PROGRAM OF RECONSTRUCTION. 257 



terest is social welfare. Or a more specific end may 

 be in view, such as an apple producing campaign. Or 

 in even greater detail, it may be desirable to have a 

 " drive " for treating potato seed. In all these cases 

 the cooperation of many agencies is necessary for the 

 best success. Many things need to be done in- 

 vestigation, an educational propaganda certain pub- 

 lic regulations, buying and selling. Many agencies 

 should be used the extension service, the farm bu- 

 reau, the Grange, the fruit or vegetable growers' asso- 

 ciation, the farmers' exchange. In some way all neces- 

 sary methods and agencies are to be used, each in its 

 best way, for the purpose in view. 



Still another type of rural organization is to be de- 

 veloped. Unless agriculture and country life are fully 

 organized by regions or areas, the most complete prog- 

 ress can hardly be expected. How can we bring the 

 farming business and the farm life to its best estate 

 in each farm, in each farm community, in each rural 

 county, in each state, in the nation as a whole and in 

 the world at large? Any aim short of such an idea 

 is incomplete. Each region then must become a real 

 unit for rural progress, must study itself, make plans 

 for improvement, and ally all forces within the region 

 in a broad program of development. This is really 

 the crowning task of statesmanship in rural affairs. 



BUILDING THE LOCAL RURAL COMMUNITY 



In some respects the most important single improve- 

 ment in rural affairs is to develop real communities of 

 farming folk. These communities must often be cre- 

 ated they do not exist. The community idea is sim- 

 ply that of a group of farmers and the people closely 

 allied with them, acting together as one man. The 



