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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30563-8.txt b/30563-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ee4574 --- /dev/null +++ b/30563-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6290 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of the Country Community, by +Warren H. Wilson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution of the Country Community + A Study in Religious Sociology + +Author: Warren H. Wilson + +Release Date: November 29, 2009 [EBook #30563] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Carla Foust, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + +Transcriber's note + + +Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer +errors have been changed and are listed at the end. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. + + + + +THE EVOLUTION OF THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY + + + + + THE EVOLUTION OF + + THE COUNTRY + + COMMUNITY + + A STUDY IN RELIGIOUS SOCIOLOGY + + BY + + WARREN H. WILSON + + + + THE PILGRIM PRESS + BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO + + + + + _Copyright, 1912_, + BY LUTHER H. CARY + + + THE PILGRIM PRESS + BOSTON + + + + + TO + + MISS ANNA B. TAFT + + WHO FOUND THE WAY OF + + RURAL LEADERSHIP + + IN SERVICE ON THE NEGLECTED BORDERS OF + + NEW ENGLAND TOWNS + + + + +PREFACE + + +The significance of the most significant things is rarely seized at the +moment of their appearance. Years or generations afterwards hindsight +discovers what foresight could not see. + +It is possible, I fear it is even probable, that earnest and intelligent +leaders of organized religious activity, like thousands of the rank and +file in parish work, will not immediately see the bearings and realize +the full importance of the ideas and the purposes that are clearly set +forth in this new and original book by my friend and sometime student, +Dr. Warren H. Wilson. That fact will in no wise prevent or even delay +the work which these ideas and purposes are mapping out and pushing to +realization. + +The Protestant churches have completed one full and rounded period of +their existence. The age of theology in which they played a conspicuous +part has passed away, never to return. The world has entered into the +full swing of the age of science and practical achievement. What the +work, the usefulness, and the destiny of the Protestant churches shall +henceforth be will depend entirely upon their own vision, their common +sense, and their adaptability to a new order of things. Embodying as +they do resources, organization, the devotion and the energy of earnest +minds, they are in a position to achieve results of wellnigh +incalculable value if they apply themselves diligently and wisely to the +task of holding communities and individuals up to the high standard of +that "Good Life" which the most gifted social philosopher of all ages +told us, more than two thousand years ago, is the object for which +social activities and institutions exist. + +In one vast field of our social territory the problem of maintaining the +good life has become peculiar in its conditions and difficult in the +extreme. The rural community has suffered in nearly every imaginable way +from the rapid and rather crude development of our industrial +civilization. The emigration of strong, ambitious men to the towns, the +substitution of alien labor for the young and sturdy members of the +large American families of other days, the declining birth rate and the +disintegration of a hearty and cheerful neighborhood life, all have +worked together to create a problem of the rural neighborhood, the +country school and the country church unique in its difficulties, +sometimes in its discouragements. + +To deal with this problem two things are undeniably necessary. There +must be a thorough examination of it, a complete analysis and mastery of +its factors and conditions. The social survey has become as imperative +for the country pastor as the geological survey is for the mining +engineer. And when the facts and conditions are known, the church must +resolutely set about the task of dealing with them in the practical +spirit of a practical age, without too much attention to the traditions +and the handicaps of an age that has gone by. + +It would not be possible, I think, to present these two aspects of the +problem of the country parish with more of first hand knowledge, or with +more of the wisdom that is born of sympathy and reverence for all that +is good in both the past and the present than the reader will find in +Dr. Wilson's pages. I welcome and commend this book as a fine product of +studies and labors at once scientific and practical. + + FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION IX + + I THE PIONEER 1 + + II THE LAND FARMER 18 + + III THE EXPLOITER 32 + + IV THE HUSBANDMAN 48 + + V EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITIES 62 + + VI GETTING A LIVING 79 + + VII THE COMMUNITY 91 + + VIII THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY 108 + + IX NEWCOMERS IN THE COMMUNITY 123 + + X CO-OPERATION 142 + + XI COMMON SCHOOLS 158 + + XII RURAL MORALITY 171 + + XIII RECREATION 189 + + XIV COMMON WORSHIP 208 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The church and the school are the eyes of the country community. They +serve during the early development of the community as means of +intelligence and help to develop the social consciousness, as well as to +connect the life within the community with the world outside. They +express intelligence and feeling. But when the community has come to +middle life, even though it be normally developing, the eyes fail. They +are infallible registers of the coming of mature years. At this time +they need a special treatment. + +Like the eyes, the country church and country school register the health +of the whole organism. Whatever affects the community affects the church +and the school. The changes which have come over the face of social life +in the country record themselves in the church and the school. These +institutions register the transformations in social life, they indicate +health and they give warning of decay. In a few instances the church or +school require the attention of the expert even in the infancy of the +community, just as the eyes of a child sometimes need the oculist, but +with normal growth the expert is called in for problems which have to +do with maturity. + +In these chapters the center of attention will be the church, regarded +as an institution for building and organizing country life. It is not +the thought of the writer that the church be treated in ecclesiastical +terms. It is rather as a register of the well-being of the community +that the church is here studied. The condition of the church is regarded +as an index of the social and economic condition of the people. The +sources of religion are believed by the writer to be in the vital +experiences of the people themselves. In the process of religious +experience the church, the Bible, the ministry and other religious +methods and organizations are means of disciplining the forces of +religion, but they are not the sources of religion. + +The church in the country above all other institutions should see what +concerns country people as a whole. If vision be not given to the +church, country people will suffer. The Christian churches are rich in +the experience of country people. The Bible is written about a "Holy +Land." The exhortations of Scripture, especially of the Old Testament, +are devoted to constructive sociology, the building and organizing of an +agricultural people in an Asiatic country. Many of the problems are +oriental, but some of them are precisely the same as are today agitating +the American farmer. Religion is the highest valuation set upon life, +and the country church should have a vision of the present meaning as +well as the future development of country life in America. + +The country church ought to inspire. It is the business of other +agencies, and particularly of the schools and colleges, to impart +practical and economic aims. But these will not satisfy country people. +No section of modern life is so dependent upon idealism as are the +people who live in the country. Mere cash prosperity puts an end to +residence in most country communities. Commercial success leads toward +the city. The religious leaders alone have the duty of inspiring country +people with ideals higher than the commercial. It remains for the church +in particular to inspire with social idealism. Education seems +hopelessly individualistic. The schoolmaster can see only personalities +to be developed. It remains for the preacher to develop a kingdom and a +commonwealth. His ideals have been those of an organized society. The +tradition which he inherits from the past is saturated with family, +tribal and national remembrances. His exhortations for the future look +to organized social life in the world to come. He should know how to +construct ideals out of modern life, which are organic and social. + +Beyond these two duties I am not sure that the churches in the country +have exceptional function. The writer is not a teacher, and what is said +in this book about the country school is said solely because of the +dependence of all else upon this institution. The patient, detailed and +extensively constructive work in the country must be done by the +educator. It is well for the church to recognize its limits, and to +magnify its own function within them. Vision and inspiration are the +duty of religious leaders. The application of these in a variety of ways +to the generations of young people in the country is an educational task +which the church can do only in part. + +But the great necessity of arousing the church at the present time to +its duty as a builder of communities in the country is this. In all +parts of the United States country life is furnished with churches. +Perhaps not in sufficient degree in some localities, but in general the +task of religious organization is done. These religious societies hold +the key to the problem of country life. If they oppose modern socialized +ideals in the country, these ideals cannot penetrate the country. If the +church undertake constructive social service in the country, the task +will be done. The church can oppose effectively; it can support +efficiently. This situation lays a vast responsibility upon all +Christian churches, especially upon those that have an educated +ministry; for the future development of the country community as a good +place in which to live depends upon the country church. + +This is not the place to discuss whether a population can be improved +and whether a community can be saved. The pages that are to follow will +discuss these questions. It is the writer's belief that a population can +be improved by social service, that the community is the unit in which +such service should be rendered in the country, and that by the vision +and inspiration of the church in the country, this service is +conditioned. He believes with those who are leading in the service among +the poor in the great cities that the time has come when we have +sufficient intelligence to understand the life of country people, in +order to deal with the causes of human action; we have sufficient +resources wherewith to endow the needed agencies for the reconstruction +of country life; and we have a sufficient devotion among men of +intelligence and of means to direct this constructive social service +toward the entire well-being of country people and of the whole +commonwealth. + +The writer is indebted for help in the preparation of this book to Miss +Florence M. Lane, Miss Martha Wilson and to Miss Anna B. Taft, without +whose assistance and criticism the chapters could not have been prepared +and without whose encouragement they would not have been undertaken; +also to his teachers in Columbia University, especially Professors +Franklin H. Giddings and John Bates Clark whose teachings in the Social +Sciences furnish the beginning of a new method in investigating +religious experiences. + +NEW YORK, July, 1912. + + + + +EVOLUTION OF THE COMMUNITY + +I + +THE PIONEER + + +The earliest settlers of the American wilderness had a struggle very +different from our own, who live in the twentieth century. Their +economic experience determined their character. They appear to us at +this distance to have common characteristics, habits and reactions upon +life; in which they differ from all who in easier times follow them. +They have more in common with one another than they have in common with +us. They differ less from one another than they differ from the modern +countryman. The pioneer life produced the pioneer type. + +To this type all their ways of life correspond. They hunted, fought, +dressed, traded, worshipped in their own way. Their houses, churches, +stores and schools were built, not as they would prefer, but as the +necessities of their life required. Their communities were pioneer +communities: their religious habits were suitable to frontier +experience. Modern men would find much to condemn in their ways: and +they would find our typical reactions surprising, even wicked. But each +conforms to type, and obeys economic necessity. + +There have been four economic types in American agriculture. These have +succeeded one another as the rural economy has gone through successive +transformations. They have been the pioneer, the land farmer, the +exploiter and the husbandman. Prof. J. B. Ross of Lafayette, Ind., has +clearly stated[1] the periods by which these types are separated from +one another. It remains for us to consider the communities and the +churches which have taken form in accordance with these successive +types. + +Prof. Ross has spoken only of the Middle West. With a slight +modification, the same might be said of the Eastern States, because the +rural economy of the Middle West is inherited from the East. His +statement made of this succession of economic types should be quoted in +full: + +"The agrarian occupation of the Middle West divides itself into three +periods. The first, which extends from the beginnings of immigration to +about the year 1835, is of significance chiefly because of the type of +immigrants who preempted the soil and the nature of their occupancy. The +second period, extending from 1835 to 1890, had as its chief objective +the enrichment of the group life. It was the period in which large +houses and commodious barns were erected, and in which the church and +the school were the centers of social activity. The third period, which +began about the year 1890, and which is not yet complete, is marked by a +transition from the era of resident proprietors of the land to that of +non-resident proprietors, and by the fact that the chief attention of +the land owners is paid to the improvement of the soil by fertilization +and drainage and to the increasing of facilities for communication and +for the marketing of farm products." + +Each of these types created by the habits of the people in getting their +living, had its own kind of a community, so that we have had pioneer, +land farmer, exploiter and husbandman communities. Indeed all these +types are now found contemporaneous with one another. We have also had +successive churches built by the pioneer, by the land farmer, by the +exploiter and by the husbandman. The