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 NOTE: Write me what you think of the problem. The 
 Commision needs your suggestion. This means you. 
 
 S. A. LINDSEY, Chairman, 
 
 Tyler, Texas. 
 
 Our Rural Life and Farm Problems 
 
 An Address by 
 
 S. A. LINDSEY, 
 
 Chairman Texas Farm Life Commission 
 
 Delivered before the Third Annual Farmers’ Short Winter Course. 
 
 A. & M. College, Jan. 8, 1913. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 The Texas Farm Life Commission is a branch of the 
 Texas Commercial Secretaries and Business Men’s Asso¬ 
 ciation, which proposes to devote its especial attention to 
 farm life conditions in this State. The appointment of the 
 Texas Farm Life Commission is a natural sequence. It 
 grew out of the study which the Welfare Commission 
 made of economic and industrial conditions in this State. 
 The Commission was created because there is work for it 
 to do in Texas. It is not proposed to usurp the field of 
 any other agencies, nor lessen their activities, but it is 
 hoped rather to co-ordinate all agencies and stimulate 
 activities. 
 
 EXTENT OF THE FARM LIFE PROBLEM. 
 
 The farm life problem in Texas is the Country Life 
 movement of the Nation applied to the open country. It 
 is in no sense a class problem. It is a city problem as 
 well as a country problem, state, nation and world-wide. 
 Dr. L. H. Bailey, Dean of the Agricultural College of 
 Cornell University, defines the Country Life movement 
 to be: 
 
 “The working out of the desire to make rural 
 civilization as effective and satisfying as other 
 civilizations; to make country life as satisfying as 
 city life and country forces as effective as city 
 forces.” 
 
 Science, inventions and discoveries are influencing the 
 business and social problems of the world; the people of 
 the cities by organized cooperation are re-directing their 
 business methods and social life in ways that gain to 
 themselves excellent profits and the blessings of modern 
 civilization. The rural country must do likewise or suffer 
 decadence. 
 
 
 
 
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 No city is self-sustaining; they draw food, clothing and 
 raw materials from the country. Diminish the supply of 
 these and the cities suffer. The cities also draw much of 
 their population from the country. Hitherto the ablest 
 men and women of the cities have come from the country. 
 These have been the cities’ best asset. Let the country 
 decay, its people will continue to flock to the cities, but 
 instead of being an asset they will become a liability. 
 
 As has been said, “The country life problem is new to 
 those only who have just discovered it.’ 
 
 Washington was the father of the movement in this 
 country. He, in connection with Benjamin Franklin, in 
 1785, organized the Philadelphia Society for the Promo¬ 
 tion of Agriculture, and he made the promotion of agri¬ 
 culture the subject of his last message to Congress. This 
 Society is the oldest of its kind in the United States and 
 is still one of the most active. A Rural Life Conference 
 for the State of Pennsylvania was held under its auspices 
 March last, which was attended by leading people from all 
 over the United States and by Sir Horace Plunkett, the 
 great Irish reformer, who, Dr. Warren H. Wilson, Super¬ 
 intendent Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian 
 Church in U. S. A., says, has done more than all the home 
 rulers to free Ireland from her poverty and banish the 
 beggar from the Irish highway by the same methods 
 that we must follow here. 
 
 Nothing appears to have been done by Congress in re¬ 
 sponse to President Washington’s message. Land was 
 abundant, cheap and fertile, yielding surplus crops under 
 the unscientific methods of its tillers. Two things re¬ 
 sulted: the Nation was supplied with cheap food and 
 clothing, and farmers gave little thought to science in 
 their business or to soil conservation. After the Civil 
 War, the railroads having, penetrated the great West, 
 farmers pushed out over the prairies of the Middle West 
 and Southwest and, from 1870 to 1900, they mined the 
 fertility out of the rich soil of these sections and con¬ 
 tinued to feed the Nation at prices so cheap as to utterly 
 impoverish themselves. No soil is so rich that it cannot 
 be exhausted. By and by, the yields became less and the 
 demands greater, as population increased. In about 1900, 
 consumption caught up with production. Then complaints 
 of high cost of living became more or less general and 
 reached the ears of the Government. A bureau was added 
 to the Department of Agriculture and men were sent out 
 to teach scientific methods of farming, soil building and 
 conservation. They found the task a difficult one. Low 
 prices, long hours of toil and hard times had depressed 
 and discouraged the farmers and neglect had rendered 
 
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 them suspicious of proffers of assistance. Their high¬ 
 ways, schools and churches showed neglect and the com¬ 
 munity spirit was lacking. 
 
 THE ROOSEVELT COMMISSION. 
 
 These conditions were brought to the attention of Presi¬ 
 dent Roosevelt, who undertook to lend a hand. He ap¬ 
 pointed five men of high character and learning, of great 
 patriotism and interest in rural life conditions, as a Coun¬ 
 try Life Commission. These were Dean L. H. Bailey, of 
 Cornell; Dean K. L. Butterfield, of Amherst; Mr. Henry 
 Wallace, of Wallace’s Farmer, Iowa; Mr. Walter Page, of 
 The World’s Work, and Mr. Gifford Pinchot, of the Bu¬ 
 reau of Forestry. 
 
