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MADE BY THE
DEPARTMENT OF CHURCH AND COUNTRY LIFE
OF THE
BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN THE U. S. A.
Rev. Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D., Superintendent
156 Fifth Avenue, New York City
The Field Work of this investigation was done by Rev. T. Maxwell Morrison
- -
- - - -
- - -
-

2
A ſettitggluattia şururu
SCOPE OF THE SURVEY
This survey was the first of those now being made under the Presby-
terian Department of Church and Country Life. It was done on the
lines which have since been followed, in that a specially trained man
investigated in person the Conditions in the communities under study,
using a uniform set of inquiries and covering in his search those interests
which are bounded on the one hand by the economic experience of the
people, and on the other by their religious institutions. The field work
of this survey was done by Rev. T. Maxwell Morrison, of Bellona, N. Y.
Beginning with the locality, the economic conditions as expressed in land
ownership, wages, labor conditions and the “money crops” of the Com-
munity, and proceeding through an analysis of the population, of the
Social mind, means of Communication, class distinctions, Social organiza-
tions, the investigator approached last of all the inquiries as to moral
conditions and religious institutions, and the final inquiry had to do with
the social welfare, Conceived as a resultant of the various processes under
study.
The communities were fifty-three in number, located in eight counties
in central Pennsylvania. These communities were surveyed because in
them are located the Presbyterian churches which make up the Presby-
tery of Huntingdon. In so far the selection was arbitrary, but in the
study of these communities all churches and other institutions were
impartially considered. In the later survey work of the Department of
Church and Country Life all communities in a given area are studied;
whether they contain a Presbyterian church or not. It is to be said for
this Pennsylvania Survey that the Presbyterian Church is in Central
Pennsylvania a very representative denomination. This will appear in
the story of the survey. There is no reason to believe that the communi-
ties so selected were not typical of that part of Pennsylvania. It is possi-
ble that there are some less prosperous and more needy communities than
these.
The population studied reside almost equally in villages and in the
open country. Fifty-six per cent. of the people in the communities Sur-
veyed reside in villages; 44 per cent, reside in the open country. The
total population thus studied is 124,208 people. These are the residents
in the fifty-three communities above named.
263239
3
This Survey was undertaken as a result of a sociological survey made
in the same presbytery by the Department of Immigration by Mr. G. B.
St. John, investigator. The purpose of that investigation was the locat-
ing of immigrant or foreign-speaking people in need of religious ministry.
Mr. St. John discovered that the number of immigrants in the eight
Counties named is small and the greater concern of the churches in that
district should be for the working farmer. On his recommendation this
Survey of country life conditions was undertaken.
THE LOCATION AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
In eight counties of central Pennsylvania the Presbyterian churches
are organized as one body, the name of which is the Presbytery of Hunt-
ingdon. These counties, with the number of churches in them, are:
Huntingdon Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Juniata Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Blair Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Bedford Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Center Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Clearfield Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Mifflin Co. . . . . . . . . . . 7 Fulton Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
These 53 communities cover an area of 782 square miles. They are in
a hilly and mountainous country. Frequently the community is
located in a narrow valley, with wooded and precipitous hills about.
Coal and iron mines are second in interest to agriculture. Stone quarries
are located in Some sections. There are brick, sand and lime industries,
but the chief means of getting a living is farming. In this survey the
attention is directed to the people who live by farming and only second-
arily is the interest of the reader directed toward the workers in other
industries.
Most of the people, therefore, in this territory are Americans. The
attention of the churches has been turned very properly to the care of the
foreign-speaking people who work in the mines on the outskirts of this
region. But in quantity, when compared with the needs of the farming
population, the concerns of these immigrants are very few. They are
confined in residence to narrow bounds. They can be easily located.
The work for them may be compactly handled. The problems presented
in this survey are, however, dispersed over the whole of the eight counties.
They are earlier and older problems of life than those which involve the
immigrant as a worker. They will remain after the mining is done, and
in the end the permanent foreign element in the population will be found
on the farms.
Conservative Farming
The people who live on the farms are predominantly owners: 69 per
cent. own their farms; 31 per cent. are tenants.
The average farm is 105 acres. The small farm is 61 acres in extent,
4
on an average, and the large farm is represented in an average of 175
Q.CIeS.
The farming is practically all by tradition and only in a very few places
is there a specialization in farming. The mixed farming, which preceded
the railroad period, is narrowed down to the raising of staple crops.
Wheat and corn predominate. There is “a little dairying, fruit raising
and truck farming,” but the conditions of agriculture so far as the appli-
cation of science to the tillage of the Soil is concerned is conservative.
The methods of traditional farming are modified only by the effect of the
railroads and of the blind, economic forces which have influenced the
farmer against his will. This condition is exhibited in a Clearfield
County farm tilled by an intelligent owner, who has traveled and studied
much. His staple crop is wheat, but when he was asked, “For what is
this soil best suited?” he replied, “For apples.” Yet knowing that his
soil is best suited to apple culture he continues to raise wheat.
In some sections, especially those towns within twenty miles of State
College, the Agricultural College of the State, scientific tillage of the soil
is beginning to have a large influence. Individual farmers in all eight
counties are raising alfalfa as an experiment, and isolated instances are
observed in which the tillage of the Soil is of a modern sort. But gen-
erally the farming in these eight counties is by tradition.
Need of Market Places in Towns
The effect of this is seen in the inability of the farmer to control his own
products, or to Secure an adequate profit for his labor. The towns fur-
nish the farmer no market place in which the producer and the consumer
can meet face to face. The result is that farming for two or three miles
around every leading town is depressed. Another result is that most of
the population of these eight counties are obliged to import food. Clear-
field County, for instance, does not produce a quantity of food products
adequate to the feeding of its own people. Although an agricultural
county it imports far more than it exports. In large measure the land is
going to waste. It is significant of this condition that the poorest tillage
of the soil is within easy driving distance of the largest centers of popula-
tion. Land that is in sight of the main Street of the leading county towns
is frequently producing not enough to pay the taxes assessed upon it.
One would expect such land to be of the highest value for market garden-
ing. On the contrary, these leading towns do not live upon the country
about them. Instead of enriching the owners of farm land within two
miles of centers of populations, they impoverish these farmers by giving
them no market and by attracting their laborers away into the town.
The result is that the people in the towns pay a high price for their prod-
ucts and they have an inferior kind of food supply.
5
IHEOWNºw BHIFR
THETENANTFARMERS
AISO NEED THE GOSPEL.
-53 Comma/lºsſ/A/–

