FARM PROFITS AND WELFARE 67 



this great end; we must have better farming and better 

 business. We must help the farmer here at every turn. 

 But it is all done in order that out of it shall come the 

 sort of farm life that the farmer deserves and that the 

 nation wants him to have, for its own sake as well as 

 for his. 



THE PRACTICAL ASPECT 



On the practical side, too, there is great harm done 

 by the statement that " these things will take care of 

 themselves " ! It works to prevent due study of coun- 

 try life affairs, the fostering of rural agencies for social 

 advancement, and especially does it tend to narrow in- 

 terests and restricted views of the farm question. It 

 keeps us from seeing the rural problem with two eyes. 

 It discredits the work of teacher and preacher and 

 social worker. It makes possible a wrong definition 

 of " practical." For a book could be written proving 

 that even in the effort to obtain greater profit the intan- 

 gible " spiritual " things are the most effective. Here 

 are two farmers on adjoining farms. One succeeds, 

 the other fails. Why? Both are equally "helped." 

 Both belong to the Grange, can receive the same agri- 

 cultural bulletins from Washington and from the state 

 experiment station, can attend the same extension 

 school, belong to the same farm land bank, participate 

 in the same farmers' exchange. What is the explana- 

 tion? They are different men; that is all. Now un- 

 less you believe that men cannot be improved, then you 

 must admit that the thing to do with the failure is not 

 to give him more helps toward profit, but to awaken 

 him as a man. And you can best awaken him as a man 

 only when you have touched the springs of character, 



