ag TWW ! t w «iH"j i wTJtLt^j'rr^;? jg!g »g 9? »gg^g «gp8gpeg^^ RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATIO EDWIN L. EARP Wi ll BiUi l i ifli M tW li na it V r|- i i|i ' J i 'y.iT.ir i l i r Ul h < . 1 ■■ t \ mtMtm u . i .f »^ ^i,^^ M btatc (faUegg of Agriculture At OJorrtcU IninErHttB 3tl)aca, SI. i. HT 42I.E3""*" """^""*y Library llSS'socialorgariization The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013900141 BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE SOCIAL ENGINEEK SOCIAL ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS THE RURAL CHURCH MOVEMENT THE RURAL CHURCH SERVING THE COMMUNITY Rural Social Organization By EDWIN L. EARP Professor of Sociology, Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New Jersey THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 19iei, by EDWIN L. EARP DEDICATED TO THE MEMORT OF WILLIAU H. DELL, AN EDUCATED, UNSELFISH, FAITHFUL, GENTLE, UNTIRING RURAL PASTOR, WHO IN TOUTH GUIDED ME INTO WAYS OF LEARNING CONTENTS PAGE Pbkface 16 PART I RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION PRINCIPLES CHAPTER I SOME FUNDAMENTALS OP SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 1. All Social Oboanization Based Pbimabilt upon Fbm Need 19 i. Individual Rights and Social Duties 20 S. A Law op Progbebs in Govebnment 21 CHAPTER II THE LARGER SOCIAL VALUES IN RURAL LIFE 1. Land and Labob the Chief Physical Soubces of Economic Values 2S 2. The Rubal Domain — Fobest, Field, and Stbeam — THE Gift op God in Tkust fob the Good op All the People 24 3. Mutual Confidence and Cooperation between Farming, Industbt, and Tbade 26 4. The Wideb Range of Human Regabd in the Re- ligious Consciousness op the Human Race. ... 26 CHAPTER III METHOD IN RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION I. Rubal-minded Social Leadebbhip Must Start WITH Some Practical Notions 27 (1) An oTermastering purpose to do something to Meet a Given Situation. (2) Ability to sense and perceive human needs. (3) A constructive imagination. (4) Ability to do team work. (6) A persistent purpose to win. (6) A supreme confidence in the integrity of human nature. CONTENTS PAGE 2. The Pbincipleb op Social Obganization 29 (1) Function, the determining factor to begin with. (2) Purpose should determine the plan of organi- zation. (S) Consecration necessary as well as constitution. (4) Ability to wait until a process has evolved the fruitage in the finished product. CHAPTER IV RURAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION PRINCIPLES 1. All Obqanizations of People Have Thbib Eco- nomic Basis in the Fact of Need 31 2. The Fact of Rttbal Resource — the Soil 31 3. Human Labob Supplemented bt the Use of Tools, Animal Power, and the Harnessing of Natural Forces 32 4. The Desire foe Higher Satisfactions of the Spirit 32 B. Instincts which Function in Definite Economic Wats fob Satisfaction 33 B. These Principles More Effective in Rural Eco- nomic Organizations than Elsewhere 33 CHAPTER V RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS 1. A WoBD of Caution Concebning Rural Social Obganizations 35 (1) Develop the sense of moral obligation. (2) The development of social sympathy. 2. Some Chabacteristic Rural Social Obganiza- tions 37 (1) The Grange. (2) The Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union. The Farmers' National Congress. The National Agricultural Organization So- ciety. (5) The International Institute of Agriculture. (S) The American Country Life Association. 8 (4) CONTENTS 3. The Cbubch's Task in RtrBAL Social Obganiza- TIONS 41 (1) To give to all the Christian consciousness. (2) To supply leadership that will insure Chris- tian objectives. (5) To furnish the ideal social order, the king- dom of God on earth. CHAPTER VI HOW TO ORGANIZE A RURAL COMMUNITY 1. State Youb Case to Those upon Whom Com- munity Responsibility Rests 42 (1) The problem of the young people. (2) The question of social morality. (3) Rural health and hygiene. (4) Poverty and financial stress. (6) The need for good roads. (6) The religious needs of the Community. 2. HoiTBiNG these Ideas op Commttnitt Organiza- tion 43 (1) Worship. (2) Religious education. (3) Social work. (4) Recreation and amusement. (5) Administration. 3. Remodeling an Old Building 45 4. Selection of the Personnel 45 CHAPTER VII A DECLARATION OF PURPOSES OF A RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 1. A Township as the Social Unit 47 2. A Local Church Organization 49 CHAPTER VIII THE FRAMEWORK OF A RURAL SOCIETY 1. How TO Proceed 61 2. Committees — how Appointed 62 3. Meetings 64 4. Possibilities for Constructive Service 66 9 CONTENTS FAOB PART II THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF RUEAL INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER IX THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE RURAL HOME 1. The Chief Function op the Ritbal Home 61 2. Family Solidabitt a Basis of State Social CONTBOL 62 3. In the Family the Natubb and Bent of the Child Abe Detebmined 62 4. The Three Fundamental Pebiods of Pabental Obligation 63 (1) The period of dedication. (2) The period of education. (3) The period of abdication. 5. The Rubal Household — Relation of Master and Servant 64 (1) Relation more intimate in rural life. (2) Becoming more difficult to maintain this re- lationship. S. Dibinteobation of the Rural Home 66 The normal factor of disintegration. The abnormal factors. 7. The Rubal Home Functioning fob Citizenship . . 68 8. The Limit Reached in Some Sections of Our COUNTBY 69 SI) Inferior training in rural schools. 2) Loss of leadership of the country pastor, CHAPTER X RURAL SCHOOLS A FACTOR IN COMMUNITY BUILDING 1. The Advantages of the Rural School as a Fac- tor IN Community Building 71 2. The Social Function of the Rural School 72 8. The Cooperation of the Rural School with Farmer Folk 73 An analogy of cooperation. The analogy applied. 4. Specific Wats of Cooperation 76 10 (2) (2) CONTENTS CHAPTER XI THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE RURAL CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL 1. The Social Function of the Rttbal Church 79 (1) Bringing to men the consciousness of the kingdom of God on earth. (2) The socialization of the community in its re- ligious consciousness. 2. The Sociai. Function of the Rubal Sundat School. . . . '. 81 (1) It furnishes a place of meeting on a demo- cratic basis. (2) Is organized on the group plan. (3) It deals with the most susceptible part of the population. (4) Uses a textbook containing the social and political ideals of human history. (5) The Adult Bible class as a factor in building up the community. CHAPTER XII THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS IN RURAL LIFE 1. Ii Acts as a Coobdinatinq Agency of Rubal Religious Fobces fob Youno Men and Bots . . 83 2. It Gives a Religious Significance to the Nobmal Faculties and Powebs of Young People 83 3. How it Functions in Rubal Life 84 4. Factobs at Wobk which Abe the Outobowtb or THE ChBIBTIAN ASSOCIATION MoVEMENS 85 CHAPTER XIII THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS 1. Thet Fubnibh a Basis fob Mass, Action or Iso- lated Rubal Population Units 87 2. Fubnibh Pbotection fbom the Exfloitebb 88 3. Thet Develop a Mobe Intelligent and Mobile Electorate 88 4. Make Possible Oboanized Dibtbibution or Fabu Pboducts to Advantageous Mabketb 88 11 CONTENTS FAOE 5. Imfbove the Financial Situation among Farmers THROUGH Cooperative Banking and Insdr ANCE 89 6. They Develop the Power op Self-expression THROUGH Local Rural Leadership 89 CHAPTER XIV COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION IN RURAL LIFE 1. Distinguishing Characteristics of Cooperative Organizations 91 2. Where Farmers' Cooperative Organizations are Most Successful '. 92 3. Other Determining Factors in Cooperative Or- ganizations 92 4. Tendencies in Modern Cooperative Organiza- tions 94 6. The Church's Task 94 CHAPTER XV ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AFFECTING SOCIAL WELFARE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES A General View of the Situation 96 1. These Economic Conditions Enumerated 97 (1) The struggle with the soil, climate, plant pests, and diseases. (2) Conservation of farm products. (3) The problem of stock-breeding. (4) The difficulty of marketing his products. (6) The problem of farm labor, (6) Isolation, antiquated methods, worship of tradition. (7) Unscientific farm management. !8) Intensive farming. 9) Good roads in many sections. (10) Irrigation farming. (11) The use of the gas engine and high voltage electricity. (12) Community life possible through intensive farming. (18) Security in crop production. (14) Intensive farming in "abandoned" areas. 2. Farm Income and Social Welfare 101 12 CONTENTS PAGE 3. Reasons why the Fabmeb Shottld Have Income IN Excess op Needs fob Existence 103 (1) Because of importance of farming ^s a food- producing enterprise in our national life. (2) He needs a satisfying life for himself and family. (3) Must have a margin of surplus in order to maintain community institutions. (4) Must be respected on basis of income like other men are. (6) He merits it by divine right. CHAPTER XVI TENANTRY— ITS EFFECTS UPON THE RURAL CHURCH AND COMMUNITY 1. The Effects of Tenantry upon the Community. . 106 2. The Effects of Tenantby upon the Land 108 3. The Effects of Tenantby upon the Countby Chubch 109 4. What the Chubch Can Do to Correct this Tend- ency IN RuBAL America 109 CHAPTER XVII GOOD ROADS— THEIR RELATION TO THE RURAL COMMUNITY AND CHURCH 1. Reasons for the Retarding of the Good-bo ads Movement Ill 2. The Facts which Made the Good-boads Move- ment A Necessity 112 8. The Social Effects of Good Roads upon the People of the Community 114 4. The Effects of Good Roads upon the Rubal Church 115 B. How to Get and Maintain Good Roads 110 CHAPTER XVIII MARKETING FARM PRODUCTS 1. Types of Marketing 119 2. Methods op Marketing 120 3. What the Rubai, Church Can Do to Promote Favorable Marketing for the Community,... 124 13 CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER XIX RURAL HEALTH 1. The Rural Health Situation 127 2. The Causes of Poob Health in Rubal Tebbi- TOBT 128 3. Remedial Aqencieb Now at Wobk on the Pbob- LEM OF Rubal Health 130 4. What the Rubal Chubch Can Do 133 CHAPTER XX AN IDEAL RURAL COMMUNITY 1. OuB Method 136 2. The Factobs Necessabt to Oub Ideal Rubal Community 137 5. The Social Cbeed of the Countbt Chubch 140 Biblioobapht 142 Index 143 14 PREFACE One must not be led by the title of this little volume on Rukai. Social Oeganiza- TioN to expect an exhaustive treatment of the subject so important for the rural leader in any sphere of country life to-day. On the contrary, the reader will discover only in outline some of the rural social organization principles which may guide the rural social leader in building up a community and a like treatment of the social fimctions of those rural institutions that we must reckon with in building up an enduring civiUzation in our vast riu*al domain. It wiU be seen at a glance that the view- point of the author is that of one interested primarily in the work of training rm-al min- isters to see the importance of the rural field in relation to the country as a whole. Like- wise, to visualize the task the country church has to perform in oiu" day if it is adequately to fulfill its functions in the community and have a vital part in molding the new rm-al civilization now in the making. These social organization principles and 15 PREFACE functions of Part I and Part II will be of value to the rural leader in other fields of constructive social service. The book will serve as a text for summer school courses for rural leaders, and as a convenient study course for Bible classes and institutes. It also may serve as a textbook in theological seminaries and colleges where courses in training of rural ministers and other leaders are offered. The author is of the opinion that this book should in no case be used as a substitute for the more valuable works on rural sociology and rural economics by experts in this field, but should, rather, be used to stimulate the reader to more intensive scientific study in this important field of rural research and reconstruction. Edwin L. Earp. Madison, New Jersey. 16 PART I RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION PRINCIPLES CHAPTER I SOME FUNDAMENTALS OF SO- CIAL ORGANIZATION 1. All social organization based primarily upon felt need. All social organization is based primarily upon felt need, and origi- nates only when some particular need is intelligently expressed or understood in a population group. Such intelligent expres- sion or understanding of need may begin with the individual, but can be met only by the awakened social consciousness of the group and its organized expression of that consciousness. Our problem in rural social organization is to develop that type of leadership that will arouse the people to the consciousness of their needs and organize them to adequately meet them by bringing available resources within reach. The community survey and the township meeting with the resultant organization of the people with a community program is the solution. 19 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 2. Individual rights and social duties. In all popular forms of government there is an emphasis put upon individual rights that conflicts with social duties and is detrimental both to the individual and to society. This is seen to-day in industry and commerce. In rural hfe this principle of popular gov- ernment has led to the exploitation of the farmer by the middleman and by the finan- cier, and has been the cause of isolation and economic waste in production, circulation, and distribution of the products of the soil. During the pioneer period it has also pro- duced competitive reUgious activities that have persisted in town and city populations and weakened Protestantism in her religious task. The solution of this problem is the organi- zation and development of the social center for the community, the social center parish plan for the churches to take the place of the old circuit system. But we must guard our work of rural so- cial organization at this point lest we carry over into the organized group the spirit and method of competitive individualism and fail to get the emphasis upon social duties; and later find our new rural civilization an 20 FUNDAMENTALS expression of organized selfishness rather than an expression of social sympathy. We must guard these organizations against being long on the Commandments but short on the Beatitudes, with the combined strength of the wolf and the pack with no regard for the interests of the sheep. 3. A law of progress in government. There is a law of progress in government which may be expressed as follows: The people unaided by government, or in spite of government, obtain the things that expe- rience demands, and governments later ap- prove and make lawful these same things. For example, the public school was once a private matter; now it is a governmental task. Road-building and upkeep was once a private enterprise; now the State or the county builds and keeps in repair the roads over which we travel. Banking is no longer a profitable private enterprise. We have now the federal con- trol of the banking system and for the rm-al territory we have the farm loan and banking system under State or federal control. Oiu" problem in rural social organization is to point out to country folk how by coop- erative effort they may secure governmental 21 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION sanction and help for all legitimate needs of the rural population. We are getting it now more rapidly than we had hoped through the awakening of the public con- sciousness of rural needs during the recent war period. The farm bureau, the rural ex- tension, and organization service, made more efficient through the Smith-Leser Act of 1914-15, will make possible a solution of this phase of our problem. There is need for wider governmental con- trol of rural education, of good roads, of rural health and of soil conservation. The problem of land tenantry and the tendency to develop a peasant class and an agrarian land-owning class in this country can be solved only by government intervention. 22 CHAPTER II THE LARGER SOCIAL VALUES IN RURAL LIFE If we hope to succeed in rural social or- ganization, in building up a real human brotherhood that will correspond to the king- dom of God on the earth, we must base our social structure upon some secure founda- tions of social value. These larger social val- ues which must be held in consciousness as we seek to build up the true community structure are as follows : 1. Land and labor the chief physical sources of economic values. We should en- deavor to secure in every community the rec- ognition that land and labor are the chief physical sources of economic values. These are, like the air we breathe and the light in which we grow, so evident and ever present that we often forget their value, and we abuse them in the use as we do the air and light. Our problem in rural social organization is to get folks to see these facts and to rec- c^nize and appreciate their value. We sin 23 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION against God in the treatment of land and in the treatment of labor upon the land. We must make the people see the guilt attached to the robbing of the soil, and to the deplet- ing of its productive value for the coming generations; and the guilt attached to the man who overworks his hired help or the children of his own household. The solution is in bringing to men the facts of soil deple- tion and the inevitable hxmger problem of the next few generations unless men on American farms repent; and also in showing the inevitable labor shortage in food produc- tion from the soil unless we employ labor in the open country under better conditions of hours and wages and living. 