CRUSAbE FOR THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



schooling. The best teachers, the finest ap- 

 paratus, the stateliest schoolhouses, the 

 amplest appliances for schooling, in nearly 

 all particulars, are still found in the cities. 

 Only of late are we able to mark change. 

 Country schools ought not to be inferior. 

 They should be the best. This not alone for 

 the farm folk's sake, but for the country's. 

 The weal of rural communities is no affair 

 of these communities alone, but concerns 

 the entire republic. 



Hearing me place the stress I do upon 

 the education and upbuilding of the rural 

 classes, some might accuse me of talking 

 politics and bidding for the farmer vote. 

 My thought is much more serious, and it is 

 based on the most fundamental and rock- 

 ribbed economic reasoning. The high wel- 

 fare of men in the long future is bound up 

 with agriculture. As agriculture shall fare 

 in time to come so human civilization itself 

 must fare, the interests being one and 

 inseparable. 



The other generic supports of men's in- 

 dustry mining, the forests, and manufac- 



229 



