feeble currents, the tariffs that replenished it 

 again were borne like a young Hercules by the 

 farming class, though they received but a mini- 

 mum of its protection. Every influence, therefore, 

 that tends to exalt agriculture as a profession, 

 and farming as a desirable mode of life, whether 

 it be intellectual, political, ethical or spiritual, is 

 for the general welfare. 



The time is not far distant, let us hope and 

 pray, when agriculture will cast off the thralldom 

 of the ages and assert her own. But not until the 

 sons and daughters of the country, trained for 

 rural social and industrial service, as you are be- 

 ing trained, assert an aggressive leadership, with 

 genuine patriotism for the needs of the open 

 country, will the domination of ulterior interests 

 be removed and agriculture made free to manage 

 its educational institutions and business affairs, 

 in part at least, for its own good. 



The Rural School Problem. Since education is 

 the governing factor, especially so far as it directs 

 the attitude of rural children toward rural condi- 

 tions, the country school should be so redirected 

 and revitalized as to "stir into action community 

 forces which are now dormant ; and to make the 

 rural school a strong and efficient social center, 

 working for the upbuilding of all the varied in- 

 terests of a healthy rural life." 



' ' The redirection of rural education means 

 that the school is to abandon its city ideals and 

 standards, except as these are adaptable to rural 

 as well as to city schools, and to develop its in- 

 struction with reference to its environment and 

 the local interests and needs. The main efforts 

 of its instruction should be to put its pupils into 

 sympathetic touch with the rural life about them, 

 in which the great majority of them ought to find 

 their future homes." Cubberley. 



Page Seventeen 



