CHAPTER VI 

 WANTED: A RURAL POLICY 



THE title of this chapter seems to convey the idea that 

 a rural policy does not exist in America to-day. Such 

 a statement may be denied, especially among govern- 

 ment officials and scientists who for years have been 

 very hard at work on definite plans for the improve- 

 ment of agriculture. As in most discussions, conclu- 

 sions depend upon definitions. In one meaning of the 

 word, we have and always have had an agricultural 

 policy; in another, and we believe in a truer and much 

 more important sense, we do not have such a policy. 



We may think of a policy as the sum of things ac- 

 tually done and under way. These activities and plans 

 show themselves in legislative enactments, in the work 

 of public agencies and in the associated efforts of farm- 

 ers. The reasons for them may be found in speeches 

 made in Congress, in addresses at agricultural conven- 

 tions of various sorts, in reports of committees and 

 commissions of many kinds, in platforms of political 

 parties, in the farm press, in the formal pronounce- 

 ments of great farmers' organizations. A democratic 

 people think and plan in obedience to certain ideas that 

 are traditionally accepted or that arise out of new condi- 

 tions. For there is always a philosophy, even if un- 

 expressed or incomplete, back of human activities. In 

 this sense we have of course a rural policy. It is com- 

 posed of many items. It is not in print. If you ask 

 for it, no one can give it to you; but it exists. 



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