CHAPTEE XX 



THE KETIEED FAKMEB AND THE FABMEE AS AN OFFICE 

 HOLDEB AND CITY BUSINESS MAN 



WHEN we consider the startling fact that 

 eighty per cent, of the cities' business 

 and professional men, sixty per cent, of the men 

 and forty-five per cent, of the women teachers in 

 our city public schools, were reared on the farm, 

 and that these men and women are of the best 

 blood of our farms, is it not time to stop and in- 

 quire what is the matter with the business of farm- 

 ing that allows this blood to flow from its region 

 into the region of city life? 



Is there a plethora of workers, brains and good 

 blood upon the farm which is compelled to seek 

 employment elsewhere in order to exist? We are 

 loathe to believe it, at least we will not believe it, 

 until every mouth in our land is filled three times 

 a day with enough food to satisfy the pangs of 

 hunger, and every human body of our land is 

 comfortably clothed from the products of the farm. 



Of course our cities will ever continue to gather 

 from the farms its best blood, but some awful 

 wrong is being allowed to exist when so great a 

 per cent, of the farm's best blood is allowed to 

 flow unrestricted to the city. This blood is needed 

 upon the farms and will be more needed if our 

 soils are permitted to continue upon their road to 



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