The Country-Life Movement in the United States — John Shaqi
The Country-Life Movement in the United StatesBailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
History
The Country-Life Movement in the United States
Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Country life
I am much afraid that some of the newer unattached institutions, in
their eagerness to make departures and to be self-sufficient, will not
profit by our long development, and that the secondary schools and
others may make many of the mistakes that the regular colleges of
agriculture long ago have made. The presumption is against any school
that expects to develop merely a local enterprise, without reference to
other schools or to experience.
I am sure we all want to encourage the introduction of agriculture into
all educational institutions, but we should not be misled merely by the
word "agriculture"; and in the interest of good work we should be
careful not to encourage any enterprise of this kind until convinced
that it has been well studied and that it will be administered in the
interest of rural progress.
WOMAN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT
On the women depend to a greater degree than we realize the nature and
extent of the movement for a better country life, wholly aside from
their personal influence as members of families. Farming is a
co-partnership business. It is a partnership between a man and a woman.
There is no other great series of occupations in which such
co-partnership is so essential to success. The home is on the farm, and
a part of it. The number of middle-aged unmarried men living on farms is
very small. It is quite impossible to live on a farm and to run it
advantageously without family relation.
It follows, then, that if the farming business is to contribute to the
redirection of country life, the woman has responsibilities as well as
the man. As the strength of a chain is determined by its weakest link,
so will the progress of rural civilization be determined by the
weakness of the farm as an economic unit, or by the weakness of the home
as a domestic and social unit.
Now, the farmer himself cannot have great influence in redirecting the
affairs of his community until he is first master of his own
problem,--that is, until he is a first-class farmer. In the same way, a
woman cannot expect to have much influence in furthering the affairs of
her rural community until she also is master of her own problem, and her
problem is primarily the home-making part of the farm. In the mastering
of his or her own problem, the farmer or his wife may also contribute
directly to the progress of the community. Every advance in the
management of the household contributes to the general welfare: it sets
new ideas under way.
If the farming business must in general be reorganized, so also must the
householding part of it be reorganized. The solution of the farm-labor
problem, for example, lies not alone merely in securing more farm
"hands," but in so directing and shaping the business that less farm
hands will be needed to secure a given economic result; so also the
solution of the household-labor problem is not merely the securing of
more household help, but the simplification of householding itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account