THE ORGANIZATION OF RURAL INTERESTS 501 



their land from the government. This is no longer true -to any 

 large degree. It is coming to be difficult for the young farmer 

 to acquire a farm. Only two solutions are apparent. One is 

 for the government itself to purchase land and sell it to new 

 owners individually or in colonies with liberal credit and easy 

 payments; or for large groups to do the same thing, either as 

 private corporations for gain or cooperative land societies. 



3. Land Rental. Rental under right conditions may secure 

 very effective use of the land. Tenant farming does not tend 

 as a rule toward building up permanent farm community inter- 

 ests. Very short leases are disastrous both to farming and to 

 country life. Permanent tenure can be made satisfactory only 

 when the tenant is given a share in permanent improvements. 



4. The Control of Capital. Need for capital in farming is rap- 

 idly increasing because of increased cost of land, need of land im- 

 provements by drainage, etc., larger need for machinery and 

 other equipment, higher cost of labor. The farmer needs both 

 long term credit and short term credit, the one for land purchase 

 and permanent improvements, and the other in order to take 

 advantage of better terms in securing his supply of seeds, fer- 

 tilizer, feeds. Mercantile or store credit is very costly in in- 

 terest and should be abolished. One difficulty in securing credit 

 for farmers is that the American farmer is as a rule unwilling 

 to become a party to a plan whereby the farmers of a community 

 collectively become responsible for the debts of the individuals 

 of the community. Farmers have collectively enormous assets 

 which ought to be made available for each worthy member of the 

 partnership. 



5. Control of the Labor Supply. The farmer has to compete 

 now-a-days with industry for his labor, in the matter of wages, 

 housing, hours. One of the biggest problems of the future lies 

 in answering such questions as how to keep labor employed 

 throughout the year; how to educate the laborer so that he be- 

 comes a skilled farmer ; whether women in America will do more 

 farm work than formerly; how to use boy labor without sacri- 

 fice of education; the relations of farmers to farm labor organ- 

 izations; and how to encourage the farm laborer to become 

 eventually a farm owner. 



6. The Control of Materials and Power. Commercial inter- 



