300 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



dresses, says, " I warn my countrymen that the great 

 recent progress made in city life is not a full measure 

 of our civilization; for our civilization rests at bottom 

 on the wholesomeness, the attractiveness, and the com- 

 pleteness, as well as the prosperity of life in the 

 country. The men and women on the farms stand 

 for what is fundamentally best and most needed in 

 our American life. Upon the development of coun- 

 try life rests ultimately our ability, by methods of 

 farming requiring the highest intelligence, to continue 

 to clothe and feed the hungry nations; to supply the 

 cities with fresh blood, clean bodies and clear brains, 

 that can endure the strain of modern life; we need 

 the development of men in the open country, who 

 shall be the stay and strength of the nation." 



I advise you to get a home in the country, not only 

 for your individual comfort, but because it places 

 you in a relation to the world of high responsibility. 

 I advise you to educate your boys and girls for the 

 most intelligent farm life. I advise you to stop glori- 

 fying worklessness and honor achievement. Work 

 goes beyond economics; it is God-like. It is not a 

 myth of history that the divine mind planted a gar- 

 den. " My Father," said Jesus, " is a worker and I 

 also work." Luther graved on his seal, " Laborare 

 est orare" to work is to worship. This great move- 

 ment outward from congested life must be under- 

 stood in its breadth as well as its intensity. It is to 

 make the American Republic safer and stronger, as 

 well as natural life more wholesome. 