This alienation of the town from the country round about in the supply
of its physical needs corresponds to an alienation which is social and
religious in character. The villagers frequently look upon the country
people as inferior, and they do not desire to have them in their churches.
They make little or no provision for their teams in the way of sheds.
{ { e
And frequently the boast was made, "We have no farmers in our
church.” The country people know this and they are naturally alien-
ated from the village church by such remarks. People living in the
country are unwilling to go to churches in the big town. They feel
themselves attracted more to the churches of farmers than to the churches
in the villages and towns. Sometimes the farmer living within a mile
of a town or village center will go two miles or three to a church in the
country rather than one mile to a church in the town. The influence of
the town and village church is thus much weaker than it should be.
The minister of the town or village has not the influence in the country
which should normally be his. This is the penalty which the churches
in towns and small cities must pay for turning their back upon the
country and living after the ideals and the aspirations of the big cities.
Scientific Farming
But the fundamental issue is the improvement of farming. The farm-
er's indifference to scientific methods is his own worst enemy. His un-
willingness to cooperate with other farmers and his slowness to use the
results of modern science, which now constitute a body of knowledge
essential to the permanence of the country community and the stability
of the country population, are in the way of all rural development. So
long as the farmer does not work for his own interests it is in vain to
blame the city and the town for their monopoly of public attention.
In this connection the survey of these Pennsylvania churches showed
the very great value of the work of the State College. Mr. Morrison,
the investigator, worked in close cooperation with the Extension Workers
of the College, and received from them the utmost courtesy and help.
The progress of the country communities in these eight counties is
dependent upon just such work as State College is urging upon the people.
The communities are generally holding their own in population—48
per cent. are increasing and 35 per cent. are stationary. Only 17 per
cent. are decreasing in number. Of the population in the communities
surveyed, 44 per cent, belong to the old stock. These are of the families
of pioneers, “old settlers,” and they are the conservative and lasting
element in the population.
Those communities which are decreasing assign their loss of population
to “poor farming conditions,” while those communities—almost half of
|
f
7
the population surveyed—which are increasing assign their increase to
“new industires and industrial growth.” The communities which are
stationary, constituting 35 per cent. of the whole population surveyed,
assign their lack of growth to “lack of industries,” “young men going to
the cities,” “distance from railroad,” “backward condition,” “poor
schools,” “poor roads,” “frequent railroad strikes.”
Few Illiterate and Few Idle
Illiteracy is not a factor in this territory, there being only 5 per cent.
of the population who cannot read and write, so that we are dealing here
with a high American product. Whatever are the weaknesses of this
population, they must be reckoned with as a part of the American prob-
lem, for these people are the product of the public schools. All has been
done for them that American institutions can do, according to the plans
of the fathers. It should be added that they are practically all indus-
trious. The population in this territory who are “regularly industrious.”
are over 92 per cent. of the whole. Therefore, ignorance and idleness are
almost negligible in their influence upon the whole social problem under
study.
THE SOCIAL MIND
Means of Communication
Under this head the survey seeks to discover those elements of com-
mon thought and feeling, the raw materials of community action. We
find that 90 per cent. of the communities surveyed are located on at
least one railroad line, while 19 per cent of this population are served
by trolley facilities and 96 per cent. of the population under study have
rural free delivery. These means of communication are the basis of the
interaction of minds, and they are the most general avenues of common
response to common stimuli. Whatever common action there may be
in this whole population is conditioned by these factors. One other
element in this system of communication by roads should be mentioned.
Generally through this region the roads are the ordinary country road,
but the State of Pennsylvania is rapidly building stone roads, and this
region is under Swift transformation as a result of those processes. The
effect, however, of the new roads cannot yet be socially registered. It
will have much to do with increasing the common response and intensify-
ing the Social character of the population.
Social Centers
The casual meetings of a community are much more important than
the meetings by appointment. The inquiries made under this Survey as
8
AN ALFALFA FIELD
to the centers of the informal meeting among the people have secured
the information which is in the chart, “Social Centers.” This chart
shows how wholesome and innocent, on the whole, are the tendencies of
the people, since only 4 per cent of the casual meetings in the communi-
ties surveyed are in saloons. A greater percentage are found by the
investigator to meetin the Y. M. C. A., limited as are the facilities offered
by this splendid organization in the territory studied. The largest pro-
portion of casual meeting places are in stores. These people, devoted as
they are to work and to the daily round of labor, meet one another almost
exclusively in places which are the centers of work and trade. Add
together the proportions of meetings in such places and the total is 78
per cent of the whole. These casual meetings are the source of the
social experience of the people. They have more to do than any other
thing with the formation of social character, and the knitting up of ties
of acquaintanceship. At these casual meetings the forces are released
which go abroad among the people in social organization. Here the
influences of leadership are exerted and the experiences of common
feeling, intelligence and purpose. It is unfortunate that the churches in
this territory have been blind to the importance of these social movements
of the people. Practically none of this casual and unappointed meeting
of the people is under the roof of a church. This is a field wholly unculti-
vated. The communities surveyed have villages and towns as their
centers. In these village centers are churches. Would it not be possible
for these churches to furnish rooms open all through the week, especially
during the hours when farmers come to town for their “trading,” that
these farmers might become accustomed to meet at the church? The
9

SOCial Centres
53 Communities in Penn.
IS the Church
making the most of
its opportunities?

women, especially, of the farms should be offered facilities on the church
property for comfortable and restful leisure and meeting with one
another. The opening for social service is here very great and the
churches should use it.
Leadership
Another inquiry which gives striking returns in this territory is that of
leadership. In the 53 communities it was found that 22 recognize no
influential man. In 16 of the communities the leaders of public thought
are said to be ministers or other church officials. The aspect of the
whole area surveyed is that of a people without leaders. Especially in
the farming communities is leadership lacking. Indeed, the custom of
these farmers is to deny that any one is a leader. A curious social impo-
tence results from this. The church work shows the effect of it. A little
later it will appear in the retrograde character of the schools. The tradi-
tional and slack methods of farming referred to above are a result in part
of this lack of leadership. The most significant factor in it is that in 22
of the 53 communities no influential man is named. The people do not
assent to the leadership of any member of their own community, they
pride themselves in the fact that they have no “bosses” in their com-
munity, they said “We are too thoroughly American to allow any one
to boss us.” -
In 31 of the communities—slightly more than half-the influential
men were named in the following professions. The striking thing is that
in this great farming territory only one of these men so named is a farmer.
A FERTILE WALLEY
11

