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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/27305-8.txt b/27305-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ef1a69 --- /dev/null +++ b/27305-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3077 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rural Life Problem of the United States, by +Horace Curzon Plunkett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Rural Life Problem of the United States + Notes of an Irish Observer + +Author: Horace Curzon Plunkett + +Release Date: November 21, 2008 [EBook #27305] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF U.S. *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + + +THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES + +[Illustration: Publisher's logo] + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO +DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO + +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA +MELBOURNE + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. +TORONTO + + + + +THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES + +NOTES OF AN IRISH OBSERVER +BY +SIR HORACE PLUNKETT + +New York +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +1919 + +_All rights reserved_ + + +COPYRIGHT, 1910, + +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1910. Reprinted October, 1910; +January, 1911; October, 1912; September, 1913; January, 1917. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +The thoughts contained in the following pages relate to one side of the +life of a country which has been to me, as to many Irishmen, a second +home. They are offered in friendly recognition of kindness I cannot hope +to repay, received largely as a student of American social and economic +problems, from public-spirited Americans who, I know, will appreciate +most highly any slight service to their country. + +The substance of the book appeared in five articles contributed to the +New York _Outlook_ under the title "Conservation and Rural Life." +Several American friends, deeply interested in the Rural Life problem, +asked me to republish the series. In doing so, I have felt that I ought +to present a more comprehensive view of my subject than either the space +allowed or the more casual publication demanded. + +I have to thank the editors of the _Outlook_ for the generous +hospitality of their columns, and for full freedom to republish what +belongs to them. + +HORACE PLUNKETT. + +THE PLUNKETT HOUSE, DUBLIN, +April, 1910. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SUBJECT AND THE POINT OF VIEW + + PAGE +The subject defined--A reconstruction of rural life in +English-speaking communities essential to the progress of +Western civilisation--A movement for a new rural +civilisation to be proposed--The author's point of view +derived from thirty years of Irish and American +experience--The physical contrast and moral resemblances in +the Irish and American rural problems--Mr. Roosevelt's +interest in this aspect of the question--His Conservation +and Country Life policies 1 + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LAUNCHING OF TWO ROOSEVELT POLICIES + +The sane emotionalism of American public opinion--Gifford +Pinchot as the Apostle of Conservation--His test of +national efficiency--Mr. James J. Hill's notable +pronouncements upon the wastage of natural resources--The +evolution of the Conservation policy--Historical and +present causes of national extravagance--The Conference of +Governors and their pronouncement upon Conservation--Mr. +Roosevelt's Country Life policy--His estimate of the lasting +importance of the Conservation and Country Life ideas--The +popularity of the Conservation policy and the lack of +interest in the Country Life policy--The Country Life +Commission's inquiries and the reality of the problem--The +need and opportunity for reconstruction of rural life 17 + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF RURAL NEGLECT + +The origin of rural neglect in English-speaking countries +traced to the Industrial Revolution in England--Effect of +modern economic changes upon the mutual relations of town +and country populations--Respects in which the old relations +ought to be restored--Three economic reasons for the study +of rural conditions--The social consequences of rural +neglect--The political importance of rustic experience to +reënforce urban intelligence in modern democracies--The +analogue of the European exodus in the United States--The +moral aspects of rural neglect--The danger to national +efficiency of sacrificing agricultural to commercial and +industrial interests--The happy circumstance of Mr. +Roosevelt's interest in rural well-being 35 + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE INNER LIFE OF THE AMERICAN FARMER + +Reasons why the rural problem resulting from urban +predominance exists only in English-speaking +countries--Neglect of farmer more easily excused in the +United States than elsewhere owing to his apparent +prosperity--Country Life Commission's pronouncement on rural +backwardness--Why the matter must be taken up by the +towns--A survey of American rural life--The problem +economically and sociologically considered in the Middle +West--Causes and character of rural backwardness in the +Southern States--The boll-weevil and the hookworm as +illustrations of unconcern for the well-being of rural +communities--The problem in the New England States not +typically American--The progressive attitude of some +communities in the Far West in rural reform 57 + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WEAK SPOT IN AMERICAN RURAL ECONOMY + +The three elements of a rural existence--Mr. Roosevelt's +formula: "Better farming, better business, better living"--A +comparative analysis of urban and rural business methods +shows that herein lies chief cause of rural +backwardness--Reasons why farmers fail to adopt methods of +combination--A description of the coöperative system in its +application to agriculture--The introduction and development +of agricultural coöperation in Ireland--The Raiffeisen +Credit Association successful in poorest Irish +districts--Summary of coöperative achievement by Irish +farmers--British imitation of Irish agricultural organising +methods--A criticism of American farmers' +organisations--Lack of combination for business purposes the +cause of political impotence--Urgent need for a +reorganisation of American agriculture upon coöperative lines 83 + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WAY TO BETTER FARMING AND BETTER LIVING + +The retarded application of science to agriculture and +neglect of agricultural education--Present progress in +agricultural education--Full benefit of education must await +coöperative organisation--Connection between coöperation and +social progress--Mr. Roosevelt on the cause and cure of +rural discontent--Two views upon the principles of rural +betterment--The part coöperation is playing in Irish rural +society--General observations on town and country +pleasures--The social necessity for a redirection of rural +education--The rural labour problem--The position of women +in farm life--The reason why the remedy for rural +backwardness must come from without--The paradox of the problem 117 + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TWO THINGS NEEDFUL + +Summary of diagnosis and indication of treatment--Chief aim +the coördination of agencies available for social work in +the country--Numerical strength and fine social spirit +abroad, but leadership needed--Mutual interest of advocates +of Conservation and of rural reform--The psychological +difficulty due to predominance of urban idea--Roman history +repeating itself in New York--The natural leaders of the +Country Life movement to be found in the cities--The objects +of the movement defined--Two new institutions to be created; +the one executive and organising, the other academic--The +National Conservation Association qualified to initiate and +direct the movement--Possibly an American Agricultural +Organisation Society should be founded for the work--The +chief practical work the introduction of agricultural +coöperation--Necessity for joining forces with existing +philanthropic agencies--Suggested enlistment of country +clergy in coöperative propagandism--The Country Life +Institute, its purpose and functions--Reason why one body +cannot undertake work assigned to the two new +institutions--The financial requirements of the +Institute--Summary and conclusions 145 + + + + +THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SUBJECT AND THE POINT OF VIEW + + +I submit in the following pages a proposition and a proposal--a +distinction which an old-country writer of English may, perhaps, be +permitted to preserve. The proposition is that, in the United States, as +in other English-speaking communities, the city has been developed to +the neglect of the country. I shall not have to labour the argument, as +nobody seriously disputes the contention; but I shall trace the main +causes of the neglect, and indicate what, in my view, must be its +inevitable consequences. If I make my case, it will appear that our +civilisation has thus become dangerously one-sided, and that, in the +interests of national well-being, it is high time for steps to be taken +to counteract the townward tendency. + +My definite proposal to those who accept these conclusions is that a +Country Life movement, upon lines which will be laid down, should be +initiated by existing associations, whose efforts should be supplemented +by a new organisation which I shall call a Country Life Institute. There +are in the United States a multiplicity of agencies, both public and +voluntary, available for this work. But the army of workers in this +field of social service needs two things: first, some definite plan for +coördinating their several activities, and, next, some recognised source +of information collected from the experience of the Old and the New +World. It is the purpose of these pages to show that these needs are +real and can be met. + +Two obvious questions will here suggest themselves. Why should the +United States--of all countries in the world--be chosen for such a theme +instead of a country like Ireland, where the population depends mainly +upon agriculture? What qualifications has an Irishman, be he never so +competent to advise upon the social and economic problems of his own +country, to talk to Americans about the life of their rural population? +I admit at once that, while I have made some study of American +agriculture and rural economy, my actual work upon the problem of which +I write has been restricted to Ireland. But I claim, with some pride, +that, in thought upon rural economy, Ireland is ahead of any +English-speaking country. She has troubles of her own, some inherent in +the adverse physical conditions, and others due to well-known historical +causes, that too often impede the action to which her best thoughts +should lead. But the very fact that those who grapple with Irish +problems have to work through failure to success will certainly not +lessen the value to the social student of the experience gained. I +recognise, however, that I must give the reader so much of personal +narrative as is required to enable him to estimate the value of my +facts, and of the conclusions which I base upon them. + +To have enjoyed an Irish-American existence, to have been profoundly +interested in, and more or less in touch with, public affairs in both +countries, to have been an unwilling politician in Ireland and not a +politician at all in America, is, to say the least, an unusual +experience for an Irishman. But such has been my record during the last +twenty years. Soon after graduating at Oxford, I was advised to live in +mountain air for a while, and for the next decade I was a ranchman along +the foothills of the Rockies. To those who knew that my heart was in +Ireland, I used to explain that I might some day be in politics at home, +and must take care of my lungs. In 1889 I returned to live and work in +my own country, but I retained business interests, including some +farming operations, in the Western States. Ever since then I have taken +my annual holiday across the Atlantic, and have studied rural +conditions over a wider area in the United States than my business +interests demanded. + +For eight years, commencing in 1892, I was a Member of Parliament. My +legislative ambition was to get something done for Irish industry, and +especially Irish agriculture. Having secured the assistance of an +unprecedented combination of representative Irishmen, known as the +Recess Committee (because it sat during the Parliamentary recess), we +succeeded in getting the addition we wanted to the machinery of Irish +Government. The functions of the new institution are sufficiently +indicated by its cumbrous Parliamentary title, "The Department of +Agriculture and other Industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland." I mention this official experience because it not only +intensified my desire to study American conditions, but it also brought +me frequently to Washington to study the working of those Federal +institutions which are concerned for the welfare of the rural +population. There I enjoyed the unfailing courtesy of American public +servants to the foreign inquirer. + +On one of these visits, in the winter of 1905-1906, I called upon +President Roosevelt to pay him my respects, and to express to him my +obligations to some members of his Administration. I wished especially +to acknowledge my indebtedness to that veteran statesman, Secretary +Wilson, the value of whose long service to the American farmer it would +be hard to exaggerate. Mr. Roosevelt questioned me as to the exact +object of my inquiries, and asked me to come again and discuss with him +more fully than was possible at the moment certain economic and social +questions which had engaged much of his own thoughts. He was greatly +interested to learn that in Ireland we have been approaching many of +these questions from his own point of view. He made me tell him the +story of Irish land legislation, and of recent Irish movements for the +improvement of agricultural conditions. Ever since, his interest in +these Irish questions--to _the_ Irish Question we gave a wide berth--has +been maintained on account of their bearing upon his Rural Life policy, +for I had shown him how the economic strengthening and social elevation +of the Irish farmer had become a matter of urgent Irish concern. I +recall many things he said on that occasion, which show that his two +great policies of Conservation and Country Life reform were maturing in +his mind. I need hardly say how deeply interesting these policies are to +me, embracing as they do economic and social problems, the working out +of which in my own country happens to be the task to which I have +devoted the best years of my life. + +I must now offer to the reader so much of the story of the Country Life +movement in my own country as will enable him to understand its +interest to Mr. Roosevelt and to many another worker upon the analogous +problems of the United States. Ireland is passing through an agrarian +revolution. There, as in many other European countries, the title to +most of the agricultural land rested upon conquest. The English attempt +to colonise Ireland never completely succeeded nor completely failed; +consequently the Irish never ceased to repudiate the title of the alien +landlord. In 1881 Mr. Gladstone introduced one of the greatest agrarian +reforms in history--rent-fixing by judicial authority--which was +certainly a bold attempt to put an end to a desolating conflict, +centuries old. + +The scheme failed,--whether, as some hold, from its inherent defects, or +from the circumstances of the time, is an open question. It is but fair +to its author to point out that a rapidly increasing foreign +competition, chiefly from the newly opened tracts of virgin soil in the +New World, led to a fall in agricultural prices, which made the first +rents fixed appear too high. Quicker and cheaper transit, together with +processes for keeping produce fresh over the longest routes, soon showed +that the new market conditions had come to stay. A bad land system on a +rising market might succeed better than a good one on a falling. The +land tenure reforms begun in 1881, having broken down under stress of +foreign competition, and Purchase Acts on a smaller scale having been +tentatively tried in the interval, in 1903 Parliament finally decreed +that sufficient money should be provided to buy out all the remaining +agricultural land. In a not remote future, some two hundred million +pounds sterling--a billion dollars--will have been advanced by the +British Government to enable the tenants to purchase their holdings, the +money to be repaid in easy instalments during periods averaging over +sixty years. + +Twenty years ago this general course of events was foreseen, and a few +Irishmen conceived and set to work upon what has come to be Ireland's +Rural Life policy. The position taken up was simple. What Parliament was +about to do would pull down the whole structure of Ireland's +agricultural economy, and would clear away the chief hindrance to +economic and social progress. But upon the ground thus cleared the +edifice of a new rural social economy would have to be built. This work, +although it needs the fostering care of government, and liberal +facilities for a system of education intimately related to the people's +working lives, belongs mainly to the sphere of voluntary effort. + +The new movement, which was started in 1889 to meet the circumstances I +have indicated, was thus a movement for the up-building of country life. +It anticipated the lines of the formula which Mr. Roosevelt adopted in +his Message transmitting to Congress the Report of the Country Life +Commission--better farming, better business, better living: we began +with better business, which consisted in the introduction of +agricultural coöperation into the farming industry, for several reasons +which will appear later, and for one which I must mention here. We found +that we could not develop in unorganised farmers a political influence +strong enough to enable them to get the Government to do its part +towards better farming. Owing to the new agricultural opinion which had +been developed indirectly by organising the farmer, we were able to win +from Parliament the department I have named above. This institution was +so framed and endowed that it is able to give to the Irish farmers all +the assistance which can be legitimately given by public agencies and at +public expense. The assistance consists chiefly of education. But +education is interpreted in the widest sense. Practical instruction to +old and young, in schools, upon the farms, and at meetings, lectures, +experiments, and demonstrations, the circulation of useful information +and advice, and all the usual methods known to progressive governments, +are being introduced with the chief aim of enabling the farmer to apply +to the practice of farming the teachings of modern science. Better +living, which includes making country life more interesting and +attractive, is sought by using voluntary associations, some organised +primarily for business purposes, and others, having no business aim, for +social and intellectual ends. But Irish rural reformers are agreed that +by far the most important step towards a higher and a better rural life +would be a redirection of education in the country schools. To this I +shall return in the proper place. + +I can now proceed with my American experiences without leaving any doubt +as to the point of view from which I approach the problem of rural life +in the United States. Having engaged in actual work upon that problem in +Ireland, where a combination of economic changes and political events +has made its solution imperative, and having been long in personal +touch with rural conditions in some Western States, my interest in +certain policies which were maturing at Washington may be easily +surmised. There I found that, with wholly different conditions to be +dealt with, the thoughts of the President and of others in his +confidence were, as regards the main issue, moving in the same direction +as my own. They too had come to feel that the welfare of the rural +population had been too long neglected, and that it was high time to +consider how the neglect might be repaired. In his annual message to +Congress in 1904, Mr. Roosevelt had made it clear that he was fully +conscious of this necessity. "Nearly half of the people of this +country," he wrote, "devote their energies to growing things from the +soil. Until a recent date little has been done to prepare these millions +for their life work." I did not realise at the time the full import of +these sentences. Nor did I foresee that the problem of rural life was +to be forced to the front by the awakening of public opinion, upon +another issue differing from and yet closely related to the subject of +these pages. Mr. Roosevelt was thinking out the Conservation idea, which +I believe will some day be recognised as the greatest of his policies. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LAUNCHING OF TWO ROOSEVELT POLICIES + + +Although somebody has already said something like it, I would say there +is a tide in the thoughts of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to +action. We make the general claim for our Western civilisation, that, +whatever the form of government, once public opinion is thoroughly +stirred upon a great and vital issue, it is but a question of time for +the will to find the way. But in the life of the United States, the +passage from thought to action is more rapid than in any country that I +know. Nowhere do we find such a combination of emotionalism with sanity. +No better illustration of these national qualities could be desired than +that afforded by the inception and early growth of the Conservation +policy. + +I have already shown how my inquiries at Washington gave me access to +the most accessible of the world's statesmen. At the same time there +came into my life another remarkable personality. To the United States +Forester of that day I owe my earliest interest in the Conservation +policy. In counsel with him I came to regard the Conservation and Rural +Life policies as one organic whole. So I must say here a word about the +man who, more than any other, has inspired whatever in these pages may +be worth printing. + +I first met Gifford Pinchot in his office in Washington in 1905. I was +not especially interested in forestry, but the Forester was so +interesting that I listened with increasing delight to the story of his +work. I noticed that as an administrator he had a grasp of detail and a +mastery of method which are not usually found in men who have had no +training in large business affairs. I thought the secret of his success +lay between love of work and sympathy with workers, which gained him +the devotion and enthusiastic coöperation of his staff. It is, however, +as a statesman rather than as an administrator that his achievement is +and will be known. + +When I first knew the Forester, I found that already the conservation of +timber was but a small part of his material aims: every national +resource must be husbanded. But over the whole scheme of Conservation a +great moral issue reigned supreme. He clung affectionately to his task, +but it was not to him mere forestry administration. In his far vision he +seemed to see men as trees walking. The saving of one great asset was +broadening out into insistence upon a new test of national efficiency: +the people of the United States were to be judged by the manner in which +they applied their physical and mental energies to the conservation and +development of their country's natural resources. The acceptance of this +test would mean the success of a great policy for the initiation of +which President Roosevelt gave almost the whole credit to Gifford +Pinchot. + +There is one other name which will be ever honorably associated with the +dawn of the Conservation idea which Mr. Roosevelt elevated to the status +and dignity of a national policy. In September, 1906, Mr. James J. Hill +delivered (under the title of "The Future of the United States") what I +think was an epoch-making address. It is significant that this great +railway president opened his campaign for the economic salvation of the +United States by addressing himself, not to politicians or professors, +but to a representative body of Minnesota farmers. This address +presented for the first time in popular form a remarkable collection of +economic facts, which formed the basis of conclusions as startling as +they were new. Let me attempt a brief summary of its contents. + +The natural resources, to which the Conservation policy relates, may be +divided into two classes: the minerals, which when used cannot be +replaced, and things that grow from the soil, which admit of +indefinitely augmented reproduction. At the head of the former category +stands the supply of coal and iron. This factor in the nation's industry +and commerce was being exhausted at a rate which made it certain that, +long before the end of the century, the most important manufactures +would be handicapped by a higher cost of production. The supply of +merchantable timber was disappearing even more rapidly. But far more +serious than all other forms of wastage was the reckless destruction of +the natural fertility of the soil. The final result, according to Mr. +Hill, must be that within a comparatively brief period--a period for +which the present generation was bound to take thought--this veritable +Land of Promise would be hard pressed to feed its own people, while the +manufactured exports to pay for imported food would not be forthcoming. +It should be added that this sensational forecast was no purposeless +jeremiad. Mr. Hill told his hearers that the danger which threatened the +future of the Nation would be averted only by the intelligence and +industry of those who cultivated the farm lands, and that they had it in +their power to provide a perfectly practicable and adequate remedy. This +was to be found--if such a condensation be permissible--in the +application of the physical sciences to the practice, and of economic +science to the business, of farming. + +In spite of the immense burden of great undertakings which he carried, +Mr. Hill repeated the substance of this address on many occasions. Lord +Rosebery once said that speeches were the most ephemeral of all +ephemeral things, and for some time it looked as if one of the most +important speeches ever delivered by a public man on a great public +issue was going to illustrate the truth of this saying. It seems +strange that his facts and arguments should have remained unchallenged, +and yet unsupported, by other public men. Perhaps the best explanation +is to be found in a recent dictum of Mr. James Bryce. Speaking at the +University of California, the British Ambassador said: "We can all think +of the present, and are only too apt to think chiefly about the present. +The average man, be he educated or uneducated, seldom thinks of anything +else." There are, however, special circumstances in the history of the +United States which account for the extraordinary unconcern about what +is going to happen to the race in a period which may seem long to those +whose personal interest fixes a limit to their gaze, but which is indeed +short in the life of a nation. After the religious, political, and +military struggles through which the American nation was brought to +birth, there followed a century of no less strenuous wrestling with the +forces of nature. That century stands divided by the greatest civil +conflict in the world's history; but this only served to strengthen in a +united people those indomitable qualities to which the nation owes its +leadership in the advancement of civilisation. The abundance (until now +considered as virtual inexhaustibility) of natural resources, the call +for capital and men for their development, the rich reward of conquest +in the field of industry, may explain, but can hardly excuse, a National +attitude which seems to go against the strongest human instinct--one not +altogether wanting in lower animal life--that of the preservation of the +race. It is an attitude which recalls the question said to have been +asked by an Irishman: "What has posterity done for me?" But this was +before Conservation was in the air. + +I have now told what I came by chance to know about the origin of the +Conservation idea. The story of its early growth was no less remarkable +than the suddenness of its appearance. In the spring of 1908 matters +had advanced so far that the governors of all the States and Territories +met to discuss it. Before the Conference broke up they were moved to +"declare the conviction that the great prosperity of our country rests +upon the abundant resources of the land chosen by our forefathers for +their homes," that these resources are "a heritage to be made use of in +establishing and promoting the comfort, prosperity, and happiness of the +American people, but not to be wasted, deteriorated, or needlessly +destroyed; that this material basis is threatened with exhaustion"; that +"conservation of our natural resources is a subject of transcendent +importance which should engage unremittingly the attention of the +Nation, the States, and the people in earnest coöperation"; and that +"this coöperation should find expression in suitable action by the +Congress and by the legislatures of the several States." + +It is, of course, not with Conservation, but with Rural Life, that we +are here directly concerned; but it should be borne in mind that the +chief of all the nation's resources is the fertility of the soil. More +than one competent authority declared at the Conference of Governors +that this national asset was the subject of the greatest actual waste, +and was at the same time capable of the greatest development and +conservation. This interdependence of the two Roosevelt policies--the +fact that neither of them can come to fruition without the success of +the other--makes those of us who work for rural progress rest our chief +hopes upon the newly aroused public opinion in the American Republic. + +To my knowledge this view is shared by President Roosevelt, who always +regarded his Conservation and Rural Life policies as complementary to +each other. The last time I saw him--it was on Christmas Eve, 1908--he +dwelt on this aspect of his public work and aims. I remember how he +expressed the hope that, when the more striking incidents of his +Administration were forgotten, public opinion would look kindly upon his +Conservation and Rural Life policies. I ventured upon the confident +prediction that he would not be disappointed in this anticipation. +Already the authors of the Conservation policy have been rewarded by a +general acceptance of the principle for which they stand. The national +conscience now demands that the present generation, while enjoying the +material blessings with which not only nature but also the labour and +sacrifices of their forefathers have so bounteously endowed them, shall +have due regard for the welfare of those who are to come after them. + +Americans, who are accustomed to rapid developments in public opinion, +will hardly appreciate the impression made by the story I have just told +upon the mind of an observer from old countries, where action does not +tread upon the heels of thought. But surely an amazing thing has +happened. In the life of one Administration a great idea seizes the mind +of the American people. This leads to a stock-taking of natural +resources and a searching of the national conscience. Then, suddenly, +there emerges a quite new national policy. Conceived during the last +Administration, when it brought Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan on to the +same platform, Conservation at once rose above party, and will be the +accepted policy of all future Administrations. It has already secured +almost Pan-American endorsement at its birthplace in Washington. The +fathers of Conservation are now looking forward to a still larger sphere +of influence for their offspring at an International Conference which it +is hoped to assemble at the Hague. + +But it must be admitted that no such reception was accorded to Mr. +Roosevelt's other policy, to which our attention must now be turned. The +reasons for the comparative lack of interest in the problem of Rural +Life are many and complex, but two of them may be noted in passing. +Conservation calls for legislative and administrative action, and this +always sets up a ferment in the political mind. The Rural Life idea, on +the other hand, though it will demand some governmental assistance, must +rely mainly upon voluntary effort. The methods necessary for its +development, and their probable results, are also less obvious, and thus +less easily appreciated by the public. Whatever the reason, while +Conservation has rushed into the forefront of public interest and has +won the status and dignity of a policy, the sister idea is still +struggling for a platform, and its advocates must be content to see +their efforts towards a higher and a better country life regarded as a +movement. + +This estimate of the relative positions of these two ideas in the public +mind will, I think, be borne out when we contrast the quiet initiation +of the movement with the dramatic début of the policy. For all the +officialism with which it was launched, President Roosevelt's Country +Life Commission might as well have been appointed by some wealthy +philanthropist who would, at least, have paid its members' travelling +expenses,[1] and private initiation might also have spared us the +ridicule which greeted the alleged proposal to "uplift" a body of +citizens who were told that they were already adorning the heights of +American civilisation. The names of the men who volunteered for this +unpaid service should have been a sufficient guarantee that theirs was +no fool's errand.[2] + +How real was the problem the commissioners were investigating was +abundantly proved to those who were present when they got into touch +with working farmers and their wives, and discussed freely and +informally the conditions, human and material, to which the problem of +Rural Life relates. I shall refer again to their report. But I may here +say I am firmly convinced that a complete change in the whole attitude +of public opinion towards the old question of town and country must +precede any large practical outcome to the labours of the Commission. It +has to be brought home to those who lead public opinion that for many +decades we, the English-speaking peoples, have been unconsciously guilty +of having gravely neglected one side, and that perhaps the most +important side, of Western civilisation. + +To sustain this judgment I must now view the sequence of events which +led to the subordination of rural to urban interests, and try to +estimate its probable consequences. It will be seen that the neglect is +comparatively recent, and of English origin. I believe that the New +World offers just now a rare opportunity for launching a movement which +will be directed to a reconstruction of rural life. It is this belief +which has prompted an Irish advocate of rural reform to turn his +thoughts away for a brief space from the poorer peasantry of his own +country and to take counsel with his fellow-workers in the United States +and Canada on a problem which affects them all. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] These, as a matter of fact, were defrayed by the trustees of the +Russell Sage Foundation. + +[2] The Commission consisted of L. H. Bailey, of the New York State +College of Agriculture at Cornell University (chairman); Henry Wallace, +editor of _Wallace's Farmer_, Des Moines, Iowa; Kenyon L. Butterfield, +President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, +Massachusetts; Walter H. Page, editor of _The World's Work_, New York +City; Gifford Pinchot, United States Forester, and Chairman of the +National Conservation Commission; C. S. Barrett, President of the +Farmers' Co-operative and Educational Union of America, Union City, +Georgia; W. A. Beard, of the _Great West Magazine_, Sacramento, +California. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF RURAL NEGLECT + + +The most radical economic change which history records set in during the +last half of the eighteenth century in England, as the result of that +remarkable achievement of modern civilisation, the Industrial +Revolution. Mechanical inventions changed all industry, setting up the +factories of the town instead of the scattered home production of the +country and its villages. In the wake of the new inventions economic +science stepped in, and, scrupulously obeying its own law of demand and +supply, told the then predominant middle classes just what they wished +to be told. Adam Smith had made the wonderful discovery that money and +wealth were not the same thing. Then Ricardo, and after him the +Manchester School of economists, made division of labour the cardinal +virtue in the new gospel of wealth. In order to give full play to this +economic principle all workers in mechanical industries were huddled +together in the towns. There they were to be transformed from +capricious, undisciplined humans into mechanical attachments, and +restricted to such functions as steam-driven automata had not yet +learned to perform. That was the first stage of the Industrial +Revolution, with its chief consequences, the rural exodus and urban +overcrowding. It is a hideous nightmare to look back upon from these +more enlightened days. Well might the angels weep over the flight of all +that was best from the God-made country to the man-made town. + +Before the middle of the last century the clouds began to lift. For a +while the good Lord Shaftesbury seemed to be crying in the wilderness of +middle-class plutocracy, but it was not long before the crying of the +children in their factories stirred the national conscience. The health +of nations was allowed to be considered as well as their wealth. Social +and political science rose up in protest against both the economists and +the manufacturers. There followed a period of beneficent social changes, +no less radical than those which the new mechanical inventions had +produced in the economics of industry. The factory town of to-day +presents a strange contrast to that which sacrificed humanity to +material aggrandisement. What with its shortened hours of labour, +superior artisan dwellings, improved sanitation, parks, open spaces and +playgrounds, free instruction and cheap entertainment for old and young, +hospitals and charities, rapid transportation, a popular Press, and full +political freedom, the modern hive of industry stands as a monument of +what, under liberal laws, can be done by education and organisation to +realise the higher aspirations of a people. + +During this second period, another economic development produced upon +the attitude of the urban mind towards the rural population an effect to +which, I think, has not been given the consideration it deserves. Better +and cheaper transportation, with the consequent establishment of what +the economists call the world-market, completely changed the +relationship between the townsman and the farmer. A sketch of their +former mutual relations will make my meaning clear. Within the last +century every town relied largely for its food supply on the produce of +the fields around its walls. The countrymen coming into the weekly +market were the chief customers for the wares of the town craftsmen. In +this primitive state of trade, townsmen could not but realise the +importance to themselves of a prosperous country population around them. +But this simple exchange, as we all know, has developed into the complex +commercial operations of modern times. To-day most large towns derive +their household stuff from the food-growing tracts of the whole world, +and I doubt whether any are dependent on the neighbouring farmers, or +feel themselves specially concerned for their welfare. I do not think +the general truth of this picture will be questioned, and I hope some +consideration may be given to the conclusions I now draw. + +In the transition we are considering, the reciprocity between the +producers of food and the raw material of clothes on the one hand, and +manufacturers and general traders of the towns on the other, has not +ceased; it has actually increased since the days of steam and +electricity. But it has become national, and even international, rather +than local. Town consumers are still dependent upon agricultural +producers, who, in turn, are much larger consumers than formerly of all +kinds of commodities made in towns. Forty-two per cent of materials used +in manufacture in the United States are from the farm, which also +contributes seventy per cent of the country's exports. But in the +complexity of these trade developments townsmen have been cut off more +and more from personal contact with the country, and in this way have +lost their sense of its importance. My point is that the shifting of the +trade relationship of town and country from its former local to its +present national and international basis in reality increases their +interdependence. And I hold most strongly that until in this matter the +obligations of a common citizenship are realised by the town, we cannot +hope for any lasting National progress. + +Whatever be the causes which have begotten the neglect of rural life, no +one will gainsay the wisdom of estimating the consequences. These are +economic, social, and political; and I will discuss them briefly under +these heads. There are three main economic reasons which suggest a +closer study of rural conditions. First, there is the interdependence of +town and country, less obvious than it was in the days of the local +market, but no less real. Any fall in the number, or decline in the +efficiency, of the farming community, will be accompanied by a +corresponding fall in the country sale of town products. This is +especially true of America, where the foreign commerce is unimportant in +comparison with internal trade. To nourish country life is the best way +to help home trade. And quite as important as these considerations is +the effect which good or bad farming must have upon the cost of living +to the whole population. Excessive middle profits between producer and +consumer may largely account for the very serious rise in the price of +staple articles of food. This is a fact of the utmost significance, but, +as I shall show later, the remedy for too high a cost of production and +distribution lies with the farmer, the improvement of whose business +methods will be seen to be the chief factor in the reform which the +Rural Life movement must attempt to introduce. + +The essential dependence of nations on agriculture is the second +economic consideration. The author of "The Return to the Land," Senator +Jules Méline (successively Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Commerce +and Premier of France), tells us that this remarkable book is "merely an +expansion of a profound thought uttered long ago by a Chinese +philosopher: 'The well-being of a people is like a tree; agriculture is +its root, manufacture and commerce are its branches and its life; if the +root is injured the leaves fall, the branches break away and the tree +dies.'" + +This truth is not hard to apply to the conditions of to-day. The income +of every country depends on its natural resources, and on the skill and +energy of its inhabitants; and the quickest way to increase the income +is to concentrate on the production of those articles for which there is +the greatest demand throughout the commercial world. The relentless +application of this principle has been characteristic of the nineteenth +century. But the augmentation of income has in one special way been +purchased by a diminution of capital. The industrial movement has been +based on an immense expenditure of coal and iron; and in America and +Great Britain the coal and iron which can be cheaply obtained are within +measurable distance of exhaustion. As these supplies diminish, the +industrial leadership of America and Great Britain must disappear, +unless they can employ their activities in other forms of industry. +Those, therefore, who desire that the English-speaking countries should +maintain for many ages that high position which they now occupy, should +do all in their power to encourage a proper system of agriculture--the +one industry in which the fullest use can be made of natural resources +without diminishing the inheritance of future generations--the industry +"about which," Mr. James J. Hill emphatically declares, "all others +revolve, and by which future America shall stand or fall." + +The third economic reason will hardly be disputed. Agricultural +prosperity is an important factor in financial stability. The +fluctuations of commerce depend largely on the good and bad harvests of +the world, but, as they do not coincide with them in time, their +violence is, on the whole, likely to be less in a nation where +agricultural and manufacturing interests balance each other, than in one +depending mainly or entirely on either. The small savings of numerous +farmers, amounting in the aggregate to very large sums, are a powerful +means of steadying the money market; they are not liable to the +vicissitudes nor attracted by the temptations which affect the larger +investors. They remain a permanent national resource, which, as the +experience of France proves, may be confidently drawn upon in time of +need. I have often thought that, were it not for the thrift and industry +of the French peasantry, financial crises would be as frequent in France +as political upheavals. + +As regards the social aspect of rural neglect, I suggest that the city +may be more seriously concerned than is generally imagined for the +well-being of the country. One cannot but admire the civic pride with +which Americans contemplate their great centres of industry and +commerce, where, owing to the many and varied improvements, the townsman +of the future is expected to unite the physical health and longevity of +the Boeotian with the mental superiority of the Athenian. But we may +ask whether this somewhat optimistic forecast does not ignore one +important question. Has it been sufficiently considered how far the +moral and physical health of the modern city depends upon the constant +influx of fresh blood from the country, which has ever been the source +from which the town draws its best citizenship? You cannot keep on +indefinitely skimming the pan and have equally good milk left. In +America the drain may continue a while longer without the inevitable +consequences becoming plainly visible. But sooner or later, if the +balance of trade in this human traffic be not adjusted, the raw material +out of which urban society is made will be seriously deteriorated, and +the symptoms of National degeneracy will be properly charged against +those who neglected to foresee the evil and treat the cause. It is +enough for my present purpose if it be admitted that the people of every +state are largely bred in rural districts, and that the physical and +moral well-being of these districts must eventually influence the +quality of the whole people. + +I come now to the political considerations which, I think, have not been +sufficiently taken into account. In most countries political life +depends largely for its steadiness and sanity upon a strong infusion of +rural opinion into the counsels of the nation. It is a truism that +democracy requires for success a higher level of intelligence and +character in the mass of the people than other forms of government. But +intelligence alone is not enough for the citizen of a democracy; he must +have experience as well, and the experience of a townsman is essentially +imperfect. He has generally a wider theoretical knowledge than the +rustic of the main processes by which the community lives; but the +rustic's practical knowledge of the more fundamental of them is wider +than the townsman's. He knows actually and in detail how corn is grown +and how beasts are bred, whereas the town artisan hardly knows how the +whole of any one article of commerce is made. The townsman sees and +takes part in the wonderful achievements of industrial science without +any full understanding of its methods or of the relative importance and +the interaction of the forces engaged. To this one-sided experience may +be attributed in some measure that disregard of inconvenient facts, and +that impatience of the limits of practicability, which many observers +note as a characteristic defect of popular government. + +However that may be, there is one symptom in modern politics of which +the gravity is generally acknowledged, while its special connection with +the towns is an easily ascertainable fact; I mean the growth of the +cruder forms of Socialism. The town artisan or labourer, who sees +displayed before him vast masses of property in which he has no share, +and contrasts the smallness of his remuneration with the immense results +of his labour, is easily attracted to remedies worse than the disease. A +fuller and more exact understanding of the means by which the wealth of +the community is created is, for the townsman, the best antidote to +mischievous agitation so far as it is not merely the result of poverty. +But the countryman, especially the proprietor of a piece of land, +however small, is protected from this infection. The atmosphere in which +Socialism of the predatory kind can grow up does not exist among a +prosperous farming community--perhaps because in the country the +question of the divorce of the worker from his raw material by +capitalism does not arise. The farm furnishes the raw material of the +farmer; yet he cannot be said to spend his life creating the alleged +"surplus value" of Marxian doctrine. For these reasons I suggest that +the orderly and safe progress of democracy demands a strong agricultural +population. It is as true now as when Aristotle said it that "where +husbandmen and men of small fortune predominate government will be +guided by law." + +I have now shown that for every reason the interests of the rural +population ought no longer to be subordinated to those of the city. That +such has been the tendency in English-speaking countries will hardly be +questioned. In Great Britain the rural exodus has gone on with a +vengeance. The last census (1901) showed that seventy-seven per cent of +the population was urban, and only twenty-three per cent rural. A few +years ago there were derelict farms within easy walk of the outskirts +of London. In Ireland the rural exodus took the form of emigration, +mainly to American cities, and this has been the chief factor in the +reduction of the population in sixty years from more than eight millions +to a trifle above four. But it may be thought that in the United States +no similar tendency is in operation. Certainly those who admit the +townward drift of country life may fairly say that it does not present +so urgent a problem in the New World as in parts of the Old. Even +granting that this is so, the fact remains that the town population of +America is seriously outgrowing the rural population; for, while the +towns are growing hugely, the country stands still. Moreover, we must +not forget that, Australia apart, America is even still the most +underpopulated part of the globe. We are accustomed to think Ireland +underpopulated, owing to emigration, yet even to-day the scale of +population is almost six times greater than that of the United States. +If the Union were peopled as thickly as Ireland even still is, the +population would be nearly five hundred millions. There is still a vast +deal of filling-up to be done in America, mostly in the rural parts. + +But the main consideration I wish to emphasise throughout is that the +problem under review is moral and social far more than economic, human +rather than material. This is the natural view of an Irish worker, who +knows that the solution of _his_ problem depends upon the possibility of +endowing country life with such social improvements as will provide an +effective compensation for a necessarily modest standard of comfort. But +the citizens of the United States may be pardoned for being physiocrats. +The statistical proof, annually furnished, of the growing agricultural +wealth, is apt to obscure other essentials of progress. The astronomical +proportions of the figures stagger the imagination, and engender the +kind of pride a man feels when he is first told the number of red +corpuscles luxuriating in his blood. How can there be agricultural +depression in a country whose farm lands Secretary Wilson, in his +notable Annual Report for 1905, declared to have increased in value over +a period of five years at the astounding rate of $3,400,000 per day? Yet +to the deeper insight, the same moral influence through which we in +Ireland are seeking to combat the evils of material poverty may in the +United States be needed as a moral corrective to a too rapidly growing +material prosperity. The patriotic American, who thinks of the life of +the Nation rather than of the individual, will, if he looks beneath the +surface, discern in this God-prospered country symptoms of rural +decadence fraught with danger to National efficiency. + +The reckless sacrifice of agricultural interests by the legislators of +the towns is condemned by the verdict of history. We need not now fear +that invading hordes of hardy barbarians will mar the destiny of the +great Western Republic, as they ended the career of the Roman Empire. +There are, however, other clouds upon the horizon. Only a few years ago, +the American people could well treat with contempt the bogy of the +Yellow Peril. With a transformation unprecedented in history, the +situation has been changed. Japan is already devoting to the arts of +peace qualities but yesterday displayed in war, to the amazement of the +Western world. In another Eastern empire there are vast +resources--especially coal and iron in juxtaposition--awaiting only +industrial leadership to utilise a practically limitless labour supply +for their development. These are facts worthy of consideration for their +potential bearing upon the industrial and commercial standing of the +United States. + +To the onlooker, it does seem a happy circumstance that there has just +been, for seven critical years, at the head of American affairs the +strenuous advocate of the strenuous life. I read through his Messages +the warning that in the struggle for preëminence the ultimate victory +will lie with those nations who found their prosperity on the high +physical and ethical condition of the people. That is the oldest, as it +is the latest, wisdom of the East. It is in this spirit that the +neglected problem of Rural Life should now be given some share of the +attention hitherto devoted to the life of the towns. