lism.
The weakness in rural institutions.
The difficulty of organizing farmers.

II. _Failures in Rural Cooperation_

Lack of political effectiveness.
Lack of cooperation in business.
Lack of religious cooperation.

III. _Rural Morals and the Recreation Problem_

Lack of wholesome social life for young people.
Lack of recreation and organized play.
Morality and the play spirit.

B. The New Cooperation in Country Communities

I. _Social Cooperation_

The problem of community socialization.
Who shall take the initiative?
A community plan for socialization.
The gospel of organized play.
The school a social center.
The social influence of the Grange.

II. _Business Cooperation_

Modern rural cooperative movements.
Cooperation among fruit growers.
Some elements of success and failure.
Our debt to immigrants.
Cooperative success in Denmark.

[_Cooperation of religious forces will be treated in Chap. VII._]

CHAPTER V

RURAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

A. COUNTRY LIFE DEFICIENCIES

I. Social Diagnosis: Rural Individualism.

The preceding chapters have emphasized the riches of country life
sufficiently to save the author from the charge of pessimism. Let us hold
fast to our rural optimism. We shall need it all. But let it not blind us
to the unfortunate facts in rural life, for diagnosis is the first step
toward recovery. We are to notice now some of the fundamental social
deficiencies which are almost universal in our American rural society.

Dr. Butterfield calls the American farmer "a rampant individualist!"
Independence has been his national boast and his personal glory. Pioneer
life developing heroic virtues in his personality has made him as a class
perhaps the most self-reliant in history. The ownership of land always
gives a man the feeling of independence. Let the world spin,--his broad
acres will support him and his family. If one crop fail, another will
succeed, though the weather act its worst. American farms average perhaps
the largest in the world, nearly one-fourth of a square mile. Hence the
distance between farm homes, and the habit of social independence which is
bred by isolation.

"Every man for himself; look out for number one" is the natural philosophy
of life under such conditions. Self-protection and aggrandize