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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



natural obstacles in the way of united effort must be overcome by a 

 greater wisdom and moral discipline than other classes possess; otherwise 

 the farmer will always be at a disadvantage. That is what wisdom and 

 moral qualities are for — to overcome difficulties. 



Now we need not waste any sympathy on those who will not or cannot 

 work together. They get what they deserve. Of course, we all have our 

 own opinions as to what a good man or a bad man is like. We generally 

 call him a good man who possesses the qualities which we admire, which is 

 very likely to mean the qualities which we think that we ourselves pos- 

 sess. Looked at broadly and impersonally, however, the essential differ- 

 ence between good men and bad men is that the former are very careful 

 of their own obligations and other people's rights, whereas the latter are 

 very particular about their own rights and other people's obligations. 

 Every great moral teacher has tried to make good men by telling them of 

 their obligations and not of their rights. We are naturally so much in- 

 clined the other way that this is necessary in order to restore a proper 

 equilibrium. 



It is rather obvious, is it not, that people who are careful of their own 

 obligations and other people's rights are easy to get along with? A com- 

 munity made up of such people can always work together. On the other 

 hand, people who are very particular about their own rights and other 

 people's obligations are hard to get along with. A community made up of 

 such people can't work together at all. In our impatience we are sometimes 

 tempted to say that such people have no rights and deserve to be ex- 

 ploited. However, the question becomes complicated when we have a com- 

 munity made up in part of people who would like to work with their neigh- 

 bors and in part of people who will not. 



The foregoing is written to show how closely the problems of organiz- 

 ing rural interests is bound up with the question of religion and morals. 

 Unless the right moral influences are at work creating the spirit of work- 

 ing together and mutual helpfulness, no effective organization will be pos- 

 sible. The church, the school, the religious press, and every other moral 

 agency must begin at the bottom by teaching people to be careful of their 

 own obligations and of the rights of others, and overcome the tendency to 

 be insistent upon our own rights and other people's obligations. 



Some, of you may belong to that large class of Americans who are 

 interested in athletics. If so, you understand pretty well what teamwork 

 means. You also know that an aggregation of excellent individual players 

 who work at crosspurposes is not likely to succeed against a team of or- 

 dinary players who work together with one spirit and one will. If there is 

 possible good that can come out of the horrible European war, it will be the 

 lesson of organization, of teamwork, of discipline; the lesson that victory 

 comes only to those who work together in the interest of the whole; where 

 the individual will is subordinated; where the individual does a great many 

 things in the interest of his group which, in his own interest he would 

 rather not do. In the words of Kipling. 



