68 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



have brought him to see his whole life in a new light. 

 Perhaps he disregards ordinary rules of hygiene, and 

 loses days and weeks of labor and time. Perhaps he 

 works so hard he hasn't time to think, and no plans de- 

 velop. Perhaps he just lacks the stimuli to thinking that 

 come from neighborhood contacts. The man es- 

 pecially the young man gets these stimuli in school, in 

 church, in Grange, in sociable life, in books and reading 

 all social realities. It is these that shape his life 

 and make him an efficient worker not at all the mere 

 quest for profit as a thing by itself. 



There is one more thing that needs to be said. Our 

 American farming suffers from its transitory character. 

 We do not want upon the land a peasant caste a class 

 out of which it is difficult to rise. But we do want a 

 permanent agriculture, and we can't have a permanent 

 agriculture unless the farmers love farm life as well as 

 make a profit out of the farm business. 



WHAT THEN IS THE TRUTH? 



What we need is a true balance of forces, motives, 

 and methods. Ideals alone produce visionaries; work 

 for gain alone brings barrenness of real life. We need 

 both. We need emphasis in rural affairs both upon the 

 economic issue and the social problem. They should 

 have equal attention for they are at least of equal im- 

 portance. One cannot go ahead at full speed without 

 the other. They must be driven double and not tan- 

 dem. Let us give full measure of effort to the making 

 of American agriculture more prosperous for the av- 

 erage farmer; but let us also cherish with equal en- 

 deavor and intelligence his highest, truest welfare. 

 Let us learn that there is a place for the work of ex- 

 perts in farm life as well as in farm practice or farm 



