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iii»' great body of fanners bas rightly estimated the Importance of the eco- 
Domic, political, and social questions as related to their ultimate prosperity, in 
grange meetings, for example, the subjects which arouse greatest interest are 
sueh themes as taxation, the rural telephone, the country School, and hnsiness 
cooperation. The explanation of all the farmers' movements Is that the farmers 
believe the farm problem to be much more than a question of technique. They 
want light <>n the whole problem 
'The college, chiefly through its socialized extension department, has a mission 
also to those professional people whose sphere of work is in the rural com- 
munity. The rural educator, the country clergyman, the editor of the country 
paper, and even the lawyer and physician who deal with country people should 
have a large share in helping to solve the farm problem. They, too, need to 
know what the rural problem is. They. too. need the eye that sees the neces- 
sary conditions of rural betterment and the heart that desires to help in rural 
progress. By some of the same methods that reach the farmers themselves can 
the college instruct and inspire these others. 
And. finally, the college will take its place as the "social organ or agency of 
first importance in helping to solve the farm prohlem in all its phases." The 
church, the school, the farmers' organization — all these social organs have their 
work to do. None can do the work of the others. Rut they should work 
together. Each should appreciate its own mission and its own limitations; 
each should recognize the function of the others, and all should intelligently 
unite their forces in a grand campaign for rural betterment More properly 
than perhaps any other agency the socialized extension department of the 
agricultural college can act as mediator and unifier, serve as the clearing house 
and directing spirit in a genuine federation of rural social forces. Inspired 
by the conscious purpose of the college to help at all points in the solution of 
the farm question, informed by the knowledge acquired through research into 
the economic and social prohlems of agriculture, aided by a multitude of edu- 
cated farmers trained in the colleges to know the rural problem and to lend a 
hand in its settlement, dignified by its status as a coordinate branch of the 
college activities, the extension department may well act as the chief agency 
of stimulation and unification in the social movements for rural advancement. 
In this discussion the practical details of carrying out the programme advo- 
cated have not been touched upon. When once it becomes a distinct policy 
of the college to assume leadership in the movement for rural betterment, such 
questions as subject-matter for study, text-books, qualified instructors, and time 
in the curriculum will settle themselves. Neither has any attempt been made 
to give illustrations; and therefore this paper may seem dogmatic if not aca- 
demic, a prophecy rather than an outline of progress, the statement of an ideal 
rather than a practicable programme. But I think there is abundant evidence 
that a current is setting in toward the enlargement of the work of the agri- 
cultural college along the social lines indicated. The rapid development of 
farmers' institutes, the growth of other phases of extension teaching, the senti- 
ment of those in authority that the experiment station must soon slough off its 
work of education and confine itself to research, the holding of occasional con- 
ferences for rural progress, in which country teachers and pastors join with 
the farmers, the initiative of the college in federating various State farmers' 
organizations into one grand committee, the inauguration of several brief 
courses in agricultural economics and rural sociology, the cooperation of some 
of the colleges with the Carnegie Institution in an investigation into the his- 
tory and conditions of agriculture in its economic and social phases, the pride 
with which a few of our colleges point to the increasing number of young men 
they are sending to the farms — all these facts seem clearly to indicate that the 
agricultural college will soon assert its function of leader in the endeavor to 
solve all phases of the rural problem. 
If the analysis thus far offered is a correct one, the question of " rural eco- 
nomics " is far from being merely a matter of adding three or four subjects 
of study to the agricultural course. It involves the very function and policy 
of the college itself. It alone gives proportion to the problem of agricultural 
education, because, while distinctly admitting the need of better farming and 
the consequently fundamental necessity of the technical training of farmers, 
it emphasizes the importance of the economic and political and social aspects 
of rural development. And it thereby indicates that only by a due recognition 
of these factors, in purpose, in organization, and in course of study, can the 
American agricultural college fulfill its mission to the American farmer. 
