520 
American Agriculturist, June 23,1923 
Editorial Pa^e ot the American 
Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm .Associate Editor 
CxABRiELLE Elliot .... Household Editor 
Birge Kinne .Advertising Manager 
H. L. Vonderlieth . . . Circulation Manager 
contributing staff 
H. E. Cook, Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., H. H. Jones, 
Paul Work, G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
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Entered as Second-Class Matter. December 15, 1922, at the 
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VOL. Ill June 23, 1923 No. 25 
Commencement 
T he monarchs and aristocracy < of olden 
times used every means within their 
powp to prevent the common folks from 
getting an education. Well they knew that 
a continuance of their own power depended 
entirely upon their being able to maintain 
an ignorant peasantry. Education of the 
common people has been the one thing above 
all else that has destroyed the absolute 
monarchies of the world and given the people 
a degree of freedom never before realized. 
How well the fathers of our own country re¬ 
alized this when they established the common 
school in every community, and put the high 
schools and colleges within the reach of poor 
boys and girls. The last hundred years has 
seen an advance in the world’s science and 
invention beyond the wildest imagination of 
our forefathers, all of which has been made 
possible by the inventive genius of educated 
and trained minds. 
A speaker before the graduating class of 
Columbia University said the other day that 
the great achievements, of man in the field 
of action are as varied as life and as in¬ 
dividual as the human spirit itself. ‘‘And 
these great works of man are in reality the 
results of education in its broader sense, 
acquired either within or without academic 
walls.” 
Yet in spite of all this there are a con¬ 
siderable number of people who do not be¬ 
lieve in education and consistently and con¬ 
stantly oppose all steps for its support. There 
are even parents whose children get what 
education they have in spite of those who 
should be the first to lend them aid and en¬ 
couragement. 
Of course, it is perfectly possible to put a 
thousand dollar education on a hundred 
dollar boy or girl”; and of course it is true 
also that an educated criminal is more dan¬ 
gerous to society than one without a trained 
mind. But it is also true that the great ma- 
.iority who march in the I'anks of crime and 
\ ice are ignorant and illiterate. U is true, 
loo, that one can be educated without going 
to school, but in this hurrying age, life is too 
Phoit to get all of our training from our own 
experience; and, schools and books teach the 
experiences acquired by others down through 
the ages. He who is not willing, to profit by 
the experiences of others is indeed a fool. 
They put us in contact with all that the past 
has achieved in music, in pictures, in science 
and literature. As a telescope opens to us a 
vista of an unlimited universe, and the 
microscope gives us a glimpse of another in¬ 
finite world beyond the ordinary human 
vision, so does education open the human 
mind to contact and experiences which the 
ignorant and the untrained can never see, 
experience or enjoy. 
As those who lived a half century or a 
century ago stood upon the threshold of . a 
new and wonderful future in the world’s 
history, so do our children, the citizens of 
to-morrow, stand at this commencement 
time at the beginning of'a still more wonder¬ 
ful period of achievement in the world’s civil¬ 
ization. To meet that future and do their 
part by themselves, their families and their 
fellow citizens, trained minds and hands are 
more necessary than ever before. 
Therefore, this is indeed a “commence¬ 
ment” time. There are thousands of boys 
and girls just graduating from the grades and 
thei e are other thousands who are now finish¬ 
ing their high school courses. What larger 
or better help can parents give these children 
than sympathetic support and encouragement 
to continue in school, so as to best train the 
talents God has given them to render service 
to themselves and to their fellows ? 
A Good Sign 
T here is a cloud on the horizon of the 
present business prosperity. The New 
York Stock Exchange is very much un¬ 
settled with a very decided downward or 
bearish tendency all the way along the line. 
The Stock Exchange is the business ba- 
lometer of the nation. Business men watch 
its tendencies very closely, well knowing that 
it is a very accurate indication of the future 
trendy of all other business. It would seem, 
thereiore, that there is to be some check to 
the present industrial boom. If the hold-up 
does not go too far, it may be a good thing. 
The present prosperity is more or less 
fictitious, speculative and abnormal. Fac¬ 
tories have been running almost day and 
night to manufacture, and the stores are 
all doing flomdshing business, to sell too 
many things that people do not need. There 
has again been a too free use of credit. Thou¬ 
sands of people are driving automobiles 
that are not paid for. 
