A commonwealth, therefore, that educates her children in due proportion to and in harmony with the demands of her principal industry, acts the part of wisdom. In this the state becomes the servant of both present and future generations by training her children for the conservation of Nature's gifts, while yet multiplying their use for the comfort and happiness of all the people. If the clergy would preach occasionally from the book of Nature, they would discover a proximity to and dependence upon God enjoyed by him who sows and reaps, who cultivates animals and flowers, who creates things and works miracles as his ordinary life work, which few others can enjoy. Such themes might not only be expounded with profit to those who work their fellowmen, but should also be impressed betimes upon those who work the soil for the good of their fellowmen. _The Paramount Problem._ The paramount problem, therefore, is to make the conditions of rural life desirable--to convert farming into an enjoyable vocation; to make farm life and its labors a business to be envied and not despised. The fact is, planning for beauty and comfort in the city has progressed far and away beyond the country. It now but remains for the country to catch up and go the city many times better. This is entirely possible, since the great "out doors" is a country heritage and ample spaces are available for exterior delights such as trees, shrubbery and flowers, and for free access to abundance of pure air and sunshine. Moreover, we should not forget that we are now living in a new world. The old agriculture and its associated rural industries have been shaken to their very foundation. This makes the solution of the rural problem, to some extent, speculative. For one thing the country is becoming urbanized. This may prove helpful. Again it may not. Individualism, however, is giving place more and more to commercialized enterprise. At the same time the evils of transient tenantry follow close upon the heels of successful farming, where farmers rent their land and move to town; and also of unsuccessful farming, where the mortgage shark eventually becomes possessed of the land. What the state needs to encourage, therefore, is farm ownership by the many rather than by the few, and farm ownership rather than farm tenantry. We must retain on the farm, as farmers, the best type of American manhood and womanhood or the nation will fall into decay, just as Rome fell with the decline of her agrarian influence. The consolidated country school, by rendering obsolete the one room district school house, is a progressive step toward improved educational facilities for rural children.