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE INNER LIFE OF THE AMERICAN FARMER + + +I recently asked a German economist if he could tell me the best books +to read upon the problem of rural life in Germany. His reply was: "There +are no books, because there is no problem." It is generally true, no +doubt, that the Rural Life problem, in so far as it consists in the +subordination of the country to the town, is peculiar to the +English-speaking countries, where it seems to be mainly attributable to +three causes. The chief of these was no doubt the Industrial Revolution +in England, of which enough has already been said. Secondly, in the +United States and in some portions of the British Empire, the opening up +of vast tracts of virgin soil led not unnaturally to the postponement of +social development until the pioneer farmers had settled down to the +new life. The third cause was immunity from the danger of foreign +invasion, which eliminated the military reasons for maintaining a +numerous, virile, and progressive rural population. + +There are many in England who regret that it should have been forgotten +how the English owed their commercial supremacy to the fighting +qualities of the old yeoman class. In the United States it should be +remembered that nowadays peace strength is quite as important as war +strength, and it may be questioned whether there can be any sustained +industrial efficiency where the great body of workers who conduct the +chief--the only absolutely necessary--industry are wasting the resources +at their command by bad husbandry. We may, however, concede that the +neglect of rural life is much easier to explain and excuse in the United +States than in the older English-speaking countries. Quite apart from +the abundance of agricultural resources which the American farmers +enjoy, it might well be thought that the rural communities are keeping +pace with the progress of urban civilisation. The citizens who now +occupy the farm lands of the United States have been largely drawn from +the pick of the European peasantries. In the days of their coming, it +took courage and enterprise to face the now almost forgotten terrors of +the Atlantic Ocean. These immigrants, and the migrants from the Eastern +States, have profited enormously by their change of residence. Their +material well-being has already been admitted, and, with rare +exceptions, they have displayed no overt symptoms of agrarian +discontent. + +It must not, however, be imagined that the apparent apathy of American +farmers is due to contentment. Like others of their calling, they keep a +full stock of grievances in their mental stores. They have very definite +opinions as to what is wrong, but to these opinions no formal expression +is given. They vaguely feel that they would like to remould "the sorry +scheme of things entire," but they lack the public spirit which is +required before concerted action can be taken successfully. The Country +Life Commission held a series of conferences throughout the United +States, which brought them into the closest touch with every type of +American farm life. They received written replies from some 125,000 +rural folk to whom they had sent a circular with a dozen questions +covering the essential heads of inquiry. The Commissioners say in their +report: "We have found by the testimony, not only of the farmers +themselves, but of all persons in touch with farm life, more or less +serious unrest in every part of the United States, even in the most +prosperous regions." + +The truth is that, while judged by the standard of living of European +peasantries, the farmers of the United States are prosperous, in +comparison with the other citizens of the most progressive country in +the world they are not well-off. Their accumulation of material wealth +is unnaturally and unnecessarily restricted; their social life is +barren; their political influence is relatively small. American farmers +have been used by politicians, but have still to learn how to use them. +This may be due to the fact that my countrymen elected to devote their +genius for organisation to the problems of city government. And in the +sphere of private action they are, as will be seen when I discuss the +need for a reorganisation of their business, even less effective than in +public affairs. + +It will be conceded that any hopeful plan to put things right will have +to rely upon the organised efforts of those immediately concerned. Both +in the sphere of governmental action, and in the vastly more important +field of voluntary effort, the moving force will have to be public +opinion. But the thought of the farming communities has long ago joined +the rural exodus; and before the country life idea can find expression +in an effective country life movement, those who are thinking out the +problem will have to commend their arguments to the thought of the +towns. Therefore I address these pages, not to farmers only, but to the +general reader--who, I may observe, does not generally read if he +happens to live in the open country. + +In the course of my own studies of American rural life I have found it +convenient to divide the United States into four sections, each of them +more or less homogeneous. As this method of treatment may help my +readers, I will give them a look at my map of American rural life. The +four sections may be called the North Eastern, the Middle Western, the +Southern, and the Far Western. The division has no pretensions to be +scientific; the boundaries can be adjusted to fit in with the experience +of each reader. + +In my North Eastern section I include the New England States, New York, +New Jersey, and most of Pennsylvania. This is a section where +manufacturing communities have long been established, where migration +from country to town has been most marked, and where the competition of +the newly settled Western farm lands has been followed by effects upon +agricultural society very similar to those produced by the same causes +in many a rural community on the Continent of Europe. Second comes the +Middle Western section, consisting mainly of the Mississippi Valley, +with its vast area of high average fertility, the greatest +food-producing tract on the continent. Third, I place the Southern +section, where the governing factors in rural economy are the climate, +the numerical strength of the colored population, the two staple +industrial crops--cotton and tobacco--the comparatively recent abolition +of slavery, and the long-drawn-out effects of the Civil War. My fourth +division, the Far Western section, includes the ranching lands of the +arid belt with their irrigation oases, and the fruit-growing and farming +lands of the Pacific Coast. + +As we are discussing the problem chiefly in its human aspect, which +affects alike communities wealthy and impoverished, large and small, +old-settled and newly established, it will not matter essentially where +we first direct our attention for the purpose of illustration. But if, +as I hold, nothing less than a reconstruction of rural civilisation is +called for, our inquiries will be more profitably directed to those +sections where agricultural society is permanently established, or where +the rural population might abandon the migratory habit if the conditions +were more favorable to an advanced civilisation. At the present stage I +feel that the whole subject can be most profitably discussed in its +application to the Middle Western and the Southern sections. Here the +intimate relationship of the Conservation and the Country Life ideas is +best illustrated. Here, too, we get into touch with the problem at its +two extremes of prosperity and poverty, each in its own way retarding +the progress of rural civilisation. In both sections the conditions are +typical, and distinctively American. + +Let us then consider first the general course of rural civilisation in +the great food-producing tract of the Middle West. I have in my mind the +portion I know best, the last-settled part of the corn belt. Thirty +years ago I saw something of the newcomers who settled in this section, +where there was still much raw land. These settlers, knowing that the +land must rise rapidly in value, almost invariably purchased much larger +farms than they could handle. They often sank their available working +capital in making the first payments for their land, and went heavily +into debt for the balance. They became "land poor," and, in order to +meet the instalments of purchase and the high interest on their +mortgages, they invented a system of farming unprecedented in its +wastefulness. The farm was treated as a mine, or, to use Mr. James J. +Hill's metaphor, as a bank where the depositors are always taking out +more than they put in. A corn crop, year after year, without rotation or +fertilisers, satisfied the new conception of husbandry--the easiest and +least costly extraction of the wealth in the soil. Land, labour, +capital, and ability I had been taught to regard as the essentials of +production; but here capital was reduced to the minimum, and ability +left to nature. Many of the young men who took Horace Greeley's advice +and went West knew nothing about farming. I remember writing home that I +was in a country where the rolling stone gathered most moss. Possibly +the method adopted was the quickest way to get rich; living on capital +is all right provided somebody will replace the squandered resources. +While there were ample unoccupied lands, Uncle Sam looked kindly upon +these enterprising pioneers. It was only in the second Roosevelt +Administration that it dawned upon the national conscience that the +nation had some claim to be considered as well as the individual. Of +course all this is changed now; although I am not sure that western +Canada is not being educated in soil exhaustion by some of these +extemporised husbandmen whose habits and temperament lead them to seek +"fresh fields and pastures new." "We are not out here for our health," +was the reply I got when I showed that my old-fashioned economic sense +was shocked by this substitution of land speculation for farming. + +I am aware that this very uneconomic procedure is capable of some +plausible explanations. The opening up of the vast new territory by the +provision of local traffic for transcontinental lines was an object of +national urgency and importance. Nevertheless, I think it must now be +regretted that a little more thought was not given to the general +problem of rural economy, of which transit is but one factor. This may +be that irritating kind of wisdom which comes after the event, but I +cannot help regarding the policy of rewarding railroad enterprises with +unconditional grants of vast areas of agricultural land as one of the +many evidences of the urban domination over rural affairs. + +Of the earlier settled portions of this section I cannot speak from +personal knowledge. But a recent magazine article,[3] "The Agrarian +Revolution in the Middle West," follows closely the line of my own +thoughts. In this article Mr. Joseph B. Ross, of Lafayette, Indiana, who +is making a special study of the evolution of American rural life, +considers it in three periods: from 1800 to 1835, from 1835 to 1890, and +from 1890 to the present time. In the middle period he shows how the +most progressive families raised their standard of living steadily with +the growing prosperity of the country. They built themselves stately +homes with substantial barns. The farmer was developing into a citizen +with the solid virtues, the virile independence, the strong political +opinions, religious interest, and social instincts which characterised +the English yeoman of the preceding century. The social life which these +communities built up, as soon as their economic position was assured, +was a reflection of the best English traditions--it centred round the +churches and the Sunday-school. There was a growing distribution of +literature as well as organisation for intellectual, educational and +social purposes. Mr. Ross notes the winter excursions to Florida and +California, the adornment of the homes, and many other evidences of a +social progress developing a character of its own. During this period +there was a migration from the country homes to the cities; but it was +only the natural outflow of the surplus members of the rural families +into the professional and business life of the growing centres of +commerce and industry. + +In the period through which we are now passing a transformation is +taking place. The rural exodus is no longer that of individuals, but of +whole families. The farms thus vacated are let to tenants, generally on +a three years' lease, at a competition rent. The Country Life Commission +says that this tendency to move to the cities "is not peculiar to any +region. In difficult farming regions, and where the competition with +other farming sections is most severe, the young people may go to town +to better their condition. In the best regions the older people retire +to town because it is socially more attractive, and they see a prospect +of living in comparative ease and comfort on the rental of their lands. +Nearly everywhere there is a townward movement for the purpose of +securing school advantages for the children. All this tends to sterilize +the open country and to lower its social status." The Commission points +out that the new addition of what is likely to be a stationary element, +whose economic interests lie elsewhere, to the citizenship of the town, +may create there a new social problem, while the tenant in the country +will not have that interest in building up rural society which might be +expected in the owners of land. Mr. Ross's studies lead him very +definitely to the same conclusion. Churches and educational +institutions, he tells us, are being starved, and rural society is fast +reverting to the type which was prevalent from thirty to fifty years +ago. But there is one great difference between then and now. Then, rural +civilisation was passing through a stage of marked social advancement +which was common throughout the country; now, there are distinct +indications of social degeneration, which Mr. Ross regards as the +inevitable consequence of the new landlord and tenant system. Many +members of these communities must have left the Old World to escape from +the selfsame conditions which they are reproducing in the New. + +Rural society in the Middle West, as it presents itself to the observer +whose authority I have cited, is obviously in a transitional stage. The +lack of farm labourers, which is the common subject of complaint by +farmers in all parts of the United States, cannot fail to be aggravated +by the change in the conditions of tenancy just noted. The man whose +chief concern is to get the most out of the land, at the least expense, +in two or three years, will not treat his labourers so well--nor the +land so well--as will the man who means to spend his life on the farm; +and therefore the labourers will not stay. This scarcity of labour may +be met to some extent by an increased use of machinery; but it is more +likely to lead to poorer cultivation, which means the depopulation of +agricultural districts. England and Ireland furnish too many examples of +the rural decay immortalised in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." It would +be strange and sad if the experience were to be repeated on the richest +soil of America. + +In the Southern section we find a wastefulness similar to that in the +corn belt, but due to wholly different causes. The communities are +old-settled, but in many instances they are still abnormally depressed +by the terrible effects of the great war, followed by a period of social +and economic stagnation. Here there was little but agriculture for the +people to rely upon, and their methods have, until recent years, been +very backward. The growing of the same crops year after year upon the +same fields, the neglect of precaution against the washing away of the +soil surface, and the failure to use fertilisers, have made the profits +of tillage disappointingly small. Billions of dollars have been lost by +these communities through persistent soil exhaustion and erosion. In the +last few years the Federal Department of Agriculture has maintained a +most efficient staff of agricultural experts under the direction of Dr. +Knapp, one of the ablest organisers of farm improvement I have ever met. +The General Education Board, who administer large sums provided by Mr. +Rockefeller, recognising the educational value of Dr. Knapp's +operations, are contributing about one hundred thousand dollars a year +to his work. Dr. Knapp and his field agents have no difficulty at all in +demonstrating that the yield may be doubled, and the cost of production +greatly reduced, merely by the application of the most elementary +science to agriculture. I heard him tell of a farmer whom he had induced +to allow his boy--still attending school--to cultivate one acre under +his instructions. In the result the boy quadrupled the number of bushels +of corn to the acre that his father, following the traditional methods, +was able to raise. It would be easy to multiply such instances of +thriftlessness and neglected opportunity, of poverty within easy reach +of abundance, which have brought it about that the future of the nation +is actually endangered by the failure of the food supply to keep pace +with the increase of its still relatively sparse population. + +The Southern section furnishes two illustrations of long-standing +neglect, both well worthy of consideration for their pregnant +suggestiveness. The Federal Department of Agriculture recently scored a +notable success in dealing with an insect pest which was threatening the +cotton-growing industry with economic ruin. The boll-weevil, like the +legal and medical professions, thrives upon the follies of humanity. It +attacks the cotton plants which have been weakened by bad husbandry. The +scientists did not succeed in finding in the commonwealth of bugs the +natural enemy of the pest they were after, but Dr. Knapp, with the +wisdom which prefers prevention to cure, seized the opportunity of +teaching cotton-growers to diversify their cultivation. The consequence +was that the cotton crop itself is gradually responding to the +treatment. Many other crops are adding their quota to the produce of the +Southern farms, and an all-round improvement, moral as well as material, +is accompanying the educational discipline through which this reformer +is putting the communities with whom and for whom he is working. + +There is another pest in the South which does not attack the farm crops, +but goes straight for the farmer. If the Country Life Commission had +done nothing more, they would have justified their appointment by the +attention they called to the ravages of the hookworm, which have, no one +knows how long, scourged the poor white communities in the Southern +States. The effect of the disease set up by the hookworm, which infests +the intestines, is a complete sapping of all energy, mental and +physical. Mr. Rockefeller has provided a million dollars for the +necessary research work and for such subsequent organisation of sanitary +effort as may be required to extirpate this unquestionably preventable +evil. I wonder how long such a state of affairs would have been +permitted to interfere with the health and to paralyse the industry of +urban communities. Had the hookworm, instead of lurking in country +lanes, walked the streets, how would it have fared? + +These two pests furnish a fine illustration of the length to which the +neglect of rural life has been allowed to go in the Southern States. + +Neither the Eastern nor the Far Western section presents aspects of +special interest to the foreign student of the Rural problem in the +United States, but in both the constructive statesman and the social +worker will find a rich field for their efforts. In the New England +States--more especially in the manufacturing districts--the competition +between town and country for labour is as marked as in Industrial +England. In this section, however, the lure of the city has a rival in +the call of the West, which still makes its appeal to the farmer's boy. +Secretary Wilson has recently given it as his opinion that land-seekers +who pass by the farms now offered for sale in the western portions of +New York State often go further and fare worse. In these relatively +low-priced lands, it ought not to be difficult for agricultural +communities to establish permanently a rural society worthy of American +ideas of progress. But to do this is to solve the problem we are +discussing. We have some other aspects of that problem to consider +before we can agree upon the essentials of a philosophic and +comprehensive scheme for the rehabilitation of rural life--before we can +lay down the lines of a movement to give effect to our plan. + +The Far Western section has hardly yet emerged from the frontier-pioneer +stage, and its rural problem is still below the horizon. I may, however, +note in passing a few evidences that the people of this section have +already shown a very real concern for rural progress. The fruit-growers +of the Pacific Coast have, in the coöperative marketing of their +produce, made an excellent beginning in a matter of first importance in +any scheme of rural development. On irrigation farm lands there has +been developed, in connection with the upkeep and control of the water +systems, a community spirit which will surely lead to many forms of +organisation for mutual economic and social advantage. In the city of +Spokane, Washington, the Chamber of Commerce has aroused a public +interest in the work of the Country Life Commission which, so far as my +information goes, has not been equalled elsewhere in the United States. +The Chamber is republishing the Report of the Commission, for which no +Federal appropriation appears to have been made. It would seem to be a +not wild speculation that the statesmen and social workers who will +first solve the rural problem of the English-speaking peoples may be +found in the Far West of the New World as well as of the Old. + +I must now conclude the diagnosis of rural decadence by a consideration +of what in my judgment is the chief cause of the malady, and so get to +a point where we can determine the nature of the remedy. It will then +remain only to sketch the outlines of the movement which is to give +practical effect to the agreed principles in the life of rural +communities. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] _North American Review_, September, 1909. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WEAK SPOT IN AMERICAN RURAL ECONOMY + + +The evidence of competent American witnesses proves that there is, in +the United States, notwithstanding its immense agricultural wealth, a +Rural Life problem. Here, as elsewhere, on a fuller analysis, the utmost +variety of race, soil, climate and market facilities serve but to +emphasise the importance of the human factor. But this consideration +does not lessen the need for a sternly practical treatment of the rural +social economy under review. In this chapter, I propose to go right down +to the roots of the rural problem, find what is wrong with the industry +by which the country people live, and see how it can be righted. We +should then have clearly in our minds the essentials of prosperity in a +rural community. + +Agriculture, the basis of a rural existence, must be regarded as a +science, as a business and as a life. I have already adverted to +President Roosevelt's formula for solving the rural problem--"better +farming, better business, better living." Better farming simply means +the application of modern science to the practice of agriculture. Better +business is the no less necessary application of modern commercial +methods to the business side of the farming industry. Better living is +the building up, in rural communities, of a domestic and social life +which will withstand the growing attractions of the modern city. + +This threefold scheme of reform covers the whole ground and will become +the basis of the Country Life movement to be suggested later. But in the +working out of the general scheme, there must be one important change in +the order of procedure--'better business' must come first. The dull +commercial details of agriculture have been sadly neglected, perhaps on +account of the more human interest of the scientific and social aspects +of country life. Yet my own experience in working at the rural problem +in Ireland has convinced me that our first step towards its solution is +to be found in a better organisation of the farmer's business. It is +strange but true that the level of efficiency reached in many European +countries was due to American competition, which in the last half of the +nineteenth century forced Continental farmers to reorganise their +industry alike in production, in distribution and in its finance. Both +Irish experience and Continental study have convinced me that neither +good husbandry nor a worthy social life can be ensured unless +accompanied by intelligent and efficient business methods. We must, +therefore, examine somewhat critically the agricultural system of the +American farmer, and see wherein its weakness lies. + +The superiority of the business methods of the town to those of the +country is obvious, but I do not think the precise nature of that +superiority is generally understood. What strikes the eye is the +material apparatus of business,--the street cars, the advertisements, +the exchange, the telephone, the typewriter; all these form an +impressive contrast with the slow, simple life of the farmer, who very +likely scratches his accounts on a shingle or keeps them in his head. +But most of this city apparatus is due merely to the necessity of swift +movement in the concentrated process of exchange and distribution. Such +swiftness is neither necessary nor possible in the process of isolated +production. But there is an economic law, applicable alike to rural and +to urban pursuits, which is being more and more fully recognised and +obeyed by the farmers of most European countries, including Ireland, but +which has been too little heeded by the farmers of the United States and +Great Britain. Under modern economic conditions, things must be done in +a large way if they are to be done profitably; and this necessitates a +resort to combination. + +The advantage which combination gives to the town over the country was +recognised long before the recent economic changes forced men to +combine. In the old towns of Europe all trades began as strict and +exclusive corporations. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries new +scientific and economic forces broke up these combinations, which were +far too narrow for the growing volume of industrial activity, and an +epoch of competition began. The great towns of America opened their +business career during this epoch, and have brought the arts of +competition to a higher perfection than exists in Europe. But it has +always been known that competition did not exclude combination against +the consumer; and it is now beginning to be perceived that the fiercer +the competition, the more surely does it lead in the end to such +combination. + +A trade combination has three principal objects: it aims, first, at +improving what I may call the internal business methods of the trade +itself by eliminating the waste due to competition, by economising +staff, plant, etc., and by the ready circulation of intelligence, and in +other ways. In the second place, it aims at strengthening the trade +against outside interests. These may be of various kinds; but in the +typical case we are considering, namely, the combination of great +middlemen who control exchange and distribution, the outside interests +are those of the producer on one side and the consumer on the other; and +the trade combination, by its organised unity of action, succeeds in +lowering the prices it pays to the unorganised producer and in raising +the prices it charges to the unorganised consumer. In the third place, +the trade combination seeks to favour its own interests in their +relation to other interests through political control--control not so +much of the machinery of politics as of its products, legislation and +administration. I am not now arguing the question whether or how far +this action on the part of trade combinations is morally justifiable. My +point is simply that the towns have flourished at the expense of the +country by the use of these methods, and that the countryman must adopt +them if he is to get his own again. Moreover, as organisation tends to +increase the volume and lower the cost of agricultural production and to +make possible large transactions between organised communities of +farmers and the trade, it will be seen that the organised combination of +farmers will simplify the whole commerce of those countries where it is +adopted, and thus benefit alike the farmer and the trader. + +This truth will be easily realised if we consider for a moment the +system of distribution which the food demand of the modern market has +evolved. Agricultural produce finds its chief market in the great +cities. Their populations must have their food so sent in that it can +be rapidly distributed; and this requires that the consignments must be +delivered regularly, in large quantities, and of such uniform quality +that a sample will give a correct indication of the whole. These three +conditions are essential to rapid distribution, but their fulfilment is +not within the power of isolated farmers, however large their +operations. It is an open question whether farmers should themselves +undertake the distribution of their produce through agencies of their +own, thus saving the wholesale and possibly the retail profits. But +unquestionably they should be so well organised at home that they can +take this course if they are unfairly treated by organised middlemen. +The Danish farmers, whose highly organised system of distribution has +made them the chief competitors of the Irish farmers, have established +(with Government assistance which their organisation enabled them to +secure) very efficient machinery for distributing their butter, bacon +and eggs in the British markets. Other European farming communities are +becoming equally well organised, and similarly control the marketing of +their produce. But where, as in America and the United Kingdom, the town +dominates the country, and the machinery of distribution is owned by the +business men of the towns, it is worked by them in their own interests. +They naturally take from the unorganised producers as well as from the +unorganised consumers the full business value of the service they +render. With the growing cost of living, this has become a matter of +urgent importance to the towns. In the cheaper-food campaign which began +in the late fall of 1909, voices are heard calling the farmers to +account for their uneconomical methods, while here and there +organisations of consumers are endeavouring to solve the problem to +their own satisfaction by acquiring land and raising upon it the produce +which they require. + +In the face of such facts it is not easy to account for the +backwardness of American and British farmers in the obviously important +matter of organisation. The farmer, we know, is everywhere the most +conservative and individualistic of human beings. He dislikes change in +his methods, and he venerates those which have come down to him from his +fathers' fathers. Whatever else he may waste, these traditions he +conserves. He does not wish to interfere with anybody else's business, +and he is fixedly determined that others shall not interfere with his. +These estimable qualities make agricultural organisation more difficult +in Anglo-Saxon communities than in those where clan or tribal instincts +seem to survive.[4] + +Now it is fair to the farmer to admit that his calling does not lend +itself readily to associative action. He lives apart; most of his time +is spent in the open air, and in the evening of the working day physical +repose is more congenial to him than mental activity. But when all this +is said, we have not a complete explanation of the fact that, by failing +to combine, American and British farmers, persistently disobey an +accepted law, and refuse to follow the almost universal practice of +modern business. I believe the true explanation to be one that has +somehow escaped the notice of the agricultural economist. Those who +accept it will feel that they have found the weak spot in American +farming, and that the remedy is neither obscure nor difficult to apply. + +The form of combination which the towns have invented for industrial and +commercial purposes is the Joint Stock Company. Here a number of persons +contribute their capital to a common fund and entrust the direction to +a single head or committee, taking no further part in the business +except to change the management if the undertaking does not yield a +satisfactory dividend. Our urban way of looking at things has made us +assume that this city system must be suitable to rural conditions. The +contrary is the fact. When farmers combine, it is a combination not of +money only, but of personal effort in relation to the entire business. +In a coöperative creamery, for example, the chief contribution of a +shareholder is in milk; in a coöperative elevator, corn; in other cases +it may be fruit or vegetables, or a variety of material things rather +than cash. But it is, most of all, a combination of neighbours within an +area small enough to allow of all the members meeting frequently at the +business centre. As the system develops, the local associations are +federated for larger business transactions, but these are governed by +delegates carefully chosen by the members of the constituent bodies. + +The object of such associations is, primarily, not to declare a +dividend, but rather to improve the conditions of the industry for the +members. After an agreed interest has been paid upon the shares, the net +profits are divided between the participants in the undertaking, to each +in proportion as he has contributed to them through the business he has +done with the institution. And the same idea is applied to the control +of the management. It is recognised that the poor man's coöperation is +as important as the rich man's subscription. 'One man, one vote,' is the +almost universal principle in coöperative bodies.[5] + +The distinction between the capitalistic basis of joint stock +organisation and the more human character of the coöperative system is +fundamentally important. It is recognised by law in England, where the +coöperative trading societies are organised under _The Industrial and +Provident Societies' Act_, and the coöperative credit associations under +_The Friendly Societies' Act_. In the United States (I am told by +friends in the legal profession), the Articles of Association of an +ordinary limited liability company can be so drafted as to meet all the +requirements I have named. Most countries have enacted laws specially +devised to meet the requirements of coöperative societies. However it is +done, the essential of success in agricultural coöperation is that the +terms and conditions upon which it is based shall be accepted by all +concerned as being equitable in the distribution of profits, risks and +control. It then becomes the interest of every member to give his +whole-hearted support and aid to the common undertaking. To accomplish +this, it is necessary to explain and secure the acceptance of a +constitution and procedure carefully thought out to suit each case. It +will be readily believed that associations of farmers which will meet +these conditions are not likely to be spontaneously generated; hence the +necessity for a plan and for the machinery to carry it through. + +In this matter I am here speaking from practical experience in Ireland. +Twenty years ago the pioneers of our rural life movement found it +necessary to concentrate their efforts upon the reorganisation of the +farmer's business. They saw that foreign competition was not, as was +commonly supposed, a visitation of Providence upon the farmers of the +British Islands, but a natural economic revolution of permanent effect. +Our message to Irish farmers was that they must imitate the methods of +their Continental competitors, who were defeating them in their own +markets simply by superior organisation. After five years of individual +propagandism, the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed in +1894 to meet the demand for instruction as to the formation and the +working of coöperative societies, a demand to which it was beyond the +means of the few pioneers to respond. + +Two decades of steady development have confirmed the soundness of the +original scheme, and a brief account of agricultural coöperation in +Ireland will be of interest to any reader who has persevered so far. The +conditions were in some respects favourable. The farms are small and +their owners belong to the class to which coöperation brings most +immediate benefit. The Irish peasantry are highly intelligent. They lack +the strong individualism of the English, but they have highly developed +associative instincts. For this reason coöperation, an alternative to +communism,--which they abhor,--comes naturally to them. On the other +hand, the ease with which they can be organised makes them peculiarly +amenable to political influence. In backward rural communities the +trader is almost invariably the political boss. He is a leader of +agrarian agitation, in which he can safely advocate principles he would +not like to see applied to the relations between himself and his +customers. He bitterly opposes coöperation, which throws inconvenient +light upon those relations. We are able to persuade the more enlightened +rural traders that economies effected in agricultural production will +raise the standard of living of his customers and make them larger +consumers of general commodities and more punctual in their payments. +But in the majority of cases the agricultural organiser finds politics +in sharp conflict with business, and has a hard row to hoe. So, while we +have advantages in organising Irish farmers, we have also, largely owing +to well-known historical causes, to overcome difficulties which have no +counterpart in the United States or England. + +Nevertheless, we managed to make progress. We began with the dairying +industry, and already half the export of Irish butter comes from the +coöperative societies we established. Organised bodies of farmers are +learning to purchase their agricultural requirements intelligently and +economically. They are also beginning to adopt the methods of the +organised foreign farmer in controlling the sale of their butter, eggs +and poultry in the British markets. And they not only combine in +agricultural production and distribution, but are also making a +promising beginning in grappling with the problem of agricultural +finance. It is in this last portion of the Irish programme that by far +the most interesting study of the coöperative system can be made, on +account of its success in the poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, +the attempt to enable the most embarrassed section of the Irish +peasantry to procure working capital illustrates some features of +agricultural coöperation which will have suggestive value for American +farmers. I will therefore give a brief description of our agricultural +coöperative credit associations. + +The organisation was introduced in the middle of the last century by a +German Burgomaster, the now famous Herr Raiffeisen. He set himself to +provide the means of escape from the degrading indebtedness to +storekeepers and usurers which is the almost invariable lot of poor +peasantries. His scheme performs an apparent miracle. A body of very +poor persons, individually--in the commercial sense of the +term--insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has been +somewhat grandiloquently and yet truthfully called the capitalisation of +their honesty and industry. The way in which this is done is remarkably +ingenious. The credit society is organised in the usual democratic way +explained above, but its constitution is peculiar in one respect. The +members have to become jointly and severally responsible for the debts +of the association, which borrows on this unlimited liability from the +ordinary commercial bank, or, in some cases, from Government sources. +After the initial stage, when the institution becomes firmly +established, it attracts local deposits, and thus the savings of the +community, which are too often hoarded, are set free to fructify in the +community. The procedure by which the money borrowed is lent to the +members of the association is the essential feature of the scheme. The +member requiring the loan must state what he is going to do with the +money. He must satisfy the committee of the association, who know the +man and his business, that the proposed investment is one which will +enable him to repay both principal and interest. He must enter into a +bond with two sureties for the repayment of the loan, and needless to +say the characters of both the borrower and his sureties are very +carefully considered. The period for which the loan is granted is +arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined by the committee +after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the loan has been made, +it becomes the concern of every member of the association to see that +it is applied to the 'approved purpose'--as it is technically called. +What is more important is that all the borrower's fellow-members become +interested in his business and anxious for its success. + +The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in +Ireland, and that, although their transactions are on a very modest +scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its +adherents and in the business transacted is, I think, a remarkable +testimony to the value of the coöperative system. The details I have +given illustrate the important distinction between coöperation, which +enables the farmer to do his business in a way that suits him, and the +urban form of combination, which is unsuited to his needs. The ordinary +banks lend money to agriculturists for a term (generally ninety days) +which has been fixed to suit the needs of town business. Thus, a farmer +borrowing money to sow a crop, or to purchase young cattle, is obliged +to repay his loan, in the first instance, before the crop is harvested, +and in the second, before the cattle mature and are marketable. Far more +important, however, than these not inconsiderable economic advantages +are the social benefits which are derived by bringing people together to +achieve in a very definite and practical way the aim of all coöperative +effort--self-help by mutual help. + +Our coöperative movement, taken as a whole, is to-day represented by +nearly one thousand farmers' organisations, with an aggregate membership +of some one hundred thousand persons, mostly heads of families. Its +business turnover last year was twelve and a half million dollars. In +estimating the significance of these figures, American readers must not +'think in continents,' and must give more weight to the moral than to +the material achievement. As I have explained, the coöperative system +requires for its success the exercise of higher moral qualities than +does the joint stock company. Once a coöperative society becomes a +soulless corporation, its days are numbered. It requires also the +diffusion of a good deal of economic thought among its members, and +this, also, is no small matter in the conditions. The most striking fact +about this work in Ireland is that while in its earlier years +organisation consisted mainly in expounding and commending to farmers +the coöperative principle, we now find that the principle is taken for +granted and the only question upon which advice is needed is how to +apply it. The progress of agricultural coöperation depends largely on +the character of the community; its commercial value may be measured by +the extent to which it develops in the community the mental and moral +qualities essential to success.[6] + +In agricultural coöperation, Ireland can claim to have shown the way to +the United Kingdom. Ten years ago, after the Irish movement had been +launched, the English rural reformers started a movement on exactly the +same lines, even founding on the Irish model an English Agricultural +Organisation Society. An Irishman, who had studied coöperation at home, +was selected as its chief executive officer. Five years later, a +Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society took the field. Both in +England and in Scotland the chief difficulty to be overcome is the +intense individualism of the farmers, and perhaps some lack of altruism. +The large farmers did not feel the need of coöperation, and where the +natural leader of the rural community will not lead, the small +cultivator cannot follow. Whether the same difficulties have prevented +any considerable adoption of agricultural coöperation in the United +States, it is not necessary to inquire. It is certain that the +underlying principles approved by every progressive rural, community in +Europe have not so far exercised more than an occasional and fitful +influence upon the rural economy of the American Republic. + +If I have given in these pages a true explanation of the deplorable +backwardness of American farmers in the matter of business combination +when compared with all other American workers, those who take part in +the movement which is to provide the remedy will have set themselves a +task as hopeful as it is interesting. Americans as a people are addicted +to associated action. I have seen the principle of coöperation developed +to the highest point in the ranching industry in the days of the +unfenced range. Our cattle used to roam at large, the only means of +identifying them being certain registered marks made by the +branding-iron and the knife. The individual owner would have had no more +property in his herd than he would have had in so many fishes in the +sea but for a very effective coöperative organisation. The Stock +Association, with its 'round-ups' and its occasional resort to the +Supreme Court of Judge Lynch, were an adequate substitute for the title +deeds to the lands, and for fences horse-high, bull-strong and +hog-tight. But then we were in the Arid Belt and the frontier-pioneer +stage; we had no politics and no politicians. I must return, however, to +the less exciting, but I suppose more important, life of the regular +farmer, and consider his efforts at organisation. + +Instances can be multiplied where the coöperative system has been +adopted with immensely beneficial results; but in too many cases it has +been abandoned. On the other hand, Granges, Institutes, Clubs, Leagues, +Alliances and a multitude of miscellaneous farmers' associations have +been organised for social, religious, political and economic objects. +From my study of the work done by these bodies, the impression left is +that almost everything that can be done better by working together than +by working separately has been at some time the subject of organised +effort. But these manifestations of activity have been fitful and +sporadic. They were commonly marked by some or all of the same +defects--mutual distrust, divided counsels, ignorance of what others +were doing, want of continuity and impatience of results. Many +organisations, after winning some advantages,--over the railroads for +instance,--fell into abeyance or even out of existence; others lapsed +under the enervating influence of a little temporary prosperity, such as +a few years of better prices. The truth is, American farmers have had +the will to organise, but they have missed the way.[7] + +The political influence of the farming community has for this reason +never been commensurate either with the numerical strength of its +members or the magnitude of their share in the nation's work. It is +true that the Federal Department of Agriculture, appropriations for +Agricultural Colleges, some railway legislation and other boons to +farmers, are to be attributed to the efforts of their organisations. +Yet, as compared with the influence exercised upon National affairs by +the farmers of, say, France and Denmark, the American farmer has but a +small influence upon legislation and administration affecting his +interests. What better proof of this could be given than the absence of +a Parcels Post in the United States? The whole farming community are +agreed as to the need for this boon to the dwellers of the open country, +and yet they have not succeeded in winning it against the opposition of +the Express Companies, because it is merely a farmers' and not a +townsmen's grievance. And not only political impotence, but political +inertia, result from the lack of organisation. The state of the country +roads--one of the greatest disabilities under which country life in the +United States still suffers--is as good an instance as I know. Congress +has shown itself well disposed towards the farmer, but not always so the +State governments, and the good intentions of Congress on the roads +question are largely nullified owing to the failure of one-third of the +States to establish highway commissions, or make other provision for +expending such amounts as might be voted to them by Congress. Here, as +in the cases of the transit and marketing problems, we see the need for +a strong, central, permanent organisation, fitted alike to direct local +or promote National action; an association capable of securing the +legislative protection of the farmer's interests, and an organisation +fitted to further the business side of his industry. In fact, this need +is urgent, and a coöperative movement of National dimensions should be +established to meet it. Had such a movement been started after the War, +or even twenty years later, the American farmer would be in a far +stronger position to-day, and much misdirected effort would have been +saved. + +I have now tried to explain the weak spot in American rural economy. It +may be regarded from a more general point of view. If we were +considering the life of some commercial or industrial community and +trying to forecast its future development, one of the first things we +should note would be its general business methods. No manufacturing +concern with a defective office administration and incompetent +travellers could survive, even if it had an Archimedes or an Edison in +supreme control. I cannot see any reason why an agricultural community +should expect to prosper while the industry by which its members live +retains its present business organisation. I have urged that as things +are, the farming interest is at a fatal disadvantage in the purchase of +agricultural requirements, in the sale of agricultural produce, and in +obtaining proper credit facilities. Whatever the cause--and I have set +down those which I regard as the chief among them--American farmers have +still to learn that they are subject to a law of modern business which +governs all their country's industrial activities--the law that each +body of workers engaged in supplying the modern market must combine, or +be worsted at every turn in competition with those who do. + +I do not much fear that this general principle, overlooked, perhaps, +because it was too obvious to be worth enforcing, will be disputed. I +hope I may gain acceptance for my further contention that the inability +of American farmers to sustain an effective business organisation has +been due simply to the fact that the not obvious distinction between the +capitalistic and the coöperative basis of combination suitable to town +and country respectively was missed. For it will then be clear why, in +the working out of Mr. Roosevelt's formula, better business must precede +and form the basis of better farming and better living. The conviction +that in this general procedure lies the one hope of solving the problem +under review accounts for the otherwise disproportionate space given to +that aspect of rural life which is of the least interest to the general +reader. + +I shall now attempt to determine the principles which must be applied to +the solution of our problem. Those who have followed the arguments up to +this point will have a pretty clear idea of the general drift of my +conclusions. The substitution in rural economy of the coöperative for +the competitive principle, which I have so far advocated as a matter of +business prudence, will be seen to have a wider import. This course will +be shown to have an important bearing upon the application of the new +knowledge to the oldest industry and also upon the building of a new +rural civilisation we must provide for the dwellers of the open country +a larger share of the intellectual and social pleasures for the want of +which those most needed in the country are too often drawn to the +town. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] I should expect the negroes in the Southern States to be very good +subjects for agricultural organisation. I have discussed this question +with the staff of the Hampton Institute in Virginia--a fine body of men, +doing noble work. The Principal, the Rev. H. B. Frissell, D.D., whose +judgment in this matter is probably the weightiest in the United States, +and his leading assistants, both white and coloured, are of the same +opinion. + +[5] Where capital is, in rare instances, subscribed by persons other +than farmers, it is usually invested less as a commercial speculation +than as an act of friendship on the part of the investor, who in no case +exercises more control than his one vote affords. + +[6] Readers who are sufficiently interested in the rural life movement +in Ireland will find a full description of it in my book, "Ireland in +the New Century," John Murray, London, and E. P. Dutton, New York. + +[7] Mr. John Lee Coulter contributed to the _Yale Review_ for November, +1909, an article on Organization among the farmers of the United States +which is a most valuable summary of the important facts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WAY TO BETTER FARMING AND BETTER LIVING + + +In no way is the contrast between rural and urban civilisation more +marked than in the application of the teachings of modern science to +their respective industries. Even the most important mechanical +inventions were rather forced upon the farmer by the efficient selling +organisation of the city manufacturers than demanded by him as a result +of good instruction in farming. On the mammoth wheat farms, where, as +the fable ran, the plough that started out one morning returned on the +adjoining furrow the following day, mechanical science was indeed called +in, but only to perpetrate the greatest soil robbery in agricultural +history. Application of science to legitimate agriculture is +comparatively new. In my ranching and farming days I well remember how +general was the disbelief in its practical value throughout the Middle +and Far West. In cowboy terminology, all scientists were classified as +"bug-hunters," and farmers generally had no use for the theorist. The +non-agricultural community had naturally no higher appreciation of the +farmer's calling than he himself displayed. When some Universities first +developed agricultural courses, the students who entered for them were +nicknamed "aggies," and were not regarded as adding much to the dignity +of a seat of higher learning. The Department of Agriculture was looked +upon as a source of jobs, graft being the nearest approach to any known +agricultural operation. + +All this is changing fast. The Federal Department of Agriculture is now +perhaps the most popular and respected of the world's great +administrative institutions. In the Middle West, a newly awakened +public opinion has set up an honourable rivalry between such States as +Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota, in developing the +agricultural sides of their Universities and Colleges. None the less, +Mr. James J. Hill has recently given it as his opinion that not more +than one per cent of the farmers of these regions are working in direct +touch with any educational institution. It is probable that this +estimate leaves out of account the indirect influence of the vast amount +of extension work and itinerant instruction which is embraced in the +activities of the Universities and Colleges. I fear it cannot be denied +that in the application of the natural sciences to the practical, and of +economic science to the business of farming, the country folk are +decades behind their urban fellow-citizens. And again I say the +disparity is to be attributed to the difference in their respective +degrees of organisation for business purposes. + +The relation between business organisation and economic progress ought, +I submit, to be very seriously considered by the social workers who +perceive that progress is mainly a question of education. Speaking from +administrative experience at home, and from a good deal of interested +observation in America, I am firmly convinced that the new rural +education is badly handicapped by the lack of organised bodies of +farmers to act as channels for the new knowledge now made available. In +some instances, I am aware, great good has been done by the formation of +farmers' institutes which have been established in order to interest +rural communities in educational work and to make the local arrangements +for instruction by lectures, demonstrations and otherwise. But all +European experience proves the superiority for this purpose of the +business association to the organisation _ad hoc_, and has a much better +chance of permanence. + +Again, the influence upon rural life of the agricultural teaching of the +Colleges and Universities, as exercised by their pupils, may be too +easily accepted as being of greater potential utility than any work +which these institutions can do amongst adults. This is a mistake. The +thousands of young men who are now being trained for advanced farming +too often have to restrict the practical application of their theoretic +knowledge to the home circle, which is not always responsive, for a man +is not usually a prophet in his own family. It is here that the +educational value of coöperative societies comes in; they act as +agencies through which scientific teaching may become actual practice, +not in the uncertain future, but in the living present. A coöperative +association has a quality which should commend it to the social +reformer--the power of evoking character; it brings to the front a new +type of local leader, not the best talker, but the man whose knowledge +enables him to make some solid contribution to the welfare of the +community. + +I come now to the last part of the threefold scheme--that which aims at +a better life upon the farm. The coöperative association, in virtue of +its non-capitalistic basis of constitution and procedure (which, as I +have explained, distinguishes it from the Joint Stock Company), demands +as a condition of its business success the exercise of certain social +qualities of inestimable value to the community life. It is for this +reason, no doubt, that where men and women have learned to work together +under this system in the business of their lives, they are easily +induced to use their organisation for social and intellectual purposes +also. + +The new organisation of the rural community for social as well as +economic purposes, which should follow from the acceptance of the +opinion I have advanced, would bring with it the first effective +counter-attraction to the towns. Their material advantages the country +cannot hope to rival; nor can any conceivable evolution of rural life +furnish a real counterpart to the cheap and garish entertainments of +the modern city. Take, for example, the extravagant use of electric +light for purposes of advertisement, which affords a nightly display of +fireworks in any active business street of an American city far superior +to the occasional exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London, which was +the rare treat of my childhood days. These delights--if such they +be--cannot be extended into remote villages in Kansas or Nebraska; but +their enchantment must be reckoned with by those who would remould the +life of the open country and make it morally and mentally satisfying to +those who are born to it, or who, but for its social stagnation, would +prefer a rural to an urban existence. + +In one of his many public references to country life, President +Roosevelt attributed the rural exodus to the desire of "the more active +and restless young men and women" to escape from "loneliness and lack of +mental companionship."