December, 1909.] 



549 



Miscellaneous* 



to call his attention to the opportuni- 

 ties for better business and belter living 

 on the farm. It country life is to be- 

 come what it should be, and what I 

 believe it ultimately will be— one of 

 the most dignified, desirable and sought- 

 after ways of earning a living— the far- 

 mer must take advantage not only of 

 the agricultural knowledge which is at 

 his disposal, but of the methods which 

 have raised and continue to raise the 

 standards of living and of intelligence in 

 other callings. 



Organisation. — Those engaged in all 

 other industrial and commercial callings 

 have found it necessary under modern 

 economic conditions to organize them- 

 selves for mutual advantage and for 

 the protection of their own particular 

 interests in relation to other interests. 



The farmers of every progressive 

 European country have realised this 

 essential fact, and have found in the 

 co-operative system exactly the form 

 of business combination they need. 



Now, whatever the State may do 

 toward improving the practice of agri- 

 culture, it is not within the sphere 

 of any Government to recognize the 

 farmers' business or reconstruct the 

 social life of farming communities, It 

 is, however, quite within its power to 

 use its influence and the machinery of 

 publicity which it can control for calling 

 public attention to the needs and the 

 facts. For example, it is the obvious 

 duty of the Government to call the atten- 

 tion of farmers to the growing monopoli- 

 zation of water power. The farmers, 

 above all, should have that power, on 

 reasonable terms, for cheap transport- 

 ation, for lighting their homes, and 

 for innumerable uses in the daily tasks 

 on the farm. 



Farmers' own Co-operation and 



Work needed. 

 It would be idle to assert that life 

 on the farm occupies as good a position 

 in dignity, desirability, and business 

 results as the farmers might easily give 

 it if they chose. One of the chief diffi- 

 culties is the failure of country life as 

 it exists at present to satisfy the higher 

 social and intellectual aspirations of 

 country people. Whether the constant 

 draining away of so much of the best 

 elements in the rural population into 

 the towns is due chiefly to this cause 

 or to the superior business opportunities 

 of city life may be open to question. 

 But no one at all familar with farm life 

 throughout the United States can fail 

 to recognize the necessity for building 

 u p the life of the farm upon its social 

 as well as upon its productive side. 



It is true that country life has im- 

 proved greatly in attractiveness, health, 

 and comfort, and that the farmer's earn- 

 ings are higher than they were. But city 

 life is advancing even more rapidly be- 

 cause of the greater attention which is 

 being given by the citizens of the towns 

 to their own betterment. For just this 

 reason the introduction of effective 

 agricultural co-operation throughout the 

 United States is of tbe first importance. 

 Where farmers are organized co-opera- 

 tively they not only avail themselves 

 much more readily of business oppor- 

 tunities and improved methodo, but it is 

 found that the organiszations which 

 bring them together in the work of their 

 lives are used also for social and intel- 

 lectual advancement. 



The Co-operative Plan. -This riis the 

 best plan of organization wherever 

 men have the right spirit to carry it 

 out. Under this plan any business 

 undertaking is managed by a committee. 

 Every man has one vote, and every one 

 gets profits according to what he sells 

 or buys or supplies. It develops indi- 

 vidual responsibility and has a moral 

 as well ay a financial value over any 

 other plan, 



The Farmers' Problems the whole 



Country's Problems. 

 I desire only to take counsel with the 

 farmers as fellow-citizens. It is not the 

 problem of the farmers alone that 1 am 

 discussing with them, but a problem 

 which affects every city as well as every 

 farm in the country. It is a problem 

 which the working farmers will have to 

 solve for themselves, but it is a problem 

 which also affects in only less degree all 

 the rest of us, and therefore if we can 

 render any help towards its solution it 

 is not only our duty but our interest to 

 do so. 



The foregoing will, I hope, make it 

 clear why I appointed a Commission to 

 consider problems of farm life which 

 have hitherto had far too little attention, 

 and the neglect of which has not only 

 held back life in the country, but also 

 lowered the efficiency of the whole 

 nation. The welfare of the farmer is of 

 vital consequence to the welfare of the 

 whole community. The strengthening 

 of country life, therefore, is the streng- 

 thening of the whole nation. 



The Commission has tried to help the 

 farmers to see clearly their own problem 

 and to see it as a whole, to distinguish 

 clearly between what the government 

 can do and what the farmers must do 

 for themselves, and it wishes to bring 

 not only the farmers, but the nation as 

 a whole, to realize that the growing of 



