Community Civics and Rural Life Part 5

(b) Instances in my community where bad roads have caused a lack of cooperation.

(c) Instances in my community where improvement of roads has led to better cooperation.

In what ways do you think there is need for better cooperation in your community? Discuss this with your parents, and report in cla.s.s the result of your talk with them.

Is there any organized cooperation in your community or county as a whole for the general improvement of the community or county?

Investigate the organization and work of a farm bureau. (If there is none in your county, write to your State Agricultural College or to the States Relations Service, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., for information. See references at the end of this chapter.)

PUBLIC LIBRARY AS AN EXAMPLE

Cooperation is as necessary for the fullest satisfaction of our other wants as it is in the business of making a living. In one pioneer community there were few "books and papers and they were handed about from house to house." There may be comparatively few people in a community who can afford to buy a hundred books each year; but there may easily be a hundred persons who could buy one book each, and by some arrangement exchange with one another, so that each could in the course of a year have the use of a hundred books. Neighborhood clubs are often organized to subscribe for magazines on this plan. A public library provides an arrangement by which a great variety of good reading matter can be enjoyed by the entire community at trifling cost to each member. In fact, we may be able to draw books from such a library without any cost to ourselves; but the books which we thus enjoy do cost the community a large sum of money, and our free enjoyment of them is one of the advantages of community cooperation. Our part in the cooperation is in using the books carefully and in returning them promptly, so that as many people as possible may have the use of them.

NATION-WIDE COOPERATION

The necessity for cooperation is by no means limited to our neighborhood or county or city. People with common purposes organize for cooperation on a state-wide or nation-wide scale.

Following is a list of national organizations in the interest of agriculture. As our study proceeds, we shall have abundant ill.u.s.tration of the value of cooperation and of the disadvantages that follow from its absence.

FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS

American Cooperative a.s.sociation (Cooperative League of America).

American Dairy Farmers' a.s.sociation.

American Federation of Organized Farmers.

American National Live Stock a.s.sociation.

American Pomological Society.

American Poultry a.s.sociation.

American Society of Equity.

Corn Belt Meat Producers' a.s.sociation,

Dairy Cattle Congress.

Farm Women's National Congress.

Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America (The Farmers' Union).

Farmers' Equity Union.

Farmers' National Congress.

Farmers' Society of Equity.

Federation of Jewish Farmers of America.

Gleaners, The Ancient Order of.

Grange, National (Patrons of Husbandry).

National Agricultural Organization Society.

National Board of Farm Organizations.

National Council of Farmers' Cooperative a.s.sociations.

National Dairy Council.

National Dairy Union.

National Farmers' a.s.sociations.

National Farmers' Cooperative Grain and Live Stock a.s.sociations.

National Nut Growers' a.s.sociation.

National Society of Record a.s.sociations.

National Swine Growers' a.s.sociation.

National Wool Growers' a.s.sociation.

National Women's Farm and Garden a.s.sociation.

Southern Rice Growers' a.s.sociation.

COOPERATION A MATTER OF HABIT

Cooperation is largely a matter of habit. Habits can be formed only by practice; and opportunity to practice cooperation is abundant if we are only on the lookout for it. We shall find that it not only secures better results in whatever we are doing, but that it also adds greatly to the enjoyment of life. Let us not forget that cooperation merely means "team work," working together for the common good.

"They who cannot or will not work together are always in a weak position when brought into compet.i.tion with those who can and do."

[Footnote: Carver, The Organization of a Rural Community, p. 5.]

If there is a public library in your community, what benefits do you get from it? About how many books do you draw from it in the course of a year? What would these books cost you if you bought them? What do they cost you when you draw them from the library?

Usually a fine is imposed for keeping a book from the library beyond a specified time. Show why this is proper.

Do you have the use of a "traveling library" in your school or community? If so, where do the books come from? Show how it secures cooperation.

Give examples of cooperation in your home, and show what is gained by it.

In what ways do you think that cooperation could be improved in your home? Work out a plan for it.

Give examples of cooperation in your school.