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Show STAY ON THE FARM W. P. McGuire, editor of the Southside Virginia News. Petersbug, Virginia, has a proposal that deserves wide attention It is simple and it is important. And the crux of it is: Why not keep farm boys on farms? In pusuing- his proposal, he ask 27 pregnant questions con ceming the trend of young men away from the farm and possibk ways of reversing its direction. It is certain obvious that boys who have been reared on farms and have been intimately as sociated with the craft of agriculture since infancy, are besl equipped to make the fanners of tomoiTow. And it is equalh true that these boys have been marching to the cities in armies for a great many years, impelled by the hope of making thei) fortune in a life of which they know little or nothing. In the years following the war, this away-from-the-farn drift added hundreds of thousands of boys to the urban population. popula-tion. And when the depression came, it was an important factoi in causing the worst unemployment situation in our history Most of the boys had never learned any trade especially well they took any old job they could find, and it was usually of a sor' requiring little skill and no training or aptitude. They were tin first to be let out when production slowed. They are likely to b; the last taken back. We have appropriated millions for agricultural relief am' created great federal organiztions to administer it. Certainly i would be worthwhile, as Editor McGuire says, to go to the root of the farm problem and give part of the money and effort tc evolving a plan to enable young men to stay on the farm and be come self-supporting citizens. Doing this would prevent over population of urban centers, tend to mitigate employment problems prob-lems and, as Mr. McGuire says, fits in perfectly with the ad ministration's aim to provide a solid economic foundation for oui country. |
