ach man against his
neighbor.... But as a member of a society with interests in
common with others, the individual consciously and
unconsciously develops the social virtues.... The society is
in miniature a community, and the community is but a part of
the larger social group."[38]

George William Russell ("A.E."), the poet-prophet of Irish agriculture,
bases his whole conception of a desirable polity for the Irish State
upon cooperative communities, and considers cooperative societies as a
prerequisite to rural organization. After describing the marked economic
and social changes which have taken place in a typical Irish community
as the result of cooperation, he says:

"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 will 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 in 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
defence of them."[39]

The same observations might be made upon the effect of cooperative
enterprises in solidifying rural communities in the United States. It
seems doubtful whether cooperative associations in the United States
will develop a general social program as they have done in Ireland,
Belgium, and Russia. On account of a different social inheritance and
account of our facility in forming and belonging to numerous
organizations, it seems probable that we will limit our cooperative
societies to strictly economic functions, and will use the increased
income secured through them in other organizations for social purposes.

Commercial farming is breaking down the old individualism of the farmer,
for the exigencies of the economic situation are forcing him to ma