2. The rural domain — forest, field, and stream — the gift of God in trust for the good of all the people. We must endeavor to make rural folk see that the rural domain — forest and field and stream — ^is the gift of the Creator to men in trust for the good of all the people; that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the cattle upon a thousand hills are his. As some one has face- tiously remarked, "The earth is the Lord's and not the landlord's." Land values are social values, and our 24 SOCIAL VALUES problem is to make the use of land more equitably distributive, that we may avoid the evils of absentee landlordism that has cursed Europe and Asia, and is rapidly be- coming a menace to North America, as it is already in South America and in Mexico and in parts of Central America. The solution of this problem is in rural social organization to secure governmental control of landed estates, as has been done in Australia, New Zealand, and is contem- plated in the measure proposed by former Secretary Lane to Congress for favorable consideration. 3. Mutual confidence and cooperation be- tween farming, industry, and trade. The producer of resources, the distributor of goods, and the consumer of the products of both all exist for the good of each, and each for the good of all. We must develop a sense of interdependence between these now often competing and antagonistic groups of the population. It would be as unwise and as unjust and as wicked for organized farmer folk in the present to exploit the cities and jeopardize industry and trade as it has been for the middlemen and Wall Street to fleece the farmer folk in the past. Oiu: problem is 25 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION" to master these growing ,class-conscious movements in rural life by developing through cooperative organizations a social sympathy that will bind together in one splendid civilization these now antagonistic groups. The solution of this problem is largely in the hands of the Christian leadership of to- day, and the Golden Rule alone wiH bring the golden age. 4. The wider range of human regard in the religious consciousness of the human race. This is what Professor Galpin calls the "breeding up of human acquaintanceship." We must learn to honor all men who do the work of the world that is necessary for man's happiness and welfare. We must have a heart interest in human brotherhood, in all movements and organizations of men for the betterment of living conditions. We must develop in all men the recognition of God as the Creator and ever-present per- sonal sovereign of the human race. We must also develop in all men respect for authority in government. These are the larger social values in rural life that must control all our efforts at or- ganization for oommunity building. 26 CHAPTER III METHOD IN RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION As a matter of fact, as Professor C. H. Cooley has pointed out in his last book en- titled. The Social Process, the greater part of social organization goes on unconsciously so far as the individuals of a population group are concerned. Of course, as in na- ture, he does' not deny that back of it all there is a personal directing agent whom we call the Creator. But we are interested here in the practical principles of social organiza- tion where we have conscious direction of the process. 1. Rural-minded social leadership must start with some practical notions. You must start with some practical notions of leader- ship. These are as follows: (1) An overmastering purpose to do something to meet a given situation. This, of course, implies that a lazy man has little chance of doing much in organizing a given community to meet its conscious laeeds. Hard work is the word, 27 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ( 2 ) He must be able to sense and perceive human needs. He must, however, bring this faculty to the test by the use of the scientific method of the social survey. He must be able to see through these needs to their causes, and thus be able to not only meet the temporary need but remove the causes. ( 3 ) He must have a constructive imagina- tion. This means the abihty to construct a plan by which men can work together for achievement of a given purpose. He must be able as an architect to project a plan of community building so that every man can see what he is working on before it is com- pleted. (4) He must have engineering skill to keep folk at work without friction, the abil- ity to do team work with people of varying opinions. (5) He must possess a persistent pur- pose to win when he knows his course is right and a good one. ( 6 ) A supreme confidence in the integrity of human nature. A patient, persuasive trust in men that they will sooner or later respond to our appeals for the more excel- lent way. No man ever succeeded anywhere 28 METHOD who did not believe in folks and trust them with matters of supreme worth. 2. The principles of social organization. There may be many devices necessary in get- ting any specific rural social organization to work its field, but I wish to consider here the indispensable principles which must be emphasized in any true social organization. They are as follows : ( 1 ) Function, and not form, is the deter- mining factor to begin with. This is a well- known principle of biology that function gives form to an organism. (2) Purpose should determine the plan of organization. We can sometimes differ in matters of plan if we agree in purpose. A man drowning must be rescued — ^that is our purpose. We may use various methods and plans of rescue; a strong swimmer, a lifeboat, a hatch-lid thrown overboard, or a rope, just so we get him aboard or ashore. (3) Consecration is necessary as well as constitution. Unless we have consecration to the task our constitution avails us little; for, as a matter of fact, we are so interested in the tasks of ordinary life that we soon for- get the written laws and constitutions under which we are governed. 29 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (4) There is needed the ability to wait until a process has evolved the fruitage in the finished product. This is why, in my opinion, the country-born-and-bred boy has taken the lead in the great masterful organi- zations of the world social order. He has been accustomed to see the working of a process. He has seen the grain sowed in the autumn and the harvest ripening in the fol- lowing summer after the snows and frosts of winter and the spring rains and svmmier sun. He has seen the budding trees in spring and has picked the ripened fruits of autumn after many changes in the process of grow- ing fruit. So in taking his place as a leader in the world of great enterprises he has the faith and patience to wait for results from unpromising beginnings, and to endure the struggle in times of stress. 30 CHAPTER IV RURAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZA- TION PRINCIPLES We must remember in our study of the rural community that it is, hke all communi- ties, made up of people who are subject to the laws of life as expressed in society. Peo- ple have to make a living somehow and in some way. 1. All organizations of people have their economic basis in the fact of need. Under- lying all other principles is the fact of life itself, which must be satisfied; therefore all economic organization is, in a sense, the con- scious endeavor of people in a coordinated way to secure satisfaction of needs felt, or beheved to be pending, and will, in a more remote period, need satisfaction. 2. The second economic principle under- lying the endeavor of men to make a living is the fact of resource. The soil or the earth is that fundamental fact of resource, and so we have in this fact the basis for the primary rural industries. Professor Carver names ' See Principles of Rural Economics, Ginn & Co., p. xx. 31 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION them as follows: farming, mining, hunting, fishing, lumbering. 3. Human labor supplemented by the use of tools and animal power. The third great economic fact is that of labor — human labor supplemented by the use of tools and animal power, and later by the physical powers, the result of the harnessing of the forces of na- ture. So we have the secondary factors in man's endeavor to get a living.' The change of raw material into usable forms for the satisfaction of human needs immediate or remote — these come under the classification of manufacturing, transportation, storing, merchandising. 4. The fourth economic fact is man's de- sire for higher satisfaction of the spirit. These economic needs have to be met by spe- cial persons who have been trained to meet these spiritual needs of mankind. We there- fore have the personal professions' of heal- ing, teaching, inspiring, governing, amusing, etc. All economic organizations in rural life are based primarily upon these great facts of nature, these great laws of living. And rural folk more than city folk are dealing ' See Carver, Op. cit., p. xx. • Off. cit., p. XX. 32 ORGANIZATION PRINCIPLES directly with these fundamental facts of life and living. Therefore we must learn to dif- ferentiate between their modes of work and those of the urban groups of the population who are dealing through trade indirectly, and ofttimes imeconomicaUy with these fun- damental facts. 5> Fundamental instincts. Another set of facts we must consider in rural economic or- ganization — and in all organizations, for that matter — are those that have to do with our make-up. We are born and endowed by na- ture with certain fundamental instincts or tendencies which in later life function in defi- nite economic ways for satisfaction: (1) The instinct for property. (2) The instinct for play. (3) The instinct for companionship. ( 4 ) The instinct for religion, or the super- natural. These are the driving forces of our life and must be met by provision or restraint in order that society may exist and civilization triumph over savagery. 6. These principles more effective in rural life. These principles can be made more ef- fective in rural economic organizations than elsewhere because the people, as already ex- 33 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATIOX plained, have been accustomed to see the working of a great process. They know how to labor and to wait, sowing the seed in the autumn and reaping the harvest the next year after the winter snows and cold. It is the privilege and the duty of the rural pastor to become a leader in the thought of the people to know and appreciate these eco- nomic principles upon the harmonious work- ing of which their very hving depends. 34 CHAPTER y RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS All life that is human is rapidly becoming sociahzed both in consciousness and in activ- ity. This process of socialization is progress- ing rapidly now in rural territory under the stimulation caused by the war activities, and by the Rural Organization Service of the Department of Agriculture in Washington. Clarence Poe, editor of the Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, North Carolina, says that the reason people in the country are not as well organized as the people of the cities is not because they are less progressive in spirit, but because "the power belt of organization has not been attached to the throbbing dy- namo of rural aspiration." That power belt is rapidly becoming attached to-day, and the farmers are becoming so weU organized and efficient in their methods of securing legis- lation that it will soon be a question of how the cities can keep pace with them. 1. A word of caution concerning rural social organizations. 35 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (1) In our haste to organize rvu-al com- munities into class conscious groups we must not fail at the same time to develop in them the consciousness of their moral obligations to the individual and to the larger groups composing the public. Otherwise we develop in them the strength of the pack without changing the nature of the wolf, and we awake to find our rural organizations pagan rather than Christian. Class consciousness is a good thing if you develop with it social sympathy. It would be just as immoral and harmful to the nation for the rural organiza- tions to fleece Wall Street as it has been in times past for Wall Street to fleece the farmer. (2) The better way, and the necessary mode of action: "What we need is the devel- opment of social sympathy, the widening of the range of our hvrnian regard, the breeding up of human acquaintanceship between all rival groups, the socialization of aU commu- nity life until we can see with open eyes the kingdom of God on earth, and feel in our hearts the spirit of hvmian brotherhood which gives to mankind a sense of security in all human relationships, and a sense of joy in all human toil, where men no longer insist 36 SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS so much on their rights as they do upon per- forming their duties to God and their fellow men. 2. Some characteristic rural social orgard- zations. Passing by local organizations, which are more or less temporary in char- acter and limited to a few families, whose diversions are confined largely to card par- ties, dances, husking-bees, barn-raisings, ap- ple-butter making parties, etc., we will men- tion those larger organizations which have greatly influenced national and State legis- lation in the interest of the farmers as a class. (1) The Grange, founded in 1867 by O. K. Kelley and six associates in the city of Washington, D. C. Their motto is, "In essentials, unity ; in nonessentials, liberty ; in all things, charity." Their declaration of purposes is the highest order of social and moral significance ; and, if carried out by all the local granges, would have no rival in the field of rural organization. (2) The Farmers' Educational and Co- operative Union of America, organized by ' Rural Church Serving Community, pp. 117, 118. ' For a list, see Vogt, Rural Sociology, pp. 249, 250. All quotations from Professor Vogt's book appearing in this volume are used by permission of the author and pub- lisher, D. Appleton & Co. 37 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Newt. Gresham, Smyrna, Texas, Septem- ber 2, 1902. Like the Grange, it grew out of a sense of need and the feehng of the hardships that the farming population had to undergo. Its declaration of purposes reads like an inspired document (who will say it was not inspired?) : "To estabhsh justice. "To secure equity. "To apply the Golden Rule. "To eliminate gambling in farm products by Boards of Trade, Cotton exchanges, and other speculations. "To strive for harmony and good will among all mankind and brotherly love among ourselves. "To garner the tears of the distressed, the blood of martyrs, the laugh of innocent child- hood, the sweat of honest labor, and the vir- tue of a happy home as the brightest jewels known.'" These indicate that this great rural or- ganization grew out of the consciousness of a feehng of social injustice suffered by the farmers at that time, and a discontent with economic conditions. (3) The Farmers' National Congress, See Vogt, Rural Sociology, pp. 9,Si. 253. 38 SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS formed in 1880-1881, and had for its purpose the "Consideration of national questions re- lated to agriculture in a broad national man- ner." In November, 1912, the Congress adopted a new constitution and declaration of purposes. Among these are the following: "To affiliate in a National Society aU State, interstate and national organizations the members of which are engaged in farm- ing and farm home-making ; and agricultural institutions, such as State Agricultural De- partments, and agricultural colleges of State and nation, as the Farmers' National Con- gress for the purpose of considering national questions related to agriculture and farm hfe in a broad, national manner, etc. "To aid in estabhshing in each state, in each county, and in each rural district or- ganizations devoted to agriculture and coun- try hfe. "To secure the cooperation of producers in agricultural production and distribution. "To aid in the technical and general educa- tion of farmers, and to promulgate facts which will assist farmers and farmhome makers. "To further the passage and execution of laws which will promote the general welfare 39 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION and remove restrictions in the way of ad- vancement of farmers as a class, and espe- cially improve the conditions of those who do its work on the farm and in the farm home.'" We can see by these statements that this organization has the consciousness of the farmers as a class, and the need for higher education among them and of a better understanding of them by the pubhc in general. (4) The National Agricultural Organi- zation Society in Chicago, 1915, to promote "better farming, better business, and better living.'" (5) International Institute of Agricul- ture, Rome, Italy, foimded in 1904 by David Lubin, an American Jew, who died in 1919. This has been called the League of Agri- culture. (6) The American Coimtry Life Asso- ciation. Recently in Baltimore (1919) was organized The American Country Life As- sociation, which seeks to coordinate all rm-al life interests as organized, and to represent the interests of country life in every possible * See Vogt, Rural Sociology, p. 254. ' For its declaration of purpose, see Vogt, Rural Sociology, p. 255. D. Appleton & Co. 40 SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS field of social, economic, and religious interest. 3. The church's task in rural social or- ganizations. ( 1 ) To give to all these organizations the Christian consciousness to prevent self-sat- isfaction and organized paganism. (2) To supply through the output of the church the kind of leadership that will in- sure Christian objectives. (3) To furnish the ideal of a final social order wherein dwelleth righteousness, peace, and joy among all groups of people who make up the world social order. 