[8] He is hopeful that the rural free delivery, +the telephone, the bicycle and the trolley will do much towards +"lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more +attractive." Many to whom I have spoken on this subject fear that the +linking of the country with the town by these applications of modern +science may, to some extent, operate in a direction the opposite of that +which Mr. Roosevelt anticipates and desires. According to this view, the +more intimate knowledge of the modern city may increase the desire to be +in personal touch with it; the telephone may fail to give through the +ear the satisfaction which is demanded by the eye; among the "more +active and restless young men and women" the rural free delivery may +circulate the dime novel and the trolley make accessible the dime +museum. In the total result the occasional visit may become more and +more frequent, until the duties of country life are first neglected and +then abandoned. + +I do not feel competent to decide between these two views, but I offer +one consideration with which I think many rural reformers will agree. +The attempt to bring the advantages of the city within the reach of the +dwellers in the country cannot, of itself, counteract the townward +tendency in so far as it is due to the causes summarised above. However +rapidly, in this respect, the country may be improved, the city is sure +to advance more rapidly and the gap between them to be widened. The new +rural civilisation should aim at trying to develop in the country the +things of the country, the very existence of which seems to have been +forgotten. But, after all, it is the world within us rather than the +world without us that matters in the making of society, and I must give +to the social influence of the coöperative idea what I believe to be its +real importance. + +In Ireland, from which so much of my experience is drawn, we have found +a tendency growing among farmers whose combinations are successful, to +gather into one strong local association all those varied objects and +activities which I have described as advocated by the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society. These local associations are ceasing to have one +special purpose or one object only. They absorb more and more of the +business of the district. One large, well-organised institution is being +substituted for the numerous petty transactions of farmers with +middlemen and small country traders. Gradually the Society becomes the +most important institution in the district, the most important in a +social as well as in an economic sense. The members feel a pride in its +material expansion. They accumulate large profits, which in time become +a kind of communal fund. In some cases this is used for the erection of +village halls where social entertainments, concerts and dances are held, +lectures delivered and libraries stored. Finally, the association +assumes the character of a rural commune, where, instead of the old +basis of the commune, the joint ownership of land, a new basis for union +is found in the voluntary communism of effort. + +A true social organism is thus being created with common human and +economic interests, and the clan feeling, which was so powerful an +influence in early and mediæval civilisations, with all its power of +generating passionate loyalties, is born anew in the modern world. Our +ancient Irish records show little clans with a common ownership of land +hardly larger than a parish, but with all the patriotic feeling of large +nations held with an intensity rare in our modern states. The history of +these clans and of very small nations like the ancient Greek states +shows that the social feeling assumes its most binding and powerful +character where the community is large enough to allow free play to the +various interests of human life, but is not so large that it becomes an +abstraction to the imagination. Most of us feel no greater thrill in +being one of a State with fifty million inhabitants than we do in +recognising we are citizens of the solar system. The rural commune and +the very small States exhibit the feeling of human solidarity in its +most intense manifestations, working on itself, regenerating itself and +seeking its own perfection. Combinations of agriculturists, when the +rural organisation is complete, re-create in a new way the conditions +where these social instincts germinate best, and it is only by this +complete organisation of rural life that we can hope to build up a rural +civilisation, and create those counter-attractions to urban life which +will stay the exodus from the land. + +I do not wish to exaggerate the interest which the rural life of my own +little island may have for those who are concerned for the vast and +wealthy expanses of the American farm lands. But, even here there is a +genuine desire for the really simple life, which in its commonest +manifestation is a thing that rather simple people talk about. In a +properly organised rural neighbourhood could be developed that higher +kind of attraction which is suggested by the very word _neighbourhood_. +Once get the farmers and their families all working together at +something that concerns them all, and we have the beginning of a more +stable and a more social community than is likely to exist amid the +constant change and bustle of the large towns, where indeed some +thinkers tell us that not only the family, but also the social life, is +badly breaking down. When people are really interested in each +other--and this interest comes of habitually working together--the +smallest personal traits or events affecting one are of interest to all. +The simplest piece of amateur acting or singing, done in the village +hall by one of the villagers, will arouse more criticism and more +enthusiasm among his friends and neighbours than can be excited by the +most consummate performance of a professional in a great city theatre, +where no one in the audience knows or cares for the performer. + +But if this attraction--the attraction of common work and social +intercourse with a circle of friends--is to prevail in the long run over +the lure which the city offers to eye and ear and pocket, there must be +a change in rural education. At present country children are educated as +if for the purpose of driving them into the towns. To the pleasure which +the cultured city man feels in the country--because he has been taught +to feel it--the country child is insensible. The country offers +continual interest to the mind which has been trained to be thoughtful +and observant; the town offers continual distraction to the vacant eye +and brain. Yet, the education given to country children has been +invented for them in the town, and it not only bears no relation to the +life they are to lead, but actually attracts them towards a town career. +I am aware that I am here on ground where angels--even if specialised in +pedagogy--may well fear to tread. Upon the principles of a sound +agricultural education pedagogues are in a normally violent state of +disagreement with each other. But whatever compromise between general +education and technical instruction be adopted, the resulting reform +that is needed has two sides. We want two changes in the rural +mind--beginning with the rural teacher's mind. First, the interest which +the physical environment of the farmer provides to followers of almost +every branch of science must be communicated to the agricultural classes +according to their capacities. Second, that intimacy with and affection +for nature, to which Wordsworth has given the highest expression, must +in some way be engendered in the rural mind. In this way alone will the +countryman come to realize the beauty of the life around him, as through +the teaching of science he will learn to realise its truth. + +Upon this reformed education, as a basis, the rural economy must be +built. It must, if my view be accepted, ensure, first and foremost, the +combination of farmers for business purposes in such a manner as will +enable them to control their own marketing and make use of the many +advantages which a command of capital gives. In all European +countries--with the exception of the British Isles--statesmen have +recognised the national necessity for the good business organisation of +the farmer. In some cases, for example France, even Government officials +expound the coöperative principle. In Denmark, the most predominantly +rural country in Europe, the education both in the common and in the +high school has long been so admirably related to the working lives of +the agricultural classes that the people adopt spontaneously the methods +of organisation which the commercial instinct they have acquired through +education tells them to be suitable to the conditions. The rural +reformer knows that this is the better way; but our problem is not +merely the education of a rising, but the development of a grown-up +generation. We cannot wait for the slow process of education to produce +its effect upon the mind of the rural youth, even if there were any way +of ensuring their proper training for a progressive rural life without +first giving to their parents such education as they can assimilate. +Direct action is called for; we have to work with adult farmers and +induce them to reorganise their business upon the lines which I have +attempted to define. Moreover, this is essential to the future success +of the work done in the schools, in order that the trained mind of youth +may not afterwards find itself baulked by the ignorant apathy or lazy +conservatism of its elders. + +I hold, then, that the new economy will mean a more scientific mastery +of the technical side of farming, for farmers will make a much larger +use of the advice, instruction and help which the Nation and the States +offer them through the Department of Agriculture and the Colleges. It is +equally certain that there will arise a more human social life in the +rural districts, based upon the greater share of the products of the +farmer's industry, which the new business organisation will enable him +to retain; stimulated by the closer business relations with his fellows +which that organisation will bring about, and fostered by the closer +neighbourhood which is implied in a more intensive cultivation. + +The development of a more intensive cultivation must carry with it a +much more careful consideration of the labour problem. The difficulty of +getting and keeping labour on the farm is a commonplace. I think farmers +have not faced the fact that this difficulty is due in the main to their +own way of doing their business. Competent men will not stay at farm +labour unless it offers them continuous employment as part of a +well-ordered business concern; and this is not possible unless with a +greatly improved husbandry. + +To-day agriculture has to compete in the labour market against other, +and to many men more attractive, industries, and a marked elevation in +the whole standard of life in the rural world is the best insurance of a +better supply of good farm labour. Only an intensive system of farming +can afford any large amount of permanent employment at decent wages to +the rural labourer, and only a good supply of competent labour can +render intensive farming on any large scale practicable. But the +intensive system of farming not only gives regular employment and good +wages; it also fits the labourer of to-day--in a country where a man can +strike out for himself--to be the successful farmer of to-morrow. Nor, +in these days of impersonal industrial relations, should the fact be +overlooked that under an intensive system of agriculture, we find still +preserved the kindly personal relation between employer and employed +which contributes both to the pleasantness of life and to economic +progress and security. + +Moreover, in a country where advanced farming is the rule, there is a +remarkable, and, from the standpoint of national stability, most +valuable, steadiness in employment. Good farming, by fixing the labourer +on the soil, improves the general condition of rural life, by ridding +the countryside of the worst of its present pests. Those wandering +dervishes of the industrial world, the hobo, the tramp--the entire +family of Weary Willies and Tired Timothys--will no longer have even an +imaginary excuse for their troubled and troublesome existence. But the +farmer who was the prey of these pests must, if he would be permanently +rid of them, learn to respect his hired farm hand. He must provide him +with a comfortable cottage and a modest garden plot upon which his young +family may employ themselves; otherwise, whatever the farmer may do to +attract labour, he will never retain it. In short, the labourer, too, +must get his full and fair share of the prosperity of the coming good +time in the country. + +There is one particular aspect of this improved social life which is so +important that it ought properly to form the subject of a separate +essay; I mean the position of women in rural life. In no country in the +world is the general position of woman better, or her influence greater, +than in the United States. But while woman has played a great part there +in the social life and economic development of the town, I hold that the +part she is destined to play in the future making of the country will be +even greater. + +In the more intelligent scheme of the new country life, the economic +position of woman is likely to be one of high importance. She enters +largely into all three parts of our programme,--better farming, better +business, better living. In the development of higher farming, for +instance, she is better fitted than the more muscular but less patient +animal, man, to carry on with care that work of milk records, egg +records, etc., which underlies the selection on scientific lines of the +more productive strains of cattle and poultry. And this kind of work is +wanted in the study not only of animal, but also of plant life. + +Again, in the sphere of better business, the housekeeping faculty of +woman is an important asset, since a good system of farm accounts is one +of the most valuable aids to successful farming. But it is, of course, +in the third part of the programme,--better living,--that woman's +greatest opportunity lies. The woman makes the home life of the Nation. +But she desires also social life, and where she has the chance she +develops it. Here it is that the establishment of the coöperative +society, or union, gives an opening and a range of conditions in which +the social usefulness of woman makes itself quickly felt. I do not think +that I am laying too much stress on this matter, because the pleasures, +the interests and the duties of society, properly so called,--that is, +the state of living on friendly terms with our neighbours,--are always +more central and important in the life of a woman than of a man. The +man needs them, too, for without them he becomes a mere machine for +making money; but the woman, deprived of them, tends to become a mere +drudge. The new rural social economy (which implies a denser population +occupying smaller holdings) must therefore include a generous provision +for all those forms of social intercourse which specially appeal to +women. The Women's Sections of the Granges have done a great deal of +useful work in this direction; we need a more general and complete +application of the principles on which they act. + +I have now stated the broad principles which must govern any effective +scheme for correcting the present harmful subordination of rural life to +a civilisation too exclusively urban. Before I bring forward my definite +proposal for a remedy calculated to meet the needs of the situation, I +must anticipate a line of criticism which may occur to the mind of any +social worker who does not happen to be very familiar with the +conditions of country life. + +I can well imagine readers who have patiently followed my arguments +wishing to interrogate me in some such terms as these: "Assuming," they +may say, "that we accept all you tell us about the neglect of the rural +population, and agree as to the grave consequences which must follow if +it be continued, what on earth can we do? Of course the welfare of the +rural population is a matter of paramount importance to the city and to +the nation at large; but may we remind you that you said the evil and +the consequences can be removed and averted only by those immediately +concerned--the actual farmers--and that the remedy for the rural +backwardness was to be sought for in the rural mind? 'Canst thou +minister to a mind diseased?' Must not the patient 'minister' to +himself?" + +Fair questions these, and altogether to the point. I answer at once that +the patient ought to minister to himself, but he won't. He has acquired +the habit of sending for the physician of the town, whose physic but +aggravates the disease. Dropping metaphor, the farmer does not think for +himself. In rural communities, there is as great a lack of collective +thought as of coöperative action. All progress is conditional on public +opinion, and this, even in the country, is a very much town-made thing. + +So I am, then, in this difficulty. My subject is rural, my audience +urban. I have to commend to the statesmen and the philanthropists of the +town the somewhat incongruous proposal that they should take the +initiative in rural reform. Neither the thought nor the influence which +can set in motion what in agricultural communities is no less than an +economic revolution are to be found in the open country. To the townsmen +I now address my appeal and submit a plan. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] Message to the Fifty-eighth Congress (1903). + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TWO THINGS NEEDFUL + + +In my earlier chapters I traced to the Industrial Revolution in England +the origin of that subordination, in the English-speaking countries, of +rural to urban interests which finds its expression to-day in the +problem of rural life. I have shown that the continuance of the tendency +in America was natural if not inevitable, and have urged that, for +economic, social and political reasons, its further progress should now +be stayed. If my view as to the origin, present effects and probable +consequences of the evil be accepted, any serious proposals for a remedy +will be welcomed by all who realise that national well-being cannot +endure if urban prosperity is accompanied by rural decay. In this belief +I offer the scheme for a Country Life movement which has slowly matured +in my own mind as the result of the experience described in the +preceding pages. + +The first aim of the movement should be to coördinate, and guide towards +a common end, the efforts of a large number of agencies--educational, +religious, social and philanthropic--which, in their several ways, are +already engaged upon some part of the work to be done. For such a +movement the United States offers advantages not to be found elsewhere +in the area for which we are concerned. For here public-spirited +individuals and associations of the kind required exist in larger +numbers than can be known to any one who has not watched what is going +on in this field of social service. If I had not already devoted too +much space to personal experiences, I could of my own knowledge testify +to the remarkable growth of organised effort in American rural +communities. Sometimes this is the outcome of a growing spirit of +neighbourliness, sometimes it emanates from young Universities and +Colleges emulating the extension work with which nearly every big city +is familiar. I have been much struck with the way in which, at +gatherings of school teachers, pedagogic detail and questions affecting +their status and emoluments have become less popular subjects for +discussion than schemes of social progress.[9] Similarly, the +agricultural Press is becoming less exclusively technical and +commercial, and more human. Even the syndicated stuff is getting less +townified. My correspondence, newspaper clippings sent to me, and many +other indications, point in the same direction. They leave the +impression upon my mind that there is a vast, efficient and enthusiastic +army of social workers upon the farm lands of the United States badly in +need of a Headquarters Staff. + +If I am right in believing that, of the English-speaking countries, the +United States affords the best opportunity for such a consummation, most +assuredly the present time is peculiarly auspicious. If Mr. Roosevelt's +Country Life policy has not been received with any marked enthusiasm, +American public opinion has been thoroughly aroused upon his +Conservation policy. The latter cannot possibly come to fruition--nor +even go much further--until the Country Life problem is boldly faced. In +the Conference of Governors it was pointed out over and over again that +the farmer, now the chief waster, must become the chief conserver. As +such he will himself become a supporter of the policy, and will bring to +the aid of those advocates of Conservation whose chief concern is for +future generations, an interested public opinion which will go far to +outweigh the influence of those who profit by the exhaustion of natural +resources. To the country life reformer I would say that, as the one +idea has caught on while the other lags, he will, if he is wise, hitch +his Country Life waggon to the Conservation star. + +With every advantage of time and place, the promotion of the movement +which is to counteract the townward tendency will have to reckon with +the psychological difficulty inherent in the conditions. They must +recognise the paradox of the situation already pointed out, the +necessity of interesting the town in the problems of the country. The +urban attitude of mind which caused the evil, and now makes it difficult +to interest public opinion in the remedy, is not new; it pervades the +literature of the Augustan age. I recall from my school days Virgil's +great handbook on Italian agriculture, written with a mastery of +technical detail unsurpassed by Kipling. But the farmers he had in mind +when he indulged in his memorable rhapsody upon the happiness of their +lot were out for pleasure rather than profit. While the suburban poet +sang to the merchant princes, Rome was paying a bonus upon imported +corn, and entering generally upon that fatal disregard for the interest +of the rural population which is one of the accepted causes of the +decline and fall. + +How that Old World tragi-comedy comes back to me when I talk to New York +friends on the subject of these pages! I am not, so they tell me, up to +date in my information; there is a marked revulsion of feeling upon the +town _versus_ country question; the tide of the rural exodus has really +turned, as I might have discerned without going far afield. At many a +Long Island home I might see on Sundays, weather permitting, the +horny-handed son of week-day toil in Wall Street, rustically attired, +inspecting his Jersey cows and aristocratic fowls. These supply a select +circle in New York with butter and eggs, at a price which leaves nothing +to be desired--unless it be some information as to the cost of +production. Full justice is done to the new country life when the +Farmers' Club of New York fulfils its chief function, the annual dinner +at Delmonico's. Then agriculture is extolled in fine Virgilian style, +the Hudson villa and the Newport 'cottage' being permitted to divide the +honours of the rural revival with the Long Island home. But to my +bucolic intelligence, it would seem that against the 'back to the land' +movement of Saturday afternoon the captious critic might set the rural +exodus of Monday morning. + +These reflections are introduced in no unfriendly spirit, and with +serious intent. To me this new rural life is associated with memories of +characteristically American hospitality; but my interest in it is more +than personal. It is giving to those who cultivate it, among whom are +the helpers most needed at the moment, a point of view which will enable +them to grasp the real problem of the open country, as it exists, for +example, in the great food-producing and cotton-growing tracts of the +West and South. Both in the countries where the townward tendency of +the industrial age was foreseen and prevented, and in those in which the +evil is being cured, the impulse and inspiration which will be required +to initiate and sustain our Country Life movement came mainly from +leaders who were not themselves agriculturists.[10] Proficiency in the +practice or even in the business of farming is not necessary. What is +needed is a comprehensive knowledge of public affairs, political +imagination, an understanding sympathy with and a philosophic insight +into the entire life of communities. Men who combine with the necessary +experience those gifts of heart and mind which go to make the higher +citizenship in the many, and the statesmanship in the few, will more +likely be found in the city than in the country. Yet they are, in the +conditions, the natural leaders of the Country Life movement, which must +now be defined. + +The situation demands two things; on the one hand an association, +popular, propagandist, organising; on the other, an Institute, +scientific, philosophic, research-making. These two things are distinct +in character, but they are complementary to each other. One will require +popular enthusiasm and business organisation. To the service of the +other must be brought the patient spirit of scientific and philosophic +analysis and inquiry. These two bodies--the popular propagandist +association and the scientific research-making Institute--must, +therefore, be created; and, for a reason to be explained when we +consider the work of the Institute, they should be independent of each +other. This rough indication of the character of the work, which I will +describe more in detail presently, will suffice for the moment. I feel +that the work will be so intensely human in its interest that it will be +well to say at once how the two central agencies can be established, and +the movement made, not a writer's fancy, but a living and doing agency +of human progress. + +A body, in many respects ideally fitted to give the necessary impulse +and direction to the work of organisation, is already in the field. The +leaders of the Conservation idea, recognising that their policy, in +common with other policies, will need an organised public opinion at its +back, have founded a National Conservation Association. Mr. Gifford +Pinchot has now been selected as its President. Before he was available, +the task of organising and setting to work the new institution was +unanimously entrusted to and accepted by President Eliot, of whose +qualifications all I will say is that we foreign students of social +problems vie with his own countrymen in our appreciation of his public +work and aims. These two appointments are sufficient proof of the +serious importance of the work, and bespeak public influence and support +for the Association. I have no doubt that this body would be fully +qualified to formulate and initiate the Country Life movement, and act +as the central agency for the active promotion of its objects. Its +members, who, I am sure, agree with Mr. Roosevelt in regarding the +movement as a necessary complement to the Conservation policy, might +even feel that for this very reason it was incumbent upon them to set +their organisation to this work. + +There is, however, one consideration which will make Mr. Pinchot and his +associates hesitate to adopt this course. The doubt relates to the +distinction I have drawn between the Conservation policy and the Country +Life movement, the one seeking to promote legislative and administrative +action, and the other, while it may give birth to a policy, being +chiefly concerned with voluntary effort.[11] Although the National +Conservation Association is founded for the purpose of educating public +opinion upon the Conservation idea, it may decide to support the +Conservation policy of one party rather than that of another. It would +thus become too much involved in party controversy to act as a central +agency of a movement which must embrace men of all parties. Should this +view prevail, the difficulty can be easily surmounted by following the +Irish precedent, where we had a very similar and indeed far more +delicate situation to save from political trouble. An American +Agricultural Organisation Society could be founded for the purpose in +view, and as it is probable that leading advocates of the Conservation +policy would take a prominent part in the Country Life movement, the +interdependence of the two ideas would have practical recognition. + +Apart from the possibility of political complications, there is one +strong reason to recommend this course. The movement will accomplish its +best and most permanent results as an advocate of self-reliance; it will +seek to make self-help effective through organisation; it will concern +itself much more for those things which the farmers can do for +themselves by coöperation than with those things which the Government +can do for them.[12] The selection, however, between the two alternative +courses is a question which the foreign critic cannot decide. The work +to which I now return will be the same, whatever agency is charged with +its execution. + +The central body (which for brevity I will call the Association) will +have as its general aim the economic and social development of rural +communities. The work will be mainly that of active organisation. For +reasons explained in the earlier chapters, the organisation must be +coöperative in character, and will be concentrated upon the business +methods of the farmers. This will, it is believed, cure a radical defect +in their system--a defect which, as I have argued, is responsible for a +restricted production, and for a course of distribution injurious alike +to producer and consumer, besides exercising a depressing influence upon +the economic efficiency and social life of rural communities. It follows +that the first step towards a general reconstruction of country life, +which has the promise of giving to the country a social attraction +strong enough to stem the tide of the townward migration, is +agricultural coöperation. + +Such being the general aim and the definite procedure, the first +practical question that arises will be, how to apply this +solvent--agricultural coöperation. It will not suffice to throw these +two long words at the hardy rustic; shorter and more emphatic words +might come back. Two equally necessary things must be done; the +principle must be made clear, and the practical details of this rural +equivalent of urban business combination must be explained in language +understanded of the people. It is not difficult to draft a paper scheme +for this purpose, but the fitting of the plan to local conditions is a +very expert business. Hence the central agency should have at its +disposal a corps of experts in coöperative organisation for agricultural +purposes. After a short visit to a likely district by a competent +exponent of the theory and practice, local volunteers would be found to +carry on the work. Experience shows that once a well-organised +coöperative association of farmers is permanently established, similar +associations spring up spontaneously under the magic influence of +proved success in known conditions. I should strongly recommend +concentration at first on a few selected districts, with the aim of +making standard models to which other communities could work. I need +hardly say that all this work would be done in coöperation with whatever +other agencies would lend their aid. The Country Life movement would be +extremely useful to the great educational foundations centred in New +York. I happen to know that the Trustees of the Rockefeller, Carnegie +and Russell Sage endowments are keenly desirous to promote such a +redirection of rural education as will bring it into a more helpful +relation with the working lives of the rural population. Then there are +such bodies as the Y. M. C. A., whose leaders, I am told, are alive to +the value of the open air life, and are anxious to extend their country +work in the rural districts. The great army of rural teachers, the +Farmers' Union, and other farmers' organisations I have already named +would gladly coöperate with schemes making for rural progress. + +More important, I believe, than is generally realised, from an economic +and social point of view, are the rural churches. In many European +countries, where agricultural coöperation has played a great part in the +people's lives, the clergy have ardently supported the system on account +of its moral value. In Ireland, some of our very best volunteer +organisers are clergymen. Some leaders of the rural church in the United +States have told me that a feeling is growing that an increased economic +usefulness in the clergy would strengthen their position in the society +which they serve in a higher capacity. I know that the suggestion of +clerical intervention in secular affairs is open to misunderstanding. +But here is a body of educated citizens who would gladly take part in +any real social service; and here is a situation where there is work of +high moral and social value calling for volunteers. Nothing but good, +it seems to me, could result if such men, who have more opportunity and +inclination for general reading than the working farmer, would help in +explaining the intricacies of coöperative organisation and procedure +which must be understood and practised in order that the system may be +fruitful. + +In addition to its active propagandist work, the central Association +could exercise a powerful and helpful influence in other ways. It +should, of course, keep both the agricultural and the general press +informed of its plans and progress. It should also keep in touch with +the agricultural work of all important educational bodies, and more +especially urge upon them the necessity of spreading the coöperative +idea. The Department of Agriculture would welcome and support the +movement; for I know many leading men in that service who thoroughly +understand and recognise the immense importance, especially to backward +rural communities, of the coöperative principle. + +It is not necessary, at this stage, to go further into details. I feel +confident that the work of assisting all suitable agencies, such as +those I have named, and others which may be available, through +organisers of agricultural coöperation and by the spreading of +information, would soon enable the central body to render inestimable +service to the cause of rural progress. Such, at any rate, is the +outline of my first proposal for giving to my American fellow-workers +upon the rural problem the assistance which I feel they most need at the +present moment. I pass now to my second proposal. + +I suggest that an institution--which, as I have said, will be +scientific, philosophic, research-making--should be founded. It would +be, in effect, a Bureau of research in rural social economy. Personally +I know that, in my own experience as an administrator and organiser, I +have been constantly brought face to face with problems where we could +turn to no guide--no patient band of investigators who had been +measuring, analysing, determining the data. Yet in some directions much +excellent work is being done. Every social worker knows how the +knowledge of what others are doing will help him. It is strange how +little the problems of the rural population have entered into the +studies of economists and sociologists. At leading Universities I have +sought in vain for light. At a recent anniversary in New York, which +brought together the foremost economists of the Old and New World, there +was an almost complete omission of the country side of things from a +programme which I am sure was generally held to be almost exhaustive. +The fact is, the subject must be treated as a new one, and it is +urgently necessary, if the work of the Country Life movement is to be +based on a solid foundation of fact, to make good the deficiency of +information which has resulted from the general lack of interest in the +subject under review. An Institute is wanted to survey the field, to +collect, classify and coördinate information and to supplement and carry +forward the work of research and inquiry. The rural social worker +requires as far as possible to carry exact statistical method into his +work so that he may no longer have to depend on general statements, but +may have at his command evidence, the validity of which can be trusted, +while its significance can be measured. I may mention a few typical +questions on which useful light would be shed by the Institute's +researches:-- + +1. The influence of coöperative methods (_a_) on the productive and +distributive efficiency of rural communities, and (_b_) on the +development of a social country life. + +2. The systems of rural education, both general and technical, in +different countries, and the administrative and financial basis of each +system. + +3. The relation between agricultural economy and the cost of food. + +4. The changes (_a_) in the standard and cost of living, and (_b_) in +the economy, solvency and stability of rural communities. + +5. The economic interdependence of the agricultural producer and the +urban consumer, and the extent and incidence of middle profits in the +distribution of agricultural produce. + +6. The action taken by different Governments to assist the development +and secure the stability of the agricultural classes, and the +possibilities and the dangers of such action, with special reference to +the delimitation of the respective spheres of State aid and voluntary +effort. + +7. How far agricultural and rural employment can relieve the problems of +city unemployment, and assist the work of social reclamation. + +Some may think that I am assigning to two bodies work which could be as +well done by one. While all proposals for multiplying organisations in +the field of social service should be critically examined, there are +strong reasons in this case for the course I suggest. The two bodies, +while working to a common end, will differ essentially in their scope +and method. The propagandist agency will be executive and +administrative, and while its operations would have suggestive value to +the country social worker everywhere, it would be concerned directly +only with the United States. Furthermore, it need not necessarily have +any lengthened existence as a national propagandist agency. It would be +founded mainly to introduce that method into American agricultural +economy which I have tried to show lies at the root of rural progress. +As soon as the soundness of the general scheme had been demonstrated in +any State, the central body would promote an organisation to take over +the work within that State. The State organisation would, in its turn, +soon be able to devolve its propagandist work upon a federation of the +business associations which it had been the means of establishing. That +is the contemplated evolution of my first proposal--the early delegation +of the functions of the national to the State propagandist agency, which +would further devolve the work upon bodies of farmers organised +primarily for economic purposes, but with the ulterior aim of social +advancement. + +The Country Life Institute would be on a wholly different footing. Its +researches, if only to subserve the Country Life movement in the United +States, would have to range over the civilised world, and to be +historical as well as contemporary. It should be regarded as a +contribution to the welfare of the English-speaking peoples, one aspect +of whose civilisation--if there be truth in what I have written--needs +to be reconsidered in the light which the Institute is designed to +afford. Its task will be of no ephemeral character. Its success will +not, as in the case of the active propagandist body, lessen the need for +its services, but will rather stimulate the demand for them. + +These differences will have to be taken into account in considering the +important question of ways and means. Both bodies will, I hope, appeal +successfully to public-spirited philanthropists. The temporary body will +need only temporary support; perhaps provision for a five-years' +campaign would suffice. In the near future, local organisations would +naturally defray the cost of the services rendered to them by the +central body; but the Country Life Institute would need a permanent +endowment. The man fitted for its chief control will not be found idle, +but will have to be taken from other work. The scheme, as I have worked +it out, will involve prolonged economic and social inquiry over a wide +field. This would be conducted mostly by postgraduate students. From +those who did this outside work with credit would be recruited the +small staff which would be needed at the central office to get into the +most accessible form the facts and opinions which are needed for the +guidance of those who are doing practical work in the field of rural +regeneration. My estimate of the amount required to do the work well is +from forty to fifty thousand dollars a year, or say a capital sum of +from a million to a million and a quarter dollars. Whether the project +is worthy of such an expenditure, depends upon the question whether I +have made good my case. + +Let me summarise this case. I have tried to show that modern +civilisation is one-sided to a dangerous degree--that it has +concentrated itself in the towns and left the country derelict. This +tendency is peculiar to the English-speaking communities, where the +great industrial movement has had as its consequence the rural problem I +have examined. If the townward tendency cannot be checked, it will +ultimately bring about the decay of the towns themselves, and of our +whole civilisation, for the towns draw their supply of population from +the country. Moreover, the waste of natural resources, and possibly the +alarming increase in the price of food, which have lately attracted so +much attention in America, are largely due to the fact that those who +cultivate the land do not intend to spend their lives upon it; and +without a rehabilitation of country life there can be no success for the +Conservation policy. Therefore, the Country Life movement deals with +what is probably the most important problem before the English-speaking +peoples at this time. Now the predominance of the towns which is +depressing the country is based partly on a fuller application of modern +physical science, partly on superior business organisation, partly on +facilities for occupation and amusement; and if the balance is to be +redressed, the country must be improved in all three ways. There must be +better farming, better business, and better living. These three are +equally necessary, but better business must come first. For farmers, the +way to better living is coöperation, and what coöperation means is the +chief thing the American farmer has to learn. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] In the capital of Virginia, to take one notable example, I have +witnessed a perfect ferment of social activity at one of the gatherings. +It brought together such an ideal combination of the best spirits in +both rural and urban life that I anticipate some striking developments +in rural civilization which will surely extend beyond the borders of the +State. + +[10] I may mention Raiffeisen, Luzzati, Rocquigny, Bishop Grundtwig, +Henry W. Wolff, the Rev. T. A. Finlay, S.J., and most of the leaders in +agricultural organization in Great Britain and Ireland. + +[11] See above, page 31. + +[12] It may seem a small matter even for a footnote, but an unambiguous +terminology is so important to propagandist work that I must mention a +somewhat unfortunate use of the word 'coöperation' which prevails in +official and pedagogic circles. We hear of coöperative demonstration +work, coöperative education, coöperative lectures, and so forth. +Whenever a Government or State department, or an educational body works +with any other agency, and sometimes when they are only doing their own +work, they use the term, which is of course grammatically applicable +whenever two people work together--from matrimony down. If the word in +connection with agriculture could be retained for its technical sense, +so long established and well understood in Europe, the proposed movement +might be saved a good deal of confused thinking. Might not Government +and educational authorities substitute the word 'coördinated' so as to +preserve the distinction? + + * * * * * + +Printed in the United States of America. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rural Life Problem of the United +States, by Horace Curzon Plunkett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF U.S. *** + +***** This file should be named 27305-8.txt or 27305-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/3/0/27305/ + +Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Rural Life Problem of the United States + Notes of an Irish Observer + +Author: Horace Curzon Plunkett + +Release Date: November 21, 2008 [EBook #27305] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF U.S. *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h1>THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM</h1> + +<h3>OF THE</h3> + +<h1>UNITED STATES</h1> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" width='140' height='47' alt=" Publisher's logo" /></div> + +<h3>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO<br /> +DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO</h3> + +<h3>MACMILLAN & CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br /> +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA<br />MELBOURNE</h3> + +<h3>THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br />TORONTO</h3> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE</h2> + +<h1>RURAL LIFE PROBLEM</h1> + +<h4>OF THE</h4> + +<h1>UNITED STATES</h1> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>NOTES OF AN IRISH OBSERVER</h3> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>SIR HORACE PLUNKETT</h2> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>New York<br />THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />1919</h3> + +<h4><i>All rights reserved</i></h4> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1910,</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</p> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p class="center">Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1910.<br />Reprinted October, 1910; +January, 1911; October,<br />1912; September, 1913; January, 1917.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">Norwood Press<br />J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.<br /> +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFATORY NOTE</h2> + +<p>The thoughts contained in the following pages relate to one side of the +life of a country which has been to me, as to many Irishmen, a second +home. They are offered in friendly recognition of kindness I cannot hope +to repay, received largely as a student of American social and economic +problems, from public-spirited Americans who, I know, will appreciate +most highly any slight service to their country.</p> + +<p>The substance of the book appeared in five articles contributed to the +New York <i>Outlook</i> under the title "Conservation and Rural Life." +Several American friends, deeply interested in the Rural Life problem, +asked me to republish the series. In doing so, I have felt that I ought +to present a more comprehensive view of my subject than either the space +allowed or the more casual publication demanded.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p><p>I have to thank the editors of the <i>Outlook</i> for the generous +hospitality of their columns, and for full freedom to republish what +belongs to them.</p> + +<p class="right">HORACE PLUNKETT.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Plunkett House, Dublin</span>,<br /> + April, 1910.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Subject and the Point of View</span></h4> + +<p>The subject defined—A reconstruction of rural life +in English-speaking communities essential to the progress of Western civilisation—A movement +for a new rural civilisation to be proposed—The author's point of view derived from +thirty years of Irish and American experience—The physical contrast and moral resemblances +in the Irish and American rural problems—Mr. Roosevelt's interest in this aspect +of the question—His Conservation and Country Life policies</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Launching of Two Roosevelt Policies</span></h4> + +<p>The sane emotionalism of American public opinion—Gifford +Pinchot as the Apostle of Conservation—His test of national efficiency—Mr. +James J. Hill's notable pronouncements upon the wastage of natural resources—The evolution +of the Conservation policy—Historical and present causes of national extravagance—The +Conference of Governors and their pronouncement +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>upon Conservation—Mr. Roosevelt's +Country Life policy—His estimate of the lasting importance of the Conservation and Country +Life ideas—The popularity of the Conservation policy and the lack of interest in the Country +Life policy—The Country Life Commission's inquiries and the reality of the problem—The +need and opportunity for reconstruction of rural life</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Origin and Consequences of Rural Neglect</span></h4> + +<p>The origin of rural neglect in English-speaking countries traced to the Industrial Revolution in +England—Effect of modern economic changes upon the mutual relations of town and country +populations—Respects in which the old relations ought to be restored—Three economic +reasons for the study of rural conditions—The social consequences of rural neglect—The political +importance of rustic experience to reënforce urban intelligence in modern democracies—The +analogue of the European exodus in the United States—The moral aspects of rural +neglect—The danger to national efficiency of sacrificing agricultural to commercial and industrial +interests—The happy circumstance of Mr. Roosevelt's interest in rural well-being</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Inner Life of the American Farmer</span></h4> + +<p>Reasons why the rural problem resulting from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>urban predominance exists only in English-speaking +countries—Neglect of farmer more easily excused in the United States than elsewhere +owing to his apparent prosperity—Country Life Commission's pronouncement on +rural backwardness—Why the matter must be taken up by the towns—A survey of American +rural life—The problem economically and sociologically considered in the Middle West—Causes +and character of rural backwardness in the Southern States—The boll-weevil and the +hookworm as illustrations of unconcern for the well-being of rural communities—The +problem in the New England States not typically American—The progressive attitude of +some communities in the Far West in rural reform</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Weak Spot in American Rural Economy</span></h4> + +<p>The three elements of a rural existence—Mr. Roosevelt's +formula: "Better farming, better business, better living"—A comparative analysis +of urban and rural business methods shows that herein lies chief cause of rural backwardness—Reasons +why farmers fail to adopt methods of combination—A description of the coöperative +system in its application to agriculture—The introduction and development of agricultural +coöperation in Ireland—The Raiffeisen Credit Association successful in poorest Irish +districts—Summary of coöperative achievement by Irish farmers—British imitation of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>Irish agricultural organising methods—A +criticism of American farmers' organisations—Lack of combination for business purposes the +cause of political impotence—Urgent need for +a reorganisation of American agriculture upon coöperative lines</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Way to Better Farming and Better Living</span></h4> + +<p>The retarded application of science to agriculture and neglect of agricultural education—Present +progress in agricultural education—Full benefit of education must await coöperative organisation—Connection +between coöperation and social progress—Mr. Roosevelt on the cause +and cure of rural discontent—Two views upon the principles of rural betterment—The part +coöperation is playing in Irish rural society—General observations on town and country +pleasures—The social necessity for a redirection of rural education—The rural labour +problem—The position of women in farm life—The reason why the remedy for rural backwardness +must come from without—The paradox of the problem</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Two Things Needful</span></h4> + +<p>Summary of diagnosis and indication of treatment—Chief aim the coördination of agencies available +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>for social work in the country—Numerical +strength and fine social spirit abroad, but leadership needed—Mutual interest of advocates of +Conservation and of rural reform—The psychological difficulty due to predominance of urban +idea—Roman history repeating itself in New York—The natural leaders of the Country +Life movement to be found in the cities—The objects of the movement defined—Two new +institutions to be created; the one executive and organising, the other academic—The National +Conservation Association qualified to initiate and direct the movement—Possibly an +American Agricultural Organisation Society should be founded for the work—The chief +practical work the introduction of agricultural coöperation—Necessity for joining forces with +existing philanthropic agencies—Suggested enlistment of country clergy in coöperative +propagandism—The Country Life Institute, its purpose and functions—Reason why one +body cannot undertake work assigned to the two new institutions—The financial requirements +of the Institute—Summary and conclusions</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h1>THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM</h1> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE SUBJECT AND THE POINT OF VIEW</h3> + +<p>I submit in the following pages a proposition and a proposal—a +distinction which an old-country writer of English may, perhaps, be +permitted to preserve. The proposition is that, in the United States, as +in other English-speaking communities, the city has been developed to +the neglect of the country. I shall not have to labour the argument, as +nobody seriously disputes the contention; but I shall trace the main +causes of the neglect, and indicate what, in my view, must be its +inevitable consequences. If I make my case, it will appear that our +civilisation has thus become dangerously one-sided, and that, in the +interests of national well-being,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> it is high time for steps to be taken +to counteract the townward tendency.</p> + +<p>My definite proposal to those who accept these conclusions is that a +Country Life movement, upon lines which will be laid down, should be +initiated by existing associations, whose efforts should be supplemented +by a new organisation which I shall call a Country Life Institute. There +are in the United States a multiplicity of agencies, both public and +voluntary, available for this work. But the army of workers in this +field of social service needs two things: first, some definite plan for +coördinating their several activities, and, next, some recognised source +of information collected from the experience of the Old and the New +World. It is the purpose of these pages to show that these needs are +real and can be met.</p> + +<p>Two obvious questions will here suggest themselves. Why should the +United States—of all countries in the world—be chosen for such a theme +instead of a country like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> Ireland, where the population depends mainly +upon agriculture? What qualifications has an Irishman, be he never so +competent to advise upon the social and economic problems of his own +country, to talk to Americans about the life of their rural population? +I admit at once that, while I have made some study of American +agriculture and rural economy, my actual work upon the problem of which +I write has been restricted to Ireland. But I claim, with some pride, +that, in thought upon rural economy, Ireland is ahead of any +English-speaking country. She has troubles of her own, some inherent in +the adverse physical conditions, and others due to well-known historical +causes, that too often impede the action to which her best thoughts +should lead. But the very fact that those who grapple with Irish +problems have to work through failure to success will certainly not +lessen the value to the social student of the experience gained. I +recognise, however, that I must give the reader so much of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> personal +narrative as is required to enable him to estimate the value of my +facts, and of the conclusions which I base upon them.</p> + +<p>To have enjoyed an Irish-American existence, to have been profoundly +interested in, and more or less in touch with, public affairs in both +countries, to have been an unwilling politician in Ireland and not a +politician at all in America, is, to say the least, an unusual +experience for an Irishman. But such has been my record during the last +twenty years. Soon after graduating at Oxford, I was advised to live in +mountain air for a while, and for the next decade I was a ranchman along +the foothills of the Rockies. To those who knew that my heart was in +Ireland, I used to explain that I might some day be in politics at home, +and must take care of my lungs. In 1889 I returned to live and work in +my own country, but I retained business interests, including some +farming operations, in the Western States. Ever since then I have taken +my annual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> holiday across the Atlantic, and have studied rural +conditions over a wider area in the United States than my business +interests demanded.</p> + +<p>For eight years, commencing in 1892, I was a Member of Parliament. My +legislative ambition was to get something done for Irish industry, and +especially Irish agriculture. Having secured the assistance of an +unprecedented combination of representative Irishmen, known as the +Recess Committee (because it sat during the Parliamentary recess), we +succeeded in getting the addition we wanted to the machinery of Irish +Government. The functions of the new institution are sufficiently +indicated by its cumbrous Parliamentary title, "The Department of +Agriculture and other Industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland." I mention this official experience because it not only +intensified my desire to study American conditions, but it also brought +me frequently to Washington to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> study the working of those Federal +institutions which are concerned for the welfare of the rural +population. There I enjoyed the unfailing courtesy of American public +servants to the foreign inquirer.</p> + +<p>On one of these visits, in the winter of 1905-1906, I called upon +President Roosevelt to pay him my respects, and to express to him my +obligations to some members of his Administration. I wished especially +to acknowledge my indebtedness to that veteran statesman, Secretary +Wilson, the value of whose long service to the American farmer it would +be hard to exaggerate. Mr. Roosevelt questioned me as to the exact +object of my inquiries, and asked me to come again and discuss with him +more fully than was possible at the moment certain economic and social +questions which had engaged much of his own thoughts. He was greatly +interested to learn that in Ireland we have been approaching many of +these questions from his own point of view. He made me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> tell him the +story of Irish land legislation, and of recent Irish movements for the +improvement of agricultural conditions. Ever since, his interest in +these Irish questions—to <i>the</i> Irish Question we gave a wide berth—has +been maintained on account of their bearing upon his Rural Life policy, +for I had shown him how the economic strengthening and social elevation +of the Irish farmer had become a matter of urgent Irish concern. I +recall many things he said on that occasion, which show that his two +great policies of Conservation and Country Life reform were maturing in +his mind. I need hardly say how deeply interesting these policies are to +me, embracing as they do economic and social problems, the working out +of which in my own country happens to be the task to which I have +devoted the best years of my life.</p> + +<p>I must now offer to the reader so much of the story of the Country Life +movement in my own country as will enable him to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> understand its +interest to Mr. Roosevelt and to many another worker upon the analogous +problems of the United States. Ireland is passing through an agrarian +revolution. There, as in many other European countries, the title to +most of the agricultural land rested upon conquest. The English attempt +to colonise Ireland never completely succeeded nor completely failed; +consequently the Irish never ceased to repudiate the title of the alien +landlord. In 1881 Mr. Gladstone introduced one of the greatest agrarian +reforms in history—rent-fixing by judicial authority—which was +certainly a bold attempt to put an end to a desolating conflict, +centuries old.</p> + +<p>The scheme failed,—whether, as some hold, from its inherent defects, or +from the circumstances of the time, is an open question. It is but fair +to its author to point out that a rapidly increasing foreign +competition, chiefly from the newly opened tracts of virgin soil in the +New World, led to a fall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> in agricultural prices, which made the first +rents fixed appear too high. Quicker and cheaper transit, together with +processes for keeping produce fresh over the longest routes, soon showed +that the new market conditions had come to stay. A bad land system on a +rising market might succeed better than a good one on a falling. The +land tenure reforms begun in 1881, having broken down under stress of +foreign competition, and Purchase Acts on a smaller scale having been +tentatively tried in the interval, in 1903 Parliament finally decreed +that sufficient money should be provided to buy out all the remaining +agricultural land. In a not remote future, some two hundred million +pounds sterling—a billion dollars—will have been advanced by the +British Government to enable the tenants to purchase their holdings, the +money to be repaid in easy instalments during periods averaging over +sixty years.</p> + +<p>Twenty years ago this general course of events was foreseen, and a few +Irishmen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>conceived and set to work upon what has come to be Ireland's +Rural Life policy. The position taken up was simple. What Parliament was +about to do would pull down the whole structure of Ireland's +agricultural economy, and would clear away the chief hindrance to +economic and social progress. But upon the ground thus cleared the +edifice of a new rural social economy would have to be built. This work, +although it needs the fostering care of government, and liberal +facilities for a system of education intimately related to the people's +working lives, belongs mainly to the sphere of voluntary effort.</p> + +<p>The new movement, which was started in 1889 to meet the circumstances I +have indicated, was thus a movement for the up-building of country life. +It anticipated the lines of the formula which Mr. Roosevelt adopted in +his Message transmitting to Congress the Report of the Country Life +Commission—better farming, better business,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> better living: we began +with better business, which consisted in the introduction of +agricultural coöperation into the farming industry, for several reasons +which will appear later, and for one which I must mention here. We found +that we could not develop in unorganised farmers a political influence +strong enough to enable them to get the Government to do its part +towards better farming. Owing to the new agricultural opinion which had +been developed indirectly by organising the farmer, we were able to win +from Parliament the department I have named above. This institution was +so framed and endowed that it is able to give to the Irish farmers all +the assistance which can be legitimately given by public agencies and at +public expense. The assistance consists chiefly of education. But +education is interpreted in the widest sense. Practical instruction to +old and young, in schools, upon the farms, and at meetings, lectures, +experiments, and demonstrations, the circulation of useful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> information +and advice, and all the usual methods known to progressive governments, +are being introduced with the chief aim of enabling the farmer to apply +to the practice of farming the teachings of modern science. Better +living, which includes making country life more interesting and +attractive, is sought by using voluntary associations, some organised +primarily for business purposes, and others, having no business aim, for +social and intellectual ends. But Irish rural reformers are agreed that +by far the most important step towards a higher and a better rural life +would be a redirection of education in the country schools. To this I +shall return in the proper place.</p> + +<p>I can now proceed with my American experiences without leaving any doubt +as to the point of view from which I approach the problem of rural life +in the United States. Having engaged in actual work upon that problem in +Ireland, where a combination of economic changes and political events +has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> made its solution imperative, and having been long in personal +touch with rural conditions in some Western States, my interest in +certain policies which were maturing at Washington may be easily +surmised. There I found that, with wholly different conditions to be +dealt with, the thoughts of the President and of others in his +confidence were, as regards the main issue, moving in the same direction +as my own. They too had come to feel that the welfare of the rural +population had been too long neglected, and that it was high time to +consider how the neglect might be repaired. In his annual message to +Congress in 1904, Mr. Roosevelt had made it clear that he was fully +conscious of this necessity. "Nearly half of the people of this +country," he wrote, "devote their energies to growing things from the +soil. Until a recent date little has been done to prepare these millions +for their life work." I did not realise at the time the full import of +these sentences. Nor did I foresee that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> the problem of rural life was +to be forced to the front by the awakening of public opinion, upon +another issue differing from and yet closely related to the subject of +these pages. Mr. Roosevelt was thinking out the Conservation idea, which +I believe will some day be recognised as the greatest of his policies.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE LAUNCHING OF TWO ROOSEVELT POLICIES</h3> + +<p>Although somebody has already said something like it, I would say there +is a tide in the thoughts of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to +action. We make the general claim for our Western civilisation, that, +whatever the form of government, once public opinion is thoroughly +stirred upon a great and vital issue, it is but a question of time for +the will to find the way. But in the life of the United States, the +passage from thought to action is more rapid than in any country that I +know. Nowhere do we find such a combination of emotionalism with sanity. +No better illustration of these national qualities could be desired than +that afforded by the inception and early growth of the Conservation +policy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>I have already shown how my inquiries at Washington gave me access to +the most accessible of the world's statesmen. At the same time there +came into my life another remarkable personality. To the United States +Forester of that day I owe my earliest interest in the Conservation +policy. In counsel with him I came to regard the Conservation and Rural +Life policies as one organic whole. So I must say here a word about the +man who, more than any other, has inspired whatever in these pages may +be worth printing.