The professions in which these influential men are found, with the num-
bers in each profession, are as follows:
5 Ministers 2 Miners
5 Merchants 2 Bankers
4 Politicians 1 Judge
4 Educators 1 Editor
3 Railroad Superintendents 1 Doctor
2 Manufacturers 1 Farmer
The investigator was a minister, but he cannot rejoice in the fact that
at the top of this list is the ministerial profession. It would be far more
wholesome for these eight counties if the farmer were furnishing the
leadership, in a territory in which his occupation is by far the greatest of
all ways of getting a living. The effect of this lack of leadership is that
of a pyramid standing on its apex. The greatest number of people are
Subject to a very small number of the people. Merchants and politicians
and educators, railroad men and manufacturers and bankers and miners
have the district under their leadership and the farmer is silent. He is
unrepresented in the councils of this territory. It is no wonder that his
churches are weak and unprogressive. It is not a matter of surprise that
the one-room public schools are retrograde. One marvels no longer that
the farming of this region is inadequate for the production of food. So
long as farmers are not the leaders even in agriculture, one cannot expect
these eight counties to feed themselves. The first thing to be done in
this part of Pennsylvania is to equip this population of farmers with
leaders drawn from their own number and devoted to home interests.
Sources of Authority
The Sources of greatest authority in these communities are, in the
Opinion of the investigator, based on his inductive study of the communi-
ties, first, “a religious dogma”; second, “a political principle”; third in
order of importance he places a “commanding personality” and a “labor
union,” these having in his judgment equal force. These three greatest
of influences in the territory are stated by him in the following values:
Religious dogma, 66 per cent.; political principle, 18 per cent.; while
8 per cent. is the measure of commanding personality and labor union.
Here, then, is a very religious people, responding to the stimulus of dogma
in a proportion estimated at almost four times the strength of any other,
yet the churches throughout this territory are weak, and the ministers
feel that they are barely holding their own. Such a condition indicates
an inability of the people to express themselves in their own institutions.
The social character of the people is not embodied in their churches and
their social needs are not satisfied by the churches as they should be.
This is probably due to the lack of leadership and of aggressive character
12
on the part of the farmers in this region. The churches in the larger
towns and cities are the strongest churches. In these the farmer is not
the typical church member. These towns and cities were not the subject
matter of the survey, and what is said as to “the greatest authority in the
community” does not apply to them.
Class Distinctions
Careful inquiry was made in this Survey as to the number of economic
standards prevailing in these country Communities. Generally it may
be asserted that in the farming communities one standard of life prevails.
This is exhibited in the housing conditions, in the service of food, in the
costume of the people, in the employment or non-employment of house
servants, in the amusements, and in the recognition of Common social
equality among the people. The farming communities, so studied, are
one-standard communities as a rule. Many of the village centers, how-
ever, and some of the farming Communities exhibit a two-standard com-
munity. There is a social difference based on income between those who
own and those who do not, between the employer and the employed.
This difference is exhibited in two differing scales of housing, clothing,
the service of food, and, Consequently, Social connections and religious
affiliations. The most striking instances of this double economic stand-
ard is based on the ownership or tenancy of farm land. In those com-
munities in which more than 40 per cent. of the farmers are tenants a
double economic standard tends to prevail.
The effect of this upon church life is at once evident. Unfortunately,
the churches of the owners have not become the churches also of the
tenants, and throughout this region the people who do the work have in
many communities found it necessary to build churches for themselves.
It is the opinion of the investigator that the chief reason for over-
churching in communities in this part of Pennsylvania is the coming of
new people into the Community as tenants on the farms. Living on a
different economic scale, they have formed their own social relations and
have expressed this social feeling of theirs in churches of their own.
This social inequality becomes, in the larger communities, highly com-
plicated. In one of the county seats it is clearly recognized that there
are five classes of people in the Ocmmunity. There are people of “ample
means,” people who live “in comfort,” “skilled employees and trades-
men,” “unskilled laborers” and “degenerate Americans.” These five
classes of persons differ from one another, in this county seat of 5,000
people, in respect to their housing, the Service, kind and quantity of food,
clothing, methods of recreation and amusement, and they tend to differ
in their church affiliations.
13
CHURCH GROWTH AHCIE)
BY THE NUMBER OF
SOCIAL CLASSES
WHERE THERE IS WHERE THEREARE WHERE THERE ARE
I Class 2 Classes 30RMORE Clašić
Ö4% 68%
of the º of the Churches
–53 Communities in Peſſm –


Churches in Mixed Communities
A striking discovery of this survey is in the relation of these economic
standards to church growth. In the communities with one economic
standard and in those with three or more economic classes the churches
are growing. In the communities with only two social classes the
churches are having a very hard time and only a minority of them are
growing. The precise statement of this is as follows:
In communities with a single standard of economic and social life
62 per cent. of the churches are growing, 19 per cent. are stationary and
19 per cent. are losing. - -
In communities with two standards of economic and social life 34 per
cent. are growing, 34 per cent. are stationary, 32 per gent, are losing.
In communities with three or more economic standards 68 per cent.
are growing, 17 per cent. are stationary, 15 per Cent. are losing ground.
In other words, the difficulties of the country churches are those of
transition. As social life becomes more mature and class distinctions are
formed, the church has its greatest difficulty in the time of transition.
When this period of transition is passed and communities arrive through
industrial development at a clear recognition of the composite nature of
social life, the churches work with greater ease and efficiency. It isſ
obvious to one who has seen the conditions in these central counties of
Pennsylvania that the most efficient churches are those in the highly
developed and composite communities. In those alone are progressive
policies to be expected. -
The churches among farmers where there is but one class in the popu-
lation are less progressive, although they possess greater tenacity.
Among them there is no recognition of leadership. Therefore, there is
little discussion and a small degree of cooperation, especially in new
enterprises.
RECREATION
The recreative life of these communities is exhibited in the chart,
“What the People Like.” The striking thing about this chart is that
most of these recreations are wholesome, and it is a showing of the clean-
minded, serious spirit of the people when they act ingenuously, without
prompting and without Supervision. The percentage of dancing, card
playing, or other doubtful amusement, is small. The recreative life of
the people in Central Pennsylvania is in the large normally and morally
beneficial. This study of recreative life raises the question whether
churches and Schools should not in a larger measure promote, and in a
degree supervise, the recreative life of their communities.
In this connection it is of interest to record that in 58 per cent. of these
communities the social and recreational life is recorded as poor, in 27 per
15
cent.—a little more than one-fourth—it is recorded as fair; in 15 per cent.
only of the communities is a good recreational life found. Yet the
recreations which do arise in these communities are most of them innocent
and wholesome. This is indicated by the proportions of the total of
recreation in the following table:
Baseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29% Dancing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
Socials and Picnics. . . . . . . . 18% Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
Pool and Billiards. . . . . . . . . 13% Basketball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
Moving Picture Shows. . . . . 11% Football. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
Gymnasium Athletics. . . . . . 5% Tennis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3%
Concerts and Lectures. . . . . 3% Bowling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2%
Skating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3% Golf $ 1%
In this schedule the amusements which have been denounced by severe
moralists occupy a very small place. Those which are either innocent
or morally wholesome occupy a large place. Why should not the minis-
ters who have been ready to disapprove with severity stand ready in view
of this showing of the moral side of amusements in Central Pennsylvania
to approve heartily of that which is good? The writer remembers an
amusing correspondence with a minister who, after detailing a parallel
situation in his own community, in which the recreations of the com-
munity were pronounced by him to be wholesome and morally good,
declared his own position: “I am known in this community as a man
opposed to all sport.”
These recreational enterprises are closely connected with moral char-
acter. What a man does in play expresses his will. Every act is highly
voluntary. Therefore the recreation and amusement of a community
make for moral good or ill, with exceeding force. If it is neglected and
is debauched by evil influences, it tends to ruin. If the recreational life
is wholesome and is in a moderate degree supervised by good people who
bear a part in the experience of play, it is morally elevating and Con-
structive.
Recreative Powers of the Churches
The recreations which are promoted by the churches are small in
extent. Indeed, they are scarcely worthy to be named. Almost the
only purpose of the churches in this section, in the Socials and Suppers
and lectures which in small degree they provide, is the raising of money.
Exceptions should be mentioned, and yet these exceptions are individual
cases. The prevailing custom of the churches is austere prohibition
modified by commercialism. To state it otherwise, the men of these
churches do nothing to promote public recreation, but the women of the
churches, for the purpose of raising money, provide a few recreative
enterprises for profit.
16
What the People like
53 Communities in Fenn.
| Basket Ball 3%l
| Garcis 393 ||
| Dancing 393 ||
Skati 392
in cºrt S L., & Act. A re-3 •
Gymnasium. JHºhletits S. 93
Moving Picture Shows llº,
|Pool & Billiards 1396
Socials sº Picnics 18%
Base Ball 2996
Should not the Church train in
Social and Recreational as well
as Religious habits?

