Mrs. LUND-It is a great pleasure to follow Dr. Condra, because his speech is such a good precedent for what I have to say.

If the masses of the American people knew what one man could accomplish for himself, physically and financially, upon from one to five acres of land, this knowledge would revolutionize the life of the Nation. The congestion in our cities is more than a country-wide menace. It is an unnecessary outrage. There is land, good, healthgiving land, enough for all the people.

The conservation of the man has been too long overlooked. The commercial policy of the Nation could scarcely be called far-sighted-so wasteful have we been of all natural resources.

We have despoiled our forests, impoverished our soil, given away the public domain. Our labor conditions in many respects shame us in comparison with other nations. Looking about today, it would seem that our thought has been "Get all we can, no matter how, and waste it as we will, for after us, the deluge!" But a new commercial and political spirit is being born; a renaissance of righteousness is setting in, and the commercial leaders of the country are taking stock, as it were, of the actual situation.

Big business men are realizing that a healthy man is worth more in dollars and cents than a half sick one; it is recognizing that sanitation. is a good investment. It is beginning to wake up to the fact that the children are more valuable producing machines when they are well protected, housed, fed and educated. The cry of the philanthropist to give because it was right and necessary that these conditions be ameliorated, has met with only sporadic response, but this new call to do the right. thing because it pays in dollars to do it, is meeting a greater answer from the people.

Little Farms Magazine found it impossible to evade the responsibility imposed upon it by its readers. We roused them to a desire to go out upon the land-to try the new condition. They came to us for information. We could not go into the land business. We decided to form "Forward-to-the-Land Leagues" in all principal cities.

Moneyed men are not asked to contribute alms but only to invest. their money at a nominal rate of interest, which the workingman with his own home and garden, with health and a living assured, is willing and able to pay. This has been proved where the experiment has been tried in the manufacturing cities in England, and in such communities as San Ysidro, Southern California, in our own country.

The work of the Little Farms Magazine in the founding of these Forward-to-the-Land Leagues has been unique and necessary. And its purposes two fold.

In the first place, it was of the utmost importance in meeting the grave problems confronting the nation, particularly that of the bringing

our ratio of agricultural production where it safely balances the ratio of population, to have a medium by which knowledge of the intensive methods of agriculture could be brought to the individual.

The wide-spread interest in the forward-to-the-land movement, which has been taken up alike by press and magazine, has created a hunger for specific information which occasional columns of general news can not satisfy. Little Farms Magazine tells, specifically, how a small acreage will yield and has yielded, industrial independence. It quotes stories of those who have made good after leaving the old work of bookkeeping and clerking and taken a "little farm."

The problem which the farm presents today is not the same as that of yesterday. The loneliness and isolation no longer obtains. The message that the Little Farms Magazine takes to the world today is that scientific agriculture makes the acreage necessary for individual maintenance so small that social life can be developed on the farm in the most ideal manner. The magazine advocates the upbuilding of the social center, with its library, its clubhouse and gymnasium, its moving pictures and mechanical music.

As I came through the country from the Pacific Coast and saw the empty acres of farm land waiting, and then entered the big eastern cities, and looked into the hopeless, pallid faces of its people, I could think that the earth, if it had a voice, would cry aloud with the cry of Him of long ago, who said: "How often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens, but ye would not."

Chairman WALLACE-There are fifteen minutes left. If Mr. Barrett, President of the Farmers' Union, is here we would be glad to give it to him.

Mr. BARRETT-Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Speaking for approximately three million American farmers, I can say with absolute accuracy that the primary article in the creed of Conservation should be the conservation of the man on the land.

In volume and variety of resources, the United States is the mightiest nation in the world. It is true that the British Empire may, through its dependencies, have a greater territorial reach, but from the standpoint of a continuous stretch of land and the body of acres cultivated and susceptible to cultivation, America admittedly leads the world.

The effect of this handicap is indicated not only in the present breadth of our domestic and international commerce, but to a greater extent in the promise of its more wonderful commercial conquests yet to come. The Nation is barely on the threshold of its destiny. That fact should not mislead us as to the difficulties in the way of making the destiny real, and not merely a boastful prophecy.

In the process of transmuting our possibilities into assets-what is the dominant factor? The American farmer. I challenge any of my distinguished audience to mention a single phase of commerce, one feature of trade, the smallest detail of actual subsistence that does not eventually trace back to the man plodding out there on the acres.

Napoleon said an army traveled on its belly. He could have said, with equal truth, that civilization travels on its belly. And the farmer is the factor that fills the Great American Stomach, and that keeps full every dinner pail, regarding which we have heard so much during political campaigns. More than that, he also clothes the armies of development. Nor must we forget that with the South's cotton as the lever, he keeps the international trade balance on the American side of the ledger. You tell me the manufacturer plays a large part in our current and our probable development. This is true. You tell me also, that what might be called trade-strategy, pure and simple-the proverbial "Yankee shrewdness"-is going to win for America the bulk of the world's busi

ness.

I do not dispute these assertions. But I answer: That back of trade-strategy and of dollar-diplomacy is--the American farmer. Without him, all would be in vain; without him, all of those resources we agree ought to be conserved would melt into impalpable air.

