The Rural Life Problem of the United States: Notes of an Irish ObserverPlunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
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The Rural Life Problem of the United States: Notes of an Irish Observer
Plunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
Farm life; Natural resources
Such being the general aim and the definite procedure, the first
practical question that arises will be, how to apply this
solvent--agricultural coöperation. It will not suffice to throw these
two long words at the hardy rustic; shorter and more emphatic words
might come back. Two equally necessary things must be done; the
principle must be made clear, and the practical details of this rural
equivalent of urban business combination must be explained in language
understanded of the people. It is not difficult to draft a paper scheme
for this purpose, but the fitting of the plan to local conditions is a
very expert business. Hence the central agency should have at its
disposal a corps of experts in coöperative organisation for agricultural
purposes. After a short visit to a likely district by a competent
exponent of the theory and practice, local volunteers would be found to
carry on the work. Experience shows that once a well-organised
coöperative association of farmers is permanently established, similar
associations spring up spontaneously under the magic influence of
proved success in known conditions. I should strongly recommend
concentration at first on a few selected districts, with the aim of
making standard models to which other communities could work. I need
hardly say that all this work would be done in coöperation with whatever
other agencies would lend their aid. The Country Life movement would be
extremely useful to the great educational foundations centred in New
York. I happen to know that the Trustees of the Rockefeller, Carnegie
and Russell Sage endowments are keenly desirous to promote such a
redirection of rural education as will bring it into a more helpful
relation with the working lives of the rural population. Then there are
such bodies as the Y. M. C. A., whose leaders, I am told, are alive to
the value of the open air life, and are anxious to extend their country
work in the rural districts. The great army of rural teachers, the
Farmers' Union, and other farmers' organisations I have already named
would gladly coöperate with schemes making for rural progress.
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