EXAMPLES FROM OTHER LANDS 45 



The total number is about 1,900, and the value of the output 

 of those in the central northern region, particularly in the 

 State of Minnesota, is alone put at about 6,000,000 a 

 year. 



Then the American farmers, finding, as is said, that the 

 struggle against the " tyranny " of the commercial interests 

 controlling the grain elevators near the railway stations in 

 the central and western regions was " a matter of life and 

 death to them," formed co-operative societies and erected 

 elevators of their own ; they have their co-operative 

 societies for life insurance and sickness insurance ; they 

 overcame the difficulties which arose in the insuring of farm 

 property or farm produce through the ordinary companies 

 by forming societies for co-operative fire insurance ; they 

 have adopted a system of co-operative telephones, one 

 society alone having 760 miles of telephone line ; they have 

 organised co-operative live-stock associations with a view 

 to making a particular township or county noted for the 

 production of some special breed or breeds of cattle, and they 

 have also established societies for the " control " of dairy 

 cattle. 



In addition to the furthering of these various economic 

 interests, rural betterment and the revival of country life 

 are aspirations which have been especially cherished in the 

 United States. The agricultural societies associated with 

 the Grange movement sometimes unite in district or even in 

 State federations, to which the name of Leagues for Rural 

 Progress is given. The object of a representative body of 

 this type, The New England Conference for Rural Progress, 

 is said in the rules to be " to promote the interests of agri- 

 culture and of rural life in the New England States by 

 securing the co-operation and federation of the various 

 State and inter-state organisations and agencies which are 

 working for rural betterment and agricultural advancement 

 in New England." 



A more important development in this direction came, 

 however, with the appointment, in 1908, by President 

 Roosevelt, of a commission to study the urgent problems of 