</p> + +<p>I first met Gifford Pinchot in his office in Washington in 1905. I was +not especially interested in forestry, but the Forester was so +interesting that I listened with increasing delight to the story of his +work. I noticed that as an administrator he had a grasp of detail and a +mastery of method which are not usually found in men who have had no +training in large business affairs. I thought the secret of his success +lay between love<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> of work and sympathy with workers, which gained him +the devotion and enthusiastic coöperation of his staff. It is, however, +as a statesman rather than as an administrator that his achievement is +and will be known.</p> + +<p>When I first knew the Forester, I found that already the conservation of +timber was but a small part of his material aims: every national +resource must be husbanded. But over the whole scheme of Conservation a +great moral issue reigned supreme. He clung affectionately to his task, +but it was not to him mere forestry administration. In his far vision he +seemed to see men as trees walking. The saving of one great asset was +broadening out into insistence upon a new test of national efficiency: +the people of the United States were to be judged by the manner in which +they applied their physical and mental energies to the conservation and +development of their country's natural resources. The acceptance of this +test would mean the success of a great policy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> for the initiation of +which President Roosevelt gave almost the whole credit to Gifford +Pinchot.</p> + +<p>There is one other name which will be ever honorably associated with the +dawn of the Conservation idea which Mr. Roosevelt elevated to the status +and dignity of a national policy. In September, 1906, Mr. James J. Hill +delivered (under the title of "The Future of the United States") what I +think was an epoch-making address. It is significant that this great +railway president opened his campaign for the economic salvation of the +United States by addressing himself, not to politicians or professors, +but to a representative body of Minnesota farmers. This address +presented for the first time in popular form a remarkable collection of +economic facts, which formed the basis of conclusions as startling as +they were new. Let me attempt a brief summary of its contents.</p> + +<p>The natural resources, to which the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>Conservation policy relates, may be +divided into two classes: the minerals, which when used cannot be +replaced, and things that grow from the soil, which admit of +indefinitely augmented reproduction. At the head of the former category +stands the supply of coal and iron. This factor in the nation's industry +and commerce was being exhausted at a rate which made it certain that, +long before the end of the century, the most important manufactures +would be handicapped by a higher cost of production. The supply of +merchantable timber was disappearing even more rapidly. But far more +serious than all other forms of wastage was the reckless destruction of +the natural fertility of the soil. The final result, according to Mr. +Hill, must be that within a comparatively brief period—a period for +which the present generation was bound to take thought—this veritable +Land of Promise would be hard pressed to feed its own people, while the +manufactured exports to pay for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>imported food would not be forthcoming. +It should be added that this sensational forecast was no purposeless +jeremiad. Mr. Hill told his hearers that the danger which threatened the +future of the Nation would be averted only by the intelligence and +industry of those who cultivated the farm lands, and that they had it in +their power to provide a perfectly practicable and adequate remedy. This +was to be found—if such a condensation be permissible—in the +application of the physical sciences to the practice, and of economic +science to the business, of farming.</p> + +<p>In spite of the immense burden of great undertakings which he carried, +Mr. Hill repeated the substance of this address on many occasions. Lord +Rosebery once said that speeches were the most ephemeral of all +ephemeral things, and for some time it looked as if one of the most +important speeches ever delivered by a public man on a great public +issue was going to illustrate the truth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> of this saying. It seems +strange that his facts and arguments should have remained unchallenged, +and yet unsupported, by other public men. Perhaps the best explanation +is to be found in a recent dictum of Mr. James Bryce. Speaking at the +University of California, the British Ambassador said: "We can all think +of the present, and are only too apt to think chiefly about the present. +The average man, be he educated or uneducated, seldom thinks of anything +else." There are, however, special circumstances in the history of the +United States which account for the extraordinary unconcern about what +is going to happen to the race in a period which may seem long to those +whose personal interest fixes a limit to their gaze, but which is indeed +short in the life of a nation. After the religious, political, and +military struggles through which the American nation was brought to +birth, there followed a century of no less strenuous wrestling with the +forces of nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> That century stands divided by the greatest civil +conflict in the world's history; but this only served to strengthen in a +united people those indomitable qualities to which the nation owes its +leadership in the advancement of civilisation. The abundance (until now +considered as virtual inexhaustibility) of natural resources, the call +for capital and men for their development, the rich reward of conquest +in the field of industry, may explain, but can hardly excuse, a National +attitude which seems to go against the strongest human instinct—one not +altogether wanting in lower animal life—that of the preservation of the +race. It is an attitude which recalls the question said to have been +asked by an Irishman: "What has posterity done for me?" But this was +before Conservation was in the air.</p> + +<p>I have now told what I came by chance to know about the origin of the +Conservation idea. The story of its early growth was no less remarkable +than the suddenness of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> appearance. In the spring of 1908 matters +had advanced so far that the governors of all the States and Territories +met to discuss it. Before the Conference broke up they were moved to +"declare the conviction that the great prosperity of our country rests +upon the abundant resources of the land chosen by our forefathers for +their homes," that these resources are "a heritage to be made use of in +establishing and promoting the comfort, prosperity, and happiness of the +American people, but not to be wasted, deteriorated, or needlessly +destroyed; that this material basis is threatened with exhaustion"; that +"conservation of our natural resources is a subject of transcendent +importance which should engage unremittingly the attention of the +Nation, the States, and the people in earnest coöperation"; and that +"this coöperation should find expression in suitable action by the +Congress and by the legislatures of the several States."</p> + +<p>It is, of course, not with Conservation, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> with Rural Life, that we +are here directly concerned; but it should be borne in mind that the +chief of all the nation's resources is the fertility of the soil. More +than one competent authority declared at the Conference of Governors +that this national asset was the subject of the greatest actual waste, +and was at the same time capable of the greatest development and +conservation. This interdependence of the two Roosevelt policies—the +fact that neither of them can come to fruition without the success of +the other—makes those of us who work for rural progress rest our chief +hopes upon the newly aroused public opinion in the American Republic.</p> + +<p>To my knowledge this view is shared by President Roosevelt, who always +regarded his Conservation and Rural Life policies as complementary to +each other. The last time I saw him—it was on Christmas Eve, 1908—he +dwelt on this aspect of his public work and aims. I remember how he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>expressed the hope that, when the more striking incidents of his +Administration were forgotten, public opinion would look kindly upon his +Conservation and Rural Life policies. I ventured upon the confident +prediction that he would not be disappointed in this anticipation. +Already the authors of the Conservation policy have been rewarded by a +general acceptance of the principle for which they stand. The national +conscience now demands that the present generation, while enjoying the +material blessings with which not only nature but also the labour and +sacrifices of their forefathers have so bounteously endowed them, shall +have due regard for the welfare of those who are to come after them.</p> + +<p>Americans, who are accustomed to rapid developments in public opinion, +will hardly appreciate the impression made by the story I have just told +upon the mind of an observer from old countries, where action does not +tread upon the heels of thought. But surely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> an amazing thing has +happened. In the life of one Administration a great idea seizes the mind +of the American people. This leads to a stock-taking of natural +resources and a searching of the national conscience. Then, suddenly, +there emerges a quite new national policy. Conceived during the last +Administration, when it brought Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan on to the +same platform, Conservation at once rose above party, and will be the +accepted policy of all future Administrations. It has already secured +almost Pan-American endorsement at its birthplace in Washington. The +fathers of Conservation are now looking forward to a still larger sphere +of influence for their offspring at an International Conference which it +is hoped to assemble at the Hague.</p> + +<p>But it must be admitted that no such reception was accorded to Mr. +Roosevelt's other policy, to which our attention must now be turned. The +reasons for the comparative lack of interest in the problem of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> Rural +Life are many and complex, but two of them may be noted in passing. +Conservation calls for legislative and administrative action, and this +always sets up a ferment in the political mind. The Rural Life idea, on +the other hand, though it will demand some governmental assistance, must +rely mainly upon voluntary effort. The methods necessary for its +development, and their probable results, are also less obvious, and thus +less easily appreciated by the public. Whatever the reason, while +Conservation has rushed into the forefront of public interest and has +won the status and dignity of a policy, the sister idea is still +struggling for a platform, and its advocates must be content to see +their efforts towards a higher and a better country life regarded as a +movement.</p> + +<p>This estimate of the relative positions of these two ideas in the public +mind will, I think, be borne out when we contrast the quiet initiation +of the movement with the dramatic début of the policy. For all the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>officialism with which it was launched, President Roosevelt's Country +Life Commission might as well have been appointed by some wealthy +philanthropist who would, at least, have paid its members' travelling +expenses,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and private initiation might also have spared us the +ridicule which greeted the alleged proposal to "uplift" a body of +citizens who were told that they were already adorning the heights of +American civilisation. The names of the men who volunteered for this +unpaid service should have been a sufficient guarantee that theirs was +no fool's errand.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>How real was the problem the commissioners were investigating was +abundantly proved to those who were present when they got into touch +with working farmers and their wives, and discussed freely and +informally the conditions, human and material, to which the problem of +Rural Life relates. I shall refer again to their report. But I may here +say I am firmly convinced that a complete change in the whole attitude +of public opinion towards the old question of town and country must +precede any large practical outcome to the labours of the Commission. It +has to be brought home to those who lead public opinion that for many +decades we, the English-speaking peoples, have been unconsciously guilty +of having gravely neglected one side, and that perhaps the most +important side, of Western civilisation.</p> + +<p>To sustain this judgment I must now view the sequence of events which +led to the subordination of rural to urban interests, and try to +estimate its probable consequences. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> will be seen that the neglect is +comparatively recent, and of English origin. I believe that the New +World offers just now a rare opportunity for launching a movement which +will be directed to a reconstruction of rural life. It is this belief +which has prompted an Irish advocate of rural reform to turn his +thoughts away for a brief space from the poorer peasantry of his own +country and to take counsel with his fellow-workers in the United States +and Canada on a problem which affects them all.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> These, as a matter of fact, were defrayed by the trustees +of the Russell Sage Foundation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Commission consisted of L. H. Bailey, of the New York +State College of Agriculture at Cornell University (chairman); Henry +Wallace, editor of <i>Wallace's Farmer</i>, Des Moines, Iowa; Kenyon L. +Butterfield, President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, +Amherst, Massachusetts; Walter H. Page, editor of <i>The World's Work</i>, +New York City; Gifford Pinchot, United States Forester, and Chairman of +the National Conservation Commission; C. S. Barrett, President of the +Farmers' Co-operative and Educational Union of America, Union City, +Georgia; W. A. Beard, of the <i>Great West Magazine</i>, Sacramento, +California.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF RURAL NEGLECT</h3> + +<p>The most radical economic change which history records set in during the +last half of the eighteenth century in England, as the result of that +remarkable achievement of modern civilisation, the Industrial +Revolution. Mechanical inventions changed all industry, setting up the +factories of the town instead of the scattered home production of the +country and its villages. In the wake of the new inventions economic +science stepped in, and, scrupulously obeying its own law of demand and +supply, told the then predominant middle classes just what they wished +to be told. Adam Smith had made the wonderful discovery that money and +wealth were not the same thing. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> Ricardo, and after him the +Manchester School of economists, made division of labour the cardinal +virtue in the new gospel of wealth. In order to give full play to this +economic principle all workers in mechanical industries were huddled +together in the towns. There they were to be transformed from +capricious, undisciplined humans into mechanical attachments, and +restricted to such functions as steam-driven automata had not yet +learned to perform. That was the first stage of the Industrial +Revolution, with its chief consequences, the rural exodus and urban +overcrowding. It is a hideous nightmare to look back upon from these +more enlightened days. Well might the angels weep over the flight of all +that was best from the God-made country to the man-made town.</p> + +<p>Before the middle of the last century the clouds began to lift. For a +while the good Lord Shaftesbury seemed to be crying in the wilderness of +middle-class plutocracy, but it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> was not long before the crying of the +children in their factories stirred the national conscience. The health +of nations was allowed to be considered as well as their wealth. Social +and political science rose up in protest against both the economists and +the manufacturers. There followed a period of beneficent social changes, +no less radical than those which the new mechanical inventions had +produced in the economics of industry. The factory town of to-day +presents a strange contrast to that which sacrificed humanity to +material aggrandisement. What with its shortened hours of labour, +superior artisan dwellings, improved sanitation, parks, open spaces and +playgrounds, free instruction and cheap entertainment for old and young, +hospitals and charities, rapid transportation, a popular Press, and full +political freedom, the modern hive of industry stands as a monument of +what, under liberal laws, can be done by education and organisation to +realise the higher aspirations of a people.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>During this second period, another economic development produced upon +the attitude of the urban mind towards the rural population an effect to +which, I think, has not been given the consideration it deserves. Better +and cheaper transportation, with the consequent establishment of what +the economists call the world-market, completely changed the +relationship between the townsman and the farmer. A sketch of their +former mutual relations will make my meaning clear. Within the last +century every town relied largely for its food supply on the produce of +the fields around its walls. The countrymen coming into the weekly +market were the chief customers for the wares of the town craftsmen. In +this primitive state of trade, townsmen could not but realise the +importance to themselves of a prosperous country population around them. +But this simple exchange, as we all know, has developed into the complex +commercial operations of modern times.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> To-day most large towns derive +their household stuff from the food-growing tracts of the whole world, +and I doubt whether any are dependent on the neighbouring farmers, or +feel themselves specially concerned for their welfare. I do not think +the general truth of this picture will be questioned, and I hope some +consideration may be given to the conclusions I now draw.</p> + +<p>In the transition we are considering, the reciprocity between the +producers of food and the raw material of clothes on the one hand, and +manufacturers and general traders of the towns on the other, has not +ceased; it has actually increased since the days of steam and +electricity. But it has become national, and even international, rather +than local. Town consumers are still dependent upon agricultural +producers, who, in turn, are much larger consumers than formerly of all +kinds of commodities made in towns. Forty-two per cent of materials used +in manufacture in the United States are from the farm,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> which also +contributes seventy per cent of the country's exports. But in the +complexity of these trade developments townsmen have been cut off more +and more from personal contact with the country, and in this way have +lost their sense of its importance. My point is that the shifting of the +trade relationship of town and country from its former local to its +present national and international basis in reality increases their +interdependence. And I hold most strongly that until in this matter the +obligations of a common citizenship are realised by the town, we cannot +hope for any lasting National progress.</p> + +<p>Whatever be the causes which have begotten the neglect of rural life, no +one will gainsay the wisdom of estimating the consequences. These are +economic, social, and political; and I will discuss them briefly under +these heads. There are three main economic reasons which suggest a +closer study of rural conditions. First, there is the interdependence of +town and country, less obvious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> than it was in the days of the local +market, but no less real. Any fall in the number, or decline in the +efficiency, of the farming community, will be accompanied by a +corresponding fall in the country sale of town products. This is +especially true of America, where the foreign commerce is unimportant in +comparison with internal trade. To nourish country life is the best way +to help home trade. And quite as important as these considerations is +the effect which good or bad farming must have upon the cost of living +to the whole population. Excessive middle profits between producer and +consumer may largely account for the very serious rise in the price of +staple articles of food. This is a fact of the utmost significance, but, +as I shall show later, the remedy for too high a cost of production and +distribution lies with the farmer, the improvement of whose business +methods will be seen to be the chief factor in the reform which the +Rural Life movement must attempt to introduce.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p><p>The essential dependence of nations on agriculture is the second +economic consideration. The author of "The Return to the Land," Senator +Jules Méline (successively Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Commerce +and Premier of France), tells us that this remarkable book is "merely an +expansion of a profound thought uttered long ago by a Chinese +philosopher: 'The well-being of a people is like a tree; agriculture is +its root, manufacture and commerce are its branches and its life; if the +root is injured the leaves fall, the branches break away and the tree +dies.'"</p> + +<p>This truth is not hard to apply to the conditions of to-day. The income +of every country depends on its natural resources, and on the skill and +energy of its inhabitants; and the quickest way to increase the income +is to concentrate on the production of those articles for which there is +the greatest demand throughout the commercial world. The relentless +application of this principle has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> characteristic of the nineteenth +century. But the augmentation of income has in one special way been +purchased by a diminution of capital. The industrial movement has been +based on an immense expenditure of coal and iron; and in America and +Great Britain the coal and iron which can be cheaply obtained are within +measurable distance of exhaustion. As these supplies diminish, the +industrial leadership of America and Great Britain must disappear, +unless they can employ their activities in other forms of industry. +Those, therefore, who desire that the English-speaking countries should +maintain for many ages that high position which they now occupy, should +do all in their power to encourage a proper system of agriculture—the +one industry in which the fullest use can be made of natural resources +without diminishing the inheritance of future generations—the industry +"about which," Mr. James J. Hill emphatically declares, "all others +revolve, and by which future America shall stand or fall."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p><p>The third economic reason will hardly be disputed. Agricultural +prosperity is an important factor in financial stability. The +fluctuations of commerce depend largely on the good and bad harvests of +the world, but, as they do not coincide with them in time, their +violence is, on the whole, likely to be less in a nation where +agricultural and manufacturing interests balance each other, than in one +depending mainly or entirely on either. The small savings of numerous +farmers, amounting in the aggregate to very large sums, are a powerful +means of steadying the money market; they are not liable to the +vicissitudes nor attracted by the temptations which affect the larger +investors. They remain a permanent national resource, which, as the +experience of France proves, may be confidently drawn upon in time of +need. I have often thought that, were it not for the thrift and industry +of the French peasantry, financial crises would be as frequent in France +as political upheavals.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>As regards the social aspect of rural neglect, I suggest that the city +may be more seriously concerned than is generally imagined for the +well-being of the country. One cannot but admire the civic pride with +which Americans contemplate their great centres of industry and +commerce, where, owing to the many and varied improvements, the townsman +of the future is expected to unite the physical health and longevity of +the Bœotian with the mental superiority of the Athenian. But we may +ask whether this somewhat optimistic forecast does not ignore one +important question. Has it been sufficiently considered how far the +moral and physical health of the modern city depends upon the constant +influx of fresh blood from the country, which has ever been the source +from which the town draws its best citizenship? You cannot keep on +indefinitely skimming the pan and have equally good milk left. In +America the drain may continue a while longer without the inevitable +consequences<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> becoming plainly visible. But sooner or later, if the +balance of trade in this human traffic be not adjusted, the raw material +out of which urban society is made will be seriously deteriorated, and +the symptoms of National degeneracy will be properly charged against +those who neglected to foresee the evil and treat the cause. It is +enough for my present purpose if it be admitted that the people of every +state are largely bred in rural districts, and that the physical and +moral well-being of these districts must eventually influence the +quality of the whole people.</p> + +<p>I come now to the political considerations which, I think, have not been +sufficiently taken into account. In most countries political life +depends largely for its steadiness and sanity upon a strong infusion of +rural opinion into the counsels of the nation. It is a truism that +democracy requires for success a higher level of intelligence and +character in the mass of the people than other forms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> of government. But +intelligence alone is not enough for the citizen of a democracy; he must +have experience as well, and the experience of a townsman is essentially +imperfect. He has generally a wider theoretical knowledge than the +rustic of the main processes by which the community lives; but the +rustic's practical knowledge of the more fundamental of them is wider +than the townsman's. He knows actually and in detail how corn is grown +and how beasts are bred, whereas the town artisan hardly knows how the +whole of any one article of commerce is made. The townsman sees and +takes part in the wonderful achievements of industrial science without +any full understanding of its methods or of the relative importance and +the interaction of the forces engaged. To this one-sided experience may +be attributed in some measure that disregard of inconvenient facts, and +that impatience of the limits of practicability, which many observers +note as a characteristic defect of popular government.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>However that may be, there is one symptom in modern politics of which +the gravity is generally acknowledged, while its special connection with +the towns is an easily ascertainable fact; I mean the growth of the +cruder forms of Socialism. The town artisan or labourer, who sees +displayed before him vast masses of property in which he has no share, +and contrasts the smallness of his remuneration with the immense results +of his labour, is easily attracted to remedies worse than the disease. A +fuller and more exact understanding of the means by which the wealth of +the community is created is, for the townsman, the best antidote to +mischievous agitation so far as it is not merely the result of poverty. +But the countryman, especially the proprietor of a piece of land, +however small, is protected from this infection. The atmosphere in which +Socialism of the predatory kind can grow up does not exist among a +prosperous farming community—perhaps because in the country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the +question of the divorce of the worker from his raw material by +capitalism does not arise. The farm furnishes the raw material of the +farmer; yet he cannot be said to spend his life creating the alleged +"surplus value" of Marxian doctrine. For these reasons I suggest that +the orderly and safe progress of democracy demands a strong agricultural +population. It is as true now as when Aristotle said it that "where +husbandmen and men of small fortune predominate government will be +guided by law."</p> + +<p>I have now shown that for every reason the interests of the rural +population ought no longer to be subordinated to those of the city. That +such has been the tendency in English-speaking countries will hardly be +questioned. In Great Britain the rural exodus has gone on with a +vengeance. The last census (1901) showed that seventy-seven per cent of +the population was urban, and only twenty-three per cent rural. A few +years ago there were derelict farms within easy walk of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> the outskirts +of London. In Ireland the rural exodus took the form of emigration, +mainly to American cities, and this has been the chief factor in the +reduction of the population in sixty years from more than eight millions +to a trifle above four. But it may be thought that in the United States +no similar tendency is in operation. Certainly those who admit the +townward drift of country life may fairly say that it does not present +so urgent a problem in the New World as in parts of the Old. Even +granting that this is so, the fact remains that the town population of +America is seriously outgrowing the rural population; for, while the +towns are growing hugely, the country stands still. Moreover, we must +not forget that, Australia apart, America is even still the most +underpopulated part of the globe. We are accustomed to think Ireland +underpopulated, owing to emigration, yet even to-day the scale of +population is almost six times greater than that of the United States. +If the Union<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> were peopled as thickly as Ireland even still is, the +population would be nearly five hundred millions. There is still a vast +deal of filling-up to be done in America, mostly in the rural parts.</p> + +<p>But the main consideration I wish to emphasise throughout is that the +problem under review is moral and social far more than economic, human +rather than material. This is the natural view of an Irish worker, who +knows that the solution of <i>his</i> problem depends upon the possibility of +endowing country life with such social improvements as will provide an +effective compensation for a necessarily modest standard of comfort. But +the citizens of the United States may be pardoned for being physiocrats. +The statistical proof, annually furnished, of the growing agricultural +wealth, is apt to obscure other essentials of progress. The astronomical +proportions of the figures stagger the imagination, and engender the +kind of pride a man feels when he is first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> told the number of red +corpuscles luxuriating in his blood. How can there be agricultural +depression in a country whose farm lands Secretary Wilson, in his +notable Annual Report for 1905, declared to have increased in value over +a period of five years at the astounding rate of $3,400,000 per day? Yet +to the deeper insight, the same moral influence through which we in +Ireland are seeking to combat the evils of material poverty may in the +United States be needed as a moral corrective to a too rapidly growing +material prosperity. The patriotic American, who thinks of the life of +the Nation rather than of the individual, will, if he looks beneath the +surface, discern in this God-prospered country symptoms of rural +decadence fraught with danger to National efficiency.</p> + +<p>The reckless sacrifice of agricultural interests by the legislators of +the towns is condemned by the verdict of history. We need not now fear +that invading hordes of hardy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> barbarians will mar the destiny of the +great Western Republic, as they ended the career of the Roman Empire. +There are, however, other clouds upon the horizon. Only a few years ago, +the American people could well treat with contempt the bogy of the +Yellow Peril. With a transformation unprecedented in history, the +situation has been changed. Japan is already devoting to the arts of +peace qualities but yesterday displayed in war, to the amazement of the +Western world. In another Eastern empire there are vast +resources—especially coal and iron in juxtaposition—awaiting only +industrial leadership to utilise a practically limitless labour supply +for their development. These are facts worthy of consideration for their +potential bearing upon the industrial and commercial standing of the +United States.</p> + +<p>To the onlooker, it does seem a happy circumstance that there has just +been, for seven critical years, at the head of American<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> affairs the +strenuous advocate of the strenuous life. I read through his Messages +the warning that in the struggle for preëminence the ultimate victory +will lie with those nations who found their prosperity on the high +physical and ethical condition of the people. That is the oldest, as it +is the latest, wisdom of the East. It is in this spirit that the +neglected problem of Rural Life should now be given some share of the +attention hitherto devoted to the life of the towns.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE INNER LIFE OF THE AMERICAN FARMER</h3> + +<p>I recently asked a German economist if he could tell me the best books +to read upon the problem of rural life in Germany. His reply was: "There +are no books, because there is no problem." It is generally true, no +doubt, that the Rural Life problem, in so far as it consists in the +subordination of the country to the town, is peculiar to the +English-speaking countries, where it seems to be mainly attributable to +three causes. The chief of these was no doubt the Industrial Revolution +in England, of which enough has already been said. Secondly, in the +United States and in some portions of the British Empire, the opening up +of vast tracts of virgin soil led not unnaturally to the postponement of +social development until the pioneer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> farmers had settled down to the +new life. The third cause was immunity from the danger of foreign +invasion, which eliminated the military reasons for maintaining a +numerous, virile, and progressive rural population.</p> + +<p>There are many in England who regret that it should have been forgotten +how the English owed their commercial supremacy to the fighting +qualities of the old yeoman class. In the United States it should be +remembered that nowadays peace strength is quite as important as war +strength, and it may be questioned whether there can be any sustained +industrial efficiency where the great body of workers who conduct the +chief—the only absolutely necessary—industry are wasting the resources +at their command by bad husbandry. We may, however, concede that the +neglect of rural life is much easier to explain and excuse in the United +States than in the older English-speaking countries. Quite apart from +the abundance of agricultural resources which the American farmers +enjoy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> it might well be thought that the rural communities are keeping +pace with the progress of urban civilisation. The citizens who now +occupy the farm lands of the United States have been largely drawn from +the pick of the European peasantries. In the days of their coming, it +took courage and enterprise to face the now almost forgotten terrors of +the Atlantic Ocean. These immigrants, and the migrants from the Eastern +States, have profited enormously by their change of residence. Their +material well-being has already been admitted, and, with rare +exceptions, they have displayed no overt symptoms of agrarian +discontent.</p> + +<p>It must not, however, be imagined that the apparent apathy of American +farmers is due to contentment. Like others of their calling, they keep a +full stock of grievances in their mental stores. They have very definite +opinions as to what is wrong, but to these opinions no formal expression +is given. They vaguely feel that they would like to remould<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> "the sorry +scheme of things entire," but they lack the public spirit which is +required before concerted action can be taken successfully. The Country +Life Commission held a series of conferences throughout the United +States, which brought them into the closest touch with every type of +American farm life. They received written replies from some 125,000 +rural folk to whom they had sent a circular with a dozen questions +covering the essential heads of inquiry. The Commissioners say in their +report: "We have found by the testimony, not only of the farmers +themselves, but of all persons in touch with farm life, more or less +serious unrest in every part of the United States, even in the most +prosperous regions."</p> + +<p>The truth is that, while judged by the standard of living of European +peasantries, the farmers of the United States are prosperous, in +comparison with the other citizens of the most progressive country in +the world they are not well-off. Their accumulation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> of material wealth +is unnaturally and unnecessarily restricted; their social life is +barren; their political influence is relatively small. American farmers +have been used by politicians, but have still to learn how to use them. +This may be due to the fact that my countrymen elected to devote their +genius for organisation to the problems of city government. And in the +sphere of private action they are, as will be seen when I discuss the +need for a reorganisation of their business, even less effective than in +public affairs.</p> + +<p>It will be conceded that any hopeful plan to put things right will have +to rely upon the organised efforts of those immediately concerned. Both +in the sphere of governmental action, and in the vastly more important +field of voluntary effort, the moving force will have to be public +opinion. But the thought of the farming communities has long ago joined +the rural exodus; and before the country life idea can find expression +in an effective country life movement, those who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> are thinking out the +problem will have to commend their arguments to the thought of the +towns. Therefore I address these pages, not to farmers only, but to the +general reader—who, I may observe, does not generally read if he +happens to live in the open country.</p> + +<p>In the course of my own studies of American rural life I have found it +convenient to divide the United States into four sections, each of them +more or less homogeneous. As this method of treatment may help my +readers, I will give them a look at my map of American rural life. The +four sections may be called the North Eastern, the Middle Western, the +Southern, and the Far Western. The division has no pretensions to be +scientific; the boundaries can be adjusted to fit in with the experience +of each reader.</p> + +<p>In my North Eastern section I include the New England States, New York, +New Jersey, and most of Pennsylvania. This is a section where +manufacturing communities have long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> been established, where migration +from country to town has been most marked, and where the competition of +the newly settled Western farm lands has been followed by effects upon +agricultural society very similar to those produced by the same causes +in many a rural community on the Continent of Europe. Second comes the +Middle Western section, consisting mainly of the Mississippi Valley, +with its vast area of high average fertility, the greatest +food-producing tract on the continent. Third, I place the Southern +section, where the governing factors in rural economy are the climate, +the numerical strength of the colored population, the two staple +industrial crops—cotton and tobacco—the comparatively recent abolition +of slavery, and the long-drawn-out effects of the Civil War. My fourth +division, the Far Western section, includes the ranching lands of the +arid belt with their irrigation oases, and the fruit-growing and farming +lands of the Pacific Coast.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p><p>As we are discussing the problem chiefly in its human aspect, which +affects alike communities wealthy and impoverished, large and small, +old-settled and newly established, it will not matter essentially where +we first direct our attention for the purpose of illustration. But if, +as I hold, nothing less than a reconstruction of rural civilisation is +called for, our inquiries will be more profitably directed to those +sections where agricultural society is permanently established, or where +the rural population might abandon the migratory habit if the conditions +were more favorable to an advanced civilisation. At the present stage I +feel that the whole subject can be most profitably discussed in its +application to the Middle Western and the Southern sections. Here the +intimate relationship of the Conservation and the Country Life ideas is +best illustrated. Here, too, we get into touch with the problem at its +two extremes of prosperity and poverty, each in its own way retarding +the progress of rural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> civilisation. In both sections the conditions are +typical, and distinctively American.</p> + +<p>Let us then consider first the general course of rural civilisation in +the great food-producing tract of the Middle West. I have in my mind the +portion I know best, the last-settled part of the corn belt. Thirty +years ago I saw something of the newcomers who settled in this section, +where there was still much raw land. These settlers, knowing that the +land must rise rapidly in value, almost invariably purchased much larger +farms than they could handle. They often sank their available working +capital in making the first payments for their land, and went heavily +into debt for the balance. They became "land poor," and, in order to +meet the instalments of purchase and the high interest on their +mortgages, they invented a system of farming unprecedented in its +wastefulness. The farm was treated as a mine, or, to use Mr. James J. +Hill's metaphor, as a bank where the depositors are always taking out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +more than they put in. A corn crop, year after year, without rotation or +fertilisers, satisfied the new conception of husbandry—the easiest and +least costly extraction of the wealth in the soil. Land, labour, +capital, and ability I had been taught to regard as the essentials of +production; but here capital was reduced to the minimum, and ability +left to nature. Many of the young men who took Horace Greeley's advice +and went West knew nothing about farming. I remember writing home that I +was in a country where the rolling stone gathered most moss. Possibly +the method adopted was the quickest way to get rich; living on capital +is all right provided somebody will replace the squandered resources. +While there were ample unoccupied lands, Uncle Sam looked kindly upon +these enterprising pioneers. It was only in the second Roosevelt +Administration that it dawned upon the national conscience that the +nation had some claim to be considered as well as the individual. Of +course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> all this is changed now; although I am not sure that western +Canada is not being educated in soil exhaustion by some of these +extemporised husbandmen whose habits and temperament lead them to seek +"fresh fields and pastures new." "We are not out here for our health," +was the reply I got when I showed that my old-fashioned economic sense +was shocked by this substitution of land speculation for farming.</p> + +<p>I am aware that this very uneconomic procedure is capable of some +plausible explanations. The opening up of the vast new territory by the +provision of local traffic for transcontinental lines was an object of +national urgency and importance. Nevertheless, I think it must now be +regretted that a little more thought was not given to the general +problem of rural economy, of which transit is but one factor. This may +be that irritating kind of wisdom which comes after the event, but I +cannot help regarding the policy of rewarding railroad enterprises<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> with +unconditional grants of vast areas of agricultural land as one of the +many evidences of the urban domination over rural affairs.</p> + +<p>Of the earlier settled portions of this section I cannot speak from +personal knowledge. But a recent magazine article,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> "The Agrarian +Revolution in the Middle West," follows closely the line of my own +thoughts. In this article Mr. Joseph B. Ross, of Lafayette, Indiana, who +is making a special study of the evolution of American rural life, +considers it in three periods: from 1800 to 1835, from 1835 to 1890, and +from 1890 to the present time. In the middle period he shows how the +most progressive families raised their standard of living steadily with +the growing prosperity of the country. They built themselves stately +homes with substantial barns. The farmer was developing into a citizen +with the solid virtues, the virile independence, the strong political +opinions, religious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>interest, and social instincts which characterised +the English yeoman of the preceding century. The social life which these +communities built up, as soon as their economic position was assured, +was a reflection of the best English traditions—it centred round the +churches and the Sunday-school. There was a growing distribution of +literature as well as organisation for intellectual, educational and +social purposes. Mr. Ross notes the winter excursions to Florida and +California, the adornment of the homes, and many other evidences of a +social progress developing a character of its own. During this period +there was a migration from the country homes to the cities; but it was +only the natural outflow of the surplus members of the rural families +into the professional and business life of the growing centres of +commerce and industry.</p> + +<p>In the period through which we are now passing a transformation is +taking place. The rural exodus is no longer that of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>individuals, but of +whole families. The farms thus vacated are let to tenants, generally on +a three years' lease, at a competition rent. The Country Life Commission +says that this tendency to move to the cities "is not peculiar to any +region. In difficult farming regions, and where the competition with +other farming sections is most severe, the young people may go to town +to better their condition. In the best regions the older people retire +to town because it is socially more attractive, and they see a prospect +of living in comparative ease and comfort on the rental of their lands. +Nearly everywhere there is a townward movement for the purpose of +securing school advantages for the children. All this tends to sterilize +the open country and to lower its social status." The Commission points +out that the new addition of what is likely to be a stationary element, +whose economic interests lie elsewhere, to the citizenship of the town, +may create there a new social problem, while the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> tenant in the country +will not have that interest in building up rural society which might be +expected in the owners of land. Mr. Ross's studies lead him very +definitely to the same conclusion. Churches and educational +institutions, he tells us, are being starved, and rural society is fast +reverting to the type which was prevalent from thirty to fifty years +ago. But there is one great difference between then and now. Then, rural +civilisation was passing through a stage of marked social advancement +which was common throughout the country; now, there are distinct +indications of social degeneration, which Mr. Ross regards as the +inevitable consequence of the new landlord and tenant system. Many +members of these communities must have left the Old World to escape from +the selfsame conditions which they are reproducing in the New.</p> + +<p>Rural society in the Middle West, as it presents itself to the observer +whose authority I have cited, is obviously in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>transitional stage. The +lack of farm labourers, which is the common subject of complaint by +farmers in all parts of the United States, cannot fail to be aggravated +by the change in the conditions of tenancy just noted. The man whose +chief concern is to get the most out of the land, at the least expense, +in two or three years, will not treat his labourers so well—nor the +land so well—as will the man who means to spend his life on the farm; +and therefore the labourers will not stay. This scarcity of labour may +be met to some extent by an increased use of machinery; but it is more +likely to lead to poorer cultivation, which means the depopulation of +agricultural districts. England and Ireland furnish too many examples of +the rural decay immortalised in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." It would +be strange and sad if the experience were to be repeated on the richest +soil of America.</p> + +<p>In the Southern section we find a wastefulness similar to that in the +corn belt, but due<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> to wholly different causes. The communities are +old-settled, but in many instances they are still abnormally depressed +by the terrible effects of the great war, followed by a period of social +and economic stagnation. Here there was little but agriculture for the +people to rely upon, and their methods have, until recent years, been +very backward. The growing of the same crops year after year upon the +same fields, the neglect of precaution against the washing away of the +soil surface, and the failure to use fertilisers, have made the profits +of tillage disappointingly small. Billions of dollars have been lost by +these communities through persistent soil exhaustion and erosion. In the +last few years the Federal Department of Agriculture has maintained a +most efficient staff of agricultural experts under the direction of Dr. +Knapp, one of the ablest organisers of farm improvement I have ever met. +The General Education Board, who administer large sums provided by Mr. +Rockefeller, recognising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> the educational value of Dr. Knapp's +operations, are contributing about one hundred thousand dollars a year +to his work. Dr. Knapp and his field agents have no difficulty at all in +demonstrating that the yield may be doubled, and the cost of production +greatly reduced, merely by the application of the most elementary +science to agriculture. I heard him tell of a farmer whom he had induced +to allow his boy—still attending school—to cultivate one acre under +his instructions. In the result the boy quadrupled the number of bushels +of corn to the acre that his father, following the traditional methods, +was able to raise. It would be easy to multiply such instances of +thriftlessness and neglected opportunity, of poverty within easy reach +of abundance, which have brought it about that the future of the nation +is actually endangered by the failure of the food supply to keep pace +with the increase of its still relatively sparse population.</p> + +<p>The Southern section furnishes two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>illustrations of long-standing +neglect, both well worthy of consideration for their pregnant +suggestiveness. The Federal Department of Agriculture recently scored a +notable success in dealing with an insect pest which was threatening the +cotton-growing industry with economic ruin. The boll-weevil, like the +legal and medical professions, thrives upon the follies of humanity. It +attacks the cotton plants which have been weakened by bad husbandry. The +scientists did not succeed in finding in the commonwealth of bugs the +natural enemy of the pest they were after, but Dr. Knapp, with the +wisdom which prefers prevention to cure, seized the opportunity of +teaching cotton-growers to diversify their cultivation. The consequence +was that the cotton crop itself is gradually responding to the +treatment. Many other crops are adding their quota to the produce of the +Southern farms, and an all-round improvement, moral as well as material, +is accompanying the educational discipline<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> through which this reformer +is putting the communities with whom and for whom he is working.</p> + +<p>There is another pest in the South which does not attack the farm crops, +but goes straight for the farmer. If the Country Life Commission had +done nothing more, they would have justified their appointment by the +attention they called to the ravages of the hookworm, which have, no one +knows how long, scourged the poor white communities in the Southern +States. The effect of the disease set up by the hookworm, which infests +the intestines, is a complete sapping of all energy, mental and +physical. Mr. Rockefeller has provided a million dollars for the +necessary research work and for such subsequent organisation of sanitary +effort as may be required to extirpate this unquestionably preventable +evil. I wonder how long such a state of affairs would have been +permitted to interfere with the health and to paralyse the industry of +urban <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>communities. Had the hookworm, instead of lurking in country +lanes, walked the streets, how would it have fared?</p> + +<p>These two pests furnish a fine illustration of the length to which the +neglect of rural life has been allowed to go in the Southern States.</p> + +<p>Neither the Eastern nor the Far Western section presents aspects of +special interest to the foreign student of the Rural problem in the +United States, but in both the constructive statesman and the social +worker will find a rich field for their efforts. In the New England +States—more especially in the manufacturing districts—the competition +between town and country for labour is as marked as in Industrial +England. In this section, however, the lure of the city has a rival in +the call of the West, which still makes its appeal to the farmer's boy. +Secretary Wilson has recently given it as his opinion that land-seekers +who pass by the farms now offered for sale in the western portions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> of +New York State often go further and fare worse. In these relatively +low-priced lands, it ought not to be difficult for agricultural +communities to establish permanently a rural society worthy of American +ideas of progress. But to do this is to solve the problem we are +discussing. We have some other aspects of that problem to consider +before we can agree upon the essentials of a philosophic and +comprehensive scheme for the rehabilitation of rural life—before we can +lay down the lines of a movement to give effect to our plan.</p> + +<p>The Far Western section has hardly yet emerged from the frontier-pioneer +stage, and its rural problem is still below the horizon. I may, however, +note in passing a few evidences that the people of this section have +already shown a very real concern for rural progress. The fruit-growers +of the Pacific Coast have, in the coöperative marketing of their +produce, made an excellent beginning in a matter of first importance in +any scheme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> of rural development. On irrigation farm lands there has +been developed, in connection with the upkeep and control of the water +systems, a community spirit which will surely lead to many forms of +organisation for mutual economic and social advantage. In the city of +Spokane, Washington, the Chamber of Commerce has aroused a public +interest in the work of the Country Life Commission which, so far as my +information goes, has not been equalled elsewhere in the United States. +The Chamber is republishing the Report of the Commission, for which no +Federal appropriation appears to have been made. It would seem to be a +not wild speculation that the statesmen and social workers who will +first solve the rural problem of the English-speaking peoples may be +found in the Far West of the New World as well as of the Old.</p> + +<p>I must now conclude the diagnosis of rural decadence by a consideration +of what in my judgment is the chief cause of the malady,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> and so get to +a point where we can determine the nature of the remedy. It will then +remain only to sketch the outlines of the movement which is to give +practical effect to the agreed principles in the life of rural communities.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>North American Review</i>, September, 1909.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE WEAK SPOT IN AMERICAN RURAL ECONOMY</h3> + +<p>The evidence of competent American witnesses proves that there is, in +the United States, notwithstanding its immense agricultural wealth, a +Rural Life problem. Here, as elsewhere, on a fuller analysis, the utmost +variety of race, soil, climate and market facilities serve but to +emphasise the importance of the human factor. But this consideration +does not lessen the need for a sternly practical treatment of the rural +social economy under review. In this chapter, I propose to go right down +to the roots of the rural problem, find what is wrong with the industry +by which the country people live, and see how it can be righted. We +should then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> have clearly in our minds the essentials of prosperity in a +rural community.</p> + +<p>Agriculture, the basis of a rural existence, must be regarded as a +science, as a business and as a life. I have already adverted to +President Roosevelt's formula for solving the rural problem—"better +farming, better business, better living." Better farming simply means +the application of modern science to the practice of agriculture. Better +business is the no less necessary application of modern commercial +methods to the business side of the farming industry. Better living is +the building up, in rural communities, of a domestic and social life +which will withstand the growing attractions of the modern city.</p> + +<p>This threefold scheme of reform covers the whole ground and will become +the basis of the Country Life movement to be suggested later. But in the +working out of the general scheme, there must be one important change in +the order of procedure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>—'better business' must come first. The dull +commercial details of agriculture have been sadly neglected, perhaps on +account of the more human interest of the scientific and social aspects +of country life. Yet my own experience in working at the rural problem +in Ireland has convinced me that our first step towards its solution is +to be found in a better organisation of the farmer's business. It is +strange but true that the level of efficiency reached in many European +countries was due to American competition, which in the last half of the +nineteenth century forced Continental farmers to reorganise their +industry alike in production, in distribution and in its finance. Both +Irish experience and Continental study have convinced me that neither +good husbandry nor a worthy social life can be ensured unless +accompanied by intelligent and efficient business methods. We must, +therefore, examine somewhat critically the agricultural system of the +American farmer, and see wherein its weakness lies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>The superiority of the business methods of the town to those of the +country is obvious, but I do not think the precise nature of that +superiority is generally understood. What strikes the eye is the +material apparatus of business,—the street cars, the advertisements, +the exchange, the telephone, the typewriter; all these form an +impressive contrast with the slow, simple life of the farmer, who very +likely scratches his accounts on a shingle or keeps them in his head. +But most of this city apparatus is due merely to the necessity of swift +movement in the concentrated process of exchange and distribution. Such +swiftness is neither necessary nor possible in the process of isolated +production. But there is an economic law, applicable alike to rural and +to urban pursuits, which is being more and more fully recognised and +obeyed by the farmers of most European countries, including Ireland, but +which has been too little heeded by the farmers of the United States and +Great Britain. Under modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> economic conditions, things must be done in +a large way if they are to be done profitably; and this necessitates a +resort to combination.