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Show "BACK TO THE LAND." The announced efforts of the Rockefeller foundation foun-dation to take people back to the land at first thought one would say had no parallel in history. But there stands the old saw, "History repeats itself," it-self," and the parallel is to be found. Away back in the past, a thousand years before Columbus sailed out on his voyage by which he discovered the new world, there was just such a movement as this, guided not by any financial king seeking a method of spending his money for the benefit of humanity, but by the gaod of St. Benedict, founder of the order which bears his name, and canonized by reason rea-son of hi3 powerful influence for good in the world. It was St. Benedict who, fourteen hundred years ago, by teaching his followers how to till the soil, at the same time teaching the great truths of Christianity, by precept and example, did more to spread the means of salvation and to regain a knowledge of agriculture to all Europe than any other of his time. To the world at large St. Benedict is little known, and the work of the order which he established estab-lished at Monte Cassino, near Naples, has been forgotten for-gotten in this day. ' It is well, therefore, to recall the fact that it was the influence of this monk and his followers which uplifted humanity and spread Christianity and civilization throughout western Europe. That was a "back to the land" movement, and the results amply testify to its timeliness time-liness and value. Of course, conditions now, in our highly developed artificially, are not the same as they were in Europe fourteen centuries ago, but the opportunity which will be afforded by the present pres-ent movement may be as rich in results as the earlier movement. At least we may express the hope that such will be the case. The humanitarian side of the present movement is one fraught with mighty possibilities. |