The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-13


 phases of the salvage campaigns like how to save grease to relieve the shortage in fats and oils.
 This vast program of neighbor- hood meetings marks the creation of human chain of information which is intended to reach the most remote communities of the country.
 Organization of this vast neigh borhood education scheme has been proceeding quietly since the middle of February, under the general di- rection of the Extension Service of the Department of Agriculture. By June l, some 800O0O neighborhood leaders had been trained to assume responsibility for this educational 1 work, each neighborhood leader to carry out the program in a group of from 10 to IS farm families in his vicinity. Eventually there are to be a million of these neighborhood leaders, all serving on a volunteer basis.
 OLD STUFF
 TO THEM
 The task of perfecting this or ganization was in reality no great job for the Extension Service, which has been carrying on farm and home demonstration work for nearly 30 years. At the beginning of the last war, the county agent system was just getting started. It took a big jump in 1917, and has grown ever since, the farm agents work being supplemented by woman's program to carry to farm wives home demonstrations in canning, sewing, and other phases of rural housekeeping.
 Consequently, when Secretary of Agriculture Claude A. Wickard assigned to the Extension Service of the department the job of car- rying out education of farm peo- pie in the war programs it meant merely shift in emphasis and subject matter of the work already being done.
 In mid-March, conference of all federal and state extension services was held in Washington. The whole program of rural edu- cation for war was mapped out. The directors of the State Exten- sion Services went home and called in their county agents and home economies demonstration agents and explained the work to them. There are 5000 counties in the United States, and practi- cally every one has its extension service.
 Each county agent was given the task of organizing this county. There being some six million farm families, this means that the av- craze county has about 2000 farms These farms might be divided, say, into 15 communities or 13O neigh borhoods. The job of the county agent was to select community chairmen, one man and one woman, to supervise the educa- tion program to each community in the county.
 ONLY THE
 BEGINNING
 In normal times, the organiza- tion might have stopped there, with the naming of the 90,000 men and women community chairmen. Farm CTS could have driven to community centers for demonstrations or meet ings or movies to explain all these programs. But with gas and rubber shortages, it was necessary to break down the organization to the neigh borhood level. The community chair men were therefore given the job of selecting and training neighbor- hood leader for every eight to 10 families. The 90,00O community chairmen, in other words, were passing the word along to the million neighborhood leaders, and the million volunteers were pass ing the word on to the six million farm families with their 30 mill lion population.
 In some states, this organization is to be used in war bond and war stamp sales drives and rural civilian defense work. But the dangers of this program are that neighborhoodS will be given too much to do or that people will try to use it to no good ends.
 If the politicians get hold of 1t, for instance, such an organization might become Nazified propa- ganda machine. But the effort will be to keep politics out. There will be no discussion of the ad- ministration labor policies, for in- stance = just the economic war necessity programs that everyone can agree on. But the creation of this rural grapevine represents an interesting experiment. of return to the most primitive form of tribal democracy, group of neighobrs getting together to de- eide what things are all about.
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