RURAL COOPERATION 



fact that the extra pay amounted to $600,000, not a cent was 

 taken by the men, and their reason for not accepting the 

 extra pay was expressed in these words : " We should feel 

 ourselves humiliated if we were not willing to give our toil 

 while others give their lives for their country." What a 

 beautiful exhibition of unselfishness ! And this unselfish- 

 ness grew out of the cooperation of all Italians in making 

 their nation ready for a part in the world war. 



Cooperation promotes patriotism. The trouble with many 

 rural communities is that a majority of their residents lack 

 rural loyalty. That this trouble can be corrected through 

 entrance into cooperative activities for the benefit of the 

 home community is evident from many instances. A case 

 from Wright County, Iowa, will suffice. Several years ago 

 the pupils of thirty-four schools in Wright County were 

 asked what they wanted to do. One hundred and fifty- 

 seven boys and one hundred and sixty-three girls said they 

 wanted to leave the farm, and seven boys and eleven girls 

 said they wanted to stay on the farm. Shortly afterwards, 

 a number of movements were inaugurated with the purpose 

 of interesting the young people in the things of the farm, 

 and three years later, when a similar vote was taken in the 

 same schools, only twelve boys and seventeen girls wanted 

 to leave the farm and one hundred and sixty-two boys and 

 one hundred and sixty-one girls wanted to stay on the farm. 1 

 Love for the country can be developed in the country as 

 easily as love for the city can be developed in the city, if 

 the same opportunities are provided in Rural America for the 

 development of rural loyalty as are found in Urban America 

 for the development of urban loyalty. In this case the county 

 superintendents gave the opportunities and the cooperative 

 activities developed the patriotism. Whenever one finds a 

 country community whose residents are filled with rural 

 patriotism one finds a community that is on the highway 

 of progress. 



1 See Wallaces' Farmer. 



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