THE ORGANIZATION OF RURAL INTERESTS 537 



cultural, political, sociable, industrial. It is reasonable to sup- 

 pose both that these organizations flourish because they serve a 

 human need, and that if valuable for others than farmers they 

 will be of aid to farmers. The element of self-defense inevitably 

 enters in also. An organization is sure to be utilized for the 

 particular advantage of the group or class represented by it. 

 If there comes a clash of class interests the unorganized class 

 must suffer from the concentrated power of the group co- 

 operation of its opponents. In the group competitions sure to 

 arise, the farmers need the strength that organization confers, 

 for securing legitimate group advantages, for defense against the 

 aggressions of other groups, and for utilizing the class strength 

 in the general public interest. It is hardly necessary to assert 

 that organization multiplies manifold the powers of any class of 

 people. It was perhaps true, when the great majority of our 

 people lived on the soil, that organization for farmers' interests 

 was unnecessary. Now, that the farming class is, relatively to 

 other classes, losing ground it becomes imperative that they shall 

 combine their individual strength. 



(3) The general tendency of the age toward social self-direc- 

 tion ; which is another way of stating more formally and scien- 

 tifically, and which presses a little farther, the argument just 

 advanced that farmers must organize because other classes are 

 organized. This process is not to be out of mere imitation. 

 Society, as a whole, is more and more the helmsman of its own 

 fate. This is accomplished at present not by a unified campaign, 

 by society as a whole, for some distinct social goal, but by the 

 attempts of separate groups, often apparently antagonistic to 

 one another, to seek group or class interests or to endeavor 

 to fix upon society the special idea or ideal of the group. It 

 becomes then necessary for the self-interest of society as a 

 whole, as well as for the class itself, that our farmers shall 

 seek thi'ough organization to give wing to their best ambitions 

 for the benefit of society, as well as to determine the direction 

 which rural progress itself shall take. 



(4) Organization, in the light of the social principle just 

 enunciated, becomes then a test of class efficiency. Has a class 

 initiative, self-control, capacity for leadership, ability to act 

 cooperatively and fraternally, social vision, true patriotism? 