 The Commission conducted a thorough investigation, 
 holding thirty meetings in various parts of the Nation, and 
 receiving over 120,000 written dissertations from country 
 people and workers for the betterment of country life. The 
 Commission set forth the results of its labors in an ex¬ 
 haustive report which was transmitted to Congress by the 
 President, with an illuminating message. Congress seems 
 to have been unfriendly and this report, a most valuable 
 document, was not printed for public distribution. I wish 
 to quote two paragraphs from the message of transmittal 
 and one from the report; 
 
 “The farmers have hitherto had less than their 
 full share of public attention along the lines of 
 business and social life. There is too much 
 belief among all our people that the prizes of life 
 lie away from the farms. I am, therefore, anxious 
 to bring before the people of the United States 
 the question of securing better business and better 
 living on the farm, whether by cooperation among 
 the farmers for buying, selling and borrowing; by 
 promoting social advantages and opportunities in 
 the country, or by any other legitimate means that 
 will help to make country life more gainful, more 
 attractive, and fuller of opportunities, pleasures 
 and rewards for the men, women and children of 
 the farms.” 
 
 “The farm grows the raw material for the food 
 and clothing of all our citizens; it supports directly 
 almost half of them; and nearly half of the children 
 of the United States are born and brought up on 
 the farms. How can the fife of the farm family be 
 made less solitary, fuller of opportunity, freer from 
 drudgery, more comfortable, happier and more 
 attractive? Such a result is most earnestly to be 
 
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desired. How can life on the farm be kept on the 
 highest level, and where it is not already cn that 
 level, be so improved, dignified and brightened 
 as to awaken and keep alive the pride and loyalty 
 of the farmer’s boys and girls, of the farmer’s wife 
 and of the farmer himself? How can a compelling 
 desire to live on the farm be aroused in the chil¬ 
 dren that are born on the farm? All these ques¬ 
 tions are of vital importance, not only to the 
 farmer, but to the whole Nation.”—Theodore 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 ‘‘We must picture to ourselves a new rural 
 social structure, developed from the strong resi¬ 
 dent forces of the open country; and then we 
 must set at work all the agencies that will tend 
 to bring this about. The entire people need to be 
 aroused to this avenue of usefulness. Most of the 
 new leaders must be farmers who can find not only 
 a satisfactory business career on the farm, but who 
 will throw themselves into the service of upbuild¬ 
 ing the community. A new race of teachers is 
 also to appear in the country. A new rural clergy 
 is to be trained. These leaders will see the great 
 underlying problem of country b'fe, and together 
 they will work, each in his own field, for the one 
 goal of a new and permanent rural civilization. 
 Upon the development of this distinctively rural 
 civilization rests ultimately our ability, by methods 
 of farming requiring the highest intelligence, to 
 continue to feed and clothe the hungry nations; to 
 supply the city and metropolis with fresh blood, 
 clean bodies and clear brains that can endure the 
 strain of moderen urban life; and to preserve a 
 race of men in the open country that, in the future 
 as in the past, will be the stay and strength of the 
 Nation in time of war and controlling spirit in 
 time of peace.” 
 
 The Commission suggested a broad campaign of pub¬ 
 licity cn the whole subject of rural life, until there is an 
 awakened appreciation of the necessity of giving this phase 
 of our national development as much attention as has 
 been given to other interests. They urge the conserving 
 of soil fertility, the necesity for diversifying farming; the 
 need for better rural society is suggested; the better safe¬ 
 guarding of the strength and happiness of farm women; 
 a more widespread conviction of the necessity for organi¬ 
 zation for both economic and social purposes, such organi¬ 
 zation to be cooperative, and the farmer is reminded that 
 
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 he has a distinctive natural responsibility toward the farm 
 laborer in providing him with good living facilities and in 
 helping him to be a man among men. 
 
 The Country Life Commission made the following spe¬ 
 cific recommendations to Congress: 
 
 The encouragement of a system of thorough-going sur¬ 
 veys of all agricultural regions in order to take stock and 
 to collect local facts, with the idea of providing a basis on 
 which to develop a scientifically and economically sound 
 country life. 
 
 A system of extension work in rural communities 
 through all land-grant colleges with the people at their 
 homes and on their farms. 
 
 A thorough-going investigation by experts of the middle¬ 
 man system of handling farm products, coupled with a 
 general inquiry into the farmer’s disadvantages in respect 
 to taxation, transportation rates, cooperative organizations 
 and credit, and the general business system. 
 
 An inquiry into the control and use of the streams of 
 the country with the object of protecting the people and 
 their rights therein. 
 
 The establishing of a highway engineering service to be 
 at the call of the States in working out effective and eco¬ 
 nomical highway system. 
 
 The establishment of a system of parcels post and pos¬ 
 tal savings banks. 
 
 The enlargement of the United States Bureau of Edu¬ 
 cation, to enable it to stimulate and coordinate the edu¬ 
 cational work of the Nation. 
 
 Providing such regulations as will enable the States 
 that do not permit the sale of liquors to protect them¬ 
 selves from traffic from adjoining States. 
 
 It was John Wanamaker who said that there were 
 just four arguments against the establishment of the par¬ 
 cels post, and these were the four principal express com¬ 
 panies of the Nation. To these four arguments against 
 the publishing of the report of the Country Life Com¬ 
 mission might be added certain middle-men organizations, 
 the whiskey trust and those banking institutions which 
 opposed the postal savings banks. 
 
 THE FARMERS’ PROBLEM DIFFICULT. 
 
 But it may be that Congress thought that farmers 
 should solve their own problems the same as city people 
 are required to do. Farmers, unassisted, cannot do it, and 
 there is a reason. Their occupation, habits and environ¬ 
 ments, essentially differing from those of city people, stand 
 in the way. As a class they have little surplus above bare 
 
 
 
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 subsistence; they live remote and their work keeps them 
 apart from their neighbors, all cf which render organiza¬ 
 tion and cooperation, without which they can never solve 
 their problems, most difficult. 
 
