to call attention to what I think to be an error in some of the current
discussions. I am convinced that local industries of one kind or another
will find their way into the open country in the next generation, and
greatly to the advantage of the country itself; but the most useful of
them will be regular factories able to compete with other factories.
Their largest results will come not in providing employment for persons
who temporarily need it, but in developing a new community life in the
places where they stand.
9. _The country store_ ought to be a factor in rural betterment. How to
make it so, I do not know. The country store is the nexus between the
manufacturers or the city jobbers, with their "agreements," on the one
hand, and the people, on the other hand, whose commercial independence
the jobbers may desire to control. The country merchant takes up the
cause of the large dealer, because his own welfare is involved, and he
unconsciously becomes one of the agencies through which the open country
is drained and restrained. The parcels post--which must come--will
probably considerably modify this establishment, although I do not look
for its abolition nor desire it. Certain interests make strong
opposition to the parcels post on the ground that it will ruin the
country merchant and, therefore, the country town. I doubt if it will do
any such thing; but even if it should, the end to be gained is not that
the country merchant shall not be disturbed, but that the people at
large may be benefited. No one knows just what form of readjustment the
parcels post will bring about; but trade will very soon readjust itself
to this condition as it has reacted to the introduction of farm
machinery, good roads, the telegraph and telephone, rural free delivery.
The trader in the small town in some parts of the country is likely to
own the people. He is almost necessarily opposed to coöperation and to
any new movements that do not tend to enlarge his trade.
I wish we might also do something with the country hotel.
10. _The business men's organizations_, or chambers of commerce, in
villages and country cities will not confine their activities within
the city boundaries in the future. A wholly new field for usefulness
and for the making of personal reputation lies right here. The business
organization of one village or city should extend out into the country
until it meets a similar organization from the adjoining village, and
the whole region should be commercially developed (pages 122-123). A
chamber of commerce could exert much influence toward making a better
reputation for the pack of apples, or for other output of the region.
11. The influence of certain _great corporations_ is likely to be felt
on the rural readjustment. This is particularly true of the new interest
that railroads are taking in Eastern agriculture. A coördination between
railroads and farming interests will do very much for the property of
both sides; and the railroads can exercise great power in tying country
communities together. The Wall Street Journal comments as follows on the
situation, after calling attention to the fact that the "Eastern trunk
lines have already entered upon a campaign for the encouragement of
agriculture":
"Thirty-six years ago the Pennsylvania state legislature made an effort
to save the farmers of that state from the damaging competition of
ruinously low rates on Western grain to Eastern mills and to the
seaboard. The result was practically nil. Eastern farmers were left so
completely out in the cold that thousands of them sold out and went West
to raise more grain there, still further to handicap the Eastern
producer. The widespread bankruptcy of the middle states farmers during
the eighties was a consequence partly of cut-throat competition among
railroads to haul Western grain to the East at less than cost, and
partly the result of a general depression from which it took ten full
years to recover.
"What is it that has brought the railroads to the farmers on terms of
coöperation for the development of their common territory? It is the
same thing which has served the railroads so admirably in the solution
of their cost problems. It is science applied to reducing the expenses
of transportation in the one case, and to the greater mastery of the
resources of the soil in the other case. In this lies the possibility
of increasing railway freight to and from rural sources. The coöperation
of transportation and agriculture, in the East especially, is not wholly
new, but it is highly significant.
"Nothing could be more encouraging than the service which the railroads
are beginning to render in the better distribution of population over
the land, by putting a premium on good farming and encouraging the young
to find careers for themselves in rural industries."
12. _Local institutions_ of all kinds must have a powerful effect in
evolving a good community sense. This is true in a superlative degree of
the school, the church, the fair, and the rural library. These
institutions will bring into the community the best thought of the world
and will use it in the development of the people in the locality.
Such institutions must do an extension work. The church, from the nature
of its organization, could readily extend itself beyond its regular and
essential gospel work. The high-school will hold winter-courses and will
take itself out to its constituency. The library ought to occupy its
whole territory (page 92).
Similarly, village improvement societies should organize country and
town together, extending tree-care, better roads, lawn improvement, and
other good work throughout the entire community contributory to the
city. Civic societies, fraternal orders, hospital associations, business
organizations (page 119), women's clubs and federations, could do the
same.
13. _The local rural press_ ought to have a powerful influence in
furthering community action. Many small rural newspapers are meeting
their local needs, and are to be considered among the agents that make
for an improved country life. In proportion as the support of the
country newspaper is provided by political organizations, hack
politicians, and patent medicine advertisements, will its power as a
public organ remain small and undeveloped.