41 CHAPTER VI HOW TO ORGANIZE A RURAL COMMUNITY It is assumed that you have abeady made a thorough study of your community and know its needs and resources. 1. State your case to those upon whom community responsibility rests. You must state the ideas of need, immediate or remote, which must be put into active operation and have form for expression. For example: take any given rural community, which has no form of social organization except the home, the school, the church, and perhaps the lodge. What do you need to do in order to proceed? (1) There is the problem of the young people. You must organize around that idea, and perhaps house that idea. Recrea- tion must take form. (2) The problem of social moraUty. Pre- ventive salvation must be emphasized in some form of organization. (3) There is the problem of rural health and hygiene. There is the fact of sickness 42 HOW TO ORGANIZE and distress. Something must take form to meet the need adequately. Sanitation, sterihzing the breeding places of pests, build- ing a hospital, employing a district nurse, securing a trained physician in the com- munity. (4) There are problems of poverty and financial stress. There must be organized a committee on charity; and perhaps a local bank or credit system can be established. (5) There is the problem of good roads. There must follow an organization to get the county or State to act with the coopera- tion of the local community. (6) There is the problem of meeting the religious and ethical needs of the community, so the church must be supported as a part of the community structure. 2. Housing these ideas of community or- ganization. The organization must center somewhere, so we have the problem of hous- ing these ideas of community organization. Take, for example, a progressive rural com- munity with a pastor of the leading church who has gotten a vision of what the church can do for the community. His old church building is inadequate because it represents only one idea — ^the idea of worship, and not 43 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION too frequently at that. How does he secure an adequate church building to house the ideas of service to the whole community? He calls together, in a parlor conference, the leading men of his church and constituency. They do not talk plans of church building at first, but discuss the needs that should be met by the chin*ch in that community. These ideas are as follows: ( 1 ) Worship — so an adequate auditorium must be in the plan. (2) Religious Education — so a modern graded Sunday school equipment must be provided. (3) Social work — so the women's work, such as Ladies' Aid and the Missionary So- cieties, must be cared for, and a dining room and kitchen must be provided. (4) Young people's recreation and amusement. Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, etc. — so a gymnasium with bathing facilities must be included in the plan. (5) The administrative work of the church staff must be provided for in an oflSce equipment. They agree that none of these ideas can be left out of the new church edifice, and, as a result, you get a modern country church 44 HOW TO ORGANIZE building erected at a cost of thirty-five thou- sand dollars instead of a one-room structvire with most of the expenses in the roof and steeple. 3. Remodeling an old building. Here is an old church building of ample proportions, but which needs to be remodeled to suit the demands of a church that pvu-poses to serve the community instead of living content to he served hy the community. The same proc- ess of housing ideas is undertaken, and as a result at little cost you have a parish house built as one addition to the old structure, and the interior so remodeled that it meets every demand. 4. Selection of the personnel. Selection of the personnel of the various committees or groups that carry out into actual service these ideas that you have stated and housed. Precautions to be taken in community or- ganization : (1) Take time to select, and if necessary to train yoiu- leaders. (2) Select no man or woman who is seek- ing the job for the glory or honor, but, rather, those who have abihty to serve, and you can be persuaded that they ought to serve. 45 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (3) Don't be afraid to choose for respon- sible tasks young men and women, so long as you are sure they have the spirit of service. (4) Don't organize imless you can see it through, and put your program on a mov- ing basis; in other words, put wheels under your proposition so it will go when the team pulls. 46 CHAPTER VII A DECLARATION OF PURPOSES OF A RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION The next step in rural social organization is to declare to the community and to the rest of the world, if they are willing to hear, the purposes of such an organization in order that it may get the support of the like- minded, and become an incentive and a model to other communities. 1. A township as the social v/nit. Let us first take a township as the social unit, rec- ognized by the Legislature of the State as having jurisdiction. We, the residents of township, of the State of New Jersey, de- clare our purpose: (1) To accept all the duties of American citizenship. ( 2 ) To support all individuals' rights just so far as their use does not harm our fellows. (3) To agree that the public good is su- perior to any private gain obtained at the expense of community welfare. 47 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (4) That we are forming an association to secure all the benefits of community life, while recognizing as a unit ovu- commimity has a right to each one's best effort. (5) To make it our concern that every one have a chance to live a satisfactory life. (6) To give recognition to and acknowl- edgment of the gracious influences of prac- tical Christianity in community life. (7) To ask that our homes be guarded by right social conditions throughout our community. (8) To provide good schools, means of community recreation, safe sanitary condi- tions, improved highways, to encourage thrift and home ownership. (9) To make the neatness and attractive- ness of our homes and farms assets of distinct value to the township. (10) To do our share in the creation of public sentiment in support of all measures in the pubhc interest. (11) To put aside all political (partisan) and sectarian relations when dealing with commimity matters. (12) We state om- conviction that the best rewards from this organized effort lie before each one in a deepened interest in 48 DECLARATION OF PURPOSES others and in an increased ability to do team work. 2. A local church organization. Let us now take a local church organization which purposes to serve the community. It may be a good thing for it to have published a set of aims, or ideals so that folks may know what it is doing and what it means to do for the people. Here is a declaration of a church in a semirural commimity, located in a town of commuters, but surrounded by a farming and trucking population, many of whom are in its membership and constituency. The card reads as follows : OUR roEALS In order that our church may do more eflfective work for the estabUshment of the kingdom of God, as outlined in the Ufe and teaching of Jesus, we urge its members to work for the following ideab: (1) To make our church an active center of spiritual life and power. (2) To give to every individual a vision of the whole range of human need and of their part in meeting it. (3) To manifest a spirit of brotherhood in the chiu-ch and community. ' Adopted by the people of a New Jersey Township in 1919. 49 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (4) To promote the spiritual, social, economic, and civic welfare of the community. (5) To provide a place where anyone, in any kind of need, may find a sympathetic response. (6) To develop the highest type of Christian citizenship. Join us in making real these practical aims. One can readily see that any community or church or other rural social organization to follow out such ideals and purposes needs to organize committees or groups around their ideas of service, and needs also, in most cases, to house these ideas in appropriate buildings. 50 CHAPTER VIII THE FRAMEWORK OF A RURAL SOCIETY The General Conference of the Method- ist Episcopal Church authorized by legisla- tive enactment the organization of rural so- cieties to correspond to its city societies al- ready provided for by the Board of Home Missions. (See paragraphs 440-444, Dis- cipline, 1920.) In 1917 Professor Paul L. Vogt, superintendent of the Rural Work Department of the Board of Home Mis- sions, published a pamphlet giving a set of suggestions and a form of constitution for the organization of rural societies. The Conference district is taken as the unit of organization. 1. How to proceed. Assuming you have the disciplinary plan before you I would rec- ommend the following mode of procedure: (1) The society should be located in a natural community center where most of the rural organizations and alUes of the country church are located officially, where it is pos- 51 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION sible to establish a country church on the social center parish plan. (2) The best man in the district avail- able should be chosen for president, pre- ferably a layman. Three or more leading men or women should be chosen as vice-pres- idents, or vice-chairmen, as the case may be. An eflScient man or woman, preferably the graduate of a school or college of agricul- ture, should be selected for secretary. A man or woman with tact and financial training should be chosen as treasurer. (3) The membership should be composed of men and women in good standing in the church, and of others who may be proposed by the Committee on Membership. (Where you have a federated church organization it would, of course, include members of other denominations.) 2. Committees — how appointed. The ap- pointment of committees should always fol- low the discovery of needs in the community to be met by social action. As a rule, there should be the following standing committees : ( 1 ) A Committee of Direction, composed of five or seven of the strongest men and women of the district, who live m or near the center, should be chosen and empowered to 52 RURAL SOCIETY FRAMEWORK have full charge of the executive work of the society. It should be given full power to act, as occasion requires, in the name of the society. (2) A Finance Committee should also be appointed to arrange for the raising and ex- penditure of money for any given project with the approval of the Committee of Direction. (3) Other committees should be ap- pointed as definite needs for action are dis- covered. These should be as follows : (a) On EvangeUsm, to keep out the un- desirable peripatetic evangelist of the "Holy- Roller" type, and to provide for the ac- quaintanceship of the people with God. (b) On Rehgious Education, to organize the Sunday school and the religious week- day school activities of the chm-ch and com- munity. The graded lesson system and the Abingdon Religious Education Texts fur- nish the necessary equipment. (c) On Boy Life, to see that the growing boy life is given at least as much attention as corn, cattle, or hogs, to make it easier for boys to choose their lifework either in or out of the community in which they were reared. 58 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (d) On Girls' and Women's Clubs, to make it possible for women and girls to do intelligently their part of the community life as citizens, as well as in the field of the finer domestic arts and sciences. (e) On Rural Recreation, to see to it that provision is made for the unfolding and exercise of the play instinct, to wisely meet the need implied in the prohibitive paragraph of the Methodist Disciphne, to invest funds and life to substitute for the saloon which by legislation is now to be banished from our rural communities. (/) On Health and Sickness, to provide wholesome information with regard to all communicable and preventable diseases, and to furnish to the people constructive ideas of health. In other woi-ds, to make health as contagious in rm-al communities as disease. (g ) On Social Morahty, to cooperate with the State and national governments in sup- pressing vice and crime, and those practices that bring on the plague of venereal and other social diseases. 3. Meetings. ( 1 ) Meetings should never be held merely for the sake of holding a meeting, but for a 54 RURAL SOCIETY FRAMEWORK purpose that involves service of some sort for the people of the community. (2) It is not wise to try to get all the members of any society to meet too fre- quently. It is better to have one great an- nual meeting (a dinner or banquet) and fea- tm-e some achievement of the community or some "next step" which the community should take. Denominational spread-eagle- ism should, in such a meeting, be suppressed. Achievement is more vital than words on such occasions, at least more convincing to the alert mind. (3) The "great meeting" should come usually in the autumn and take the form of "Old Home Week" or "Harvest Home Day" or "Agricultural Exhibit Day." Some slogan should be devised to make advertis- ing of such a meeting easy. A prize might be offered to the young people for the best post- ers for such a meeting. 4. Possibilities for constructive service. You will notice in Section 3 of Paragraph 444, Discipline of 1920, that these rural so- cieties have been given great range for pos- sible constructive service for the community. These constructive tasks are as follows: (1) To make a survey of its various 55 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION fields. This should be not merely a religious census, but, rather, a serious study of the entire district with the view of ascertaining all the facts that a modern community, so- cially awake, should know. It should include an inventory of the assets and habilities of the entire district, a detailed knowledge of what needs to be built up, what removed, and the resources, economic and personal, with which the work of community building is to be done. (2) The selection and development of rural leadership in aU forms of ministry in modern Christian work, and especially a more efficient type of pastoral leadership. (3) Organized effort to reheve the dis- tressed and neglected members of om* rm-al parishes, especially the immigrant, the farm laborer, and the overworked children and farm women. (4) The better location of church build- ings from the viewpoint of serving the com- munity, the improvement of rural church architecture, the elimination of denomina- tional destructive competition, and the set- ting up of a wise policy of interdenomina- tional cooperation and federation. (5) In Section 2 of Paragraph 444 56 RURAL SOCIETY FRAMEWORK we have this other wise provision for rural societies — "And prosecute such work as they deem best, under the advice of the superin- tendent of the Rural Work Department." Here we have the gate wide open to enter any field of activity that wiU help to build up a community that wiU ultimately take on the character of that larger social order for which we daily pray and should work, the kingdom of God on earth where dwell aU God's children in righteousness, peace, and joy. 57 PART II THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER IX THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE RURAL HOME The rural home is the dwelling place and the training school of at least one half of the population of this country. Home life is of vital importance to the nation because of the character of its output. The majority of criminals in all our penal institutions are from cities and towns. A large majority of the leaders in all the professions are from the rural homes. Lead- ers in religion, law, medicine, finance, educa- tion, and the great industrial concerns were born and bred in the open country or in rural towns and villages. 1. The chief function of the rural home. Judging from the character of the output of the rural home we would conclude that the chief function of the rural home is the nur- tiu-e and development of character for the individual in the family group. The fundamental aims of the family group are two: first, the preservation and develop - 61 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ment of the life of the child ; second, the pro- longation of the life of the parents. These are not always so well carried out in the rural home as in the suburban and city homes because of the limited training in health and hygiene in the rural home as compared with the city homes. 2. Family solidarity a basis of state so- cial control. In the family the weaker mem- bers receive the greater care. In the indi- vidualistic state the reverse is true. In the language of the Scripture, "Unto everyone that hath shall be given, . . . but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." In the well-organized fam- ily all share in the common store, and the greater need is met first. This is a great principle in all groupings of human society, and will be the practice of all when the Golden Rule is the guide of all the people. 3. In the family the nature and bent of the child are determined. When we analyze the man in adult life we find but the com- ponent elements of his family Ufe. At least we can say that the nature and tendencies of the man are there determined. "Health, happiness, and good fortune are determined by to-day's environment," says Professor 62 THE RURAL HOME Patten, but we might with as great truth affirm that, in many cases at least, the pos- sibihties of health, happiness, and good char- acter are determined by the family in which we are reared. 