THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



Ho urged the virtues of the higher agriculture, the bene- 

 fits of organization for the purchase of supplies and sale 

 of products, and the incidental social advantages to be 

 gained through commercial co-operation. He preached 

 to the lord in his castle as well as to the peasant in his 

 cottage. He urged upon the rich the duty they owed to 

 their country and their fellow-men, calling upon them to 

 give of their means, their education, and their experience, 

 in organizing the people to use labor, capital, and land to 

 better advantage. The movement strictly avoids politics, 

 but has brought representatives of all other elements of 

 Irish life into the great society of which Mr. Plunkett is 

 president and Mr. Anderson secretary. 



The society has dotted the map of Ireland with co- 

 operative institutions of every kind. Its own relation 

 to these institutions is not that of stockholder or man- 

 ager, but is purely advisory and paternal. The society 

 sends out lecturers to talk to the people and show them 

 the way to prosperity. It publishes books, pamphlets, 

 and an entertaining weekly newspaper. It supplies ex- 

 perts to conduct experimental farms, establish and equip 

 various small industries, organize commercial associa- 

 tions, and supervise the bookkeeping of the various en- 

 terprises. In a word, it puts at the disposal of the poor 

 farmers of Ireland the brains and experience of superior 

 men. Working with the benefit of these brains and ex- 

 perience, a population which once seemed tho most dis- 

 couraged and hopeless in Europe is rising steadily and 

 grandly in the industrial and social scale. 



It is borrowing from village banks, at four per cent, 

 annual interest, money which it formerly had of usurers 

 at two to live per cent, a month. It has smashed the ring 



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