WANTED: A RURAL POLICY 105 



cultural councils national, state and community, a 

 thing new to our American agriculture. 



Breadth and Bigness. Last of all, let us observe 

 that a rural policy must be just as big and as broad and 

 as far reaching as is the American rural problem. 



THE GREAT AMERICAN FARM 



Let us come back to our starting point. We must 

 think of all the farms of American farmers as really 

 one big farm, and we must endeavor to do just what 

 the good farmer would do in answer to the question, 

 " How can that farm be made more efficient and how 

 can the people who do the farming be made more 

 prosperous and happy?" Once we get firmly in our 

 minds this very simple prescription for the improve- 

 ment of American agriculture and country life, we will 

 plan for the development of American farming and the 

 welfare of the American farmer and his family, just as 

 if we were dealing with one big farm and one big 

 family. 



MAKING THE POLICY WORK 



There are two great forces on which we must rely 

 for the development of an agricultural policy and the 

 working out of a rural program. They are education 

 and organization. 



Education, used in the broadest sense, must include 

 technical knowledge, ample information as to condi- 

 tions, grasp of principles and enlightenment as to ends 

 and means, as well as appreciation of broad relation- 

 ships and of obligations as well as rights. 



Organization is the cooperation of all the factors, 

 all the institutions, all the individuals and groups that 

 can assist in the forward movement of agriculture and 

 country life. 