17
An individual instance might be named of a large town in which the
boys of the community petitioned the Presbyterian church for rooms
in which they could regularly meet, and their request was refused.
Going down to a side street these boys, the sons of Christian families,
hired a dingy room, fitted it up the best they could, and organized there a
club which they managed through one year. At the end of that time,
however, the boys were found again on the street uncared for, their
social instincts neglected and the exceptional opportunity offered to the
church unimproved.
In a county seat in Central Pennsylvania there is a standing problem
of immorality produced by the Social and economic life of the town.
Y oung men and women in almost a fixed number year by year may be
found on the street corners, flocking together and engaged in fitful enter-
prises and enjoyments, which periodically result in Scandal and occasion-
ally in the ruin of some lives and reputations. These young men and
women come from good families, people who own Small businesses or
who are employed on salaries or wages. Their homes are inadequate to
the social needs of these young people.
Yet this town has strong, aggressive and successful churches, which
are closed throughout the week. It has active and able ministers, per-
sonally attractive and immersed in the concerns of the elderly people and
of the children of the town. Because of the austere policies of these
churches the recreative needs of young people are overlooked. It would
be better to devote some of the resources of these churches to satisfying
the social needs of young people who are in peril at the dangerous age of
their lives than to devote so much time and so many resources of the
church exclusively to the needs of elderly persons who are not tempted,
or to little children who are in the public schools and the Sunday Schools.
The principle on which the life of young men and women from fourteen
to twenty years of age can be organized is the principle of recreation.
They are learning the hard lessons of organized work and by naturally
wholesome reaction they turn to organized play. In this organized play
is the great opportunity of the church to train them in moral standards
and in better customs of Social life.
Common Schools
Throughout these communities, with the exception of seven, the
Schools for the children of the farmer are one-room country schools. In
Seven communities there are consolidated Schools, or a movement for
the consolidation of the Schools is actively discussed. In one com-
munity the consolidation of Schools has been tried and the attempt aban-
doned. The one-room country School is inadequate to the needs of such
1S
a population. The struggle for subsistence is more intense than it was
twenty-five years ago. At that time there was, either in Pennsylvania
or in a Western State, land which could be easily secured, and the simple
education of the country School was, roughly speaking, adequate to pre-
pare men for life. Especially was it suited to the preparation of profes-
sional men, of whom a limited supply were needed then as now. But
the struggle for existence in Pennsylvania, especially among country
people, requires in these days a better preparation. It should be
grounded in industrial training.
This preparation must be such as to make the country boy and girl
at once efficient and happy in the country. It must above all idealize
country life. Not merely for making more money, but for living a better
life, the schools must train the children. The beginnings of this training
are in the natural Sciences. The process is very largely a process of
“industrial training.” The country boy should be taught to use his
hands, and to understand the country about him through scientific agri-
culture, manual training and a drill in the principles of mechanical and
chemical processes, which will equip him for work in any of the trades.
This must be done in the public Schools as a part of the training of all
the children. It is necessary as a preparation for country life and for
city life as well. It is far more important to train the children for the
life to which 90 per cent. of them will go than it is to train them for the
life of schoolteachers, lawyers and ministers, into which only a small
percentage at the most should go. The farmers' Sons and daughters
should be taught first of all to understand the life about them and the
values of the land with which their own family is endowed. For this
work the one room country school is inadequate. The teacher has too
many grades and too many classes. She is herself untrained in the per-
formance of the task described. She seldom stays more than a year in a
school, and this moving from place to place and constant changing of
teachers indicate the dissatisfaction both of the teachers and of the
farmers themselves with the system of education embodied in the one-
room country Schools.
Consolidation of Schools
The consolidation of schools is the best expression of the reform needed.
Not all schools can be consolidated, it is true, and some of the one-room
schools will always remain, especially in a country presenting such a
varied topography as Central Pennsylvania, but the consolidated school
embodies a new"ideal in rural education. It is a vehicle adequate to the
scientific education of the farmer, which Professor Carver insists must be
lifted to a standard so high that the farmer will be as well educated as
the country doctor, and better educated for farming than the preacher
19

