PROBLEMS OF COUNTRY LIFE 105 



of themselves but must be cared for, even fought for, and that 

 the policy of laissez faire is often fatal to peaceful progress. 



If the farmer is not satisfied and thinks he can better himself 

 then let him change his profession. Exactly, and that is what 

 he is doing in an alarming proportion of instances, but what 

 about the rest of us, and wherewithal shall we be fed ? If farm- 

 ing were a profession engaging but a few thousand people, we 

 might afford to let it alone, but it is our largest industry, engag- 

 ing millions of some kind of citizens. It is a matter of public 

 concern, therefore, both ways, that they be prosperous and 

 gradually evolving with the rest of the world. 



It is because the farmer as such cannot take care of himself; 

 because we are drifting rapidly away from conditions that pro- 

 mote a stable democracy and toward agrarian revolution, that 

 a national policy about agriculture must be one of the major and 

 not the minor considerations in readjusting the affairs of this 

 disturbed country, which is now, in common with the rest of 

 the world, in a highly fluid condition and ready for the hand of 

 the molder. 



Whatever is true of farmers as individuals or of farming as a 

 profession, the chief concern about agriculture after all, and 

 the considerations that demand a national policy and plan, fall 

 well within the domain of public welfare. 



The country as a whole, even more than the average farmer, is 

 concerned about the housing, the sanitary surroundings, and 

 the health of that third of our population which lives upon the 

 farm under what ought to be and what can well be ideal physical 

 and moral conditions for raising the citizens of a democracy. 

 Yet no man will admit that even in this great, new, rich country, 

 with its high percentage of literacy, are these conditions any- 

 where near ideal. 



Again, the country as a whole is more interested than the 

 average man is likely to be in the kind and amount of education 

 which is to be combined with the wholesome industry that 

 naturally attends upon life in the country, and in so far as 

 either of these considerations is hampered from lack of funds 

 or ideals, the public is bound to supply both, for the class of 

 people is too numerous, its power for good or evil too great, to 

 justify neglect. 