14. The influence of the _many kinds of extension teaching_ is bound to
be marked. Reading-courses, itinerant lectures, the organizing of boys'
and girls' clubs, demonstration farms, the inspections of dairies,
orchards, and other farms, and of irrigation supplies, the organization
of such educational societies as cow-testing societies, and the like,
touch the very core of the rural problem. The influence of the traveling
teacher is already beginning to be felt, and it will increase greatly in
the immediate future. I mean by the traveling teacher the person who
goes out from the agricultural college, the experiment station, the
state or national department of agriculture, or other similar
institutions, to impart agricultural information, and to set the people
right toward their own problems.
15. The modern extension of _all kinds of communication_ will unite the
people, even though it does not result in making them move their
residences. I have in mind good highways, telephones, rural free
deliveries, and the like. The automobile is already beginning to have
its effect in certain rural communities, but we have yet scarcely begun
to develop the type of auto-vehicle which is destined, I think, to make
a very great change in country affairs. The improvement of highways on a
regular plan will itself tend to organize the rural districts. We must
add to all this a thoroughly developed system of parcels post, not only
that the farmer may receive mail, but that he may also have greater
facilities and freedom to transact his business with the world (page
118).
16. _Economic or business coöperation_ must be extended. There is much
coöperation of this kind among American farmers, more than most persons
are aware. Some of it is very effective, but much of it is coöperative
only in name. It takes the form of milk organizations, creameries, fruit
associations, poultry societies, farmers' grain elevators, unions for
buying and selling, and the like, some of which are of great extent.
A really coöperating association is one in which all members take active
part in government and control, and share in their just proportions in
the results. It is properly a society, rather than a company. Many
so-called coöperative units are really stock companies, in which a few
persons control, and the remainder become patrons; and others are mere
shareholding organizations.
Business coöperation in agriculture is of three kinds: (1) coöperative
production; (2) coöperative buying; (3) coöperative selling. The last
two are extensively practiced in many regions. Coöperative production of
animals and crops is practically unknown in the rural communities in the
United States, and we are not to expect it to arise in those communities
to any extent under the present organization of society. Colonies
organized on a coöperative basis may practice it within their
membership, but it is doubtful whether persons who are well equipped to
be farmers will enter such organizations for this purpose so long as it
is so easy to make a financial success at independent farming.
There is a fourth form that should be mentioned, although it is not
coöperation in the real sense, but rather a form of combination. I refer
to movements to control the production or output of commodities, as of
wheat, cotton, tobacco, maize, and arbitrarily to fix the price. This
cannot be permanently accomplished with any of the great staples, and
even if it could be accomplished, in my opinion it would be an economic
and social error.
Very much has been said about the necessity of business coöperation
among farmers, and the importance of the subject can hardly be
overstated; and yet it should be understood that economic coöperation is
only one of many means that may be put in operation to propel country
life. The essential thing is that country life be organized: if the
organization is coöperative, the results--at least theoretically--should
be the best; but in one place, the most needed coöperation may be
social, in another place educational, in another religious, in another
political, in another sanitary, in another economic in respect to buying
and selling and making loans or providing insurance. When the chief
deficiency in any region is economic, then it should be met by an
organization that is primarily economic. Some of the effective
coöperation in the West, so often cited, is really founded on the
land-selling spirit of the community.
In some parts of the United States, the financial status of the farmer
is very low, but in general the economic condition is in advance of
other conditions. The American farmer is prosperous,--not as prosperous
as he ought to be, but so prosperous that he can conduct his own
business without support or aid of his neighbors. Although he might gain
financially by coöperation in any case, he nevertheless desires his
complete freedom of action, even at the risk of some loss. The
psychology of the American farmer is in the end the determining factor.
In other countries, this may not be so true, and particularly not when
the farmers live under such a condition of peasanthood (or do not
comprise a middle class) that no one of them in a community is able
independently to buy his tools or his live-stock, or to secure
sufficient funds to provide a small working capital, when both sales and
purchases are very small, and when the entire community is practically
subjugated by a political system. The big people are more likely to
combine than to coöperate. Close coöperation naturally works best in a
peasantry and under a paternal government; it becomes a means of
bringing up the peasantry, of relieving them of oppression, and of
giving them the rights that should be theirs as a part of their
citizenship.
