Then says Roosevelt:
"Our school system is gravely defective in so far as it puts a premium upon mere literary training and tends, therefore, to train the boy away from the farm and workshop. Nothing is more needed than the best type of an industrial school, the school for mechanical industries in the cities and for teaching agriculture in the country. No growth of cities, no growth of wealth can make up for any loss in either the number or the character of the farming population. We of the United States should realize this above most other people. We began our existence as a nation of farmers, and in every crisis of the past a peculiar dependence has had to be placed upon the farming population, and this dependence has hitherto been justified."
The Rural Church Problem. No permanent rural civilization, however, can be maintained that will attach the population to the soil with satisfaction and contentment without provision being made for enjoying religious services among people of their own kind and class. This necessitates a social and religious center for every rural community. The church can and should be made such social center. For economic and social reasons, however, denominationalism can well be dispensed with, as such, and just plain Christianity substituted for sectarianism. A social center thus maintained will stimulate neighborly intercourse and satisfy the demands of both young and old for religious culture, for recreation and pastime. Where schools are consolidated the school house and grounds will answer for all gatherings whether for worship, for the discussion of civic or neighborhood problems or for recreation and amusement. For without such neighborhood intercourse, life deteriorates into a dull routine, and the moral and religious tone of a community, degenerates. Moreover, under such conditions, young people become disgusted with its monotony and aimlessness, and seek city employment.
But before the country church can be made an efficient community force, pastors must be found or created that meet the conditions of country life. A most excellent city pastor might prove to be a regrettable misfit in a rural community. Moreover, the modern clergy seem quite as prone to herd in the towns and cities as the rest of mankind, which fact has a bad influence on the youth of the country.
Quoting from Rural Life and Education: "The rural minister needs economic and agricultural knowledge more than theological, that he may use the economic and agricultural experiences of his people as a basis for the building-up of their ethical life; he needs educational knowledge, that he may direct his efforts with the young along good pedagogical lines; and the church as an institution needs to study carefully the rural-life problem, and to plan a program of useful service along good educational and sociological lines. Unless this is done, the church will bear but little relationship to a living community; its influence on the young will be small; and its mission of moral and religious leadership will be forgotten by the people."
Other Agencies for Rural Improvement. In addition to providing country schools and employing rural school teachers as efficient as the best in the towns, and the country church reawakened and converted into an efficient institution for progress, the Grange, farmers' clubs, the Y. M. and Y. W. C. A., the rural library, boys and girls' clubs, farmers' institutes, woman's clubs, literary and debating societies and amateur theatricals, of which the Little Country Theatre is the best exponent, can with profit be incorporated into the life of every rural community that maintains a social center, and that takes genuine pride in making country life what the possibilities so readily warrant.
No one of these separate organizations, even though fully developed and earnestly supported, will altogether satisfy the needs of a community. No one of them should be over-emphasized for its own sake alone, for each is but a part of the community need. All are needed. The friends of each, therefore, should work for all and all work for each, and becoming thus federated, they will prove to be a positive force and establish, beyond question, a community spirit satisfactory to old and young alike.
A sufficient number of these rural social institutions to meet the changed conditions of modern life is as essential as a progressive and highly contented agriculture; for without such institutions agriculture will decline until on a level with the peasantry of other and less favored countries. For just in proportion as agriculture advances or declines will the prosperity of the people rise or fall, and the integrity of our government be stable or questionable. This fact has been clearly demonstrated in the history of nations; hence, stewardship of the soil embraces not only conservation of its fertility, but the fostering of such social institutions and educational forces as may be necessary to support a rural civilization that will minister to all the physical, mental and spiritual wants of a highly intellectual and permanent population. Said James A. Garfield:
"The higher education of the village and city youth, together with a modicum of the country youth, with only the fifth to eighth grade for the best blood of the state may stand for the educator's ideals, but it is bad for the country as a whole. It tends to make aristocrats of the poorest and slaves of the best blood. Education is for all, not for a favored few."
The Morrill Act. The Morrill Act of 1862 was the first important step toward the emancipation of agriculture. The establishment of the Land Grant Colleges was the biggest piece of constructive legislation that Congress has enacted during the past century. By means of higher education thus redirected and vitalized, industrial independence will ultimately be realized. But the work moves slowly. However, in spite of ridicule and unmerited handicaps, and even the contempt of too many of the farming class, these institutions have grown steadily in influence and power.