252 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc 



We are liearing a good bit these days about the problems of the 

 country, and some people would have us think that the country has 

 gone to the dogs, that the country church is practically no good, 

 that the country schools are of prtictically no value, that the country 

 home is no good, that the woman on the farm is a beast of burden, 

 and nothing more, because some people have been carried away in 

 their enthusiasm to extremes. Dont forget for one minute — and I 

 know you won't because you men know the situation because of 

 your vast experience — don't forget for one moment that the city has 

 more problems than the man on the farm has ever had, and I want 

 to say right here that I believe those who have anything to do with 

 the working out of the problems connected with life in the open 

 country are coming a little bit nearer to a realization of those prob- 

 lems than the people in the cities who have been wrestling with the 

 city problems for the last half a century. They will always have 

 their problems in the city, but they are over-shadowed sometimes, by 

 the newer problems that come up. The only reason we are hearing 

 about the problems of the country today is because this is newer 

 to some people; the problems are not new by any means, but they 

 are new to some people and get more space in the newspapers, but 

 the same problems, the same disagreeable problems, some of them 

 are, in the city, are still before the people of the city and I am not 

 going to point out what they are, but let me mention one or two. 



The question of housing, the question of good streets, the question 

 of a sufficient and pure supply of water, the question of sewage, the 

 question of the prevention and control of fires — right along that 

 line you may know that Ex-chief Groker of New York City, who for 

 years was head of the fire-fighting system, discovered there that in 

 spite of the fact that they were spending more and more money 

 in the city of New York every year for improved fire apparatus for 

 increased efficiency in their fire-fighting department, that in spite 

 of that fact, they were fighting a losing fight in the City of New 

 York, that fires Avere increasing, that property damage as a result of 

 fire was greater every year until Chief Croker came to the conclu- 

 sion that they were not attacking the problem in the right manner 

 and resigned as chief of the Fire Department of New York City and 

 went into the fire prevention work, attacking the same problem 

 from a different view. There is a problem that the city will al- 

 ways have, and there are a good many others. And I want you to 

 consider the vice prevalent in the city; and they have their problems 

 while the people in the country are having theirs, but I do believe 

 that those who have anything to do with helping to solve some of 

 the problems that are peculiar to life in the open country, are com- 

 ing just a little bit nearer a better solution than some of the people 

 who are engaged in attempting to solve the problems of the city. 

 Perhaps it is hardly necessary in an audience of this nature to call 

 attention to that fact at all. 



I must confine myself, owing to the fact that there are several 

 speakers on the program, to the particular subject assigned to me, 

 yet what I have said has a bearing on what I say. The great 

 problem of today, let me repeat, is this problem of getting this in- 

 formation from tbe various sources into the hands of the people and 

 may I say here, that the work is so great that there is work for all 

 hands to do. No one man, no one agency, no one group of men, 

 can do all of this work. The work is so great that there is work 



