tration 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 agricultura