present state of the country church +and community is explained best by saying that it is an effect of +transition from the pioneer and the land farmer types of church and +community to the exploiter and husbandman types. + +The pioneer lived alone. He placed his cabin without regard to social +experience. In the woods his axe alone was heard and on the prairie the +smoke from his sod house was sometimes answered by no other smoke in the +whole horizon. He worked and fought and pondered alone. +Self-preservation was the struggle of his life, and personal salvation +was his aspiration in prayer. His relations with his fellows were purely +democratic and highly independent. The individual man with his family +lived alone in the face of man and God. The following is a description +by an eye witness of such a community which preserves in a mountain +country the conditions of pioneer life[2]. + +"It is pitiful to see the lack of co-operation among them. It is most +evident in business but makes itself known in the children, too. I +regard it as one reason why they do not play; they have been so isolated +that they do not allow the social instinct of their natures to express +itself. This, of course, is all unconsciously done on their part. +However, one cannot live long among them without finding out that they +are characterized by an intense individualism. It applies to all that +they do, and to it may be attached the blame for all the things which +they lack or do wrongfully. If a man has been wronged, he must +personally right the wrong. If a man runs for office, people support him +as a man and no questions are asked as to his platform. If a man +conducts a store, people buy from him because he sells the goods, not +because the goods commend themselves to them. And so by common consent +and practise, the individual interests are first. Naturally this leads +to many cases of lawlessness. The game of some of our people is to +evade the law; of others, to ignore the law entirely." + +The pioneer had in his religion but one essential doctrine,--the +salvation of the soul. His church had no other concern than to save +individuals from the wrath to come. It had just one method, an annual +revival of religion. + +The loneliness of the pioneer's soul is an effect of his bodily +loneliness. The vast outdoors of nature forest or prairie or mountain, +made him silent and introspective even when in company. The variety of +impacts of nature upon his bodily life made him resourceful and +self-reliant; and upon his soul resulted in a reflective, melancholy +egotism. His religion must therefore begin and end in personal +salvation. It was a message, an emotion, a struggle, and a peace. + +The second great characteristic of the pioneer was his emotional +tension. His impulses were strong and changeable. The emotional +instability of the pioneer grew out of his mixture of occupations. It +was necessary for him to practise all the trades. In the original +pioneer settlement this was literally true. In later periods of the +settlement of the land the pioneer still had many occupations and +representative sections of the country even until the present time +exhibit a mixture of occupations among country people most unlike the +ordered life of the Eastern States. Adam Smith in "Wealth of Nations" +makes clear that the practise of many occupations induces emotional +conditions. Between each two economic processes there is generated for +the worker at varied trades a languor, which burdens and confuses the +work of the man who practises many trades. This languor is the source of +the emotional instability of the pioneer. + +The pioneer's method of bridging the gap between his many occupations +was simple. When he had been hunting he found it hard to go to plowing: +and if plowing, on the same day to turn to tanning or to mending a roof. +When the pioneer had spent an hour in bartering with a neighbor he found +it difficult to turn himself to the shoeing of a horse or the clearing +of land. For this new effort his expedient was alcohol. He took a drink +of rum as a means of forcing himself to the new occupation. The result +is that alcoholic liquors occupy a large place in the economy of every +such pioneer people. + +In the mountain regions of the South, where the pioneer remains as an +arrested type, the rum jug occupies the same place in the economy of the +countryman as it occupied in the early settlements of the United States +generally. These "contemporary ancestors" of ours in the Appalachian +region have all the marks of the pioneer. Their simple life, their +varied occupations, and the relative independence of the community and +household, sufficient unto themselves, present a picture of the earlier +American conditions. It is obvious among them that the emotional +condition of the pioneer grew out of his economy and extended itself +into his church. + +This emotional instability of the pioneer shows itself in his social +life. The well known feuds of the mountain people exhibit this +condition. Feeling is at once violent and impulsive. The very reserve of +these unsmiling and serious people is an emotional state, for the meager +diet and heavy continued strains of their economic life poorly supply +and easily exhaust vitality. + +The frontier church exhibited emotional variability. It expressed itself +in the pioneer's one method; namely, an annual revival of religion. In +the pioneer churches there were few or no Sunday schools or other +societies. In those regions in which the pioneer has remained the type +of economic life Sunday schools do not thrive. Societies for young +people, for men, women and children do not there exist. The church is a +place only for preaching. Religion consists of a message whose use is to +excite emotion. Preaching is had as often as possible, but not +necessarily once a week. Essential, however, to the pioneer's +organization of his churches is a periodical if possible an annual, +revival of religion. The means used at this time are the announcement of +a gospel message and the arousing of emotion in response to this +message. There is little application of religious imperative to the +details of life. There is no recognition of social life, because the +pioneer economy is lonely and individual. The whole process of religion +consists in "coming through": in other words, the procuring of an +individual and highly personal experience of emotion. + +"Beneath the surface of life in these people so conservative, and so +indifferent to change as it is, there runs a strain of intense +emotionalism. When storms disturb the calm exterior, the mad waves lash +and beat and roar. And in religion this is most apparent. With them +emotionalism and religion are almost interchangeable quantities,--if +they are not identical.[3] + +"It is in the revival service that you see the heart of the stolid +mountain man unmasked. The local mountain preachers know this fact well +and use it with great effect. A word must be said about these men who +work all through the week alongside of their fellows and preach to them +on Sunday. In some places there is a custom of holding service on +Saturday and Sunday. These men have generally 'come through'--a term +used to describe the process beginning with 'mourning' and continuing +through repenting and being saved. And generally they are men of +personality. They have a certain power with men, anyway, and they are +keen to see the effect of things on their audiences. Some of them have +learned to read the Bible after they have been converted. It is not so +much what they say that counts. If people looked for that they would go +away unfilled. But they have another thing in mind. They want to feel +right. They go to church occasionally during revival drought, but always +during revival plenty. They go to get 'revived up.' The preacher who has +the best voice is the best preacher. He sways his audience. The more +ignorant he is, the better, for then the Spirit of God is not hindered +by the wisdom of man. The spirit comes upon him when he enters the +pulpit. He speaks through him to the waiting congregation. Of course +they do not know what he is saying for the man makes too much noise. But +they begin to feel that this is indeed the place where religion can be +found and where it is being distributed among the people. + +"Generally revivals occur as they have always done, about three times a +year. At these services the method requires that exhorters should be +present and perform. Several do so at the same time. The confusion is +great but the people breathe an atmosphere that begins to infect them. +Sooner or later weeping women are in the arms of some others' husbands +begging them to come to the mourning bench. Young girls single out the +boys that they like best and affectionately implore them to begin the +Christian life. All the time the choir is singing a swinging revival +hymn; the preacher is standing over his audience shouting 'Get busy, +sinners,' and two or three boys are scurrying back and forth carrying +water to the thirsty ones, while little groups of the faithful are +hovering over a penitent, smothering sinner, trying to 'pull her +through.' During this kind of a meeting which I attended at one time a +woman 'got happy' and went around slapping everyone she could get her +hand on, and skipping like a schoolgirl." + +The pioneer church has not fully passed away. Its one doctrine and its +one method have still a place in the more elaborate life of the modern +church. Like the rum jug which is preserved for medicinal purposes, the +revival has a use in the pathology of modern church life. The doctrine +of personal salvation which is of chief concern, in the ministry to the +adolescent population[4] of the modern church, is just as vital as ever; +though it is not the only doctrine of the church of the husbandman, +which has come in the country. + +A relic of the pioneer days is the custom known as the "Group System." +By this a preacher comes to a church once a month, or twice, and +preaches a sermon, returning promptly to his distant place of residence. +The early settlers of this country who originated this system were +lonely and individualized. They believed that religion consisted in a +mere message of salvation, so that all they required was to hear from a +preacher once in a while. + +But the districts in which the "Group System" is used have grown beyond +this religious satisfaction and the "Group System" no longer renders +adequate religious service. Religion has become a greater ministry than +can be rendered in the form of a message, however well preached. + +Like all outworn customs, this one breeds abuses as it grows older. Its +value having passed away, it has forms of offensiveness. In sections of +Missouri where the farmers are rich they say with contempt, "None of the +ministers lives in the country." The "Group System," in a territory of +Missouri comprising forty-one churches, organizes its forces as follows: +these forty-one churches have nine ministers who live in five +communities and go out two miles, ten miles, sometimes thirty miles, in +various directions, for a fractional service to other communities than +those in which they live. Each of the two big towns has more than one +minister and none of the country churches has a pastor. Thus the value +of the family life of the preacher is cancelled. After all this +organization and division of the men into small fractions among the +churches, there are sixteen of these churches which have neither pastor +nor preacher. + +This "Group System" can be improved, as is done in Tennessee, by the +shortening of the journeys which must be made by the minister from his +home to his preaching point. Nevertheless, it gives to the country +community only a fraction of a man's time. He can interpret religion in +only three ways; in the sermon, the funeral service and the wedding. +Unfortunately mankind has to do many other things besides getting +married, buried or preached at. + +The country community needs a pastor. It is better for the minister who +preaches to the country to live in the country. There are some parts +which cannot support a pastor, but the minister to country churches +should know the daily round of country life. Religion can never be +embodied in a sermon; and when religion comes to be limited to a formal +act it is tinged with suspicion in the eyes of most men. Sermons and +funerals and weddings become to country people the windows by which +religion flies out of the community. Especially among farmers, religion +is a matter of every-day life. What religion the farmer has grows out of +his yearly struggle with the soil and with the elements. His belief in +God is a belief in Providence. His God is the creator of the sun and the +seasons, the wind and the rain. The man who does not with him share +these experiences cannot long interpret them for him in terms of +scripture or of church. + +The policy of the newer territories of the church must be to translate +the "Group System" into pastorates. The long range group service should +be transformed into short and compact group ministry; the pastor should +live in the country community and the length of his journey should never +be longer than his horse can drive. A group of churches which are not +more than ten miles apart constitute a country parish. Some few active +ministers are able to make thirty to forty miles on horseback on a +Sunday, among a scattered people. This is well, but as soon as the +railroad becomes an essential factor in the monthly visit of ministers +to the country, religion passes out of that community. + +The service of the country preacher, in other words, is essentially +confined to the country community, and the bounds of the country +community are determined by the length of the team haul or horseback +ride to which that population is accustomed. Within these bounds +religious life and expression are possible. Immersed in his own +community, the life of the minister and of his family attain immediate +religious value. The whole influence of the minister's home, the service +of his wife to the people, which is often greater than his own, and the +development of his children's life, these are all of religious use to +his people. + +A recent speaker upon this matter said, "I doubt if even the Lord Jesus +Christ could have saved this world if he had come down to it only once +in two weeks on Saturday and gone back on Monday morning." + +The pastor, then, is the type of community builder needed in the +country. The pastor works with a maximum of sincerity, while sincerity +may in preaching be reduced to the lowest terms. He is in constant, +intimate, personal contact. The preacher is dealing with theories and +ideals not always rooted in local experiences. The pastor lives the life +of the people. He is known to them and their lives are known to him. The +preacher may perform his oratorical ministry through knowledge of +populations long since dead and by description of foreign and alien +countries. It is possible to preach acceptably about kingdoms that have +not yet existed. But the work of a pastor is the development of ideals +out of situations. It is his business to inspire the daily life of his +people with high idealism and to construct those aspirations and +imaginations out of the daily work of mankind, which are proper to that +work and essential to that people. + +An illustrious example of such ministry