In Denmark, the coöperative movement has been one means of the salvation
of the country, following the disastrous German war. The movement in
some parts of the world is really a culture movement, having for a
background the general good of society.
The American white farmer is not a peasant; he is not submerged in a
hopeless political and economic slavery; he has his vote, his free
school, his fee to hold property without let or hindrance, his full
right to make the most of himself, his "rights" (pages 100 and 65). I
think it will be possible for him to exercise these privileges and at
the same time to share the benefits of coöperation; but coöperation is
not necessary to win him these privileges. It is not the unit in his
life, not the nucleus out of which all other agencies must evolve, or
the leaven that will raise the lump: it is itself one coördinating part
in a program of evolution. We do not have the problem of peasant
proprietorship. For the most part, the American farmer has already won
his economic independence, if not his just rewards.
We should not be impatient if our farmers do not organize themselves
coöperatively as rapidly as we think they ought to organize.
Economic personal coöperation may be expected to thrive best in a
community of small farmers. It is a question whether we shall develop
the strongest leaders in a condition of more or less uniform small
farms. There is much to be said in favor of rather large farming (say
500 to 1000 acres), for a business of this proportion demands a strong
man. This does not mean landlordism, which is a part of a political and
hereditary system, but merely large and competent business organization.
Such farmers, if they are so minded, can accomplish great things for
their fellows.
I am looking for some of the best results in coöperation to come from
the establishment of field-laboratories and demonstration farms, to
which the farmers of the locality contribute their personal funds in the
expectation of an educational result. The best results to country life
cannot possibly come by the government continuing to take everything to
the farmer free of cost and without the asking. Disadvantaged or
undeveloped regions must be aided freely, but as rapidly as any
localities or industries get on their feet, they should meet the state
part way, and should assume their natural share of the expense and
responsibility. This form of coöperation is already well under way; and
I suspect that in many localities that have been dead to all forms of
coöperative effort, this idea will afford the starting-point for a new
community life.
From this form of education-coöperation, it would be but a step to a
neighborhood effort to introduce new crops and high-class bulls, to
undertake drainage enterprises and reforestation; and to unite on
business matters.
It is possible for a national organization movement to come out of the
existing agricultural institutions in the United States.
We may picture to ourselves a perfectly coöperating rural society that
will have all the means of its salvation within itself. Even if we
accept this picture, we cannot say that the structure will rise out of
one seed or starting-point, or that one phase of coöperation is of
necessity primary and another final. Our theoretical structure will
arise from several or many beginnings; it will be a complex of
numberless units; whatever range of coöperation is found, by
investigation, to be now most needed in any community, must be the one
with which we are to set that community going.
17. In the end everything depends on _personal gumption and guidance_.
It is not strange that we have lacked the kind of guidance that brings
country people together, because we have not had the kind of education
that produces it; and, in fact, this kind of guidance has not been so
necessary in the past as it is now. A new motive in education is
gradually beginning to shape itself. This must produce a new kind of
outlook on country questions, and it will bring out a good many men and
women who will be guides in the country as their fellows will be guides
in the city. They will be captains because they will perform the common
work of farming regions in an uncommon way.
I think we little realize to-day what the effect will be in twenty-five
years of the young men and women that the colleges of agriculture in
these days are sending into the country districts.
_Community interest is of the spirit._
In conclusion, let us remember that everything that develops the common
commercial, intellectual, recreative, and spiritual interests of the
rural people, ties them together socially. Residing near together is
only one of the means of developing a community life, and it is not now
the most important one. Persons who reside close together may still be
torn asunder by divergent interests and a simple lack of any tie that
binds; this is notably true in many country villages.
Community of purpose and spirit is much more important than community of
houses. Community pride is a good product; it produces a common mind.
A POINT OF VIEW ON THE LABOR PROBLEM
It is a general complaint in the United States that there is scarcity of
good labor. I have found the same complaint in parts of Europe, and
Europeans lay much of the blame of it on America because their working
classes migrate so much to this country; and they seem to think we must
now be well supplied with labor. Labor scarcity is felt in the cities
and trades, in country districts, in mines, and on the sea. It seems to
be serious in regions in which there is much unemployed population. It
is a real problem in the Southern states.
While farmers seem now to complain most of the labor shortage, the
difficulty is not peculiarly rural. Good farmers feel it least; they
have mastered this problem along with other problems. As a matter of
fact, it is doubtful whether there is a real labor shortage as measured
by previous periods; but it is very difficult to secure good labor on
the previous terms and conditions.
