Conservation of natural resources; Country life; Earth (Planet); Natural resources; Nature
Yet we are not to think of society as founded wholly on small separate
tracts, or "family farms," occupied by persons who live merely in
contentment; this would mean that all landsmen would be essentially
laborers. We need to hold on the land many persons who possess large
powers of organization, who are managers, who can handle affairs in a
bold way: it would be fatal to the best social and spiritual results if
such persons could find no adequate opportunities on the land and were
forced into other occupations. Undoubtedly we shall find ourselves with
very unlike land units, encouraged and determined by the differing
conditions and opportunities in different regions; and thereby shall we
also avoid the great danger of making our fundamental occupation to
produce a uniform and narrow class spirit.
We need the great example of persons who live separately on their lands,
who desire to abide, who are serious in the business, and who have
sufficient proprietary rights to enable them to handle the natural
resources responsibly. There is a type of well-intentioned writers that
would have the farmers live in centres in order that they may have what
are called "social" advantages, betaking themselves every morning to the
fields when the dew is on the grass and the birds sing, hastening back
every evening (probably when the clock points to five) to engage in the
delightful delirium of card-parties and moving-picture shows (of course
gathering the golden harvest in the meantime). Other writers are to have
the farms so small that the residences will be as close as on a village
street, and a trolley-car will run through, and I suppose the band will
play!
_A new map_
If, then, we are to give the people access to the holy earth, it means
not only a new assent on the part of society but a new way of
partitioning the surface. This is true whether we consider the subject
wholly from the view-point of making natural resources utilizable or
from the added desire to let the people out to those resources.
The organization of any affair or enterprise determines to a great
extent the character of the result; and the organization rests directly
on the subdivision into parts. The dividing of a business into separate
responsibilities of different departments and sub-departments makes for
easy access and for what we now know as efficiency; the dividing of a
nation into states or provinces and counties and many lesser units makes
political life possible; the setting off of a man's farm into fields,
with lanes and roads connecting, makes a working enterprise. The more
accurately these subdivisions follow natural and living necessities, the
greater will be the values and the satisfactions that result from the
undertaking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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