each night to the home boys and girls better fitted for their work and interested in it. Teachers must be especially trained for the rural schools. They must live in the community and be a part of it, helping Saturdays and Sundays to guide, direct and stimulate. Not only this, but the farm boys and girls must get their high school work under agriculture and not city conditions and surroundings. In other words, we must have rural high schools within the reach of every boy and girl on the farm. These schools should become the social and educational center of the rural community.

It is true that the rural church has exercised great influence upon the people of the country socially and morally, helping to create and maintain good standards of life, but it has not kept pace with progress in other lines. It does not measure up to its great opportunity. There must be put into it not only more vitality and life, but there must be a new and broader attitude towards life. The rural church must be as broad as the rural community in which it exists, interesting itself in every question which concerns the life of the people.

THE MINISTER’S DUTY.

The minister, like the teacher, must teach in terms of the life work of the people. The minister should be interested in agriculture, not only _interested_ in agriculture, but should really know something about it as well as other questions which concern the community. The minister of the future will be required to take a course in agriculture along with his theological work. He must, like the teacher, be specially trained for his rural work. The field and opportunity of the rural minister is as broad as humanity itself. The minister should help the teacher in her work. He should help organize granges and farmers’ clubs and be an active member. He should help with their short courses and farmers’ institutes. He should help with the county Y. M. C. A. work and the Boy Scouts’ work.

Think of the service a minister can render a rural community, by organizing and directing the amusements and sports of the neighborhood. If he could not direct them in person he could help the boys select a capable, wholesome leader. He could develop or work out in time a plan by which, during a part of the year at least, the boys would be given one-half day every two weeks for baseball and other sports.

As it now is the country boys have no intelligent leadership. While the pastor is preaching a sermon to a small audience in the church the boys have joined the little clique and are taking their first lessons in card playing, smoking, etc.

The pastor must be a leader or he will accomplish but little. One of the things he should do is to clean up around the church, mow the weeds, repair the fence, set out shade trees and put some pictures on the walls of the church. The pastor should live in the community and become a part of it in every way.

What we need is a rural society that belongs distinctly to the country. Its schools, its churches, its clubs and its amusements must be so directed and organized as to meet the real needs of the people who live in the country.

Many illustrations can be given of the splendid work now being done in various localities and sections of the United States. I wish I might tell you of the work which some of our ministers and their country churches are doing. Men like Rev. M. B. McNutt of Plainfield, Ill., Rev. Clair S. Adams of Bement, Ill., Rev. C. S. Lyles of Logan, Iowa, and many others.

It is remarkable what some of our county superintendents like Miss Jessie Field of Page County, Iowa, have done and are doing through the schools for better agriculture, better homes and better citizenship. There are the rural high schools such as the one at Albert Lea, Minn. How I wish I could tell you of the county Y. M. C. A. work which Mr. Fred Hansen of Iowa is doing with the boys; how he has organized them into clubs and is directing not only their religious work, but also their amusements and sports, and even has them studying corn, stock and other agricultural subjects.

The Country Life Commission has done a great work, but the movement has only begun. We must have more state “Country Life Commissions.” There must be national and state aid so that the commissions can bring to the people the knowledge of what has been accomplished in the various localities throughout the country.

President WALLACE—Be patient a moment, and please come to order. We have two splendid speeches to be delivered this morning and I am very sorry to announce that Mr. Barrett of the Farmers’ Union, who intended to be here, cannot be here on account of sickness in his family. We will hear a gentleman for five minutes who is about to leave for Europe and must speak now or not at all.

Recording Secretary GIPE—I would like to announce that Mr. R. A. Long will speak as the representative of the wholesale lumber dealers and yellow pine manufacturers.

Mr. LONG—I understand that Mr. Wallace said that I expected to leave for Europe. I am not going to Europe and have no thought of going to Europe. Permit me to suggest this: it is rather an imposition upon you and embarrassing to me to be called on so short a notice to speak in the midst of men who have carefully prepared papers, and yet I want to suggest to you some thoughts that occurred to me, that were put into my mind by the last speaker. We are having many important problems before us at this time. The problems before this Congress are certainly most important and have to do with the people of today and of the future. We are to have in this city within a few weeks another convention not pertaining to the conservation of the soil or water, or the forest, but to a conservation that has to do with men, and I am wondering whether or not this audience is going to place more stress upon the problems that are involved in this Congress, or the problems that are involved in the one to be held a few weeks hence. That problem has to do with men and religion, and in my judgment no problem on the face of the earth will have more to do with the conservation of all the problems of life, this man and religion forward movement, and I trust that the men and women—(applause) I only have five minutes, don’t disturb me—and I trust that the men and women involved in these problems will see to it that these teams which commence the first of October and continue throughout the winter until May of next year are supported with their means and with their presence. The gentleman who just took his seat stated that he would like to preach a sermon on what the preacher ought to do with reference to the child life. I would like to have each of you assembled here this morning ask yourself the question, and answer it if you please, what are you doing in your own home. What are you doing, what is the example that you are setting your children? Sunday morning I imagine the large majority of you, instead of going to the Sunday School and setting an example to your children in order that they may follow out the life this gentlemen speaks of that you ought to live, are remaining at home and reading your newspapers. Bear in mind, my dear friends, fathers and mothers, the school teacher or preacher cannot do that which you ought to do for yourselves. And I want to speak this word on behalf the preachers of our land: when they stand up in the pulpit, when they beseech us to do the things we ought to do, and then we fail to rally to their support, ought we to censure them? Ought we rather not engage with him arm in arm in this great conflict, that has to do with the elevation of mankind, rather than stand aloof and say we want to preach to the preachers? I want you to ask yourselves that question, whether or not you stand arm in arm with your preachers, and carry on that conflict that has to do with the uplift of mankind all over the world. How much time have I got? I cannot take the time to talk about the other problems which I had in mind, connected with the timber interests of this country. But I want to say this to you, that the forests of this country ought to be taken care of better than they are. The reason why the forests are not being conserved better than they are is because of the extremely low price of lumber compelling us who manufacture lumber to leave twenty per cent of the trees in the woods because we cannot get price enough out of it to pay for the labor to produce it, and the transportation, to say nothing about the logs. And so long as we have intense legislation, leading almost to persecution against the interests, even getting together and talking over the problems pertaining to their industry, so long will the price of lumber be so low as to prevent us from bringing in at least twenty per cent of these trees, thereby prolonging our forests to an almost indefinite period.

President WALLACE—We will now have an address by the Hon. W. A. Beard of Sacramento, California. I have asked him to prepare an address on the subject of “Coöperation,” one of the most important subjects that can secure our attention. He will speak a half hour and no more.

Mr. BEARD—Coöperation, as your chairman has said, is a very hard term. It is so hard that I have found it difficult to determine the particular phase of the subject which should be presented for your consideration. I believe I was expected to talk on coöperation among farmers, but upon careful consideration I was impressed with the fact that coöperation among farmers is fundamentally the same thing as among persons engaged in any other pursuit.

It has seemed to me that what should come out of this Congress is not an exhortation, addressed either to farmers or to any other class of citizens, but a careful and complete statement of the facts—a review of the progress made in coöperative development and a discussion of the principles underlying successful coöperation. I shall speak, therefore, of this movement.