WANTED: A RURAL POLICY 101 



prize and claim the credit although, as a matter of fact, 

 most of the solid, substantial thinking and work has 

 been done by others. But just as some part of our 

 education to do things comes by doing them, so the 

 spirit of cooperation is often engendered simply by co- 

 operating. The war has taught us many lessons in 

 cooperation, not the least of which is that the larger 

 interest of the country and indeed the larger interest 

 of mankind is paramount. 



There is no Policy Maker. This is true. No one 

 seems to have any authority to make an agricultural 

 policy. No branch of government, no farmers' or- 

 ganization, no combination of the two, thus far is uni- 

 versally recognized as representative of the most ex- 

 pert knowledge combined with the most representative 

 public opinion. This is precisely one of the problems 

 in an agricultural policy itself. It is, indeed, a part 

 of an agricultural policy to have a group that can make 

 a policy and see it through. 



A Policy Impossible. It is often remarked that any- 

 body can make a paper plan, and unfortunately we 

 have been far too content with paper plans. Resolu- 

 tions numerous as the sands of the sea have been passed 

 for fifty years, relative to farmers' rights and interests. 

 Some of them have been as seed sown in good ground 

 but most of them never come to fruit bearing. One 

 must admit also that in a business so big as agriculture, 

 so widespread, involving so many people, subject to so 

 many fluctuations, it is out of the question to make and 

 enforce the kind of policy, for example that a big manu- 

 facturing firm can make and enforce, and we know that 

 even such concerns are obliged to change their policies 

 from time to time. Nevertheless, while we cannot 

 change the course of the Mississippi River, we are able 