 Rural conditions in Texas in many respects are not so 
 bad as they are in some States where factories and large 
 cities have drawn heavily on the population and, by the 
 Grace cf God, we do not intend that they shall become 
 so. When I say “we” I mean the press, the schools, col- 
 
 
 leges, the universities, the teachers, country preachers, 
 Christian men and women, and I must add, the railroads, 
 the local commercial organizations of cities, our State Edu¬ 
 cational and Agricultural Departments and our health offi¬ 
 cers, all of whom are willing and ready to help. 
 
 The Texas Farm Life Commission is in no sense a back- 
 to-the-soil association—the need is better farmers rather 
 than more farmers. If we shall make farming profitable 
 by science in production and business methods of market¬ 
 ing, revive the community spirit, consolidate rural schools 
 and supply them with efficient teachers, so that the children 
 of farmers shall have educational advantages equal to those 
 of the cities, and improve reads, so that the children can 
 be conveyed to these schools as they are in Ohio, Iowa, 
 Indiana, South Carolina, Louisiana and many other States, 
 and so that the farmer can convey his products to the 
 markets, visit his neighbor, attend his church and com¬ 
 munity meetings, the farmer boys and girls now living in 
 the country will remain upon the farms and be successful 
 and prosperous. 
 
 DANGER OF PEASANTRY. 
 
 The Country Life movement has become acute in this 
 Nation; it is claiming the attention of the sociologists, the 
 educators and the workers for moral uplift everywhere. 
 Dr. L. H. Bailey enumerates forty agencies of organized 
 forces making for a better rural life. All agree that unless 
 we can succeed in making country life as satisfying as city 
 life, ambitious people will not remain in the country and 
 our rural population wil surely become a Nation of 
 peasants. 
 
 The average proportion of tenants to farm owners of all 
 the States is 37%. Thinking people and students of condi¬ 
 tions are alarmed at so great proportion of tenants on 
 farms. Let us see how it is in Texas. I take these figures 
 from the Agricultural Bulletin for Texas, 13th Census of 
 the United States: 
 
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 1880. 1890. 1900. 1910. 
 
 Farms operated by 
 
 ^ owners. 108,716 132,616 177,190 195,863 
 
 Farms operated by 
 
 tenants. 65,468 95,510 174,991 219,575 
 
 These figures show that in the last thirty years the pro¬ 
 portion of tenants in Texas has increased from 37.6 per 
 cent, of all farmers, in 1880, to 52.6 per cent, in 1910. In 
 these thirty years, farm owners have increased at the rate 
 of a little less than 3,000 a year, while tenants have in¬ 
 creased at the rate of a little over 5,000 per year. 
 
 The tenant, having no interest in the soil and his tenure 
 being from year to year, does not conserve fertility of 
 lands, build schools or roads, and Dr. Wilson says he sets 
 the social status of his community. It is the tenant and 
 not the man who retards the community spirit. Let him 
 become a land owner and he may become a community 
 builder. 
 
 
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 A GREATER DANGER. 
 
 I wish to point to another danger, which I consider is 
 equally as undesirable as that of rural peasantry, and 
 which seems to me more likely to occur; great agricul¬ 
 tural corporations are likely to enter the field of farm¬ 
 ing. Col. Yoakum notes that it costs the farmers seven 
 billion dollars to market six billion dollars of the 1911 
 farm products. If corporations had produced this output 
 they would have marketed it for about half of seven billion 
 dollars, saving at least three billion dollars marketing 
 expense to themselves. This would add 50% to present 
 prices received by farmers for their products. At such 
 prices there is but one field of investments yielding better 
 returns upon capital than would farming under corporate 
 methods. The record at Washington of revenues for cor¬ 
 poration earnings reveals that incorporated financial insti¬ 
 tutions and insurance companies had a net revenue in 
 1911 of 15.84% on capital invested; incorporated mercantile 
 concerns, 10.13%; public service organizations, 4.17%, and 
 manufacturing concerns, 4.80%. All the capital of the 
 country cannot find investment in financial institutions and 
 insurance companies, and a farming corporation would fur¬ 
 nish its own hands with merchandise, which business 
 offers the next largest returns upon capital. A great 
 farming enterprise conducted by a corporation would 
 operate its own gins, compresses, cotton oil mills and can¬ 
 ning plans. It would operate on 4 and 5 per cent, money, 
 where farmers pay 10 per cent. There is no class of labor 
 
 
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 so cheap as farm labor. Then, too, there are men of ac¬ 
 complishment and training available to take the superin¬ 
 tendency of such farms. Young men from the cities as 
 well as from the country are attending our A. & M. 
 Colleges. The Massachusetts State College reports 50% 
 of its students from cities; the College of Agriculture of 
 the University of Illinois reports 45% from cities; the 
 Agricultural College of Missouri reports 33% from cities, 
 and the New York State College of Agriculture reports 
 57% of its students from cities of 5,000, and over, and 51% 
 from cities of 10,000 and upward. 
 
 The present methods of production and marketing farm 
 products are wasteful and inefficient. In every other field 
 where there is so much waste, corporate efficiency has 
 taken possession and is coining that waste into gold. Under 
 the present conditions and the spirit of the age, the only 
 thing that will prevent great corporations from entering 
 the agricultural fields of industry is for the farmers to 
 combine and eliminate all waste from both the method of 
 production and of marketing. Farming by corporations 
 would bring more evils to our Nation than would farming 
 by pea^ntry, because, in such event, rural people will be¬ 
 come mere farm laborers and share tenants executing the 
 plans of the foreman. This condition would bring the con¬ 
 test between socialistic and capitalistic theories face to face 
 in final conflict. 
 
