It is the business of the rural reformer to create the rural community.
It is the antecedent to the creation of a rural civilization. We have
to organize the community so that it can act as one body. It is not
enough to organize farmers in a district for one purpose only--in a
credit society, a dairy society, a fruit society, a bacon factory, or in
a co-operative store. All these may be and must be beginnings; but if
they do not develop and absorb all rural business into their
organization they will have little effect on character. No true social
organism will have been created. If people unite as consumers to buy
together they only come into contact on this one point; there is no
general identity of interest. If co-operative societies are specialized
for this purpose or that--as in Great Britain or on the Continent--to a
large extent the limitation of objects prevents a true social organism
from being formed. The latter has a tremendous effect on human
character. The specialized society only develops economic efficiency.
The evolution of humanity beyond its present level depends absolutely on
its power to unite and create true social organisms. Life in its higher
forms is only possible because of the union of myriads of tiny lives to
form a larger being, which manifests will, intelligence, affection, and
the spiritual powers. The life of the amoeba or any other unicellular
organism is low compared with the life in more complex organisms, like
the ant or bee. Man is the most highly developed living organism on the
globe; yet his body is built up of innumerable cells, each of which
might be described as a tiny life in itself. But they are built up in
man into such a close association that what affects one part of the body
affects all. The pain which the whole being feels if a part is wounded,
if one cell in the human body is hurt, should prove that to the least
intelligent. The nervous system binds all the tiny cells together, and
they form in this totality a being infinitely higher, more powerful,