ree with Mr. Roosevelt in regarding the
movement as a necessary complement to the Conservation policy, might
even feel that for this very reason it was incumbent upon them to set
their organisation to this work.

There is, however, one consideration which will make Mr. Pinchot and his
associates hesitate to adopt this course. The doubt relates to the
distinction I have drawn between the Conservation policy and the Country
Life movement, the one seeking to promote legislative and administrative
action, and the other, while it may give birth to a policy, being
chiefly concerned with voluntary effort.[11] Although the National
Conservation Association is founded for the purpose of educating public
opinion upon the Conservation idea, it may decide to support the
Conservation policy of one party rather than that of another. It would
thus become too much involved in party controversy to act as a central
agency of a movement which must embrace men of all parties. Should this
view prevail, the difficulty can be easily surmounted by following the
Irish precedent, where we had a very similar and indeed far more
delicate situation to save from political trouble. An American
Agricultural Organisation Society could be founded for the purpose in
view, and as it is probable that leading advocates of the Conservation
policy would take a prominent part in the Country Life movement, the
interdependence of the two ideas would have practical recognition.

Apart from the possibility of political complications, there is one
strong reason to recommend this course. The movement will accomplish its
best and most permanent results as an advocate of self-reliance; it will
seek to make self-help effective through organisation; it will concern
itself much more for those things which the farmers can do for
themselves by cooperation than with those things which the Government
can do for them.[12] The selection, however, between the two alternative
courses is a question which the foreign critic cannot decide. The work
to which I now return will be the same, whatever agency is charged with
its execution.

The central body (which for brevity I will call the Association) will
have as its general aim the economic and social development of rural
communities. The work will be mainly that of active organisation. For
reasons explained in the earlier chapters, the organisation must be
cooperative in character, and will be concentrated upon the business
meth