THE ORGANIZATION OF RURAL INTERESTS 509 



being looked down upon or being sharply distinguished from 

 other classes in any way that marks them off as a caste. How 

 then may we adjust our modes of living, our education, our 

 country life, our village life, so that we shall secure the advan- 

 tages of permanent occupation of the land without the disad- 

 vantages of a caste system? 



Some Special Problems. There is no doubt but the racial 

 problems which have disturbed our country show themselves 

 in agriculture. Special groups, such as the negro farmer, the 

 mountaineer, able but isolated, the emigrant farmer, sturdy but 

 foreign, must in some fashion be taken into the common lot. 

 Only so can we have a real democracy. How are we to do it? 

 There is a question of grades or strata of farmers. In almost 

 any farm community we find a group of very prosperous and 

 successful farmers, men who we say can "take care of them- 

 selves. ' ' Near the other end of the scale we find the "submerged 

 tenth," men not very efficient. At the extreme end we find 

 the hundredth man the abandoned farmer. Between these ex- 

 tremes, the great group of average farmers. So we have farmers 

 small and farmers large; farmers wise and farmers foolish; 

 farmers educated and farmers illiterate; and we find the need 

 of adjusting our ideas and our methods of living together so 

 that as far as possible these walls of separation may be broken 

 down. The problem becomes a very interesting and acute one 

 in any farm community when we note the prejudices in church 

 or in secret societies, and how certain groups are inevitably ex- 

 cluded. We also find farmers with special difficulties ; the man 

 with the tiny farm, the landless farmer, the laborless farmer, 

 the farmer without capital, the farmer in the depleted rural com- 

 munity who would like to see a better day but is not hopeful 

 that it can be brought about, and finally the farm laborer. 

 Sometimes these matters do not seem like "problems"; but are 

 rather taken for granted. They are important questions, never- 

 theless. 



ADJUSTMENTS BETWEEN THE FARMER AND OTHER INTERESTS 



The Balance between Producers and Consumers. We have 

 had a great outcry because in some prosperous agricultural re- 

 gions, as well as in those less prosperous, the farm population has 



