Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The best example of this blend of goals comes from the report of the
Country Life Commission, a fact-fi nding committee organized by President
Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. The commission, formed of planners, urban
business interests, and agricultural scientists, traveled throughout the agri-
cultural areas of the United States and investigated the status of farm life,
reporting back to Roosevelt in 1909. The report reveals how Progressives'
belief in “order and rationality in the search for solutions to society's
problems,” carefully administered by state experts, combined with con-
cerns about agricultural productivity to infl uence the formation of Coop-
erative Extension (Daniel 1982, 94). The report begins with an introduction
by Roosevelt, explaining his rationale for creating the Country Life Com-
mission (USCCL 1911). In this excerpt, note how Roosevelt blends the
concerns I have described:
The Commission was appointed because the time has come when it is vital to the
welfare of the country seriously to consider the problems of farm life. So far the
farmer has not received the attention that the city worker has received and has not
been able to express himself as the city worker has done. The problems of farm life
have received very little consideration and the result has been bad for those who
dwell in the open country, and therefore bad for the whole nation. We were founded
as a nation of farmers, and in spite of the great growth of our industrial life it still
remains true that our whole system rests upon the farm, that the welfare of the
whole community depends upon the welfare of the farmer. The strengthening of
country life is the strengthening of the whole nation.
If country life is to become all that it should be, if the career of the farmer is to
rank with any other career in the country as a dignifi ed and desirable way of earning
a living, the farmer must take advantage of all that agricultural knowledge has to
offer, and also of all that has raised the standard of living and of intelligence in
other callings. We who are interested in this movement desire to take counsel with
the farmer, as his fellow citizens, so as to see whether the nation cannot aid in this
matter. (9-10)
Roosevelt begins by citing the classic tie between farm life and the nation's
life in general, but his words, “The strengthening of country life is the
strengthening of the whole nation,” provide a sense that this historic bond
had faltered and that farmers needed to join urban industries in the process
of modernization. On the other hand, by taking advantage of “all that
agricultural knowledge has to offer,” Roosevelt argues, farmers could raise
their standard of living and at the same time develop a more productive
food system for the nation. In this view, like that of agricultural scientists,
there was no incompatibility between increased production and effi ciency