4. There are three fundamental periods of parental obligation. (1) The period of dedication, when the parent, even before birth, dedicates the child to the best in life of which the parent is capa- ble, and dedicates to the child that love and care that insures it against neglect. (2) The period of education, when the child is led out from the instinctive motor impulses to the voUtional guidance of later adolescence, and dawning manhood, when all the faculties and powers of personality have their fullest expression. (3) The period of abdication, when thfti parents must begin to let go their grip on the boy and girl now developed, and allow them to choose for themselves under wise direc- tion the ways their better judgments incline. This is one of the most critical periods, and in the rm-al home is perhaps often the niost neglected period. Here we need to em- phasize vocational direction that will not stifle personal initiative. 63 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 5. The rural household; relation of master and servant. It is not only the city and suburban homes that need hired help but also the rural households that during cer- tain seasons of the year have a real problem of the "hired man" and the "servant girl" to contend with. (1) This relation is more intimate in rural life and more democratic than in the urban home. In many rural homes the hired help is given the privileges of the house- hold and treated as one of the family. This was especially true of an earher period, from the sixties to the nineties of the nineteenth century. The "white help" ate with the family in the dining room, and often slept in the house under the same roof, while the "blacks" ate in the kitchen and slept in the barn on the hay, or in special "quarters" prepared for them. I remember when a boy on my father's farm during harvest a man of dark, swarthy skin but straight hair came to the farm to help with harvest. The first few days he ate with the Negroes in the kitchen because father was uncertain as to his racial identity, but on Sunday morning, after he had taken a bath on Saturday night in the river with the other boys, father saw 64 THE RURAL HOME such a change in the man's appearance that from then on he ate with the family in the dining room. (2) It is becoming more and more diffi- cult to maintain this relationship between master and servant in the rural household. This is owing to the changed conditions in the labor situation due to competition with other industrial factors in the labor market. Longer hours of the working day, lower wages for exacting toil, isolation from the centers of population, no amusements dur- ing the evening hours or on hoUdays, lack of facilities for relief in case of sickness or accident on the farm — all these have contrib- uted to the movement of skilled farm labor to the cities and towns, and to the rural in- dustries like mining, lumbering, and road- building, etc. As a result in many sections of the country an inferior grade of farm la- bor has come in, and the maintenance of the old relationships between master and servant in the rural household becomes a moral men- ace to his family. Seasonal migrant labor has taken the place of the "steady hands," and the community has been given a respon- sibility in the matter, so that "the welfare room," as in Larned, Pawnee County, Kan- 65 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION sas, has been established to care for this class of migrant labor. 6. The disintegration of the rural home. There are many factors that play upon the family life of the rural home tending to dis- integrate it and leave it often without an heir, in the sense of real possession, to carry on the family interest in the farm-stead and in the community. (1) The normal factors of disintegration are marriage, which leads to the founding of other homes, business, which calls many young men and women from the farms to the cities and towns, the schools of higher learning, which di*aw many into the profes- sions, and last, but not least, the love of wan- dering, which takes many from the old homestead never to retiu-n. (2) The abnormal factors: these are poverty, drunkenness, the tramp habit, di- vorce, abandonment, and the exploitation of child labor without regard for the rights of the child. Many a farmer will overwork his boy without compensation in money or part- nership in the business, and practically com- pel him to hire out to others for a wage, and See Extension circular No. 17, Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas. Edited by Walter Burr. 66 THE RURAL HOME then hire in his stead a man who becomes a menace to the morals of his family, when a more reasonable policy of partnership would have kept the boy on the farm to inherit the family prestige in the community, and per- petuate the family name for generations to come. Here is a httle poem by J. Edward TuflPt that I picked up in a local county paper which wittingly illustrates this point. It is entitled: Why Boys Leave the Fabm " 'Why did you leave the farm, my lad? Why did you bolt and quit your dad? Why did you beat it o£f to town And turn your poor old father down? Thinkers of platform, pulpit, press Are wallowing in deep distress; They seek to know the hidden cause Why farmer boys desert their pa's. Some say they long to get a taste Of faster life and social waste; Some say the silly little chumps Mistake the suit cards for the trumps In wagering fresh and germless air Against the smoky thoroughfare. We've all agreed the farm's the place; So free your mind and state your case. 'Well, stranger, since you've been so frank, I'll roll aside the hazy baixk, 67 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION The misty cloud of theories, And show you where the trouble lies. I left my dad, his farm, his plow. Because my calf became his cow. I left my dad — 'twas wrong, of course — Because my colt became his horse. I left my dad to sow and reap Because my lambs became his sheep. I dropped my hoe and stuck my fork Because my pig became his pork. The garden-truck that I made grow — 'Twas his to sell, but mine to hoe. It's not the smoky atmosphere. Nor taste for "life" that brought me here. Please tell the platform, pulpit, press No fear of toil or love of dress Is driving off the farmer lads. But just the methods of their dads. 7. The rural home functioning for citizen- ship. It is a fact worthy of pride to the farmer folk that only a very small percent- age of the crimes of young men and boys are committed by those who come from the farms. The guilty ones hail from the con- gested sections of our great cities and larger towns; and when the reformatory gets through with these boys it often seeks to find employment for them on the farms of the open country away from the city. When- ever a great moral issue is up with regard to 68 THE RURAL HOME the State, we always look to the farmers "up State" to carry the issue at the election when the cities vote a majority for the old gang of grafters. 8. Reaching the limit. The limit has been reached in some sections of our country. In the Ivmiber camps, in the mining regions, in the fruit-growing areas and the trucking belts, and among the migratory groups of seasonal farm labor we have seen in later years the menace of the "imdesirable citizen," the ultra radical who has no patriotism and less respect for property. This is due in part to the drainage of the country popula- tion of its natural native leaders to the cities and towns, but chiefly this result is due to two causes : first, inferior training in the country school, due to inferior teachers secured at the meager salaries and because of the lack of social hfe and modern conveniences in many sections of the country; second, the loss of the leadership of the country pastor, who, in so many cases in these days, is an absentee pastor, and in too many cases a man poorly equipped for his task as compared with the other rural professions in agricultural sci- ence and home economics. The old condi- tion of pastoral leadership can be restored 69 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION by the training of men for this specific field, and by the adoption of the social-center par- ish system that serves from the center by attracting to the center. 70 CHAPTER X RURAL SCHOOLS A FACTOR IN COMMUNITY BUILDING Now that farming has come to be recog- nized as the "biggest business on earth," edu- cators are beginning to see the place the rural schools and colleges of agriculture have in the promotion of that business, and in the building up of an economically efficient sys- tem of farming and a more satisfying type of community life in our rural domain. 1. The advantages of the rural school as a factor in community building. (1) It has the children of a given com- munity for a more definite period of instruc- tion during the school year than even the home or the chvu-ch. (2) It has them in class conscious groups yet bound together by a democracy of in- terest which is represented in the play life of the high school and college as "college spirit" which is really the social sohdarity of the group in mass effort to achieve. It is thus laying the foundations of true de- mocracy. 71 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (3) It has the chance to become a more effective force in teaching social morality because supported by the state and commu- nity, and the children are compelled by law to attend. (4) It may become imder wise leadership in many places a real commimity center where all the factors of commimity life can meet without the inhibitive effects of reU- gious, sectarian, social, or economic preju- dice or bias. 2. The social function of the rural school. The chief function of the rural school and college of agriculture is educational. But in a particular sense this function should take on a more technical aspect and seek to relate the children and youth of the commu- nity more vitally to the rural conditions themselves. The trouble has been that our textbooks in the rural schools have been seri- ously lacking in wholesome rural-minded- ness on the part of their authors. The view- point has been either sentimentally reminis- cent, like the "Old Oaken Bucket" or "The Little Brown Church in the Vale" song; or unpractically optimistic like a commercial fertilizer advertisement, or a real estate pros- pectus of swamp lands. 72 RURAL SCHOOLS (1) The rural school should seek first to develop the rural consciousness itself, so that the rural population as a whole will be able to see the value of the rural domain and its resources as a great sociological fact. The rural mind is at best too individualistic in its outlook and too narrow in its horizon. (2) The rural school and the rural col- lege have a chance to develop through class rivalry and college spirit a helpful social cleavage, the basis of cooperative, organized activities. I mean by social cleavage that principle of differentiation within a popula- tion mass by which community building is possible. (3) It should seek to carry out the social aim of education which may be stated as follows : (a) The social development of the indi- vidual personality. ( b ) The social efficiency of the individual. (c) The utilization of efiiciency in the various fields of need. (1) in government, (2) in industry, (3) in religious work, (4) in charity organization work, (5) in educa- tional fields. 3. The cooperation of the rural school with farmer folk. It should be admitted at the 73 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION outset that the rural schools and colleges of agriculture are primarily educational and cultural institutions, and not promoters of any particular system of economic produc- tion or distribution, though more economic production and distribution, and more eflS- cient management in aU agricultural enter- prises may follow as a result. We are here interested in the problem of how these insti- tutions and farmer folk may work together in mutual ways so as to promote the general welfare of rural communities and build up a richer and more varied type of rural civilization. (1) An analogy: the city university and State institutions furnish an analogy in their technical and cultural departments for the schools of agriculture. (a) The teachers' college or department of pedagogy should and does cooperate with the city and State boards of education, and uses these institutions for laboratory work. (&) The medical college cooperates with the city in questions of health. (c) The college of engineering can and does cooperate with the city in its engineering problems, lighting, heating, water supply, etc. 74 RURAL SCHOOLS (d) The school of law should and in some cases does cooperate with the city and the State in matters of public legislation. (e) Schools of commerce cooperate with the city governments and with the State and national governments in promoting com- merce and trade, and in outhning public pol- icy with reference to trade in general. (/) Departments of political science, eco- nomics, and sociology are equally interested in the practical problems of the community and may cooperate for their solution in the localities where these institutions are situated. (2) The analogy applied to the college and schools of agriculture. (a) The schools that have limited terri- tory, such as the rural high schools and other schools of agriculture which serve their re- spective territories can utilize, by methods of cooperation, the farms of the region or vicinity as laboratories without the expens- ive upkeep of a separate school farm and laboratories. For example: local dairying problems can be worked out by the use of the local herds and creamery plant as a labora- tory; so with fruit farms, cereal crops, ani- mal husbandry, veterinary science, agron- omy, horticulture, etc. AH these depart- 75 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ments can and do in many cases work out on a cooperative basis many of the practical economic problems of rural education. So for the schools of domestic science with rela- tion to home building. (b) Colleges of agriculture. Here the analogy applies on a much larger scale and the field of cooperation may extend beyond State lines and may become in many re- spects national, or even international. That is to say, where a State imiversity has de- veloped great departments and great men who are experts on some great phase of agri- cultural science, there is no reason why this equipment, even though in a State institu- tion, should not be the servant of a whole region, and of a nation, where the social mind has been developed and educated. This cooperation involves the development of the social consciousness of both parties. Men must be chosen who have the national spirit ; and communities of cooperators must be de- veloped with the same altruistic spirit of service. 4. Specific ways of cooperation. (1) Extension work at the college or school of agriculture : The short courses, in- stitutes, farmer's week, etc. 76 RURAL SCHOOLS (2) Extension work through county and State field secretaries or demonstrators. (3) The county and State farm bureaus. (4) Interconference exchanges; between schools, religious orders, labor unions, lodges, granges. State and county fairs, etc. (5) Literary exchanges: magazines, church and Sunday school publications, as- sociation press hterature, etc. (6) Recreational activities, moving pic- ture film interchanges between cities and rural towns. The pageant and the drama, under high-class supervision from the proper department in the college or school. 77 CHAPTER XI THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE RURAL CHURCH AND SUN- DAY SCHOOL There has been developed in the con- sciousness of church leaders in recent years a great change of emphasis with respect to the functions of the church. The empha- sis has been upon intake; from now on it will be upon output. Like the laborers in the parable, too many church members are idle in the market place of Christian service because no man has hired them. Too many folks are shouting "Harvest home!" in the church building, when they ought to be hus- tling in the harvest fields of human need. So in the Sunday school, the emphasis in reli- gious education has been upon the subject- matter rather than upon the subject and the field in which he is to work. To-day the emphasis in religious education is being placed upon the boy and girl in order that they may function for service in the com- munity as well as to prepare themselves for heaven. 78 CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL 1. The social function of the rural church. In a general way we could say that the so- cial function of the church is to serve the people in their community relationships, but to be more specific we would state the case as follows; (1) Bringing to the consciousness of men the idea of the kingdom of God on earth for which in their formal petitions they have daily prayed. How few people in the coun- try churches have any very definite notion as to what the kingdom of God on earth means. They look for something that is to come or is afar off, when John the Baptist kept repeat- ing "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" and Jesus was as positive in his statements with regard to the Kingdom — "The kingdom of God is within you." A workable definition of the kingdom of God on earth is the fol- lowing: The kingdom of God on earth is a conscious world-view of the social order of mankind in which the spirit of Jesus gov- erns men in their recreation, work, and wor- ship. The consciousness of God must be the ruling factor that motivates aU human rela- tionships and behavior. "Whatsoever ye Vfould that men should do to you, do ye even 79 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION so to them" (Matt. 7. 12). "And whatso- ever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col. 3. 