226 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



can by mail, and by regarding the member as "for life" 

 unless he resigns in writing. 



, In the case of the paid solicitor canvass, a crew of trained 

 men receiving a per diem of from five to ten dollars a 

 day are usually brought in from an outside county, and 

 assigned to ride with local committeemen and do the solic- 

 iting in their respective districts. A county is thus syste- 

 matically gone over in a regular clean-up campaign, usually 

 under the direction of the state federation. More good 

 canvassers are thus discovered or trained, and these are in 

 turn sent into neighboring counties as paid solicitor crews. 



This plan gets a much larger proportion of the farmers 

 as members but at the heavy cost of from one to two dollars 

 apiece, which of course must be taken out of the member's 

 fee received for that year. While members are usually 

 signed up either for three or five years, or for life, often 

 on an authorized sight-draft basis, they can always relieve 

 themselves of the obligation by resigning in writing, and 

 they will stay in the organization no longer than they 

 approve of its program and are satisfied with its results. 

 The objections to the paid solicitor plan are that it tends 

 t break down the voluntary service element self-help, or 

 doing for one's self which is such a source of strength in 

 any movement, and that it has in it the elements of the 

 force of trade unionism and the likelihood of misrepre- 

 sentation. In their zeal to get every farmer as a member 

 and in the excitement of the campaign, too much pressure 

 is often used on individuals, and promises are sometimes 

 made by solicitors which cannot be fulfilled by the organi- 

 zation. Moreover, it is an expensive method. But it gets 

 results which are at least temporary, and is therefore pop- 

 ular in most states just now. 



In the older and more conservative states, where this 

 plan is not so popular, a compromise plan is now being 



