78 THE COUNTY AGENT'S SERVICES 



cause the farmer does not assert his power or exercise his 

 rights and functions than it is because business interests 

 desire to dominate. Moreover, this is in spite of the fact 

 that the rural town or village as a rule exists, primarily, 

 to serve the farmer. It is more difficult for countrymen 

 to get together than it is for townsmen. Farmers are scat- 

 tered over a large territory. Hours are required for farm- 

 ers to get together for meetings or conferences, which busi- 

 ness men, because of their location and their experience, 

 can accomplish in minutes. The farmer is closely tied to 

 his work, especially the livestock farmer and the farmer on 

 the one-man or family farm. 



The only way by which a farmer can meet this situa- 

 tion is by organization and by the election of farmer 

 leadership to represent his interests on all proper occa- 

 sions. This representation should be unpaid locally, but 

 it will probably have to be paid in state and national af- 

 fairs. It is wholly in the interests of a well-balanced de- 

 velopment of a community, state and national life that 

 the farmer should organize, providing that he does not 

 go beyond his rights and what is fair to other groups and 

 that the interests of all the elements of the population are 

 considered. He must be fair. Organization must not 

 function wholly in the class interest or without regard to 

 others. 



In short, the farmer is simply meeting the organization 

 and the leadership of other interests, with the same kind 

 of organization and leadership in his own field. It is high 

 time that he did. 



THE COUNTY AGENT AS AN ORGANIZER 



While organization among farmers had developed to a 

 considerable extent previous to 1910, it has had its great- 