17) . "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- ness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6.33). (2) The sociahzation of the community in its religious consciousness and activity. In these days when certain radical groups are traducing the word "sociahzation" from its real meaning in the interests of selfishness and the advantage of the organized group, it is well for us to get a definition of the social- ized community. When is a community so- cialized? A community is socialized in con- sciousness when as a community it is aware of its needs immediate or remote, and of the possible available resources to supply those needs. It is socialized in activity when by organized effort it has a mediimi through which there is made possible a reciprocal cor- respondence between conscious needs and available resources. In other words, a com- munity is sociahzed when the people think and act collectively through organized ways under the law to discover their real needs and to provide ways of meeting them. The rural church, because of the comparative isolation 80 CHURCH AND SUNDAY SCHOOL of the population units, has a more difficult task in socialization than the town or city church. It must therefore have a better type of religious leader who has himself been so- cialized by experience and training. 2. The social function of the rural Sun- day school. The social function of the rural Sunday school, as an institution of the chiu-ch, is the socialization of the religious con- sciousness of the children and youth of the population in a given territory so that they will consciously live in the community as members of the kingdom of God on earth. It functions socially in the following ways: (1) It furnishes a practical method and place of meeting of the members of all classes of society on a democratic basis. The day school does this but not in the same sense. (2) It is organized on the group plan, presenting an opportunity for helpful rivalry of class-conscious groups, while at the same time developing a mass consciousness in which all groups are included as one unit akin to college spirit — a sociological fact of great significance in the education of a people. The Sunday school is thus laying the foundation for a wider social synthesis 81 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION which will ultimately result in the conscious- ness of the kingdom of God. (3) It deals with the most susceptible part of the population. It teaches the young people the value of social cleavage and rivalry while at the same time it emphasizes the meaning of social justice that requires of them enhstment in the warfare against organized vice and sin. (4) It has a textbook that deals with the social and political facts of human history and lays a basis for universal democracy un- der the rule of the spirit of Christ. (5) The adult Bible class can be made an organized factor in the building up of the commimity. A Bible class can be or- ganized to meet by group action every legiti- mate need of the commimity in cooperation with like groups in the same field. 82 CHAPTER XII THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS IN RURAL LIFE The chief social function of this modern institution in rural communities is not unlike its function in other zones of human pop- ulation. 1. It acts as a coordinating agency of the religious forces of the riu-al areas that have hitherto lacked cooperation in religious work, especially for young men and boys, and for young girls in rural communities. It furnishes a binder for the unmixable yet useful elements of Protestant Christianity. 2. It gives a religious significance to the normal faculties and powers of young men and women. (1) It takes the instincts and powers at the basis of play and develops them into fac- ulties of wholesome recreation and work. (2) It guides the activities of boys and young men through interests in crop-grow- ing and cattle- and poultry-raising, so that the property instinct is made a constructive 83 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION factor in building up the family and com- munity life. ( 3 ) It gives lectures and guidance in mat- ters of sex knowledge and hygiene, and sup- plies a woeful lack on the part of rvu-al par- ents on matters of morals and health in mat- ters pertaining to the period of adolescence. (4) It takes advantage of the group in- stinct, or the social instinct, and gives it direction in competitive play and game ethics, thus developing a wholesome and practical morality in the Ufe of the young people of the community. It keeps out the "gang" habit by a substitution of the organ- ized group. ( 5 ) It takes the growing rehgious instinct and gives it expression through boy leader- ship for boys, and gives religion a place in the normal hfe of the young people of the community. 3. How it functions in rural life. (1) It takes the county as a unit of or- ganization, and stresses not equipment of buildings but the ministry of personality in small towns and the open country. (2) It chooses fifteen to twenty influen- tial men (or women) of the county to serve as an executive committee. 84 THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS (3) It places a trained and experienced boys-work man to serve as the executive sec- retary for the county, whose chief aim is to cooperate with and work through existing community agencies in so far as they will permit him to do so. He is a specialist in boys-work and is at the service of the churches for the development of boys-work within the churches. (4) It enlists local volunteer leaders and trains them for all phases of boys-work; many of these later enter the ministry or become county-work secretaries or govern- ment community leaders. (5) They conduct weekly meetings of boys' groups with definite programs, includ- ing athletic, educational, social, and rehgious features. These groups meet in churches, high schools, or rented quarters. (6) They conduct county -wide activities, such as summer camps, educational trips, baseball and basketball leagues, etc. (7) They cooperate with churches, schools, granges, county boards of agriculture, etc., in work for the community. 4. Factors already formed and at work which are the outgrowth of the Christian Association movement. 85 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ( 1 ) The Student Volunteer Movement. (2) The Missionary Education Move- ment, (3) The World Student Christian Fed- eration. (4) The International Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. with all their departments of city, rural, industrial, railroad, Negro, and foreign work, and also the world-wide war work of these organizations still going on in the countries yet technically and actually at war. (5) The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, whose leading officers have learned to cooperate in religious work through the activities of the Christian As- sociation. (6) The Interchurch World Movement, which now, owing to the resurgence since the war of denominational group-consciousness, has ceased to function, but in its inception and program of work gave promise of one of the greatest movements in Christian his- tory for the good of humanity, because based upon the scientific methods of knowing the facts before programizing, and the spiritual dynamic of Christian cooperation. 86 CHAPTER XIII THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS We are rapidly passing out of the period of individualism and isolation of farmers and rangers in the open country, into a period of cooperation and organization of the rural forces of America. It is therefore fitting that in a study of rural social organization we consider the social functions of farmers' organizations. 1. A basis for mass movements. These organizations like the Grange, the Farmers' Union, the Farmers' Cooperative Associa- tions, the Dairymen's Associations, and the like, furnish a basis for mass movement of isolated units of the rural population. There are many occasions when the individual farmer is helpless in fighting the pests and diseases incident to his business without the organized cooperation of his neighbors, for example, during the epidemic of the foot- and-mouth disease among cattle, the hog cholera, bovine tuberculosis, and other con- 87 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION tagious diseases — ^here is needed not only the mass effort of the whole population of a rural community or region, but often the in- tervention of the government. State or na- tional, to adequately handle the difficulty. 2. Protection from exploiters. They also fiu-nish protection from the exploiters of the farmers. They develop trained citizens to care for the interests of the farmers them- selves. They give the individual farmers the sense of security in the presence of organized exploitation. Take, for example, the fruit growers' associations of the Far West. They are able to meet the conditions of the Eastern markets by the control of their products from the orchards to the wholesalers in the Eastern cities. 3. An intelligent and mobile electorate. They develop a more intelligent and mobile electorate to meet the changing need of polit- ical movements. Take, for example, the Non-partisan League of North Dakota and the earher but less successful movements of the Farmers' Alliance, and the Populist Party. 4. Organized distribution of farm prod- ucts. They make possible the organized dis- tribution of farm products to advantageous 88 FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS markets. For example, the shipping of wheat by carload lots from the local elevator instead of by the long haul, and submission to the dictatorship, as to prices, of the in- spector of the local milhng company. The shipping of fruit and perishable vegetables by refrigerator cars is another example of this advantage. 5. A better financial situation. These or- ganizations have also made possible a better financial situation in rural life through the cooperative banking and insurance com- panies in rural territory. The Farm Loan and Banking Act is a direct outcome of the work of these organizations. 6. Power of self-expression. These asso- ciations develop the power of self-expression and furnish a chance for the development of rural social leadership. This is carried out through the debating societies, musical clubs, essays and speeches within the local association. As a result of the functioning of these farmers' associations we now have the larger organizations of rural population like the American Coimtry Life Associa- tion, The Association for the Promotion of Agricultural Legislation and The National Board of Farm Organizations, which gives 89 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION promise of ranking with the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and the American Federation of Labor. When these farmers' organizations have functioned for the entire rural population, which still embraces one half the population of the United States, they will act as a great stabilizing force against the ultra radical rev- olutionary groups of the cities and larger industrial centers of population. As in every critical period of human history, so now the farmer will be the saviour of civilization from the red riot of revolution. 90 CHAPTER XIV COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION IN RURAL LIFE The modern cooperative movement be- gan in England in 1843 by a group of work- ers called the "Rochdalers," twenty-eight in number, with a capital of twenty-eight pounds, which equals five dollars a piece. In 1910 that movement in the United King- dom in sales alone did a business amounting to $575,000,000. In the United States it is estimated that the amount of cooperative purchases in 1914 was $1,400,000,000. 1. Distinguishing characteristics of coop- erative organizations. These are as follows : (1) Manhood representation, instead of property ownership representation. (2) Membership open to all. (3) Distribution of profits on the basis of business done instead of stock held, thus giving the benefits of business to those who make the business possible, and substituting community welfare for individual or limited group advantages.' Cooperation among See Vogt, Rural Sociology, p. 833. D. Appleton & Co. 91 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION farmers is on the increase, especially where the farmers are in competition with other organized interests. Such a movement usu- ally centers in some definite and more or less simple interest, such, for example, as the purchase of farm supplies. 2. Where farmers' cooperative orgamza- tions are most successful. (1) Among the farmers of the central Mississippi valley for the purpose of pur- chase of farm supplies. (2) In citrus fruit-growing areas of Cal- ifornia and the South. (3) In the deciduous fruit-growing sec- tions of the Northwest. (4) Among truck growers on the Atlan- tic coast, and the lake regions of the North. All these latter are based upon the common interest in marketing the fruit, and other products of the farm, ranch, or garden plot for the benefit of those concerned. 3. Other determining factors in coopera- tive organizations. ( 1 ) They prosper more readily where the purchase of supplies is needed rather than in the production and marketing of farm products. It is simple and easy for the farmer to understand ; besides, he is getting 92 COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION something with money, rather than trying to get rid of something for money. (2) Cooperation thrives best where the people live close together as on the ranches of the irrigation areas of the Far West or among the truckers in the environs of a large city. (3) It thrives best where social conditions are favorable, such as homogeneity of race and religious belief, as among the Quakers and the Lutherans, United Brethren and Dunkards of Maryland and Pennsylvania, etc. Also among immigrants who have had experience in cooperation in Europe; as in Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, for ex- ample, the settlers from these countries in Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and in parts of Michigan. (4) Permanency of residence in a given area is necessary to successful cooperative or- ganization in rm-al territory. This is why cooperation is more successful in Europe than in America. (5) Success depends upon a high aver- age of intelhgence because of the necessity of knowing the business and trusting the leadership necessary to success. (6) There must also be present a sense 93 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION of loyalty to the community and to the or- ganization. Unless this spirit dominates it will be easy for the exploiter to undermine the organization by leading off for tempo- rary gain the men who make up the strong elements in the organization. 4. Tendencies in modern cooperative or- ganisations. (1) These organizations tend to overde- velop the group consciousness, and when not enlightened by broad knowledge of world conditions tend to group selfishness and the ethics of the "pack," (2) The cooperative movement tends to state socialism as in North Dakota and fur- nishes fruitful soil for radicalism. ( 3 ) It tends to national socialism as in the proposed Plumb Plan, and in the Russian Soviets, or cooperatives. (4) When the period of world conflict is on, these larger group forms tend, through alliances, to form a league of nations to com- pel federation and world peace that orderly production and distribution of goods for the needs of mankind may go on undisturbed. 5. The church's task. It is as follows: (1) To furnish the intelligent leadership for these rvu-al organizations. 94 COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (2) To give these groups a world vision of the kingdom of God on earth. (3) To develop the binder of Christian social sympathy to hold in cooperative pro- ductive effort those larger groups in the great world process. For a further study of cooperative movements and or- ganizations in rural life, see the Report of the American Commission to Investigate and Study Agricultural Credit and Cooperation, 1913-14, parts 1-3, 1913-1914. Senate Document iS61, part 1-2, 1914. New York State Depart- ment of Agriculture Bulletin No. 56, 1914. Also United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 547, on Cooperative Purchasing and Marketing among Farmers in the United States. CHAPTER XV ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AF- FECTING SOCIAL WELFARE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES A general view of the situation. We are interested in the economic conditions of the rural communities from the viewpoint of how they affect the religious life of the people through the institutions of the Christian Church. In talking with a prosperous law- yer in one of the richest counties of the State of Washington last summer, concerning the progress of the Modern Rural Church move- ment, he made the following statement, which aptly epitomizes the history of agricultural life in America. Said he, "We have strug- gled in the past to master the land and to build our homes and barns. We mortgaged our farms to buy stock and machinery. When we got these paid for, we tackled the problem of educating our children, and we have built our schools and colleges and State universities, and are maintaining them. These took our surplus; and now we have them well in hand; from now on, we are 96 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS going to give our attention to reconstructing our churches and equipping them for reli- gious education and wholesome entertain- ment for our young people." Here we have at every turn the problem of farm income, and the surplus which made rural progress possible. How human and natural it sounded to put the objects of social need in that order ! In the present situation in our rural domain is it not the case that the church is the last in the series to receive adequate support? 