CONSUMPTION 123 



unless they are free, and acts as a man in a strange world or as one 

 with a starved soul. The enjoyment side of life is lacking. His cul- 

 tural and aesthetic soul is in a state of suspended animation. 



Such facts as these in the lives of the multitude of rich residents of 

 rural districts make it apparent that the fundamental problem is not 

 one of economics but of transforming farmers so that they look at 



vlife in a different manner. The appreciative qualities of life must be 

 built up. They need to have developed the sentiment that the fullest 

 and most successful life is the one which obtains the greatest number 

 of satisfied wants in passing. Under this transformation the country 

 will build good houses, comfortable in the modern sense, having the 

 conveniences which lighten the lives of the indoor workers, and the 

 equipment which renders the place sanitary and healthful. It will 

 put in machinery everywhere possible to do the hard work, to reduce 

 chores, as well as make production more profitable. It will beautify 

 the grounds, improve the roads for travel purposes, and look to 

 nature as a source of inspiration. 



A very large part of the emphasis in the discussions of farm life 

 has been laid on the necessity of improving it in order to keep the 

 boys and girls from drifting to the cities. The assumption has been 

 that the country needs them and that city attractions established in 

 the country would be effective in holding them there. However 

 effective this procedure might prove to accomplish what is urged (and 

 its effectiveness may well be doubted), it does not appear to be the 

 highest motive which may be furnished. A more just view regards 

 the improvement of farm life as a procedure which of right belongs 

 to that great multitude of good people who will always be rural resi- 

 dents. They have a humanity in common with the residents of cities. 

 They have needs of life and work which they ought to realize if they 

 can only obtain a vision of their possibility and worth. They are the 

 heirs of the products which the myriads of the makers of civilization 

 have created and conserved and should of right come into the enjoy- 

 ment of them. Country populations have a right in their own stead 

 to enjoy all that life offers, even if they do not contemplate leaving 

 the soil for the city. The great problem is to discover a way by which 

 their outlook on life and society may be transformed into one which 

 Appreciates the worth of realizing the greatest satisfactions and pos- 



vsibilities which may come to them as rural citizens of the great 

 republic. 



