The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1914-04-29
Problem That Is Difficult
Of Adjustment.
EFFECTIVE SOLUTION IS HARO
DirectorofRural Organization
Talks Intelligently On
Subject.
FARM SHOULD BE ATTRACTIVE

Chicago, April 24.-The problem
confronting the Rural Organization
Service of the Department of Agri-
culture, was described yesterday by
DR.. T. n. Carver, director of the
service, as two-fold teaching the
farmer how to earn satisfactory
income and then how to spend it,
DR.. Carver spoke of his work at the
conference ON marketing and farm
products. A very little study of
farmers organizations in this and
vince any one that the effective Or
ganiZation of the rural interests was
one of the most difficult problems
i'm the world.
The chief difficulty. he declared,
was due to the fact that the farm
-ers are the most numerous econom-
ic GLASS in the country. They are
scattered, they have wide diversi-
ty of interests and many antagon-
isms, aud the process of selection
tends to leave in the country those
who are strongly individualistic,
who prefer to be their own bosses,
and who have the capacity for self
direction.
"All OF these people," he contin-
ued, Ito whom the pain of a new
idea is eXcruciating, who find it a
great hardship to have to decide
what to DO next, will find farm life
uncomfortable. That perhaps more
than any other single fact charac-
terizes the life of farmer. He
must always be in the act of decd-
ing what to do next. His work from
day to day, even from hour to hour,
has to be adjusted to the conditions
of soil and climate, the exigencies
no kind of life for man who is
capable OF doing what he is told and
incapable of deciding himself what
is the next thing to be done. This
process of selection. as said
makes rural population very indie
pendent in spirit and temperament
ally difficult to organize.
''The idea seems to prevail at the
present time" said DR.. Carver in
conclusion. that all that is neces-
sary is to enable the farmer to grow
his products and to buy and sell to
advantage in order that his income
may be Increased. ! dare say that
most people who are thinking on
this problem to-day believe that the
problem is solved when the farmer
has been assured a satisfactory in
come. wish to insist, on the con-
trary, that this is only half the
problem. Paradoxical as it may
seem, il is a matter of actual OBJ
servation that the sections of the
country where the land is richest.
where crops have been most album
dant, where hand has reached the
highest price. and the farm owners
attain To the highest degree OF pros
perity, are the very sections from
which the farm owners are retiring
from the farms most rapidly and
leaving them TO tenants.
I'VE may as well face the fact
first as last that there are only two
things that viii keep people in the
country. One is poverty. or the in
ability to live In town. The other
is. an attractive country life which
will induce people to stay in the
country even though they are finan-
cially able to live in town. The
only thing. therefore. is to make
country life sufficiently attractive
to keep people in the country even
when they are prosperous enough to
live in town.
This will indicate that the prob
lesi OF organizing rural INTERESTS is
very much wider than the problem
of marketing or OF marketing of ru-
raj credits. and OF purchasing. COM
bined,"