191G] EDITORIAL. 409 



" The local community becomes both the beginning and the end of 

 social effort ; the beginning because it is the most efficient method of 

 correlation ; the end because if you have a true rural democracy in a 

 multitude of these small neighborhood units — that is, a multitude of 

 groups of farmers, each group of which is reasonably prosperous, 

 fairly free, and socially alive, then you have a national rural democ- 

 racy, and you can not get it in any other wa}'^, because there is no 

 such thing as a democracy made up of isolated individuals. The very 

 essence of democracy is cooperation. But this cooperation is prac- 

 ticable only in small groups, not in the mass. In developing this 

 community we shall need to define the community, to make a com- 

 munity study, to have a community plan, to have a community coun- 

 cil or committee, to establish a community conference, and to have a 

 physical community center. 



" In the same fashion the State should be organized on behalf of 

 rural improvement and adjustment. Without going into detail, this 

 may be illustrated by two things that have been done in Massachu- 

 setts. The first was the organization of the Massachusetts agricul- 

 tural development committee, which for a year has been working 

 on the following task, not yet completed: (1) Outlining methods and 

 plans for a study and mapping of the agricultural resources of the 

 State; (2) outlining a plan for the development of agriculture and 

 country life of the commonwealth; and (3) recommending the form 

 of organization and work for different agencies interested in rural 

 life and the best way of correlating their activities. Massachusetts 

 has also a State federation for rural progress which attempts to serve 

 as a sort of clearinghouse for all the different institutions of the 

 State. Obviously these two agencies need correlation. 



"In a broad sense (1) the goal of rural endeavor is to build an 

 adequate rural civilization based on the interests both of the farming 

 class (and the individuals who compose it) and of society as a whole; 

 (2) the condition which most completely governs the rural social 

 growth implied in achieving this sort of rural civilization is con- 

 tained in the idea of organization, or the correlation of those forces 

 and agencies on which we must mainly rely for improvement and 

 adjustment; and (3) the practice of rural organization involves the 

 utmost efficiency in each rural agency, the carrying out of definite 

 plans or projects of improvement looking toward definite industrial 

 and social ends, and the unifying of rural forces and agencies within 

 certain geographical areas, notably in the local community and in 

 each State as a whole." 



Dr. Ernest Burnham, of the Normal School of Kalamazoo, Michi- 

 gan, considered in two lectures the creative relation of leadership 

 to rural organization. He defined the object of leadership to be the 

 begetting, or discovery, of a dynamic sense of progress in individuals 

 and institutions and the constant revivification of this sense in action. 



