386 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



Farm Bureau Develops Community Spirit 

 Among other things we have learned in the last few years is that what 

 is good for us is good for our neighbors. We have come to think of our 

 community as that larger home of ours, and real community spirit is 

 being developed. We are beginning to see ourselves as a collective 

 unit, just as a city does, and we are willing to bind ourselves together 

 for mutual advantage, as the city or town does. 



If we are to develop this community spirit we must have a social cen- 

 ter, and right here the township Farm Bureau fills a long-felt want. In 

 some localities we have had older farm organizations to pave the way 

 for community activities, but it happened that we did not have any in 

 our locality until the Farm Bureau was organized on a community basis 

 a few years ago, and as I look back at it all it seems rather remarkable 

 that we are already taking for granted the community meetings that 

 we talked about and looked forward to for so many years. 



This Farm Bureau meeting which we have once a month or more 

 is broadening our lives and reshaping agriculture in Iowa. I believe 

 we must give the social gatherings of the Farm Bureau a great deal of 

 credit for coming through the past few discouraging years with high 

 courage. We are learning the fundamentals of co-operation at these 

 meetings. We are learning that co-operation is putting ourselves in a 

 condition so that others can work with us. This is the foundation of 

 our organization. No other organization is built from the bottom this 

 way, built on mutual understanding, a mutual desire to sacrifice for and 

 be helpful to each other. 



Work of Farm Bureau Women Recognized 

 Farm problems will be solved by government and by legislation, but 

 back of that, and acting as a guiding spirit and steadying hand, must be 

 the farm folks themselves, thinking and working and playing harmoni- 

 ously together, until agriculture is in its rightful relation socially as well 

 as economically with other industries. Closely linked up with and re- 

 flecting and intensifying the wholesome atmosphere of that new kind of 

 community that is being developed, is coming the better homes for 

 which the men and women of Iowa are striving, and which we must have 

 if we are to compete effectively with the city. 



In the Farm Bureau all the work of the men and women is done side 

 by side. It is a partnership arrangement all the way through, where 

 they are working on an equal footing. This is made possible, inasmuch 

 as no discrimination has been made in the selection of officers, in county, 

 state or national organizations. More than that, home and community 

 work has been made a regular department of its program. Last year 

 the women of Iowa did a splendid piece of work, and you men have been 

 generous in your recognition of it. We feel that in your recognition and 

 appreciation we have fallen into congenial step that speaks well for the 

 future of the Farm Bureau. 



Beauty a Tonic to the Soul 

 There is one value common to all project work that we get in addition 

 to the direct benefit derived. In every well-organized project a number 