is that of John Frederick +Oberlin,[5] whose pastorate at Waldersbach in the Vosges consisted of a +service to his people in their every need, from the building of roads to +the organization and teaching of schools. It would have been impossible +for Oberlin to have served these people through preaching alone. Being a +mature community, indeed old in suffering and in poverty, they needed +the ministry of a pastor, and this service he rendered them in the +immersion of his life with theirs, and the bearing of their burdens, +even the most material and economic burden of the community, upon his +shoulders. + +The passing away of pioneer days discredits the ministry of mere +preaching, through increasing variation of communities, families and +individuals. The preacher's message is not widely varied. It is the +interpreting of tradition, gospel and dogma. His sources can all be +neatly arranged on a book shelf. One suspects that the greater the +preacher, the fewer his books. On the contrary, the pastor's work is +necessitated by growing differences of his people. He must be all things +to many different kinds of men. In the country community this intimate +intercourse and varying sympathy take him through a wider range of human +experience than in a more classified community. He must plow with the +plowman, and hunt with the hunter, and converse with the seamstress, be +glad with the wedding company and bear the burden of sorrow in the day +of death. Moreover, nobody outside a country community knows how far a +family can go in the path to poverty and still live. No one knows how +eccentric and peculiar, how reserved and whimsical the life of a +household may be, in the country community, unless he has lived as +neighbor and friend to such a household. The preacher cannot know this. +Not all the experience of the world is written even in the Bible. The +spirit shall "teach us things to come." It is the pastor who learns +these things by his daily observation of the lives of men. + +The communities themselves in the country differ widely, even in +conformity to given types, and when all is said by the general student, +the pastor has the knowledge of his own community. It belongs peculiarly +to him. No one else can ever know it and there are no two communities +alike. In the intense localism of a community, its religious history is +hidden away and its future is involved. The man who shall touch the +springs of the community's life must know these local conditions with +the intimate detail which only he commands who daily goes up and down +its paths. This man is the pastor. Except the country physician, no +other living man is such an observer as he. + +The end of the pioneer days means, therefore, to religious people, the +establishment of the pastorate. The religious leader for the pioneer was +the preacher, but the community which clings to preaching as a +satisfactory and final religious ministry is retrograde. In this +retarding of religious progress is the secret of the decline of many +communities. The great work of ministering to them is in supplanting the +preacher, who renders but a fractional service to the people, by a +pastor whose preaching is an announcement of the varied ministry in +which he serves as the curé of souls. + +The pioneer days are gone. Only in the Southern Appalachian region are +there arrested communities in which, in our time, the ways of our +American ancestors are seen. The community builder cannot change the +type of his people. He can only wait for the change, and enable his +people to conform to the new type. For this process new industries, new +ways of getting a living are necessary. The teacher or pastor can do +something to guide his people in the selection of constructive instead +of destructive industry. + +In East Tennessee and in the mountain counties of North Carolina +lumbering industries are for the time being employing the people. The +result will be a deeper impoverishment; for the timber is the people's +greatest source of actual and potential wealth. The leaders of the +mountain people should teach reforestation with a view to maintaining +the people's future wealth. + +In a mountain county of Kentucky a minister seeing that his people +needed a new economic life, before they could receive the religious life +of the new type, organized an annual county fair. To this he brought, +with the help of outside friends, a breed of hogs better than his +mountain people knew. He cultivated competition in local industries, +weaving and cooking; and started his people on the path of economic +success of a new type. + +In conclusion, the pioneer was individualistic and emotional. These +traits were caused by his economic experience. While that experience +lasted, he could be made no other sort of man than this. To this type +his home and his business life and his church conformed. Within these +characteristics the efficiency of his social life was to be found. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross, +in American Journal of Economics, December, 1910.] + +[Footnote 2: Rev. Norman C. Schenck.] + +[Footnote 3: Rev. Norman C. Schenck.] + +[Footnote 4: "Youth," by G. Stanley Hall.] + +[Footnote 5: Story of John Frederick Oberlin by Augustus Field Beard, +1909.] + + + + +II + +THE LAND FARMER + + +I shall use the term land farmer to describe the man who tilled the soil +in all parts of the country after pioneer days. He is usually called +simply the farmer. This is the type with which we are most familiar in +our present day literature and in dramatic representations of the +country. The land farmer, or farmer, is the typical countryman who in +the Middle West about 1835 succeeded the pioneer, and about 1890 was +followed by the exploiter of the land. + +In the Eastern States pioneer days ended before 1835. The land farmer +was the prevailing type throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and +Pennsylvania as early as 1800. In the South the contemporary of the land +farmer was the planter or slave holder. The modified type in the South +was due to an economic difference. The labor problem was solved in the +South by chattel slavery; in the North by the wage system. It is true +that throughout much of the South the small farmer held his own. These +men conformed to the type of the land farmer. But in the South they did +not dominate social and political life as the slave holder did. In the +Eastern States the whole social economy was, until a generation after +the Civil War, dominated by the land farmer. + +The characteristics of the land farmer are: first, his cultivation of +the first values of the land. His order of life is characterized by +initial utility. He lived in a time of plenty. The abundance of nature, +which was to the pioneer a detriment, was to the land farmer a source of +wealth. He tilled the soil and he cut the timber, he explored the earth +for mines, seeking everywhere the first values of a virgin land. As +these first values were exhausted, he moved on to new territories. All +his ideas of social life were those of initial utility. The rich man was +the standard and the admired citizen. The policies of government were +dominated by the ideas of a land holding people. Individualism proceeded +on radiating lines from any given center. The development of personality +is the clue to the history of that period. + +The second characteristic of the land farmer was his development of the +family group. He differed from the pioneer, whose life was lonely and +individual, in the perfection of group life in his period. He differs +from the exploiter who succeeds him in the country today in the fact +that exploitation has dissolved the family group. The experience of the +land farmer compacted and perfected the household group in the country. +The beginnings of this group life were in the pioneer period, but there +was not peace in which the family could develop nor were there +resources by which it could be endowed. The classic period of American +home life is that of the land farmer. The typical American home, as it +lives in sentiment, in literature and in idealism, is the home of the +land farmer. + +Third, the land farmer owned his home. He built upon his farm a +homestead which in most cases represented his ideal of domestic and +family comfort. He built for permanence. So far as his means permitted +he provided for his children and for generations of descendants after +them. He consecrated the soil to his people and to his name by setting +apart a graveyard on his own land, and there he buried his dead. + +Fourth, the land farmer had neighbors. His well-developed family group +would not have been possible without other groups in the same community +and the independence of the family group was relative, being perfected +by imitation and economic competition. The land-farmer type came to +maturity only when the whole of the land was possessed, when on every +side the family group was confronted with other family groups, and +neighborliness became universal. The family group is dependent through +intermarriage and relationship upon other groups in the community. +Family relationships thus came in the land-farmer communities to be very +general. Some rough and crude forms of economic co-operation also grew +up in this period, as modifications of the competition on which the +land-farmer type is based. + +"The farmer type produced a definite social life," says Prof. Ross. "The +second period, extending from 1835 to 1890, had as its chief objective +the enrichment of the group life." + +Fifth, the land farmer competed, by group conflict, with his neighbors. +Property was regarded by the land farmer as a family possession. +Competition was between group and group, between household and +household. The moral strength as well as the moral deficiencies of this +type of man flow from this competition. He considered himself +essentially bounden to the members of his own group by obligations and +free from moral obligations to others. The son received no wages from +his father for work on the farm and the daughter did not dream of pay or +of an allowance for her labor in the house. The land farmer conceived of +his estate as belonging to his family group and embodied in himself. +Therefore he had no wage obligations to son or daughter and he felt +himself obliged so to distribute his property as to care for all the +members of his household. This economic competition compacted the family +group and formed the basis for the social economy of the country +community. The land farmer had no ideal of community prosperity. His +thought for generations has been to make his own farm prosperous, to +raise some crop that others shall not raise, to have a harvest that +other men have not and to find a market which other men have not +discovered, by which he and his farm and his group may prosper. It is +hard to convince the land farmer, because of his immersion in this group +conflict, that the farmer's prosperity is dependent upon the prosperity +of other groups in the community. + +The presence of the small group is the sign of normal social life. The +group is not complete in itself, but is a unit in human association. So +that the farmer economy had its social life and its own type of +communities. The economy of the farmer period represents the ideals born +in the pioneer nation. The community of the farmer is the destination of +the life of the pioneer. The farmer still practises a variety of +occupations. His tillage of the soil and his household economy are the +most conservative in all American population. He uses modern machinery +in the fields, but to a great degree his wife uses the old mechanisms in +the kitchen and in the household. The laborers employed on the farm are +received into the farmer's family under conditions of social equality. +The man who is this year a laborer may in a decade be a farmer. The +dignifying of personality with land ownership has been such a general +social experience in the country that every individual is thought of in +the farmer period as a potential landowner. + +The institutions of the rural community of the land-farmer type are the +country store, the rural school, and the church. The country store deals +in general merchandise and is a natural outgrowth of the stores of the +pioneer period in which barter constituted the whole of the commerce of +the community. In the pioneer store but a few commodities were imported +from the outer world. The greater part of the merchandise was made in +the community and distributed in the store. But the farmer's rural +economy is the dawning of the world economy and the general store in the +farming community becomes an economic institution requiring great +ability and centering in itself the forces of general as well as local +economics. + +The general storekeeper of this type in the country is at once a +business man, a money lender, an employer of labor and the manager of +the social center. He sells goods at a price so low as to maintain his +local trade against outside competition. He loans money on mortgages +throughout the community, and sells goods on credit. Judgment of men and +of properties is so essential to his business that if he can not +judiciously loan and give credit he cannot maintain a country store. +Around his warm stove in the winter and at his door in summer gather the +men of the community for discussion of politics, religion and social +affairs. In addition to all else, he has been usually the postmaster of +the community. + +The one-room rural school which is the prevailing type throughout the +country is a product of the land-farmer period. Its prevalence shows +that we are still in land-farmer conditions: and the criticism to which +it is now subjected indicates that we are conscious of a new epoch in +rural life. + +It fits well into the life of the land farmer because it gives obviously +a mere hint of learning. It has been the boast of its advocates that it +taught only the "three Rs." Its training for life is rudimentary only: +it gives but an alphabet. The land farmer expected to live in his group. +Secure in his own acres and believing himself "as good as anybody," he +relied for his son and daughter not upon trained skill, but upon native +abilities, sterling character, independence and industry. Of all these +the household, not the school, is the source. So that the one-room +country school was satisfactory to those who created it. + +In another chapter the common schools are more fully discussed. Here it +may be said only that the creation of such a system was an honor to any +people. The farmers who out of a splendid idealism placed a schoolhouse +at every cross roads, on every hilltop and in every mountain valley, +exact a tribute of praise from their successors. The unit of measurement +of the school district, on which this system was based, was the day's +journey of a child six years of age. Two miles must be its longest +radius. The generation who spanned this continent with the measure of an +infant's pace, mapped the land into districts, erected houses at the +centers, and employed teachers as the masters of learning for these +little states, were men of statesmanlike power. The country school is a +nobler monument of the land farmer than anything else he has done. + +The rural "academy" was the most influential school of the land farmer's +time. Situated at the center of leading communities, in New England, +Pennsylvania and the