 While I have merely touched upon the extent and im¬ 
 portance of the Country Life movement, surely I have gone 
 far enough to make plain the wisdom and foresight that 
 impelled the President of the Texas Commercial Secre¬ 
 taries and Business Men’s Association to recommend the 
 appointment cf a Texas Farm Life Commission. The 
 most obtuse will understand why the membership of that 
 Association unanimously adopted the recommendation of 
 its President, and why such far-seeing men as the execu¬ 
 tive committee of the Farmers Educational and Co-opera¬ 
 tive Union of the State should have so readily joined in 
 the movement, and why the American Bankers’ Associa¬ 
 tion, the railroad companies, the local commercial clubs 
 of the cities of the State, the Federated Women’s Clubs, 
 as well as patriotic men and women of every calling, edu¬ 
 cators and the press of the State are ready and willing to 
 assist in the solution of this greatest of all problems con¬ 
 fronting the people of Texas today. 
 
 If we are to save the rural districts of Texas from de¬ 
 cadence we must bring about conditions in the country 
 that will make country life as satisfying as is life in the 
 city. We must give to the people who live on the farm 
 the same educational advantages for their children as those 
 
 
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 of cities enjoy. I have not the figures for the State, but in 
 the entire United States there is $12.00 per annum spent 
 for education of the rural child against $30.00 per annum 
 for the education of the city child. We must also give to 
 the country people, or they must make for themselves, 
 good thoroughfares, and there must be created and fos¬ 
 tered the community spirit until a better civilization is 
 attained. 
 
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 A SURPLUS IS NEEDED. 
 
 Right here I want to give you Sir Horace Plunkett’s 
 definition of civilization: 
 
 “Civilization as we understand it in this coun¬ 
 try, implies a certain standard of luxury and com¬ 
 fort. Further, that this comfort and luxury in¬ 
 volves a surplus over and above the mere means 
 of subsistence. A scheme of civilization involves, 
 to my mind, a clearly thought-out plan for making 
 and maintaining and for using that surplus.” 
 
 The city has its surplus and a clearly thought-out plan 
 for making, maintaining and using such surplus; the rural 
 country has not, and this makes the difference between 
 city and rural civilization. 
 
 It follows that the surplus is the first thing to bring into 
 existence, as there will be no clearly thought-out plans for 
 using such surplus until a surplus is in sight, hence, if we 
 are to have better educational facilities, better roads and 
 better social spirit in the country, we must along with such 
 aspiration, if not in advance of it, pursue methods that will 
 create a surplus above mere subsistence. 
 
 A SURPLUS IS IN SIGHT. 
 
 With the great work that is being done by the A. & M. 
 College, our Experimental Stations, the Agricultural De¬ 
 partment of the State, the Department of Agriculture of 
 the Nation, the Texas branch of which is in the hands of 
 that able and capable worker, Dr. W. P. Proctor, the 
 Texas Industrial Congress, headed by that great patriot, 
 Col. Henry Exall, all which is finding responses from 
 many industrious farmers and farmer boys in Texas, a 
 surplus is coming into sight. 
 
 I am warranted in saying that unless we improve our 
 methods of marketing farm products, whatever surplus the 
 farmers may grow will add little to the luxuries and com¬ 
 forts of the farmers. We had in Texas the last year a 
 good peach and truck crop, but whatever surplus there 
 
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 was rotted upon the ground. The prices to the consumer 
 were maintained so high that only the rich could afford to 
 purchase while the producers got less for the products 
 than if there had been short crops. The cause is patent— 
 business is organized while farmers are not, hence the only 
 competition there was in the disposition of those crops 
 was among the farmers themselves and that in the matter 
 of selling. 
 
 SCOPE OF THE COMMISSION’S WORK. 
 
 The scope of the Commission’s field is indicated by the 
 five subjects selected and assigned to five sub-committees. 
 These are: 
 
 The Production and Marketing of Farm Products—J. T. 
 S. Gant, Archer City, Chairman. 
 
 Rural Credits—Edwin Chamberlain, San Antonio, Chair¬ 
 man. 
 
 Transportation—E. W. Kirkpatrick, McKinney, Chair¬ 
 man. 
 
 Rural Homes and Schools—Mrs. E. P. Turner, Dallas, 
 Chairman. 
 
 Coordination and Cooperation—S. A. Lindsey, Tyler, 
 Chairman. 
 
 The production as well as marketing of farm products 
 will be considered together, because they are closely 
 related. Prices are governed by the quantity and quality 
 produced and the method of marketing. Take the product, 
 cotton, for example: The value and price of cotton can be 
 increased by seed selection, fertilizing and by cultivation, 
 ginning and wrapping, at least five cents per pound; and by 
 gradual marketing at least two cents a pound. Now, if 
 we add, say five cents a pound to cotton values by such 
 methods, we shall enrich this State and take nothing from 
 the consumer because we shall give value for what we re¬ 
 ceive. 
 
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 FARMERS’ UNION. 
 
 Col. Peter Radford, President of the Farmers’ Edu¬ 
 cational and Co-operative Union, explained to the Welfare 
 Commission at its session in San Antonio last year the 
 Union’s plan for marketing cotton... They were so busi¬ 
 ness-like, so logical and reasonable as to win the admiration 
 of those who composed the Welfare Commission for the 
 wisdom and foresight of the Farmers’ Union. All who 
 are not acquainted with the plans, purposes and teach¬ 
 ings of this great organization of farmers will do well to 
 
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 acquaint themselves with them. This is an agricultural 
 State. The prosperity of every business rests upon the 
 prosperity of the farmers of Texas, hence it should be 
 and is the great concern of the wisest of our business men, 
 as well as farmers, that the farms of the State should 
 produce the greatest crops possible and bring their owners 
 the best prices obtainable. 
 
