NEED OF ORGANISATION 83 



useful, and in one sense also the most urgent work to be accomplished. 

 To effect that, facilities of more kinds than co-operation can directly 

 supply will have to be secured. 



The further we advance in the progress marked out for us by 

 President Roosevelt and Sir Horace Plunkett, that is, from " Better 

 Business " — of which the most important part is " Better Market- 

 ing " — to " Better Farming," which involve education, " demon- 

 stration " and similar services, and eventually to " Better Living " 

 — which calls for assistance collectively, culminating in the exercise 

 of authoritative powers, as in the provision of houses and land, and 

 it may be in the creation of entire new communities — the more do 

 we find that co-operation alone, the efforts of puny men united to 

 form large bodies, strengthened by union as in the proverbial 

 " bundle of sticks," will not suffice for our purpose. Co-operation 

 will create power sufficient to move those higher factors to action ; 

 it may render invaluable service in the use and distribution of their 

 gifts, but it cannot do all that is needed. 



All this the more since in the progress already sketched organisa- 

 tion is bound to undergo another change — a marked change — in 

 the composition of the mass of its adherents. " Better Business " 

 appeals — strongly, too — to those who are already engaged in agri- 

 culture, who have a money stake in it, of which they are naturally 

 eager to make the most. It appeals to that most sensitive organ 

 of British character, the " breeches pocket." The less outsiders 

 have to do with the prosecution of that particular part of the 

 business, the better will it be. For their help in business would 

 mean taking from one not concerned in order to give to one con- 

 cerned. The outside world is, moreover, not likely to sympathise 

 overmuch with that phase of organisation. 



Even for mere buying and selling we may do well to enlist the 



help or services of non-co-operative agencies, as we shall certainly, 



for the purposes of easier or cheaper transportation, have to appeal 



to railways and, it may be to other agencies of transport. And 



such bodies are not in all cases averse to affording seasonable help — 



whether that be from motives of pure public spirit, or else with a 



view to eventually reaping a harvest where they now sow " by all 



waters " — it matters little from one point of view. The bankers of 



the United States and of Canada, who now render very valuable 



assistance to agricultural and rural organisation — assistance which 



acts as a potent stimulus to progress — own frankly, and not by any 



means to their discredit, that it is the latter motive which to a good 



extent prompts them. More will have to be said about this. Even 



u 2 



