tance in
any scheme of rural development. On irrigation farm lands there has
been developed, in connection with the upkeep and control of the water
systems, a community spirit which will surely lead to many forms of
organisation for mutual economic and social advantage. In the city of
Spokane, Washington, the Chamber of Commerce has aroused a public
interest in the work of the Country Life Commission which, so far as my
information goes, has not been equalled elsewhere in the United States.
The Chamber is republishing the Report of the Commission, for which no
Federal appropriation appears to have been made. It would seem to be a
not wild speculation that the statesmen and social workers who will
first solve the rural problem of the English-speaking peoples may be
found in the Far West of the New World as well as of the Old.

I must now conclude the diagnosis of rural decadence by a consideration
of what in my judgment is the chief cause of the malady, and so get to
a point where we can determine the nature of the remedy. It will then
remain only to sketch the outlines of the movement which is to give
practical effect to the agreed principles in the life of rural
communities.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] _North American Review_, September, 1909.

CHAPTER V

THE WEAK SPOT IN AMERICAN RURAL ECONOMY

The evidence of competent American witnesses proves that there is, in
the United States, notwithstanding its immense agricultural wealth, a
Rural Life problem. Here, as elsewhere, on a fuller analysis, the utmost
variety of race, soil, climate and market facilities serve but to
emphasise the importance of the human factor. But this consideration
does not lessen the need for a sternly practical treatment of the rural
social economy under review. In this chapter, I propose to go right down
to the roots of the rural problem, find what is wrong with the industry
by which the country people live, and see how it can be righted. We
should then have clearly in our minds the essentials of prosperity in a
rural community.

Agriculture, the basis of a rural existence, must be regarded as a
science, as a business and as a life. I have already adverted to
President Roosevelt's formula for solving the rural problem--"better
farming, better business, better living." Better farming simply means
the application of modern science to the practice of agriculture. Better
business is the no less necessary application of modern commercial
metho