Conclusion.
It is clear that Rural Welfare, as far at least as it rests upon Wealth, is to be gained by careful study of laws of nature and human nature quite independent of mere wishes. The only way to improve the present situation of affairs in any community is to use the natural forces within reach to advantage. All the growth of the past is preparation for more growth and better fruit in the present and future. The farmer who knows most about the fundamental principles of property and property rights in society is most likely to best serve his community, as well as himself.
Still it is equally clear that the chief elements of Rural Welfare are not mere wealth. Wealth is but the material out of which the external machinery of welfare is formed. Every way essential to progress in any degree, it does not give the chief test of progress. No one is gaining the full use of his wealth until it is well spent for the welfare that is strictly personal,—health, wisdom and virtue. No society, however wealthy, has reached true welfare till all its members appreciate the higher welfare, and make wealth-seeking a means for securing it.
Rural communities can take advantage of many inexpensive ways of adding to their welfare without great wealth. The natural surroundings of the country [pg 374] home give development to ability and courage in children that are better than wealth. The same principles of thrift that are to be cultivated for the sake of material comforts apply to the larger welfare that a wise enjoyment of nature's gifts and nature's lessons may bring. The thrifty farmer comes nearest of all men to the ideal condition of the wise man, expressed in the wish, “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” He can have enough to comfortably house, clothe and feed his family in the midst of surroundings as wholesome as the world affords. He can give his children, by the aid of their healthy bodies and strong hearts, as good opportunities for education as any can use. He has a natural leisure for self-culture in the use of papers and books, if he tries to use it, and his relations with neighbors of similar abilities are more human, more true, than those found in any other circumstances. If farmers live as they ought, their homes are centers of true hospitality, true sympathy for human rights; and with a little more constant care for neighborly spirit would come nearest to giving the true foundation for manly and womanly character in children, and so in their parents.
A family of eight children grew up on a farm of little more than one hundred acres, chopped out of the wilderness. Father and mother worked hard and strove thriftily to make their children useful. A school was the first requisite, even though it must be taught in the one room that was kitchen, library and parlor, if not the bedroom, too. The church was equally important, though it took the choicest lot on the farm for [pg 375] its location. Newspapers and wholesome books were as needful as daily bread. The household was a center of cheer and interest for the entire community. The first Sunday School and the first Temperance Society of all that new country were organized there. The trend of national life towards higher ideals of justice for all humanity was first recognized there, so that three of the four votes cast in that township for the first liberty ticket were connected with the same household. The whole world came nearer these youth because they learned about it.
When opportunity came for larger growth in college training, all but the oldest boy and the oldest girl sought it eagerly. These made the old homestead and a neighboring farm worthy centers of the same true influence. The three sons and the three daughters whose education lifted them to a little wider field of influence are all recognized as having been leaders in this country, and their names are cherished by thousands who have known their work. The thrift that has made them useful in the truest welfare of the world was cultivated and trained on that little farm.
The little farm became itself an evidence of thrift, attractive in its beauty as well as in its productiveness. It gave to the father and mother a satisfactory living till both died, the mother at eighty, and the father at nearly a hundred. Riches they never needed, for they had enough with the blessings of children and children's children scattered through the world. The farm is still in the family, doing its good work for the fourth and fifth generations, in the same wholesome [pg 376] way and with promise of never-ending welfare. A little wealth well used means enormous welfare.
The farm homes of America will be the seat of America's welfare if their occupants know all they can of the thrift that gives power, and do as well as they know. Farmers who think carefully and earnestly will not expect to overturn nature as it is, but to use it for all it is worth. This little book is intended to help toward such a use of power and wealth as may bring genuine welfare. Its author hopes in this way to pay in part the debt he owes to the little farm.