decadent in those high qualities essential to good
government.

Democracy, as a permanent institution, however, is not yet an assured
fact. The experiment of self-government is still in the making. Its
perpetuity cannot be predicated upon scheming traders, money brokers and
political manipulators, but must depend in the last analysis upon the
solid phlegm and conservatism of its rural districts where men are too
busy with productive labor to scheme for political office or unearned
wealth. In other words, and I speak it with sincerity, the rural
population conserves the real dependable life blood of this nation. It
is an accepted fact that in every crisis of our country's history the
rural population was not only on the side of right, but ready to defend
the nation's honor with their votes or with their blood.

When the nation's debt was appalling and money poured into the national
treasury in but feeble currents, the tariffs that replenished it again
were borne like a young Hercules by the farming class, though they
received but a minimum of its protection. Every influence, therefore,
that tends to exalt agriculture as a profession, and farming as a
desirable mode of life, whether it be intellectual, political, ethical
or spiritual, is for the general welfare.

The time is not far distant, let us hope and pray, when agriculture will
cast off the thralldom of the ages and assert her own. But not until the
sons and daughters of the country, trained for rural social and
industrial service, as you are being trained, assert an aggressive
leadership, with genuine patriotism for the needs of the open country,
will the domination of ulterior interests be removed and agriculture
made free to manage its educational institutions and business affairs,
in part at least, for its own good.

_The Rural School Problem._ Since education is the governing factor,
especially so far as it directs the attitude of rural children toward
rural conditions, the country school should be so redirected and
revitalized as to "stir into action community forces which are now
dormant; and to make the rural school a strong and efficient social
center, working for the upbuilding of all the varied interests of a
healthy rural life."

"The redirection of rural education means that the school is to
abandon its city ideals and standards, except as these are
adaptable to rural as well as to city schools, and to develop its
instruction