Church Federation
the Next Step.
Each Square represents ſ sq mi ſo,

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This Community has
consolidated its Schools
20
and the lawyer in the country now are for religion or law. This prepara-
tion, Professor Carver declares, is necessary for the survival of the farmer
as a farmer.
Social Organization
In 13 of the 53 communities there are organizations besides the churches
which tend to control the people in competition with the church. In 11
of these 13 communities these organizations are lodges. Studies made
in other States by the Department of Church and Country Life show that
whatever the effect of the lodge on the individual church member, its
effect upon the church is not bad, for in the communities in which there
are many lodges there the churches are correspondingly strong. In the
communities where there are no lodges there, as a rule, the churches are
weak.
A striking contrast appears in these Pennsylvania communities
between the lodge and the grange. Twenty-seven of the 53 communities
have granges. In each of 5 communities there are 2 granges. The
general tendency is for communities which have a grange to have no
lodges, and for communities which have a lodge to have no grange. In
other words, the grange is living in a field by itself. It is called into
existence by forces other than those which create the lodge. Only in
a nominal Sense is the grange Secret. Its purposes are the improvement
of the community and its interests are agricultural, while the interests of
the lodge are of indifference to the farm and to its people.
Pastors’ Association
The pastors' association is organized in 18 communities in Some form.
There is a striking correlation between the pastors' association and the
growth of the churches. Most of the communities in which there is a
pastors' association have growing churches and but few of the churches
in these communities are declining. Two-thirds of the communities with
a pastors' association have growing churches, one-seventh of these
churches are standing still and one-fifth of them are declining. On the
other hand, in the communities where there is no pastors' association
one-third of the churches are growing, one-third are standing still and one-
third are declining. This is not to say that the pastors' association is a
cause of growth, but only that its presence indicates the presence of those
things which make the church to prosper.
Room for Evangelism
The survey discloses that the opportunity for evangelistic extension
of the churches in these eight counties is small. In 5 communities
there were found “unchurched” sections. By this is meant sections
21
|THEIPSir GROWTH.


( 53 communities in ſenn.)
a PaSiOIS ASSOciation
NOT
HERE HERE
32% are 21% are losing groſſd
Zosing &ound 15% are standing still
33% aſe
Standag Stiſ/ 64 $6
35% are are Grouling.
9, owing


&5 Churches S& Charches
See the Thermometer Rise!
22
unsupplied with church ministration, the standard used being this, that
there should be a church within a radius of five miles.
In 6 communities the salary of the Presbyterian minister is not
promptly paid. There is here an opportunity for the supervision of the
presbytery, and it should be exercised. In this connection it should be
said that some of the Presbyterian churches in this section should be
carefully studied by their presbytery, with a view to their abandonment.
These churches are not many in number, but they represent such vicious
principles as over-churching, competing with other churches which have
a better right in that community, and the attempt to maintain a church
where its service is no longer needed. These communities are not named
in the survey, but information as to them may be had through the
Department of Church and Country Life.
Of 124,208 people who reside in the 53 communities surveyed, 52,167
are church members, constituting 42 per cent. of the whole population.
Of these church members 69 per cent. attend church regularly. These
church goers are 29 per cent, of the whole population, so that on any
favorable Sunday morning it is reasonable to expect that one-third of
the whole population will be found in the 348 churches in the communi-
ties surveyed. *-,
The Law of Church Increase
Of these 348, 50 per cent. are growing, 26 per cent. are standing still
and 24 per cent. are declining. A careful Comparison of the growth,
arrested growth or decay of churches shows that so far as increase or
decrease of membership is a test of growth two things are true.
First, all the churches share this growth together. It is not a denomi-
national matter. The Presbyterian churches in the largest number of
cases grow only where other churches grow. The number of cases in
which the Presbyterian church has a growth by itself is small, and the
number of cases in which the Presbyterian church is retarded or is in
decay, in contrast to the growth of other churches, is Small.
In the second place, the one greatest cause of growth of churches in
this territory is the increase of the population, So far as one can judge
from the correspondence of population growth to church growth. Curi-
ously, through these churches the decrease of population is in a larger
number of cases attended with growth of the churches than a stationary
condition of the population. In a stationary Condition the largest pro-
portion of church decay is observed. That is, the increase or the decrease
of the churches is a communal experience. It corresponds to the in-
crease, but it is not forbidden by the decrease of the population, and the
most unfavorable condition for growth of the churches is a stationary
condition of the population. It should be recognized, however, that
23
numerical growth of the churches is not the only standard of growth,
although it is Commonly received as such. In such a population as this
one, in which it is obvious that the communities are already fully churched,
the numerical growth of the churches in any large degree must be had
at the loss of other churches, so that other standards of growth than the
mere increase in numbers must be accepted.
The Sunday Schools
A striking condition prevails throughout all these churches in the rela-
tion between church membership and church attendance and in the rela-
tion between church membership and Sunday School membership. If
these churches were ministering to the whole community through their
public services of worship and through their Sunday Schools, these ser-
vices of worship and these Sunday Schools would have an attendance
larger than the church membership. But generally through this part of
Pennsylvania the church membership is larger than the attendance at
the average church service. It is larger also than the Sunday School
membership. In other words, the church services and the Sunday Schools
are not, as they should be, feeders of the church membership.
Church Membership
When one remembers that these returns are secured from the ministers
themselves, and that the minister is tempted to describe his church mem-
bership in as large terms as possible, it is probable that this disproportion
is even greater than the returns will show. Careful comparison of the
communities in which there are many churches with those communities
in which there are few indicates that in the communities where a church
has the fewest competitors there its attendance is proportionately large,
and its Sunday School is proportionately larger, than in those communi-
ties where a church has the most competition. This would indicate that
Over-churching is the cause of Small Congregations and of Small Sunday
Schools in the greatest number of cases, and, consequently, in these
over-churched communities it would indicate that the church member-
ship is abnormally large. It leads one to suspect that the church mem-
bership contains much dead wood that ought to be cut out.
The whole study, however, of the comparative size of church mem-
bership, of church audiences and of Sunday Schools leaves the impression
on the mind of the investigator that the Sunday Schools and the church
audiences should not be the only feeders of the church. These churches,
in order to invade the unchurched elements of the population, should
have other methods of recruiting for church membership than these,
because it is fair to presume that the faithfulness of the ministers and
24
- º º º º
UPPER TUSCARORA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
church workers to the services of worship and to the Sunday School
meetings is at the maximum. We cannot expect more to be done for
preaching and Sunday School teaching than is now done, yet both of
these fall short in reaching the outside population. The suggestion is
allowable, therefore, that Henry Wallace's statement is true in this part
of Pennsylvania, as in Iowa: “What the farmer needs is organization.”
The church now should not merely by preaching and by teaching the
Bible, but by organizing country people, bring them into religious and
gospel associations. Especially is this true with the young people and
tenant farmers and working people.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The first need of Huntingdon Presbytery is supervision. The churches
of the presbytery have experienced in common the effect of the same
forces. Their skill and their weakness is, broadly speaking, uniform.
The same identical conditions prevail, differing in measure in slight
degree throughout the whole presbytery. The same needs appear,
growing out of these conditions, and the common policy should be the
presbytery's response to these uniform general conditions.
The need of supervision is especially evident when one recognizes that
these conditions are new, arising since the foundation of these churches,
and a policy of reconstruction can only be carried out by a single agent,
acting in obedience to a central authority. It is useless forever to
inspect and to study conditions. The presbytery should rise and devote
its energies to the reconstruction of its weaker churches and to the
25


|67 COIſlry (liſtſ;
(in S Counties in Penn.)
7//a/ as
to be done?
a Charge
zzeeded /
Is this enough!


