THE SECRET OF PROGRESS.
Now the real point is this : in every village exist people who possess the time, the freedom, the money, the apparatus and the knowledge to procure for their little community almost anything it desires—playing fields, a village hall, a swimming bath or what not. Three-quarters of the cost of most things is labour ; and of the remaining quarter a good part is represented by tools. If those who can lay bricks or raise turf or plough or use a needle co-operate with those who own tools or horses or tractors and with those who possess land or rights over land or spare timber, then what are held to be very expensive luxuries, such as tennis courts, for example, may be had very cheaply ; and a village may soon, without strain on anyone's resources and without appeal to the rates, come into possession of adequate social apparatus. Some few villages have engaged in such co-operative work and astonished themselves with their own easy success. Incidentally a great deal could be done without loss to anyone in the supply of garden plants or seeds and of wood fuel. But if this " get- together," in the American phrase, is to be organized, someone must be organizer ; and the suggestion is that every village should possess a community council, which should have the backing and advice of a central council possessing a local habitation in the county town. A number of counties—I believe seventeen—have already established such centres and appointed an organizing secretary equipped with know- ledge, zeal and a motor-car. What these centres want is hordes of questions from the villages. May they pour in !
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