onaries as postmaster, mail-carrier, stage-driver, constable or
sheriff, and other town or county officials. Without specific
allotment of lands as on the feudal estate, or distribution of tasks
as in a socialistic commonwealth, the community accomplishes a natural
division of labor and diversification of industry, supports its own
institutions by self-imposed taxes and voluntary contributions, and
supplies its quota to the larger State of which it forms a democratic
part. In spite of the constant exercise of individual independence and
competition, there is at the foundation of every rural community the
principle of co-operation and service as the only working formula for
human life.

111. =Co-operation.=--One great advantage of community life over the
home is the increased opportunity for co-operation. In new
communities families work together to erect buildings, make roads,
support schools, and organize and maintain a church. They aid each
other in sickness, accident, and distress. Farmers find it profitable
to unite for purposes of production, distribution, communication,
transportation, and insurance. It may not seem worth while for a
single farmer to buy an expensive piece of agricultural machinery for
his own use, but it is well worth while for four or five to club
together and buy it. The cost of an irrigation plant is much too high
for one man, but a community can afford it when it will add materially
to the production of all the farms in a district. In a region
interested mainly in dairying a co-operative creamery can be made very
profitable; in grain-producing sections co-operative elevator service
makes possible the storage of grain until the demand increases values;
in fruit-raising regions co-operation in selling has made the
difference between success and failure. A co-operative telephone
company has been the means of supplying several adjacent communities
with easy communication. Co-operative banks are a convenient means of
securing capital for agricultural use, and co-operative insurance
companies have proved serviceable in carrying mutual risks.

The advantages of such co-operation are by no means confined to
economic interests. The best result is the increasing realization of
mutual dependence and common concern. Co-operation is an antidote to
the evils of isolation and independence. A co-operative telephone
company may not pay large dividends, and may eventually sell out to a
larger corporation, bu