 COOPERATION NECESSARY. 
 
 I state deliberately that the farmers of Texas will never 
 be prosperous until they adopt cooperative methods in 
 the marketing of their products. I am warranted in saying 
 this by the conditions which surround the farmer. I am 
 also warranted in saying this by the experience of every 
 Nation under the sun which has grappled with and solved 
 this problem. Upon this subject I wish to quote the 
 words of Sir Horace Plunkett while speaking to the Rural 
 Life Conference for the State of Pennsylvania held at 
 Philadelphia in March last year. Sir Horace said: 
 
 “I think the ultimate analysis will show that of 
 all the causes to which the high cost of living is to 
 be attributed, the chief cause is that the farmer 
 has failed to apply new business methods both to 
 production and distribution, and that he leaves dis¬ 
 tribution in the hands of multitudinous middle¬ 
 men, unnecessarily costly, and often the middle 
 interests victimize both the producer and the con¬ 
 sumer. 
 
 “I am not talking about the railroad com¬ 
 panies. So far as my experience has gone, at any 
 rate in this country, there is nothing to be said 
 against the railroad companies. They are eager to 
 give accommodations to you and they will give 
 accommodations to farmers provided the farmers 
 will do as farmers on the Continent of Europe 
 have been forced to do, combine together and 
 consign their produce regularly, in bulk, of uni¬ 
 form quality. So far as railways participate in dis¬ 
 tribution they can get it done more cheaply than 
 in any country in the world, that is, anywhere 
 except where the railroads are owned by the 
 State. The whole trouble is that the farmers 
 don't work together; they waste energy. 
 
 “The contribution that I wish to make to your 
 discussion today is simply this: We have found 
 in Ireland, and my studies in many other countries 
 have convinced me, that the thing to begin with 
 
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 and the essential thing to do, neglect of which bars 
 all progress, is the reorganization of the farmers’ 
 business. The great change that the farmers have 
 got to make in their business methods is simply 
 this: They have got to introduce methods of com¬ 
 bination in their business and work together.” 
 
 The Farm Life Commission, recognizing the advantages 
 of cooperation to the business, educational and farming 
 interest in every county, will undertake to secure the ap¬ 
 pointment of a kind of Local Welfare Commission in each 
 county of the State, composed of one banker, the County 
 School Superintendent, the President of the County 
 Farmers’ Union, the local Government Cooperative Agent 
 and the Secretary of the local commercial organization. 
 Such a commission or committee can encourage county 
 fairs, educational rallies, good roads movements, farmers’ 
 meetings or institutes and in many other ways co-operate 
 for the advancement of the community’s best interest. 
 
 I do not believe that Dr. G. Walker Fiske has stated it 
 too strongly when he said that the test of modern civiliza¬ 
 tion is the capacity to cooperate. 
 
 RURAL CREDITS. 
 
 Rural Credits is important to the farmer. There are by 
 the 13th census, 417,770 farms in Texas, the average size 
 of which is 269.1 acres. It is reasonable to average one 
 farmer to the farm. It is estimated that the annual in¬ 
 debtedness of each farmer is $500.00. This would be about 
 $210,COO,000 for all Texas farmers. The average rate of 
 interest paid by Texas farmers is, I am sure, 10 per cent., 
 or $21,000,000 annually. The European farmer gets money 
 at 3^4 to 4^ per cent, interest by systems of rural banks— 
 and these are based upon cooperation. If Texas farmers 
 can secure 5 per cent, money they will save $11,000,000 
 annually. In ten years they would have saved over $100,- 
 000,000—enough to build all the roads and erect all the 
 school houses needed in this State and add something to 
 that surplus necessary to secure the conveniences and 
 luxuries of modern civilization. 
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 Another committee is that on transportation. The trans¬ 
 portation problem directly affects the farmer and the 
 farmer’s family, economically and socially. It begins with 
 the road leading from his door to his school, his church, 
 his mill, his gin, his postoffice and his market. 
 
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 Bad roads are a tax, and a fearful limitation upon the 
 business and social life of country people. Bad roads 
 make three miles equal to ten, and require three hours 
 of man and team where one should suffice. Good farming, 
 good schools, good churches and good social conditions do 
 not lie along bad country roads. 
 
 The farmer is also interested in steam and interurban 
 railroads and their charges for transportation. It is up to 
 him to do some investigation and thinking along these 
 lines. He should know his rights and best interest and 
 guard them intelligently. 
 
 This sub-committee is headed by a capable farmer and 
 will go deeply into the problem of transportation as it 
 affects farm life. 
 
 RURAL HOMES AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 Another committee is that on Rural Homes and Schools. 
 Volumes have been written and volumes can yet be written 
 upon this inexhaustible subject. The world is large and its 
 wonders are many. One may travel from childhood to old 
 age and see something new, wonderful and fascinatingly 
 interesting every day. There are many interesting people 
 in the world, but the little place we call home holds that 
 which is of more interest to each of us than all the world, 
 and all the people of the world, beside. The home in¬ 
 terests and affects not only those who occupy it, but the 
 community also. The influence of the home is reflected 
 through its members upon tne community. Society has an' 
 interest in the education and health of each of its mem¬ 
 bers. The home is an important factor in both of these 
 matters. 
 