older Eastern States, it was often under the +control or the influence of the parish minister. It generally exerted a +great influence for the building of the church and the community. Its +teachers were men of scholarly ideals. Its students were from the +locality, being selected by ambition for learning, and by their ability +to pay the tuition. + +The development of the high schools has generally resulted in the +abandonment of the academies. A few have survived and have adapted +themselves to new times. But it is to be doubted whether the common +schools have so far done as much for building and for organizing country +communities, for providing local leadership, for building churches, as +did the rural academies of New England, Pennsylvania and other Eastern +States. + +The farmer's church is the classic American type of church at its best. +The farming economy succeeded to the pioneer economy without serious +break. The troubles of the country church have their beginnings in the +period of the exploiter which is to follow, but the farmer developed the +church of the pioneer with sympathy and consistency. The church of the +farmer still values personal salvation above all. The revival methods +and the simplicity of doctrine have remained, but the farmer has added +typical methods of his own. + +The effect of this individualism is exhibited in the multiplication of +churches among farmers. So long as it is admitted that the church is for +personal salvation, it does not need to be a social institution. A small +group is as effective as a large one for securing salvation for +individuals. Two churches or three may as well serve a community as one, +if personal salvation be the service rendered. The gospel is for the +farmer good tidings,--not a call to social service. The result of the +farmer period has been, therefore, the multiplication of competitive +country churches. An instance of this competitive condition is: the +community in Kansas in which among four hundred people resident in a +field, there are seven churches, each of them attempting to maintain a +resident pastor. In Centre County, Pa., in a radius of four miles from a +given point, there are twenty-four country churches. In the same +territory within a radius of three miles are sixteen of these country +churches. This condition is satisfactory to the ideals of the farmer. If +the farmer type were permanent these churches might serve permanently +for the ministry of personal salvation. They are well attended by devout +and religious-minded people. Their condemnation is not in the farmer +economy but in the inevitable coming of the exploiter and the husbandman +with their different experience and different type of mind. + +In this period the minister frequently is himself a tiller of the soil. +Many of the older churches had land, ten or twenty or forty acres, which +the minister was expected to till, and from it to secure a part of his +living. A church at Cranberry, N. J., had a farm of one hundred acres +until the close of the nineteenth century. But with the coming of the +exploiter and the husbandman the minister ceases to be an agriculturist. + +Like unto the tillage of the soil by the minister was the "donation" to +the minister, of vegetables, corn, honey and other farm products. At one +time this filled a large place in the supply of the minister's living. +In various communities the custom has remained with fine tenacity in the +presentation to the minister of portions of farm produce throughout the +year. But the portions so given are fewer, as years pass, and the total +quantity small. The donation of vegetables and farm produce has survived +in but a few places. The modes of life which succeeded to the farmer +economy are dependent on cash for the distribution of values, and the +"donation," if it remain at all, is a gift of money. Frequently the +"donation" has survived as a social gathering, being perpetuated in one +of its functions only, its earlier purposes and its essential form being +forgotten. + +The church of the land farmer corresponded by logical social causation +to the social economy of this type. It was seated with family pews +generally rented by the family group and sometimes owned in fee. In the +South the slave-holding churches, which have all passed away, had +galleries for the slaves, who worshipped thus under the same roof with +their masters. The preaching of this period was directed to the +development of group life. Its ethical standards were those of the +household group, in which private property in land, domestic morality, +filial and domestic experiences furnished the stimuli. + +The land-farmer's church had some organizations to correspond to the +differences in social life. The presence of the children in the family +group is represented in the Sunday schools and parochial schools built +during this period. The schools are in many cases highly organized, with +separate recognition of infancy, adolescence and middle life. In +Protestant churches the particular concerns of women and the religious +service rendered by them take form in women's societies in the churches, +mostly charitable and missionary. + +Finally, at the close of the land-farmer period, about 1890, there +sprang up the young people's societies, which in the ten closing years +of the land-farmer period reached a membership of hundreds of thousands +among the Protestant churches. These societies of young people +were organized in the churches to correspond to the growing +self-consciousness among adolescent members of the land-farmer's +household. The young men and women in the maturing of the family group +came to have a life of their own. As frequently happens, the family +group reached its highest development and perfection just before it was +to pass away. + +The church of the land-farmer is the typical Protestant church of the +United States. So influential has the farmer been in national life that +organized religion has idealized his type of church. It has been +transported to villages and towns. It has become the type of church most +frequent in the cities. + +Nearly all the Protestant churches in New York City are land-farmer +churches; "and that," says a noted city pastor, "is what ails them."[6] +This church centers its activities in preaching, rents or assigns its +pews to families, and organizes societies for the various factors of the +family group. It has Sunday schools, women's, men's and young people's +societies, with only one minister to supervise them all. + +The transformation of this type of church, so deeply rooted in the +idealism of the whole people, into a church better suited to city, +factory, town and mining settlement, has been the problem for Protestant +bodies to solve in the past twenty years. The beginning of this +transformation, it is striking to observe, came at the end of the +land-farmer period, about 1890. + +The land-farmer, then, whose period according to Prof. Ross, extended +from 1835 to 1890 in the Middle West, is the best known agricultural +type. He is the typical countryman as the countryman is imagined in the +cities and recorded in our literature. It has been the American hope +that he should be the land-owner of the days to come. In East Tennessee +the farmer is still the type of landowner in country communities. In +some portions of Michigan and Minnesota the farmer type gives character +to the whole population, but generally throughout the country the +processes described by Prof. Ross have undermined the integrity of the +farmer type and broken his hold upon leadership of the country +population. Within the last two decades, since 1890, the farmer has been +gradually discouraged and has realized that his economy is not suited to +survive. The most representative farming communities today are those of +Scotch or Scotch-Irish people, whose instinctive tenacity, their +"clannishness," has perpetuated longer than in other instances the rural +economy and the country community. + +In using the term land-farmer I am aware of its close resemblance to the +term exploiter. The word itself points to exploitation of land. The land +farmer has used the raw materials of the country. He has tilled the soil +until its fertility was exhausted and then moved on to the newer regions +of the West, again to farm and to exploit the virgin riches of a +plenteous land. The planter in the South, possessing frequently more +than a thousand acres, was accustomed to till a portion of one hundred, +two hundred or four hundred acres, until its fertility had been +exhausted. Then he moved his slaves to another section, cleared the land +and cultivated it until its power to produce had also been exhausted. +The difference between land-farming and exploitation is the absence of +speculation in land in the former period. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 6: Rev. Charles Stelzle.] + + + + +III + +THE EXPLOITER + + +The third type in American agriculture is the exploiter. Between the +farmer and the husbandman there is an economic revolution. In fact the +exploiter himself is a transition type between the farmer and the +husbandman. "The fundamental problem in American economics always has +been that of the distribution of land," says Prof. Ross. The exploiter +is, I presume, a temporary economic type, created in the period of +re-distribution of land. The characteristic of the exploiter is his +commercial valuation of all things. He is the man who sees only the +value of money. + +It was natural that with the maturing of an American population, the +exploitation of the natural resources should come. We have exploited the +forest, removing the timber from the hills and making out of its vast +resources a few fortunes. We wasted in the process nine-tenths for every +one-tenth of wealth accumulated by the exploiter. We have exploited the +coal and iron and other minerals. The exploitation of the oil deposits +and natural gas reservoirs has been a national experience and a national +scandal. The tendency to exploit every opportunity for private wealth +has characterized the past two decades.[7] + +There are those who exploit the child vitality of the families of +working people, and the States have put legal checks in the way of child +labor. The exploitation of the labor of women has gone so far as to +threaten the vitality of the generation to be born, and laws have been +passed which forbid the employment of women except within limits. The +ethical discussion of the past decade is largely a keen analysis of the +methods of exploitation of resources, of men and of communities, and an +attempt to fix the bounds of the exploitation of values for private +wealth. + +There are those who exploit the farm. "Farms which from the original +entry until 1890 had been owned by the same family, or which had changed +owners but once or twice, and whose owners were proud to assert that +their broad acres had never been encumbered with mortgages, since 1890 +have been sold, in some instances as often as ten times, in more +numerous instances four or five times, and a large part of the purchase +price is secured by encumbering the estates!"[8] + +Agriculture, especially of the Middle West, is affected in all its parts +by the exploitation of land. To a traveller from the Eastern States, the +selling and re-selling of farm land, without fertilization or +improvement by any of the successive owners, is a source of amazement. + +"The new lands opened under the Homestead act of half a century ago were +often exploited for temporary profit by soil robbers who were experts of +their kind. Owing to such farm management, the yield of the acre in the +United States gradually decreased. Very little intensive farming was +done."[9] + +The commercial exploitation of land dissolves every permanent factor in +the farm economy. The country community of the land-farmer type is being +undermined and is crumbling away under the influence of exploitation. +The pioneers were a Westward emigration, pushing Westward the boundaries +of the country at the rate of fifty miles in a decade; but since 1890 +emigration has been eastward, and it is made up of farmers who move to +ever cheaper and cheaper lands to the East, the tide of higher prices +coming from the West. Already in central Illinois the values of land +seem to have reached the high water mark. About Galesburg "the Swedes +have got hold of the land and they will not sell." Among the last +recorded sales in this district were some at prices between two hundred +and two hundred fifty dollars per acre. + +It is not generally understood that this exploitation of farm lands has +extended over nearly the whole country. Its spread is increasingly +rapid in the last two years. In the Gulf States and the Carolinas and in +Tennessee and Kentucky prices of farm land have increased in the last +five years from twenty-five to one hundred per cent. Even in the most +conservative counties in Pennsylvania the prices of farm land have +increased twenty to twenty-five per cent. + +The sign of this exploitation is a rapid increase in the market values +of farm land, due to frequent sale and purchase. This increase is +independent of any increase in essential value to the farmer. The net +income of the farmer may have been increased only five per cent, as in +the State of Indiana, whereas the values of farm land have increased in +the same period more than one hundred per cent. That is, the speculative +increases have been twenty times as much as the agricultural increase. + +Along with this change in farm values goes the increase or decrease in +the number of tenant farmers and the shifting of the ownership of land +to farm landlords. In some parts of the country this exploitation has +taken a purely speculative form. In all parts it is speculative in +character, but in some sections of the country the exploiters are +themselves farmers and the process is imposed upon the farmers +themselves by economic causes. This is true of the Illinois and Indiana +lands, which are under the influence of a system of drainage, but there +are other portions of the country in which the process is chiefly +speculative. In some Western States the exploitation of farm land is in +the hands of speculators themselves, doing real estate business purely +as a matter of trade. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute a +process so general as this one to the power exerted by a class of real +estate agents. Its causes are deeper than the commercial process. They +go into the very roots of modern life. This should be clearly +understood, because when frankly realized it compels the adjustment of +social, educational and religious work to the period of exploitation. + +The effect of this process is upon all the life of country people. It +has created its own class of men. There was no intention in the mind of +earlier Americans that we should ever have a tenant class in America. +The assumption on which all our ideals are built has been that we would +be a land-owning people, but we are confronted with a tenantry problem +as difficult as any in the world. The process of exploiting land has +added to the social and economic life of the country the farm landlord, +whose influence upon the immediate future of the American country +community, church and school, in all sections will be great, and in many +communities will be dominating. + +The exploitation of land has produced the retired farmer. He is a pure +example of the weakness of the exploiter economy. Originally he was a +homesteader, or perhaps a purchaser of cheap land in the early days. He +expected not to remain a farmer, but hoped for removal to the East or +to a college town. The motives which animated him were varied, but among +them none was so prominent as a desire for better education than was +provided for his children in the country community of the farmer type. +So that at forty or fifty years of age he seized an opportunity to sell +his land, as the prices were rising, and retired to the town with a cash +fortune for investment. + +Immediately the economic forces to which he had submitted himself made +of him a new type, for the retired farmer in the Middle West is a +characteristic type of the leading towns and cities. Some whole streets +in large centers are peopled with retired farmers. The civic policies of +scores of small municipalities are controlled in a measure by them, so +that journalists, religious leaders, reformers and politicians have very +clear-cut opinions as to the value of the retired farmer. + +The analysis of this situation is as follows. While the land which he +sold continued to increase in value, his small fortune began to diminish +in value. The interest on his money has been less every ten years; +whereas he formerly could loan at first for six and sometimes seven per +cent, he cannot loan safely now for more than five or six per cent. + +Meantime the prices of all things he has to buy are expressed in +cash,--no longer in kind as on the farm; and these cash prices are +growing. In the past decade they have almost doubled. This means that +he is a poorer man. His money has a diminished purchasing power and he +has a smaller yearly income. + +In addition to this, his wants, and the wants of the members of the +family are increased two or three times. They cannot live as they lived +on the farm. They cannot dress as they dressed in the country. The +pressure of these increasing economic wants, demanding to be satisfied +out of a diminished income, with higher prices for the things to be +purchased, keeps the retired farmer a poor man. The result is that the +retired farmer is opposed to every step of progress in the growing town +in which he lives. He opposes every increase of taxation and fights +every assessment. He dreads a subscription list and hates to hear of +contributions. Although an intelligent and pious man, he has come to be +an obstacle to the building of libraries, churches and schools and +opposed to all humane and missionary activities. He is suffering from a +great economic mistake. + +Before leaving the exploiter it is to be said he also has his church. +The exploiter has built no community. He has contributed the retired +farmer to the large towns and small cities of the Middle West. It is +natural, therefore, that few exploiter churches are found in the +country. But in the larger centers there are churches whose doctrine and +methods are those of the exploiter. Indeed, at the present time the +exploiter's doctrine in ethics and religion is highly popular. It is +the doctrine of the consecration of wealth. + +There are in the larger cities churches whose business is to give; +Sunday after Sunday they hear pleas and consider the cases of college +presidents, superintendents of charities, secretaries of mission boards +and other official solicitors. These churches have systematized the +discipline of giving. Their boards of officers control the appeals that +shall be made to their people. Such churches are highly individualist in +character, and the preacher who ministers in such a church has a +doctrine of individual culture and responsibility. + +The exploiter's doctrine of systematic giving has gone into all of the +communities in which prosperous people live. It has become a moral code +for millionaires, and the response to it is annually measured in the +great gifts of men of large means to institutions which exist for the +use of all mankind. + +But not all the farm exploiters retired from the farm. The stronger and +more successful have become absentee landlords. These men have invested +their cash in farm lands. Distrusting the investments of the city +market, and fearing Wall Street, they have purchased increased acreage +in the country, and when the local market was exhausted, they have +invested in the Southwest and the far West, buying ever more and more +land. They have proven that "It is possible to maintain a vicious +economic method on a rising market."[10] + +These landlords have leased their land in accordance with mere +expediency. No plans have been made in the American rural economy for a +tenantry. The lease, therefore, throughout the United States generally +is for only one year. This gives to the landlord the greatest freedom, +and to the tenant the least responsibility. Neither is willing to enter +into a contract by which the land itself can be benefitted. The landlord +is looking for the increase of the values of land, and is ever mindful +of a possible buyer. Moreover, he is watchful of the market for the crop +and of the size of the crop, so that he desires to be free at the end of +the year to make other arrangements. + +The tenant on his part is somewhat eager to do as he pleases for a year. +He expects to be himself an owner, and he does not expect to remain +permanently as a tenant on that farm. He reckons that he can get a good +deal out of the land in the year, and is unwilling to bind himself for a +long period. "The American system of farm tenantry is the worst of which +I have knowledge in any country."[11] + +It is true that in some parts of the country leases of three and five +years are granted to tenants by the landlords. At Penn Yan, New York, a +reliable class of Danes secure such leases from the owners. I am aware, +also, that in Delaware, in an old section dependent upon fertilization +for its crops, where the land is in the hands of a few representatives +of the old farmer type who have held it for generations, that the +tillage of the soil shows specialization. The landlord and the tenant +co-operate. The leases, while they are for but a year, specify how the +land shall be tilled, how fertilized. They require the rotation of crops +and the keeping of a certain number of cattle by the tenants. The +landlord personally oversees the tillage of several farms. This seems +the beginning of husbandry, instead of exploitation of the land. + +Another instance of the landlord who is more than a mere exploiter is +that of David Rankin, recently deceased. In the last years of his life +Mr. Rankin owned about thirty thousand acres of land in Missouri. It was +said in 1910 that he had seventeen thousand acres of corn. He had a +genius for estimating the values of land, the expensiveness of drainage, +and the possibilities of the market. He was an expert buyer of cattle, +and a master of the problems entering into progressive farming on a +large scale. + +From his vast acreage Mr. Rankin sold not one bushel of corn. All his +crops "went off on four legs." "He drove his corn to market," as they +say in the Middle West. He bought cattle from the ranches, for none were +bred on his own land. He fattened them for the market, translating corn +into beef and he was well aware of the values of pork in the economy of +such a farm. Nothing went to waste. According to the formula in +Nebraska, "For every cow keep a sow, that's the how." Mr. Rankin made +large profits from his cattle and hogs. + +It is true that he cared nothing for the community or its institutions. +On his wide acres family life was replaced by boarding-houses. Schools +and churches were closed, and many farmhouses built by the homesteaders +rotted down to their foundations. But David Rankin was a husbandman, if +not a humanist. His tillage of the soil was successful in that it +maintained the fertility of the soil, that it produced large quantities +of food for the consumer, and that it was profitable. + +The following is a description of community life under the influence of +such great landlords, by a Western observer:-- + +"The city of Casselton, North Dakota, was originally started about the +year 1879. Thirty years ago the first settlers came to this great +prairie region from the New England and Central States. It was shortly +before this or about this time that the Northern Pacific Railroad was +built across this western prairie. The government gave to the road every +other section of land on each side of the railroad for thirty miles as a +bonus. That land was sold in the early days by the railroad to +purchasers for fifty cents an acre. It was some of the finest farming +land in the wide world. Out of those sales grew some of the immense +farms that have been so famous over the country and while they are great +business concerns managed with fine business ability, yet they are not +much of a help in the settling of the country. Here within one mile of +Casselton is the famous Dalrymple farm of twenty-eight thousand acres. +This farm employs during the busy season what men it needs from the +drifting classes and puts no families on its broad acres. These men are +here a short season in the summer, then are gone. They are rushed with +work for that season, Sundays as well as other days from early morning +to late at night, making it almost impossible to touch their religious +life or even to count them a part of the community life. + +"Another farm is the Chaffee farm of thirty-five thousand acres. Mr. +Chaffee is a thorough business man but is a fine Christian and places a +good family on each section of land. He allows no Sunday work. Has a +little city kept up in beautiful condition in the center of his land +where he lives with his clerks and immediate helpers. Here they have a +neat little Congregational church and support their own minister. His +fine influence is felt all over the country. The partners in this farm +also have a land and loan corporation and also a large flour mill in +Casselton which employs about twenty-eight men, running day and night +during the busy season. + +"There are many farms smaller, from one thousand acres and up. Many also +of a quarter section. Casselton was built simply as a center for this +beautiful and rich farming region. It is in the center of a strip six +miles long and twenty-five miles wide which is said to be one of the +finest sections in the land. There are other towns sprung up in the same +section also. Through the past thirty years farmers have retired, well +to do, and moved into the city. Here are now maintained excellent +schools." + +In conclusion: the exploitation of farm lands is a process with which +the church in the country cannot deal by persuasion. It is an economic +condition. They who are engaged in this process or are concerned in its +effects are in so far immune to the preacher who ignores or who does not +understand these economic conditions. Their action is conditioned by +their status. They will infallibly act with relation to the church in +accordance with the motives which arise out of their condition. That is, +they will act as tenant farmers, as retired farmers or as absentee +landlords. They must be treated on these terms. Their whole relation to +organized religion will be that of the condition in which they live and +by which they get their daily bread. This is a matter independent of +personal goodness. The church is dependent not on personal good +influences, but upon the response which a man makes in accordance with +his economic and social character. + +For instance, in Wisconsin a church worker found that thousands of acres +in a certain section were owned by a Milwaukee capitalist. He found +that the tenant farmers on these acres were poor and struggling for a +better living, and he could not, among them, finance an adequate church. +He promptly went to Milwaukee and secured five minutes of the time and +attention of the absentee landlord. When he had stated the case and the +reasons why this large owner should give to the country church on his +acres, the man promptly said, "You have stated what I never before +realized and I will give you a contribution of one hundred dollars per +year for that church until you hear from me to the contrary." + +In contrast to this there is in Central Illinois a large estate of five +thousand acres. The owner lives in a distant city and his son tills the +land. It is known among the neighbors that the son has orders to oppose +all improvements of churches and of schools, "because there is no money +for us in the church or the school." + +It is useless to complain of the position in which a man is. The +minister's duty is to utilize him in his own status and to enable him to +practise the virtues which are open to him. The retired farmer can +become an active and devoted evangelist, preacher or organizer. He +should be made a leader in the intellectual development of the farmer's +problem of the region. He has leisure and intelligence and is often a +devout man. It is the business of the minister to transform this into +religious and social efficiency. The temperance movement in the Middle +West has had generous and devoted support from the retired farmers +living in the towns. The families of these one time farmers are seeking +after culture. The literary and aesthetic aspects of the community can +well be committed to members of these families. Their value for the +community is probably in these directions. Above all it is the business +of the minister to sympathize with the life they are living and to +enable them to live it to the highest advantage. + +The energies of the church should be devoted to the tenant farmer. Of +this more will be said in another place. He also must be treated in +sympathy with his social and economic experience and the religious +service rendered to him must be the complete betterment of his life as +he is trying to live it. He is not a sinner because he is a tenant and +what he does as a tenant is therefore not a misdemeanor, but a normal +reaction upon life. The church can help him in purging his life from the +iniquities peculiar to a tenant and a dependent. The noblest motives +must be brought out and the life he is to live should be given its own +ideals. + +Above all the period of exploitation must be understood by the teacher +and the preacher to be a preparation, a transition through which country +people are coming to organized and scientific agriculture. Gradually the +influence of science and the leadership of the departments and colleges +of agriculture are being extended in the country. Little by little, +whether through landlord or tenant, farming is becoming a profession +requiring brains, science and trained intelligence. The country church +should promote this process because only through its maturity can the +country church in the average community find its own establishment. The +reconstruction of the churches now going on corresponds to the +exploitation of the land. The duty of the church in the process of +exploitation is to build the community and to make itself the center of +the growing scientific industry on which the country community in the +future will be founded. + +The religion of the exploiter moves in the giving of money. Consecration +of his wealth is consecration of his world and of himself. The church +that would save him must teach him to give. His sins are those of greed, +his virtues are those of benevolence. His own type, not the least worthy +among men, should be honored in his religion. No man's conversion ever +makes him depart from his type, but be true to his type. Therefore the +religion for the exploiter of land is a religion of giving, to the poor +at his door, to the ignorant in this land, and to the needy of all +lands. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, +by Van Hise.] + +[Footnote 8: J. B. Ross--"Agrarian Changes in the Middle West."] + +[Footnote 9: Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson at the United States +Land and Irrigation Exposition, Chicago, Nov. 19, 1910.] + +[Footnote 10: The Rural Life Problem in the United States, by Sir Horace +Plunkett.] + +[Footnote 11: Dean Chas. F. Curtiss, State College of Iowa.] + + + + +IV + +THE HUSBANDMAN + + +The scientific farmer is dependent upon the world economy. He is the +local representative of agriculture, whose organization is national and +even international. He raises cotton in Georgia, but he "makes milk" in +Orange County, New York, because the market and the soil and the climate +and other conditions require of him this crop. + +He is dependent upon the college of agriculture for the methods by which +he can survive as a farmer. Tradition, which dominated the agriculture +of a former period, is a disappearing factor in husbandry of the soil. +The changes in market conditions are such as to impoverish the farmer +who learns only from the past. Tradition could teach the farmer how to +raise the raw materials, under the old economy, in which the farmhouse +and community were sufficient unto themselves. But in a time when the +wool of the sheep in Australia goes halfway round the world in its +passage from the back of a sheep to the back of a man, the sheep farmer +becomes dependent upon the scientist. He cannot afford to raise sheep +unless the scientific man assures him that in the production of wool +his land has its highest utility. "The American farm land is passing +into the hands of those who will use it to the highest advantage."[12] + +The dependence of the scientific farmer or husbandman upon the world +market and upon the scientists who are studying agriculture enlarges the +circle of his life from the rural household to the rural community. In +the rural community agriculture can be taught; in the household it +cannot. The only teaching of the household is tradition; the teaching of +the community is in terms of science. The country school and the country +church take a greater place as community institutions just so soon as +the farmer passes out of the period of exploitation into that of +scientific husbandry. + +The husbandman is the economist in agriculture. He is to the farm what +the husband was to the household in old times. One is tempted to say +also that the husbandman is he who marries the land. American farm land +has suffered dishonor and degradation, but it has known all too little +the affection which could be figuratively expressed in marriage. The +Bible speaks of "marrying the land."--"Thy land shall be called Beulah +for thy land shall be married." Side by side in this country we have the +lands which have been dishonored, degraded, abandoned, dissolute, and +the lands husbanded, fertilized, enriched and made beautiful. + +The husbandman or rural economist cares more for qualities than for +quantity. He works not merely for intensive cultivation of the soil, but +also for the preservation of the soil and use of it in its own terms, at +its highest values. + +The principle at work is not the increase in the farmer's material gains +or possessions. The husbandry of the soil is not a mere increase in +market values. It is a deeper and more ethical welfare than that which +can be put in the bank. "Agriculture is a religious occupation." When it +sustains a permanent population and extends from generation to +generation the same experiences, agriculture is productive in the +highest degree of moral and religious values. In the words of Director +L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, "The land is holy." + +This is especially true at the present time, when the land is limited in +amount. Already the whole nation is dependent upon the farmer in the +degree intimated by the statement of Dean Bailey. "The census of 1900 +showed approximately one-third of our people on farms or closely +connected with farms, as against something like nine-tenths, a hundred +years previous. It is doubtful whether we have struck bottom, although +the rural exodus may have gone too far in some regions, and we may not +permanently strike bottom for sometime to come."[13] + +The service of the few to the many, therefore, is the present status of +the husbandman. The very fact that one-third of the people must feed +all the people imposes religious and ethical conditions upon the farmer. +The dependence of the greater number for their welfare upon those who +are to till the soil brings that obligation, which the farmer is well +constituted to bear and to which his serious spirit gives response. + +This means that with the growing consciousness of the need of scientific +agriculture there will arise, indeed is now arising, a new ethical and +religious feeling among country people. The church which is made up of +scientific farmers is a new type of church. + +A notable testimony to the influence of the church in developing +husbandry is by Sir Horace Plunkett,[14] who testifies to the religious +influence that led to the agrarian revolution in Denmark. + +"My friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational +experience of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on +agriculture as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organization +to a more genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. +Yet an inquirer will at once discover that it is to the 'High School' +founded by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which +are also excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly +due. A friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of state aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers not +only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation upon +the history and literature of the country." + +Every observer of these Danish Folk High Schools testifies to their +religious enthusiasm, their patriotism and above all to the songs with +which their lecture hours are begun and ended. A graduate of these +schools living for years in America, the mother of children then +entering college, said, "Those songs helped me over the hardest period +of my life. I can always sing myself happy with them." The spirit which +pervades the schools was influential in Danish agriculture, as +expressed in the title of Grundtvig's best known hymn, "The Country +Church Bells." Under such an influence as this has the agricultural life +of Denmark taken the lead over its urban and manufacturing life. + +The modifying influence of husbandry upon the church and its teaching is +illustrated in the following incident. A farmer in Missouri had a good +stand of corn which promised all through the summer to produce an +excellent crop. Abundance of sun and rain favored the farmer's hope that +his returns would be large, but in the fall the crop proved a failure. +The farmer at once cast about for the cause of this disappointment. He +had his soil analyzed by a scientist and discovered that it was +deficient in nitrogen. The next year he devoted to supplying this lack +in the soil and in the year following had an abundant return in corn. +"Now that experience turned me away," said he, "from the country church, +because the teaching of the country church as I had been accustomed to +it was out of harmony with the study of the situation and the conquest +over nature. I had been taught in the country church to surrender under +such conditions to the will of Providence." The country church of the +husbandman must therefore be a church in harmony with the tillage of the +soil by science. Like the farm households about it, the church will +possess a large wealth of tradition, but the church of the scientific +farmer must be open to the teachings of science and must be responsive, +intelligent and alert in the intellectual leadership of the people. + +A church of this sort is at West Nottingham, Maryland. The minister Rev. +Samuel Polk, had been discouraged by the inattention of his people to +his message. He had come to feel that this is an unbelieving age and had +surrendered himself to the steadfast performance of his duties, the +preaching of the truth faithfully and the ministry to his people so far +as they would receive it. In addition he had the task of tilling forty +acres of land which belongs to the church. This he was doing faithfully, +but without much intelligent interest. + +An address on the country church in an agricultural college sent him +home with new ideas. He saw that his life as a farmer and as a preacher +had to be made one. He determined to preach to farmers and to till his +land as an example of Christian husbandry. He began as a scholar by +studying the scientific use of his land. He found at once that the +farmers about him were forced to study the tillage of their soil, +because it had been exhausted of fertility by methods of farming no +longer profitable. In the first year the preacher raised, by means of a +dust mulch through a dry summer, a crop of one hundred and seventy-five +bushels of potatoes. Meantime his preaching had been enlivened with new +illustrations and he was enabled to enforce, to the amazement of his +hearers, new impressions with old truths. The Scripture teaching which +had become dull and scholastic became live and modern, as he preached +the Old Testament to a people who were recognizing the sacredness of +land. His audiences began to increase. His influence on his people very +shortly passed bounds and reserves. When at the end of the season his +potato crop came in, the farmers gave sign of recognizing his leadership +as a farmer and as a preacher. Within a year this man had taken a place +as a first citizen, which no one else in the community could hold. +Because he was a preacher he could become the leading authority upon +farming and because he must needs be a farmer he found it possible to +preach with greater acceptance. + +This pastor gave up the methods of bookish preparation for preaching. He +preached as the Old Testament men did, to the occasion and to the event. +He spoke to the community as being a man himself immersed in the same +life as theirs. On a recent occasion when a woman was very sick in one +of the farm houses and had suffered from the neglect of her neighbors, +his sermon consisted of an appeal to visit the sick. That afternoon the +invalid was called on by thirty-eight people and sent a message before +night, begging the minister to hold the people back. + +There are a few ministers throughout the country who are successful +farmers. Many ministers are speculators in farm land. They belong in the +exploiter class. One more instance should be given of the preacher who +promotes agriculture. In a recent discussion the writer was asked, "Do +you then believe that the minister should attend the agricultural +college," and he replied, "No. The agricultural college should be +brought to the country church." + +At Bellona, New York, the ministers of two churches, Methodist and +Presbyterian, united with their officers in a farmers' club, to which +others were admitted. This club under the leadership of Rev. T. Maxwell +Morrison, makes the nucleus of its work the study of the agriculture of +the neighborhood and the improvement of it. Lecturers from Cornell +University are brought throughout the year into the country community to +take up in succession the various aspects of farming which may be +improved. The market is studied, by chemical analysis the nature of the +soil is determined, and the possibilities of the community are raised to +their highest value by careful investigation. + +This farmers' club has social features as well. Other topics besides +farming are occasionally studied but the business of the club is +economic promotion of the well-being of the community. Incidentally, it +has furnished a social center for the countryside. The churches which +have had to do with it have been enlarged, their membership extended and +even their gifts to foreign missions have been increased in the period +of growth of the farmers' club. + +The elements of permanent cultivation of the soil are found in greater +numbers among the Mormons, Scotch Irish Presbyterians, Pennsylvania +Germans, who are the best American agriculturists, than among the more +unstable populations of farmers. Those elements, however, are, simply +speaking, the following. + +A certain austerity of life always accompanies successful and permanent +agriculture. By this is meant a fixed relation between production and +consumption.[15] Successful tillers of the soil labor to produce an +abundant harvest. They live at the same time in a meager and sparing +manner. Production is with them raised to its highest power and +consumption is reduced to its lowest. This means austere living. Such +communities are found among the Scotch Irish farmers. Lancaster County, +Pennsylvania, is peopled with them and their tillage of the soil has +continued through two centuries. + +A notable illustration is in Illinois. The permanence of the conditions +of country life in this community is indicated by the long pastorate of +the minister who has just retired. Coming to the church at forty-eight +years of age, after other men have ceased from zealous service, he +ministered forty-two years to this parish of farmers, and has recently +retired at the age of ninety, leaving the church in ideal condition. +"The Middle Creek Church is distinctly a country charge, located in the +Southwest corner of Winnebago Township, of the County of Winnebago. + +"The church was organized in June, 1855, in a stone schoolhouse. The +present house of worship was erected and dedicated in 1861. Five +ministers served the church as supplies until 1865, when the Rev. J. S. +Braddock, D. D., became the pastor and carried on a splendid work for +forty-two years, when he laid down his pastorate in 1907, at the age of +ninety." + +"This community was settled by homesteaders and pioneers in the early +days of the West. Many of them came from Pennsylvania and some of them +were of Scotch descent. The history of the community has been but the +history of the development of a fertile Western Prairie country. It was +settled by strong Presbyterian men, and their descendants are now the +backbone of the community. There has been little change, but steady +growth." + +The second element in the community of husbandmen is mutual support. +Professor Gillin of the University of Iowa has described to me the +community of Dunkers whom he has studied,[16] being deeply impressed +with their communal solidarity. Whenever a farm is for sale these +farmers at the meeting-house confer and decide at once upon a buyer +within their own religious fellowship. In the week following the +minister or a church member writes back to Pennsylvania and the +correspondence is pressed, until a family comes out from the older +settlements in the Keystone State to purchase this farm in Iowa and to +extend the colony of his fellow Dunkers. Reference is made elsewhere to +the communal support given to their own members who