We believe in reasonably high wages and 
prices, for when people have money to spend 
they buy products that farmers have for 
sale, but there is no question that wages 
in many trades are too high, resulting in 
abnormal prices. In short, the pendulum of 
business has again gone so far to the ex- 
tieme that a little swing back to the normal 
will be a good thing for all concerned. In 
fact, if such reaction does not come soon, 
there is grave danger of another big de¬ 
pression with hard times for everybody. 
A return of business conditions towards 
the normal is especially necessary for farm¬ 
ers. City prosperity has taken the farm 
labor and raised too high practically every¬ 
thing that the farmer has to buy, without 
helping much the prices of the farmers’ prod¬ 
ucts. A change downward, providing it does 
not swing too far, will not be likely to 
affect the farmers’ sales and would, help 
some to lower his costs of production. 
Hazards of Farming 
T he hill was steep, the wagon, of the old- 
lashioned, high-wheel, narrow tire type, 
and the big load of hay was narrowband lug}/ 
Uiic e Sam Farmer had loaded the hay on 
the level lot at the top of the hill, but when ‘ 
it came to driving it down to the barn, he 
asked Young Sam to climfb up and do it. 
“Nothin’ doing,” said Young Sam, “you 
loaded it. Dad, now it’s your job to drive it to 
the barn.” 
Boy,” said the old man, “I saw four years 
of bloody fighting in the Sixties, I’ve had my 
horse shot from under me, and I’ve seen men 
drop like grain before a reaper on both sides 
of me, but I am most emphatically stating 
I d rather take the risk of battle any day 
than drive this load of hay down that darned 
old mountain. Please, Sam get up here and 
let me get down.” 
Seeing that the old boy was really in 
earnest, Young Sam climbed on the load and 
drove it to the barn. 
awhile the quiet peace of the summer 
night, Uncle Sam spoke up from the dusk 
at the end of the porch where he was resting. 
“Boy,” said he, it’s funny, isn’t it, that 
tanners growl and groan so much about the 
weather or the dealers and everything else 
under the sun, but don’t have a word to say 
about farmin’ being such a dangerous busi- 
ness. But by Jinks, when you stop to think 
ot it, I dunno but what I’d ruther work in 
a powder factory than on a farm. 
‘Only last week you know what happened 
to poor old Hank Taylor when he was leadin’ 
that big bull of his. A roaring lion is safer 
any day than an ugly bull, and about all of 
them are ugly. 
‘Ht was only three or four months ago 
that George Smith was tryin’ to patch the 
loof on his barn, lost his hold some way and 
has been laid up ever since. About every 
taimier in three has missin’ fingers, lost in 
close to cog wheels or buzz saws. 
^ What a vicious horse can’t do to a man 
am t worth mentionin’, and some of these 
ti actors, the horse’s substitute, every once 
in a while has the nice little habit of rearin’ 
up on its hind legs and falling over back¬ 
wards, smashin’ the life out of the poor devil 
who can’t move quick enough to get out from 
under it. At hayin’ time, there are forks to 
dodge and dislodged pulleys to look out for.” 
_ And yes,” interrupted Young Sam, “and 
big loads to drive down bad hills.” 
remember,” continued the old man 
without apparently noticing the interrup¬ 
tion, Russ Davis at hayin’ time a couple or 
three years ago, who was feeling so well 
fiom leetle too close attention to a case of 
beer that he fell clear off the mow and struck 
his head on the barn floor. Whemhe got ud 
he said it fairly dazed him! 
Fu you’ve got to watch out 
that the belt don’t knock you out, or the 
thrasher don’t eat you. Knew a feller once 
who lost two legs before they could get him 
out of the cylinder. 
“Even' sheep are dangerous. Old Johnny 
omith came over the hill some years back 
to shear sheep for Uncle George Carpenter. 
+1 ^ barrel of cider in the cellar that 
the Missus hadn’t got around to let out, and 
the old boys pt to feelin’ pretty good, 
sheep shut up in the barn and 
they hopped and hollered around so much 
t^t the poor critters got kinda excited, 
then when John wasn’t lookin’, George 
opened the barn door and drove the sheep all 
out on the run. As they went, they knocked 
John—who was settin’ on a milk stool try- 
ing to shear a sheep—over, and the whole 
dum flock ran over him. It laid him up for 
three weeks and George’s wife had to take 
care ot him and board him. 
. , anyone should ask you, farm- 
in is a hazardous business. ’Bout time one of 
them safety fust campaigns stfruck the farm.” 
hood, effervescence, corked down and wirer 
manhood, some sparkle, more vapidity; ol 
age, empty bottle, cart it away with tl 
rubbish.—T. W. Robertson. 
