APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSION 43 



The great rural interests are human interests, and 

 good crops are of little value to the farmer unless 

 they open the door to a good kind of life on the farm. 

 This problem of country life is in the truest sense 

 a national problem. In an address delivered at 

 the Semi-Centennial of the Founding of Agricultural 

 Colleges in the United States a year ago last May, 

 I said: 



"There is but one person whose welfare is as 

 vital to the welfare of the whole country as is 

 that of the wageworker who does manual labor; 

 and that is the tiller of the soil the farmer. If 

 there is one lesson taught by history it is that 

 the permanent greatness of any state must ulti- 

 mately depend more upon the character of its 

 country population than upon anything else. 

 No growth of cities, no growth of wealth, can 

 make up for loss in either the number or the 

 character of the farming population. 



"The farm grows the raw material for the food 

 and clothing of all our citizens; it supports di- 

 rectly almost half of them; and nearly half the 

 children of the Unites States are born and 

 brought up on the farms. How can the life of 

 the farm family be made less solitary, fuller of 

 opportunity, freer from drudgery, more comfort- 

 able, happier, and more attractive? Such a 

 result is most earnestly to be desired. How 

 can life on the farm be kept on the highest level, 