 The rural homes and the rural schools shape the eternal 
 destiny of rural boys and girls. If it be true, as Mr. Bur¬ 
 bank says, that “a child absorbs environment; that it is 
 the most susceptible thing in the world to influence, and 
 if that force be applied rightly and constantly when the 
 child is in its most receptive condition, the effect will be 
 pronounced, immediate and permanent.” Then, to begin 
 with, rural schools need better grounds and better build¬ 
 ings. 
 
 If, as Dean Curtis of the Iowa College of Agriculture 
 says, “The country school problem is the most important 
 educational problem that has confronted the American 
 people since the organization of the land-grant colleges,” 
 then we need longer school terms and more interested, 
 capable and experienced teachers for our rural schools. 
 
 If, as stated by Dr. T. F. Hunt, Dean of the College of 
 Agriculture of Pennsylvania, “If this Nation is to hold its 
 
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 intellectual and industrial place among the Nations of the 
 world vocational training must be provided for boys and 
 girls between the ages of fourteen and the age of citizen¬ 
 ship,” then we need the rural industrial high school teach¬ 
 ing agriculture as a science, manual training and domestic 
 science, in every county. 
 
 The three first subjects for our sub-committees relate to 
 the business of farming; that is, the creation and main¬ 
 tenance of that surplus requisite for modern civilization. 
 The fourth relates to the spending of that surplus as well 
 as maintaining it. 
 
 The fifth sub-committee will undertake to make a survey 
 of the whole field, take an inventory of agencies at work 
 and those available for the work of rural development, 
 bring them together for council to the end that the several 
 agencies may coordinate their respective works and co¬ 
 operate therein. 
 
 FARMERS THE BEST LEADERS. 
 
 The farmers of Texas are in need of personal leader¬ 
 ship. They have political leaders, but they need local in¬ 
 dustrial, community and educational leaders. Such leaders, 
 if their leadership is to be effective, must be local and at¬ 
 tached to the soil. The Farm Life Commission recognizes 
 that we have all the agencies necessary to bring about re¬ 
 direction of farm methods and farm life and the re-estab¬ 
 lishing of the community spirit, if only these agencies will 
 do the things that are practical and sequential. We must 
 not expect to bring about redirection merely by conven¬ 
 tions and exhortations. The work will be effective only 
 insofar as we shall discover local leaders, impart to them 
 the vision of the new civilization of the future and induce 
 the men of the soil and those of the city to unite in the 
 work of bringing about such new civilization. 
 
 THE NEW CIVILIZATION. 
 
 That the civilization of the future will differ from the 
 civilization of the past, is the thought of some of our 
 most profound thinkers. It will not be the civilization of 
 the city nor the civilization of the country, but it will be 
 that resulting from the interaction of one upon the other 
 producing a stronger, freer and richer civilization than the 
 world has yet known. It will be stronger because di¬ 
 rected by the cooperative spirit; freer, because devoid of 
 class prejudice, and richer because of the general enjoy¬ 
 ment of modern comforts and conveniences, the better 
 
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diffusion cf education and learning, the broader brother¬ 
 hood of men and the universal equality of opportunities. 
 
 WHAT OUR AGENCIES CAN ACCOMPLISH. 
 
 I will mention only six of the active agencies in Texas 
 which can and should render all the assistance necessary 
 to develop in every rural community the necessary leader¬ 
 ship to unify the community in problems of farm life. 
 These are our educational forces, the government agricul¬ 
 tural forces, the local commercial organizations of cities, 
 the health officers of the country, the country clergy and 
 the press of the State. Mark you, I say, “Assist,” for the 
 real work must be done by the farmers themselves, work¬ 
 ing through themselves and the comunity agencies di¬ 
 rectly under their control. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL FORCES. 
 
 Our educational forces consist of the State University, 
 the A. & M. College, our Normal Institutes and the public 
 school system. These are teaching agriculture, mechanics, 
 manual training and domestic science, to a limited number. 
 Our public school system has its State Superintendent, 
 County Superintendents, teachers for every school and a 
 Beard of School Trustees in every community. Let these 
 catch the spirit and vision of rural life, its needs, and poten¬ 
 tial richness, and impart that to one another until all are 
 of one mind and purpose; let them work upon the patrons 
 and non-patrons of their respective schools until they, too, 
 shall catch the spirit and vision of fuller and richer life. 
 Let the local teacher be a veritable missionary for educa¬ 
 tion not only of school children, but of the people of their 
 respective communities^also. Let them realize what edu¬ 
 cation really is, its advantages and value, bring this to the 
 attention of the farmers; make them understand that edu¬ 
 cation that is worth while, like anything else, costs money 
 and requires devotion and time; that it pays in exact pro¬ 
 portion to the amount invested in it; that the best place 
 to educate their children is at home, and that it is a duty 
 as well as a privilege to build and maintain a school of the 
 best type right in their own community; that good build¬ 
 ings and grounds are necessary to good education; that 
 the best type of education is vocational, that it interests 
 the child and enables it to learn book lessons more read¬ 
 ily; impress them with the advantages of consolidating 
 small schools, not only to the child in attendance but to 
 the community, because it secures better teachers and 
 

 
 
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 enables them to reside permanently and make their com¬ 
 munity and educational work continuous. Let earnest 
 teachers hammer these matters until a convert is secured; 
 recruit and use him from the moment of conversion. 
 Others will fall in line and we shall not only gain ground 
 throughout the country, but hold it when gained. 
 
 AN EXAMPLE. 
 
