RURAL STATESMANSHIP 195 



tion of these investigations, for well planned and nu- 

 merous demonstrations of the applicability of the prin- 

 ciples worked out as the result of investigation, and for 

 widespread publicity that will reach the masses of farm- 

 ers with understandable expert advice. Government, 

 both state and national, should gather and distribute 

 the fullest possible information on all of the different 

 aspects of the rural problem. Its duty does not stop 

 with information about production, but includes the 

 field of distribution of farm products and the welfare 

 or country life phase of the farmers' interests. This 

 information should not only be made available to all 

 the farmers, but they must be all but compelled to 

 listen if they are unresponsive. 



The government should keep a large staff of experts 

 in all foreign countries gleaning every shred of infor- 

 mation possible about food needs, agricultural methods, 

 agricultural legislation, rural organization, country life 

 endeavor. We are sometimes led to think by the vastly 

 enlarging appropriations granted to our federal De- 

 partment of Agriculture and its manifold and increas- 

 ing activities, that we are taking care of this phase of 

 governmental activity in thorough fashion. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, the present agencies are inadequate. For 

 one thing, they are provincial, dealing with too narrow 

 areas of interest; they should scour the world. They 

 are too narrow in their scope; only within a few years 

 have we even touched the field of distribution, and coun- 

 try life interests have received slight consideration. 

 Moreover, in spite of our farm bureaus and extension 

 services, we still fail to reach a large majority of the 

 working farmers with all the information that they 

 need regarding the world's need for food and the 

 world's supply of food. We have made a good deal 



