of the countries illustrates this more than Russia. January
1, 1914, there were about 10,000,000 members of cooperative societies or
about 5.8 per cent of the total population. In 1916 this membership had
increased to 15,000,000. Counting in the families of the cooperators, it
is estimated that 67,500,000 people in Russia are interested in
cooperative enterprises, or about 39 per cent of the population. We find
that development of cooperation in consumption has been in Russia
directly related to the pressure for food due to war conditions. The
large majority of Russian cooperative societies are rural.[12] Other
countries, notably England and France, have also felt the influence of
the war in increasing the development of cooperation.

In America we are still too distant from the bitter consequences of war
to feel the need of planning for the care of the crippled and nervously
injured soldiers. Imagination will not allow us to picture the returning
of the soldiers as a problem. Our remarkable success in getting the
soldiers back into industry after the Civil War gives us a strong sense
of security when we do consider the matter. Probably if the war
continues for several years our problem after this war will be more
serious than it was in 1865. In any case we shall have a considerable
number of those who, because of physical or nervous injuries, will
require public assistance of a constructive character. If such men can
be made fully or even partly self-supporting by being placed on land it
will help both them and the food productiveness of the nation. Of
course, this form of public aid, like every other method of giving
assistance, has its political and economic dangers. The prosperity of
other farmers must not be disturbed. So many interests are involved that
the entire problem demands time for serious discussion, so that we may
not be troubled by hasty, half-baked legislation.

Anyone who has visited an army cantonment has felt the gregarious
atmosphere of army service. For a few men this is the most trying
experience connected with the service. Others find in it the supreme
satisfaction. Every soldier is influenced by it more or less. What will
it mean to the soldier who has come into the army from the small country
place? We know, as a result of what social workers among the soldiers
tell us, that the country boy is often very sensitive to this enormous
change from an isolated rural neighborhood to the closest contac