THE SOCIAL PHASE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM. 219 



THE SOCIAL PHASE OF THE RURAL PROBLEM. 



BY KBNYON L. BUTTERFIELD. 



It is needless to dwell upon the fact that a subject of such magnitude 

 :as the advancement of the agriculture of the United States has many 

 phases, each one of which is important and even vital. We have, for in- 

 stance, the purely business aspect of agriculture, both on the side of 

 farm management, which is another term for the art of agriculture, and 

 on the side of marketing, which may stand as a general term for the 

 activities of the farmer on the outside of his farm. To many men this 

 seems to be the keynote of a successful agriculture: Give us men on our 

 farms of keener business instincts and you will insure rural prosperity. 

 This is the attitude of many intelligent farmers and of those agricul- 

 tural editors who themselves possess the business instinct. 



There is also the economic aspect of the problem, which is the business 

 Aspect in its larger phases. The development of the markets for agri- 

 cultural products both at home and abroad, the competition of other 

 countries, the relation of our great transporting systems of the indus- 

 try of agriculture, — these things are all of prime interest to the man 

 who has a bent for political economy, and to those students of the prob- 

 lem who have wide horizons. 



We have also the ^(olitical aspect of the problem, which comprises not 

 only the attitude of the farmers on public questions, but also the rela- 

 tion of legislation, actual and proposed, to the industry of agriculture. 

 These nmtters are of moment to statesmen and politicians both among 

 farmers and i)eople generally. Many important and significant ques- 

 tions come up under this phase of the problem ; questions that we have 

 no right to dismiss by ironical use of the word ''politics." I for one 

 believe that the political aspect of the rural problem should engage seri- 

 ous attention. 



We have also the scientific phase of the rural problem, and this I take 

 it is the aspect that is of especial interest to this Association. This in- 

 cludes the development of the more purely scientific phases of agri- 

 cultural investigation as well as of the more concrete problems of applied 

 science. 



All of these you will admit at once are important phases of the rural 

 problem. It is difficult to say which phase is the most important one. 

 r doubt if any of us can look at the agricultural question in a broad way 

 without concluding that the problem can be solved only by satisfactory 

 ])rogress along all of these lines. While different men may feel that the 

 business phase, or the economic phase, or the political phase, or the 

 scientific phase of the farm problem is the inose interesting and import- 

 ant, I think a\\ will admit that it cannot stand alone, and that it does 

 not necessarily follow that rich progress along one of these lines alone 

 insures equal progress along the other lines. 



But there is another phase of the farm problem that has not been sug- 



