RURAL COOPERATION 



less panic; at intervals the industrial world experiences de- 

 pression; frequently there are storm and stress periods in 

 Urban America; but so long as the crops of the farmer are 

 bountiful he is little affected by anything that may be taking 

 place off the farm. But let there be a general crop failure 

 throughout the country or a crop failure in one or more large 

 sections of the nation, and in a very short time the whole 

 nation suffers, and there is retrenchment all along the line. 

 So if the farmer can get a clear vision of the important place 

 he occupies in the nation, and can come to realize how greatly 

 general progress is dependent on his individual progress, it 

 may be that he will develop more of a cooperative spirit. 



In the progressive churches of Protestant America a new 

 financial plan is being inaugurated. The new plan emphasizes 

 three cardinal thoughts : ( i ) getting into touch with every 

 member of the church, even down to the smallest child; 

 (2) welding the membership into a dynamic unity; (3) set- 

 ting free the energies of this great body in cooperative 

 activities. Those who have adopted this plan have discovered 

 that a church in which these three thoughts have been realized 

 quickly develops into a great force for righteousness and 

 greatly extends the scope of its work. If leadership is able 

 to put this plan into operation, the farmer will get a vision of 

 his true place in the nation and, under the stimulus of the 

 vision, play a greater part in rural life, and thus give Rural 

 America the place it ought to occupy in American civiliza- 

 tion. 



But the farmer, while representing the larger class of the 

 rural population, is not the sole resident of Rural America. 

 Residents of small villages and towns must likewise be taken 

 into consideration. Most of the villages and towns of the 

 country are collections of individuals for the most part 

 dependent on the residents of the contiguous rural territory 

 for their support. It is largely the trade of the farming 

 population that supports the villages and towns. Of course, 

 some villages and towns come more or less into touch with 

 the industrial side of the nation through small manufacturing 



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