440 The American Commission on Agricultural Organization. democratic forms which will be the right expression of the democratic spirit." This may sound tall talk in connection with an investigation confined to a particular method of doing the commercial business arising out of a single industry. It will undoubtedly seem so to those who have given no thought to the country-life movement which is fermenting throughout the civilized world. But if the essential character of rural industry both as the source of wealth and the source of health be considered, it may perhaps be realized how truly it is the basis of civilization; how its decay may involve the destruction, and its resuscitation effect the salvation of society; how its organization may well be the first essential step towards a better social order for every human community. It is this view of the country-life movement which has impressed the greatest thinkers of America, though it has been missed in this country at any rate by the leaders of political thought who chiefly fill the public eye. Mr. Roosevelt has written of the task of the Commission as being to deal with "what is probably the most vital need of this country." Dr. Woodrow Wilson and Mr. Taft have publicly expressed equally high estimates of its function and value. Co-operation, which is the basic principle of the country-life movement, has for that reason been regarded in America as a subject of research worthy of university endowment and the professorial chair. year, might justly claim that the Commission is a result of suggestions of. fered by him to Mr. Roosevelt and other American friends. The instructions to the Commissioners are practically identical with a scheme of inquiry suggested in his book, The Rural Life Problem of the United States. He was consulted by those who originated the Commission on the scheme of its work, as well as by the President and the two ex-Presidents who have shown such a deep interest in it. It is known that his assistance has been invited in adapting to American conditions the principles he has so successfully applied in his own country. It may be that the recognition which his life's work has received from a foreign though kindred nation will lead to the better appreciation of that work by those under whose eyes it has been done. The Commission has been visiting the various Continental countries in which agricultural co-operation has made progress. Naturally the greater part of the days which are being devoted to the United Kingdom will be spent in Ireland, which can claim to be the first of English-speaking countries to adopt the new system. It is only in Ireland that the complete mechanism of rural development as adapted by Sir Horace Plunkett from Continental models can be studied. For it must be remembered that the Irish Department of Agriculture, with its peculiar constitution, is a part of that mechanism and Sir Horace's creation no less than the Irish Agricultural Organization Society. Perhaps the chief service which Sir Horace has rendered to the cause he has made his own has been the study of the co-operative institutions which have struggled into existence in many lands in spite of mistakes, opposition, and misapplied encouragement, his de duction therefrom of a system, and his differentiation between the functions than in Great Britain, though the which can be performed by State agency and those which can only be fulfilled by the organized and voluntary efforts of the agricultural community. No fewer than thirty of those who are graded either as "Members" or "Associate Members" of the Commission are ladies. Their presence will doubtless insure a full study of the organization known as the United Irishwomen, a faithful ally of the Organization Society, concerning itself with those departments of rural industry which belong to woman's province and with the social development which is not less essential to rural progress than improved farming and better methods of business. This woman's wing of the Irish movement has been scarcely three years in existence and has not yet attained to full strength and stature; but its system has been so well thought out, its extension throughout Ireland so carefully organized, and its appeal so successful that its efficiency and future growth are assured. Nothing connected with the Commission is more pleasing than the presence of representatives of Canada. The proposal for a Commission or Committee of Inquiry being unofficial, the Premier of Saskatchewan, the Hon. Walter Scott, asked leave to nominate two delegates from his province to follow the inquiry. Not only was this agreed to, but the Canadians nominated have been accorded the same status as the American members, and, other provinces of Canada desiring to be represented, the number of Canadians has been increased to seven, one, an "associate member," being a lady. It is probably not generally known that agricultural co-operation has taken root in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and is in fact already farther advanced in these Dominions forms adopted are not always the best. In the circumstances it is satisfactory to find that Canadians are willing to study other forms. There is probably no force which would stimulate agricultural development in the Dominions so effectually as genuine co-operation inspired by the spirit which has been called into existence by its introduction into Ireland. It is impossible not to regret that the other Dominions did not follow the example of Canada and take part in the inquiry. It is to be hoped that they will follow it carefully and derive from it as much advantage as if they had shared in its labor. But it may be that the most important result of American interest in co-operative development so far as we are concerned will be found in its effect on British thought. It has always been Sir Horace Plunkett's contention -and indeed the point has been proved and is no longer disputed that the neglect of country life has, owing to causes to be found in their history during the last century, become characteristic of English-speaking peoples. It has been his repeated suggestion that those people should combine to overcome this fatal tendency. Such a combination has actually taken place in the co-operation of the United States and Canada. There can be little doubt that the chief obstacle to fuller co-operation between America and the British Empire as a whole is the extraordinary slowness of this country to grasp either the importance of the country-life movement as a factor in the world's progress or its value as a force for promoting the development of the material resources of the Empire. Anything which will move thought in England on a subject of such vast importance both to the people of this country and to the future of our race on four continents will Punch. Lest, as we flit from flower to flower, Remember, now we both are "out," That there are maidens still more sad To step, to flirt, to dance, to dine, How they each rosy day shall spend THE QUALITY OF CURRENT FICTION. The two thousand British writers of fiction competing for fame and fortune are annually recruited by some hundreds of new comers, who more than fill up gaps in the ranks. Perhaps one in twenty of the novels published every year has a claim to serious consideration; but, unfortunately, works of fine reticence and quality are apt to be smothered and lost sight of in the popular stream. The critic, trying to survey the ground, is reminded of a pattern English landscape, intersected by numerous small fields and hedgerows. The cautious individualism of the English mind, temperamentally conservative, restricted by the barriers of class, while indicating this or that growing change in social outlook, seems to restrain our novelists from recognizing or analyzing "movements," or even from fertilizing the public mind by the ventilation of new ideas. Mr. Wells is almost the only novelist we possess who dares to generalize boldly and examine the meaning of modern problems in Society's life. He breaks through the hedges and ditches of conventional beliefs and assumptions, and contrives to exhibit his characters as typical products bred by their environment, and his last novel, "Marriage," offers a fine stretch of pasture for middle-class browsing. But one longs for a novelist to arise with the breadth of national and intellectual horizons of M. Romain Rolland's "Jean Christophe." The fact is that the Englishman's practical genius for compromising, and his habit of doing things and not thinking about them, veils fundamental issues. Like coalminers, each novelist works valiantly with his own pick and shovel in a circumscribed area, but nobody today possesses even Thackeray's grasp and reach for depicting the life of a great section of the mine. Mr. Arnold Bennett, by seizing the significance of the rise of the manufacturing moneyed class by two generations' "luck or cunning," is perhaps the only novelist who has got depth of national background into his pictures and leaving provincial life aside, the matter of social origins, which is made so profoundly interesting by the French realists, from Balzac to Maupassant, becomes yearly more confusing in our society, where the upper class marries Or say we are Original, as it may be Yes, that, my dear, for you and me But for the girls who shape our frocks, Perhaps, as we the Season holds Quite other things. Tucks, hems and folds, They wield for us with close eyed care, The weeks drag slow for such as these Whose backs are bent that we may please. For us to stitch, Their fingers fly or else their wheels; Their very dreams build cotton-reels! Pursues them with her beating-broom And cares not for their fading bloom. The Season spells for poorer maids, |