FARMERS TO THE FRONT 175 



this terrible test. Can the American Society of 

 Equity stand it ? 



I have not, in what has been said, passed over this 

 question. For it has been shown that organization 

 is the law of industrial progress; that other indus- 

 tries are organized ; that all the forces of our civili- 

 zation are tending toward a closer unity among men ; 

 that the farmers have combined successfully already 

 (witness the Grange, Alliance, Farmers' Mutual As- 

 sociation and others), and that every change for the 

 better that has taken place in the farmer's condition 

 — his greater intelligence, his growing sense of de- 

 pendence on others in the same line, his closer asso- 

 ciation with others through the medium of frequent 

 mails, telephones, trolley lines, the growth of cities 

 and towns in the rural regions, and his greater use of 

 machinery — all points the way to organization, and 

 makes it necessary, easy and inevitable. The Ameri- 

 can Society of Equity is thus working along natural 

 lines and in cooperation with natural forces. So the 

 argument in favor of the possibilities of organizing 

 by this plan is reasonably strong as it now stands. 

 As to its practicability and durability, these depend 

 on the benefits it gives. But a little closer and more 

 detailed examination of it may serve to allay the 

 doubts of the more timorous and conservative. Of 

 course, the great objection is that the scheme is too 

 large and involves too many men. Organization, it 

 is said, is easy when only a few people are concerned, 

 but it is exceedingly difficult when it becomes neces- 



