its humanity is decaying, lacking some centre of life. They want a
village hall, but how is it to be obtained? They begin talking about it
to this person or that. They ask these people to talk to their friends,
and the ripples go out weakening and widening for months, perhaps for
years. I know of districts where this has happened. There are hundreds
of parishes in Ireland where one or two men want co-operative societies
or village halls or rural libraries. They discuss the matter with their
neighbors, but find a complete ignorance on the subject, and consequent
lethargy. There is no social organism with a central life to stir.
Before enthusiasm can be kindled there must be some knowledge. The
countryman reads little, and it is a long and tedious business before
enough people are excited to bring them to the point of appealing to
some expert to come in and advise.

More changes often take place within a dozen years after a co-operative
society is first started than have taken place for a century previous.
I am familiar with a district--in the northwest of Ireland. It was a
most wretchedly poor district. The farmers were at the mercy of the
gombeen traders and the agricultural middlemen. Then a dozen years ago
a co-operative society was formed. I am sure that the oldest inhabitant
would agree with me that more changes for the better for farmers have
taken place since the co-operative society was started than he could
remember in all his previous life. The reign of the gombeen man is
over. The farmers control their own buying and selling. Their
organization markets for them the eggs and poultry. It procures seeds,
fertilizers, and domestic requirements. It turns the members' pigs into
bacon. They have a village hall and a woman's organization. They sell
the products of the women's industry. They have a co-operative band,
social gatherings, and concerts. They have spread out into half-a-dozen
parishes, going southward and westward with their propaganda, and in