CHAPTER VII 



THE EDUCATION OF THE RURAL PEOPLE 



Education is the life-blood of democracy; ignorance 

 the ally of autocracy and of all predatory forces. If 

 the people are to be trusted, they must be trustworthy. 

 The recent declaration of the British Labor Party 

 states that " the most important of all the measures of 

 social reconstruction must be a genuine nationalization 

 of education which shall get rid of all class distinctions 

 and privileges and bring effectively within the reach not 

 only of every boy and girl, but also of every adult 

 citizen, all the training, physical, mental and moral, 

 literary, technical and artistic, of which he is capable." 



The instincts of the American farmer in this respect 

 are sound to the core. A prominent leader of a great 

 farmers' organization was recently asked what were 

 the big problems of American farming. He put first 

 the securing of an adequate system of education. Re- 

 peatedly have the formal utterances of important farm 

 groups and their leaders given the same rank to educa- 

 tion ; they recognize the hopelessness of agricultural 

 improvement apart from a widespread, effective educa- 

 tional scheme. The Grange for fifty years has main- 

 tained a lecturer's hour as a regular part of the pro- 

 ceedings at every subordinate Grange meeting. It has 

 always upheld the public schools and the agricultural 

 colleges. It has reports of committees on education at 



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