194 Repoet of Fakmeks' Institutes 



is wrong; it lias much good in it, but it must be understood that 

 the country community is losing by having its daily life regu- 

 lated from outside sources, rather than developed from its own 

 initiative, guided by its own leaders, though aided when neces- 

 sary by agencies outside of itself. The value of such a social 

 school is far greater to the rural community than to the urban 

 community where the individualist is lost in the general amalga- 

 mation and standardization that such life brings with it. 



Our only hope for such a training school is cooperation. Co- 

 operation for every conceivable need of the individual and the 

 community — business, religion, health, recreation, communi- 

 cation. 



I look with some misgivings upon the practice of organizing 

 cooperative enterprises, of whatever nature, as large organizations. 

 The more nearly home such an organization can be brought, the 

 greater will be the good it accomplishes. A local community in 

 which all the members know each other is the ideal unit for such 

 agencies. We may go still further and say that to begin coopera- 

 tion, especially for business purposes, with a few neighbors, is 

 the ultimate ideal, for the training in cooperation is not funda- 

 mental unless the individual is in close and constant touch with 

 the problems as they arise. We need a sound body of coopera- 

 tors in small groups, whose representatives will really represent 

 in the larger bodies which are the natural outgrowth of flourishing 

 cooperation. Some sections of our land have lately developed 

 much local cooperation, which in many cases is not legally organ- 

 ized, but which nevertheless serves the needs of the occasion and 

 prepares for more permanent types of cooperative bodies. It 

 starts wrong when cooperation is founded on the county unit and 

 not on the smaller local unit. 