</p> + +<p>The advantage which combination gives to the town over the country was +recognised long before the recent economic changes forced men to +combine. In the old towns of Europe all trades began as strict and +exclusive corporations. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries new +scientific and economic forces broke up these combinations, which were +far too narrow for the growing volume of industrial activity, and an +epoch of competition began. The great towns of America opened their +business career during this epoch, and have brought the arts of +competition to a higher perfection than exists in Europe. But it has +always been known that competition did not exclude combination against +the consumer; and it is now beginning to be perceived that the fiercer +the competition, the more surely does it lead in the end to such +combination.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>A trade combination has three principal objects: it aims, first, at +improving what I may call the internal business methods of the trade +itself by eliminating the waste due to competition, by economising +staff, plant, etc., and by the ready circulation of intelligence, and in +other ways. In the second place, it aims at strengthening the trade +against outside interests. These may be of various kinds; but in the +typical case we are considering, namely, the combination of great +middlemen who control exchange and distribution, the outside interests +are those of the producer on one side and the consumer on the other; and +the trade combination, by its organised unity of action, succeeds in +lowering the prices it pays to the unorganised producer and in raising +the prices it charges to the unorganised consumer. In the third place, +the trade combination seeks to favour its own interests in their +relation to other interests through political control—control not so +much of the machinery of politics as of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> its products, legislation and +administration. I am not now arguing the question whether or how far +this action on the part of trade combinations is morally justifiable. My +point is simply that the towns have flourished at the expense of the +country by the use of these methods, and that the countryman must adopt +them if he is to get his own again. Moreover, as organisation tends to +increase the volume and lower the cost of agricultural production and to +make possible large transactions between organised communities of +farmers and the trade, it will be seen that the organised combination of +farmers will simplify the whole commerce of those countries where it is +adopted, and thus benefit alike the farmer and the trader.</p> + +<p>This truth will be easily realised if we consider for a moment the +system of distribution which the food demand of the modern market has +evolved. Agricultural produce finds its chief market in the great +cities. Their populations must have their food so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> sent in that it can +be rapidly distributed; and this requires that the consignments must be +delivered regularly, in large quantities, and of such uniform quality +that a sample will give a correct indication of the whole. These three +conditions are essential to rapid distribution, but their fulfilment is +not within the power of isolated farmers, however large their +operations. It is an open question whether farmers should themselves +undertake the distribution of their produce through agencies of their +own, thus saving the wholesale and possibly the retail profits. But +unquestionably they should be so well organised at home that they can +take this course if they are unfairly treated by organised middlemen. +The Danish farmers, whose highly organised system of distribution has +made them the chief competitors of the Irish farmers, have established +(with Government assistance which their organisation enabled them to +secure) very efficient machinery for distributing their butter, bacon +and eggs in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> the British markets. Other European farming communities are +becoming equally well organised, and similarly control the marketing of +their produce. But where, as in America and the United Kingdom, the town +dominates the country, and the machinery of distribution is owned by the +business men of the towns, it is worked by them in their own interests. +They naturally take from the unorganised producers as well as from the +unorganised consumers the full business value of the service they +render. With the growing cost of living, this has become a matter of +urgent importance to the towns. In the cheaper-food campaign which began +in the late fall of 1909, voices are heard calling the farmers to +account for their uneconomical methods, while here and there +organisations of consumers are endeavouring to solve the problem to +their own satisfaction by acquiring land and raising upon it the produce +which they require.</p> + +<p>In the face of such facts it is not easy to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> account for the +backwardness of American and British farmers in the obviously important +matter of organisation. The farmer, we know, is everywhere the most +conservative and individualistic of human beings. He dislikes change in +his methods, and he venerates those which have come down to him from his +fathers' fathers. Whatever else he may waste, these traditions he +conserves. He does not wish to interfere with anybody else's business, +and he is fixedly determined that others shall not interfere with his. +These estimable qualities make agricultural organisation more difficult +in Anglo-Saxon communities than in those where clan or tribal instincts +seem to survive.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>Now it is fair to the farmer to admit that his calling does not lend +itself readily to associative action. He lives apart; most of his time +is spent in the open air, and in the evening of the working day physical +repose is more congenial to him than mental activity. But when all this +is said, we have not a complete explanation of the fact that, by failing +to combine, American and British farmers, persistently disobey an +accepted law, and refuse to follow the almost universal practice of +modern business. I believe the true explanation to be one that has +somehow escaped the notice of the agricultural economist. Those who +accept it will feel that they have found the weak spot in American +farming, and that the remedy is neither obscure nor difficult to apply.</p> + +<p>The form of combination which the towns have invented for industrial and +commercial purposes is the Joint Stock Company. Here a number of persons +contribute their capital to a common fund and entrust the direction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> to +a single head or committee, taking no further part in the business +except to change the management if the undertaking does not yield a +satisfactory dividend. Our urban way of looking at things has made us +assume that this city system must be suitable to rural conditions. The +contrary is the fact. When farmers combine, it is a combination not of +money only, but of personal effort in relation to the entire business. +In a coöperative creamery, for example, the chief contribution of a +shareholder is in milk; in a coöperative elevator, corn; in other cases +it may be fruit or vegetables, or a variety of material things rather +than cash. But it is, most of all, a combination of neighbours within an +area small enough to allow of all the members meeting frequently at the +business centre. As the system develops, the local associations are +federated for larger business transactions, but these are governed by +delegates carefully chosen by the members of the constituent bodies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>The object of such associations is, primarily, not to declare a +dividend, but rather to improve the conditions of the industry for the +members. After an agreed interest has been paid upon the shares, the net +profits are divided between the participants in the undertaking, to each +in proportion as he has contributed to them through the business he has +done with the institution. And the same idea is applied to the control +of the management. It is recognised that the poor man's coöperation is +as important as the rich man's subscription. 'One man, one vote,' is the +almost universal principle in coöperative bodies.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>The distinction between the capitalistic basis of joint stock +organisation and the more human character of the coöperative system is +fundamentally important. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> recognised by law in England, where the +coöperative trading societies are organised under <i>The Industrial and +Provident Societies' Act</i>, and the coöperative credit associations under +<i>The Friendly Societies' Act</i>. In the United States (I am told by +friends in the legal profession), the Articles of Association of an +ordinary limited liability company can be so drafted as to meet all the +requirements I have named. Most countries have enacted laws specially +devised to meet the requirements of coöperative societies. However it is +done, the essential of success in agricultural coöperation is that the +terms and conditions upon which it is based shall be accepted by all +concerned as being equitable in the distribution of profits, risks and +control. It then becomes the interest of every member to give his +whole-hearted support and aid to the common undertaking. To accomplish +this, it is necessary to explain and secure the acceptance of a +constitution and procedure carefully thought out to suit each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> case. It +will be readily believed that associations of farmers which will meet +these conditions are not likely to be spontaneously generated; hence the +necessity for a plan and for the machinery to carry it through.</p> + +<p>In this matter I am here speaking from practical experience in Ireland. +Twenty years ago the pioneers of our rural life movement found it +necessary to concentrate their efforts upon the reorganisation of the +farmer's business. They saw that foreign competition was not, as was +commonly supposed, a visitation of Providence upon the farmers of the +British Islands, but a natural economic revolution of permanent effect. +Our message to Irish farmers was that they must imitate the methods of +their Continental competitors, who were defeating them in their own +markets simply by superior organisation. After five years of individual +propagandism, the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed in +1894 to meet the demand for instruction as to the formation and the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>working of coöperative societies, a demand to which it was beyond the +means of the few pioneers to respond.</p> + +<p>Two decades of steady development have confirmed the soundness of the +original scheme, and a brief account of agricultural coöperation in +Ireland will be of interest to any reader who has persevered so far. The +conditions were in some respects favourable. The farms are small and +their owners belong to the class to which coöperation brings most +immediate benefit. The Irish peasantry are highly intelligent. They lack +the strong individualism of the English, but they have highly developed +associative instincts. For this reason coöperation, an alternative to +communism,—which they abhor,—comes naturally to them. On the other +hand, the ease with which they can be organised makes them peculiarly +amenable to political influence. In backward rural communities the +trader is almost invariably the political boss. He is a leader of +agrarian agitation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> in which he can safely advocate principles he would +not like to see applied to the relations between himself and his +customers. He bitterly opposes coöperation, which throws inconvenient +light upon those relations. We are able to persuade the more enlightened +rural traders that economies effected in agricultural production will +raise the standard of living of his customers and make them larger +consumers of general commodities and more punctual in their payments. +But in the majority of cases the agricultural organiser finds politics +in sharp conflict with business, and has a hard row to hoe. So, while we +have advantages in organising Irish farmers, we have also, largely owing +to well-known historical causes, to overcome difficulties which have no +counterpart in the United States or England.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, we managed to make progress. We began with the dairying +industry, and already half the export of Irish butter comes from the +coöperative societies we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> established. Organised bodies of farmers are +learning to purchase their agricultural requirements intelligently and +economically. They are also beginning to adopt the methods of the +organised foreign farmer in controlling the sale of their butter, eggs +and poultry in the British markets. And they not only combine in +agricultural production and distribution, but are also making a +promising beginning in grappling with the problem of agricultural +finance. It is in this last portion of the Irish programme that by far +the most interesting study of the coöperative system can be made, on +account of its success in the poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, +the attempt to enable the most embarrassed section of the Irish +peasantry to procure working capital illustrates some features of +agricultural coöperation which will have suggestive value for American +farmers. I will therefore give a brief description of our agricultural +coöperative credit associations.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>The organisation was introduced in the middle of the last century by a +German Burgomaster, the now famous Herr Raiffeisen. He set himself to +provide the means of escape from the degrading indebtedness to +storekeepers and usurers which is the almost invariable lot of poor +peasantries. His scheme performs an apparent miracle. A body of very +poor persons, individually—in the commercial sense of the +term—insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has been +somewhat grandiloquently and yet truthfully called the capitalisation of +their honesty and industry. The way in which this is done is remarkably +ingenious. The credit society is organised in the usual democratic way +explained above, but its constitution is peculiar in one respect. The +members have to become jointly and severally responsible for the debts +of the association, which borrows on this unlimited liability from the +ordinary commercial bank, or, in some cases, from Government sources. +After<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> the initial stage, when the institution becomes firmly +established, it attracts local deposits, and thus the savings of the +community, which are too often hoarded, are set free to fructify in the +community. The procedure by which the money borrowed is lent to the +members of the association is the essential feature of the scheme. The +member requiring the loan must state what he is going to do with the +money. He must satisfy the committee of the association, who know the +man and his business, that the proposed investment is one which will +enable him to repay both principal and interest. He must enter into a +bond with two sureties for the repayment of the loan, and needless to +say the characters of both the borrower and his sureties are very +carefully considered. The period for which the loan is granted is +arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined by the committee +after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the loan has been made, +it becomes the concern of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> every member of the association to see that +it is applied to the 'approved purpose'—as it is technically called. +What is more important is that all the borrower's fellow-members become +interested in his business and anxious for its success.</p> + +<p>The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in +Ireland, and that, although their transactions are on a very modest +scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its +adherents and in the business transacted is, I think, a remarkable +testimony to the value of the coöperative system. The details I have +given illustrate the important distinction between coöperation, which +enables the farmer to do his business in a way that suits him, and the +urban form of combination, which is unsuited to his needs. The ordinary +banks lend money to agriculturists for a term (generally ninety days) +which has been fixed to suit the needs of town business. Thus, a farmer +borrowing money to sow a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> crop, or to purchase young cattle, is obliged +to repay his loan, in the first instance, before the crop is harvested, +and in the second, before the cattle mature and are marketable. Far more +important, however, than these not inconsiderable economic advantages +are the social benefits which are derived by bringing people together to +achieve in a very definite and practical way the aim of all coöperative +effort—self-help by mutual help.</p> + +<p>Our coöperative movement, taken as a whole, is to-day represented by +nearly one thousand farmers' organisations, with an aggregate membership +of some one hundred thousand persons, mostly heads of families. Its +business turnover last year was twelve and a half million dollars. In +estimating the significance of these figures, American readers must not +'think in continents,' and must give more weight to the moral than to +the material achievement. As I have explained, the coöperative system<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +requires for its success the exercise of higher moral qualities than +does the joint stock company. Once a coöperative society becomes a +soulless corporation, its days are numbered. It requires also the +diffusion of a good deal of economic thought among its members, and +this, also, is no small matter in the conditions. The most striking fact +about this work in Ireland is that while in its earlier years +organisation consisted mainly in expounding and commending to farmers +the coöperative principle, we now find that the principle is taken for +granted and the only question upon which advice is needed is how to +apply it. The progress of agricultural coöperation depends largely on +the character of the community; its commercial value may be measured by +the extent to which it develops in the community the mental and moral +qualities essential to success.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p><p>In agricultural coöperation, Ireland can claim to have shown the way to +the United Kingdom. Ten years ago, after the Irish movement had been +launched, the English rural reformers started a movement on exactly the +same lines, even founding on the Irish model an English Agricultural +Organisation Society. An Irishman, who had studied coöperation at home, +was selected as its chief executive officer. Five years later, a +Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society took the field. Both in +England and in Scotland the chief difficulty to be overcome is the +intense individualism of the farmers, and perhaps some lack of altruism. +The large farmers did not feel the need of coöperation, and where the +natural leader of the rural community will not lead, the small +cultivator cannot follow. Whether the same difficulties have prevented +any considerable adoption of agricultural coöperation in the United +States, it is not necessary to inquire. It is certain that the +underlying principles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> approved by every progressive rural, community in +Europe have not so far exercised more than an occasional and fitful +influence upon the rural economy of the American Republic.</p> + +<p>If I have given in these pages a true explanation of the deplorable +backwardness of American farmers in the matter of business combination +when compared with all other American workers, those who take part in +the movement which is to provide the remedy will have set themselves a +task as hopeful as it is interesting. Americans as a people are addicted +to associated action. I have seen the principle of coöperation developed +to the highest point in the ranching industry in the days of the +unfenced range. Our cattle used to roam at large, the only means of +identifying them being certain registered marks made by the +branding-iron and the knife. The individual owner would have had no more +property in his herd than he would have had in so many fishes in the +sea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> but for a very effective coöperative organisation. The Stock +Association, with its 'round-ups' and its occasional resort to the +Supreme Court of Judge Lynch, were an adequate substitute for the title +deeds to the lands, and for fences horse-high, bull-strong and +hog-tight. But then we were in the Arid Belt and the frontier-pioneer +stage; we had no politics and no politicians. I must return, however, to +the less exciting, but I suppose more important, life of the regular +farmer, and consider his efforts at organisation.</p> + +<p>Instances can be multiplied where the coöperative system has been +adopted with immensely beneficial results; but in too many cases it has +been abandoned. On the other hand, Granges, Institutes, Clubs, Leagues, +Alliances and a multitude of miscellaneous farmers' associations have +been organised for social, religious, political and economic objects. +From my study of the work done by these bodies, the impression left is +that almost everything that can be done better by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>working together than +by working separately has been at some time the subject of organised +effort. But these manifestations of activity have been fitful and +sporadic. They were commonly marked by some or all of the same +defects—mutual distrust, divided counsels, ignorance of what others +were doing, want of continuity and impatience of results. Many +organisations, after winning some advantages,—over the railroads for +instance,—fell into abeyance or even out of existence; others lapsed +under the enervating influence of a little temporary prosperity, such as +a few years of better prices. The truth is, American farmers have had +the will to organise, but they have missed the way.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The political influence of the farming community has for this reason +never been commensurate either with the numerical strength of its +members or the magnitude of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> share in the nation's work. It is +true that the Federal Department of Agriculture, appropriations for +Agricultural Colleges, some railway legislation and other boons to +farmers, are to be attributed to the efforts of their organisations. +Yet, as compared with the influence exercised upon National affairs by +the farmers of, say, France and Denmark, the American farmer has but a +small influence upon legislation and administration affecting his +interests. What better proof of this could be given than the absence of +a Parcels Post in the United States? The whole farming community are +agreed as to the need for this boon to the dwellers of the open country, +and yet they have not succeeded in winning it against the opposition of +the Express Companies, because it is merely a farmers' and not a +townsmen's grievance. And not only political impotence, but political +inertia, result from the lack of organisation. The state of the country +roads—one of the greatest disabilities under which country life in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> the +United States still suffers—is as good an instance as I know. Congress +has shown itself well disposed towards the farmer, but not always so the +State governments, and the good intentions of Congress on the roads +question are largely nullified owing to the failure of one-third of the +States to establish highway commissions, or make other provision for +expending such amounts as might be voted to them by Congress. Here, as +in the cases of the transit and marketing problems, we see the need for +a strong, central, permanent organisation, fitted alike to direct local +or promote National action; an association capable of securing the +legislative protection of the farmer's interests, and an organisation +fitted to further the business side of his industry. In fact, this need +is urgent, and a coöperative movement of National dimensions should be +established to meet it. Had such a movement been started after the War, +or even twenty years later, the American farmer would be in a far +stronger position<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> to-day, and much misdirected effort would have been +saved.</p> + +<p>I have now tried to explain the weak spot in American rural economy. It +may be regarded from a more general point of view. If we were +considering the life of some commercial or industrial community and +trying to forecast its future development, one of the first things we +should note would be its general business methods. No manufacturing +concern with a defective office administration and incompetent +travellers could survive, even if it had an Archimedes or an Edison in +supreme control. I cannot see any reason why an agricultural community +should expect to prosper while the industry by which its members live +retains its present business organisation. I have urged that as things +are, the farming interest is at a fatal disadvantage in the purchase of +agricultural requirements, in the sale of agricultural produce, and in +obtaining proper credit facilities. Whatever the cause—and I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> set +down those which I regard as the chief among them—American farmers have +still to learn that they are subject to a law of modern business which +governs all their country's industrial activities—the law that each +body of workers engaged in supplying the modern market must combine, or +be worsted at every turn in competition with those who do.</p> + +<p>I do not much fear that this general principle, overlooked, perhaps, +because it was too obvious to be worth enforcing, will be disputed. I +hope I may gain acceptance for my further contention that the inability +of American farmers to sustain an effective business organisation has +been due simply to the fact that the not obvious distinction between the +capitalistic and the coöperative basis of combination suitable to town +and country respectively was missed. For it will then be clear why, in +the working out of Mr. Roosevelt's formula, better business must precede +and form the basis of better farming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> and better living. The conviction +that in this general procedure lies the one hope of solving the problem +under review accounts for the otherwise disproportionate space given to +that aspect of rural life which is of the least interest to the general +reader.</p> + +<p>I shall now attempt to determine the principles which must be applied to +the solution of our problem. Those who have followed the arguments up to +this point will have a pretty clear idea of the general drift of my +conclusions. The substitution in rural economy of the coöperative for +the competitive principle, which I have so far advocated as a matter of +business prudence, will be seen to have a wider import. This course will +be shown to have an important bearing upon the application of the new +knowledge to the oldest industry and also upon the building of a new +rural civilisation we must provide for the dwellers of the open country +a larger share of the intellectual and social pleasures for the want of +which those most needed in the country are too often drawn to the town.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> I should expect the negroes in the Southern States to be +very good subjects for agricultural organisation. I have discussed this +question with the staff of the Hampton Institute in Virginia—a fine +body of men, doing noble work. The Principal, the Rev. H. B. Frissell, +D.D., whose judgment in this matter is probably the weightiest in the +United States, and his leading assistants, both white and coloured, are +of the same opinion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Where capital is, in rare instances, subscribed by persons +other than farmers, it is usually invested less as a commercial +speculation than as an act of friendship on the part of the investor, +who in no case exercises more control than his one vote affords.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Readers who are sufficiently interested in the rural life +movement in Ireland will find a full description of it in my book, +"Ireland in the New Century," John Murray, London, and E. P. Dutton, New +York.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Mr. John Lee Coulter contributed to the <i>Yale Review</i> for +November, 1909, an article on Organization among the farmers of the +United States which is a most valuable summary of the important facts.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE WAY TO BETTER FARMING AND BETTER LIVING</h3> + +<p>In no way is the contrast between rural and urban civilisation more +marked than in the application of the teachings of modern science to +their respective industries. Even the most important mechanical +inventions were rather forced upon the farmer by the efficient selling +organisation of the city manufacturers than demanded by him as a result +of good instruction in farming. On the mammoth wheat farms, where, as +the fable ran, the plough that started out one morning returned on the +adjoining furrow the following day, mechanical science was indeed called +in, but only to perpetrate the greatest soil robbery in agricultural +history. Application of science to legitimate agriculture is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>comparatively new. In my ranching and farming days I well remember how +general was the disbelief in its practical value throughout the Middle +and Far West. In cowboy terminology, all scientists were classified as +"bug-hunters," and farmers generally had no use for the theorist. The +non-agricultural community had naturally no higher appreciation of the +farmer's calling than he himself displayed. When some Universities first +developed agricultural courses, the students who entered for them were +nicknamed "aggies," and were not regarded as adding much to the dignity +of a seat of higher learning. The Department of Agriculture was looked +upon as a source of jobs, graft being the nearest approach to any known +agricultural operation.</p> + +<p>All this is changing fast. The Federal Department of Agriculture is now +perhaps the most popular and respected of the world's great +administrative institutions. In the Middle West, a newly awakened +public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> opinion has set up an honourable rivalry between such States as +Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota, in developing the +agricultural sides of their Universities and Colleges. None the less, +Mr. James J. Hill has recently given it as his opinion that not more +than one per cent of the farmers of these regions are working in direct +touch with any educational institution. It is probable that this +estimate leaves out of account the indirect influence of the vast amount +of extension work and itinerant instruction which is embraced in the +activities of the Universities and Colleges. I fear it cannot be denied +that in the application of the natural sciences to the practical, and of +economic science to the business of farming, the country folk are +decades behind their urban fellow-citizens. And again I say the +disparity is to be attributed to the difference in their respective +degrees of organisation for business purposes.</p> + +<p>The relation between business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>organisation and economic progress ought, +I submit, to be very seriously considered by the social workers who +perceive that progress is mainly a question of education. Speaking from +administrative experience at home, and from a good deal of interested +observation in America, I am firmly convinced that the new rural +education is badly handicapped by the lack of organised bodies of +farmers to act as channels for the new knowledge now made available. In +some instances, I am aware, great good has been done by the formation of +farmers' institutes which have been established in order to interest +rural communities in educational work and to make the local arrangements +for instruction by lectures, demonstrations and otherwise. But all +European experience proves the superiority for this purpose of the +business association to the organisation <i>ad hoc</i>, and has a much better +chance of permanence.</p> + +<p>Again, the influence upon rural life of the agricultural teaching of the +Colleges and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>Universities, as exercised by their pupils, may be too +easily accepted as being of greater potential utility than any work +which these institutions can do amongst adults. This is a mistake. The +thousands of young men who are now being trained for advanced farming +too often have to restrict the practical application of their theoretic +knowledge to the home circle, which is not always responsive, for a man +is not usually a prophet in his own family. It is here that the +educational value of coöperative societies comes in; they act as +agencies through which scientific teaching may become actual practice, +not in the uncertain future, but in the living present. A coöperative +association has a quality which should commend it to the social +reformer—the power of evoking character; it brings to the front a new +type of local leader, not the best talker, but the man whose knowledge +enables him to make some solid contribution to the welfare of the +community.</p> + +<p>I come now to the last part of the threefold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> scheme—that which aims at +a better life upon the farm. The coöperative association, in virtue of +its non-capitalistic basis of constitution and procedure (which, as I +have explained, distinguishes it from the Joint Stock Company), demands +as a condition of its business success the exercise of certain social +qualities of inestimable value to the community life. It is for this +reason, no doubt, that where men and women have learned to work together +under this system in the business of their lives, they are easily +induced to use their organisation for social and intellectual purposes +also.</p> + +<p>The new organisation of the rural community for social as well as +economic purposes, which should follow from the acceptance of the +opinion I have advanced, would bring with it the first effective +counter-attraction to the towns. Their material advantages the country +cannot hope to rival; nor can any conceivable evolution of rural life +furnish a real counterpart to the cheap and garish <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>entertainments of +the modern city. Take, for example, the extravagant use of electric +light for purposes of advertisement, which affords a nightly display of +fireworks in any active business street of an American city far superior +to the occasional exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London, which was +the rare treat of my childhood days. These delights—if such they +be—cannot be extended into remote villages in Kansas or Nebraska; but +their enchantment must be reckoned with by those who would remould the +life of the open country and make it morally and mentally satisfying to +those who are born to it, or who, but for its social stagnation, would +prefer a rural to an urban existence.</p> + +<p>In one of his many public references to country life, President +Roosevelt attributed the rural exodus to the desire of "the more active +and restless young men and women" to escape from "loneliness and lack of +mental companionship."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> He is hopeful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> that the rural free delivery, +the telephone, the bicycle and the trolley will do much towards +"lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more +attractive." Many to whom I have spoken on this subject fear that the +linking of the country with the town by these applications of modern +science may, to some extent, operate in a direction the opposite of that +which Mr. Roosevelt anticipates and desires. According to this view, the +more intimate knowledge of the modern city may increase the desire to be +in personal touch with it; the telephone may fail to give through the +ear the satisfaction which is demanded by the eye; among the "more +active and restless young men and women" the rural free delivery may +circulate the dime novel and the trolley make accessible the dime +museum. In the total result the occasional visit may become more and +more frequent, until the duties of country life are first neglected and +then abandoned.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>I do not feel competent to decide between these two views, but I offer +one consideration with which I think many rural reformers will agree. +The attempt to bring the advantages of the city within the reach of the +dwellers in the country cannot, of itself, counteract the townward +tendency in so far as it is due to the causes summarised above. However +rapidly, in this respect, the country may be improved, the city is sure +to advance more rapidly and the gap between them to be widened. The new +rural civilisation should aim at trying to develop in the country the +things of the country, the very existence of which seems to have been +forgotten. But, after all, it is the world within us rather than the +world without us that matters in the making of society, and I must give +to the social influence of the coöperative idea what I believe to be its +real importance.</p> + +<p>In Ireland, from which so much of my experience is drawn, we have found +a tendency growing among farmers whose combinations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> are successful, to +gather into one strong local association all those varied objects and +activities which I have described as advocated by the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society. These local associations are ceasing to have one +special purpose or one object only. They absorb more and more of the +business of the district. One large, well-organised institution is being +substituted for the numerous petty transactions of farmers with +middlemen and small country traders. Gradually the Society becomes the +most important institution in the district, the most important in a +social as well as in an economic sense. The members feel a pride in its +material expansion. They accumulate large profits, which in time become +a kind of communal fund. In some cases this is used for the erection of +village halls where social entertainments, concerts and dances are held, +lectures delivered and libraries stored. Finally, the association +assumes the character of a rural commune, where, instead of the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +basis of the commune, the joint ownership of land, a new basis for union +is found in the voluntary communism of effort.</p> + +<p>A true social organism is thus being created with common human and +economic interests, and the clan feeling, which was so powerful an +influence in early and mediæval civilisations, with all its power of +generating passionate loyalties, is born anew in the modern world. Our +ancient Irish records show little clans with a common ownership of land +hardly larger than a parish, but with all the patriotic feeling of large +nations held with an intensity rare in our modern states. The history of +these clans and of very small nations like the ancient Greek states +shows that the social feeling assumes its most binding and powerful +character where the community is large enough to allow free play to the +various interests of human life, but is not so large that it becomes an +abstraction to the imagination. Most of us feel no greater thrill in +being one of a State with fifty million inhabitants than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> we do in +recognising we are citizens of the solar system. The rural commune and +the very small States exhibit the feeling of human solidarity in its +most intense manifestations, working on itself, regenerating itself and +seeking its own perfection. Combinations of agriculturists, when the +rural organisation is complete, re-create in a new way the conditions +where these social instincts germinate best, and it is only by this +complete organisation of rural life that we can hope to build up a rural +civilisation, and create those counter-attractions to urban life which +will stay the exodus from the land.</p> + +<p>I do not wish to exaggerate the interest which the rural life of my own +little island may have for those who are concerned for the vast and +wealthy expanses of the American farm lands. But, even here there is a +genuine desire for the really simple life, which in its commonest +manifestation is a thing that rather simple people talk about. In a +properly organised rural <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>neighbourhood could be developed that higher +kind of attraction which is suggested by the very word <i>neighbourhood</i>. +Once get the farmers and their families all working together at +something that concerns them all, and we have the beginning of a more +stable and a more social community than is likely to exist amid the +constant change and bustle of the large towns, where indeed some +thinkers tell us that not only the family, but also the social life, is +badly breaking down. When people are really interested in each +other—and this interest comes of habitually working together—the +smallest personal traits or events affecting one are of interest to all. +The simplest piece of amateur acting or singing, done in the village +hall by one of the villagers, will arouse more criticism and more +enthusiasm among his friends and neighbours than can be excited by the +most consummate performance of a professional in a great city theatre, +where no one in the audience knows or cares for the performer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p><p>But if this attraction—the attraction of common work and social +intercourse with a circle of friends—is to prevail in the long run over +the lure which the city offers to eye and ear and pocket, there must be +a change in rural education. At present country children are educated as +if for the purpose of driving them into the towns. To the pleasure which +the cultured city man feels in the country—because he has been taught +to feel it—the country child is insensible. The country offers +continual interest to the mind which has been trained to be thoughtful +and observant; the town offers continual distraction to the vacant eye +and brain. Yet, the education given to country children has been +invented for them in the town, and it not only bears no relation to the +life they are to lead, but actually attracts them towards a town career. +I am aware that I am here on ground where angels—even if specialised in +pedagogy—may well fear to tread. Upon the principles of a sound +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>agricultural education pedagogues are in a normally violent state of +disagreement with each other. But whatever compromise between general +education and technical instruction be adopted, the resulting reform +that is needed has two sides. We want two changes in the rural +mind—beginning with the rural teacher's mind. First, the interest which +the physical environment of the farmer provides to followers of almost +every branch of science must be communicated to the agricultural classes +according to their capacities. Second, that intimacy with and affection +for nature, to which Wordsworth has given the highest expression, must +in some way be engendered in the rural mind. In this way alone will the +countryman come to realize the beauty of the life around him, as through +the teaching of science he will learn to realise its truth.</p> + +<p>Upon this reformed education, as a basis, the rural economy must be +built. It must, if my view be accepted, ensure, first and foremost, the +combination of farmers for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>business purposes in such a manner as will +enable them to control their own marketing and make use of the many +advantages which a command of capital gives. In all European +countries—with the exception of the British Isles—statesmen have +recognised the national necessity for the good business organisation of +the farmer. In some cases, for example France, even Government officials +expound the coöperative principle. In Denmark, the most predominantly +rural country in Europe, the education both in the common and in the +high school has long been so admirably related to the working lives of +the agricultural classes that the people adopt spontaneously the methods +of organisation which the commercial instinct they have acquired through +education tells them to be suitable to the conditions. The rural +reformer knows that this is the better way; but our problem is not +merely the education of a rising, but the development of a grown-up +generation. We cannot wait<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> for the slow process of education to produce +its effect upon the mind of the rural youth, even if there were any way +of ensuring their proper training for a progressive rural life without +first giving to their parents such education as they can assimilate. +Direct action is called for; we have to work with adult farmers and +induce them to reorganise their business upon the lines which I have +attempted to define. Moreover, this is essential to the future success +of the work done in the schools, in order that the trained mind of youth +may not afterwards find itself baulked by the ignorant apathy or lazy +conservatism of its elders.</p> + +<p>I hold, then, that the new economy will mean a more scientific mastery +of the technical side of farming, for farmers will make a much larger +use of the advice, instruction and help which the Nation and the States +offer them through the Department of Agriculture and the Colleges. It is +equally certain that there will arise a more human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> social life in the +rural districts, based upon the greater share of the products of the +farmer's industry, which the new business organisation will enable him +to retain; stimulated by the closer business relations with his fellows +which that organisation will bring about, and fostered by the closer +neighbourhood which is implied in a more intensive cultivation.</p> + +<p>The development of a more intensive cultivation must carry with it a +much more careful consideration of the labour problem. The difficulty of +getting and keeping labour on the farm is a commonplace. I think farmers +have not faced the fact that this difficulty is due in the main to their +own way of doing their business. Competent men will not stay at farm +labour unless it offers them continuous employment as part of a +well-ordered business concern; and this is not possible unless with a +greatly improved husbandry.</p> + +<p>To-day agriculture has to compete in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> labour market against other, +and to many men more attractive, industries, and a marked elevation in +the whole standard of life in the rural world is the best insurance of a +better supply of good farm labour. Only an intensive system of farming +can afford any large amount of permanent employment at decent wages to +the rural labourer, and only a good supply of competent labour can +render intensive farming on any large scale practicable. But the +intensive system of farming not only gives regular employment and good +wages; it also fits the labourer of to-day—in a country where a man can +strike out for himself—to be the successful farmer of to-morrow. Nor, +in these days of impersonal industrial relations, should the fact be +overlooked that under an intensive system of agriculture, we find still +preserved the kindly personal relation between employer and employed +which contributes both to the pleasantness of life and to economic +progress and security.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>Moreover, in a country where advanced farming is the rule, there is a +remarkable, and, from the standpoint of national stability, most +valuable, steadiness in employment. Good farming, by fixing the labourer +on the soil, improves the general condition of rural life, by ridding +the countryside of the worst of its present pests. Those wandering +dervishes of the industrial world, the hobo, the tramp—the entire +family of Weary Willies and Tired Timothys—will no longer have even an +imaginary excuse for their troubled and troublesome existence. But the +farmer who was the prey of these pests must, if he would be permanently +rid of them, learn to respect his hired farm hand. He must provide him +with a comfortable cottage and a modest garden plot upon which his young +family may employ themselves; otherwise, whatever the farmer may do to +attract labour, he will never retain it. In short, the labourer, too, +must get his full and fair share of the prosperity of the coming good +time in the country.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p><p>There is one particular aspect of this improved social life which is so +important that it ought properly to form the subject of a separate +essay; I mean the position of women in rural life. In no country in the +world is the general position of woman better, or her influence greater, +than in the United States. But while woman has played a great part there +in the social life and economic development of the town, I hold that the +part she is destined to play in the future making of the country will be +even greater.</p> + +<p>In the more intelligent scheme of the new country life, the economic +position of woman is likely to be one of high importance. She enters +largely into all three parts of our programme,—better farming, better +business, better living. In the development of higher farming, for +instance, she is better fitted than the more muscular but less patient +animal, man, to carry on with care that work of milk records, egg +records, etc., which underlies the selection on scientific lines of the +more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> productive strains of cattle and poultry. And this kind of work is +wanted in the study not only of animal, but also of plant life.</p> + +<p>Again, in the sphere of better business, the housekeeping faculty of +woman is an important asset, since a good system of farm accounts is one +of the most valuable aids to successful farming. But it is, of course, +in the third part of the programme,—better living,—that woman's +greatest opportunity lies. The woman makes the home life of the Nation. +But she desires also social life, and where she has the chance she +develops it. Here it is that the establishment of the coöperative +society, or union, gives an opening and a range of conditions in which +the social usefulness of woman makes itself quickly felt. I do not think +that I am laying too much stress on this matter, because the pleasures, +the interests and the duties of society, properly so called,—that is, +the state of living on friendly terms with our neighbours,—are always +more central and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> important in the life of a woman than of a man. The +man needs them, too, for without them he becomes a mere machine for +making money; but the woman, deprived of them, tends to become a mere +drudge. The new rural social economy (which implies a denser population +occupying smaller holdings) must therefore include a generous provision +for all those forms of social intercourse which specially appeal to +women. The Women's Sections of the Granges have done a great deal of +useful work in this direction; we need a more general and complete +application of the principles on which they act.</p> + +<p>I have now stated the broad principles which must govern any effective +scheme for correcting the present harmful subordination of rural life to +a civilisation too exclusively urban. Before I bring forward my definite +proposal for a remedy calculated to meet the needs of the situation, I +must anticipate a line of criticism which may occur to the mind of any +social worker who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> does not happen to be very familiar with the +conditions of country life.</p> + +<p>I can well imagine readers who have patiently followed my arguments +wishing to interrogate me in some such terms as these: "Assuming," they +may say, "that we accept all you tell us about the neglect of the rural +population, and agree as to the grave consequences which must follow if +it be continued, what on earth can we do? Of course the welfare of the +rural population is a matter of paramount importance to the city and to +the nation at large; but may we remind you that you said the evil and +the consequences can be removed and averted only by those immediately +concerned—the actual farmers—and that the remedy for the rural +backwardness was to be sought for in the rural mind? 'Canst thou +minister to a mind diseased?' Must not the patient 'minister' to +himself?"</p> + +<p>Fair questions these, and altogether to the point. I answer at once that +the patient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> ought to minister to himself, but he won't. He has acquired +the habit of sending for the physician of the town, whose physic but +aggravates the disease. Dropping metaphor, the farmer does not think for +himself. In rural communities, there is as great a lack of collective +thought as of coöperative action. All progress is conditional on public +opinion, and this, even in the country, is a very much town-made thing.</p> + +<p>So I am, then, in this difficulty. My subject is rural, my audience +urban. I have to commend to the statesmen and the philanthropists of the +town the somewhat incongruous proposal that they should take the +initiative in rural reform. Neither the thought nor the influence which +can set in motion what in agricultural communities is no less than an +economic revolution are to be found in the open country. To the townsmen +I now address my appeal and submit a plan.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Message to the Fifty-eighth Congress (1903).</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE TWO THINGS NEEDFUL</h3> + +<p>In my earlier chapters I traced to the Industrial Revolution in England +the origin of that subordination, in the English-speaking countries, of +rural to urban interests which finds its expression to-day in the +problem of rural life. I have shown that the continuance of the tendency +in America was natural if not inevitable, and have urged that, for +economic, social and political reasons, its further progress should now +be stayed. If my view as to the origin, present effects and probable +consequences of the evil be accepted, any serious proposals for a remedy +will be welcomed by all who realise that national well-being cannot +endure if urban prosperity is accompanied by rural decay. In this belief +I offer the scheme for a Country Life movement which has slowly matured +in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> my own mind as the result of the experience described in the +preceding pages.</p> + +<p>The first aim of the movement should be to coördinate, and guide towards +a common end, the efforts of a large number of agencies—educational, +religious, social and philanthropic—which, in their several ways, are +already engaged upon some part of the work to be done. For such a +movement the United States offers advantages not to be found elsewhere +in the area for which we are concerned. For here public-spirited +individuals and associations of the kind required exist in larger +numbers than can be known to any one who has not watched what is going +on in this field of social service. If I had not already devoted too +much space to personal experiences, I could of my own knowledge testify +to the remarkable growth of organised effort in American rural +communities. Sometimes this is the outcome of a growing spirit of +neighbourliness, sometimes it emanates from young Universities and +Colleges <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>emulating the extension work with which nearly every big city +is familiar. I have been much struck with the way in which, at +gatherings of school teachers, pedagogic detail and questions affecting +their status and emoluments have become less popular subjects for +discussion than schemes of social progress.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Similarly, the +agricultural Press is becoming less exclusively technical and +commercial, and more human. Even the syndicated stuff is getting less +townified. My correspondence, newspaper clippings sent to me, and many +other indications, point in the same direction. They leave the +impression upon my mind that there is a vast, efficient and enthusiastic +army of social workers upon the farm lands of the United States badly in +need of a Headquarters Staff.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p><p>If I am right in believing that, of the English-speaking countries, the +United States affords the best opportunity for such a consummation, most +assuredly the present time is peculiarly auspicious. If Mr. Roosevelt's +Country Life policy has not been received with any marked enthusiasm, +American public opinion has been thoroughly aroused upon his +Conservation policy. The latter cannot possibly come to fruition—nor +even go much further—until the Country Life problem is boldly faced. In +the Conference of Governors it was pointed out over and over again that +the farmer, now the chief waster, must become the chief conserver. As +such he will himself become a supporter of the policy, and will bring to +the aid of those advocates of Conservation whose chief concern is for +future generations, an interested public opinion which will go far to +outweigh the influence of those who profit by the exhaustion of natural +resources. To the country life reformer I would say that, as the one +idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> has caught on while the other lags, he will, if he is wise, hitch +his Country Life waggon to the Conservation star.</p> + +<p>With every advantage of time and place, the promotion of the movement +which is to counteract the townward tendency will have to reckon with +the psychological difficulty inherent in the conditions. They must +recognise the paradox of the situation already pointed out, the +necessity of interesting the town in the problems of the country. The +urban attitude of mind which caused the evil, and now makes it difficult +to interest public opinion in the remedy, is not new; it pervades the +literature of the Augustan age. I recall from my school days Virgil's +great handbook on Italian agriculture, written with a mastery of +technical detail unsurpassed by Kipling. But the farmers he had in mind +when he indulged in his memorable rhapsody upon the happiness of their +lot were out for pleasure rather than profit. While the suburban poet +sang to the merchant princes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> Rome was paying a bonus upon imported +corn, and entering generally upon that fatal disregard for the interest +of the rural population which is one of the accepted causes of the +decline and fall.