 In the little State of Maryland there is an industrial 
 high school in every county. These have their corps of 
 teachers and through extension work administer to all the 
 county. They organize boys’ corn clubs, girls’ canning, 
 cooking and sewing clubs. They hold farmers’ short 
 terms twice a year, which are attended by large numbers 
 of farmers to hear the lectures. They give summer 
 courses of instruction in the teaching of agriculture, 
 manual training and domestic science to the rural school 
 teachers, and organize community movements for a better 
 social spirit. These high schools are to the county what 
 the A. M. College is to the State, only their field being 
 smaller their work is correspondingly more effective. 
 These schools use their advanced boys in the organization 
 of boys’ corn clubs, because they have found that a suc¬ 
 cessful boy corn grower can enlist more boys and better 
 interest in the work than can men. 
 
 GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. 
 
 Under the head of Government Agricultural Agencies, 
 I include the State and National Departments of Agricul¬ 
 ture, their several bureaus and departments. 
 
 In every county of Texas where the National Govern¬ 
 ment has not a farm demonstration agent, the State De¬ 
 partment of Agriculture should place one. This will not 
 require much money. If the Legislature will not furnish 
 it, raise the means otherwise. Self help is the best help. 
 The State Superintendent of Agriculture should be suf¬ 
 ficiently determined and tactful to do as the National 
 Government is doing, supply the men and induce com¬ 
 missioners’ courts and commercial organizations to pay 
 the salaries. If he will do this for a year or two, the Leg¬ 
 islature will get orders from home to furnish necessary 
 funds. 
 
 These local demonstration farm agents should be 
 under, attached to and a part of the County High School, 
 where there is one, and where there is not, they should 
 work in close touch with the County School Superinten¬ 
 dent. 
 
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 It will not be long, I hope, until the people will elect 
 no one trustee, teacher or County Superintendent, except 
 upon qualification. The success of the candidate for any 
 office whose only qualification for the position he seeks 
 is that he is a good mixer or campaigner is made possible 
 only by the indifference of the people to the importance 
 of the position he seeks to fill. 
 
 WHAT COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS CAN 
 
 DO. 
 
 The next agency available is the commercial organiza¬ 
 tions of cities. These can, if they will, do as much in the 
 work w T e are speaking of as any agency in the State, if 
 not more. 
 
 I wish I had time to give an outline of the methods of 
 the Chamber of Commerce of Binghamton, N. Y. How it 
 went into partnership with the Lackawanna Railroad and 
 the Department of Agriculture at Washington and estab¬ 
 lished a Bureau of Agriculture for the four counties lying 
 within twenty-five miles of Binghamton. How it was the 
 moving spirit of a soil and farm survey, by which accurate 
 information was obtained of the strength and need of the 
 soils, the annual output and consumption of the farmers, 
 of the methods which were successful and unsuccessful; 
 how the dairy farmer whose annual profits were ten dol¬ 
 lars per cow was brought in contact with and under the 
 tuition of the dairy farmer whose annual profits were one 
 hundred dollars per cow, and how the 30 bushel per acre 
 potato farm became a 150 bushel per acre farm; how 
 cheap freight rates were authorized by the Railroad Com¬ 
 mission on lime and fertilizers and these were brought 
 directly from the kilns and factories and furnished farmers 
 at first cost plus this reduced freight. How banks and 
 business men furnished means without interest as an in¬ 
 ducement for farmers to try out new plans advocated by 
 the Government Agent of science. How by these and 
 other means this Chamber of Commerce reclaimed from 
 a condition of neglect and abandonment the territory of 
 four counties about Binghamton. 
 
 The Commercial Club of the city of Tyler has done a 
 great work for Smith County, but I have not time to 
 enumerate it. 
 
 The commercial organizations of Texas are not worth 
 support if they confine their activities to the limits of the 
 city. The agricultural territory about the city offers 
 bigger returns for attentions of the right kind than do in- 
 . vestments in any other direction. 
 
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 Every local commercial organization should take an in¬ 
 ventory, or make a survey, of the territory surrounding 
 at least co-extensive with the county limits. How many 
 farms are operated by owners, how many by tenants, how 
 many farmers produce a surplus, where do they live, what 
 are their methods, what do they produce, what does it 
 cost to produce corn, hay, cotton, butter, hogs, poultry, 
 etc., in the county? What are the people of the county 
 spending for corn, hay, meat, etc., grown outside the 
 county? This knowledge is the basis of a business-like 
 solution, and commercial organizations are composed of 
 business men. 
 
 Such surveys will surprise many people when they see 
 that farmers in some sections are not self-sustaining, and 
 that the farmers are paying 80c to $1.00 per bushel for 
 corn which can be raised for less than half, and 15c to 25c 
 per pound for bacon which they can produce at a third of 
 such cost. Find out the leaks and wastes and set about 
 correcting them, just like a business man will do in his 
 business. 
 
 WHAT HEALTH OFFICERS CAN DO. 
 
 I have enumerated the State, County and City Health 
 Officers, as an agency, because these officials have the 
 attention and confidence of the people and can, if they 
 will persist, enlighten all our people upon the question of 
 home and school sanitation, the value of it, and make 
 plain the enormous waste resulting from unsanitary con¬ 
 ditions. 
 
 THE COUNTRY CLERGY. 
 
 I have included the country clergy as an agency of 
 much potentiality because the country life movement is 
 religious as well as industrial and social. 
 
 There should be a social and an industrial survey of 
 every community. The pastor, the school teacher and the 
 church and school officials are they who should make 
 such survey. How many families in the community, how 
 many are members of the church, how many members co¬ 
 operate and can be counted on to stand for progress and 
 growth in the community—who are they—what is the re¬ 
 ligious and educational status of all the members of the 
 community? How many children attend school regu¬ 
 larly? What children do not? Why? 
 
