146 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



the betterment of conditions among the rural peasantry of Ireland 

 than all the efforts of the politicians — "with more economic business 

 methods, with cheapening of purchase, combination of sale, science 

 in the farm and dairy, with expensive machinery co-operatively 

 owned, and with complete control of their own industry — farmers 

 could create and retain a commercial wealth, which could purchase 

 for them some of the comforts and luxuries of civilization." 



Herschel has said that the people must have the stimulus of 

 increased comforts and elevated desires to create the wide demand 

 for manufactured articles that alone can lead to great and rapid 

 improvements. The increase of land settlement on a permanent 

 footing will create an increase in the demand for manufactured ar- 

 ticles, and co-operation on business principles will enable us to secure 

 rapid improvement of our social condition. What the Hon. Walter 

 Scott said of the farmers of Saskatchewan is true of the farmers of 

 the Dominion: 



"Co-operation in mutual liability engenders mutual trust. 

 Wherever there is constant give and take — wherever the prosperity 

 of the individual depends directly and obviously upon the prosperity 

 of the community about him — there the social order tends to pro- 

 duce the fine type of character with a devotion to public ideals and 

 public duties. . . . The plain lesson is that the farmers of Saskat- 

 chewan, who have to count themselves at present among the victims, 

 should no longer remain divided, but should band themselves to- 

 gether by the principle of co-operation." 



Co-operation in rural areas, for productive and distributive pur- 

 poses, tends to increase co-operation in public affairs and increases 

 the interest of the farmer in local government. He thereby becomes 

 a more responsible citizen and is given an incentive to become a 

 more permanent settler. The realization of his power to make or 

 unmake provincial and national governments is already growing, 

 and, whether this power be exercised for good or ill, will depend on 

 the extent to which better facilities for co-operation and education 

 are provided. 



A significant movement of the farmers in the western United 

 States to use their power is seen in the recent achievement of the 

 Farmers' League of North Dakota, which succeeded in electing the 

 Governor and officials of that state. In France and Denmark, 

 farmers have much more influence over the legislatures and over 

 government administration than in America generally. Sir Horace 

 Plunkett points out that the absence of the parcels post, the domin- 

 ation of the express companies, and the bad state of the country 



