RURAL STATESMANSHIP 203 



The farmers wished to see themselves represented at 

 the nation's council-table by one of their own kind. 

 They wished to feel that they had a part in shaping 

 policies. They delighted in the sense of partnership 

 with the government. They expected that the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture would in a measure become the 

 farmers' spokesman to the President, to Congress, to 

 the nation and to the world. There are many students 

 of rural affairs who believe that the department should 

 be the unquestioned agency to organize policies, map 

 out programs, lead the force of agricultural improve- 

 ment. Among the officials of the department, there is 

 probably very strong conviction concerning the primacy 

 of the department as leader. But there are considera- 

 tions of caution. 



There are the administrative limitations already 

 mentioned ; those that belong to government as such ; 

 they are a menace to originality, reform, agitation, 

 even to statesmanship. In spite of all the good inten- 

 tions of public officials there will always be a tendency 

 to get away from the working farmer. 



There are functional limitations some things that 

 we do not want government to do. American country 

 life, for example, can never be all it ought to be apart 

 from a virile religious life. Obviously the government 

 cannot manage the church. Government cannot buy 

 the farmers' supplies for him nor sell his crops for him; 

 no one expects the farmer to surrender his business in- 

 itiative to the government. 



The farmer can be truly represented only by the 

 farmer. The public official may be a wise guide and 

 counselor, and if so his word ought to be listened to and 

 heeded; but no public official, not even an agricultural 

 college president, has the power to speak in the same 



