No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 373 



the occasional country-life program than are ordinarily used in them. 

 We believe that there are better liymns lor the country church and 

 Sunday school services. We believe, and it is this phase of the 

 question we wish to deal with especially, that the home is the natural 

 center of that power for good which we rest in song, and that there 

 are better songs for it than the average home of to-day provides. 



Already work has begun to meet the problem, which our weighing 

 of the values has revealed to us, touching song in the home. The 

 conclusion that the country home should, and can, and will, make a 

 radical change in the character of its songs is being reached by the 

 consent and co-operation of fathers, mothers, teachers, preachers, 

 and others who are vitally interested. These men and women are 

 working to the end that the country home shall be clean of the 

 "praise that cannot x)urify," of the passing life wherein life's sacred 

 relations are made a joke, of the song that cannot possibly bring 

 a sweet home-memory in the after years to the children who have 

 gone out from the home. 



It is true that most of the cheap and vicious songs originate in 

 cities, but all too quickly they find their way into rural communities 

 and homes. During the last two years many persons have gone 

 over the matter together, have given testimony, and have compared 

 conditions and experiences. From data that have been collected 

 it has been found that for some reason it is true that to-day the 

 young people in the country homes are almost or quite as much 

 exposed to the blight and contamination of trashy and filthy songs 

 as if their homes were not aloof from and independent of the sources 

 and sites of such songs. The reason for this has been searched for 

 and has been found. 



The fear of not being "up-to-date" in the matter of songs, and 

 the eagerness to have country homes and boys and girls enjoy what 

 purports to be created for the giving of pleasure as exploited in the 

 city, has set country people to hasty and indiscriminate buying of 

 "the latest" music. The unworthy type of city music has been 

 adopted, and it has been called representative; the vast amount of 

 worthy music that is heard at its perfection in the city has been 

 temporarily forgotten. Think of the church music, the operas, sym- 

 phonies, and oratorios, the concerts and recitals of high grade! 

 Many of these musical entertainments are free to the public and are 

 even organized to be carried free to every part of the city. Think 

 of the great choral societies, the carefully taught music in high 

 schools and graded schools, the chances for the best of training in 

 everv^ phase of music — all of which tends to shorten the life and 

 the influence of the bad song in the city, even though its spread 

 is universal. 



Better songs in the country home is quietly becoming one of the 

 working texts in many communities of this State. There is not only 

 the desire on the part of people in rural ^communities to choose be- 

 tween the good and the bad in songs, but there is the ability when 

 thought and care are given to the judging. 



When the trashy song secures a place in the country community, 

 what is there with wliich to meet and annul its power for lowering 

 the tone of life and the "blessedness of the country"? Perhaps there 

 is a pastor and choir with appreciation of the value of good songs, 

 perhaps there is a high grade music teacher or school teacher. It 



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