suffer economic +hardship. The serious tillage of the soil necessarily involves mutual +support and the husbandman's life is in his community. + +The third factor in communal husbandry is progress. Everyone testifies +to the leadership of the "best families" in the transformation of the +older modes of the tillage of the soil to the newer. It is impossible +for the scientific agriculturist to make much improvement upon a country +community until the more progressive spirits and the more open minds +have been enlisted. Thereafter the better farming problem is solved. +There can be no modern agriculture in a community in which all are +equal. The communities of husbandmen will be as sharply differenced from +one another, so far as I can see, as men are in the great cities. +Leadership is the essential of progress. Gabriel Tardé has clearly +demonstrated that only those who are at the top of the social scale can +initiate social and economic enterprises. The cultivation of the soil +for generations to come must be highly progressive. To recover what we +have lost and to restore what has been wasted will exhaust the resources +of science and will tax the intelligence of the leaders among +husbandmen. + +For this reason the ministers, teachers, and social workers in the +country should be not discouraged, but hopeful, when confronted with +rural landlords and capitalists. The business of the community leader is +to enlist in the common task those persons whose privileges are superior +and inspire them with a progressive spirit. Without their leadership the +community cannot progress. Without their privileges, wealth and superior +education, no progress is possible in the country. + +If these pages tell the truth, then agriculture is a mode of life +fertile in religious and ethical values. But it must be husbandry, not +exploitation. Religious farming is a lifelong agriculture, indeed it +involves generations, and its serious, devoted spirit waits for the +reward, which was planted by the diligent father or grandfather, to be +reaped by the son or grandson. Men will not so consecrate themselves to +their children's good without the steadying influence of religion. So +that agriculture and religion are each the cause, and each the effect, +of the other. + +If this is true, then the country church should promote the husbandry +of the soil. The agricultural college should be brought into the country +parish, for the church's sake. Indeed the minister would do well if his +scholarship be the learning of the husbandman. No other science has such +religious values. No other books have such immediate relation to the +well-being of the people. The minister is not ashamed to teach Greek, +or Latin,--dead languages. Why should he think it beneath him "to teach +the farmer how to farm," provided he can teach the farmer anything? If +he be a true scholar, the farmer, who is a practical man, needs his +learned co-operation in the most religious of occupations, that the land +may be holy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: Rural Economics, by Prof. Thos. Nixon Carver.] + +[Footnote 13: "The Country-Life Movement," by L. H. Bailey.] + +[Footnote 14: "Ireland in the New Century," by Sir Horace Plunkett.] + +[Footnote 15: Professor Thomas Nixon Carver.] + +[Footnote 16: See Chapter V.] + + + + +V + +EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITIES + + +Most of this volume is devoted to the average conditions which prevail +throughout the United States. The attempt is made to deal with those +causes which are generally operative. It is the writer's opinion that +the causes dealt with in other chapters are the prevailing causes of +religious and social experience in the most of the United States. As +soon as the community, after its early settlement, becomes mature, these +causes show the effects here described. But there are exceptions which +should be noted and the cause of their different life made clear. These +exceptions are represented in the Mormons, the Scottish Presbyterians +and the Pennsylvania Germans. + +"The best farmers in the country are the Mormons, the Scotch +Presbyterians and Pennsylvania Germans." This sentence expresses a +general observation of Prof. Carver of Harvard, speaking as an +economist. The churches among these three classes of exceptionally +prosperous farmers show great tenacity and are free from the weakness +which otherwise prevails in the country church. There is a group of +causes underlying this exceptional character of the three classes of +farmers. + +These exceptional farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. +The Mormons represent this organization in the highest degree. Perhaps +no other so large or so powerful a body of united farmers is found in +the whole country. They have approached the economic questions of +farming with determination to till the soil. They distrust city life and +condemn it. They teach their children and they discipline themselves to +love the country, to appreciate its advantages and to recognize that +their own welfare is bound up in their success as farmers, and in the +continuance of their farming communities. This agricultural organization +centers about their country churches. They have turned the force of +religion into a community making power, and from the highest to the +lowest of their church officers the Mormon people are devoted to +agriculture as a mode of living. + +This principle of organizing the community consciously for agriculture +results in the second condition of the life of these three exceptional +peoples. + +They build agricultural communities. The Mormons are organized by an +idea and by the power of leadership. They have recruited their +population through preachers and missionaries. This new population is +woven at once into the fabric of the community. They are not merely +employed in the community: they are married to the community. The +organization on which the Mormon community is based becomes embodied at +once in a society, with its own modes of religious, family, and moral +feeling and thought. + +These two principles are discovered in the Pennsylvania Germans. For +more than two centuries they have continued their settlements in +Pennsylvania. They are today a chain of societies loosely related to one +another through religious sympathy and a common tradition, but united +only in the possession of certain characteristics. They also are an +organization for agricultural life, though not so consciously organized +as the Mormons. Their societies are older and they have replaced with +instinctive processes that which is among the Mormons a matter of logic +and shrewd application of principles. + +The life of the Pennsylvania Germans is expressed in the community. They +have as much aversion to other people as they have fondness for their +own. Their religion consists of a set of customs in which to them the +character of the Christian is embodied. These customs can be expressed +and embodied only in the life of common people working on the land. They +make plainness, industry, and patience, austerity of life and other +agricultural virtues constitute sanctity. It is impossible to believe +sincerely in their mode of life and not be a farmer. It is easy to +believe the Pennsylvania Germans' code, if one is a farmer, and it is +profitable as well. + +The Scotch and the Scotch Irish Presbyterians represent a third +principle of agricultural success. Their churches are tenacious and +their country communities outlive those of the average type. In them is +represented in the highest degree the principle of austerity. By this I +mean, as defined by an economist, the custom of living so as to produce +much and consume little. These people look upon life with severity. They +have little sympathy with the expansive and exuberant life of the young. +The men of the community, who are the producers, occupy a relatively +greater position than the women, who are the consumers. They exemplify +to a slight degree the conscious organization for agriculture, and in a +high degree the resultant social life which we have noted among the +Mormons and the Pennsylvania Germans; but to the highest degree the +Scottish Presbyterians represent this self-denial and rigidity of +life--which appears in the others also--and they embody it in their +creed. This austerity gives to them a forbidding character, and robs +them of some of the esthetic interest attaching to the other two, but it +is possible that they are more nearly the ideal type of American farmer +because of certain other traits possessed by them. + +The Scotch farmer has not in the United States settled in communities or +colonies, as he has in Canada, but the typical farming community of this +stock is Scotch Irish. As Prof. R. E. Thompson has shown,[17] the +emigrants from the North of Ireland, who are themselves of Scotch +extraction, have colonized extensively. That is, they have settled +their populations so as to cover a territory and possess it for +themselves. But the Scotch, from whom they derive many characteristics, +have settled no colony in the world except in the North of Ireland.[18] +The peculiarity of these Scotch Irish farming settlements, as shown +especially in Pennsylvania, is their capacity to produce leaders in +sympathy with the whole of American life. The Mormons produce leaders, +but their influence is compromised by religious prejudices. The +Pennsylvania Germans have produced no leaders whom they can call their +own, and very few writers or educators. The Scotch Irish, on the other +hand, considered as farmers, have contributed an extraordinary +proportion of the leadership of the United States. They have been able +to maintain their own communities in the country and to find for these +communities a sufficient leadership, and they have sent forth into the +general population a multitude of men for leadership in the army, in the +legislatures, in the colleges and universities, and above all, in the +pulpit. + +In these three types of successful farmers religion is an essential +factor. No history can be written of the Mormons, of the "Pennsylvania +Dutch" or of the Scotch Presbyterian without recording their religious +devotion, their obedience to leaders, to customs and to creed. One +cannot live among them without feeling the peculiar religious +atmosphere which belongs to each of them. They are admirable or +obnoxious, according as one likes or dislikes this religious character +of theirs, but it pervades the whole life of the community. If it be +true that there is no type of farmer--except the scientific farmer of +the past few years--who has succeeded as these three types have +succeeded, and there is no country community so tenacious as their +communities are, and if it be true that these farmers more uniformly +than other farmers are religiously organized, then it follows that there +is an essential relation so far as American agriculture goes, between +successful and permanent agriculture and a religious life. The country +church becomes the expression of a permanent and abiding rural +prosperity. Agriculture is shown by its very nature to require a +religious motive. An element of piety appears to be necessary in the +makeup of the successful farmer. + +In these three types of successful farmer there appears another +principle which is common to them all. They are not only organized for +farming, but they are organized as a mutual prosperity association, +based on their consciousness of kind. Prof. Gillin has called attention +to the habit of the Dunkers in Iowa, who are of the Pennsylvania German +sects, by which they extend their farming communities. + +"The thing that is needed is to make the church the center of the social +life of the community. That is easier where there is but one church than +where there are several, but federation is not essential. Thought must +be taken by the leaders to make the church central in every interest of +life. I know of a community where that has been done. It is the +community located south of Waterloo, Ia., in Orange Township. It is +composed of an up-to-date community of Pennsylvania Dutch Dunkers. From +the very first they have made the church central. When these great +changes of which I have spoken began to occur, the leaders of that +community began to take measures to checkmate the attractions of the +towns for their young people. For example, Fourth of July was made a day +of celebration at the church. When the people of other communities were +flocking to town by hundreds, the youth of that community were +gathering, in response to plans well thought out beforehand, to the +church grounds where patriotic songs were sung, games were played, a +picnic dinner was served, and a general good time was provided for the +young. They have also arranged that their young people have a place to +come to on Sunday nights where they can meet their friends. The elders +look to it that provisions are made for the gatherings of the young +people on Sunday so that they shall 'have a good time,' with due +arrangements for the boys and girls to get together under proper +conditions for their love-making. Even their church 'love feasts' held +twice a year, are also neighborhood gatherings for the young people. The +church is the center of everything. Is a farmers' institute to be held +in the community, or a teachers' institute? The church until very +recently was open to it. Is a farm to rent or for sale? At once the +leaders get busy with the mail, and soon a family from the East is on +their way to take it. This country church has not remained strong and +dominant in the country just by accident or even by federation. It has +survived because it had wise leaders who have met the changes with new +devices to attract the interest of the community and make the church +serve the community in all its affairs, but especially on the social +side. Such thought takes account of the 'marginal man' too. The hired +man and the hired girl, the foreigner and the tramp are welcome there. +No difference is made. There is pure democracy. With the growth of the +class spirit I do not know how that can survive. These hirelings are not +talked down to; they are considered one with the rest. They will some +day get enough to buy a farm and become leaders in the community, +perhaps. The church is theirs as much as anyone's else. It looks after +their interest, not only for the hereafter, but here and now. Under its +fostering care they form their life attachments, it provides for their +social pleasures, it is the center to which they come to discuss their +farming affairs or whatever interests them. And in spite of the fact +that the preaching has little contact with life and its interests, so +strong is the social spirit that the preaching can be left out of +account. What could be accomplished were the preaching as consciously +directed to forwarding the social interests of the community one can +only speculate."