FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



since there is little demand for farms at high prices far 

 removed from the advantages of flourishing villages. Today 

 Hans sees a light. He realizes that the town and the con- 

 tiguous country rise and fall together. He realizes that the 

 greatest prosperity, as well as the greatest benefits socially, 

 intellectually and spiritually, results from town and country 

 cooperating. 



Another big problem that concerns Rural America has to 

 do with the unit of cooperation. The school district is the 

 smallest unit; but the most important units, especially in the 

 2,500 rural counties of the nation, are the village or town, 

 the township and the county. Each is an ideal cooperative unit 

 for certain purposes. For some purposes the boundaries oi 

 these units must be disregarded and rather arbitrary lines 

 must be drawn. One can lay down few hard and fast rules 

 regarding cooperative units, since different sections of the 

 country differ so greatly. But one can say this : in all cases 

 where the larger unit can accomplish the greater results, the 

 larger unit should prevail. However, the point to be espe- 

 cially emphasized is, large units should cooperate with smaller 

 units in every possible way. To illustrate, an institution or 

 organization representing county cooperation should adapt 

 itself to all smaller cooperative units, such as school districts, 

 townships, villages, etc. Each should fulfill its particular mis- 

 sion and none should trespass on the others. 



In the average agricultural county it is better to have one 

 well-organized and properly conducted library with numerous 

 branches than a number of small ill-organized and poorly man- 

 aged libraries scattered through the country, since, with one 

 library, funds are ample to employ competent librarians, to 

 purchase sufficient and suitable books and to supply all parts of 

 the county with library privileges. Thus, all the people coming 

 in touch with skilled librarians and having access to sufficient 

 well selected books, enjoy advantages that are not possible 

 where small library units prevail. Of course the people must 

 not be forced to come to the central library except when spe- 

 cial help is wanted or special volumes or records are to be 



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