Arizona republican., 1908-10-03

carpenters, or any of the other trades and businesses of the United States ! After we have secured better crops, the next logical and inevitable step is to secure better business organization
 lon the farm so that each farmer shall i get from what he grows the best pos lsible return.
 | Consider what has been accomplish led in Ireland through agricultural CO., loperation. The Irish have discovered i that it is not good for the farmer to work alone. Since 1894 they have been i organizing agricultural societies to give | the farmer chance to sell at the right | time and at the right price. The re-
 suit is impressive. In Ireland there are 354 creameries producing about | half the butter exported. There are | 40, 900 farmers in the societies for CO., operative selling. which, as we know in this country, means better prices There are 261 agricultural credit so- cieties with a membership of 15,000 ! and a capital of more than $2O0OO0. | There are other agricultural societies with 10000 members. In word. in Ireland. which we have been apt to ! consider as far behind us in all that i relates to agriculture. there are 925 agricultural societies with an annual
 business of $5O,OOO,OOO. Since 1894 their total business was more than | $500, ,000, ,000.
 But after the farmer has begun to
 make use of his right to combine for
 his advantage in selling his products ] and buying his supplies, Is there nOth- | ing else he can do? As well might we say that, after the body and the mind | of a boy have been trained, he should be deprived of all those associations
 with his fellows which make life worth living, and to which every child has
 an inborn right Life Is something more than a matter of business. No man can make his life what it ought | to be by living it merely on a business basis There are things higher than business. What is the reason for the enormous movement from the farms into the cities? Not simply that the business advantages in the city are better, but that the city has more con- veniences, more excitement and more facility for contact with friends and lneighbors; in a word, more life. There ought then to be attractiVeness in country life such as will make the
 country boy or girl want to live and work in the country such that the farmer will understand that there is
 no more dignified calling than his own, none that makes life better worth liv- ing. The social or community life of
 the country should be put by the farm CT, for no one but himself can do it for him. on the same basis as social life in the city. through the country churches and societies, through better roads, country telephones, rural free delivery. parcels post. and whatever else will help. The problem is not merely to dispose of crops better but in the last analysis to have happier and richer lives of men and women on the farm.
 have venturcd to lay this state ment before you because irrigators are
 natural leaders in this great movement, and to urge you, to add this problem
 to the others in which the interest and activity of the National Irrigation con gress have been of such effect and value to the whole nation.
 With all good wishes for the success of the Albuquerque meeting. and with
 renewed regret that I cannot be with you, l an,
 Very sincerely yours.
 (Signed) CLIFFORD PINCHOT.