strengthening of the weak points in all its churches, for in the best of
the congregations of the presbytery the same weaknesses appear which
are undermining the church and threatening its destruction in the weaker
parishes. There is no common plan throughout the presbytery except
evangelism, and needful as this policy is, its range of efficiency is limited.
With a diminishing population in some sections and a stationary popula-
tion in very many, the service rendered by the evangelist is practically
confined to the conversion of the young and the occasional attack upon
large bodies of the unconverted, when unusual conditions of feeling
justify it. For the presbytery to be committed to the policy of evangel-
ism as its main work in supervision must be the entertaining of the hope
that adherents of other churches shall be frequently induced to join the
Presbyterian Church. If we believe in the principle of federation, we
cannot commit ourselves forever to evangelism as the main duty of our
churches.
Federation of Churches
The common policy of the presbytery must be dominated by the
recognition of the fact that the Presbyterian churches have the same
experience in increase and decrease of membership with other Christian
churches in these eight counties. As a rule the increase or decrease of
churches is not denominational, but communal, and it has a fixed relation
to the increase or decrease of the population. This fact indicates that
the Presbyterian churches will grow only as the Kingdom of God extends
its bounds. The churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, should
act together. Federations should exist in every one of the counties under
study. They should have as their first great purpose the evangelization
of the unconverted.
This task is probably a seasonal work. There is a time of harvest in
every year, and at the time most suitable the churches should together
present the claims of Christ to the individual soul. The margin of
evangelism should be distinctly held in mind. Those who may be con-
verted are the young, the immigrant, the newcomer in the community—
either the workingman or tenant farmer—and beyond these there are
very few for whom evangelism offers promise. Other methods must be
used to extend the service of the church among those accustomed to its
offers and who have found a reason for declining them.
Federation is also necessary for moral reform. This has been the
occasion of federating many churches already in community and county
unions. The protection of the young and of those who labor in the
community from commercial exploitation on the part of the saloon, the
moving picture show, the County fair, and other enterprises which make
27
The accompanying chart shows a portion of Center County, Pennsylvania, in which there are 16 churches within a circle with a radius of three miles.
There are 24 churches within the larger circle having a radius of four miles. Several other churches are in close proximity, making in all the 29 churches
shown in this sparsely settled community.

5.
a profit of debauching the marginal people of the Community, is a Com-
mon duty of all the churches.
Other needs of the population under study, which will be mehtioned
later, should be satisfied by the federations to be formed. The plan of
federating the churches by counties has been used in Mifflin County, as
the best suited to the conditions in this section, and is heartily com-
mended. The county is the natural civil division, corresponding to
none of the ecclesiastical divisions, and, therefore, impartial. It brings
the churches into definite relation to the civil authorities and in Pennsyl-
vania the population divisions of which the people are conscious corres-
pond, broadly speaking, to the counties. For the churches to act by
counties has the effect of impressing upon the people the claims of the
Kingdom of God.
Recreation
The most general need of these churches is a policy of service to the
young and to those who work. The future of the community depends
upon them. They are unattached through ownership of property. They
are under constraint to work systematically, either in School or for wages.
They have not the settled purpose, nor have they the obligations, and
they are not under the compulsion which characterizes owners of land.
Men who are responsible for businesses and men and women who have
households react differently upon life from those who are free to change
and to move. Young people and working people who have to be taught
to work for a living are characterized generally by a desire for play.
This is not wicked. The amusements and recreations of the young
people throughout these eight counties are very largely innocent. With-
out supervision, unguided by the ministers or by the moralists, these
marginal people of the communities have sought wholesome and at the
worst neutral recreations. The proportion of doubtful amusements dis-
covered in these communities is very small. This offers an opportunity
to the ministers, school teachers, Sunday School superintendents and
the leaders of the communities generally to render a great service in the
moral upbuilding of young people and all those who work.
In every community there should be a play center and a place for the
spending of leisure hours, suitable to the needs of those who in that com-
munity actually do require such a place of meeting. This need not be a
gymnasium. Expensive apparatus is not required. The service needed
is a helpful center of meeting for those who work. It need not always
be in the church building, though it had better be there in the interest
of the church itself. These buildings stand closed throughout the week.
Large monies are invested in them. Speaking in practical terms, they
belong to the communities which have built them. These communities
29
have a sore place in the need of their marginal people to gather in good
associations under right auspices, and to knit up kindly friendships and
affections for the good of the whole community. In some way or other
they will find these centers of association. The churches have every
motive to win to themselves the influence which now is wasted, through
a policy of recreation.
Two suggestions are made:
First-That a social center be provided, to be open at the time of most
frequent association. This time will vary with the community itself,
but whenever the church can offer a convenient meeting for considerable
numbers of the people of the community, it ought to do so.
Second-Each recreation of the people of the community should be
supervised. This means first of all that the people in the churches should
contribute generously to satisfy the needs of the young people of the
community, if they desire a place and facilities for recreation. In a large
measure the young people themselves should decide what facilities are
needed, but the church should put her backing and her influence behind
the movement to satisfy those needs.
Supervision involves, in the second place, a constant association of
the best people in the town with the young people, and with the workers,
in their recreative life. The minister is none too good for this service.
It is the best evangelism throughout all the days of the year in which he
can engage. The mingling of his serious purpose and the presence of
his kind heart will accomplish wonders in the recreative life of the young
people of the community. Those with whom he mingles will join his
church, or some of the churches of the town. His life in these associa-
A COMMUNITY SOCIAL GATHERING

