half-a-dozen years, in all that district, previously without
organization, there will be well-organized farmers' guilds,
concentrating in themselves the trade of their district, having meeting-
places where the opinion of the members can be taken, having a
machinery, committees, and executive officers to carry out whatever may
be decided on: and having funds, or profits, the joint property of the
community, which can be drawn upon to finance their undertakings. It
ought to be evident what a tremendous advantage it is to farmers in a
district to have such organizations, what a lever they can pull and
control. I have tried to indicate the difference between a rural
population and a rural community, between a people loosely knit together
by the vague ties of a common latitude and longitude, and people who are
closely knit together in an association and who form a true social
organism, a true rural community, where the general will can find
expression and society is malleable to the general will. I assert that
there never can be any progress in rural districts or any real
prosperity without such farmers' organizations or guilds. Wherever
rural prosperity is reported of any country inquire into it, and it will
be found that it depends on rural organization. Wherever there is rural
decay, if it is inquired into, it will be found that there was a rural
population but no rural community, no organization, no guild to promote
common interests and unite the countrymen in defense of them.





VI.