Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 333 



liked that; and in the third place, he didn't leave any other ap- 

 pointment. I liked that the best of all." I do not expect to take 

 up any collection; my address will be short, and if there are any 

 other appointments published, I have not been informed of it, so I 

 am sure these three parts of this talk you will like splendidly. 



Referring to the relation of the country newspaper with the 

 farming interests of Missouri, it seems to me there are no two 

 classes of citizenship that are more closely related than are the 

 farmers and the men who publish the country newspapers in, this 

 State, each striving in his own way to build up the fortunes of the 

 community and the interest of his country. There are many things 

 that could be said this afternoon, but I understand that our talks 

 here are to be limited to about ten minutes each; hence, I shall 

 not enter into any lengthy discussion of this question. I want to 

 call your attention to some things that the country newspapers 

 are doing, and will continue to do, to advance the agricultural in- 

 terests of this State. There is another and great institution in 

 the State of Missouri that is closely related to these two institu- 

 tions which I have just mentioned, and that is the public school sys- 

 tem. The country newspaper, the farmer and the public schools 

 are what are largely today putting Missouri on the map. 



The country newspaper can assist greatly in the work of the 

 public school and assist the farming interests of the country and 

 aid in the movement that is now taking hold of the country known 

 as the "back-to-the-farm" movement. You will pardon me if I 

 deviate from the subject under discussion, but refer to some of 

 the conditions that prevailed in the public schools of this country 

 even as late as the time when I was in school. I remember that 

 the first day I ever entered the public schools of Missouri to begin 

 to lay the foundation for the limited education that I was to ac- 

 quire ; that day I began to be educated away from the farm. The 

 idea that was instilled into my head was to go to school now and 

 acquire a little learning and make a second or third grade certifi- 

 cate and teach school awhile and then get away from the farm and 

 into some of the professions and move to town. That, I believe, 

 is the cause of a great many going away from the farms of this 

 country and is the cause of the influx of population into the com- 

 mercial centers. I believe that there is no movement more deserv- 

 ing of the attention of the people of this State than the movement 

 to keep the boys and the girls on the farms of Missouri, and the 

 newspapers of my section are aiding and assisting in that move- 



