72 The State and the Farmer 



been necessary; and what has once become an 

 established order soon becomes tradition. 



In making these statements, I am not saying 

 that farmers do not cooperate. Great numbers 

 of them belong to organizations and societies 

 of one kind and another, and the number is 

 rapidly increasing. But the cooperation is 

 usually not as complete as it might be, and 

 very much of it does not originate from the 

 land. Granting everything that is now done, 

 there is still need of further effort. 



(4) There is need of centers of interest in 

 the localities, for lack of such interest is inten- 

 sified by the rapid growth of cities and the 

 directing of attention townward. 



(5) Need of real personal starting-power and 

 enthusiasm; of gumption; of enterprise that 

 gets things done. Lack of this arises from 

 little contact with fellows, from the arrested 

 development due to marked individualism, 

 and from the sterilization of rural institutions 

 consequent on the removal of centers of in- 

 terest to the towns. In the last analysis it is 

 conditioned on the low earning-power of the 

 average farm ; but the earning-power is in the 



