COMING TO HIS OWN? 7 



seem to have brought the farmer into a new and higher 

 position in the business and life of the nations. What 

 are the fundamental conditions under which this change 

 was accomplished? 



1. First was the spur of necessity. At bottom it was 

 the competition from America, Argentina, and Aus- 

 tralia, or some serious internal difficulty that forced the 

 European farmer into the depths of despair and thus 

 compelled statesmen to plan for his recuperation. 

 " Something had to be done." 



2. The great principles of improvement which were 

 recognized and used at every turn were education and 

 organization. Neither was more important than the 

 other; both were indispensable and neither alone was 

 efficient. Organization meant governmental approval, 

 recognition, and even financial aid in all efforts at volun- 

 tary cooperation among farmers, especially in the busi- 

 ness side of farming selling products, buying sup- 

 plies, and various forms of collective credit and insur- 

 ance. Even in Germany, in spite of an opinion to the 

 contrary, the main idea was for government to help 

 farmers to help themselves. Education meant a wide- 

 spread system of technical education in agriculture 

 adapted to all degrees of intelligence, placed within 

 reach of every youth and every adult living on the land. 

 In some cases, the great cooperative societies carried on 

 this educational work themselves, but always as a real 

 part of a publicly supported and thoroughly organized 

 system. 



3. There was developed in each country a well 

 planned and fairly definite agricultural program. This 

 program was capable of being put upon paper. It had 

 been hammered out in conferences of all the interests 

 concerned. It was relatively stable. It was a plan 



