FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



and so he learns through force of necessity to subordinate 

 his personal good to the general good. Close contact and 

 interdependence develop a spirit of yielding to the aggregate 

 will of the community and an inclination to serve the wishes 

 of the great majority. The farmer, on the other hand, lives 

 the most self-sufficient life in the nation. During the " Age 

 of Homespun " very little was used on the farm that was not 

 produced there. But the age of coal and steam has taken away 

 much of the work that formerly engaged the attention of the 

 farmer folk, though even yet the farmer is not nearly so 

 dependent on the outside world as the outside world is 

 dependent on him. So, rinding it unnecessary to adapt him- 

 self to the outside world to any great extent, he gives his 

 individualistic tendencies free play. 



In the second chapter many instances of cooperation were 

 given and it was shown that the benefits accruing to the farmer 

 from cooperation were great. But in spite of the fact that 

 only good results flow from satisfactory cooperation, yet 

 attempts at cooperation are all too rare and touch the lives 

 of a very small percentage of the farm population. Of course 

 one of the things that deter farmers from entering more 

 freely into cooperative activities of a business character is the 

 dismal record of failures attending these in Rural America. 

 These failures, however, can be traced in almost every case 

 to incompetent leadership; hence the contention in the last 

 chapter that the first essential in the advancement of Rural 

 Life to higher levels is leadership. 



Now, how can individualism be combated ? By the 

 farmer's getting a vision of his true place in the national life. 

 The farmer is the chief producer of the nation. There are 

 a few other producers, as the miner, the forester, the fisher 

 and the hunter; but all these together sink into insignificance 

 compared with the farmer, who feeds all other classes of 

 society. Being the chief producer of the nation, his activities 

 represent the basis of the whole business fabric of the nation, 

 and upon his prosperity hinges the prosperity of all the 

 people. Occasionally, Wall Street is shaken by a greater or 



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