PROGRAM OF RECONSTRUCTION 249 



in fields of effort that involve agricultural interests. 



But it is not alone with respect to his own interests 

 that the American farmer needs a place at the council- 

 table. Rural public opinion should share in national 

 and even international affairs. The farmer should 

 speak his views concerning the need and terms of 

 permanent world peace, the policies of trade and of 

 treaties, all economic, political and social arrangements. 

 He is an organic part of the structure of society. His 

 is the most numerous class. His views, his ideals, his 

 ways of thinking should have full weight in the common 

 concerns of all mankind. A full democracy cannot 

 develop unless the farmer makes his special contribu- 

 tion, and this he can not do if he is voiceless in the 

 counsels of democracy. 



There are -two main channels through which must 

 ebb and flow the tides of rural endeavor both in assist- 

 ing farmers to solve their particular problems and in 

 receiving from farmers their special contribution to 

 the world's welfare. One is government, including 

 legislation as well as all those agencies of regulation 

 and education that receive public support; the other is 

 mutual association, by which farmers band themselves 

 into groups large and small for their common welfare. 



THE GOVERNMENT AND AGRICULTURE 



It is maintained by some students that there is an 

 increasing tendency among all people to regard govern- 

 ment or the state as a sort of huge person that stands 

 out apart from people as individuals. This person 

 has great power, makes its own morality, must be 

 obeyed. Sometimes this idea is carried so far that the 

 state assumes a morality of its own, denying the appli- 

 cation to its acts of the laws of personal righteousness; 



