THE HESPERIA MOVEMENT 109 



This association meets Thursday night and continues 

 in session until Saturday night. Some of the best speak- 

 ers in America have addressed the association. Dr. 

 Arnold Tompkins, in speaking before the association, 

 said it was a wonderful association and the only one of 

 its character in the United States. \ 



What was my ideal in organizing such associations ? 



1. To unite the farmers who pay the taxes that sup- 

 port the schools, the home-makers, the teachers, the 

 pupils, into a co-operative work for better rural-school 

 education. 



2. To give wholesome entertainment in the rural dis- 

 tricts, which from necessity are more or less isolated. 



3. To create a taste for good American literature in 

 home and school, and higher ideals of citizenship. 



4. Summed up in all, to make the rural schools char- 

 acter-builders, to rid the districts of surroundings which 

 destroy character, such as unkept school yards, foul, 

 nasty outhouses, poor, unfit teachers. These reforms, 

 you understand, come only through a healthy educational 

 sentiment which is aroused by a sympathetic co-operation 

 of farm, home, and school. 



What results have I been able to discover growing 

 out of this work ? Ideals grow so slowly that one can- 

 not measure much progress in a few years. We are slaves 

 to conditions, no matter how hard, and we suffer them to 

 exist rather than arouse ourselves and shake them off. 

 The immediate results are better schools, yards, out- 

 buildings, schoolrooms, teachers, literature for rural 

 people to read. 



Many a father and mother whose lives have been 