 How many farmers are self-sustaining? For a farmer 
 to be self-sustaining he must produce about twice as much 
 
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 as he consumes, and to be a good farmer he must produce 
 three times as much as he consumes. 
 
 I read an account of a community survey recently up in 
 Missouri. It showed the families spent annually an aver¬ 
 age of $771.50 on themselves, $12.00 on schools, $6.00 on 
 roads and $3.00 on their churches. Another discovery 
 was made by a farm survey in a community of New 
 Hampshire. The average net annual income of 154 farm¬ 
 ers who had a common school education was $229.00, 
 while the average net income of the 112 farmers of the 
 same locality who had a high school education was 
 $482.00 annually. The high school education was worth 
 to each farmer who possessed it, $253.00 a year. 
 
 A thorough community survey will reveal conditions, 
 show up the weak spots and open the way to correct 
 things. 
 
 PASTORS AS BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY 
 
 LEADERS. 
 
 Dr. Carver said: “There are three classes of farmers 
 who are satisfactory, satisfied and continually successful. 
 They are the Mormons, the Scotch Presbyerians and the 
 Pennsylvania Germans, who are thrifty, who are organ¬ 
 ized, who are economical and they are making good.” 
 
 Dr. Wilson is authority for the statement that the 
 Mormons, Scotch Presbyterians and Pennsylvania Dutch 
 farmers are led by their clergy in church, social and busi¬ 
 ness affairs, and that these are the most successful farmers 
 of America. “They are on their farms,” says Dr. Wilson, 
 “from generation to generation; they stay there and they 
 don’t like the city. They idolize the country and they like 
 the farm. They cry it out on the streets and they preach 
 it in their churches; farming is their work and their 
 watchword. In a Mormon church a brother will rise to 
 give a deliverance, and when he gets up to talk he will 
 announce a cooperative system. He may speak of a co¬ 
 operative method or the best fertilizer, or about the best 
 market for selling fruit, and he makes it clear that the 
 community is held together by cooperation along these 
 lines.” “With these three orders, the Mormons, the Scotch 
 Presbyterians and the Pennsylvania Dutch,” continued 
 Dr. Wilson, “their farming and their churches are the 
 backbone of country life.” 
 
 If the preacher would bring men into sympathy with 
 God he must first get in touch with the daily life and 
 problems of these men. In teaching cooperation in 
 road, school, community building, and in marketing crops 
 
 21 
 
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he is preparing men to love one another and to adopt 
 that broad brotherhood which is evidently to become the 
 greatest strength of Christian forces in this world. 
 
 “The efficient country church,” says Dr. Fiske, “will 
 definitely serve its community by leading, when possible, 
 in uniting the people in all cooperative endeavors for the 
 general welfare, in arousing a real love for country life 
 and loyalty to the country home.” The same author also 
 adds: “It will endeavor to raise the level of practical 
 efficiency on every farm, making men really better farm¬ 
 ers because they are real Christians.” . 
 
 The country minister must somehow get a vision of his 
 great task as a community builder, says Dr. Fiske. 
 
 Johann Friedrich Oberlin refused calls to pulpits in the 
 city and spent thirty years amongst the poor villagers of 
 the Vosges Mountains, preaching, building roads, schools 
 and teaching agriculture as a science and a business, filling 
 the life of these poor people with the blessings of civiliza¬ 
 tion and his own with rich and fruitful service and making 
 glorious both his name and reward. Men, whether re¬ 
 ligious or not, should support the country church, because 
 it is an essential power in every community, it can be 
 made of great service to the community. 
 
 THE PRESS. 
 
 The press of the State is the active hand-maid and 
 mouth-piece of all who are working for better farm life 
 in Texas. The press of Texas is loyal, patriotic, pro¬ 
 gressive and full of vision of and optimism for a richer, 
 riper and greater civilization of the future. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The men of earth were once collectively engaged in 
 trying to build a tower to the sky.. They were wasting 
 their strength and energies in a useless undertaking and 
 the Lord confused their tongues so that they could no 
 longer cooperate. Since the failure of that collective en¬ 
 terprise, by a kind of atavism, there are people who doubt 
 the success of every cooperative undertaking. These will 
 be slow to join in our great work. Then there are others 
 whose understanding of the motives of their fellow-kind 
 is even more confused than were ever the tongues of the 
 tower builders. The luxury of self-pity has become a 
 habit with them and they refuse to join others in move¬ 
 ments making for better conditions, fearing they will be 
 led into some kind of ambush by the leaders, delivered 
 
bodily to the “negro in the wood-pile,” and made to turn 
 the stone to grind the other fellow’s ax. 
 
 To both these classes let me give assurance that our 
 undertaking is not to build to the sky, but to the ground, 
 upon the ground and in the soil; that it is both feasible! 
 and useful, helping all mankind; and that God is with 
 and not against us, for we are engaged in His cause—the 
 uplift of humanity. And to the latter let me say, if they 
 will employ the rule for judging the motives of men given 
 by Him who knew best human arts of deceit, they need 
 not be deceived by either the men and women engaged in 
 the Farm Life movement, or by themselves: 
 
 “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men 
 gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even 
 so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but 
 a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” 
 
 For the cause we represent rather than for ourselves, 
 I invoke that test in judging of the motives of the noble 
 men and women of this State who are uniting their 
 energies with mine in efforts to bring to Texas and all 
 the people of Texas, equality of opportunity, the advan¬ 
 tages of education, civilization, social advance and moral 
 uplift. 
 
 FORM 26* 
 
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