_Reasons for the labor question._
The supposed short labor supply is not a temporary condition. It is one
of the results of the readjustment and movement of society. A few of the
immediate causes may be stated, to illustrate the nature of the
situation.
(1) In a large way, the labor problem is the result of the passing out
of the people from slavery and serfdom,--the rise of the working classes
out of subjugation. Peoples tend always to rise out of the laboring-man
phase. We would not have it otherwise if we desire social democracy.
(2) It is due in part to the great amount and variety of constructive
work that is now being done in the world, with the consequent urgent
call for human hands. The engineering and building trades have extended
enormously. We are doing kinds of work that we had not dreamed of a
half-hundred years ago.
(3) In some places the labor difficulty is due to the working-men being
drawn off to other places, through the perfecting of industrial
organization. The organization of labor means companionship and social
attraction. Labor was formerly solitary; it is now becoming gregarious.
(4) In general, men and women go where things are "doing." Things have
not been doing on the farms. There has been a gradual passing out from
backward or stationary occupations into the moving occupations. Labor
has felt this movement along with the rest. It has been natural and
inevitable that farms should have lost their labor. Cities and great
industrialism could not develop without them; and they have made the
stronger bid.
(5) In farming regions, the outward movement of labor has been specially
facilitated by lack of organization there, by the introduction of farm
machinery, by the moving up of tenants into the class of renters and
owners, by lack of continuous employment, by relatively low pay, by
absence of congenial association as compared with the town. Much of the
hired farm labor is the sons of farmers and of others, who "work out"
only until they can purchase a farm. Some of it is derived from the
class of owners who drift downward to tenants, to laboring men, and
sometimes to shifters. We are now securing more or less foreign-born
labor on the farms. Much of this is merely seasonal; and when it is not
seasonal, the immigrant desires to become a farm owner himself. If the
labor is seasonal, the man may return to his native home or to the city,
and in either case he is likely to be lost to the open country.
_The remedies._
There is really no "solution" for the labor difficulty. The problem is
inherent in the economic and social situation. It may be relieved here
and there by the introduction of immigrants or by transportation of
laborers at certain times from the city; but the only real relief lies
in the general working out of the whole economic situation. The
situation will gradually correct itself; but the readjustment will come
much more quickly if we understand the conditions.
As new interest arises in the open country and as additional values
accrue, persons will remain in the country or will return to it; and the
labor will remain or return with the rest. As the open country fills up,
we probably shall develop a farm artisan class, comprised of persons who
will be skilled workmen in certain lines of farming as other persons are
skilled workmen in manufactures and the trades. These persons will have
class pride. We now have practically no farm artisans, but solitary and
more or less migratory working-men who possess no high-class manual
skill. Farm labor must be able to earn as much as other labor of equal
grade, and it must develop as much skill as other labor, if it is to
hold its own. This means, of course, that the farming scheme may need to
be reorganized (pages 86 to 90).
Specifically, the farm must provide more continuous employment if it is
to hold good labor. The farmer replies that he does not have employment
for the whole year; to which the answer is that the business should be
so reorganized as to make it a twelve months' enterprise. The
introduction of crafts and local manufactures will aid to some extent,
but it cannot take care of the situation (page 115). In some way the
farm laborer must be reached educationally, either by winter schools,
night schools, or other means. Every farm should itself be a school to
train more than one laborer. The larger part of the farm labor must be
country born. With the reorganization of country life and its increased
earning power, we ought to see an increase in the size of country
families.
_Public or social bearings._
It is doubtful if city industrialism is developing the best type of
working-men, considered from the point of view of society (page 59). I
am glad of all organizations of men and women, whether working-men or
not. But it seems to me that the emphasis in some of the organizations
has been wrongly placed. It has too often been placed on rights rather
than on duties. No person and no people ever developed by mere
insistence on their rights. It is responsibility that develops them. The
working-man owes responsibility to his employer and to society; and so
long as the present organization of society continues he cannot be an
effective member of society unless he has the interest of his employer
constantly in mind.
The real country working-men must constitute a group quite by
themselves. They cannot be organized on the basis on which some other
folk are organized. There can be no rigid short-hour system on a farm.
The farm laborer cannot drop his reins or leave his pitchfork in the air
when the whistle blows. He must remain until his piece of work is
completed; this is the natural responsibility of a farm laborer, and it
is in meeting this responsibility that he is able to rise to the upper
grade and to develop his usefulness as a citizen.