d into a more
compact society. They are being nurtured to greater alertness of mind,
to greater keenness of observation, and the foundations are being laid
for vastly enlarged social activities. The problem now is to extend
these advantages to every rural community--in itself a task of huge
proportions. If this can be done and isolation can be reduced to a
minimum, the solution of all the other rural social problems will become
vastly easier.

FARMERS' ORGANIZATION

Organization is one of the pressing social problems that American
farmers have to face. The importance of the question is intrinsic,
because of the general social necessity for co-operation which
characterizes modern life. Society is becoming consciously
self-directive. The immediate phase of this growing self-direction lies
in the attempts of various social groups to organize their powers for
group advantage. And if, as seems probable, this group activity is to
remain a dominant feature of social progress, even in a fairly coherent
society, it is manifest that there will result more or less of
competition among groups.

The farming class, if at all ambitious for group influence, can hardly
avoid this tendency to organization. Farmers, indeed more than any
other class, need to organize. Their isolation makes thorough
organization especially imperative. And the argument for co-operation
gains force from the fact that relatively the agricultural population is
declining. In the old days farmers ruled because of mere mass. That is
no longer possible. The naive statement that "farmers must organize
because other classes are organizing" is really good social philosophy.

In the group competition just referred to there is a tendency for class
interests to be put above general social welfare. This is a danger to be
avoided in organization, not an argument against it. So the farmers'
organization should be guarded, at this point, by adherence to the
principle that organization must not only develop class power, but must
be so directed as to permit the farmers to lend the full strength of
their class to general social progress.

Organization thus becomes a test of class efficiency, and consequently a
prerequisite for solving the farm problem. Can the farming class secure
and maintain a fairly complete organization? Can it develop efficient
leaders? Can it announce, in sound terms, its proposed group policy? Can
it lend the group influence to genuine social pro