I20 The State and the Farmer 



size the public-service phase of its work. This 

 phase of society work is not yet understood 

 in this country. Fifty years from now it will be 

 the dominant note in all rural societies. I am 

 quite sure that I have not the power to make 

 my meaning wholly clear or to convey a vivid 

 picture of what I have in prospect. We are so 

 unaccustomed to thinking of such subjects that 

 we have not yet developed a point of view or 

 a vocabulary. 



Consider, in the first place, that practically 

 every man has stood alone in his farming, and 

 has been obliged to contend with all the 

 organized interests of the business world. 

 The result is that he is a negligible factor in 

 trade, in a great part. What is true in busi- 

 ness relations is more broadly true in social 

 relations. Our present greatest need is the 

 development of what may be called "the com- 

 munity sense" — the idea of the community, as 

 a whole, working together toward one result. 

 We must admit that there is now a deplorable 

 lack of any associative effort that commands 

 respect and puts things through. This com- 



