World Agriculture — LatviaVol. VII, No.2, Summer 1927

SELF-HELP BY MUTUAL HELPBy J. NUGENT HARRIS of London, Member for England of the World Agriculture Society's Advisory Council

"New times demand new measures and new men;
The world advances and in time outgrows
The laws that in our fathers' day were best
And, doubtless, after us some purer scheme
Will be shaped out by wiser men than we
Made wiser by the steady growth of truth."

THE sentiment of these lines of Lowell1, the American poet, is being forcibly brought home to the new Baltic Republics created out of the World War. Tne souls of their peoples begin to stir to a realization that through Mother Earth is to come the awakening of the nations. They are beginning to understand the truth that "no nation ever languished when its agriculture flourished and no nation ever flourished when its agriculture languished."

Two scenes in the province of Kurzeme (Courland), the westernmost of Latvia's four provinces. Although the whole country forms part of the great Eastern European Coastal Plain, the monotony of level landscape is pleasantly broken by hilly sections in Kurzeme, in eastern and southern Vidzeme, in Latgale and the eastern parts of Zemgale. Another pleasant feature of the Latvian landscape is the abundance of streams and ponds, and Latvia, like Finland, may rightly be called "a land of a thousand lakes."

Dr. Hans Mortinsen considers that the agricultural reform movement in the Baltic Republics has given agriculture a new life. He states that the Government "Is not only studying new agricultural methods abroad but is bringing into the country farmers from elsewhere to develop model farms to serve as illustrations to the nationals of what can be accomplished under proper procedure."2

In this connection a personal experience may be of interest A few years ago when I was in Denmark investigating the effects of the Great War on rural life there, I met a deputation of students from Latvia who were visiting the country to study the factors that have gone to the making of modern Denmark. Through the interpreter I discovered the new urge that had taken hold in their country' towards the adoption, or rather adaptation, of the principle that had raised Denmark from poverty to wealth — that of self-help by mutual help.

One eager student and his wife particularly gripped my attention because of their earnest desire to find if there was any spiritual urge in Denmark's economic revival. When one of the Danes made the statement that the foundation of it all lay in the realization, by those who led the Danish revival after 1864, that "man cannot live by bread alone," the faces of those two eager inquirers glowed with joy, and the husband said to his wife, "Now we have discovered the talisman for the real regeneration of our beloved land."

I remarked to a Danish friend, "If the peasantry of Latvia and the other Baltic Republics go forward in this spirit there can be no bounds placed to the successful future that lies in store for them." He agreed, emphatically adding, "The sooner all nations in Europe develop this spirit, the better for the peace of the world." And who will say that he was wrong?