The Forrest City times., 1909-02-12
Necessity for Cooperation.

Necessity for Cooperation.
 The cooperative plan is the best plan of organization wherever men have the right spirit to carry it out. Under this plan any business undertaking is man. aged by a committed; every man has one vote. and only one vote, and every one gets profits according to what he sells or buys or supplies. It develops in- dividual responsibility and has a moral as we'll as financial value over any other plan.
 desire only to take counsel with the farmers as fellow-citizens. It is not the problem of the farmers alone that I am discussing with them. but problem which affects every city as well as every farm i'll the country.
 From all that has been done and learned three great general and immedi- ate needs of country life stand out:
 First, effective cooperation among farmers. to put them on a level with the organized interests with which they do business
 Second. new kind of schools in the country. which shall teach the children as much outdoors as indoors and per haps more, so that they will prepare for country life. and not as at present, main ly for life in town.
 Third, better means of communication. including good roads and a parcels post, which the country people are everywhere. and rightly. unanimous i'll demanding.
 To these may we'll be added better san itaton, for easily preventable diseases hold several million country people in the slavery of continuous i'll health.
 To Develop Country Community.
 To improve our system of agriculture seems to me the most urgent of the tasks which lie before us. But it cannot. in my judgment. be effected by measures which touch only the material and tech nicai side of the subject: the whole busi- ness and life of the farmer must also be taken into account. Such eonsidera- ions led me to appoint the commission on country life Our object should be to help develop in the country commu- nifty the great ideals of the community life we'll as of personal character. One of the most important adjuncts to this end must be the country church. and l invite your attention to what the com mission says of the country church and of the need of an extension of such work as that of the Young Mems Christian as soeiation in country communities. Le: me lay special emphasis upon what the commission says at the very end of its report on personal ideas and local leader ship. Everything resolves itself in the end into the question of personality Neither society nor government can do much for country life unless there is vol untary response in the perSonal ideals Of the men and worlen who live ir the country In the development of charac- ter the home should be more important than the school. or than society at large. When once the basic material needs have been met, high ideals may be quite in- dependent of income but they cannot be realized without sufficient income to pro- vide adequate foundation; and where the community at large is not financially prosperous it is impossible to develop a high average personal and community ideal. In short, the fundamental facts of human nature apply to men and wom- en who live in the country just as they apply to men and women who live in the towns. Given a sufficient foundation of material we'll being. the influence of the farmers wives on their children be- comes the factor of first importance in the attitude of the next gen eration toward farm life. The farmer should realize that the person who most needs consideration on the farm is his wife do not in the least mean that she should purchase ease at the expense of duty. Neither man nor woman is really happy or really useful save on condition of doing his or her duty. If the wom- an shirks her duty as housewife as home keeper. as the mother whose prime function is to bear and rear sufficient number Of healthy children. then she is not entitled to our regard. But if she does her duty she is more entitled to our regard even than the man who does his duty; and the man should show spe cial consideration for her needs.
 Welfare of Nation at Stake.
 I warn my countrymen that the great