The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1914-01-10
COOPERATION IS IN THE AIR
Farmer Must Have Leadership, and
This Comes Only Through Better
knowledge of Neighbors.

! NnoWleuge OF NeI9npOTS'
Cooperation is in the air now. We
are talking about it in almost every
state in the Union. In some states
they have made rapid progress In
others they have done nothing as yet,
mainly because conditions are so easy
that they do not feel the necessity Of
cooperation.
Where the subject has taken hold
Of the public mind, the people are in
terested in the formation Of co-opera-
tive organizations The American
people have the idea that things can
be done by machinery; that they can
have cooperative machinery just as
they can have improved machinery on
the farm Our suggestion is that you
! do not put too much faith in co-opera-
tive schemes, and that you look pref
! ty closely at schemes which work well
in other countries, and which are rep
resented as practical in this says Wal
laCes Farmer.
! The one machine that moves the
world effectively is the human machine
man himself; not his bodily powers
but his brain powers. Cooperation Is
thing that must be learned; and the
object Of this article is simply to tell
you how to get the knowledge be-
cause all great movements which ben
eft men come from the people them
selves. The banker cant furnish a
cooperative scheme for you; neither
can the merchant You must develop
it yourself
The place to begin is right in the
home, in the family Are you cooper.
ating in the ordinary work Of your
farm in such a way as to bring the
best results? Have you taken your
boys into your confidence, and asked
their opinion about how to do this or
that or the other thing? how to handle
| this field or the other? how to feed
your live stock? Are you cooperating
with your wife and getting the best
out Of life? Are you cooperating with
your children in their studies, their
sports and recreation? DO you know
the heart Of your child, or Is he keep.
Ing something back which he does not
feel free to talk to you about2 The
place to learn cooperation is right In
| your own home,
The next place is IN your neigh.
borhood Are you getting three or
four Of your neighbors that you like
best into your home in the evening?
Are you figuring with them how you
can cooperate? To cooperate means
simply to operate together in plain
English, TO work together to the best
advantage to work to each others
hand 80 that what one does will help
the other fellow also, Are you look.
ing upon your neIghbors as competi'
tors working to seq which can get the
best Of the others, or as men working
for the benefit Of each other?
This involves an entirely different
attitude toward your neIghbor, toward
life, Competition Is indIyidualIstici
cooperation Is altrustic individual.
ism means working for yourself, al.
trulsm means working for tho com.
munty, for your nolghbors as well as
yourself, What Is your attitude toward
life? When you get your family to
working together and your nolghborB
to working together the rest is easy.
The difficulty iB In getting started and
getting started right with the right
attitude toward lie, toward the com.
munty
When noighbors get acquainted, It
develops leadership; for there viii al.
ways be- q leader The wild things,
oven the crows and prairie chickens,
have q lender You can't do anything
without leadership. What the country
needs more than anything else Ia lead
ership. not the leadership Of the busi
ness man I'm town, nor the leadership
Of the banker nor oven the leadership
Of the preacher Leadership must be
| developed among the farmers thom
selves, We must learn whom II Ia safe
to follow, who IL the wIsost leader The
rest lB easy It In surprising what an
amount Of good can be accomplished
when we once get acquainted with
each other with our noIghbors, and
develop Leadership which the eommu.
nifty viii follow without this the
farmer cannot attain to the fun mea'
sure Of his prosperity lie must have
loadorahpi and this can como only
through better knowledge Of the ObIl'
| ity that IN going 10 waste for want Of
recognized leadership,