activity. The clan ought to be the antechamber of the nation and
the training ground for its statesmen. What opportunity leadership
in the councils of such a rural community would give to the best
minds! The man of social genius at present finds an unorganized
community, and he does not know how to affect his fellow-citizens.
A man might easily despair of affecting the destinies of a nation
of forty million people, but yet start with eagerness to build up
a kingdom of the size of Sligo, and shape it nearer to the heart's
desire. The organization of the rural population of Ireland in
co-operative associations will provide the instrument ready to the
hand of the social reformer.

Some associations will be more dowered with ability than others,
but one will learn from another, and a vast network of living,
progressive organizations will cover rural Ireland, democratic in
constitution and governed by the aristocracy of intellect and character.

Such associations would have great economic advantages in that they
would be self-reliant and self-contained, and would be less subject
to fluctuation in their prosperity brought about by national
disasters and commercial crises than the present unorganized rural
communities are. They would have all their business under local
control; and, aiming at feeding, clothing, and manufacturing
locally from local resources as far as possible, the slumps in
foreign trade, the shortage in supplies, the dislocations of commerce
would affect them but little. They would make the community wealthier.
Every step towards this organization already taken in Ireland has
brought with it increased prosperity, and the towns benefit by
increased purchasing power on the part of these rural associations.
New arts and industries would spring up under the aegis of the local