1. These economic conditions enumerated. What are these economic conditions affecting social welfare in rural life? (1) The struggle with the soil, and the climate, plant, pests, and diseases. (2) The problem of mastering the condi- tions of conserving the products of harvest. How to care for and store crops. (3) The problem of stock-breeding and improvement, diseases among cattle and horses and hogs. (4) The problem of marketing his prod- uce, the long haul, the conditions of the roads, the istruggle for prices adequate to meet labor costs, the menace of the middlemen. (5) The problem of farm labor, competi- tion of industrial communities, and the lure 97 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION of the city, making it difficult to farm exten- sively in order to make a surplus. (6) Isolation, lack of cooperation, igno- rance due to lack of education, antiquated methods of doing things, the worship of tra- dition. (7) Unscientific farm management, no bookkeeping, no method to master the prob- lem of seasonal employment. Most if not all of these economic conditions have been met by the development of rural education through the College of Agriculture and the rural extension work of the Department of Agriculture; through better schools and the improvement of modes of commimication and transportation. (8) Intensive farming has so changed the situation in many parts of the coimtry that rural life is becoming more and more attract- ive to young men of the coimtry as well as to the enterprising men of the cities who formerly left the farm because of its unsat- isfying life and are renewing their youth in the soil of the new projects under intelligent contact with the processes of nature. In the West especially is this so. In Arizona, Cali- fornia, as in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Wash- ington, and Oregon, "Intensive ranching is 98 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS the life." They have electricity, gas, gas en- gines, pumping plant, bathtubs, and auto- mobiles, ( 9 ) Good roads are possible in the South- west at a lower cost owing to the absence of frost and the resultant endurance of smooth- surfaced roads of modern structural ma- terials. (10) They have by irrigation eliminated the uncertainty of crop production, and by intensive farming and variation in crops, on small plots they can make more than their pioneer ancestors did on the ranges of wider areas. Clipping': "Irrigation crops exceed funds spent on projects. Washington, Dec. 8. — The value of crops grown on lands with- in government reclamation projects for the single year 1919 was $25,000,000 greater than the total of $125,000,000 expended on all projects constructed up to the close of the last fiscal year, according to the annual report of the reclamation service, made pubhc to-day. The value of crops produced on reclamation lands, the report said, was 'just about twice as large' per acre as the average yield of unirrigated lands in the humid regions. • From New York Times, December 9, 1920. 99 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION "A total of 2,648,000 acres is now being irrigated by water from government proj- ects, the report showed, including 1,636,000 acres receiving a supplemental supply from private irrigation systems." (11) The introduction of the gas engine and high voltage electricity. Mr. Frank J. Taylor, of the Department of Agriculture, says that two things have made this revolu- tionary change in rural life in the Southwest ; first, high-voltage transmission of electricity; and, second, the exploding gas engine. The first places light on every farm, runs ma- chines, and provides heat. The second pumps water and runs the automobile. (12) Intensive farming makes it possible for country folks to live in communities close together and have all the advantages of town and city life without overcrowding, while the good roads and the automobile have made the city forty to sixty miles distant within easy reach of the farmhomes, so that the people no longer wish to leave the farm for the conveniences of the town. (13) Security in tenure of land and in crop production. Irrigation and intensive cultivation of small areas give the farmer almost absolute control of his crops. Har- 100 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS vest is no more a matter of luck, but is as certain as the manufacture of clothing, or the making of bread, or any other fabricated product. (14) This wave of intensive farming is sweeping East so that many of the aban- doned farms of the Eastern States are be- ing bought up by Westerners, the rich bot- tom lands are being drained and farmed in- tensively so that in these old farming areas of the East more is produced on a small acre- age by this method than on the whole farm under the old extensive farming system. Yet there are many communities in vast areas of our rural domain where these conditions mentioned previously as affecting adversely social welfare still prevent the establishment of a satisfying country hfe. 2. Farm income and social welfare. (1) It is not an easy thing to determine what farm income is in specific cases, because the vast majority of farmers hitherto, imtil the federal income tax system was estab- lished by Congress, kept no account of their living which they received in large measure from the products of the farm direct. (2) In the industrial and commercial life, as well as in the professions, we can easily de- 101 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION termine income for the four classes of per- sons engaged: (a) those in business for themselves; (b) salaried managers; (c) wage-earners; {d) professional workers for fees and salaries. But with the farmer it is different. We have the expenses of the "land-poor" farmer, whose income seems to be a minus quantity, and the rich ranchman, who pays an income tax, after deducting for exemption, on $8,000 a year from eighty acres of farm land. (3) The farmer often combines the three functions of proprietor, manager, and la- borer in one, so that the economists are now working out the factors of income from the viewpoints of farm-labor income, farm man- agerial income, and farm capital income. Professor Vogt has shown that the modern farm laborer is about as well off from this viewpoint of income as the preacher or the teacher — in fact, better off than the average.' (4) During the past decade farm income has been greatly increased, and yet the mar- gin of surplus in certain types of agricultural enterprise is not as great as it would seem because of the increased cost of labor, ferti- An actual case at Wilder, Idaho. See Rural Sociology, chap, vi, p. 101. D. Appleton & Co. 102 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS lizer, and machinery, as well as the increased cost of transportation. This is especially true in cost of fuel, feeds, and fertilizers. 3. Reasons why the farmer should have an income in eoscess of the needs of existence. (1) Because of the importance of farm- ing as a food producing enterprise. Profes- sor Vogt has well said, "No sound rural civ- ihzation can be built that does not provide a reasonable satisfaction for the desire for ma- terial goods." Men will not continue long in an enterprise that does not give a surplus commensurate with that in other economic enterprises. This is the chief reason for the abandoned farms, the migration from the farm to the city. (2) He needs a satisfying life for himself and family ; this can come only when he has the surplus to spend for those things which give satisfaction. He must be trained, how- ever, to seek higher satisfactions for his fam- ily, or he will add farm to farm and increase the drudgery of his wife and children until they learn to hate the farm and all that goes with it. (3) He must have a margin of surplus in order to help maintain the school, the church, and other social institutions in the commu- 103 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION nity. No strong church or community life can be built up without the economic welfare of all the people of the community, without the voluntary gifts of the people taken from their surplus. (4) The farmer needs an income because he must be respected in his class, as other men are, on this basis of their income. Even the preachers are classed or rated on the salary they receive. And the farmer is now coming to his own as a business man and as a scien- tific proprietor, for, in the aggregate, farm- ing is the biggest business on earth, and more people are at it in our country than in any other enterprise. (5) He merits it by divine right. The Scriptures abound with the promise of re- turns from the soil to those who labor upon the land in cooperation with the Divine Hus- bandman, who sends the early and the later rain, and giveth the increase, even to an hun- dredfold. It is, therefore, the religious duty of the rural minister to help the people of the open country to better their economic con- ditions so as to receive better incomes, in order that the community may be built up through those domestic and social institu- tions which give a satisfying hfe to aU. 104 CHAPTER XVI TENANTRY— ITS EFFECTS UPON THE RURAL CHURCH AND COMMUNITY Tenantry is a system of farming by per- sons who do not own the land. It may be carried on under the eye of the landowner, who reserves the "big house" for his dwell- ing and ;rents out his farms or portions there- of to persons who pay him an annual rental in money or in products from the farm. Or in other cases tenantry consists of a system of rentals with the owner absent; this is called "absentee landlordism." The latter is the greater of the two evils in modern agriculture. It may be said, however, that in some countries like France, England, and Denmark, under a system of leasing con- trolled by the state, the tenant is so protected that he may be even better off economically than his landlord, and the tpnure is so per- manent that the church and conamunity suf- fer no harm as they do in this country under tenantry and absentee land-ownership. As 105 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION a matter of fact, tenantry is on the increase in the United States. It is also a fact that in this country the yield per acre under ten- antry is less than vinder land ownership farming. 1. The effects of tenantry upon the com- munity. Professor Carver, of Harvard, says, that "next to war, pestilence, and fam- ine, the worst thing that can happen to a rural community is absentee landlordism." (Meaning tenantry of the second class.) (1) The rent is collected and sent out of the community to be spent somewhere else, and therefore the community, like a farm that is stripped of its fodder, straw, and hay without the raising of livestock to re- plenish the soil, is left barren or depleted in economic efficiency. (2) There is no one in the neighborhood who cares, or has any permanent interest in it except for income. There is nothing spent for improvement for beauty or moral uphft. The schools and churches are poorly equipped and inadequately supported, and other agencies for social improvement are neglected. (3) There is no mutual acquaintance be- tween tenant and landlord, so that class ha- 106 TENANTRY tred is bred and evasions of all sorts are attempted to beat the landlords, and in retali- ation rent rules are imposed that make the life of the tenant unbearable. And Profes- sor Carver adds, "Unless the country church can remove this feeling of jealousy and sus- picion by the effective preaching of a gospel of brotherhood, it is difficult to see what can be done for such a neighborhood. (4) It tends to create a peasantry, or ten- ant class which has httle chance to hft itself out of a condition of dependence upon the land-owning class. Professor Vogt says, "Should tenantry continue to increase as it has in the past, there is no doubt that Amer- ican agriculture is doomed to an absentee landlordism and a peasantry as bad as has developed in any foreign country where lack of imderstanding of tendencies has permit- ted agriculture to deteriorate.'" But he adds this encouraging word: "On the other hand, if ownership operation can be preserved and the present policy of permitting the owner to benefit by increases in land values be con- tinued, then we may witness in the future a rural population, weU-to-do and really in ' See Rural Economics, Ginn & Co., Publishers, p. 329. • Rural Sociology, p. 109. D. Appleton & Co. 107 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION position, through their inteUigence, wealth, education, and leisure, to exert a dominating influence in American political and social life.'" 2. The effects of tenantry upon the land. Statistics of agricultural research show con- clusively that tenantry in this country tends to deterioration of the soil. Average loss in nitrogen of "Polouse soil" in the State of Washington is 23.1 per cent. The yield per acre is less where tenantry has superseded farming by the landowner. The reasons are not difficult to discover. ( 1 ) The land which was supporting one family, and the just claims of the community and State, must now support two families, hence the tenant must plow and work the land to death to pay the rent and keep his family. (2) Not being a landowner, and having, as usual, a short lease, he has no interest in the permanent improvement of the land, hence there is no incentive to land improve- ment. He is therefore tempted to sell off all he can, and put back upon the land as httle as possible. Even where livestock is kept in these days the farmer is tempted to sell even his stable manin-e to the rose grow- • Rural Sociology, p. 109. D. Appleton & Co. 108 TENANTRY ers, and to the truck farmers. ( Cow manure in Morris County, N. J., 1920, was selling at $10 per wagonload.) 3. The effects of tenantry upon the coun- try church. ( 1 ) It is a fact that in some of the richest farming territory in the Central West where rural churches once thrived under landown- ers' support, the country church has dechned, or has been abandoned, because the owner has moved to the college town or the city, and the tenant class has no surplus or no interest from investments with which to support the community church. ( 2 ) In many sections, as in the New Eng- land and the Central Atlantic States and also in the West Central States, an aUen population has taken to the land and the church has not been able to adjust its pro- gram to meet the changing needs of the pop- ulation, therefore it has to be abandoned, or is left in a feeble condition of existence un- der an itinerant absentee pastoral system, "the gospel is often dispensed on the rural free dehvery plan. 4. What the church can do to correct this tendency in rural life in America. (1) Cooperate with the State and federal 109 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Department of Agriculture in educating the people to the importance of better methods. (2) Preach the gospel of the sacredness of the soil, so that the people will feel a sense of guilt when they rob the soil and leave the next generation poorer in rural inheritance. (3) Adopt the social center parish system to take the place of the old circuit system, and change her methods of service to suit the changing needs of the population. (4) Make the people see the larger social value of rural life, and the importance of the farmer class to the peace and prosperity of the world as well as the nation. State, and local community. Note. — ^Read Matt. 21. 33-41 as a good text on absentee landlordism and tenantry. 110 CHAPTER XVII GOOD ROADS— THEIR RELATION TO THE RURAL COMMUNITY AND CHURCH Good roads have been used as an analogy of religious progress both by the Old-Testa- ment prophets (see Isa. 62, 10; 49. 11; 35. 8-10) and by the New-Testament writers (Matt. 7. 13-14; Matt. 11. 10; Mark 1. 2; Luke 7. 27) , and by the immortal John Bun- yan in Pilgrim's Progress. When we think back to the pioneer days in this country and contrast the roads of that period with the roads of the present we are amazed at the progress that has been made. Yet we are not satisfied with the roads as they are, and there is a great good-roads movement all over this country. There are many people of this generation, a generation of the automobile, who do not appreciate the reason why good roads have not come sooner. 1. Reasons for the retarding of the good- roads movement. ( 1 ) The people were engaged in building railroads and paving city streets. There was 111 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION no capital to be spent in good roads, save in the few "toll-roads" built and controlled by a group of capitalists. (2) The great distances to cover, and the sparsely settled conditions of the rural ter- ritory, made it practically impossible to build good roads. (3) The political units were not yet coor- dinated into sufficiently large groups socially awake to the need, to make possible State or county control of highways. The old habit of working out one's taxes on the roads, over against one's property, was responsible for the situation in some States for a period of one hundred years. (4) The modes of travel did not demand such roads as now, while the people had the railroads for quick travel to distant points. (5) The people, under our political sys- tem, would not stand for taxation sufficient for adequate road construction. They were not accustomed to legislation for a sufficient amount, or for a sufficient time to build ade- quate roads. 