</p> + +<p>How that Old World tragi-comedy comes back to me when I talk to New York +friends on the subject of these pages! I am not, so they tell me, up to +date in my information; there is a marked revulsion of feeling upon the +town <i>versus</i> country question; the tide of the rural exodus has really +turned, as I might have discerned without going far afield. At many a +Long Island home I might see on Sundays, weather permitting, the +horny-handed son of week-day toil in Wall Street, rustically attired, +inspecting his Jersey cows and aristocratic fowls. These supply a select +circle in New York with butter and eggs, at a price which leaves nothing +to be desired—unless it be some information as to the cost of +production. Full justice is done to the new country life when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +Farmers' Club of New York fulfils its chief function, the annual dinner +at Delmonico's. Then agriculture is extolled in fine Virgilian style, +the Hudson villa and the Newport 'cottage' being permitted to divide the +honours of the rural revival with the Long Island home. But to my +bucolic intelligence, it would seem that against the 'back to the land' +movement of Saturday afternoon the captious critic might set the rural +exodus of Monday morning.</p> + +<p>These reflections are introduced in no unfriendly spirit, and with +serious intent. To me this new rural life is associated with memories of +characteristically American hospitality; but my interest in it is more +than personal. It is giving to those who cultivate it, among whom are +the helpers most needed at the moment, a point of view which will enable +them to grasp the real problem of the open country, as it exists, for +example, in the great food-producing and cotton-growing tracts of the +West and South. Both in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> countries where the townward tendency of +the industrial age was foreseen and prevented, and in those in which the +evil is being cured, the impulse and inspiration which will be required +to initiate and sustain our Country Life movement came mainly from +leaders who were not themselves agriculturists.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Proficiency in the +practice or even in the business of farming is not necessary. What is +needed is a comprehensive knowledge of public affairs, political +imagination, an understanding sympathy with and a philosophic insight +into the entire life of communities. Men who combine with the necessary +experience those gifts of heart and mind which go to make the higher +citizenship in the many, and the statesmanship in the few, will more +likely be found in the city than in the country. Yet they are, in the +conditions, the natural leaders of the Country Life movement, which must +now be defined.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p><p>The situation demands two things; on the one hand an association, +popular, propagandist, organising; on the other, an Institute, +scientific, philosophic, research-making. These two things are distinct +in character, but they are complementary to each other. One will require +popular enthusiasm and business organisation. To the service of the +other must be brought the patient spirit of scientific and philosophic +analysis and inquiry. These two bodies—the popular propagandist +association and the scientific research-making Institute—must, +therefore, be created; and, for a reason to be explained when we +consider the work of the Institute, they should be independent of each +other. This rough indication of the character of the work, which I will +describe more in detail presently, will suffice for the moment. I feel +that the work will be so intensely human in its interest that it will be +well to say at once how the two central agencies can be established, and +the movement made, not a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> writer's fancy, but a living and doing agency +of human progress.</p> + +<p>A body, in many respects ideally fitted to give the necessary impulse +and direction to the work of organisation, is already in the field. The +leaders of the Conservation idea, recognising that their policy, in +common with other policies, will need an organised public opinion at its +back, have founded a National Conservation Association. Mr. Gifford +Pinchot has now been selected as its President. Before he was available, +the task of organising and setting to work the new institution was +unanimously entrusted to and accepted by President Eliot, of whose +qualifications all I will say is that we foreign students of social +problems vie with his own countrymen in our appreciation of his public +work and aims. These two appointments are sufficient proof of the +serious importance of the work, and bespeak public influence and support +for the Association. I have no doubt that this body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> would be fully +qualified to formulate and initiate the Country Life movement, and act +as the central agency for the active promotion of its objects. Its +members, who, I am sure, agree with Mr. Roosevelt in regarding the +movement as a necessary complement to the Conservation policy, might +even feel that for this very reason it was incumbent upon them to set +their organisation to this work.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one consideration which will make Mr. Pinchot and his +associates hesitate to adopt this course. The doubt relates to the +distinction I have drawn between the Conservation policy and the Country +Life movement, the one seeking to promote legislative and administrative +action, and the other, while it may give birth to a policy, being +chiefly concerned with voluntary effort.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Although the National +Conservation Association is founded for the purpose of educating public +opinion upon the Conservation idea, it may decide to support<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the +Conservation policy of one party rather than that of another. It would +thus become too much involved in party controversy to act as a central +agency of a movement which must embrace men of all parties. Should this +view prevail, the difficulty can be easily surmounted by following the +Irish precedent, where we had a very similar and indeed far more +delicate situation to save from political trouble. An American +Agricultural Organisation Society could be founded for the purpose in +view, and as it is probable that leading advocates of the Conservation +policy would take a prominent part in the Country Life movement, the +interdependence of the two ideas would have practical recognition.</p> + +<p>Apart from the possibility of political complications, there is one +strong reason to recommend this course. The movement will accomplish its +best and most permanent results as an advocate of self-reliance; it will +seek to make self-help effective through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>organisation; it will concern +itself much more for those things which the farmers can do for +themselves by coöperation than with those things which the Government +can do for them.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The selection, however, between the two alternative +courses is a question which the foreign critic cannot decide. The work +to which I now return will be the same, whatever agency is charged with +its execution.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p><p>The central body (which for brevity I will call the Association) will +have as its general aim the economic and social development of rural +communities. The work will be mainly that of active organisation. For +reasons explained in the earlier chapters, the organisation must be +coöperative in character, and will be concentrated upon the business +methods of the farmers. This will, it is believed, cure a radical defect +in their system—a defect which, as I have argued, is responsible for a +restricted production, and for a course of distribution injurious alike +to producer and consumer, besides exercising a depressing influence upon +the economic efficiency and social life of rural communities. It follows +that the first step towards a general reconstruction of country life, +which has the promise of giving to the country a social attraction +strong enough to stem the tide of the townward migration, is +agricultural coöperation.</p> + +<p>Such being the general aim and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>definite procedure, the first +practical question that arises will be, how to apply this +solvent—agricultural coöperation. It will not suffice to throw these +two long words at the hardy rustic; shorter and more emphatic words +might come back. Two equally necessary things must be done; the +principle must be made clear, and the practical details of this rural +equivalent of urban business combination must be explained in language +understanded of the people. It is not difficult to draft a paper scheme +for this purpose, but the fitting of the plan to local conditions is a +very expert business. Hence the central agency should have at its +disposal a corps of experts in coöperative organisation for agricultural +purposes. After a short visit to a likely district by a competent +exponent of the theory and practice, local volunteers would be found to +carry on the work. Experience shows that once a well-organised +coöperative association of farmers is permanently established, similar +associations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> spring up spontaneously under the magic influence of +proved success in known conditions. I should strongly recommend +concentration at first on a few selected districts, with the aim of +making standard models to which other communities could work. I need +hardly say that all this work would be done in coöperation with whatever +other agencies would lend their aid. The Country Life movement would be +extremely useful to the great educational foundations centred in New +York. I happen to know that the Trustees of the Rockefeller, Carnegie +and Russell Sage endowments are keenly desirous to promote such a +redirection of rural education as will bring it into a more helpful +relation with the working lives of the rural population. Then there are +such bodies as the Y. M. C. A., whose leaders, I am told, are alive to +the value of the open air life, and are anxious to extend their country +work in the rural districts. The great army of rural teachers, the +Farmers' Union, and other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> farmers' organisations I have already named +would gladly coöperate with schemes making for rural progress.</p> + +<p>More important, I believe, than is generally realised, from an economic +and social point of view, are the rural churches. In many European +countries, where agricultural coöperation has played a great part in the +people's lives, the clergy have ardently supported the system on account +of its moral value. In Ireland, some of our very best volunteer +organisers are clergymen. Some leaders of the rural church in the United +States have told me that a feeling is growing that an increased economic +usefulness in the clergy would strengthen their position in the society +which they serve in a higher capacity. I know that the suggestion of +clerical intervention in secular affairs is open to misunderstanding. +But here is a body of educated citizens who would gladly take part in +any real social service; and here is a situation where there is work of +high moral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> and social value calling for volunteers. Nothing but good, +it seems to me, could result if such men, who have more opportunity and +inclination for general reading than the working farmer, would help in +explaining the intricacies of coöperative organisation and procedure +which must be understood and practised in order that the system may be +fruitful.</p> + +<p>In addition to its active propagandist work, the central Association +could exercise a powerful and helpful influence in other ways. It +should, of course, keep both the agricultural and the general press +informed of its plans and progress. It should also keep in touch with +the agricultural work of all important educational bodies, and more +especially urge upon them the necessity of spreading the coöperative +idea. The Department of Agriculture would welcome and support the +movement; for I know many leading men in that service who thoroughly +understand and recognise the immense <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>importance, especially to backward +rural communities, of the coöperative principle.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary, at this stage, to go further into details. I feel +confident that the work of assisting all suitable agencies, such as +those I have named, and others which may be available, through +organisers of agricultural coöperation and by the spreading of +information, would soon enable the central body to render inestimable +service to the cause of rural progress. Such, at any rate, is the +outline of my first proposal for giving to my American fellow-workers +upon the rural problem the assistance which I feel they most need at the +present moment. I pass now to my second proposal.</p> + +<p>I suggest that an institution—which, as I have said, will be +scientific, philosophic, research-making—should be founded. It would +be, in effect, a Bureau of research in rural social economy. Personally +I know that, in my own experience as an administrator and organiser, I +have been constantly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> brought face to face with problems where we could +turn to no guide—no patient band of investigators who had been +measuring, analysing, determining the data. Yet in some directions much +excellent work is being done. Every social worker knows how the +knowledge of what others are doing will help him. It is strange how +little the problems of the rural population have entered into the +studies of economists and sociologists. At leading Universities I have +sought in vain for light. At a recent anniversary in New York, which +brought together the foremost economists of the Old and New World, there +was an almost complete omission of the country side of things from a +programme which I am sure was generally held to be almost exhaustive. +The fact is, the subject must be treated as a new one, and it is +urgently necessary, if the work of the Country Life movement is to be +based on a solid foundation of fact, to make good the deficiency of +information which has resulted from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> general lack of interest in the +subject under review. An Institute is wanted to survey the field, to +collect, classify and coördinate information and to supplement and carry +forward the work of research and inquiry. The rural social worker +requires as far as possible to carry exact statistical method into his +work so that he may no longer have to depend on general statements, but +may have at his command evidence, the validity of which can be trusted, +while its significance can be measured. I may mention a few typical +questions on which useful light would be shed by the Institute's +researches:—</p> + +<p>1. The influence of coöperative methods (<i>a</i>) on the productive and +distributive efficiency of rural communities, and (<i>b</i>) on the +development of a social country life.</p> + +<p>2. The systems of rural education, both general and technical, in +different countries, and the administrative and financial basis of each +system.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p><p>3. The relation between agricultural economy and the cost of food.</p> + +<p>4. The changes (<i>a</i>) in the standard and cost of living, and (<i>b</i>) in +the economy, solvency and stability of rural communities.</p> + +<p>5. The economic interdependence of the agricultural producer and the +urban consumer, and the extent and incidence of middle profits in the +distribution of agricultural produce.</p> + +<p>6. The action taken by different Governments to assist the development +and secure the stability of the agricultural classes, and the +possibilities and the dangers of such action, with special reference to +the delimitation of the respective spheres of State aid and voluntary +effort.</p> + +<p>7. How far agricultural and rural employment can relieve the problems of +city unemployment, and assist the work of social reclamation.</p> + +<p>Some may think that I am assigning to two bodies work which could be as +well done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> by one. While all proposals for multiplying organisations in +the field of social service should be critically examined, there are +strong reasons in this case for the course I suggest. The two bodies, +while working to a common end, will differ essentially in their scope +and method. The propagandist agency will be executive and +administrative, and while its operations would have suggestive value to +the country social worker everywhere, it would be concerned directly +only with the United States. Furthermore, it need not necessarily have +any lengthened existence as a national propagandist agency. It would be +founded mainly to introduce that method into American agricultural +economy which I have tried to show lies at the root of rural progress. +As soon as the soundness of the general scheme had been demonstrated in +any State, the central body would promote an organisation to take over +the work within that State. The State organisation would, in its turn, +soon be able to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> devolve its propagandist work upon a federation of the +business associations which it had been the means of establishing. That +is the contemplated evolution of my first proposal—the early delegation +of the functions of the national to the State propagandist agency, which +would further devolve the work upon bodies of farmers organised +primarily for economic purposes, but with the ulterior aim of social +advancement.</p> + +<p>The Country Life Institute would be on a wholly different footing. Its +researches, if only to subserve the Country Life movement in the United +States, would have to range over the civilised world, and to be +historical as well as contemporary. It should be regarded as a +contribution to the welfare of the English-speaking peoples, one aspect +of whose civilisation—if there be truth in what I have written—needs +to be reconsidered in the light which the Institute is designed to +afford. Its task will be of no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> ephemeral character. Its success will +not, as in the case of the active propagandist body, lessen the need for +its services, but will rather stimulate the demand for them.</p> + +<p>These differences will have to be taken into account in considering the +important question of ways and means. Both bodies will, I hope, appeal +successfully to public-spirited philanthropists. The temporary body will +need only temporary support; perhaps provision for a five-years' +campaign would suffice. In the near future, local organisations would +naturally defray the cost of the services rendered to them by the +central body; but the Country Life Institute would need a permanent +endowment. The man fitted for its chief control will not be found idle, +but will have to be taken from other work. The scheme, as I have worked +it out, will involve prolonged economic and social inquiry over a wide +field. This would be conducted mostly by postgraduate students. From +those who did this outside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> work with credit would be recruited the +small staff which would be needed at the central office to get into the +most accessible form the facts and opinions which are needed for the +guidance of those who are doing practical work in the field of rural +regeneration. My estimate of the amount required to do the work well is +from forty to fifty thousand dollars a year, or say a capital sum of +from a million to a million and a quarter dollars. Whether the project +is worthy of such an expenditure, depends upon the question whether I +have made good my case.</p> + +<p>Let me summarise this case. I have tried to show that modern +civilisation is one-sided to a dangerous degree—that it has +concentrated itself in the towns and left the country derelict. This +tendency is peculiar to the English-speaking communities, where the +great industrial movement has had as its consequence the rural problem I +have examined. If the townward tendency cannot be checked, it will +ultimately bring about the decay of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> the towns themselves, and of our +whole civilisation, for the towns draw their supply of population from +the country. Moreover, the waste of natural resources, and possibly the +alarming increase in the price of food, which have lately attracted so +much attention in America, are largely due to the fact that those who +cultivate the land do not intend to spend their lives upon it; and +without a rehabilitation of country life there can be no success for the +Conservation policy. Therefore, the Country Life movement deals with +what is probably the most important problem before the English-speaking +peoples at this time. Now the predominance of the towns which is +depressing the country is based partly on a fuller application of modern +physical science, partly on superior business organisation, partly on +facilities for occupation and amusement; and if the balance is to be +redressed, the country must be improved in all three ways. There must be +better farming, better business, and better living. These three are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +equally necessary, but better business must come first. For farmers, the +way to better living is coöperation, and what coöperation means is the +chief thing the American farmer has to learn.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In the capital of Virginia, to take one notable example, I +have witnessed a perfect ferment of social activity at one of the +gatherings. It brought together such an ideal combination of the best +spirits in both rural and urban life that I anticipate some striking +developments in rural civilization which will surely extend beyond the +borders of the State.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> I may mention Raiffeisen, Luzzati, Rocquigny, Bishop +Grundtwig, Henry W. Wolff, the Rev. T. A. Finlay, S.J., and most of the +leaders in agricultural organization in Great Britain and Ireland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See above, <a href="#Page_31">page 31</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> It may seem a small matter even for a footnote, but an +unambiguous terminology is so important to propagandist work that I must +mention a somewhat unfortunate use of the word 'coöperation' which +prevails in official and pedagogic circles. We hear of coöperative +demonstration work, coöperative education, coöperative lectures, and so +forth. Whenever a Government or State department, or an educational body +works with any other agency, and sometimes when they are only doing +their own work, they use the term, which is of course grammatically +applicable whenever two people work together—from matrimony down. If +the word in connection with agriculture could be retained for its +technical sense, so long established and well understood in Europe, the +proposed movement might be saved a good deal of confused thinking. Might +not Government and educational authorities substitute the word +'coördinated' so as to preserve the distinction?</p></div></div> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p class="center">Printed in the United States of America.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rural Life Problem of the United +States, by Horace Curzon Plunkett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF U.S. *** + +***** This file should be named 27305-h.htm or 27305-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/3/0/27305/ + +Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Rural Life Problem of the United States + Notes of an Irish Observer + +Author: Horace Curzon Plunkett + +Release Date: November 21, 2008 [EBook #27305] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF U.S. *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + + +THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES + +[Illustration: Publisher's logo] + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO +DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO + +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED +LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA +MELBOURNE + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. +TORONTO + + + + +THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES + +NOTES OF AN IRISH OBSERVER +BY +SIR HORACE PLUNKETT + +New York +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +1919 + +_All rights reserved_ + + +COPYRIGHT, 1910, + +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1910. Reprinted October, 1910; +January, 1911; October, 1912; September, 1913; January, 1917. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +The thoughts contained in the following pages relate to one side of the +life of a country which has been to me, as to many Irishmen, a second +home. They are offered in friendly recognition of kindness I cannot hope +to repay, received largely as a student of American social and economic +problems, from public-spirited Americans who, I know, will appreciate +most highly any slight service to their country. + +The substance of the book appeared in five articles contributed to the +New York _Outlook_ under the title "Conservation and Rural Life." +Several American friends, deeply interested in the Rural Life problem, +asked me to republish the series. In doing so, I have felt that I ought +to present a more comprehensive view of my subject than either the space +allowed or the more casual publication demanded. + +I have to thank the editors of the _Outlook_ for the generous +hospitality of their columns, and for full freedom to republish what +belongs to them. + +HORACE PLUNKETT. + +THE PLUNKETT HOUSE, DUBLIN, +April, 1910. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SUBJECT AND THE POINT OF VIEW + + PAGE +The subject defined--A reconstruction of rural life in +English-speaking communities essential to the progress of +Western civilisation--A movement for a new rural +civilisation to be proposed--The author's point of view +derived from thirty years of Irish and American +experience--The physical contrast and moral resemblances in +the Irish and American rural problems--Mr. Roosevelt's +interest in this aspect of the question--His Conservation +and Country Life policies 1 + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LAUNCHING OF TWO ROOSEVELT POLICIES + +The sane emotionalism of American public opinion--Gifford +Pinchot as the Apostle of Conservation--His test of +national efficiency--Mr. James J. Hill's notable +pronouncements upon the wastage of natural resources--The +evolution of the Conservation policy--Historical and +present causes of national extravagance--The Conference of +Governors and their pronouncement upon Conservation--Mr. +Roosevelt's Country Life policy--His estimate of the lasting +importance of the Conservation and Country Life ideas--The +popularity of the Conservation policy and the lack of +interest in the Country Life policy--The Country Life +Commission's inquiries and the reality of the problem--The +need and opportunity for reconstruction of rural life 17 + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF RURAL NEGLECT + +The origin of rural neglect in English-speaking countries +traced to the Industrial Revolution in England--Effect of +modern economic changes upon the mutual relations of town +and country populations--Respects in which the old relations +ought to be restored--Three economic reasons for the study +of rural conditions--The social consequences of rural +neglect--The political importance of rustic experience to +reenforce urban intelligence in modern democracies--The +analogue of the European exodus in the United States--The +moral aspects of rural neglect--The danger to national +efficiency of sacrificing agricultural to commercial and +industrial interests--The happy circumstance of Mr. +Roosevelt's interest in rural well-being 35 + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE INNER LIFE OF THE AMERICAN FARMER + +Reasons why the rural problem resulting from urban +predominance exists only in English-speaking +countries--Neglect of farmer more easily excused in the +United States than elsewhere owing to his apparent +prosperity--Country Life Commission's pronouncement on rural +backwardness--Why the matter must be taken up by the +towns--A survey of American rural life--The problem +economically and sociologically considered in the Middle +West--Causes and character of rural backwardness in the +Southern States--The boll-weevil and the hookworm as +illustrations of unconcern for the well-being of rural +communities--The problem in the New England States not +typically American--The progressive attitude of some +communities in the Far West in rural reform 57 + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WEAK SPOT IN AMERICAN RURAL ECONOMY + +The three elements of a rural existence--Mr. Roosevelt's +formula: "Better farming, better business, better living"--A +comparative analysis of urban and rural business methods +shows that herein lies chief cause of rural +backwardness--Reasons why farmers fail to adopt methods of +combination--A description of the cooperative system in its +application to agriculture--The introduction and development +of agricultural cooperation in Ireland--The Raiffeisen +Credit Association successful in poorest Irish +districts--Summary of cooperative achievement by Irish +farmers--British imitation of Irish agricultural organising +methods--A criticism of American farmers' +organisations--Lack of combination for business purposes the +cause of political impotence--Urgent need for a +reorganisation of American agriculture upon cooperative lines 83 + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WAY TO BETTER FARMING AND BETTER LIVING + +The retarded application of science to agriculture and +neglect of agricultural education--Present progress in +agricultural education--Full benefit of education must await +cooperative organisation--Connection between cooperation and +social progress--Mr. Roosevelt on the cause and cure of +rural discontent--Two views upon the principles of rural +betterment--The part cooperation is playing in Irish rural +society--General observations on town and country +pleasures--The social necessity for a redirection of rural +education--The rural labour problem--The position of women +in farm life--The reason why the remedy for rural +backwardness must come from without--The paradox of the problem 117 + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TWO THINGS NEEDFUL + +Summary of diagnosis and indication of treatment--Chief aim +the cooerdination of agencies available for social work in +the country--Numerical strength and fine social spirit +abroad, but leadership needed--Mutual interest of advocates +of Conservation and of rural reform--The psychological +difficulty due to predominance of urban idea--Roman history +repeating itself in New York--The natural leaders of the +Country Life movement to be found in the cities--The objects +of the movement defined--Two new institutions to be created; +the one executive and organising, the other academic--The +National Conservation Association qualified to initiate and +direct the movement--Possibly an American Agricultural +Organisation Society should be founded for the work--The +chief practical work the introduction of agricultural +cooperation--Necessity for joining forces with existing +philanthropic agencies--Suggested enlistment of country +clergy in cooperative propagandism--The Country Life +Institute, its purpose and functions--Reason why one body +cannot undertake work assigned to the two new +institutions--The financial requirements of the +Institute--Summary and conclusions 145 + + + + +THE RURAL LIFE PROBLEM + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SUBJECT AND THE POINT OF VIEW + + +I submit in the following pages a proposition and a proposal--a +distinction which an old-country writer of English may, perhaps, be +permitted to preserve. The proposition is that, in the United States, as +in other English-speaking communities, the city has been developed to +the neglect of the country. I shall not have to labour the argument, as +nobody seriously disputes the contention; but I shall trace the main +causes of the neglect, and indicate what, in my view, must be its +inevitable consequences. If I make my case, it will appear that our +civilisation has thus become dangerously one-sided, and that, in the +interests of national well-being, it is high time for steps to be taken +to counteract the townward tendency. + +My definite proposal to those who accept these conclusions is that a +Country Life movement, upon lines which will be laid down, should be +initiated by existing associations, whose efforts should be supplemented +by a new organisation which I shall call a Country Life Institute. There +are in the United States a multiplicity of agencies, both public and +voluntary, available for this work. But the army of workers in this +field of social service needs two things: first, some definite plan for +cooerdinating their several activities, and, next, some recognised source +of information collected from the experience of the Old and the New +World. It is the purpose of these pages to show that these needs are +real and can be met. + +Two obvious questions will here suggest themselves. Why should the +United States--of all countries in the world--be chosen for such a theme +instead of a country like Ireland, where the population depends mainly +upon agriculture? What qualifications has an Irishman, be he never so +competent to advise upon the social and economic problems of his own +country, to talk to Americans about the life of their rural population? +I admit at once that, while I have made some study of American +agriculture and rural economy, my actual work upon the problem of which +I write has been restricted to Ireland. But I claim, with some pride, +that, in thought upon rural economy, Ireland is ahead of any +English-speaking country. She has troubles of her own, some inherent in +the adverse physical conditions, and others due to well-known historical +causes, that too often impede the action to which her best thoughts +should lead. But the very fact that those who grapple with Irish +problems have to work through failure to success will certainly not +lessen the value to the social student of the experience gained. I +recognise, however, that I must give the reader so much of personal +narrative as is required to enable him to estimate the value of my +facts, and of the conclusions which I base upon them. + +To have enjoyed an Irish-American existence, to have been profoundly +interested in, and more or less in touch with, public affairs in both +countries, to have been an unwilling politician in Ireland and not a +politician at all in America, is, to say the least, an unusual +experience for an Irishman. But such has been my record during the last +twenty years. Soon after graduating at Oxford, I was advised to live in +mountain air for a while, and for the next decade I was a ranchman along +the foothills of the Rockies. To those who knew that my heart was in +Ireland, I used to explain that I might some day be in politics at home, +and must take care of my lungs. In 1889 I returned to live and work in +my own country, but I retained business interests, including some +farming operations, in the Western States. Ever since then I have taken +my annual holiday across the Atlantic, and have studied rural +conditions over a wider area in the United States than my business +interests demanded. + +For eight years, commencing in 1892, I was a Member of Parliament. My +legislative ambition was to get something done for Irish industry, and +especially Irish agriculture. Having secured the assistance of an +unprecedented combination of representative Irishmen, known as the +Recess Committee (because it sat during the Parliamentary recess), we +succeeded in getting the addition we wanted to the machinery of Irish +Government. The functions of the new institution are sufficiently +indicated by its cumbrous Parliamentary title, "The Department of +Agriculture and other Industries and for Technical Instruction for +Ireland." I mention this official experience because it not only +intensified my desire to study American conditions, but it also brought +me frequently to Washington to study the working of those Federal +institutions which are concerned for the welfare of the rural +population. There I enjoyed the unfailing courtesy of American public +servants to the foreign inquirer. + +On one of these visits, in the winter of 1905-1906, I called upon +President Roosevelt to pay him my respects, and to express to him my +obligations to some members of his Administration. I wished especially +to acknowledge my indebtedness to that veteran statesman, Secretary +Wilson, the value of whose long service to the American farmer it would +be hard to exaggerate. Mr. Roosevelt questioned me as to the exact +object of my inquiries, and asked me to come again and discuss with him +more fully than was possible at the moment certain economic and social +questions which had engaged much of his own thoughts. He was greatly +interested to learn that in Ireland we have been approaching many of +these questions from his own point of view. He made me tell him the +story of Irish land legislation, and of recent Irish movements for the +improvement of agricultural conditions. Ever since, his interest in +these Irish questions--to _the_ Irish Question we gave a wide berth--has +been maintained on account of their bearing upon his Rural Life policy, +for I had shown him how the economic strengthening and social elevation +of the Irish farmer had become a matter of urgent Irish concern. I +recall many things he said on that occasion, which show that his two +great policies of Conservation and Country Life reform were maturing in +his mind. I need hardly say how deeply interesting these policies are to +me, embracing as they do economic and social problems, the working out +of which in my own country happens to be the task to which I have +devoted the best years of my life. + +I must now offer to the reader so much of the story of the Country Life +movement in my own country as will enable him to understand its +interest to Mr. Roosevelt and to many another worker upon the analogous +problems of the United States. Ireland is passing through an agrarian +revolution. There, as in many other European countries, the title to +most of the agricultural land rested upon conquest. The English attempt +to colonise Ireland never completely succeeded nor completely failed; +consequently the Irish never ceased to repudiate the title of the alien +landlord. In 1881 Mr. Gladstone introduced one of the greatest agrarian +reforms in history--rent-fixing by judicial authority--which was +certainly a bold attempt to put an end to a desolating conflict, +centuries old. + +The scheme failed,--whether, as some hold, from its inherent defects, or +from the circumstances of the time, is an open question. It is but fair +to its author to point out that a rapidly increasing foreign +competition, chiefly from the newly opened tracts of virgin soil in the +New World, led to a fall in agricultural prices, which made the first +rents fixed appear too high. Quicker and cheaper transit, together with +processes for keeping produce fresh over the longest routes, soon showed +that the new market conditions had come to stay. A bad land system on a +rising market might succeed better than a good one on a falling. The +land tenure reforms begun in 1881, having broken down under stress of +foreign competition, and Purchase Acts on a smaller scale having been +tentatively tried in the interval, in 1903 Parliament finally decreed +that sufficient money should be provided to buy out all the remaining +agricultural land. In a not remote future, some two hundred million +pounds sterling--a billion dollars--will have been advanced by the +British Government to enable the tenants to purchase their holdings, the +money to be repaid in easy instalments during periods averaging over +sixty years. + +Twenty years ago this general course of events was foreseen, and a few +Irishmen conceived and set to work upon what has come to be Ireland's +Rural Life policy. The position taken up was simple. What Parliament was +about to do would pull down the whole structure of Ireland's +agricultural economy, and would clear away the chief hindrance to +economic and social progress. But upon the ground thus cleared the +edifice of a new rural social economy would have to be built. This work, +although it needs the fostering care of government, and liberal +facilities for a system of education intimately related to the people's +working lives, belongs mainly to the sphere of voluntary effort. + +The new movement, which was started in 1889 to meet the circumstances I +have indicated, was thus a movement for the up-building of country life. +It anticipated the lines of the formula which Mr. Roosevelt adopted in +his Message transmitting to Congress the Report of the Country Life +Commission--better farming, better business, better living: we began +with better business, which consisted in the introduction of +agricultural cooperation into the farming industry, for several reasons +which will appear later, and for one which I must mention here. We found +that we could not develop in unorganised farmers a political influence +strong enough to enable them to get the Government to do its part +towards better farming. Owing to the new agricultural opinion which had +been developed indirectly by organising the farmer, we were able to win +from Parliament the department I have named above. This institution was +so framed and endowed that it is able to give to the Irish farmers all +the assistance which can be legitimately given by public agencies and at +public expense. The assistance consists chiefly of education. But +education is interpreted in the widest sense. Practical instruction to +old and young, in schools, upon the farms, and at meetings, lectures, +experiments, and demonstrations, the circulation of useful information +and advice, and all the usual methods known to progressive governments, +are being introduced with the chief aim of enabling the farmer to apply +to the practice of farming the teachings of modern science. Better +living, which includes making country life more interesting and +attractive, is sought by using voluntary associations, some organised +primarily for business purposes, and others, having no business aim, for +social and intellectual ends. But Irish rural reformers are agreed that +by far the most important step towards a higher and a better rural life +would be a redirection of education in the country schools. To this I +shall return in the proper place. + +I can now proceed with my American experiences without leaving any doubt +as to the point of view from which I approach the problem of rural life +in the United States. Having engaged in actual work upon that problem in +Ireland, where a combination of economic changes and political events +has made its solution imperative, and having been long in personal +touch with rural conditions in some Western States, my interest in +certain policies which were maturing at Washington may be easily +surmised. There I found that, with wholly different conditions to be +dealt with, the thoughts of the President and of others in his +confidence were, as regards the main issue, moving in the same direction +as my own. They too had come to feel that the welfare of the rural +population had been too long neglected, and that it was high time to +consider how the neglect might be repaired. In his annual message to +Congress in 1904, Mr. Roosevelt had made it clear that he was fully +conscious of this necessity. "Nearly half of the people of this +country," he wrote, "devote their energies to growing things from the +soil. Until a recent date little has been done to prepare these millions +for their life work." I did not realise at the time the full import of +these sentences. Nor did I foresee that the problem of rural life was +to be forced to the front by the awakening of public opinion, upon +another issue differing from and yet closely related to the subject of +these pages. Mr. Roosevelt was thinking out the Conservation idea, which +I believe will some day be recognised as the greatest of his policies. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE LAUNCHING OF TWO ROOSEVELT POLICIES + + +Although somebody has already said something like it, I would say there +is a tide in the thoughts of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to +action. We make the general claim for our Western civilisation, that, +whatever the form of government, once public opinion is thoroughly +stirred upon a great and vital issue, it is but a question of time for +the will to find the way. But in the life of the United States, the +passage from thought to action is more rapid than in any country that I +know. Nowhere do we find such a combination of emotionalism with sanity. +No better illustration of these national qualities could be desired than +that afforded by the inception and early growth of the Conservation +policy. + +I have already shown how my inquiries at Washington gave me access to +the most accessible of the world's statesmen. At the same time there +came into my life another remarkable personality. To the United States +Forester of that day I owe my earliest interest in the Conservation +policy. In counsel with him I came to regard the Conservation and Rural +Life policies as one organic whole. So I must say here a word about the +man who, more than any other, has inspired whatever in these pages may +be worth printing. + +I first met Gifford Pinchot in his office in Washington in 1905. I was +not especially interested in forestry, but the Forester was so +interesting that I listened with increasing delight to the story of his +work. I noticed that as an administrator he had a grasp of detail and a +mastery of method which are not usually found in men who have had no +training in large business affairs. I thought the secret of his success +lay between love of work and sympathy with workers, which gained him +the devotion and enthusiastic cooperation of his staff. It is, however, +as a statesman rather than as an administrator that his achievement is +and will be known. + +When I first knew the Forester, I found that already the conservation of +timber was but a small part of his material aims: every national +resource must be husbanded. But over the whole scheme of Conservation a +great moral issue reigned supreme. He clung affectionately to his task, +but it was not to him mere forestry administration. In his far vision he +seemed to see men as trees walking. The saving of one great asset was +broadening out into insistence upon a new test of national efficiency: +the people of the United States were to be judged by the manner in which +they applied their physical and mental energies to the conservation and +development of their country's natural resources. The acceptance of this +test would mean the success of a great policy for the initiation of +which President Roosevelt gave almost the whole credit to Gifford +Pinchot. + +There is one other name which will be ever honorably associated with the +dawn of the Conservation idea which Mr. Roosevelt elevated to the status +and dignity of a national policy. In September, 1906, Mr. James J. Hill +delivered (under the title of "The Future of the United States") what I +think was an epoch-making address. It is significant that this great +railway president opened his campaign for the economic salvation of the +United States by addressing himself, not to politicians or professors, +but to a representative body of Minnesota farmers. This address +presented for the first time in popular form a remarkable collection of +economic facts, which formed the basis of conclusions as startling as +they were new. Let me attempt a brief summary of its contents. + +The natural resources, to which the Conservation policy relates, may be +divided into two classes: the minerals, which when used cannot be +replaced, and things that grow from the soil, which admit of +indefinitely augmented reproduction. At the head of the former category +stands the supply of coal and iron. This factor in the nation's industry +and commerce was being exhausted at a rate which made it certain that, +long before the end of the century, the most important manufactures +would be handicapped by a higher cost of production. The supply of +merchantable timber was disappearing even more rapidly. But far more +serious than all other forms of wastage was the reckless destruction of +the natural fertility of the soil. The final result, according to Mr. +Hill, must be that within a comparatively brief period--a period for +which the present generation was bound to take thought--this veritable +Land of Promise would be hard pressed to feed its own people, while the +manufactured exports to pay for imported food would not be forthcoming. +It should be added that this sensational forecast was no purposeless +jeremiad. Mr. Hill told his hearers that the danger which threatened the +future of the Nation would be averted only by the intelligence and +industry of those who cultivated the farm lands, and that they had it in +their power to provide a perfectly practicable and adequate remedy. This +was to be found--if such a condensation be permissible--in the +application of the physical sciences to the practice, and of economic +science to the business, of farming. + +In spite of the immense burden of great undertakings which he carried, +Mr. Hill repeated the substance of this address on many occasions. Lord +Rosebery once said that speeches were the most ephemeral of all +ephemeral things, and for some time it looked as if one of the most +important speeches ever delivered by a public man on a great public +issue was going to illustrate the truth of this saying. It seems +strange that his facts and arguments should have remained unchallenged, +and yet unsupported, by other public men. Perhaps the best explanation +is to be found in a recent dictum of Mr. James Bryce. Speaking at the +University of California, the British Ambassador said: "We can all think +of the present, and are only too apt to think chiefly about the present. +The average man, be he educated or uneducated, seldom thinks of anything +else." There are, however, special circumstances in the history of the +United States which account for the extraordinary unconcern about what +is going to happen to the race in a period which may seem long to those +whose personal interest fixes a limit to their gaze, but which is indeed +short in the life of a nation. After the religious, political, and +military struggles through which the American nation was brought to +birth, there followed a century of no less strenuous wrestling with the +forces of nature. That century stands divided by the greatest civil +conflict in the world's history; but this only served to strengthen in a +united people those indomitable qualities to which the nation owes its +leadership in the advancement of civilisation. The abundance (until now +considered as virtual inexhaustibility) of natural resources, the call +for capital and men for their development, the rich reward of conquest +in the field of industry, may explain, but can hardly excuse, a National +attitude which seems to go against the strongest human instinct--one not +altogether wanting in lower animal life--that of the preservation of the +race. It is an attitude which recalls the question said to have been +asked by an Irishman: "What has posterity done for me?" But this was +before Conservation was in the air. + +I have now told what I came by chance to know about the origin of the +Conservation idea. The story of its early growth was no less remarkable +than the suddenness of its appearance. In the spring of 1908 matters +had advanced so far that the governors of all the States and Territories +met to discuss it. Before the Conference broke up they were moved to +"declare the conviction that the great prosperity of our country rests +upon the abundant resources of the land chosen by our forefathers for +their homes," that these resources are "a heritage to be made use of in +establishing and promoting the comfort, prosperity, and happiness of the +American people, but not to be wasted, deteriorated, or needlessly +destroyed; that this material basis is threatened with exhaustion"; that +"conservation of our natural resources is a subject of transcendent +importance which should engage unremittingly the attention of the +Nation, the States, and the people in earnest cooperation"; and that +"this cooperation should find expression in suitable action by the +Congress and by the legislatures of the several States." + +It is, of course, not with Conservation, but with Rural Life, that we +are here directly concerned; but it should be borne in mind that the +chief of all the nation's resources is the fertility of the soil. More +than one competent authority declared at the Conference of Governors +that this national asset was the subject of the greatest actual waste, +and was at the same time capable of the greatest development and +conservation. This interdependence of the two Roosevelt policies--the +fact that neither of them can come to fruition without the success of +the other--makes those of us who work for rural progress rest our chief +hopes upon the newly aroused public opinion in the American Republic. + +To my knowledge this view is shared by President Roosevelt, who always +regarded his Conservation and Rural Life policies as complementary to +each other. The last time I saw him--it was on Christmas Eve, 1908--he +dwelt on this aspect of his public work and aims. I remember how he +expressed the hope that, when the more striking incidents of his +Administration were forgotten, public opinion would look kindly upon his +Conservation and Rural Life policies. I ventured upon the confident +prediction that he would not be disappointed in this anticipation. +Already the authors of the Conservation policy have been rewarded by a +general acceptance of the principle for which they stand. The national +conscience now demands that the present generation, while enjoying the +material blessings with which not only nature but also the labour and +sacrifices of their forefathers have so bounteously endowed them, shall +have due regard for the welfare of those who are to come after them. + +Americans, who are accustomed to rapid developments in public opinion, +will hardly appreciate the impression made by the story I have just told +upon the mind of an observer from old countries, where action does not +tread upon the heels of thought. But surely an amazing thing has +happened. In the life of one Administration a great idea seizes the mind +of the American people. This leads to a stock-taking of natural +resources and a searching of the national conscience. Then, suddenly, +there emerges a quite new national policy. Conceived during the last +Administration, when it brought Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan on to the +same platform, Conservation at once rose above party, and will be the +accepted policy of all future Administrations. It has already secured +almost Pan-American endorsement at its birthplace in Washington. The +fathers of Conservation are now looking forward to a still larger sphere +of influence for their offspring at an International Conference which it +is hoped to assemble at the Hague. + +But it must be admitted that no such reception was accorded to Mr. +Roosevelt's other policy, to which our attention must now be turned. The +reasons for the comparative lack of interest in the problem of Rural +Life are many and complex, but two of them may be noted in passing. +Conservation calls for legislative and administrative action, and this +always sets up a ferment in the political mind. The Rural Life idea, on +the other hand, though it will demand some governmental assistance, must +rely mainly upon voluntary effort. The methods necessary for its +development, and their probable results, are also less obvious, and thus +less easily appreciated by the public. Whatever the reason, while +Conservation has rushed into the forefront of public interest and has +won the status and dignity of a policy, the sister idea is still +struggling for a platform, and its advocates must be content to see +their efforts towards a higher and a better country life regarded as a +movement. + +This estimate of the relative positions of these two ideas in the public +mind will, I think, be borne out when we contrast the quiet initiation +of the movement with the dramatic debut of the policy. For all the +officialism with which it was launched, President Roosevelt's Country +Life Commission might as well have been appointed by some wealthy +philanthropist who would, at least, have paid its members' travelling +expenses,[1] and private initiation might also have spared us the +ridicule which greeted the alleged proposal to "uplift" a body of +citizens who were told that they were already adorning the heights of +American civilisation. The names of the men who volunteered for this +unpaid service should have been a sufficient guarantee that theirs was +no fool's errand.[2] + +How real was the problem the commissioners were investigating was +abundantly proved to those who were present when they got into touch +with working farmers and their wives, and discussed freely and +informally the conditions, human and material, to which the problem of +Rural Life relates. I shall refer again to their report. But I may here +say I am firmly convinced that a complete change in the whole attitude +of public opinion towards the old question of town and country must +precede any large practical outcome to the labours of the Commission. It +has to be brought home to those who lead public opinion that for many +decades we, the English-speaking peoples, have been unconsciously guilty +of having gravely neglected one side, and that perhaps the most +important side, of Western civilisation. + +To sustain this judgment I must now view the sequence of events which +led to the subordination of rural to urban interests, and try to +estimate its probable consequences. It will be seen that the neglect is +comparatively recent, and of English origin. I believe that the New +World offers just now a rare opportunity for launching a movement which +will be directed to a reconstruction of rural life. It is this belief +which has prompted an Irish advocate of rural reform to turn his +thoughts away for a brief space from the poorer peasantry of his own +country and to take counsel with his fellow-workers in the United States +and Canada on a problem which affects them all. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] These, as a matter of fact, were defrayed by the trustees of the +Russell Sage Foundation. + +[2] The Commission consisted of L. H. Bailey, of the New York State +College of Agriculture at Cornell University (chairman); Henry Wallace, +editor of _Wallace's Farmer_, Des Moines, Iowa; Kenyon L. Butterfield, +President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, +Massachusetts; Walter H. Page, editor of _The World's Work_, New York +City; Gifford Pinchot, United States Forester, and Chairman of the +National Conservation Commission; C. S. Barrett, President of the +Farmers' Co-operative and Educational Union of America, Union City, +Georgia; W. A. Beard, of the _Great West Magazine_, Sacramento, +California. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ORIGIN AND CONSEQUENCES OF RURAL NEGLECT + + +The most radical economic change which history records set in during the +last half of the eighteenth century in England, as the result of that +remarkable achievement of modern civilisation, the Industrial +Revolution. Mechanical inventions changed all industry, setting up the +factories of the town instead of the scattered home production of the +country and its villages. In the wake of the new inventions economic +science stepped in, and, scrupulously obeying its own law of demand and +supply, told the then predominant middle classes just what they wished +to be told. Adam Smith had made the wonderful discovery that money and +wealth were not the same thing. Then Ricardo, and after him the +Manchester School of economists, made division of labour the cardinal +virtue in the new gospel of wealth. In order to give full play to this +economic principle all workers in mechanical industries were huddled +together in the towns. There they were to be transformed from +capricious, undisciplined humans into mechanical attachments, and +restricted to such functions as steam-driven automata had not yet +learned to perform. That was the first stage of the Industrial +Revolution, with its chief consequences, the rural exodus and urban +overcrowding. It is a hideous nightmare to look back upon from these +more enlightened days. Well might the angels weep over the flight of all +that was best from the God-made country to the man-made town. + +Before the middle of the last century the clouds began to lift. For a +while the good Lord Shaftesbury seemed to be crying in the wilderness of +middle-class plutocracy, but it was not long before the crying of the +children in their factories stirred the national conscience. The health +of nations was allowed to be considered as well as their wealth. Social +and political science rose up in protest against both the economists and +the manufacturers. There followed a period of beneficent social changes, +no less radical than those which the new mechanical inventions had +produced in the economics of industry. The factory town of to-day +presents a strange contrast to that which sacrificed humanity to +material aggrandisement. What with its shortened hours of labour, +superior artisan dwellings, improved sanitation, parks, open spaces and +playgrounds, free instruction and cheap entertainment for old and young, +hospitals and charities, rapid transportation, a popular Press, and full +political freedom, the modern hive of industry stands as a monument of +what, under liberal laws, can be done by education and organisation to +realise the higher aspirations of a people. + +During this second period, another economic development produced upon +the attitude of the urban mind towards the rural population an effect to +which, I think, has not been given the consideration it deserves. Better +and cheaper transportation, with the consequent establishment of what +the economists call the world-market, completely changed the +relationship between the townsman and the farmer. A sketch of their +former mutual relations will make my meaning clear. Within the last +century every town relied largely for its food supply on the produce of +the fields around its walls. The countrymen coming into the weekly +market were the chief customers for the wares of the town craftsmen. In +this primitive state of trade, townsmen could not but realise the +importance to themselves of a prosperous country population around them. +But this simple exchange, as we all know, has developed into the complex +commercial operations of modern times. To-day most large towns derive +their household stuff from the food-growing tracts of the whole world, +and I doubt whether any are dependent on the neighbouring farmers, or +feel themselves specially concerned for their welfare. I do not think +the general truth of this picture will be questioned, and I hope some +consideration may be given to the conclusions I now draw. + +In the transition we are considering, the reciprocity between the +producers of food and the raw material of clothes on the one hand, and +manufacturers and general traders of the towns on the other, has not +ceased; it has actually increased since the days of steam and +electricity. But it has become national, and even international, rather +than local. Town consumers are still dependent upon agricultural +producers, who, in turn, are much larger consumers than formerly of all +kinds of commodities made in towns. Forty-two per cent of materials used +in manufacture in the United States are from the farm, which also +contributes seventy per cent of the country's exports. But in the +complexity of these trade developments townsmen have been cut off more +and more from personal contact with the country, and in this way have +lost their sense of its importance. My point is that the shifting of the +trade relationship of town and country from its former local to its +present national and international basis in reality increases their +interdependence. And I hold most strongly that until in this matter the +obligations of a common citizenship are realised by the town, we cannot +hope for any lasting National progress. + +Whatever be the causes which have begotten the neglect of rural life, no +one will gainsay the wisdom of estimating the consequences. These are +economic, social, and political; and I will discuss them briefly under +these heads. There are three main economic reasons which suggest a +closer study of rural conditions. First, there is the interdependence of +town and country, less obvious than it was in the days of the local +market, but no less real. Any fall in the number, or decline in the +efficiency, of the farming community, will be accompanied by a +corresponding fall in the country sale of town products. This is +especially true of America, where the foreign commerce is unimportant in +comparison with internal trade. To nourish country life is the best way +to help home trade. And quite as important as these considerations is +the effect which good or bad farming must have upon the cost of living +to the whole population. Excessive middle profits between producer and +consumer may largely account for the very serious rise in the price of +staple articles of food. This is a fact of the utmost significance, but, +as I shall show later, the remedy for too high a cost of production and +distribution lies with the farmer, the improvement of whose business +methods will be seen to be the chief factor in the reform which the +Rural Life movement must attempt to introduce. + +The essential dependence of nations on agriculture is the second +economic consideration. The author of "The Return to the Land," Senator +Jules Meline (successively Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Commerce +and Premier of France), tells us that this remarkable book is "merely an +expansion of a profound thought uttered long ago by a Chinese +philosopher: 'The well-being of a people is like a tree; agriculture is +its root, manufacture and commerce are its branches and its life; if the +root is injured the leaves fall, the branches break away and the tree +dies.'" + +This truth is not hard to apply to the conditions of to-day. The income +of every country depends on its natural resources, and on the skill and +energy of its inhabitants; and the quickest way to increase the income +is to concentrate on the production of those articles for which there is +the greatest demand throughout the commercial world. The relentless +application of this principle has been characteristic of the nineteenth +century. But the augmentation of income has in one special way been +purchased by a diminution of capital. The industrial movement has been +based on an immense expenditure of coal and iron; and in America and +Great Britain the coal and iron which can be cheaply obtained are within +measurable distance of exhaustion. As these supplies diminish, the +industrial leadership of America and Great Britain must disappear, +unless they can employ their activities in other forms of industry. +Those, therefore, who desire that the English-speaking countries should +maintain for many ages that high position which they now occupy, should +do all in their power to encourage a proper system of agriculture--the +one industry in which the fullest use can be made of natural resources +without diminishing the inheritance of future generations--the industry +"about which," Mr. James J. Hill emphatically declares, "all others +revolve, and by which future America shall stand or fall." + +The third economic reason will hardly be disputed. Agricultural +prosperity is an important factor in financial stability. The +fluctuations of commerce depend largely on the good and bad harvests of +the world, but, as they do not coincide with them in time, their +violence is, on the whole, likely to be less in a nation where +agricultural and manufacturing interests balance each other, than in one +depending mainly or entirely on either. The small savings of numerous +farmers, amounting in the aggregate to very large sums, are a powerful +means of steadying the money market; they are not liable to the +vicissitudes nor attracted by the temptations which affect the larger +investors. They remain a permanent national resource, which, as the +experience of France proves, may be confidently drawn upon in time of +need. I have often thought that, were it not for the thrift and industry +of the French peasantry, financial crises would be as frequent in France +as political upheavals. + +As regards the social aspect of rural neglect, I suggest that the city +may be more seriously concerned than is generally imagined for the +well-being of the country. One cannot but admire the civic pride with +which Americans contemplate their great centres of industry and +commerce, where, owing to the many and varied improvements, the townsman +of the future is expected to unite the physical health and longevity of +the Boeotian with the mental superiority of the Athenian. But we may +ask whether this somewhat optimistic forecast does not ignore one +important question. Has it been sufficiently considered how far the +moral and physical health of the modern city depends upon the constant +influx of fresh blood from the country, which has ever been the source +from which the town draws its best citizenship? You cannot keep on +indefinitely skimming the pan and have equally good milk left. In +America the drain may continue a while longer without the inevitable +consequences becoming plainly visible. But sooner or later, if the +balance of trade in this human traffic be not adjusted, the raw material +out of which urban society is made will be seriously deteriorated, and +the symptoms of National degeneracy will be properly charged against +those who neglected to foresee the evil and treat the cause. It is +enough for my present purpose if it be admitted that the people of every +state are largely bred in rural districts, and that the physical and +moral well-being of these districts must eventually influence the +quality of the whole people. + +I come now to the political considerations which, I think, have not been +sufficiently taken into account. In most countries political life +depends largely for its steadiness and sanity upon a strong infusion of +rural opinion into the counsels of the nation. It is a truism that +democracy requires for success a higher level of intelligence and +character in the mass of the people than other forms of government. But +intelligence alone is not enough for the citizen of a democracy; he must +have experience as well, and the experience of a townsman is essentially +imperfect. He has generally a wider theoretical knowledge than the +rustic of the main processes by which the community lives; but the +rustic's practical knowledge of the more fundamental of them is wider +than the townsman's. He knows actually and in detail how corn is grown +and how beasts are bred, whereas the town artisan hardly knows how the +whole of any one article of commerce is made. The townsman sees and +takes part in the wonderful achievements of industrial science without +any full understanding of its methods or of the relative importance and +the interaction of the forces engaged. To this one-sided experience may +be attributed in some measure that disregard of inconvenient facts, and +that impatience of the limits of practicability, which many observers +note as a characteristic defect of popular government. + +However that may be, there is one symptom in modern politics of which +the gravity is generally acknowledged, while its special connection with +the towns is an easily ascertainable fact; I mean the growth of the +cruder forms of Socialism. The town artisan or labourer, who sees +displayed before him vast masses of property in which he has no share, +and contrasts the smallness of his remuneration with the immense results +of his labour, is easily attracted to remedies worse than the disease. A +fuller and more exact understanding of the means by which the wealth of +the community is created is, for the townsman, the best antidote to +mischievous agitation so far as it is not merely the result of poverty. +But the countryman, especially the proprietor of a piece of land, +however small, is protected from this infection. The atmosphere in which +Socialism of the predatory kind can grow up does not exist among a +prosperous farming community--perhaps because in the country the +question of the divorce of the worker from his raw material by +capitalism does not arise. The farm furnishes the raw material of the +farmer; yet he cannot be said to spend his life creating the alleged +"surplus value" of Marxian doctrine. For these reasons I suggest that +the orderly and safe progress of democracy demands a strong agricultural +population. It is as true now as when Aristotle said it that "where +husbandmen and men of small fortune predominate government will be +guided by law." + +I have now shown that for every reason the interests of the rural +population ought no longer to be subordinated to those of the city. That +such has been the tendency in English-speaking countries will hardly be +questioned. In Great Britain the rural exodus has gone on with a +vengeance. The last census (1901) showed that seventy-seven per cent of +the population was urban, and only twenty-three per cent rural. A few +years ago there were derelict farms within easy walk of the outskirts +of London. In Ireland the rural exodus took the form of emigration, +mainly to American cities, and this has been the chief factor in the +reduction of the population in sixty years from more than eight millions +to a trifle above four. But it may be thought that in the United States +no similar tendency is in operation. Certainly those who admit the +townward drift of country life may fairly say that it does not present +so urgent a problem in the New World as in parts of the Old. Even +granting that this is so, the fact remains that the town population of +America is seriously outgrowing the rural population; for, while the +towns are growing hugely, the country stands still. Moreover, we must +not forget that, Australia apart, America is even still the most +underpopulated part of the globe. We are accustomed to think Ireland +underpopulated, owing to emigration, yet even to-day the scale of +population is almost six times greater than that of the United States. +If the Union were peopled as thickly as Ireland even still is, the +population would be nearly five hundred millions. There is still a vast +deal of filling-up to be done in America, mostly in the rural parts. + +But the main consideration I wish to emphasise throughout is that the +problem under review is moral and social far more than economic, human +rather than material. This is the natural view of an Irish worker, who +knows that the solution of _his_ problem depends upon the possibility of +endowing country life with such social improvements as will provide an +effective compensation for a necessarily modest standard of comfort. But +the citizens of the United States may be pardoned for being physiocrats. +The statistical proof, annually furnished, of the growing agricultural +wealth, is apt to obscure other essentials of progress. The astronomical +proportions of the figures stagger the imagination, and engender the +kind of pride a man feels when he is first told the number of red +corpuscles luxuriating in his blood. How can there be agricultural +depression in a country whose farm lands Secretary Wilson, in his +notable Annual Report for 1905, declared to have increased in value over +a period of five years at the astounding rate of $3,400,000 per day? Yet +to the deeper insight, the same moral influence through which we in +Ireland are seeking to combat the evils of material poverty may in the +United States be needed as a moral corrective to a too rapidly growing +material prosperity. The patriotic American, who thinks of the life of +the Nation rather than of the individual, will, if he looks beneath the +surface, discern in this God-prospered country symptoms of rural +decadence fraught with danger to National efficiency. + +The reckless sacrifice of agricultural interests by the legislators of +the towns is condemned by the verdict of history. We need not now fear +that invading hordes of hardy barbarians will mar the destiny of the +great Western Republic, as they ended the career of the Roman Empire. +There are, however, other clouds upon the horizon. Only a few years ago, +the American people could well treat with contempt the bogy of the +Yellow Peril. With a transformation unprecedented in history, the +situation has been changed. Japan is already devoting to the arts of +peace qualities but yesterday displayed in war, to the amazement of the +Western world. In another Eastern empire there are vast +resources--especially coal and iron in juxtaposition--awaiting only +industrial leadership to utilise a practically limitless labour supply +for their development. These are facts worthy of consideration for their +potential bearing upon the industrial and commercial standing of the +United States. + +To the onlooker, it does seem a happy circumstance that there has just +been, for seven critical years, at the head of American affairs the +strenuous advocate of the strenuous life. I read through his Messages +the warning that in the struggle for preeminence the ultimate victory +will lie with those nations who found their prosperity on the high +physical and ethical condition of the people. That is the oldest, as it +is the latest, wisdom of the East. It is in this spirit that the +neglected problem of Rural Life should now be given some share of the +attention hitherto devoted to the life of the towns. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE INNER LIFE OF THE AMERICAN FARMER + + +I recently asked a German economist if he could tell me the best books +to read upon the problem of rural life in Germany. His reply was: "There +are no books, because there is no problem." It is generally true, no +doubt, that the Rural Life problem, in so far as it consists in the +subordination of the country to the town, is peculiar to the +English-speaking countries, where it seems to be mainly attributable to +three causes. The chief of these was no doubt the Industrial Revolution +in England, of which enough has already been said. Secondly, in the +United States and in some portions of the British Empire, the opening up +of vast tracts of virgin soil led not unnaturally to the postponement of +social development until the pioneer farmers had settled down to the +new life. The third cause was immunity from the danger of foreign +invasion, which eliminated the military reasons for maintaining a +numerous, virile, and progressive rural population. + +There are many in England who regret that it should have been forgotten +how the English owed their commercial supremacy to the fighting +qualities of the old yeoman class. In the United States it should be +remembered that nowadays peace strength is quite as important as war +strength, and it may be questioned whether there can be any sustained +industrial efficiency where the great body of workers who conduct the +chief--the only absolutely necessary--industry are wasting the resources +at their command by bad husbandry. We may, however, concede that the +neglect of rural life is much easier to explain and excuse in the United +States than in the older English-speaking countries. Quite apart from +the abundance of agricultural resources which the American farmers +enjoy, it might well be thought that the rural communities are keeping +pace with the progress of urban civilisation. The citizens who now +occupy the farm lands of the United States have been largely drawn from +the pick of the European peasantries. In the days of their coming, it +took courage and enterprise to face the now almost forgotten terrors of +the Atlantic Ocean. These immigrants, and the migrants from the Eastern +States, have profited enormously by their change of residence. Their +material well-being has already been admitted, and, with rare +exceptions, they have displayed no overt symptoms of agrarian +discontent. + +It must not, however, be imagined that the apparent apathy of American +farmers is due to contentment. Like others of their calling, they keep a +full stock of grievances in their mental stores. They have very definite +opinions as to what is wrong, but to these opinions no formal expression +is given. They vaguely feel that they would like to remould "the sorry +scheme of things entire," but they lack the public spirit which is +required before concerted action can be taken successfully. The Country +Life Commission held a series of conferences throughout the United +States, which brought them into the closest touch with every type of +American farm life. They received written replies from some 125,000 +rural folk to whom they had sent a circular with a dozen questions +covering the essential heads of inquiry. The Commissioners say in their +report: "We have found by the testimony, not only of the farmers +themselves, but of all persons in touch with farm life, more or less +serious unrest in every part of the United States, even in the most +prosperous regions." + +The truth is that, while judged by the standard of living of European +peasantries, the farmers of the United States are prosperous, in +comparison with the other citizens of the most progressive country in +the world they are not well-off. Their accumulation of material wealth +is unnaturally and unnecessarily restricted; their social life is +barren; their political influence is relatively small. American farmers +have been used by politicians, but have still to learn how to use them. +This may be due to the fact that my countrymen elected to devote their +genius for organisation to the problems of city government. And in the +sphere of private action they are, as will be seen when I discuss the +need for a reorganisation of their business, even less effective than in +public affairs. + +It will be conceded that any hopeful plan to put things right will have +to rely upon the organised efforts of those immediately concerned. Both +in the sphere of governmental action, and in the vastly more important +field of voluntary effort, the moving force will have to be public +opinion. But the thought of the farming communities has long ago joined +the rural exodus; and before the country life idea can find expression +in an effective country life movement, those who are thinking out the +problem will have to commend their arguments to the thought of the +towns. Therefore I address these pages, not to farmers only, but to the +general reader--who, I may observe, does not generally read if he +happens to live in the open country. + +In the course of my own studies of American rural life I have found it +convenient to divide the United States into four sections, each of them +more or less homogeneous. As this method of treatment may help my +readers, I will give them a look at my map of American rural life. The +four sections may be called the North Eastern, the Middle Western, the +Southern, and the Far Western. The division has no pretensions to be +scientific; the boundaries can be adjusted to fit in with the experience +of each reader. + +In my North Eastern section I include the New England States, New York, +New Jersey, and most of Pennsylvania. This is a section where +manufacturing communities have long been established, where migration +from country to town has been most marked, and where the competition of +the newly settled Western farm lands has been followed by effects upon +agricultural society very similar to those produced by the same causes +in many a rural community on the Continent of Europe. Second comes the +Middle Western section, consisting mainly of the Mississippi Valley, +with its vast area of high average fertility, the greatest +food-producing tract on the continent. Third, I place the Southern +section, where the governing factors in rural economy are the climate, +the numerical strength of the colored population, the two staple +industrial crops--cotton and tobacco--the comparatively recent abolition +of slavery, and the long-drawn-out effects of the Civil War. My fourth +division, the Far Western section, includes the ranching lands of the +arid belt with their irrigation oases, and the fruit-growing and farming +lands of the Pacific Coast. + +As we are discussing the problem chiefly in its human aspect, which +affects alike communities wealthy and impoverished, large and small, +old-settled and newly established, it will not matter essentially where +we first direct our attention for the purpose of illustration. But if, +as I hold, nothing less than a reconstruction of rural civilisation is +called for, our inquiries will be more profitably directed to those +sections where agricultural society is permanently established, or where +the rural population might abandon the migratory habit if the conditions +were more favorable to an advanced civilisation. At the present stage I +feel that the whole subject can be most profitably discussed in its +application to the Middle Western and the Southern sections. Here the +intimate relationship of the Conservation and the Country Life ideas is +best illustrated. Here, too, we get into touch with the problem at its +two extremes of prosperity and poverty, each in its own way retarding +the progress of rural civilisation. In both sections the conditions are +typical, and distinctively American. + +Let us then consider first the general course of rural civilisation in +the great food-producing tract of the Middle West. I have in my mind the +portion I know best, the last-settled part of the corn belt. Thirty +years ago I saw something of the newcomers who settled in this section, +where there was still much raw land. These settlers, knowing that the +land must rise rapidly in value, almost invariably purchased much larger +farms than they could handle. They often sank their available working +capital in making the first payments for their land, and went heavily +into debt for the balance. They became "land poor," and, in order to +meet the instalments of purchase and the high interest on their +mortgages, they invented a system of farming unprecedented in its +wastefulness. The farm was treated as a mine, or, to use Mr. James J. +Hill's metaphor, as a bank where the depositors are always taking out +more than they put in. A corn crop, year after year, without rotation or +fertilisers, satisfied the new conception of husbandry--the easiest and +least costly extraction of the wealth in the soil. Land, labour, +capital, and ability I had been taught to regard as the essentials of +production; but here capital was reduced to the minimum, and ability +left to nature. Many of the young men who took Horace Greeley's advice +and went West knew nothing about farming. I remember writing home that I +was in a country where the rolling stone gathered most moss. Possibly +the method adopted was the quickest way to get rich; living on capital +is all right provided somebody will replace the squandered resources. +While there were ample unoccupied lands, Uncle Sam looked kindly upon +these enterprising pioneers. It was only in the second Roosevelt +Administration that it dawned upon the national conscience that the +nation had some claim to be considered as well as the individual. Of +course all this is changed now; although I am not sure that western +Canada is not being educated in soil exhaustion by some of these +extemporised husbandmen whose habits and temperament lead them to seek +"fresh fields and pastures new." "We are not out here for our health," +was the reply I got when I showed that my old-fashioned economic sense +was shocked by this substitution of land speculation for farming. + +I am aware that this very uneconomic procedure is capable of some +plausible explanations. The opening up of the vast new territory by the +provision of local traffic for transcontinental lines was an object of +national urgency and importance. Nevertheless, I think it must now be +regretted that a little more thought was not given to the general +problem of rural economy, of which transit is but one factor. This may +be that irritating kind of wisdom which comes after the event, but I +cannot help regarding the policy of rewarding railroad enterprises with +unconditional grants of vast areas of agricultural land as one of the +many evidences of the urban domination over rural affairs. + +Of the earlier settled portions of this section I cannot speak from +personal knowledge. But a recent magazine article,[3] "The Agrarian +Revolution in the Middle West," follows closely the line of my own +thoughts. In this article Mr. Joseph B. Ross, of Lafayette, Indiana, who +is making a special study of the evolution of American rural life, +considers it in three periods: from 1800 to 1835, from 1835 to 1890, and +from 1890 to the present time. In the middle period he shows how the +most progressive families raised their standard of living steadily with +the growing prosperity of the country. They built themselves stately +homes with substantial barns. The farmer was developing into a citizen +with the solid virtues, the virile independence, the strong political +opinions, religious interest, and social instincts which characterised +the English yeoman of the preceding century. The social life which these +communities built up, as soon as their economic position was assured, +was a reflection of the best English traditions--it centred round the +churches and the Sunday-school. There was a growing distribution of +literature as well as organisation for intellectual, educational and +social purposes. Mr. Ross notes the winter excursions to Florida and +California, the adornment of the homes, and many other evidences of a +social progress developing a character of its own. During this period +there was a migration from the country homes to the cities; but it was +only the natural outflow of the surplus members of the rural families +into the professional and business life of the growing centres of +commerce and industry. + +In the period through which we are now passing a transformation is +taking place. The rural exodus is no longer that of individuals, but of +whole families. The farms thus vacated are let to tenants, generally on +a three years' lease, at a competition rent. The Country Life Commission +says that this tendency to move to the cities "is not peculiar to any +region. In difficult farming regions, and where the competition with +other farming sections is most severe, the young people may go to town +to better their condition. In the best regions the older people retire +to town because it is socially more attractive, and they see a prospect +of living in comparative ease and comfort on the rental of their lands. +Nearly everywhere there is a townward movement for the purpose of +securing school advantages for the children. All this tends to sterilize +the open country and to lower its social status." The Commission points +out that the new addition of what is likely to be a stationary element, +whose economic interests lie elsewhere, to the citizenship of the town, +may create there a new social problem, while the tenant in the country +will not have that interest in building up rural society which might be +expected in the owners of land. Mr. Ross's studies lead him very +definitely to the same conclusion. Churches and educational +institutions, he tells us, are being starved, and rural society is fast +reverting to the type which was prevalent from thirty to fifty years +ago. But there is one great difference between then and now. Then, rural +civilisation was passing through a stage of marked social advancement +which was common throughout the country; now, there are distinct +indications of social degeneration, which Mr. Ross regards as the +inevitable consequence of the new landlord and tenant system. Many +members of these communities must have left the Old World to escape from +the selfsame conditions which they are reproducing in the New. + +Rural society in the Middle West, as it presents itself to the observer +whose authority I have cited, is obviously in a transitional stage. The +lack of farm labourers, which is the common subject of complaint by +farmers in all parts of the United States, cannot fail to be aggravated +by the change in the conditions of tenancy just noted. The man whose +chief concern is to get the most out of the land, at the least expense, +in two or three years, will not treat his labourers so well--nor the +land so well--as will the man who means to spend his life on the farm; +and therefore the labourers will not stay. This scarcity of labour may +be met to some extent by an increased use of machinery; but it is more +likely to lead to poorer cultivation, which means the depopulation of +agricultural districts. England and Ireland furnish too many examples of +the rural decay immortalised in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village." It would +be strange and sad if the experience were to be repeated on the richest +soil of America. + +In the Southern section we find a wastefulness similar to that in the +corn belt, but due to wholly different causes. The communities are +old-settled, but in many instances they are still abnormally depressed +by the terrible effects of the great war, followed by a period of social +and economic stagnation. Here there was little but agriculture for the +people to rely upon, and their methods have, until recent years, been +very backward. The growing of the same crops year after year upon the +same fields, the neglect of precaution against the washing away of the +soil surface, and the failure to use fertilisers, have made the profits +of tillage disappointingly small. Billions of dollars have been lost by +these communities through persistent soil exhaustion and erosion. In the +last few years the Federal Department of Agriculture has maintained a +most efficient staff of agricultural experts under the direction of Dr. +Knapp, one of the ablest organisers of farm improvement I have ever met. +The General Education Board, who administer large sums provided by Mr. +Rockefeller, recognising the educational value of Dr. Knapp's +operations, are contributing about one hundred thousand dollars a year +to his work. Dr. Knapp and his field agents have no difficulty at all in +demonstrating that the yield may be doubled, and the cost of production +greatly reduced, merely by the application of the most elementary +science to agriculture. I heard him tell of a farmer whom he had induced +to allow his boy--still attending school--to cultivate one acre under +his instructions. In the result the boy quadrupled the number of bushels +of corn to the acre that his father, following the traditional methods, +was able to raise. It would be easy to multiply such instances of +thriftlessness and neglected opportunity, of poverty within easy reach +of abundance, which have brought it about that the future of the nation +is actually endangered by the failure of the food supply to keep pace +with the increase of its still relatively sparse population. + +The Southern section furnishes two illustrations of long-standing +neglect, both well worthy of consideration for their pregnant +suggestiveness. The Federal Department of Agriculture recently scored a +notable success in dealing with an insect pest which was threatening the +cotton-growing industry with economic ruin. The boll-weevil, like the +legal and medical professions, thrives upon the follies of humanity. It +attacks the cotton plants which have been weakened by bad husbandry. The +scientists did not succeed in finding in the commonwealth of bugs the +natural enemy of the pest they were after, but Dr. Knapp, with the +wisdom which prefers prevention to cure, seized the opportunity of +teaching cotton-growers to diversify their cultivation. The consequence +was that the cotton crop itself is gradually responding to the +treatment. Many other crops are adding their quota to the produce of the +Southern farms, and an all-round improvement, moral as well as material, +is accompanying the educational discipline through which this reformer +is putting the communities with whom and for whom he is working. + +There is another pest in the South which does not attack the farm crops, +but goes straight for the farmer. If the Country Life Commission had +done nothing more, they would have justified their appointment by the +attention they called to the ravages of the hookworm, which have, no one +knows how long, scourged the poor white communities in the Southern +States. The effect of the disease set up by the hookworm, which infests +the intestines, is a complete sapping of all energy, mental and +physical. Mr. Rockefeller has provided a million dollars for the +necessary research work and for such subsequent organisation of sanitary +effort as may be required to extirpate this unquestionably preventable +evil. I wonder how long such a state of affairs would have been +permitted to interfere with the health and to paralyse the industry of +urban communities. Had the hookworm, instead of lurking in country +lanes, walked the streets, how would it have fared? + +These two pests furnish a fine illustration of the length to which the +neglect of rural life has been allowed to go in the Southern States. + +Neither the Eastern nor the Far Western section presents aspects of +special interest to the foreign student of the Rural problem in the +United States, but in both the constructive statesman and the social +worker will find a rich field for their efforts. In the New England +States--more especially in the manufacturing districts--the competition +between town and country for labour is as marked as in Industrial +England. In this section, however, the lure of the city has a rival in +the call of the West, which still makes its appeal to the farmer's boy. +Secretary Wilson has recently given it as his opinion that land-seekers +who pass by the farms now offered for sale in the western portions of +New York State often go further and fare worse. In these relatively +low-priced lands, it ought not to be difficult for agricultural +communities to establish permanently a rural society worthy of American +ideas of progress. But to do this is to solve the problem we are +discussing. We have some other aspects of that problem to consider +before we can agree upon the essentials of a philosophic and +comprehensive scheme for the rehabilitation of rural life--before we can +lay down the lines of a movement to give effect to our plan. + +The Far Western section has hardly yet emerged from the frontier-pioneer +stage, and its rural problem is still below the horizon. I may, however, +note in passing a few evidences that the people of this section have +already shown a very real concern for rural progress. The fruit-growers +of the Pacific Coast have, in the cooperative marketing of their +produce, made an excellent beginning in a matter of first importance in +any scheme of rural development. On irrigation farm lands there has +been developed, in connection with the upkeep and control of the water +systems, a community spirit which will surely lead to many forms of +organisation for mutual economic and social advantage. In the city of +Spokane, Washington, the Chamber of Commerce has aroused a public +interest in the work of the Country Life Commission which, so far as my +information goes, has not been equalled elsewhere in the United States. +The Chamber is republishing the Report of the Commission, for which no +Federal appropriation appears to have been made. It would seem to be a +not wild speculation that the statesmen and social workers who will +first solve the rural problem of the English-speaking peoples may be +found in the Far West of the New World as well as of the Old. + +I must now conclude the diagnosis of rural decadence by a consideration +of what in my judgment is the chief cause of the malady, and so get to +a point where we can determine the nature of the remedy. It will then +remain only to sketch the outlines of the movement which is to give +practical effect to the agreed principles in the life of rural +communities. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] _North American Review_, September, 1909. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WEAK SPOT IN AMERICAN RURAL ECONOMY + + +The evidence of competent American witnesses proves that there is, in +the United States, notwithstanding its immense agricultural wealth, a +Rural Life problem. Here, as elsewhere, on a fuller analysis, the utmost +variety of race, soil, climate and market facilities serve but to +emphasise the importance of the human factor. But this consideration +does not lessen the need for a sternly practical treatment of the rural +social economy under review. In this chapter, I propose to go right down +to the roots of the rural problem, find what is wrong with the industry +by which the country people live, and see how it can be righted. We +should then have clearly in our minds the essentials of prosperity in a +rural community. + +Agriculture, the basis of a rural existence, must be regarded as a +science, as a business and as a life. I have already adverted to +President Roosevelt's formula for solving the rural problem--"better +farming, better business, better living." Better farming simply means +the application of modern science to the practice of agriculture. Better +business is the no less necessary application of modern commercial +methods to the business side of the farming industry. Better living is +the building up, in rural communities, of a domestic and social life +which will withstand the growing attractions of the modern city. + +This threefold scheme of reform covers the whole ground and will become +the basis of the Country Life movement to be suggested later. But in the +working out of the general scheme, there must be one important change in +the order of procedure--'better business' must come first. The dull +commercial details of agriculture have been sadly neglected, perhaps on +account of the more human interest of the scientific and social aspects +of country life. Yet my own experience in working at the rural problem +in Ireland has convinced me that our first step towards its solution is +to be found in a better organisation of the farmer's business. It is +strange but true that the level of efficiency reached in many European +countries was due to American competition, which in the last half of the +nineteenth century forced Continental farmers to reorganise their +industry alike in production, in distribution and in its finance. Both +Irish experience and Continental study have convinced me that neither +good husbandry nor a worthy social life can be ensured unless +accompanied by intelligent and efficient business methods. We must, +therefore, examine somewhat critically the agricultural system of the +American farmer, and see wherein its weakness lies. + +The superiority of the business methods of the town to those of the +country is obvious, but I do not think the precise nature of that +superiority is generally understood. What strikes the eye is the +material apparatus of business,--the street cars, the advertisements, +the exchange, the telephone, the typewriter; all these form an +impressive contrast with the slow, simple life of the farmer, who very +likely scratches his accounts on a shingle or keeps them in his head. +But most of this city apparatus is due merely to the necessity of swift +movement in the concentrated process of exchange and distribution. Such +swiftness is neither necessary nor possible in the process of isolated +production. But there is an economic law, applicable alike to rural and +to urban pursuits, which is being more and more fully recognised and +obeyed by the farmers of most European countries, including Ireland, but +which has been too little heeded by the farmers of the United States and +Great Britain. Under modern economic conditions, things must be done in +a large way if they are to be done profitably; and this necessitates a +resort to combination. + +The advantage which combination gives to the town over the country was +recognised long before the recent economic changes forced men to +combine. In the old towns of Europe all trades began as strict and +exclusive corporations. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries new +scientific and economic forces broke up these combinations, which were +far too narrow for the growing volume of industrial activity, and an +epoch of competition began. The great towns of America opened their +business career during this epoch, and have brought the arts of +competition to a higher perfection than exists in Europe. But it has +always been known that competition did not exclude combination against +the consumer; and it is now beginning to be perceived that the fiercer +the competition, the more surely does it lead in the end to such +combination. + +A trade combination has three principal objects: it aims, first, at +improving what I may call the internal business methods of the trade +itself by eliminating the waste due to competition, by economising +staff, plant, etc., and by the ready circulation of intelligence, and in +other ways. In the second place, it aims at strengthening the trade +against outside interests. These may be of various kinds; but in the +typical case we are considering, namely, the combination of great +middlemen who control exchange and distribution, the outside interests +are those of the producer on one side and the consumer on the other; and +the trade combination, by its organised unity of action, succeeds in +lowering the prices it pays to the unorganised producer and in raising +the prices it charges to the unorganised consumer. In the third place, +the trade combination seeks to favour its own interests in their +relation to other interests through political control--control not so +much of the machinery of politics as of its products, legislation and +administration. I am not now arguing the question whether or how far +this action on the part of trade combinations is morally justifiable. My +point is simply that the towns have flourished at the expense of the +country by the use of these methods, and that the countryman must adopt +them if he is to get his own again. Moreover, as organisation tends to +increase the volume and lower the cost of agricultural production and to +make possible large transactions between organised communities of +farmers and the trade, it will be seen that the organised combination of +farmers will simplify the whole commerce of those countries where it is +adopted, and thus benefit alike the farmer and the trader. + +This truth will be easily realised if we consider for a moment the +system of distribution which the food demand of the modern market has +evolved. Agricultural produce finds its chief market in the great +cities. Their populations must have their food so sent in that it can +be rapidly distributed; and this requires that the consignments must be +delivered regularly, in large quantities, and of such uniform quality +that a sample will give a correct indication of the whole. These three +conditions are essential to rapid distribution, but their fulfilment is +not within the power of isolated farmers, however large their +operations. It is an open question whether farmers should themselves +undertake the distribution of their produce through agencies of their +own, thus saving the wholesale and possibly the retail profits. But +unquestionably they should be so well organised at home that they can +take this course if they are unfairly treated by organised middlemen. +The Danish farmers, whose highly organised system of distribution has +made them the chief competitors of the Irish farmers, have established +(with Government assistance which their organisation enabled them to +secure) very efficient machinery for distributing their butter, bacon +and eggs in the British markets. Other European farming communities are +becoming equally well organised, and similarly control the marketing of +their produce. But where, as in America and the United Kingdom, the town +dominates the country, and the machinery of distribution is owned by the +business men of the towns, it is worked by them in their own interests. +They naturally take from the unorganised producers as well as from the +unorganised consumers the full business value of the service they +render. With the growing cost of living, this has become a matter of +urgent importance to the towns. In the cheaper-food campaign which began +in the late fall of 1909, voices are heard calling the farmers to +account for their uneconomical methods, while here and there +organisations of consumers are endeavouring to solve the problem to +their own satisfaction by acquiring land and raising upon it the produce +which they require. + +In the face of such facts it is not easy to account for the +backwardness of American and British farmers in the obviously important +matter of organisation. The farmer, we know, is everywhere the most +conservative and individualistic of human beings. He dislikes change in +his methods, and he venerates those which have come down to him from his +fathers' fathers. Whatever else he may waste, these traditions he +conserves. He does not wish to interfere with anybody else's business, +and he is fixedly determined that others shall not interfere with his. +These estimable qualities make agricultural organisation more difficult +in Anglo-Saxon communities than in those where clan or tribal instincts +seem to survive.[4] + +Now it is fair to the farmer to admit that his calling does not lend +itself readily to associative action. He lives apart; most of his time +is spent in the open air, and in the evening of the working day physical +repose is more congenial to him than mental activity. But when all this +is said, we have not a complete explanation of the fact that, by failing +to combine, American and British farmers, persistently disobey an +accepted law, and refuse to follow the almost universal practice of +modern business. I believe the true explanation to be one that has +somehow escaped the notice of the agricultural economist. Those who +accept it will feel that they have found the weak spot in American +farming, and that the remedy is neither obscure nor difficult to apply. + +The form of combination which the towns have invented for industrial and +commercial purposes is the Joint Stock Company. Here a number of persons +contribute their capital to a common fund and entrust the direction to +a single head or committee, taking no further part in the business +except to change the management if the undertaking does not yield a +satisfactory dividend. Our urban way of looking at things has made us +assume that this city system must be suitable to rural conditions. The +contrary is the fact. When farmers combine, it is a combination not of +money only, but of personal effort in relation to the entire business. +In a cooperative creamery, for example, the chief contribution of a +shareholder is in milk; in a cooperative elevator, corn; in other cases +it may be fruit or vegetables, or a variety of material things rather +than cash. But it is, most of all, a combination of neighbours within an +area small enough to allow of all the members meeting frequently at the +business centre. As the system develops, the local associations are +federated for larger business transactions, but these are governed by +delegates carefully chosen by the members of the constituent bodies. + +The object of such associations is, primarily, not to declare a +dividend, but rather to improve the conditions of the industry for the +members. After an agreed interest has been paid upon the shares, the net +profits are divided between the participants in the undertaking, to each +in proportion as he has contributed to them through the business he has +done with the institution. And the same idea is applied to the control +of the management. It is recognised that the poor man's cooperation is +as important as the rich man's subscription. 'One man, one vote,' is the +almost universal principle in cooperative bodies.[5] + +The distinction between the capitalistic basis of joint stock +organisation and the more human character of the cooperative system is +fundamentally important. It is recognised by law in England, where the +cooperative trading societies are organised under _The Industrial and +Provident Societies' Act_, and the cooperative credit associations under +_The Friendly Societies' Act_. In the United States (I am told by +friends in the legal profession), the Articles of Association of an +ordinary limited liability company can be so drafted as to meet all the +requirements I have named. Most countries have enacted laws specially +devised to meet the requirements of cooperative societies. However it is +done, the essential of success in agricultural cooperation is that the +terms and conditions upon which it is based shall be accepted by all +concerned as being equitable in the distribution of profits, risks and +control. It then becomes the interest of every member to give his +whole-hearted support and aid to the common undertaking. To accomplish +this, it is necessary to explain and secure the acceptance of a +constitution and procedure carefully thought out to suit each case. It +will be readily believed that associations of farmers which will meet +these conditions are not likely to be spontaneously generated; hence the +necessity for a plan and for the machinery to carry it through. + +In this matter I am here speaking from practical experience in Ireland. +Twenty years ago the pioneers of our rural life movement found it +necessary to concentrate their efforts upon the reorganisation of the +farmer's business. They saw that foreign competition was not, as was +commonly supposed, a visitation of Providence upon the farmers of the +British Islands, but a natural economic revolution of permanent effect. +Our message to Irish farmers was that they must imitate the methods of +their Continental competitors, who were defeating them in their own +markets simply by superior organisation. After five years of individual +propagandism, the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society was formed in +1894 to meet the demand for instruction as to the formation and the +working of cooperative societies, a demand to which it was beyond the +means of the few pioneers to respond. + +Two decades of steady development have confirmed the soundness of the +original scheme, and a brief account of agricultural cooperation in +Ireland will be of interest to any reader who has persevered so far. The +conditions were in some respects favourable. The farms are small and +their owners belong to the class to which cooperation brings most +immediate benefit. The Irish peasantry are highly intelligent. They lack +the strong individualism of the English, but they have highly developed +associative instincts. For this reason cooperation, an alternative to +communism,--which they abhor,--comes naturally to them. On the other +hand, the ease with which they can be organised makes them peculiarly +amenable to political influence. In backward rural communities the +trader is almost invariably the political boss. He is a leader of +agrarian agitation, in which he can safely advocate principles he would +not like to see applied to the relations between himself and his +customers. He bitterly opposes cooperation, which throws inconvenient +light upon those relations. We are able to persuade the more enlightened +rural traders that economies effected in agricultural production will +raise the standard of living of his customers and make them larger +consumers of general commodities and more punctual in their payments. +But in the majority of cases the agricultural organiser finds politics +in sharp conflict with business, and has a hard row to hoe. So, while we +have advantages in organising Irish farmers, we have also, largely owing +to well-known historical causes, to overcome difficulties which have no +counterpart in the United States or England. + +Nevertheless, we managed to make progress. We began with the dairying +industry, and already half the export of Irish butter comes from the +cooperative societies we established. Organised bodies of farmers are +learning to purchase their agricultural requirements intelligently and +economically. They are also beginning to adopt the methods of the +organised foreign farmer in controlling the sale of their butter, eggs +and poultry in the British markets. And they not only combine in +agricultural production and distribution, but are also making a +promising beginning in grappling with the problem of agricultural +finance. It is in this last portion of the Irish programme that by far +the most interesting study of the cooperative system can be made, on +account of its success in the poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, +the attempt to enable the most embarrassed section of the Irish +peasantry to procure working capital illustrates some features of +agricultural cooperation which will have suggestive value for American +farmers. I will therefore give a brief description of our agricultural +cooperative credit associations. + +The organisation was introduced in the middle of the last century by a +German Burgomaster, the now famous Herr Raiffeisen. He set himself to +provide the means of escape from the degrading indebtedness to +storekeepers and usurers which is the almost invariable lot of poor +peasantries. His scheme performs an apparent miracle. A body of very +poor persons, individually--in the commercial sense of the +term--insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has been +somewhat grandiloquently and yet truthfully called the capitalisation of +their honesty and industry. The way in which this is done is remarkably +ingenious. The credit society is organised in the usual democratic way +explained above, but its constitution is peculiar in one respect. The +members have to become jointly and severally responsible for the debts +of the association, which borrows on this unlimited liability from the +ordinary commercial bank, or, in some cases, from Government sources. +After the initial stage, when the institution becomes firmly +established, it attracts local deposits, and thus the savings of the +community, which are too often hoarded, are set free to fructify in the +community. The procedure by which the money borrowed is lent to the +members of the association is the essential feature of the scheme. The +member requiring the loan must state what he is going to do with the +money. He must satisfy the committee of the association, who know the +man and his business, that the proposed investment is one which will +enable him to repay both principal and interest. He must enter into a +bond with two sureties for the repayment of the loan, and needless to +say the characters of both the borrower and his sureties are very +carefully considered. The period for which the loan is granted is +arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined by the committee +after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the loan has been made, +it becomes the concern of every member of the association to see that +it is applied to the 'approved purpose'--as it is technically called. +What is more important is that all the borrower's fellow-members become +interested in his business and anxious for its success. + +The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in +Ireland, and that, although their transactions are on a very modest +scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its +adherents and in the business transacted is, I think, a remarkable +testimony to the value of the cooperative system. The details I have +given illustrate the important distinction between cooperation, which +enables the farmer to do his business in a way that suits him, and the +urban form of combination, which is unsuited to his needs. The ordinary +banks lend money to agriculturists for a term (generally ninety days) +which has been fixed to suit the needs of town business. Thus, a farmer +borrowing money to sow a crop, or to purchase young cattle, is obliged +to repay his loan, in the first instance, before the crop is harvested, +and in the second, before the cattle mature and are marketable. Far more +important, however, than these not inconsiderable economic advantages +are the social benefits which are derived by bringing people together to +achieve in a very definite and practical way the aim of all cooperative +effort--self-help by mutual help. + +Our cooperative movement, taken as a whole, is to-day represented by +nearly one thousand farmers' organisations, with an aggregate membership +of some one hundred thousand persons, mostly heads of families. Its +business turnover last year was twelve and a half million dollars. In +estimating the significance of these figures, American readers must not +'think in continents,' and must give more weight to the moral than to +the material achievement. As I have explained, the cooperative system +requires for its success the exercise of higher moral qualities than +does the joint stock company. Once a cooperative society becomes a +soulless corporation, its days are numbered. It requires also the +diffusion of a good deal of economic thought among its members, and +this, also, is no small matter in the conditions. The most striking fact +about this work in Ireland is that while in its earlier years +organisation consisted mainly in expounding and commending to farmers +the cooperative principle, we now find that the principle is taken for +granted and the only question upon which advice is needed is how to +apply it. The progress of agricultural cooperation depends largely on +the character of the community; its commercial value may be measured by +the extent to which it develops in the community the mental and moral +qualities essential to success.