406 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 769 



case. It is recognized that the following sta- 

 tistics are meager and that conclusions can 

 only be drawn from them tentatively, but the 

 fact that the figures are consistent with each 

 other confirms their correctness. The follow- 

 ing table gives statistics for the three classes 

 of men who may be, perhaps, placed highest 

 amongst the list of our leading men : 



Per Cent. 

 Country and from 



Class of Men City Village Country 



Presidents 2 23 92.0 



Governors 4 41 91.2 



Cabinet oflBcers ... 9 47 83.9 



Totals 15 llT 8872 



The figures for presidents include all the 

 presidents this country has had. Of course 

 in the early days a smaller proportion of our 

 population lived in the cities. But this criti- 

 cism can not be applied to the list of gov- 

 ernors. Figures for this class of men relate 

 to the present governors of the states. It is 

 seen that 91.2 per cent, of this class of men 

 are from the country or village. The figures 

 for cabinet officers include members of cab- 

 inets between 1869 and 1903. The average of 

 these three classes of men shows 88.2 per cent, 

 of them from the country. Now, if we accept 

 Dr. Woods's view that the cities furnish a 

 larger proportion of our leading men for the 

 reason that talent is attracted to the city, the 

 proportion of these men coming from the 

 country should be considerably less than the 

 proportion of our population in the country, 

 but the facts show that the proportion of these 

 men from the country is actually greater than 

 the proportion of country population. This 

 seems to me to argue strongly for farm life as 

 an educational force. In the case of gov- 

 ernors, of the forty-five who answered my 

 queries four were born and reared in the city, 

 seven of them in country villages and thirty- 

 similar data for the other classes. 



I have received replies from forty-seven rail- 

 way presidents in this country. Of these 55.4 

 per cent, are credited to the village and coun- 

 try. When we remember that preferment in 

 this industry is greatly influenced by heredi- 

 tary wealth it seems to me that the fact that 

 so large a percentage of these men are country 



bred is somewhat significant. Statistics for 

 members of the house of representatives are 

 of less value for our present purpose than most 

 of the other statistics given here, for the rea- 

 son that nativity is a distinct force in politics, 

 and that many representative districts are 

 wholly city while others are wholly country 

 districts. Sixty-four per cent, of the present 

 members of the house of representatives are 

 from the country. Figures for members of 

 the senate are of more value in this respect, 

 since senators represent states. Tet the fact 

 that most of our senators are very wealthy 

 men would seem to justify the inference that 

 the city has more than its share of this class 

 of men, yet 70.6 per cent, of the eighty-five 

 members of the present senate for whom data 

 could be obtained are from the country. 

 Taking all six of these classes of men, the 

 average per cent, from the country is 69.4. 

 It will be noted that the higher we go in the 

 scale of leadership in those classes which are 

 least influenced by extraneous considerations, 

 the higher is the per cent, of country-bred 

 men. I believe these figures substantiate the 

 claim made in my original article, namely, 

 that country life has a distinct educational 

 value. But what is it in country life that 

 gives this advantage? President Lucius 

 Tuttle, of the Boston and Maine Railroad, 

 in answering my circular letter answers this 

 question. He says: 



Among other things, the farm boy learna meth- 

 ods of economy and, incidentally, the value of 

 money. He is a part of the business machinery 

 of the farm and is brought into close contact with 

 all its affairs. He learns methods of trade and 

 how to buy and sell, as well as possible, without 

 incurring losses and, later on when he leaves the 

 farm and goes into a general business, the educa- 

 lion he has acquired during his farm life becomes 

 a fundamental and valuable part of his after 

 business life. 



As a general rule, the city boy has no connection 

 with his father's business and knows nothing 

 about it. His father may be eminently successful 

 but the boy has nothing to do with making his 

 success and is very seldom allowed to be cognizant 

 of the methods of business his father uses. Under 

 modern conditions, school life gives the boy very 

 little business knowledge and, at the end of his 



