2i8 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



seem instinctively to recognize that social forces 

 may work them ill or work them good according 

 to the direction and power of those forces. This 

 statement is illustrated by the fact that the aims, 

 purposes, labors, and discussions of the great 

 farmers' organizations like the Grange are social 

 in character, having to do with questions that 

 are political, economic, sociological. 



When, however, we turn to those public 

 educational agencies that are intended to assist 

 in the solution of the farm problem, we discover 

 that they are giving slight attention to the social 

 side of the question. An examination of the 

 catalogues of the agricultural colleges, whether 

 separate institutions or colleges of state univer- 

 sities, reveals the fact that, beyond elementary 

 work in economics, in civics, and occasionally 

 in sociology, little opportunity is given students 

 to study the farm question from its social stand- 

 point. With a few exceptions, these institutions 

 offer no courses whatever in rural social prob- 

 lems, and even in these exceptional cases the 

 work offered is hardly commensurate with the 

 importance of the subject. Nearly all our other 

 colleges and universities are subject to the same 

 comment. The average student of problems in 

 economics and sociology and education gains on 



