The Bulletin. 113 



I shall not attempt, thei-efore. to instruct yon in your own line — to "talk 

 war to Hannibal" — but shall have only a few words to say concerning the 

 relations of the Farmer and the Banker. 



It is a great source of regret to me that I never had the opportunity of 

 learning how to farm, and I have often coveted for my two boys the experi- 

 ence that can be had nowhere else than between the plow handles. I believe 

 that life on the farm is of great benefit to any one. There is something in 

 the touch of the sod that gives strength and vigor and character to man, and 

 in any line of professional or industrial work he is all the better for the years 

 spent in cultivating the soil. Country life furnishes a good basis to build 

 upon, and this fact has been established by the multitude of men who to-day 

 are leaders in all the walks of life, wlro will tell you that the foundation of 

 their success was laid back on the farm. I have often thought that the farm- 

 ers themselves did not appreciate the advantages and the wonderful charms 

 of rural life. 



It is an established fact that the great interests of the city are built up and 

 maintained by men who have come from the rural sections. 



There can be no question that our very civilizatiou depends ultimately upon 

 the character and strength of the life developed at the countryside. 



Whittier said: 



"Who sows a field, or trains a flower, 

 Or plants a tree, is more than all." 



And yet we have seen through the years many of the finest young fellows 

 leaving' the quietude of the country for the bustle and confusion of the city. 

 There is something iu the glamour of the lighted streets and in the noise of 

 the moving throng that attracts the country lad and lures him from the open 

 field, and he finds himself presently in the busy office or bustling store — shut 

 up within four walls, and perhaps longing for the peaceful shades of his 

 country home, for the songs of the birds and the music of the rippling stream. 



This" tendency to seek the activities of city life has deprived the country of 

 many of its best young men, and thus retarded the natural development of 

 the rural sections. 



In Denmark, we are told, country life has been made so attractive that men 

 are abandoning the desolate tenements of the cities for the healthier and 

 happier homes on the farm. 



Perhaps, with us, there may be need for another Virgil to write upon the 

 charms of country life, as Augustus thought there was in Italy when that 

 country was devastated by civil war. 



However, a new feeling seems to be at work in these latter days, and 

 ' everywhere we see evidences of a back-to-the-farm movement. Never in our 

 day "has there been such an appreciation of the advantages of country life and 

 its" wonderful opportunities. Its isolation is being banished by good roads, 

 automobiles, telephones, and better mail facilities, which are making close 

 neighbors of all of us, and through these things the countryside now possesses 

 practically all the advantages of the city. Indeed, many of the owners of 

 country land are town people. It Is said that 50 per cent of the bankers are 

 to a greater or less extent farmers. The result is that every day the relations 

 between the farmers and the bankers, as well as other classes of busuiess 

 men, are growing more intimate. The banker knows that his own business is 

 dependent absolutely on the farm, and that as the farmer succeeds, so success 

 comes to him and to all other lines of business. 



For long years, even within ray memory, the interests of the farmer and 

 banker were thought bv many to be antagonistic, and this feeling was encour- 

 aged by a certain "class" of politicians and a certain grade of newspapers. But 

 nothing is further from the truth. 



Every well-informed banker recognizes that his money is safer and of more 

 service" to his bank, as well as to the community, when scattered among a 

 hunrlred respectable farmers than when concentrated in the hands of one 

 or two merchants or traders. -,.»,• 



It is strange that in this country special effort has not l>een made to brmg 

 the farmers and bankers into closer touch with each other. My own experi- 

 ence during thirty years of banking is that the safest loans in our portfolios 



8 — December* 



