1918.] THE NECESSITY FOR OKCANIZATIOX. Gl 



process. The farincr must decide that qiiestiun for hiniself 

 a great many times every clay : This means that he must l^e 

 a self-reHant individual, with a good deal <»f power of scdf- 

 direction. in short, he must be capable of being hi.-, own 

 boss. The average person who lives in town, however, is ntjt 

 his own 1)oss, but works under sonicborly else. He does not 

 have to decide what to do next ; there is always a boss or a 

 superintendent handy to tell him. All he has to do, therefore, 

 is to fit into a large machine and do what he is told to do. 

 It follows as a matter of course that the independent, self- 

 reliant people who do not like to work under a boss, generally 

 stay in the country ; whereas the easily organized and more 

 or less gregarious individuals flock to the cities. 



There are some advantages which grow out of this inde- 

 pendent character of the rural population. A\'hile it is diffi- 

 cult to organize them for constructive purposes, it is likewise 

 dif~(icult to organize them for predatory purposes. Con- 

 sequently, the political machine has its home in the city and 

 not in the country. The political boss, like the industrial 

 boss, has his home in the city rather than in the country. 

 But along with these advantages which follow the inde- 

 pendent temperament of the average farmer come certain dis- 

 advantages. It is difficult to organize them, even for worthy 

 purposes. In this day of organization, when organization is 

 the key-word to almost every kind of large success, the fact 

 that country people are so hard to organize has proved to be 

 a distinct weakness in country life. 



In every program for the organization of rural interests, 

 we must take these two large facts into account : the geo- 

 metrical and the temperamental difficulties in the way of or- 

 ganization. Nevertheless, in spite of these difficulties, the 

 necessity for organization is becoming more and more ap- 

 parent every day. These difficulties can only be overcome 

 by superior wisdom or superior morality on the part of the 

 country people. If they once realize that difficulties are 

 made to be overcome, and that wisdom and morality are 

 given to people for the purpose of overcoming difficulties, 

 they need have no great difficulty. 



In spite of these difficulties, there is one great advantage 

 which the country people still possess. They still have the 



