THE LANDED EDUCATOR

Education in any form cannot fail to interest the collegian, whether it be innovations in college curricula or efforts to educate nations. Of this latter sort a most interesting attempt is about to be made.

This week one hundred and fifty farmers are to sail from New York to take up land grants in Russia amounting to three thousand acres, which they are to develop according to the most approved modern methods in hope of educating the Russian peasant by furnishing a good working example. The group includes a blacksmith, a teacher, a physician, and a tailor, so that the party will make a perfectly self-sufficing village. The project is sponsored by the Society for Technical Aid to Russia. All the members are Russian.

Of the many educational projects of today, few deserve more commendation. No one can tell whether the scheme will work, and there are many obstacles in its way, but it is certainly worth the $15,000 or so that it will cost. The chief stumbling block would be--always providing that the Soviet government lives up to its promises--the excessive conservatism of the farming class. In every nation the farmer is the hide-boundest of the hide-bound. What was good enough for the farmer's grandfather and for his grandfather before him is good enough for him; he wants none of these "fool new-fangled" notions. But he cannot get away from facts, and he cannot keep his eyes shut always. All farmers are much the same, be they Russian or whatever; our western farmer is very conservative, and the one who keeps to his horses will rail against the one who uses a tractor as an innovator and an idiot, but he will usually buy a tractor himself eventually, and then look down on the poor benighted heathen who uses horses. Consistency does not bother him as it does the upper class conservative. So if the new colony can live, love, and prosper without interference and with reasonable good fortune for any length of time, it should be an immense factor for good. The results will not be startling, or even immediately observable, but they should be both real and salutary. Once a seed is sown and given a good start it can look out for itself if it be from a sturdy plant.

The Soviet government of Russia has long been the target of much deserved criticism and hatred. Any steadying influence that can be brought to bear upon it is to be praised; and this sponsoring of a model farm community, if done at all whole-heartedly and consistently, should serve at least as an entering wedge.