TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X 593 



I hope to see the time when farm boys and girls will have the opportunity 

 to get, not only common branches, but also a high school course without 

 leaving home. It seems to me to be an erroneous plan that takes a child, 

 away from home at the age when the average child finishes the common 

 branches. 



This rush to the city has become one of the greatest social and economic 

 evils of our times. Hundreds of young men and women have resulted in 

 ruined lives, who, had they remained on the farm might have become use- 

 ful, prosperous and honorable citizens. How to stem this tide is a very 

 serious as well as difficult problem and one in which the farmers more per- 

 haps than any other class should be deeply interested. 



Lack of educational advantages is not the only factor that has been at; 

 work among young folks of the farms. Isolation has been a cause of much 

 of this desertion, but in all of the older settled communities this factor is 

 now less potent. Too long working hours can safely be set down as one 

 cause. In cities the labor unions take care of these matters until some of 

 them have gotten things down so fine it seems almost like all pay and no 

 time. There should be a limit even to good things. Reascna'bly short 

 hours are an excellent thing provided the leisure time is well spent. But 

 I fear this is often times not the case in towns and cities where necessity 

 compels them to keep a long array of saloons, permit drug stores, blind 

 pigs, (some of which are not so very blind either,) club rooms, etc., etc., 

 to maintain the prosperity of the place, of course. And do you know that 

 scores of young men from the farms get their start on the do-,\n grade in 

 these very places. 



But back to my subject: Labor on the farm is not organized. I don't 

 know why this is so un'ess it is because it seems to be the one place where 

 the laboring class are able to get things their owui way without organizing. 

 Farm labor is said to be monotonous and a drudgery. I don't see where 

 the monotony of it comes in unless its -in the farmers" kitchen. Every 

 change in seasons brings about a corresponding change in farm operations 

 which should do away with monotony. As for drudgery there always has 

 been and still is a great deal of that. Not because the farmer as a class is 

 too greedy to permit himself his family, or hired help relaxation from la- 

 bor but because the income from farm labor has been so small as to com- 

 pell him to keep long hours. The farmers in the past have been too busy 

 working to take much time to think. Less work and more thought is what 

 we need in the future; this is necessary if the farmer values his own and 

 the future generations v^elfare. In justice to himself, his family and his 

 hired help if there is any the farmer should aim to shorten the length of 

 the working day sufficiently to allov\^ from one to two hours per day, ac- 

 cording to the season, to be spent in rest, reading or recreation as may be 

 desired. I think this would very materially aid in making farm life more 

 attractive to the young and old alike. 



I believe there is no one factor that tends more strongly to cause dis- 

 content with rural life in young folks than lack of recreation. Recreation 

 is a necessity to young folks and not to allow them the proper time for 

 it is a crime against the young as the failure to do so is responsible for 



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