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^ 

 LOVEMENT 



THE FUTURE^ OF THE FARM BUREAU 



WHAT the future of th^ ; farm bureau movement, now ten 

 years advanced, is to bo only time will reveal. We are all 

 too much a part of it, too much influenced by its function- 

 ing to see it clearly now. We can only observe the ap- 

 parent tendencies of the movement at this time, try to 

 appreciate its advantages and point out to ourselves what 

 seem to be some of its limitations if not its dangers. 



Several tendencies are worthy of consideration because 

 they appear to involve the possibility of serious dangers 

 to the future of the movement. Undoubtedly what appear 

 to be liabilities to one observer will be considered assets 

 by another. But at any rate they should be discussed. 



THE DANGERS OP COMMERCIALISM 



One of the most serious of these dangers would seem to 

 be that of getting directly into commercial activities. 



The pressure from farmers to put the bureaus into 

 business has been and still is particularly strong in the 

 Middle West. In several of the states where the county 

 agents' work had developed very slowly at first, with in- 

 different support from farmers, and where the farm bu- 

 reau idea was new and hence not well understood, farmers 

 were not content to wait for results from slow educational 

 means. They wanted direct and immediate action along 

 economic lines. A few of the state organizations have 



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