AND ONE ANSWERED: Lord, Of a truth, kind Lord, I am weak but humble, and yet I have erred not often, And kindly have I been; so let Thy judgment be as kind, Howbeit meekness gain not Heaven. _What hast thou done, kind man?_ All things that man would do, kind Lord. _Whatsoever Heaven thou choose, That Heaven is thine._ AND ONE ANSWERED: Lord, Of a truth, O Lord, Who am I to answer?… And yet … I have lived, Life-Giver, And O, how sweet was life! so let Its sweetness cling and lo, I shall but live again … in Heaven. _What hast thou done, O man?_ Thou only knowest true, O Lord. _Whatsoever Heaven thou choose, That Heaven is Mine._ THE AMERICAN FARMER AS A COÖPERATOR E. E. MILLER When one speaks or hears of coöperation among farmers, it seems the natural thing to think first of Denmark or Ireland. These and other European countries have made so much greater progress in the business organization of farmers and farm life than America has, that it is almost inevitable that they should be held up to us as examples of what we might but do not accomplish. Various reasons are advanced for this American backwardness in what is unquestionably one of the great economic movements of our time. The American farmer’s individualism and dislike of restraint is often given as the reason. Professor G. Harold Powell goes so far as to say that “the investment of the farmer must be threatened by existing social and economic conditions before he can overcome his individualism sufficiently and can develop a fraternal spirit strong enough to pull with his neighbors in coöperative team work.” There is no doubt much truth in this, but I am inclined to think that lack of knowledge as to how to coöperate has been almost as much a hindering factor as has lack of desire to coöperate. The attempts at coöperation among farmers have been sufficiently numerous, if they had been successful, to have made coöperative effort in rural communities a familiar form of activity to us all. As it is, instances of really successful coöperative ventures among farmers, while rather impressive as an aggregate, amount to very little indeed compared with the vast volume of yet unorganized business carried on by them.