On the family system, the study of which was more than once urged upon me in connection with the rural problem, this statement was made to me by an agricultural expert:  “I will tell you the story of an official whose salary was that of a Governor.  His father was a farmer.  The farmer borrowed money to educate his son.  When the son became an official he paid the money back, but on the small salaries he received this repayment was a strain.  Then two brothers came to his house frequently for money, and when they received it spent it in ridiculous ways.  This begging has gone on for nine years.  My friend has to live not like an Excellency but like a guncho.  He cannot treat his wife and children fairly.  But of the money he gives to his brothers he says, ‘It is my family expense.’”

I also heard this story:  “A married B. B died without having any children.  A next married B’s sister, C. Then, because of the necessity of having a male heir for the maintenance of his family, and because he thought it was unlikely that his wife C would have children as her dead sister B had had none, he adopted his wife’s younger brother, D. But the wife C did have children.  Consequently, not only is A’s wife his sister-in-law and his eldest ‘son’ his wife’s brother, but his children are his eldest ‘son’s’ nephews.  The eldest of these children, E, is legally the younger son.  He says, ’I am glad that instead of an uncle I have an elder brother.  I am much attached to him and he is attached to me.  I am not sorry to be younger instead of elder brother, for when my father dies my adopted brother will become head of the family and he must then bring up his younger brothers and sisters, manage the family fortunes, bear the family troubles and keep all the cousins and uncles in good humour by inviting them occasionally and at other times by visiting them and giving them presents.’[225]

“It is obvious that our family system, for speaking in criticism of which officials have been dismissed from their posts, puts too much stress on the family and too little on the individual.  The family is the unit of society.  Any member of it is only a fraction of that unit.  For the sake of the family every member of it must sacrifice almost everything.[226] Sometimes the development of the individual character and individual initiative is checked by the family system.  An eldest son is often required to follow his father’s calling irrespective of his tastes.  Nowadays some eldest sons go abroad, but their departure attracts attention and you seldom find such a thing happening among farmers.  The family system, by which all is subordinated to family, is convenient to farmers for it means increased labour and economy of living.  Sometimes there may be two married sons living at home and then there is often strife.  Generally speaking, the family system at one and the same time keeps young men from striking out in the world and compels their early marriage so that the helping hands to the family may be more numerous.  The family system concentrates the attention on the family and not on society.  There is no energy left for society.