es of rural life as long
as the economic question is acute. It is not true that economic
prosperity in agriculture will of itself ensure the higher culture of
the countryside; but it is true that so long as the farmer is compelled
to devote all of his strength and time to making a competence for his
family, that his attention must necessarily be fixed on economic ends
and that he will have neither the means nor the time for those
satisfactions of life which are possible to one with some leisure. Says
"A.E.": "I believe the fading hold the heavens have over the world is
due to the neglect of the economic basis of spiritual life. What
profound spiritual life can there be when the social order almost forces
men to battle with each other for the means of existence?"[29] For weal
or woe the material existence of both farmer and townman throughout the
civilized world is inextricably inter-dependent. If a better economic
system is to arise it must come through the general understanding of
these relations by the education of all parties and by a willingness to
find satisfaction in the well-being of all rather than in the largest
individual profit. Unless these attitudes can be established in the
local community, how can we expect to secure harmony of interests among
larger groups? Loyalty to the common good must first be developed in the
local community among neighbors.

In subsequent chapters we shall have occasion to consider various forces
and methods for creating this spirit of community, and we shall see that
whereas the higher culture of rural life awaits a better economic
system, this spirit of loyalty which is essential for cooperative
organizations may be developed through various forms of community
activity.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] See Percy Wells Bidwell, "Rural Economy in New England at the
Beginning of the Nineteenth Century." Trans. Comm. Acad. Arts and Sci.,
Vol. 20, p. 253, 1916; and E. G. Nourse, "Agricultural Economics," p.
65.

[26] See the account of Mr. A. G. Gardiner, _Manchester Guardian_,
Weekly Edition, Feb. 6, 1920, quoted by Norman Angell in "The Fruits of
Victory," p. 27: "Suddenly all this elaborate structure of economic life
was swept away. Vienna, instead of being the vital center of fifty
millions of people, finds itself a derelict city, with a province of six
millions. It is cut off from its coal supplies, from its food supplies,
from its factories, from everything that means existence. It is
en