CHAPTER XI 

 THE STATESMANSHIP OF RURAL AFFAIRS 



SOME WAR-TIME LESSONS FOR AMERICA 



AMERICA'S participation in the war has revealed cer- 

 tain weaknesses in the organization of American agri- 

 culture. No national agricultural program existed at 

 the time war was declared, and has been but partially 

 developed during the war. We have stood in need 

 of a mobilization of agriculture somewhat akin to the 

 mobilization of an army. We have needed an agricul- 

 tural general staff. Nor has there been a real coor- 

 dination of the interests of producers and consumers 

 in the big problem of food supply. The farmers 

 themselves have responded magnificently to the appeals 

 to grow more food, and the machinery of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, of the colleges of agriculture, and 

 of the farm bureaus has been unceasingly devoted to 

 helping the farmers. There has been criticism of the 

 federal Food Administration, but also a growing be- 

 lief that it has been governed by wise statesmanship, a 

 rare foresight, and motived by high aims. But we have 

 not yet gained out of the war that close, definite, in- 

 telligent, well-understood coordination in the whole 

 problem of food supply that we ought to have. We 

 find that we have no agricultural policy maker. Con- 

 gressmen have repeatedly said, " How do we know 

 who expresses the real agricultural thought and inter- 

 est?" The farmer's vacant chair in national and in- 



191 