Let us admit, then, that the farmer is the keystone in the arch not only of national advance, but of sheer national existence. His problems, then, are the Nation's problems and his welfare, the Nation's welfare. No nation is stronger than its farmers. If the farmer is poorly nourished, if the Government is negligent of his rights, indifferent to his mental development and moral soundness, the way will be surely blocked to our national march forward.

It is to the vital interest of America to cultivate intensively not only the farm, but-what is more important-to cultivate intensively the farmer. What use to conserve our resources, unless we conserve the man behind the resources? The stability of national progress and of government itself is dependent upon conserving the farmer.

All of you within hearing of my voice may say: "We concede these facts. Are we not, right now, trying to aid the farmer, to conserve him, to intensively cultivate his possibilities and safeguard his rights?" And I answer: "Probably you are. But you can not help-you can not conserve-you can not cultivate the farmer unless you mix and mingle with him in the first person-not for twenty-four hours, but more likely for twenty-four months or twenty-four years." I give full credit to the splendid intentions of the men who have tried and who now are trying to aid the farmer. But you can not adequately grasp his problem by using field-glasses from the convention hall or interviewing him over a long distance telephone, so to speak.

The scientists who are searching for secrets, the missionaries who are looking for converts, use neither of these methods. They go straight to the scene of battle. And so must all persons do, my friends, if they expect intelligently to conserve, to cultivate the American element which is the pivot of all other elements in this country. Study him at first hand, then your sympathies will be practical, not theoretic; your suggestions based on conditions, not on conjecture. Fight with him, side by side, in the ranks, day by day. That is the only way you can learn of the foes-not the least of which is his own weakness-which he has to combat, and what his victory means to the weal or woe of this common country of ours.

At this point President White reassumed the Chair.

President WHITE-The ex-President of this Congress, familiarly called "Uncle Henry," and, in dignified circles, Dr. Henry Wallace, but who doesn't like the name and prefers "Uncle Henry," will speak tonight, as will Judge Ben B. Lindsey, of Denver, Colo., the children's friend.

The morning session is now at an end. We hope you will get back here at 2 o'clock, because we have a very full program.

FIFTH SESSION.

The Congress reconvened in the Murat Theater, at 2:00 o'clock and was called to order by President White.

Fresident WHITE-On account of Professor Fairchild's being called away, having to leave on an early train, we will listen to his address first this afternoon. Professor Fairchild is foremost in the ranks of modern education, in teaching the conservation of human life, the conservation of the soil, and everything that goes to make up thorough manhood among the boys of the land. I now introduce to you Prof. E. T. Fairchild, of Topeka, Kan., President of the National Educational Association, whose subject is "The Duty of the Teacher."

Professor FAIRCHILD-Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congress: With your permission I want to change my subject as printed. It is not the subject of my remarks this afternoon. I should like to call it "A Plea for More Equal Educational Opportunities."

In the few minutes allowed me, I can only hope to sketch briefly some of the conditions that confront us today. I shall have some things to say that represent definitely a great lack of progress, but that I may not be labeled as a pessimist, I wish at the beginning to state as my conviction that the present is the best moment educationally that the world has

ever seen. Had I the time, I should like to describe to you the marvelous progress that has taken place in certain types of our educational activity.

The growth of our universities and colleges is little short of marvellous. In a single decade in these United States the increase in enrollment has been fully 98 per cent. This increase in enrollment has also been manifested in Europe, in England, where there has been a genuine increase in the number of provincial universities. The increase in enrollment in the past ten years is most marked in Germany. In Germany, where there have been no new institutions erected the increased enrollment in a single decade represents 60 per cent. Such is the history of the increased enrollment, which, with increased efficiency in the way of larger and more efficient faculties, has taken place in this country and in Europe. It is a world-wide movement, by friends, and so far as I can see, is a recognition that the best field of opportunity to the ambitious and capable youth is through the college.

Then we come to the story of the success of our high schools. Here again the growth has been phenominal. Those schools in number and in enrollment have gone forward by leaps and by bounds. In a single State, in my own, if I may be pardoned for this allusion, let me tell you what has happened in five years. The increase in the number of high schools in five years is one hundred per cent. and the increase in the number of teachers one hundred and twenty per cent. This is simply typical of the condition all over these United States. Again we have a concrete instance of the conviction upon the part of our people that the boy or girl of to-day who is to have something like an equal chance to-morrow, should have the opportunities provided by our high schools. I wish I had time to expand before you this growth and its meaning to our nation, but it is not may purpose to discuss that at length. I want to say, however, that as the result of this marvelous activity and growth we have had in our high schools and our graded schools in the cities, we have reached a maximum term. We are having a constantly enriched curriculum and generous expenditures are being made everywhere. Modern buildings, the latest word in lighting and heating and ventilation are found everywhere. Thorough organization characterizes this type of our educational work.

A vital point in the development of this growth, this high organization, is the expert supervision that has charge of these schools everywhere.

It is upon these higher institutions, the universities, the colleges and the high schools that the emphasis of educational thought and interest has been bestowed. Here notable investigations are constantly in progress with a view to still greater efficiency. Here the active and moral influence of the best and wisest of our country finds expression. Every