508 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



county, or each community, should grow all that it consumes. 

 But we have gone so far in producing for the distant market 

 that we have not only neglected the nearby market which is 

 often poorly supplied, but we have incurred an enormous expense 

 for transporting and handling products which go back and forth. 

 We need to establish certain zones or regions that up to a certain 

 point can take care of themselves with reference to the growing 

 of their food. 



The Rural Village. There are perhaps ten million people in 

 America living in villages that are set in a rural environment. 

 The people are not farmers but they live in the midst of farmers. 

 They are not city people. Their very existence depends upon 

 the success of the farming regions round about, and yet there 

 is often the sharpest antagonism between people of the village 

 and the people of the country. The farmers believe that the 

 village merchants exploit them at every opportunity. There is 

 an odd notion among the merchants that in some way the farmers 

 owe them a living. This antagonism shows itself in lack of 

 social intercourse, in sharp political fights. How can w r e re- 

 store the balance between the village, which includes the small 

 "city" set in an agricultural region, and the farmers round 

 about? Surely there is a way toward cooperation, a real com- 

 munity interest. Each can help the other. 



Permanent Agriculture without Caste. We have a shifting 

 agricultural population. There is scarcely any part of America 

 which has not suffered from over-frequent migration to the city 

 or to other parts of the country. Ownership changes frequently. 

 This impermanence is not true everywhere, but it is character- 

 istic of American agriculture. It cannot result in the best 

 farming. It has not contributed to the best community life. 

 Leadership is lost; yet we would not want everybody born in 

 the country to stay in the country. The idea of keeping all 

 the farm boys on the farm is the poorest policy we could follow. 

 We cannot afford to arrange our rural education so that the 

 boy is obliged to stay on the farm or go to the city handicapped 

 in his preparation for life. The door from country to city must 

 swing wide. There must be freedom of intercourse between city 

 and country. We must not have a peasantry a rustic group. 

 In no parts of our country must there be a possibility of farmers 