2. The facts which made the good roads movement a necessity. (1) The greatest fact was the coming of the automobile, a mode of quick travel. At 112 GOOD ROADS first automobiles were confined to the limits of the cities, and perhaps the "turnpikes" be- tween certain cities, but it soon became inev- itable ihat roads must be built that would sustain the auto, summer and wititer, and the demand of the citizens was for federal, or State, intervention to make it possible to have such roads. (2) The introduction of the rural free delivery and the parcels' post which made it necessary to improve the roads that the last farmhouse might have the advantages of the system. (3) The increase in land values where good roads were built created a demand in other communities for the same advantages. (4) The good roads made possible special types of agriculture at a wider radius from the centers of population; besides the element of time saving was a great inducement to the farmer to support the good-roads movement. (5) Good roads made it possible for the farmer to market his goods at any season of the year, so that he could hold back for a more favorable market, and thus also make more economic use of his labor and horse power. Good roads make hauling possible when farm work is impossible. 113 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 3. The social effects of good roads upon the people of the community. More impor- tant, perhaps, than the economic effects are the social results of good roads upon the people of the rural communities. ( 1 ) Good roads make possible the assem- bling of the people in larger groups, which results in the widening of the range of ac- quaintanceship. One of the great needs of country folk has been that of breeding up of acquaintanceship. Isolation has often led to close intermarriage of relatives in rural communities, and the resultant physiological degeneracy, due to the marriage of the tmfit, where, if wider acquaintances were possible, new strains would be introduced by exogamy and a better breed of men result. (2) Good roads have made farmers' or- ganizations possible by giving them a wider range of exchange of ideas and needs through discussion at public gatherings in the rural centers. The North Dakota political up- heaval was made possible by the automobile and good roads. (3) The consolidated school is also a so- cial result of the good-roads movement ; here the people have the advantages of better equipment and better teachers. The evils of 114 GOOD ROADS the long haul in the public bus or troUey to the rural high school or the necessity of be- ing away from home during the early years of adolescence are being met in the West by the good-roads movement and the demand by the farmers for a high school within a day's haul of every farm home. (4) Good roads have led to a better un- derstanding between the people of the coun- tryside and the towns and cities. The people of the cities can get out into the country and the people from the country can visit the towns and cities. These contacts with na- ture, the relief from the congestion of city life, and the relief from the monotony and isolation of the rural farmstead has a social- izing effect that leads to social sympathy and a larger synthesis of antagonistic groups. 4. The effects of good roads upon the rural church. ( 1 ) They have made possible the adoption of the social-center parish plan for the rural community to take the place of the outworn circuit system. The only answer we can make to the complaint that the automobile and good roads take the people away from the country churches is to make the church a more attractive place to go to. This plan 115 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION makes it possible for the rural church to com- pete with the town and city church which now draws away from the "meetinghouse." We can put up a more attractive building and support a more efficient type of pastor. (2) Good roads can be traveled both ways, so that they give a chance for the preacher to serve appointments at a wider range from the center and permit the people to come from outlying points to the center for the larger service on Sunday mornings. They also permit the workers at the center to get out to the chapels and schooUiouses to serve in religious education through the Sun- day school and evangelism through the gos- pel team work in the afternoons and eve- nings. (3) Good roads make possible a program of recreation for the young people through the church and thus keep them from the lure of the dance hall and the uncensored movies of the larger towns. The social-center par- ish is making such a program possible and will contribute to satisfactions necessary to hold the young people to the church. 5. How to get and maintain good roads. (1) We must first get the people to see the enormous waste in hauling over bad 116 GOOD ROADS roads, and the economic gain in building good roads. The cost per ton-mile of haul- ing over various types of roads has been esti- mated in some States, so that the people can readily see the saving in bonding the State for good roads, and taxing the people for a long term to pay off the debt through an interest and sinking fund. Professor Vogt says that the estimate for the United States of the average cost for ton-mile is twenty- five cents, and quoting from the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission for 1909, which estimated at that time that there were about 265,000,000 tons passing annually over coimtry roads (the amount must be double that now), he says, "If cost of haul- ing could be reduced by road improvement twelve and one half cents per ton mile, it would mean a saving to the farmers of $300,- 000,000 per year. This is equivalent to the interest at five per cent on a capitalization of $6,000,000,000. Such an income is in itself a powerful argviment for the improvement of roads, (2) The cost of maintenance as well as the cost of construction must be carefully es- timated and frankly stated. It is wise to ' Rural Sociology, D. Appleton & Co., p. 48. 117 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION estimate the cost for the various types of construction, and to show how the cost of construction and maintenance of the better types are in the long run the most economi- cal. In southern California the saving in tires alone more than pays for the cost of construction and maintenance. (3) The federal government must build the great trunk lines latitudinally and longi- tudinally across the country over interstate lines. The States must build and maintain in cooperation with the federal government the State highways branching off from the great trunk lines and connecting with other State projects. The county must be the unit for construction and maintenance of roads leading to the farmsteads. The local community must of necessity maintain its approaches to these highways. Thus we have a system of group responsi- bility, while at the same time the solidarity of the whole people in the construction and maintaining of a system of good roads for all the people by all the people. 118 CHAPTER XVIII MARKETING FARM PRODUCTS The farmers of the United States were at first engaged in mastering the problems of producing crops from the primitive soils. Later they began to study the problems of getting their goods to the markets, and the railroads were the result. But the finer sci- entific methods of when and how to get their products to the wilUng purchaser have been of more recent development. The types and methods of marketing farm products are as varied as the crops themselves in modern times. 1. Types of marketing. (1) The marketing of grains — wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, hay, straw, etc. What may be classed as feeds. (2) Dairy products, such as milk, cheese, butter, cream, etc, (3) Live stock — horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry. (4) Fruits, vegetables, perishable prod- ucts. 119 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (5) Cotton, tobacco, hemp, flax, for use in textiles. All these types require varying types of organization and methods to suit the condi- tions of each class, both from the standpoint of the shipper and of the consumer — ^the seller and the purchaser/ 2. Methods of marketing. (1) The method most familiar and the most in use because of the conditions prevail- ing in the past is that of the merchant or mid- dleman — ^the man who buys from the farmer and sells to the consumer. This merchant class has developed trans- portation methods without waste, eliminating as far as possible the element of loss by changes of temperature or other conditions of weather. The cold-storage plant and the refrigerating system were worked out by him — ^the middleman. (2) The cooperative marketing organiza- tions, such as, for example, The Farmers' Co- operative Grain Elevators, The Washington Wheat Growers' Association, also Oregon and Idaho, the cooperative creameries and * See Bulletin No. 547, United States Department of Agri- culture — Cooperative Purchasing and Marketing Organiza- tions among Farmers in the United States. 120 MARKETING FARM PRODUCTS cheese factories. The Cooperative Fruit Marketing Association, The Cotton Ex- change, The Cooperative Citrus Fruit Mar- keting Association, The Farmers' Service Exchange — or Cooperative Store, The Live Stock Association, The Pacific Northwest Non-profit Wheat Marketing Association. ( 3 ) The Parcel Post marketing, which in- volves the small producer and the limited consumer in direct business contact through the agency of the government postal system. This method involves also the knowledge of your consuming pubhc, or what is called "contact." This may be attained in a nimi- ber of ways: (a) by personal acquaintance, (&) through the acquaintance of a third per- son, (c) by advertising, (d) by personal can- vass, (e) through the post ofiice in the city or town in which the customer is sought. The postmasters in thirty -five cities of the country, imder the direction of the Post Of- fice Department, have instituted campaigns intended to foster parcel-post marketing. (A hst of these cities may be found in Far- mers' Bulletin No. 703, January 14, 1916, United States Department of Agriculture.) This method also requires a thorough knowl- edge of the postal requirements as to size, 121 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION weight, labeling, etc. Also a knowledge of the parcel-post zones and the rates per pound for each zone. It requires also knowledge of the use of containers and methods of pack- ing produce for shipment. Standards of quality, grading, appearance of produce, remittances, and business ar- rangements all are important to consider if one would make marketing by this method economical and practicable. (4) Motor transportation. This method has been greatly promoted and developed during the period of the war owing to the congestion due to transportation of war ma- terials; and of late to the strikes on the railroads. Motor transportation is of several types. (a) That of the small producer, who carries his produce in his Ford car, sometimes with a trailer, or with a special motor truck of light draft. (6) The farmer who hauls for his neighbor or the community as weU as for himself, (c) The regular local truck operators with limited capital, whose income is derived largely from their motor truck business, (e) Local automobile or truck agencies that have initiated a motor route as a side line — ^usually for advertising^ater 122 MARKETING FARM PRODUCTS becoming a permanent part of the business. (/) The city transfer companies, whose bus- iness permits them to do rural hauling, (g) The large corporations operating a fleet of trucks and commanding considerable capital. To be successful in such an enterprise one must figure out in advance a careful estimate of the operating costs — such as gasoline, oil, and grease ; drivers' wages ; depreciation ; in- terest on investment; repairs; tires; garage rent ; taxes, license, and insurance ; overhead expenses, etc. One must also determine the size of truck to be used ; body equipment ; tire equipment, etc. Also he must determine rate charges and collection and delivery arrangements — whether farm-to-farm collection, cross-roads collection, or at central assembling points. He must also consider business arrangements for stabilizing the business of the rural motor operator. For example, the standard bill of lading, insurance policies on goods carried by motor trucks. (See Bulletin No. 770, Motor Truck Transportation for Rural Dis- tricts, United States Department of Agri- culture.) (5) There is still another method of mar- keting in rural communities that is of more 123 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION recent origin in this coiintry — ^that is, the custom of displaying farm products in a booth or shed by the main road, or by dis- playing an attractive sign at the front gate advertising the products for sale within — such as "Fresh eggs," "Home-made sau- sages," "Apple-butter," etc. In favorable climates, where every day is clear and storms unknown, such as in south- ern California during the simimer, all sorts of fruits and vegetables may be had at rea- sonable prices on the roadside by the auto- ist at any time of the day. 3. What the rural church can do to pro- mote favorable marketing for the commu- nity. (1) The minister can inform himself by reading and observation, and direct his people and coach them in the matters of method and business precautions. (2) The Men's Bible Class can take up a study of the ancient customs of marketing in Bible lands, and adapt the lesson to mod- ern methods, so that the young men and boys of the community may be educated reli- giously in the science of marketing to the best advantage. (3) The church can be a center where 124 MARKETING FARM PRODUCTS the problems of the community can be dis- cussed, and worthy methods of cooperation in the various types of organization neces- sary can be promoted. (4) It can champion the rights of the farm folk when in danger of being imposed upon by the unscrupulous agents of irrespon- sible merchants, who in times past have fleeced the farmers. 125 CHAPTER XIX RURAL HEALTH A GOOD text for a sermon on "Rural Health" would be Jer. 8. 22: "Is there no bahn in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" A good text against the use of patent med- icines by rural folk is Jer. 46. 11: "In vain shalt thou use many medicines: for thou shalt not be cured." There is no subject to-day receiving more attention from the charity and social work- ers of this country than that of rvu-al health. The National Conference of Social Work in almost every annual meeting since 1914 has given a large place in the discussion of pub- lic health to the rural districts. The report of the draft boards during the war revealed to the public that the open coimtry was, after all, not so healthful a place to dwell in as we traditionally supposed. As a matter of fact, the report of the State Board of Health in New York in 1917 showed that the death 126 RURAL HEALTH rate was actually higher in rural New York than in the city of Greater New York. 1. The rural health situation. Suffi- cient research, in typical States and counties, has been carried on by the State Boards of Health, the Bin-eau of Health of the Federal Government, and by special organizations like the National Red Cross Home Service Department, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Conference of Social Work, and also the National Educational Association, to give us the facts. (1) There are certain diseases that may be classed as rural, namely, pellagra, hook- worm, malaria, typhoid, also nasal and throat defects, skin diseases due to dietary defects, and malnutrition. (2) The more remote the rural folk live from the centers of population the greater is the amount of ill health. From a careful study of Albany County, New York, in 1915 by the State Board of Health, it was discov- ered that there are twice as many cases of illness among those living in remote rural districts as there were among those hving in more accessible areas. (3) Tuberculosis is as rampant in rural regions as in the congested quarters of the 127 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION cities — because the people do not know how to ventilate their houses nor how to take care of the sick so as to prevent infection of other members of the family. (4) Accidents are very frequent in rural occupations — due to the lack of preventive measures in the use of farm machinery, such as the thresher, the mower, the fodder cut- ter, and the hay fork (lifter). Also from the dangers due to vicious animals, such as bulls, boars, horses, and mules. (5) There is a great deal of venereal dis- ease, which proves fatal often because of ig- norance of proper and timely remedies, and of the dangers of infection. (6) There is in the open coimtry an in- creasing percentage of feeble-mindedness, due to the marriage of the unfit, and the lack of custodial care of these unfortunates who are allowed to become public prostitutes or marry and produce their kind. 2. The causes of poor health in rural ter- ritory. ( 1 ) The one chief cause that covers nearly the whole subject may be stated in a word — "ignorance": ignorance as to sanitary re- quirements, submission to tradition, poor cooking, or ignorance of dietetics or proper 128 RURAL HEALTH rationing, especially during the seasons when fresh meat and fresh vegetables are lacking. (2) Unsanitary methods of sewage dis- posal — ^the outdoor privy — soil pollution. This is the chief cause of hookworm and typhoid. ( 3 ) Fhes and mosquitoes — carriers of dis- ease — are not prevented from infecting the food and the blood, especially of children — lack of screening the dwellings and steriliz- ing the breeding places of these deadly ene- mies of mankind. ( 4 ) Poor ventilation or no ventilation and uneven temperatures in the heating of the houses in winter — improper use of clothing: children and even grown-ups sit by a roar- ing hot fire in an overheated room, then go out without additional clothing and a chill with congestion of the lungs often results. No ventilation in sleeping rooms in cold weather — and the air becomes impure and freighted at times with disease germs that infest the lungs and throat. They used to have a conundrima in north- ern Wisconsin: Why is the air so pure in winter in the open country? Answer — ^Be- cause the people keep all the bad air shut up in their houses. 