30
tions will be eloquent of all the good to which he has consecrated himself.
If he demonstrates to the young people in their hours of lesiure that he is
a good man, and that he has seen the goodness of God, they will believe
in God, without persuasion and without rhetoric. Indeed, they will
endure a great deal of bad rhetoric and forgive a vast amount of uncon-
vincing argument in order to testify to the truth which he has taught
them by his life. -
The main reason for such a policy of recreation is this: In the closely
organized Social life of modern times play occupies a vastly larger place
than it ever did before. Twenty-five years ago higher education had
the value for well-to-do people which recreation has today for working
people. Most young people do not now desire to go to college. They
do, earnestly and honestly, desire social life and innocent, well-organized
amusement. In this they are acting by right motives and with a clean
and worthy purpose. They already do exclude from their recreations
the immoral and the dishonorable in a very large degree. But there is
needed the constructive supervision which shall build up from honest
purpose a general moral betterment in which the whole community shall
share. -
The great danger in our time is that those who are without ownership
of land, and whose home ties are diminishing, will degenerate morally
under the pressure of hard work and weak motive. The greatest motives
for right action have been ownership of property, home life and fixed
social connections. These are not available for all as they once were.
Fifty years ago young men and women married at an early age. It was
easy for the newly formed household to come into possession of land and
Social relations were permanent, because communication between locali-
ties was not as good as now it is. But now land is hard to Secure, mar-
riage is postponed and the facility of Communication keeps the young
people and the working people of country communities in motion. The
duty of the church and School is to organize them, to create kindly social
relations and to give them a motive for work, for industry and for steady
habits. In those earlier days this was the task of the family. Now it is
the duty of the community. In performing that duty the community
leaders have no better means at hand than the use of the leisure hours
and the desire for recreation.
Better Farming
The churches of this presbytery are dependent for their future upon
the improvement of the standards of farming throughout these eight
counties. The present methods of tilling the Soil are a losing process.
Except where a farmer of individual intelligence is fighting hard against
the depressing conditions, and except where a section is under the direct
31
HO（In）HO N v1 （1:1）LAºiSºrnia Giºiºtiati （1，1，181 gihu,

32
influence of the extension work of the State College, the farmers are the
slaves of tradition and of evil market conditions. These conditions are
general. Individual farmers who do scientific work are unable to free
themselves from the general conditions. There is need of a new intelli-
gence on this whole question, both as to “better farming” and “better
business.” The churches are already committed to a policy of “better
living,” but it is impossible for the farmer to be a better man unless he
has what belongs to him in the just reward for his labor. The ministers
should understand the market conditions and they should advocate those
specific reforms in public and in private which will lift the farmer out of
his present depression, give him hope and dignify his work. The reason
for this is that these Protestant churches are dependent for their perma-
nence upon a better condition of economic and Social life than now
prevails in these eight counties. The Sources of all supply of members,
of officers and of ministers for Protestant churches in this section is, first
of all, the country home, but the farming now characteristic of this
region is weakening the rural household, discouraging the parents and
dispersing the young people among the cities and towns and along the
great railway lines.
This task cannot be committed to the colleges of agriculture and to
the farmers’ institute. Country people are dogmatic and emotional.
They do not believe in theorists and they distrust outsiders, but they do
have confidence in the church and they hear the minister with more
attention than any other local leader. The churches of this region
possess a larger share in leadership than any other organization possesses.
If it be true, as we have insisted, that the future of these churches is
bound up in “better farming,” then for Self-preservation the churches
ought to advocate in their communities the doctrine which is taught at
the State College.
In practical ways this doctrine of “better farming” will be taught
throughout the churches by bringing in the outside lecturers, by assem-
bling the farmers frequently and regularly, and by Securing the discussion
of local industry under the guidance of experts who are themselves practi-
cal men. It is the business of the church to widen the influence of suc-
cessful farmers, of Scholars and investigators, who know the nature of the
soil and the possibilities of the market. The church should be the
center of the best influence in favor of the improvement of the soil.
There should be no doubt in the mind of any one in the community as to
the stand taken by the church in this matter. -
Some Pennsylvania churches are accomplishing this end through
organizations of farmers. The grange very generally serves as an organi-
zation unto this end, but even the grange, excellent as it is, falls short of
33
SILO AND BARN OF A MODERN FARMER
the influence which the church can have in a population so religious, so
dogmatic and so emotional as the population of these eight counties.
In many communities there is needed an open and public-spirited organi-
aztion interested in the improvement of the farming, in better markets
and in justice to the farmer. Such an organization will in the end have
great influence, because it is the opinion of every teacher of scientific
agriculture that only through the example of progressive farmers living
in the community can the case be won for the improved tillage of the soil.
A Crusade for Town Markets
A better movement could not be inaugurated than a public agitation
for market places in the large towns of these eight counties. There is a
reason why the churches in these towns have small influence in the
country. It is that these towns do not feed upon the country round
about. Their people do not trade with the farmers round about, and
economic differences beget religious differences. The people of the
country do not find leadership among the people in the towns. The
churches in the towns do not minister to the people in the country as
they should.
Aside from this reason, in their own welfare the churches should advo-
cate town markets, in the interest of the working people. The high cost
of living is pressing hard upon the mechanic in the town and the farmer
in the country. They have to pay too much for all their purchases. This
high cost of living will be greatly reduced if the farmer can sell direct to
the consumer. The farmer will then get a better price, he will handle

34
his business himself and his acquaintance, his friendships and his Social
ties will be extended in the town.
Moreover, a town market is the best way to provide cheap food and
good food for the people in the town. The city of Des Moines, Iowa,
through such a market has in the past year reduced the cost of farm
produce from 25 to 50 per cent. It follows that this movement for better
markets should begin in the towns and small cities. It should be a part
of their policy. Indeed, such a movement is in operation in many
Sections. It already has met opposition, and it has secured enthusiastic
Support. Speaking generally, it would be a large gain to the people of
the town to provide a public market where they could purchase food-
stuffs in season direct from the producer.
The gain to the people of the town would be a moral and spiritual one.
Their interest in the country and responsibility for the country would be
greatly increased. Overmatching the increased profits secured by every
interest of the town would be the larger opportunities for Social service
in the country round about. Something must be done to cultivate the
belt of unproductive land which lies around almost every growing and
populous center in these eight counties, and Something must be done to
organize the people of town and country in more effective relations with
one another. They belong together, but today they live apart. The
fundamental basis of their union should be the fundamental industry of
these eight counties, which is farming.
But Christian people must know that this is a religious imperative.
It is not a thing that can be put aside easily, as a worthy purpose from
which a man can excuse himself. It is imperative, not only because the
Protestant church will fail, if her members do not farm better than they
now do, but it is imperative because the needs of the whole country lay a
duty upon the farmer—the duty, namely, of producing abundance of
raw material, a duty of thrift, of industry and of cooperative action.
Unless the church favor these things the farmer will excuse himself from
these obligations. If the church makes “better farming” a part of her
gospel the case will be won. If she does not, her own case will be lost.
“The church which realizes that its spirituality must meet the practical
test of productivity, that its members must be made better farmers and
better citizens generally by reason of their spirituality; that the more
religious they are the better crops they will grow, the better stock they
will keep, the better care they will give it, and the better neighbors they
will be, is the church which will deserve to succeed and in the end will
succeed.” These words of Professor Carver are a challenge to us to
make the Christian farmer a better farmer and to embody his Chris-
tianity in a productive, Sober, cooperative life.
35
The Problem of
53 Rural Communities in Penn
124, 2CS
Fopulation
52, 1GS7
Church Members 42%
72O41
Members of no church
58%
3G 5S5
Actuallyattending church
2S).9%
87. G13
Not there 71%
See the Shadow Lengthen!


