Then  we  should  bring  up  o


iure   I  feel  in  standing  before  the  Illinois

o  be  here  and  to  be  one  of  you  and  to  say  I

am  a  farmer's  wife,  as  the  farmers

have  helped  to  make  this  great  State

of  Illinois  one  of  the  greatest  in  the

To  have  the  social  atmosphere  of
the  farm  home  what  it  should  be  re-
quires profounder  thought,  greater
wisdom,  than  to  govern  a  state.
There  is  a  narrow  tendency  mani-
fested by  those  engaged  in  profes-
sional life  to  underrate  the  import-
ance of  life  on  a  farm.  It  is
considered  a  half  alive  and  half
dead  sort  of  existence,  but  what  can
be  more  dead  than  the  hard  worked
clerkship  in  the  cities,  with  exact-
ing duties,  with  little  or  no  time  for
leisure  or  recreation?

The  hope  of  our  country,  nest  to
religion,  lies  in  its  farms.  Our
homes  at  the  present  time  need
more  care  than  ever,  for  its  govern-
ment and  our  Republic  depends
upon  what  is  learned  in  the  atmos-

8 here  of  the  farm  home.  The  in-
uence  of  the  home  is  not  confined
to  our  farms  alone;  no.  it  is  felt
throughout  the   nation,   in  politics


„  _._r  children  with  just  ideas  of  the  independence
of  life  on  a  farm.  Farm  life  means  hard  work,  but  there  is  always  time  for
rest  and  recreation  such  as  is  afforded  by  no  other  occupation.  A  careless
and  indifferent  farmer  is  always  a  failure;  they  are  as  injurious  to  the  farm
as  drought  or  flood.
There  was  never  a  time  in  the  world's  history  when  high  success  in  any
profession  demanded  harder  or  more  incessant  labor  than  at  the  present  time.
