108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



" This flocking to the towns means the nltimate destruction 

 of the white races if it continues unchecked. We see it 

 now turning the race into a set of neurotic creatures^ unfit, 

 at any rate in the second or third generation, to face the 

 realities of existence. It is filling the poorhouses, the asy- 

 lums and the hospitals. I say. Heaven help the people who 

 mainly dwell in great cities without access to the land. To 

 remain great a people must be rooted in the land. That is 

 why all wise statesmen, all people who can think and see 

 things in their true proportions should endeavor at any cost 

 to preserve or recreate a large and healthy rural population. 



" In my opinion this is the most important question of 

 our age. The flocking of the land-born to the city has 

 always been preliminary to the destruction of nations. 



" This sucking power of the towns," declared Rider Hag- 

 gard in conclusion, " is a permanent problem confronting 

 civilization. It was so in Rome and it is so to-day. There 

 is no stability of character to be found in the town-dweller. 

 He is easily carried away by his feelings. We must look to 

 the dwellers on the land for that fixity of cha-racter which 

 a country needs to remain great." 



Accepting this conclusion what become the obvious duties 

 of those interested directly in rural betterments ? To my 

 mind this wave of hypercriticism against ennobling efforts, 

 and this overmastering spirit of indifference to the higher and 

 enduring issues of life, constitute the greatest barrier to 

 true progress, and indicate the specific line of work for the 

 true friend of the home farm and the farm home. Laboi" 

 when organized npon the basis of might destroys; when 

 united for mutual helpfulness it builds up. In the one case 

 reason is dethroned, in the other it is made supreme. 



T^ot in criticism, not in denying, not in strengthening any 

 of the bonds of unthinking service, but in uniting to quicken 

 manly endeavor, stimulate individual activity, arouse the 

 spirit of mntual helpfulness and promote the consciousness 

 of the true dignity of labor when directed by intelligent 

 thouo-lit, is the mission for the loaders of agricultural prog- 

 ress to-day. 



Laboring with this as the one goal for all endeavor, pro- 