36
Leadership
The general impression of the investigator in visiting the farming
communities of these eight counties is that the lack of leadership amounts
almost to a social disease. In no other field of modern living are men so
lacking in leaders from their own number as the farmers are. In these
country churches men think themselves to be equal and insist on pre-
serving the ideal of equality at every cost. No ideal was ever more
expensive to the community and to the individual. When any good
thing is proposed and approved by a company of farmers in these
churches, the problem of securing a leader for it is generally impossible
of Solution. It is not that strong men and capable are lacking, but what
one man starts to do another man at once forbids. It seems to be the
duty of Some man in every parish to head off any man who starts any-
thing. There are men and women in these churches whose one task is
to forbid leadership, and there are too few who are brave enough to dare
their opposition.
Curiously, those communities in which there is a mixed industry are
more progressive than those devoted to farming alone. The conflict of
mining with agriculture has some advantages. It brings into daily con-
tact men whose businesses are different. It provokes discussion, conflict,
criticism and, in the end, a broader Common Sense. In spite of all its
disadvantages, therefore, the coming of a mining plant into a farming
community has much to Commend it.
The way to train leaders is to do things. These communities need
enterprises carried on by the churches, under their auspices, for the pro-
ducing of leaders and training them in their task. It does not much mat-
ter what these enterprises are, So long as they do Somebody some good.
In a Pennsylvania town the roadside has been improved between the
gutter and the fence by the building of a side path broad enough for two
persons to walk on and extending far out into the country from the village.
A farmer living on these roads was asked how the side path was con-
structed, and he replied, with a smile of pleasant remembrance: “Oh, the
farmers just got together and made a frolic and built them.” Every
such enterprise in the country is a frolic. So long as every man labors
for himself there will be no leadership, but whenever something for the
good of all is done leaders will begin to serve the people and to command
them. Especially in the country the word of the Master is true that
“He that is greatest among you shall be he that serveth.” Since leader-
ship can be generated only by Service, it should be the task of the
Christian church in the community to train men in leadership.
It is an avowed purpose of the rural Y. M. C. A. “County Work
Department” to train leaders in the country. This department of the
37
Young Men's Christian Association has just been organized in Pennsyl-
vania. A State Secretary and a limited number of county secretaries
have entered upon their duties since this investigation was begun. We
believe that in some communities the County Work would render a very
great Service. Dean L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, says that the County Work
can render in Some places a service which the church is unable to render.
For instance, in communities in which the church has fallen into the
hands of people whose invested interest is opposed to some needed
reform, the minister is not free to act in favor of that reform, because
his support is locally Secured. In these places the county secretary,
who secures his support from other communities, ought to be an efficient
leader in the reform needed. We commend to ministers and church
people of these eight counties this service which the county Y. M. C. A.
can render. The State secretary is W. J. Campbell, Calder Building,
Harrisburg. His advice will be freely given to those who desire it, and
in some counties the work of the Y. M. C. A. offers a solution of the local
problem.
There are communities so well furnished with resources and led by
men so capable that this work of the county Y. M. C. A. is not needed.
We understand that the Association does not intend to duplicate existing
agencies, but its work is so excellent in those communities for which it is
fitted that it ought to have the support of all churches throughout the
State in doing that needed work for which the churches themselves are
Sometimes unprepared. -
The Laymen’s Movement, as it is called, which expresses itself in the
formation of brotherhoods, and sometimes consists of mere serving of
Suppers and hearing of Speakers, offers in our judgment a great opening
for Service. Especially in the country churches the facilities are at hand
for bringing the men together and the need of it is very great. The
farmers like to eat together for two good reasons. One is that the
farmer raises the food himself and he is something of an expert in the
consumption of it. The other is that he has been used to good cooking,
especially in Pennsylvania. These are resources in the creation of lead-
ers which the country church should not neglect, but the use of them
should be for a purpose. Get the men of the community together, not
merely the Presbyterian men, but as far as possible all the men of the
community, and present to them the great enterprises which the minister
alone can advance. Do not teach these men to make speeches. Preach-
ing is well enough done now. But set them at work in the interest of
the productive life of the community. Make them discuss “better
farming.” Engage their interest in moral reform, definitely presented.
Bring them into association with the leaders of the county, and, where
38
OLD CARDING MILL IN MIFFLIN COUNTY
possible, of the State. Teach them to respect the history of the locality.
Train them in doing things that are worth while. Give them some ex-
perience of the carrying of public responsibility. Leaders are not made
by talking to men, but leaders are born of action and a very small amount
of talk. It is the minister's business to talk, and through public speech
to translate the situations which confront his people into adequate ideals
and into suitable motives; but leadership will be born of common action
and of cooperative purpose.
Many of these common purposes are missionary in the truest sense of
the word. The raising of money for the Christianizing of foreign lands
has a great place in the heart of the men of the churches. Nothing will
broaden the interest of men in foreign missions so much as to give it them
to do. When it ceases to be a mere matter of talk by the preacher and
essays by the women and becomes an enterprise carried on by the men,
it will double the number of its supporters.
But what we call social service, the ministry of a group of persons to
their community, is also a proper field of enterprise for leaders, and here
the best leadership should be produced.
The other enterprise for the superintendent of the presbytery is the
rectifying of the bounds. Some of the churches in the presbytery
should be studied closely, because of their weakness and inability to
meet the issues with which they are confronted. They do not pay their
pastors promptly. They do not respond in the natural way to the
general purposes of the presbytery. These churches are in great need
of the combined authority and help of the presbytery. It is possible that
some of them should be given up, but as to this no outside advice should
39

be taken. The presbytery ought to make its own investigation and act
on its own information. There are not more than six places within the
bounds of these communities where new work can be started. These
situations also ought to be thoroughly studied, and if the way is open
for presbytery's work the opportunity should be seized at once. On the
whole, this rectifying of the bounds of the presbytery extension in one
quarter and realignment in another is but a minor part, but a most
essential part of the presbytery's superintendent. His main function
should be in the reconstruction of the work throughout the whole pres-
bytery, as it affects the farmer and the immigrant, upon whom the
recent study of the work of the presbytery was based. Wherever the
farmer and the countryman is the characteristic member of the churches
there is need of reconstruction of the presbytery's work to his needs, and
in the course of years the farmer is to be the characteristic church member
of this presbytery. With him the presbytery as a whole will succeed
or will fail. His churches are so far apart, their needs so uniform in
stronger and in weaker churches, that the whole time of a superintendent
could be devoted to the reconstruction of the policy of these churches in
social service to the people who till the soil.
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