1905.] THE COUNTRY BOY. 29 



In fact they are going to lead less worthy lives and actually 

 take away from the human race something for what they were 

 put into this world to give it. No, gentlemen, farming in New 

 England will regain something of its old pre-eminence, some- 

 thing of its old joyousness, when there comes into the minds of 

 our young men an increased respect for work and a greater 

 love for the actual doing of things. Any man who has four 

 or five big marks on his hands, which show that he has done 

 hard work, if he has the idea in his mind that those marks are 

 not a badge of honor, he is not a good American. I do not mean 

 to discredit the head-work of the world. I do not mean to say 

 that. I do not mean to say that the responsibility of oversee- 

 ing, and the government and mastering of industry, is not a 

 mighty task, but I do say that the trouble with the farm, if 

 there is any trouble, is that which exists today in our factories ; 

 is the trouble that exists today in every avenue of human efifort, 

 and that is, that the American boy has lost his enthusiasm for 

 work. If there was anything in the country boy of a genera- 

 tion ago, about which I have tried to say a few words to you ; 

 if there was anything that was truly worthy of admiration, it 

 was his general notion that it was a fine thing to be able to do 

 a good deal ; a fine thing to be strong, a fine thing to see to it 

 that nobody cut his corners when he was mowing, a fine thing 

 to be proud that he could spread hay as fast, or faster than 

 five men could mow, a fine thing to pitch as large a tumble of 

 hay upon a wagon as his father, a fine thing to be able to mow 

 away hay as fast as anybody could pitch it to him. That was 

 the great characteristic, which meant something to a country 

 boy if he was worth anything. If that has gone out today, if 

 the boy of today, whether in the country or in the city, has lost 

 that feeling which should make him proud of being able to 

 accomplish work, then not only are there going to be deserted 

 farms, but there are going to be deserted shops. I do not 

 believe in anything of that sort. I believe that tl^e spirit of our 

 boys is all right ; that their enthusiasm for work really exists 

 as strong as ever, if we will only teach them something like 

 that. There is the salvation that we need, the salvation of our 

 country, the glory of our country, which we are going to have 

 in its boys and in its girls, in those boys who are willing and 

 intend to do whatever their generation calls upon them to do ; 

 who intend not to shirk the work, but to do it. 



