244 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



counties themselves. How then is it to be properly financed 

 in the state and nation ? The continued and generous help 

 of the men, together with a separate membership fee for 

 women to enable them to help themselves as much as they 

 can and to have all the funds thus raised for their own 

 work, would seem to be the logical answer. 



Whether the New York and Illinois county home bureau 

 plans represent unnecessary extremes in securing the in- 

 itiative and interest of women remains to be seen. Cer- 

 tainly it needs better correlation with the farm bureau 

 federation if not actual union with it on the county plan. 

 But it is also certain that it has given the rural women of 

 these states a vital part and interest in the movement, 

 resulting in the actual participation of more women in 

 the work, securing more financial support and actual func- 

 tioning in the home demonstration work and its support, 

 than in any other states in the Union. 



THE AMERICAN FEDERATION 



It is an exceptional American organization that does 

 not aspire to be national. So it was to be expected that 

 there would be many farmers in the organized states who 

 would not be satisfied with the growth of the farm bureau 

 idea to state stature only. These farmers had a vision of 

 a truly national organization, based on units in every 

 county in the United States, which should come to represent 

 all the farmers of America whatever their special interests 

 might be. It was neither their hope nor their expectation, 

 however, that such a national organization would replace, 

 but rather that it would assist and cooperate with other 

 organized farmer groups. These partizans of the farm 

 bureau movement also wanted to extend it to every county 

 and to help to correlate and to unify both county and 