[6] + +In agricultural cooperation, Ireland can claim to have shown the way to +the United Kingdom. Ten years ago, after the Irish movement had been +launched, the English rural reformers started a movement on exactly the +same lines, even founding on the Irish model an English Agricultural +Organisation Society. An Irishman, who had studied cooperation at home, +was selected as its chief executive officer. Five years later, a +Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society took the field. Both in +England and in Scotland the chief difficulty to be overcome is the +intense individualism of the farmers, and perhaps some lack of altruism. +The large farmers did not feel the need of cooperation, and where the +natural leader of the rural community will not lead, the small +cultivator cannot follow. Whether the same difficulties have prevented +any considerable adoption of agricultural cooperation in the United +States, it is not necessary to inquire. It is certain that the +underlying principles approved by every progressive rural, community in +Europe have not so far exercised more than an occasional and fitful +influence upon the rural economy of the American Republic. + +If I have given in these pages a true explanation of the deplorable +backwardness of American farmers in the matter of business combination +when compared with all other American workers, those who take part in +the movement which is to provide the remedy will have set themselves a +task as hopeful as it is interesting. Americans as a people are addicted +to associated action. I have seen the principle of cooperation developed +to the highest point in the ranching industry in the days of the +unfenced range. Our cattle used to roam at large, the only means of +identifying them being certain registered marks made by the +branding-iron and the knife. The individual owner would have had no more +property in his herd than he would have had in so many fishes in the +sea but for a very effective cooperative organisation. The Stock +Association, with its 'round-ups' and its occasional resort to the +Supreme Court of Judge Lynch, were an adequate substitute for the title +deeds to the lands, and for fences horse-high, bull-strong and +hog-tight. But then we were in the Arid Belt and the frontier-pioneer +stage; we had no politics and no politicians. I must return, however, to +the less exciting, but I suppose more important, life of the regular +farmer, and consider his efforts at organisation. + +Instances can be multiplied where the cooperative system has been +adopted with immensely beneficial results; but in too many cases it has +been abandoned. On the other hand, Granges, Institutes, Clubs, Leagues, +Alliances and a multitude of miscellaneous farmers' associations have +been organised for social, religious, political and economic objects. +From my study of the work done by these bodies, the impression left is +that almost everything that can be done better by working together than +by working separately has been at some time the subject of organised +effort. But these manifestations of activity have been fitful and +sporadic. They were commonly marked by some or all of the same +defects--mutual distrust, divided counsels, ignorance of what others +were doing, want of continuity and impatience of results. Many +organisations, after winning some advantages,--over the railroads for +instance,--fell into abeyance or even out of existence; others lapsed +under the enervating influence of a little temporary prosperity, such as +a few years of better prices. The truth is, American farmers have had +the will to organise, but they have missed the way.[7] + +The political influence of the farming community has for this reason +never been commensurate either with the numerical strength of its +members or the magnitude of their share in the nation's work. It is +true that the Federal Department of Agriculture, appropriations for +Agricultural Colleges, some railway legislation and other boons to +farmers, are to be attributed to the efforts of their organisations. +Yet, as compared with the influence exercised upon National affairs by +the farmers of, say, France and Denmark, the American farmer has but a +small influence upon legislation and administration affecting his +interests. What better proof of this could be given than the absence of +a Parcels Post in the United States? The whole farming community are +agreed as to the need for this boon to the dwellers of the open country, +and yet they have not succeeded in winning it against the opposition of +the Express Companies, because it is merely a farmers' and not a +townsmen's grievance. And not only political impotence, but political +inertia, result from the lack of organisation. The state of the country +roads--one of the greatest disabilities under which country life in the +United States still suffers--is as good an instance as I know. Congress +has shown itself well disposed towards the farmer, but not always so the +State governments, and the good intentions of Congress on the roads +question are largely nullified owing to the failure of one-third of the +States to establish highway commissions, or make other provision for +expending such amounts as might be voted to them by Congress. Here, as +in the cases of the transit and marketing problems, we see the need for +a strong, central, permanent organisation, fitted alike to direct local +or promote National action; an association capable of securing the +legislative protection of the farmer's interests, and an organisation +fitted to further the business side of his industry. In fact, this need +is urgent, and a cooperative movement of National dimensions should be +established to meet it. Had such a movement been started after the War, +or even twenty years later, the American farmer would be in a far +stronger position to-day, and much misdirected effort would have been +saved. + +I have now tried to explain the weak spot in American rural economy. It +may be regarded from a more general point of view. If we were +considering the life of some commercial or industrial community and +trying to forecast its future development, one of the first things we +should note would be its general business methods. No manufacturing +concern with a defective office administration and incompetent +travellers could survive, even if it had an Archimedes or an Edison in +supreme control. I cannot see any reason why an agricultural community +should expect to prosper while the industry by which its members live +retains its present business organisation. I have urged that as things +are, the farming interest is at a fatal disadvantage in the purchase of +agricultural requirements, in the sale of agricultural produce, and in +obtaining proper credit facilities. Whatever the cause--and I have set +down those which I regard as the chief among them--American farmers have +still to learn that they are subject to a law of modern business which +governs all their country's industrial activities--the law that each +body of workers engaged in supplying the modern market must combine, or +be worsted at every turn in competition with those who do. + +I do not much fear that this general principle, overlooked, perhaps, +because it was too obvious to be worth enforcing, will be disputed. I +hope I may gain acceptance for my further contention that the inability +of American farmers to sustain an effective business organisation has +been due simply to the fact that the not obvious distinction between the +capitalistic and the cooperative basis of combination suitable to town +and country respectively was missed. For it will then be clear why, in +the working out of Mr. Roosevelt's formula, better business must precede +and form the basis of better farming and better living. The conviction +that in this general procedure lies the one hope of solving the problem +under review accounts for the otherwise disproportionate space given to +that aspect of rural life which is of the least interest to the general +reader. + +I shall now attempt to determine the principles which must be applied to +the solution of our problem. Those who have followed the arguments up to +this point will have a pretty clear idea of the general drift of my +conclusions. The substitution in rural economy of the cooperative for +the competitive principle, which I have so far advocated as a matter of +business prudence, will be seen to have a wider import. This course will +be shown to have an important bearing upon the application of the new +knowledge to the oldest industry and also upon the building of a new +rural civilisation we must provide for the dwellers of the open country +a larger share of the intellectual and social pleasures for the want of +which those most needed in the country are too often drawn to the +town. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] I should expect the negroes in the Southern States to be very good +subjects for agricultural organisation. I have discussed this question +with the staff of the Hampton Institute in Virginia--a fine body of men, +doing noble work. The Principal, the Rev. H. B. Frissell, D.D., whose +judgment in this matter is probably the weightiest in the United States, +and his leading assistants, both white and coloured, are of the same +opinion. + +[5] Where capital is, in rare instances, subscribed by persons other +than farmers, it is usually invested less as a commercial speculation +than as an act of friendship on the part of the investor, who in no case +exercises more control than his one vote affords. + +[6] Readers who are sufficiently interested in the rural life movement +in Ireland will find a full description of it in my book, "Ireland in +the New Century," John Murray, London, and E. P. Dutton, New York. + +[7] Mr. John Lee Coulter contributed to the _Yale Review_ for November, +1909, an article on Organization among the farmers of the United States +which is a most valuable summary of the important facts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WAY TO BETTER FARMING AND BETTER LIVING + + +In no way is the contrast between rural and urban civilisation more +marked than in the application of the teachings of modern science to +their respective industries. Even the most important mechanical +inventions were rather forced upon the farmer by the efficient selling +organisation of the city manufacturers than demanded by him as a result +of good instruction in farming. On the mammoth wheat farms, where, as +the fable ran, the plough that started out one morning returned on the +adjoining furrow the following day, mechanical science was indeed called +in, but only to perpetrate the greatest soil robbery in agricultural +history. Application of science to legitimate agriculture is +comparatively new. In my ranching and farming days I well remember how +general was the disbelief in its practical value throughout the Middle +and Far West. In cowboy terminology, all scientists were classified as +"bug-hunters," and farmers generally had no use for the theorist. The +non-agricultural community had naturally no higher appreciation of the +farmer's calling than he himself displayed. When some Universities first +developed agricultural courses, the students who entered for them were +nicknamed "aggies," and were not regarded as adding much to the dignity +of a seat of higher learning. The Department of Agriculture was looked +upon as a source of jobs, graft being the nearest approach to any known +agricultural operation. + +All this is changing fast. The Federal Department of Agriculture is now +perhaps the most popular and respected of the world's great +administrative institutions. In the Middle West, a newly awakened +public opinion has set up an honourable rivalry between such States as +Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota, in developing the +agricultural sides of their Universities and Colleges. None the less, +Mr. James J. Hill has recently given it as his opinion that not more +than one per cent of the farmers of these regions are working in direct +touch with any educational institution. It is probable that this +estimate leaves out of account the indirect influence of the vast amount +of extension work and itinerant instruction which is embraced in the +activities of the Universities and Colleges. I fear it cannot be denied +that in the application of the natural sciences to the practical, and of +economic science to the business of farming, the country folk are +decades behind their urban fellow-citizens. And again I say the +disparity is to be attributed to the difference in their respective +degrees of organisation for business purposes. + +The relation between business organisation and economic progress ought, +I submit, to be very seriously considered by the social workers who +perceive that progress is mainly a question of education. Speaking from +administrative experience at home, and from a good deal of interested +observation in America, I am firmly convinced that the new rural +education is badly handicapped by the lack of organised bodies of +farmers to act as channels for the new knowledge now made available. In +some instances, I am aware, great good has been done by the formation of +farmers' institutes which have been established in order to interest +rural communities in educational work and to make the local arrangements +for instruction by lectures, demonstrations and otherwise. But all +European experience proves the superiority for this purpose of the +business association to the organisation _ad hoc_, and has a much better +chance of permanence. + +Again, the influence upon rural life of the agricultural teaching of the +Colleges and Universities, as exercised by their pupils, may be too +easily accepted as being of greater potential utility than any work +which these institutions can do amongst adults. This is a mistake. The +thousands of young men who are now being trained for advanced farming +too often have to restrict the practical application of their theoretic +knowledge to the home circle, which is not always responsive, for a man +is not usually a prophet in his own family. It is here that the +educational value of cooperative societies comes in; they act as +agencies through which scientific teaching may become actual practice, +not in the uncertain future, but in the living present. A cooperative +association has a quality which should commend it to the social +reformer--the power of evoking character; it brings to the front a new +type of local leader, not the best talker, but the man whose knowledge +enables him to make some solid contribution to the welfare of the +community. + +I come now to the last part of the threefold scheme--that which aims at +a better life upon the farm. The cooperative association, in virtue of +its non-capitalistic basis of constitution and procedure (which, as I +have explained, distinguishes it from the Joint Stock Company), demands +as a condition of its business success the exercise of certain social +qualities of inestimable value to the community life. It is for this +reason, no doubt, that where men and women have learned to work together +under this system in the business of their lives, they are easily +induced to use their organisation for social and intellectual purposes +also. + +The new organisation of the rural community for social as well as +economic purposes, which should follow from the acceptance of the +opinion I have advanced, would bring with it the first effective +counter-attraction to the towns. Their material advantages the country +cannot hope to rival; nor can any conceivable evolution of rural life +furnish a real counterpart to the cheap and garish entertainments of +the modern city. Take, for example, the extravagant use of electric +light for purposes of advertisement, which affords a nightly display of +fireworks in any active business street of an American city far superior +to the occasional exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London, which was +the rare treat of my childhood days. These delights--if such they +be--cannot be extended into remote villages in Kansas or Nebraska; but +their enchantment must be reckoned with by those who would remould the +life of the open country and make it morally and mentally satisfying to +those who are born to it, or who, but for its social stagnation, would +prefer a rural to an urban existence. + +In one of his many public references to country life, President +Roosevelt attributed the rural exodus to the desire of "the more active +and restless young men and women" to escape from "loneliness and lack of +mental companionship."[8] He is hopeful that the rural free delivery, +the telephone, the bicycle and the trolley will do much towards +"lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more +attractive." Many to whom I have spoken on this subject fear that the +linking of the country with the town by these applications of modern +science may, to some extent, operate in a direction the opposite of that +which Mr. Roosevelt anticipates and desires. According to this view, the +more intimate knowledge of the modern city may increase the desire to be +in personal touch with it; the telephone may fail to give through the +ear the satisfaction which is demanded by the eye; among the "more +active and restless young men and women" the rural free delivery may +circulate the dime novel and the trolley make accessible the dime +museum. In the total result the occasional visit may become more and +more frequent, until the duties of country life are first neglected and +then abandoned. + +I do not feel competent to decide between these two views, but I offer +one consideration with which I think many rural reformers will agree. +The attempt to bring the advantages of the city within the reach of the +dwellers in the country cannot, of itself, counteract the townward +tendency in so far as it is due to the causes summarised above. However +rapidly, in this respect, the country may be improved, the city is sure +to advance more rapidly and the gap between them to be widened. The new +rural civilisation should aim at trying to develop in the country the +things of the country, the very existence of which seems to have been +forgotten. But, after all, it is the world within us rather than the +world without us that matters in the making of society, and I must give +to the social influence of the cooperative idea what I believe to be its +real importance. + +In Ireland, from which so much of my experience is drawn, we have found +a tendency growing among farmers whose combinations are successful, to +gather into one strong local association all those varied objects and +activities which I have described as advocated by the Irish Agricultural +Organisation Society. These local associations are ceasing to have one +special purpose or one object only. They absorb more and more of the +business of the district. One large, well-organised institution is being +substituted for the numerous petty transactions of farmers with +middlemen and small country traders. Gradually the Society becomes the +most important institution in the district, the most important in a +social as well as in an economic sense. The members feel a pride in its +material expansion. They accumulate large profits, which in time become +a kind of communal fund. In some cases this is used for the erection of +village halls where social entertainments, concerts and dances are held, +lectures delivered and libraries stored. Finally, the association +assumes the character of a rural commune, where, instead of the old +basis of the commune, the joint ownership of land, a new basis for union +is found in the voluntary communism of effort. + +A true social organism is thus being created with common human and +economic interests, and the clan feeling, which was so powerful an +influence in early and mediaeval civilisations, with all its power of +generating passionate loyalties, is born anew in the modern world. Our +ancient Irish records show little clans with a common ownership of land +hardly larger than a parish, but with all the patriotic feeling of large +nations held with an intensity rare in our modern states. The history of +these clans and of very small nations like the ancient Greek states +shows that the social feeling assumes its most binding and powerful +character where the community is large enough to allow free play to the +various interests of human life, but is not so large that it becomes an +abstraction to the imagination. Most of us feel no greater thrill in +being one of a State with fifty million inhabitants than we do in +recognising we are citizens of the solar system. The rural commune and +the very small States exhibit the feeling of human solidarity in its +most intense manifestations, working on itself, regenerating itself and +seeking its own perfection. Combinations of agriculturists, when the +rural organisation is complete, re-create in a new way the conditions +where these social instincts germinate best, and it is only by this +complete organisation of rural life that we can hope to build up a rural +civilisation, and create those counter-attractions to urban life which +will stay the exodus from the land. + +I do not wish to exaggerate the interest which the rural life of my own +little island may have for those who are concerned for the vast and +wealthy expanses of the American farm lands. But, even here there is a +genuine desire for the really simple life, which in its commonest +manifestation is a thing that rather simple people talk about. In a +properly organised rural neighbourhood could be developed that higher +kind of attraction which is suggested by the very word _neighbourhood_. +Once get the farmers and their families all working together at +something that concerns them all, and we have the beginning of a more +stable and a more social community than is likely to exist amid the +constant change and bustle of the large towns, where indeed some +thinkers tell us that not only the family, but also the social life, is +badly breaking down. When people are really interested in each +other--and this interest comes of habitually working together--the +smallest personal traits or events affecting one are of interest to all. +The simplest piece of amateur acting or singing, done in the village +hall by one of the villagers, will arouse more criticism and more +enthusiasm among his friends and neighbours than can be excited by the +most consummate performance of a professional in a great city theatre, +where no one in the audience knows or cares for the performer. + +But if this attraction--the attraction of common work and social +intercourse with a circle of friends--is to prevail in the long run over +the lure which the city offers to eye and ear and pocket, there must be +a change in rural education. At present country children are educated as +if for the purpose of driving them into the towns. To the pleasure which +the cultured city man feels in the country--because he has been taught +to feel it--the country child is insensible. The country offers +continual interest to the mind which has been trained to be thoughtful +and observant; the town offers continual distraction to the vacant eye +and brain. Yet, the education given to country children has been +invented for them in the town, and it not only bears no relation to the +life they are to lead, but actually attracts them towards a town career. +I am aware that I am here on ground where angels--even if specialised in +pedagogy--may well fear to tread. Upon the principles of a sound +agricultural education pedagogues are in a normally violent state of +disagreement with each other. But whatever compromise between general +education and technical instruction be adopted, the resulting reform +that is needed has two sides. We want two changes in the rural +mind--beginning with the rural teacher's mind. First, the interest which +the physical environment of the farmer provides to followers of almost +every branch of science must be communicated to the agricultural classes +according to their capacities. Second, that intimacy with and affection +for nature, to which Wordsworth has given the highest expression, must +in some way be engendered in the rural mind. In this way alone will the +countryman come to realize the beauty of the life around him, as through +the teaching of science he will learn to realise its truth. + +Upon this reformed education, as a basis, the rural economy must be +built. It must, if my view be accepted, ensure, first and foremost, the +combination of farmers for business purposes in such a manner as will +enable them to control their own marketing and make use of the many +advantages which a command of capital gives. In all European +countries--with the exception of the British Isles--statesmen have +recognised the national necessity for the good business organisation of +the farmer. In some cases, for example France, even Government officials +expound the cooperative principle. In Denmark, the most predominantly +rural country in Europe, the education both in the common and in the +high school has long been so admirably related to the working lives of +the agricultural classes that the people adopt spontaneously the methods +of organisation which the commercial instinct they have acquired through +education tells them to be suitable to the conditions. The rural +reformer knows that this is the better way; but our problem is not +merely the education of a rising, but the development of a grown-up +generation. We cannot wait for the slow process of education to produce +its effect upon the mind of the rural youth, even if there were any way +of ensuring their proper training for a progressive rural life without +first giving to their parents such education as they can assimilate. +Direct action is called for; we have to work with adult farmers and +induce them to reorganise their business upon the lines which I have +attempted to define. Moreover, this is essential to the future success +of the work done in the schools, in order that the trained mind of youth +may not afterwards find itself baulked by the ignorant apathy or lazy +conservatism of its elders. + +I hold, then, that the new economy will mean a more scientific mastery +of the technical side of farming, for farmers will make a much larger +use of the advice, instruction and help which the Nation and the States +offer them through the Department of Agriculture and the Colleges. It is +equally certain that there will arise a more human social life in the +rural districts, based upon the greater share of the products of the +farmer's industry, which the new business organisation will enable him +to retain; stimulated by the closer business relations with his fellows +which that organisation will bring about, and fostered by the closer +neighbourhood which is implied in a more intensive cultivation. + +The development of a more intensive cultivation must carry with it a +much more careful consideration of the labour problem. The difficulty of +getting and keeping labour on the farm is a commonplace. I think farmers +have not faced the fact that this difficulty is due in the main to their +own way of doing their business. Competent men will not stay at farm +labour unless it offers them continuous employment as part of a +well-ordered business concern; and this is not possible unless with a +greatly improved husbandry. + +To-day agriculture has to compete in the labour market against other, +and to many men more attractive, industries, and a marked elevation in +the whole standard of life in the rural world is the best insurance of a +better supply of good farm labour. Only an intensive system of farming +can afford any large amount of permanent employment at decent wages to +the rural labourer, and only a good supply of competent labour can +render intensive farming on any large scale practicable. But the +intensive system of farming not only gives regular employment and good +wages; it also fits the labourer of to-day--in a country where a man can +strike out for himself--to be the successful farmer of to-morrow. Nor, +in these days of impersonal industrial relations, should the fact be +overlooked that under an intensive system of agriculture, we find still +preserved the kindly personal relation between employer and employed +which contributes both to the pleasantness of life and to economic +progress and security. + +Moreover, in a country where advanced farming is the rule, there is a +remarkable, and, from the standpoint of national stability, most +valuable, steadiness in employment. Good farming, by fixing the labourer +on the soil, improves the general condition of rural life, by ridding +the countryside of the worst of its present pests. Those wandering +dervishes of the industrial world, the hobo, the tramp--the entire +family of Weary Willies and Tired Timothys--will no longer have even an +imaginary excuse for their troubled and troublesome existence. But the +farmer who was the prey of these pests must, if he would be permanently +rid of them, learn to respect his hired farm hand. He must provide him +with a comfortable cottage and a modest garden plot upon which his young +family may employ themselves; otherwise, whatever the farmer may do to +attract labour, he will never retain it. In short, the labourer, too, +must get his full and fair share of the prosperity of the coming good +time in the country. + +There is one particular aspect of this improved social life which is so +important that it ought properly to form the subject of a separate +essay; I mean the position of women in rural life. In no country in the +world is the general position of woman better, or her influence greater, +than in the United States. But while woman has played a great part there +in the social life and economic development of the town, I hold that the +part she is destined to play in the future making of the country will be +even greater. + +In the more intelligent scheme of the new country life, the economic +position of woman is likely to be one of high importance. She enters +largely into all three parts of our programme,--better farming, better +business, better living. In the development of higher farming, for +instance, she is better fitted than the more muscular but less patient +animal, man, to carry on with care that work of milk records, egg +records, etc., which underlies the selection on scientific lines of the +more productive strains of cattle and poultry. And this kind of work is +wanted in the study not only of animal, but also of plant life. + +Again, in the sphere of better business, the housekeeping faculty of +woman is an important asset, since a good system of farm accounts is one +of the most valuable aids to successful farming. But it is, of course, +in the third part of the programme,--better living,--that woman's +greatest opportunity lies. The woman makes the home life of the Nation. +But she desires also social life, and where she has the chance she +develops it. Here it is that the establishment of the cooperative +society, or union, gives an opening and a range of conditions in which +the social usefulness of woman makes itself quickly felt. I do not think +that I am laying too much stress on this matter, because the pleasures, +the interests and the duties of society, properly so called,--that is, +the state of living on friendly terms with our neighbours,--are always +more central and important in the life of a woman than of a man. The +man needs them, too, for without them he becomes a mere machine for +making money; but the woman, deprived of them, tends to become a mere +drudge. The new rural social economy (which implies a denser population +occupying smaller holdings) must therefore include a generous provision +for all those forms of social intercourse which specially appeal to +women. The Women's Sections of the Granges have done a great deal of +useful work in this direction; we need a more general and complete +application of the principles on which they act. + +I have now stated the broad principles which must govern any effective +scheme for correcting the present harmful subordination of rural life to +a civilisation too exclusively urban. Before I bring forward my definite +proposal for a remedy calculated to meet the needs of the situation, I +must anticipate a line of criticism which may occur to the mind of any +social worker who does not happen to be very familiar with the +conditions of country life. + +I can well imagine readers who have patiently followed my arguments +wishing to interrogate me in some such terms as these: "Assuming," they +may say, "that we accept all you tell us about the neglect of the rural +population, and agree as to the grave consequences which must follow if +it be continued, what on earth can we do? Of course the welfare of the +rural population is a matter of paramount importance to the city and to +the nation at large; but may we remind you that you said the evil and +the consequences can be removed and averted only by those immediately +concerned--the actual farmers--and that the remedy for the rural +backwardness was to be sought for in the rural mind? 'Canst thou +minister to a mind diseased?' Must not the patient 'minister' to +himself?" + +Fair questions these, and altogether to the point. I answer at once that +the patient ought to minister to himself, but he won't. He has acquired +the habit of sending for the physician of the town, whose physic but +aggravates the disease. Dropping metaphor, the farmer does not think for +himself. In rural communities, there is as great a lack of collective +thought as of cooperative action. All progress is conditional on public +opinion, and this, even in the country, is a very much town-made thing. + +So I am, then, in this difficulty. My subject is rural, my audience +urban. I have to commend to the statesmen and the philanthropists of the +town the somewhat incongruous proposal that they should take the +initiative in rural reform. Neither the thought nor the influence which +can set in motion what in agricultural communities is no less than an +economic revolution are to be found in the open country. To the townsmen +I now address my appeal and submit a plan. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] Message to the Fifty-eighth Congress (1903). + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TWO THINGS NEEDFUL + + +In my earlier chapters I traced to the Industrial Revolution in England +the origin of that subordination, in the English-speaking countries, of +rural to urban interests which finds its expression to-day in the +problem of rural life. I have shown that the continuance of the tendency +in America was natural if not inevitable, and have urged that, for +economic, social and political reasons, its further progress should now +be stayed. If my view as to the origin, present effects and probable +consequences of the evil be accepted, any serious proposals for a remedy +will be welcomed by all who realise that national well-being cannot +endure if urban prosperity is accompanied by rural decay. In this belief +I offer the scheme for a Country Life movement which has slowly matured +in my own mind as the result of the experience described in the +preceding pages. + +The first aim of the movement should be to cooerdinate, and guide towards +a common end, the efforts of a large number of agencies--educational, +religious, social and philanthropic--which, in their several ways, are +already engaged upon some part of the work to be done. For such a +movement the United States offers advantages not to be found elsewhere +in the area for which we are concerned. For here public-spirited +individuals and associations of the kind required exist in larger +numbers than can be known to any one who has not watched what is going +on in this field of social service. If I had not already devoted too +much space to personal experiences, I could of my own knowledge testify +to the remarkable growth of organised effort in American rural +communities. Sometimes this is the outcome of a growing spirit of +neighbourliness, sometimes it emanates from young Universities and +Colleges emulating the extension work with which nearly every big city +is familiar. I have been much struck with the way in which, at +gatherings of school teachers, pedagogic detail and questions affecting +their status and emoluments have become less popular subjects for +discussion than schemes of social progress.[9] Similarly, the +agricultural Press is becoming less exclusively technical and +commercial, and more human. Even the syndicated stuff is getting less +townified. My correspondence, newspaper clippings sent to me, and many +other indications, point in the same direction. They leave the +impression upon my mind that there is a vast, efficient and enthusiastic +army of social workers upon the farm lands of the United States badly in +need of a Headquarters Staff. + +If I am right in believing that, of the English-speaking countries, the +United States affords the best opportunity for such a consummation, most +assuredly the present time is peculiarly auspicious. If Mr. Roosevelt's +Country Life policy has not been received with any marked enthusiasm, +American public opinion has been thoroughly aroused upon his +Conservation policy. The latter cannot possibly come to fruition--nor +even go much further--until the Country Life problem is boldly faced. In +the Conference of Governors it was pointed out over and over again that +the farmer, now the chief waster, must become the chief conserver. As +such he will himself become a supporter of the policy, and will bring to +the aid of those advocates of Conservation whose chief concern is for +future generations, an interested public opinion which will go far to +outweigh the influence of those who profit by the exhaustion of natural +resources. To the country life reformer I would say that, as the one +idea has caught on while the other lags, he will, if he is wise, hitch +his Country Life waggon to the Conservation star. + +With every advantage of time and place, the promotion of the movement +which is to counteract the townward tendency will have to reckon with +the psychological difficulty inherent in the conditions. They must +recognise the paradox of the situation already pointed out, the +necessity of interesting the town in the problems of the country. The +urban attitude of mind which caused the evil, and now makes it difficult +to interest public opinion in the remedy, is not new; it pervades the +literature of the Augustan age. I recall from my school days Virgil's +great handbook on Italian agriculture, written with a mastery of +technical detail unsurpassed by Kipling. But the farmers he had in mind +when he indulged in his memorable rhapsody upon the happiness of their +lot were out for pleasure rather than profit. While the suburban poet +sang to the merchant princes, Rome was paying a bonus upon imported +corn, and entering generally upon that fatal disregard for the interest +of the rural population which is one of the accepted causes of the +decline and fall. + +How that Old World tragi-comedy comes back to me when I talk to New York +friends on the subject of these pages! I am not, so they tell me, up to +date in my information; there is a marked revulsion of feeling upon the +town _versus_ country question; the tide of the rural exodus has really +turned, as I might have discerned without going far afield. At many a +Long Island home I might see on Sundays, weather permitting, the +horny-handed son of week-day toil in Wall Street, rustically attired, +inspecting his Jersey cows and aristocratic fowls. These supply a select +circle in New York with butter and eggs, at a price which leaves nothing +to be desired--unless it be some information as to the cost of +production. Full justice is done to the new country life when the +Farmers' Club of New York fulfils its chief function, the annual dinner +at Delmonico's. Then agriculture is extolled in fine Virgilian style, +the Hudson villa and the Newport 'cottage' being permitted to divide the +honours of the rural revival with the Long Island home. But to my +bucolic intelligence, it would seem that against the 'back to the land' +movement of Saturday afternoon the captious critic might set the rural +exodus of Monday morning. + +These reflections are introduced in no unfriendly spirit, and with +serious intent. To me this new rural life is associated with memories of +characteristically American hospitality; but my interest in it is more +than personal. It is giving to those who cultivate it, among whom are +the helpers most needed at the moment, a point of view which will enable +them to grasp the real problem of the open country, as it exists, for +example, in the great food-producing and cotton-growing tracts of the +West and South. Both in the countries where the townward tendency of +the industrial age was foreseen and prevented, and in those in which the +evil is being cured, the impulse and inspiration which will be required +to initiate and sustain our Country Life movement came mainly from +leaders who were not themselves agriculturists.[10] Proficiency in the +practice or even in the business of farming is not necessary. What is +needed is a comprehensive knowledge of public affairs, political +imagination, an understanding sympathy with and a philosophic insight +into the entire life of communities. Men who combine with the necessary +experience those gifts of heart and mind which go to make the higher +citizenship in the many, and the statesmanship in the few, will more +likely be found in the city than in the country. Yet they are, in the +conditions, the natural leaders of the Country Life movement, which must +now be defined. + +The situation demands two things; on the one hand an association, +popular, propagandist, organising; on the other, an Institute, +scientific, philosophic, research-making. These two things are distinct +in character, but they are complementary to each other. One will require +popular enthusiasm and business organisation. To the service of the +other must be brought the patient spirit of scientific and philosophic +analysis and inquiry. These two bodies--the popular propagandist +association and the scientific research-making Institute--must, +therefore, be created; and, for a reason to be explained when we +consider the work of the Institute, they should be independent of each +other. This rough indication of the character of the work, which I will +describe more in detail presently, will suffice for the moment. I feel +that the work will be so intensely human in its interest that it will be +well to say at once how the two central agencies can be established, and +the movement made, not a writer's fancy, but a living and doing agency +of human progress. + +A body, in many respects ideally fitted to give the necessary impulse +and direction to the work of organisation, is already in the field. The +leaders of the Conservation idea, recognising that their policy, in +common with other policies, will need an organised public opinion at its +back, have founded a National Conservation Association. Mr. Gifford +Pinchot has now been selected as its President. Before he was available, +the task of organising and setting to work the new institution was +unanimously entrusted to and accepted by President Eliot, of whose +qualifications all I will say is that we foreign students of social +problems vie with his own countrymen in our appreciation of his public +work and aims. These two appointments are sufficient proof of the +serious importance of the work, and bespeak public influence and support +for the Association. I have no doubt that this body would be fully +qualified to formulate and initiate the Country Life movement, and act +as the central agency for the active promotion of its objects. Its +members, who, I am sure, agree with Mr. Roosevelt in regarding the +movement as a necessary complement to the Conservation policy, might +even feel that for this very reason it was incumbent upon them to set +their organisation to this work. + +There is, however, one consideration which will make Mr. Pinchot and his +associates hesitate to adopt this course. The doubt relates to the +distinction I have drawn between the Conservation policy and the Country +Life movement, the one seeking to promote legislative and administrative +action, and the other, while it may give birth to a policy, being +chiefly concerned with voluntary effort.[11] Although the National +Conservation Association is founded for the purpose of educating public +opinion upon the Conservation idea, it may decide to support the +Conservation policy of one party rather than that of another. It would +thus become too much involved in party controversy to act as a central +agency of a movement which must embrace men of all parties. Should this +view prevail, the difficulty can be easily surmounted by following the +Irish precedent, where we had a very similar and indeed far more +delicate situation to save from political trouble. An American +Agricultural Organisation Society could be founded for the purpose in +view, and as it is probable that leading advocates of the Conservation +policy would take a prominent part in the Country Life movement, the +interdependence of the two ideas would have practical recognition. + +Apart from the possibility of political complications, there is one +strong reason to recommend this course. The movement will accomplish its +best and most permanent results as an advocate of self-reliance; it will +seek to make self-help effective through organisation; it will concern +itself much more for those things which the farmers can do for +themselves by cooperation than with those things which the Government +can do for them.[12] The selection, however, between the two alternative +courses is a question which the foreign critic cannot decide. The work +to which I now return will be the same, whatever agency is charged with +its execution. + +The central body (which for brevity I will call the Association) will +have as its general aim the economic and social development of rural +communities. The work will be mainly that of active organisation. For +reasons explained in the earlier chapters, the organisation must be +cooperative in character, and will be concentrated upon the business +methods of the farmers. This will, it is believed, cure a radical defect +in their system--a defect which, as I have argued, is responsible for a +restricted production, and for a course of distribution injurious alike +to producer and consumer, besides exercising a depressing influence upon +the economic efficiency and social life of rural communities. It follows +that the first step towards a general reconstruction of country life, +which has the promise of giving to the country a social attraction +strong enough to stem the tide of the townward migration, is +agricultural cooperation. + +Such being the general aim and the definite procedure, the first +practical question that arises will be, how to apply this +solvent--agricultural cooperation. It will not suffice to throw these +two long words at the hardy rustic; shorter and more emphatic words +might come back. Two equally necessary things must be done; the +principle must be made clear, and the practical details of this rural +equivalent of urban business combination must be explained in language +understanded of the people. It is not difficult to draft a paper scheme +for this purpose, but the fitting of the plan to local conditions is a +very expert business. Hence the central agency should have at its +disposal a corps of experts in cooperative organisation for agricultural +purposes. After a short visit to a likely district by a competent +exponent of the theory and practice, local volunteers would be found to +carry on the work. Experience shows that once a well-organised +cooperative association of farmers is permanently established, similar +associations spring up spontaneously under the magic influence of +proved success in known conditions. I should strongly recommend +concentration at first on a few selected districts, with the aim of +making standard models to which other communities could work. I need +hardly say that all this work would be done in cooperation with whatever +other agencies would lend their aid. The Country Life movement would be +extremely useful to the great educational foundations centred in New +York. I happen to know that the Trustees of the Rockefeller, Carnegie +and Russell Sage endowments are keenly desirous to promote such a +redirection of rural education as will bring it into a more helpful +relation with the working lives of the rural population. Then there are +such bodies as the Y. M. C. A., whose leaders, I am told, are alive to +the value of the open air life, and are anxious to extend their country +work in the rural districts. The great army of rural teachers, the +Farmers' Union, and other farmers' organisations I have already named +would gladly cooperate with schemes making for rural progress. + +More important, I believe, than is generally realised, from an economic +and social point of view, are the rural churches. In many European +countries, where agricultural cooperation has played a great part in the +people's lives, the clergy have ardently supported the system on account +of its moral value. In Ireland, some of our very best volunteer +organisers are clergymen. Some leaders of the rural church in the United +States have told me that a feeling is growing that an increased economic +usefulness in the clergy would strengthen their position in the society +which they serve in a higher capacity. I know that the suggestion of +clerical intervention in secular affairs is open to misunderstanding. +But here is a body of educated citizens who would gladly take part in +any real social service; and here is a situation where there is work of +high moral and social value calling for volunteers. Nothing but good, +it seems to me, could result if such men, who have more opportunity and +inclination for general reading than the working farmer, would help in +explaining the intricacies of cooperative organisation and procedure +which must be understood and practised in order that the system may be +fruitful. + +In addition to its active propagandist work, the central Association +could exercise a powerful and helpful influence in other ways. It +should, of course, keep both the agricultural and the general press +informed of its plans and progress. It should also keep in touch with +the agricultural work of all important educational bodies, and more +especially urge upon them the necessity of spreading the cooperative +idea. The Department of Agriculture would welcome and support the +movement; for I know many leading men in that service who thoroughly +understand and recognise the immense importance, especially to backward +rural communities, of the cooperative principle. + +It is not necessary, at this stage, to go further into details. I feel +confident that the work of assisting all suitable agencies, such as +those I have named, and others which may be available, through +organisers of agricultural cooperation and by the spreading of +information, would soon enable the central body to render inestimable +service to the cause of rural progress. Such, at any rate, is the +outline of my first proposal for giving to my American fellow-workers +upon the rural problem the assistance which I feel they most need at the +present moment. I pass now to my second proposal. + +I suggest that an institution--which, as I have said, will be +scientific, philosophic, research-making--should be founded. It would +be, in effect, a Bureau of research in rural social economy. Personally +I know that, in my own experience as an administrator and organiser, I +have been constantly brought face to face with problems where we could +turn to no guide--no patient band of investigators who had been +measuring, analysing, determining the data. Yet in some directions much +excellent work is being done. Every social worker knows how the +knowledge of what others are doing will help him. It is strange how +little the problems of the rural population have entered into the +studies of economists and sociologists. At leading Universities I have +sought in vain for light. At a recent anniversary in New York, which +brought together the foremost economists of the Old and New World, there +was an almost complete omission of the country side of things from a +programme which I am sure was generally held to be almost exhaustive. +The fact is, the subject must be treated as a new one, and it is +urgently necessary, if the work of the Country Life movement is to be +based on a solid foundation of fact, to make good the deficiency of +information which has resulted from the general lack of interest in the +subject under review. An Institute is wanted to survey the field, to +collect, classify and cooerdinate information and to supplement and carry +forward the work of research and inquiry. The rural social worker +requires as far as possible to carry exact statistical method into his +work so that he may no longer have to depend on general statements, but +may have at his command evidence, the validity of which can be trusted, +while its significance can be measured. I may mention a few typical +questions on which useful light would be shed by the Institute's +researches:-- + +1. The influence of cooperative methods (_a_) on the productive and +distributive efficiency of rural communities, and (_b_) on the +development of a social country life. + +2. The systems of rural education, both general and technical, in +different countries, and the administrative and financial basis of each +system. + +3. The relation between agricultural economy and the cost of food. + +4. The changes (_a_) in the standard and cost of living, and (_b_) in +the economy, solvency and stability of rural communities. + +5. The economic interdependence of the agricultural producer and the +urban consumer, and the extent and incidence of middle profits in the +distribution of agricultural produce. + +6. The action taken by different Governments to assist the development +and secure the stability of the agricultural classes, and the +possibilities and the dangers of such action, with special reference to +the delimitation of the respective spheres of State aid and voluntary +effort. + +7. How far agricultural and rural employment can relieve the problems of +city unemployment, and assist the work of social reclamation. + +Some may think that I am assigning to two bodies work which could be as +well done by one. While all proposals for multiplying organisations in +the field of social service should be critically examined, there are +strong reasons in this case for the course I suggest. The two bodies, +while working to a common end, will differ essentially in their scope +and method. The propagandist agency will be executive and +administrative, and while its operations would have suggestive value to +the country social worker everywhere, it would be concerned directly +only with the United States. Furthermore, it need not necessarily have +any lengthened existence as a national propagandist agency. It would be +founded mainly to introduce that method into American agricultural +economy which I have tried to show lies at the root of rural progress. +As soon as the soundness of the general scheme had been demonstrated in +any State, the central body would promote an organisation to take over +the work within that State. The State organisation would, in its turn, +soon be able to devolve its propagandist work upon a federation of the +business associations which it had been the means of establishing. That +is the contemplated evolution of my first proposal--the early delegation +of the functions of the national to the State propagandist agency, which +would further devolve the work upon bodies of farmers organised +primarily for economic purposes, but with the ulterior aim of social +advancement. + +The Country Life Institute would be on a wholly different footing. Its +researches, if only to subserve the Country Life movement in the United +States, would have to range over the civilised world, and to be +historical as well as contemporary. It should be regarded as a +contribution to the welfare of the English-speaking peoples, one aspect +of whose civilisation--if there be truth in what I have written--needs +to be reconsidered in the light which the Institute is designed to +afford. Its task will be of no ephemeral character. Its success will +not, as in the case of the active propagandist body, lessen the need for +its services, but will rather stimulate the demand for them. + +These differences will have to be taken into account in considering the +important question of ways and means. Both bodies will, I hope, appeal +successfully to public-spirited philanthropists. The temporary body will +need only temporary support; perhaps provision for a five-years' +campaign would suffice. In the near future, local organisations would +naturally defray the cost of the services rendered to them by the +central body; but the Country Life Institute would need a permanent +endowment. The man fitted for its chief control will not be found idle, +but will have to be taken from other work. The scheme, as I have worked +it out, will involve prolonged economic and social inquiry over a wide +field. This would be conducted mostly by postgraduate students. From +those who did this outside work with credit would be recruited the +small staff which would be needed at the central office to get into the +most accessible form the facts and opinions which are needed for the +guidance of those who are doing practical work in the field of rural +regeneration. My estimate of the amount required to do the work well is +from forty to fifty thousand dollars a year, or say a capital sum of +from a million to a million and a quarter dollars. Whether the project +is worthy of such an expenditure, depends upon the question whether I +have made good my case. + +Let me summarise this case. I have tried to show that modern +civilisation is one-sided to a dangerous degree--that it has +concentrated itself in the towns and left the country derelict. This +tendency is peculiar to the English-speaking communities, where the +great industrial movement has had as its consequence the rural problem I +have examined. If the townward tendency cannot be checked, it will +ultimately bring about the decay of the towns themselves, and of our +whole civilisation, for the towns draw their supply of population from +the country. Moreover, the waste of natural resources, and possibly the +alarming increase in the price of food, which have lately attracted so +much attention in America, are largely due to the fact that those who +cultivate the land do not intend to spend their lives upon it; and +without a rehabilitation of country life there can be no success for the +Conservation policy. Therefore, the Country Life movement deals with +what is probably the most important problem before the English-speaking +peoples at this time. Now the predominance of the towns which is +depressing the country is based partly on a fuller application of modern +physical science, partly on superior business organisation, partly on +facilities for occupation and amusement; and if the balance is to be +redressed, the country must be improved in all three ways. There must be +better farming, better business, and better living. These three are +equally necessary, but better business must come first. For farmers, the +way to better living is cooperation, and what cooperation means is the +chief thing the American farmer has to learn. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] In the capital of Virginia, to take one notable example, I have +witnessed a perfect ferment of social activity at one of the gatherings. +It brought together such an ideal combination of the best spirits in +both rural and urban life that I anticipate some striking developments +in rural civilization which will surely extend beyond the borders of the +State. + +[10] I may mention Raiffeisen, Luzzati, Rocquigny, Bishop Grundtwig, +Henry W. Wolff, the Rev. T. A. Finlay, S.J., and most of the leaders in +agricultural organization in Great Britain and Ireland. + +[11] See above, page 31. + +[12] It may seem a small matter even for a footnote, but an unambiguous +terminology is so important to propagandist work that I must mention a +somewhat unfortunate use of the word 'cooperation' which prevails in +official and pedagogic circles. We hear of cooperative demonstration +work, cooperative education, cooperative lectures, and so forth. +Whenever a Government or State department, or an educational body works +with any other agency, and sometimes when they are only doing their own +work, they use the term, which is of course grammatically applicable +whenever two people work together--from matrimony down. If the word in +connection with agriculture could be retained for its technical sense, +so long established and well understood in Europe, the proposed movement +might be saved a good deal of confused thinking. Might not Government +and educational authorities substitute the word 'cooerdinated' so as to +preserve the distinction? + + * * * * * + +Printed in the United States of America. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rural Life Problem of the United +States, by Horace Curzon Plunkett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL LIFE PROBLEM OF U.S. *** + +***** This file should be named 27305.txt or 27305.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/3/0/27305/ + +Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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