The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-12-29

GanlZed, and we witness the lac
today that most of the benefits Of
achievements of civilization rebound
to the advantage of cities and
towns. They have their highly de:
veloped industrial agencies and
schools of the highest type, housed
in excellent buildings, taught by the
best teachers, with the health of
children inspected, furnishing the
best educational opportunities of
every grade to the aspiring boy or
girl. Their drinking water and
their milk supply + protected
against impurities. They enjoy the
advantages of the services of expert
health officers, of specialists in every
branch of medicine, and the facili-
ties of the most modern hospitals.
Their people walk and ride over
roads which are the best that engi-
neering skill can devise, free from
dust and mud, and their inhabitants
have the advantages of all forms of
wholesome social recreation. l need
not picture the conditions prevailing
in most country districts.
1 recognize the difficulties of or
ganization in rural communities with
their scattered population. But
beginnings have been made. All
government is cooperation. Your
local government is organization.
but ii needs vitalizing an improving.
We boast much of our local self
government. We concede that we
are the most capable people in the
world in governing ourselves in
small communities, and yet our
energy in this field is largely con-
sumed in boasting. 1t has become
so habitual that we have really come
to believe that we have efficient To-
cal arrangements, and yet I am
rash enough to venture the asser-
ton that the least efficient part of
u governmental machinery is not
in our Federal government, to
which I should accord the first rank
for efficiency, not our city govern
ment, which under constant criti-
cisms have rapidly improved, not u
State governments which greatly
need vitalizing, but our county and
township government to which few
people have given much thought.
Your schools are cooperative enter
prises, and might with profit be
much more literally supported; and
so are your road building under
takings, which are as yet in the
main crude and expensive and are
obstacles to larger production, to
better marketing, and to the devel-
opment of an attractive social life.
Further wise cooperation can better
these things, and it is imperative
that it be promoted. We shall
never adequately preserve the foun-
datlons of u governmental insti-
buttons merely by talking. Action
is essential. Thomas Jefferson said
many foolish things, but he also said
more wise things than most any indi-
vidual in u history, and one of
the wisest things he said was that in
the field of debatable powers that
Jurisdiction would be dominant
which did it's work most efficiently.
Not only may existing institutions
be v!talized and improved. but ex-
tensions may be made. The next
step to consider is how rural COM
munities may cooperate in the field
of agricultural economics, how they
may organize for buying and selling
and for securing capital on more
reasonable terms. Such coopera-
ton by no means involves an effort
to fix price. Sound public policy
and good economics both forbid this.
1t would be as unnecessary as it
would be unwise, and it would de-
feat wholesome undertakings such
as are being set on foot in various
parts Of the Union.
But if we were to assume that
here or elsewhere sound steps have
been taken to introduce the requisite
business organization and practices
the problem would still not be solv-
ed. There is much that the indi-
vidnal and groups of individuals may
do in every community. In fact they
must. in this direction. as in all
others. do the larger part. Self
help will still be the rule: but there
r certain general conditions which
they can not control but which must
he established for them by legisla-
ton.
Two great difficulties which CON
front the American farmers is that
they have little control over the ma
chinery of distribution, and that
they do not know lust what their
product is or what it is worth. The
farmer does not know what he is
selling, but the buyer knows exact
w what he is buying. 1t is a rare
thing to find ever a cotton farmer
who knows the grade of the cotton
ne has on his wagon. 1t is a rarer
thing to find a buyer who does not
know what it is. 1t is sold by the
producer as n thing, and sold by
the commission man as another. This
is equally applicable to the producer
of grain, and in both cases in the
contracts governing the trade there
is a wide margin. The bid for
corn is for number three or better.
Why should it not be specifically for
the grade represented by the com
modify sold? What incentive can
there be for a farmer to produce a
good product if he is to receive the