262 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



ness for the farmer. The fanners' economic distress is the chief 

 cause of their power and the cure of that distress is the chief 

 object of their activity." 



This political activity is undoubtedly stimulating inter- 

 est in the farm bureau just at present and furthering its 

 political prosperity. But this is a temporary and a dan- 

 gerous tendency. Unless this political emphasis is soon 

 corrected and balanced by a long-time permanent program 

 which will more vitally touch the agricultural needs of the 

 nation such as the better balancing of production and 

 consumption, standardizing and grading of products, the 

 simplification of distribution and the like, this national 

 organization will very likely soon find itself both without 

 a worthwhile program and with an exclusive political label 

 upon it. 



Here then is a clear parting of the ways. Two roads 

 lead to the future of the farm bureau movement. Which 

 will it choose? The one leads to a narrow partizan, class- 

 conscious, selfish and probably commercial development, 

 which at the best must be inadequate to meet farmers' 

 needs, and which at the worst may wreck the whole move- 

 ment. The other road leads to a broad cooperative public 

 service plan in the interests of the whole people, which un- 

 der right leadership has an unusual chance to succeed. As 

 the membership chooses, and particularly as the leadership 

 leads, so will the future of the movement likely be. 



A SOUND BASIS FOR MEMBERSHIP 



The appeal for farm bureau membership should be based 

 on sound principles rather than on temporary, expedient 

 and perhaps unsound arguments. 



The strongest basic appeal to the majority of men and 