129 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (5) Overwork by mothers in the child- bearing period — and often with increasing bm-dens as the children grow older and make heavier demands on them for cooking, laun- diy, and dairy work. (6) Lack of proper diet — ^ninety-five per cent of farmers when asked if they had stom- ach trouble answered in the aflSrmative. This, of course, is being rapidly changed through the extension work of the Depart- ment of Domestic Science of ovu" State In- stitutions. (7) Lack of proper recreation — ^too little of real play in the life of the rural folk. People get the "set of the plow" — ^the "bend of the washtub" and the stooping postm-e of Millet's "Man with the Hoe." We need a corrective in some sort of "setting-up" exer- cises that would keep the shoulders straight, the chest out, and eyes "front." 3. Remedial agencies now at work on the problem of rural health. (1) The United States government since the experience of the Spanish-American war — ^when so many died of malaria, yellow fever, and typhoid — ^has gotten busy on the task of prevention of those diseases that are especially virulent in rural regions. Work- 130 RURAL HEALTH ing with the Rockefeller Foundation, the United States government has made surveys in a number of States, and remarkable re- sults have followed. For example: "After the siu"vey was made and constructive meas- ures introduced, the following results were recorded: In Berkeley Coimty, Virginia, during the period from April 1 to November 1, 1913, there were 249 cases of typhoid fever. During the same period in 1914 there were but 10 cases. In Dorchester County, Maryland, from September to December, 1913, there were 20 deaths from typhoid as against but 3 in the same period in 1914. In Lawrence County, Indiana, there were 14 deaths from typhoid from June to Novem- ber, 1913. During the same period in 1914 there were but 2 deaths. (2) State Boards of Health are giving special attention to rural health problems. In Pennsylvania every township having a population of less than three hundred to the square mile is included in some one of the sanitary districts xmder the State Depart- ment of Health and Quarantine. The tuber- culosis service and visiting-nurse service is 1 Report of the United States Public Health Service, 1916, p. 73; see also Vogt, Rural Sociology, D. Appleton & Co., p. 162. 131 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION available to every rural community in the commonwealth. Medical inspection of schools — ^thousands of letters are sent to parents, a weekly health review is published, lectures and moving pic- tures and traveling exhibits are conducted by the department. The State of Washington is deahng with the problem by sending a representative from the State office direct to the individual fam- ilies, Oregon is doing likewise. Indiana is conducting a rural housing sur- vey. Of ten thousand houses svu-veyed, less than two per cent were found to be sanitary under their score system. New York State has been active in the campaign against tu- berculosis; several counties employ tubercu- losis nurses. New Jersey has a hospital^ pro- vided by law for every county in the State. (3) The American Red Cross Society is also interesting itself in rural health. They have over fovu- thousand persons enrolled throughout the country as Red Cross nurses. These are available for the rural territory. The Home Service Department is now or- ganizing in every rural community a unit to look after the families of dependent sol- diers made so by the war. 132 RURAL HEALTH (4) Public hospitals for village and rural people represent a movement which prom- ises great good to the people of the open coimtry too long neglected by public and private benefactions. Some States, like New Jersey and Maryland, have made provision for all the people of the State in cases of tuberculosis. And there is every indication that the farmers and rural industrial work- ers are going to demand and get hospitals estabhshed and maintained in the country districts — equal to those in the larger centers of population. 4. What the rural church can do. (1) It can more adequately organize its ministry to the sick by introducing the medi- cally trained deaconess or nurse to carry the ministry of healing and health to the farm homes. (2) Estabhsh, by connectional aid such as the Methodist Centenary and other church world movements have made possible, hospi- tals in rural centers as the church has done in the cities by the gifts of the rich and col- lections from the churches, (3) Introduce the study of health, hy- giene, and sanitation into the work of the Sunday school, and support the movement 133 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATIO^T to establish medical inspection and advice in every rural school as well as in the towns and cities. (4) Set the example by furnishing every pastor a modern building for a parsonage with every convenience for health, and teach by example through proper ventilation of church buildings. (5) Refuse to solemnize the marriage of the feeble-minded, or alcohohcs, or otherwise physically unfit; and preach a gospel of health that will bring to repentance those who are guilty of conveying through wed- lock an infectious and ofttimes fatal social, disease. (6) Support all governmental and other agencies that have for their object the pro- motion of health and happiness by the pre- vention of all communicable diseases, by an intelligent control of all sources of infection. (7) Remember to preach the gospel of comfort — ^that tired women and discouraged men, and disappointed young people may be saved from insanity at the breaking point; and aid them by wise counsel to follow the more excellent way. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith ytmr God" (Isaiah 40. 1). 134 CHAPTER XX AN IDEAL RURAL COMMUNITY In beginning a chapter on such a subject one is reminded of what a farmer said when taken to the zoo for the first time and shown a hippopotamus. After looking it over very carefully, he declared, "There ain't no such animal." It may be that you will say that there is no such rural community, and yet I venture to assert that each of you has in mind, if you are awake to your task and have real vision, an ideal community — a mental picture of what you desire such and such a community to be. This subject is the more important to-day because of the movements, now nation-wide, to establish what are called social unit cen- ters, or community units under the direction of local community councils in great cities like New York, Cincinnati, and other cities where, under the cooperation of the Na- tional Social Unit Organization, community centers are now being organized. Further- more, during the period of the war a move- ment of natioin-wide importaace was ooo- IS5 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ducted for the service of War Production Communities by the Joint Committee on War Production Communities representing the General Wartime Commission of the Chiu-ches and the Home Missions Councils. Again we see the nation-wide survey of the Inter-Church World Movement which was designed actually to put in blue prints every Rural Community in the United States, and ultimately seek to serve those communities by allotting to the participating denominations of the churches the responsi- biUty of such service. It is therefore of vital importance that we at once seek to standardize a rural commu- nity, so to speak, or to define what an ideal rural community should be. 1. Our method. We must follow the sci- entific method if we would be practical and reach some conclusions that are of value to those who are to be the social engineers to do the work of community building. There have been written several books in recent years giving us very interesting and readable descriptions of ideal rural communities. Some of them turned out to be mostly fiction. Others were based upon observations of more or less value, many of which are good reading 136 AN IDEAL COMMUNITY and suggestive of method, but leaving us under the impression that the writers were long on constructive imagination and short on scientific observation. Our methods, then, should begin with some specific rural community where we have been and where we would like to live; and from a study of this community we should outline the factors that make such a com- mimity worth living in, and worth writing up as the ideal. It may be that our studies will lead us to several rural communities none of which has all the factors that we would put into operation in our ideal communityj but by a composite study of them all we may secure all the essential factors that would make any given community ideal, if put into operation in that community under proper leadership. 2. The factors necessary to our ideal rural community. (1) Community consciousness. The peo- ple must be awake to their responsibility as a community before they can be led to consider what is ideal. This means not only the sense of obligation to each other's needs, but the sense of obligation to the State, the nation, and humanity as a whole. 137 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (2) Good soil, or its equivalent in eco- nomic resources for making a living (the lay of the land is important) . (3) It must have a margin of income in production above the cost of existence in order to support the social enterprises with- in and without its borders. (4) It must be a community of home- owners — crural-minded folks who own and love the land, and look upon it as a gift from God in trust for the good of all the people. (5) It must be approachable by good roads and accessible to other folks, it must have a market for its productive efforts. A place where people would like to motor to in a Ford car, or drive to in a side-bar buggy, or reach on a modern trolley line, or travel to by steam railway. (6) It has some form of organization to meet every legitimate need ; it doesn't floun- der and wait, but goes after what it needs and gets it in time. ( 7 ) It looks after the health of the people : has sanitary laws and health ordinances ; pro- vides for proper medical care of its people; has some place that will serve as a hospital when need arises — ^besides a trained nurse for urgent oases. 188 AN IDEAL COMMUNITY (8) It believes in education — ^has an ade- quate school building, equipment, and teach- ing staff. Has a library and a news stand, perhaps a weekly paper or a daily, if not accessible to other larger centers. (9) It has a public forum — town meeting — ^in the assembly hall of the school, or in the community house at the center — or town hall, grange hall, or other building. (10) It believes in play, and provides wholesome play and amusement for all its people, especially the young people. Has a playground and a play hall under organ- ized intelligent supervision. (11) It provides for the worship of God — believes in religious education and has a church with facilities for both. ( 12 ) It believes in the country — ^trains its citizens in patriotism and civic virtue; is not too proud to fight, and trains its people to defend their homes, their institutions, and their country, while at the same time it loves peace and seeks to promote good will among all men. There may be other factors that are more or less important, but in my judgment these are the twelve essential planks in the plat- form of an ideal community — or the twelve 130 RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION undergirders of an enduring community structure. In the building of such an ideal commu- nity the church must in most cases assimie the leadership, and the young men in the rural ministry must have a social creed for such a community church in the open country. 3. The social creed of the country church. Here is such a creed which I offer and which you may improve. (1) We believe the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; that the domain of soil, forest, rivers, and mines is the gift of God in trust for the good of all the people, and is therefore to be administered and de- veloped in the interests of the people of the nation, whether these resources be under pri- vate or public ownership. (2) We believe in the people who till the land, who mine its wealth in minerals, who work in its forests ; and in their right to or- ganize for their mutual benefit; and for the good of those who consume the products of the land. (3) We believe the markets of the world are social facts and should not be under the control of private persons for individual or 140 AN IDEAL COMMUNITY corporate gain to the injury of the producers upon the land. (4) We believe in the principle of Chris- tian social sympathy as the coordinating fac- tor in human society that will ultimately unite the farmers, the tradesmen, and the manufacturers in a conmion brotherhood. (5) We believe the country folk are worthy of a proportionate share in the re- wards and honors due to all men who do the necessary work of the world. (6) We believe in the productivity of each community to yield future social leader- ship, and that it should be the function of each organized social enterprise in each com- munity to discover and develop men and women for such positions. (7) We believe in government of the people, by the people, for the people when the people themselves are governed in their individual lives by the spirit and teachings of Jesus Christ. (8) We believe in the cooperation of all religious forces for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, wherein dwelleth all God's children in righteousness, peace, and joy. 141 SEIfECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Bailey, L. H., The Holy Earth. Bkunner, Edmund deS., The New Coun- try Church Building. BuTTEEFiELD, Kenyon L., The Country Church and the Rural Problem. Carney, Mabel, Country Life and the Covmtry School. Carter, Thomas Nixon, Principles of Rural Economics. Felton, Ralph A., The Coimtry Church Serving the Neighborhood. FoGHT, Harold W., Rural Denmark and Its Schools. Galpin, Charles Josiah, Rural Life. GiLLETT, J. M., Constructive Rviral Soci- ology. Groves, E. R., Rin-al Problems of To-day. Hart, Joseph K., Educational Resources of Village and Rural Communities. VoGT, Paul L., Introduction to Rural Sociology. 142 INDEX Agriculture, Department of, 35; International Institute of, 40 American County life Asso- ciation, 40 Banking, no longer a profit- able private enterprise, il Carver, Professor, 31 Christian Association Move- ment, 85 Christian Associations, social function of, 83 Class Consciousness, 36 Community organization, housing, ideas of, 43; pre- cautious to be taken in, 45; a declaration of purposes of a rural, 47 Cooperation, of the rural school with farmer folk, 73; specific ways of, 76 Cooperative marketing or- ganizations, 120 Cooperative organizations, 9 1 ; distinguishing characteris- tics of, 91; where most suc- cessful, 92; tendencies in, 94 Country church, social creed of, 140 Duties, social, 20; to God and their fellow men, 37 Extension work, 76 Family, the nature and bent of the child are determined in, 62 Farm, why boys leave the, 67 Farm Bureau, the, 22 Farm income, 101; greatly in- creased during last decade, 102; reasons why the farmer should have sur- plus, 103 Farmers' National Congress, the, 38 Farmers' organizations, a great stabilizing force, 90 Farmers' organizations, so- cial functions of, 87 Farmers' Union, The, 37; its declaration of purpose, 38 Farming, intensive, 98, 100, 101; sweeping East, 101 Good roads, facts which make necessary, 112; social ef- fects of, 114; effects of, on the rural church, 115; how to get and maintain, 116 Good roads movement, rea- sons for retarding the. 111 Good roads, used as an anal- ogy, 111 Government, a law of pro- gress in, 21; intervention, 22; control of landed es- tates, 25; respect for au- thority in, 26 Grange, The, 37 Instincts, the fundamental. Kelley, O. K., The Grange founded by, 37 Labor, the third great eco- nomic fact, 32; seasonal, migrant, 65 M3 INDEX Landlordism, absentee, that has cursed Europe and Asia, Z5 Landlordism, the solution of the problem of, 25 Leadership, some practical notions of, 27; the loss of the, of the country pastor, 69 Lubin, David, 40 Marketing, methods of, 120; motor transportation, 122; parcel post, 121; types of, 119 Recreation, Rural, Commit- tee on, 54 Red Cross, the American, 132; Home Service Depart- irent, 132 Rights, individual, 20 Road building, 21 Rural church, social function of, 79 Rural community, how to organize, 42; an ideal, 135; factors necessary to an ideal, 137 Rural domain — the gift of God, 24 Rural health, good text on, 126; situation, 127; reme- dial agencies of, 130; State Boards of Health giving special attention to, 131 Rural home, -ihief function of the, 61; the disintegra- tion of the, 66 Schools, rural, 71 ; advantages of, in community building, 71; social function of, 72 Smith-Lever Act, the, 22 Social Center Parish Plan, 20 Social cleavage, 73 Social organization, b ased upon need. 19; the prin- ciples of, 29 Social values, some secure foundations of, 23 Soil, guilt attached to rob- bing of the, 24; the funda- mental fact of resource, 31; preach the gospel of the sacredness of the, 110 Sunday school, rural, social function of the, 81 Tenantry, land, the problem of, 22 Tenantry, on the increase in the United States, 106; the effects of, on the com- munity, 106; tends to create a peasantry or tenant class, 107; its ef- fects upon the land, 108; its effects on the country church, 109 Vogt, Paul L., 102 Wall Street, 25 144