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PREFATORY NOTE
The thoughts contained in the following pages relate to one side of the life of a country which has been to me, as to many Irishmen, a second home. They are offered in friendly recognition of kindness I cannot hope to repay, received largely as a student of American social and economic problems, from public-spirited Americans who, I know, will appreciate most highly any slight service to their country.
The substance of the book appeared in five articles contributed to the New York Outlook under the title "Conservation and Rural Life." Several American friends, deeply interested in the Rural Life problem, asked me to republish the series. In doing so, I have felt that I ought to present a more comprehensive view of my subject than either the space allowed or the more casual publication demanded.
I have to thank the editors of the Outlook for the generous hospitality of their columns, and for full freedom to republish what belongs to them.
HORACE PLUNKETT.
THE PLUNKETT HOUSE, DUBLIN, April, 1910.
CHAPTER I
THE SUBJECT AND THE POINT OF VIEW
PAGE The subject defined--A reconstruction of rural life in English-speaking communities essential to the progress of Western civilisation--A movement for a new rural civilisation to be proposed--The author's point of view derived from thirty years of Irish and American experience--The physical contrast and moral resemblances in the Irish and American rural problems--Mr. Roosevelt's interest in this aspect of the question--His Conservation and Country Life policies 1
CHAPTER II
THE LAUNCHING OF TWO ROOSEVELT POLICIES
The sane emotionalism of American public opinion--Gifford Pinchot as the Apostle of Conservation--His test of national efficiency--Mr. James J. Hill's notable pronouncements upon the wastage of natural
The Rural Life Problem of the United States, page 1
by Horace Curzon Plunkett