[19] + +Thus they work for the propagation and extension of their own community. +The Scotch Presbyterians in like manner favor their own kindred and +their kindred in the faith, though, I think, in a lesser degree. The +Mormons are consolidated both by formal organization and by instinctive +preference for their own in a multitude of co-operating habits, through +which they build up their communities and contend with one another +against their economic and religious opponents. It is not enough to say +that this is clannishness; it is a mingling of kinship and religious +preferences. It constitutes the strongest form of agricultural +co-operation to be found in the United States. + +A Quaker community represents ideal community life. There is none poor. +The margin of the community is well cared for by the conscious and +deliberate service of the central and leading spirits in the community. + +At Quaker Hill, New York, there has been for almost two centuries a +community of Friends. The Meeting has now been "laid down" but the +customs and manners by which these peculiar people maintain their +community life have been wrought into the social texture of the present +population of Quaker Hill. During two centuries this community has +cared for its own members in need. It was not beneath the dignity of the +Meeting to raise money and purchase a cow, early in the eighteenth +century, to "loan to the widow Irish," and at the close of the +nineteenth century, the few Quakers and the many Irish and other +"world's people" took part more than once in subscriptions by which the +burden was borne, which had fallen upon some workingman or poorer +neighbor through the death of horse or cow, or even to bear the expense +incidental to the death of his child. + +These Quakers co-operated in their business life. They made themselves +responsible that no member of their Meeting should be long in debt. From +1740 for 100 years and more, the records of the Meeting show that +marriage was made impossible and other vital experiences were forbidden +by the Meeting, unless the individual Quaker paid his debts and +maintained his business on a level dictated by the common opinion of the +Quaker body.[20] + +In 1767, Oblong Meeting of Quaker Hill, New York, began the legislative +opposition of the Society of Friends to the institution of slavery. This +great economic movement expressed the degree to which the Quaker +discipline merged the religious life in the economic life. This +consolidation of religious and economic life was essential in the +community building of the Quakers. + +It is surprising to many to discover that the "Pennsylvania Dutch" were +part of the same movement of population which brought the Quakers into +Pennsylvania. William Penn spoke German as well as English. His mother +was a German. When he inherited his father's claim against the British +Crown, and received from Charles the Second the grant of that extensive +territory in America on which he launched his Holy Experiment, he began +to advertise and to seek for settlers on the Continent as well as in +England. + +William Penn was a Quaker, and on the Continent he found immediate +response in the greatest number of cases among the various branches of +Mennonites, Anabaptist, and other sects, who shared a common group of +beliefs and experienced at this time a common persecution. William Penn, +therefore, reaped a harvest of responses in the territory between the +mouth of the Rhine and the Alps. His proposal made its own selection, +and brought to America a population calculated like the Quaker +population for the building of communities. The largest single +contribution was made by the Palatinates, who were at that period +undergoing extreme persecution. + +The communities founded within the first century after the opening of +Pennsylvania have remained to the present day, and the earliest +establishments of Mennonites and Quaker communities in Pennsylvania have +been duplicated in the westward stream of immigration, especially in +Ohio and in Iowa. These people are roughly called the "Pennsylvania +Dutch." Even when one meets them in Michigan, Iowa or Minnesota, this +name clings to them, and the form of social organization which they +elaborated in Eastern Pennsylvania still persists. + +This social organization has varying characteristics. It is somewhat +difficult to analyze the intricate windings and entanglements of +doctrinal and practical belief in custom among the Mennonites, Amish and +Dunkers. Old school and new school have been formed in almost every one +of these sects. Eccentric and peculiar principles of belief in +organization have formed the lesser and the least permanent groups; but +there is a common principle in them all. Their ability to form +communities in the midst of hostile populations and adverse conditions +has been due to the co-operation between their religious and their +economic habits. + +The "Pennsylvania Dutch" have simple doctrinal characteristics. They +have never worked out in detail the logic of their beliefs. They put the +weight of their organization upon practical customs, as the Quakers did. +In some cases, this applied to clothing; in some or all of these sects +to the manner of speech; to family customs; but, the one peculiar +principle in it all, which has been vital to the success, to the +persistence, to the wide extension of these sectarian groups has been +that the religious life has penetrated the economic life. They have not +permitted members of their community to be poor. They have turned the +attention of their religious sympathies to the economic margin of the +community. They have enforced the payment of debts, and they have +governed and controlled marriage conditions. By subtle enforcement of +custom having the power of laws, they have governed the community in its +vital relations, and perfected the system by which the poorest man shall +make his living and by which the richest man shall make his fortune. + +Recently, I was in Lancaster, Penn., and passing through a market I was +told by a resident that all the truck farming of the market for that +city had come into the hands of the Amish, and my friend added, "If you +go at an early hour to buy, and ask the price of certain vegetables, you +will probably be told, 'We do not know the price yet; we will have to +wait until all the farmers come in.'" That is, after two hundred and +more years of living as farmers in this section of Pennsylvania, these +sectarians maintain their community life, co-operate in the monopolizing +of an industry, and in fixing the price of the monopolized product in +the markets of a Pennsylvania city. + +This survey of community-building peoples in America may throw light +upon the recommendations of Sir Horace Plunkett for the organization of +country life upon an economic basis. The present writer heartily agrees +with him that the center of the community must be economic. He says that +"Better business must come first" in constructive policies for American +country life, but "by failing to combine, American and British farmers +persistently disobey an accepted law." + +Social division is the impending danger which threatens the future of +the American community in the country. For if the analysis of +agricultural success in this chapter is correct, then the farmer is +exceedingly dependent upon his neighbor, and the permanence of rural +populations depends upon the social unity of the farmers in the +community. The highest expression of this social unity is in the +farmer's religion. Worship thus becomes a symbol of agricultural +prosperity. The writers and the orators have then truly spoken who +symbolized the beauty of rural life in the church steeple. The farmer +himself seems to recognize, in the church spire rising above the roofs +of the hamlet, the symbol of prosperous and satisfactory life in the +country. + +As the tillers of the soil come to the necessity of co-operation in the +new order of life in the country, as the old isolation passes away and +the modern farmer comes to recognize his necessary dependence upon other +farmers in the community, a common place of worship will become +necessary to the community. One church will of necessity express the +life of the community and the periodic meeting of all the people in one +house of worship will be the highest and most essential symbol of the +feeling and the thought and the aspirations of that community after +true prosperity and permanence. + +The purpose of this chapter has been to present the general +characteristics of the most exceptional communities in the country. +These are Mormon, Scotch Presbyterian and Pennsylvania German. By their +very names they indicate religious organization of the community and +"birthright membership" associations. They are grouped under the one +principle, that in them the religious organization is an expression of +their social economy. Their social and economic life is under the +domination of their religion. + +These farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. The +resultant social life constitutes a most intense organization in which +voluntary and conscious combination matures in instinctive union +embodied in blood relationship, neighborliness and economic union. These +populations show the correspondence between economic and religious +austerity. Thrift takes the form of dogmatic repression and finally +their organization and their relationship express themselves in +organized efforts for the well-being of the community. They deliberately +as well as instinctively co-operate. + +It is the writer's belief that these exceptional communities exhibit the +principles on which American life must be organized, if the farmer is to +be a success, if his schools are to progress, his churches to be +maintained, and if the country community is to be a good place to live +in. None of these populations can be imitated. It would be impossible +for a community to take over their modes any more than it could imbibe +their motives. The study of them throws light upon the problem of +country life in America. Above all things it illustrates the especial +union of the country church with the social economy of the farmer and +his household. It shows that the life of country people is co-operative, +that it is undermined by division and disunion and that in the open +country where man is least seen his society is most evident. The +dependence of each man upon his neighbor is increased in modern times by +the thinning out of the rural population and the increased economic +burden laid upon the farmer. + +Finally, the exceptional populations present an exceptional victory over +economic and natural forces. They abolish poverty within their own +bounds. Every one of the communities just described turns the power of +its common organization upon the problem of maintaining the lower margin +of the community. They who are in danger of falling behind are sustained +and carried on. None in these communities is permitted to fall into +pauperism. The workingman without capital, whether he be in their +meetings or only employed on their farms, is kept from want. The widow +with her little house and one cow is insured against the loss of any +feature of her small property. This seems to me to be the greatest +triumph of these communities. It is the test, I am convinced, of their +organizations and of their success. In this they demonstrate one of the +greatest possibilities of country life. They show that in the open +country it is possible for men to live without the suffering and +degradation of poverty. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 17: History of American Presbyterianism, by R. E. Thompson.] + +[Footnote 18: An exception to this statement must be noted, in the +Scotch settlements in Canada and Nova Scotia.] + +[Footnote 19: Professor John L. Gillin, in American Journal of +Sociology, March, 1911.] + +[Footnote 20: Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.] + + + + +VI + +GETTING A LIVING + + +The core of a community must be economic. The main business of life is +to get a living.[21] The reason for existence of any community is found +in the living which it supplies its residents. Men are attracted to a +community by the increases in their living furnished by that community. +The first element in the getting of a living is the securing of daily +bread, shelter, clothing and the satisfaction of physical needs. It is a +mistake to think of the community as beginning in religious +institutions--narrowly understood--or in social gatherings or in +educational service. The initial human experience is the finding of +food. + +But the getting of a living is a long process. A living is more than +bread, and a roof and a coat. In quest of a living men go from the +country to the town and from the town to the city. They migrate from the +small city to the large. In each of these moves they secure a further +element in their living. Each of these communities is characterized by +the increase which it contributes to the living of its citizens, but in +every community the initial experience is the securing of daily bread, +shelter, clothing and material economic gains. Whatever is done, +therefore, for the community in a service to all the people must have +initial concern with the purely economic welfare of the people. + +Sir Horace Plunkett's book, "The Rural Life Problem of the United +States," develops this principle very clearly. He shows that in the +Country Life Movement in Ireland it was necessary to go into the very +heart of the people's aspirations, and organize their economic needs. + +It is necessary to understand the word "economic" if one would read +these pages aright. Economic matters are not those of mere money. The +word has a greater meaning than has the word finance. It connotes +poverty as truly as wealth, and is greater than both. The economic +motive animates men in the quest of those vital satisfactions which the +individual craves, and the social group requires. Professor John Bates +Clark has somewhere described this motive as the desire to preserve the +present status, with slight improvement, for oneself and one's children +after him; the desire to live on the same economic standard in one's own +generation; and to be reasonably assured of the same security for one's +children. This is not the desire to get rich, though in individual cases +it is changed into a desire for wealth. But it is a far more general, +indeed a universal aspiration, which inspires most of the work of the +world. Industry is based on it. Civilization is propelled by it. It is +the desire to get a living and the quest of a living. + +I believe that this economic motive is religious. It is the quest of +what a man has not, but feels to be his. It engages his utmost efforts. +It is labor for his wife and children and for all his group fellows, and +therefore is involved in his holiest, most self-forgetting feelings. It +takes him back to his parents and reminds him constantly of his +ancestors. He forms his ideas of justice in his economic experiences. +His ultimate conviction as to the goodness or the badness of the world +are the outgrowth of his experience in getting a living. Therefore his +economic life is his wrestle with nature and with society. It generates +in him all the religion he has. + +I suppose it was for this reason that Jesus said "I am come that they +may have life, and that they may have it abundantly." Probably his +meaning was economic, in part, in the saying, "Man shall not live by +bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." +The quest of a living is a satisfaction of successive economic wants, of +which bread is but the first. Every truth that mankind knows involves +men in an economic want. Education is one of the most general wants. It +comes in the series somewhat later than bread. The love of music is an +economic want, which comes generally later than education. But both are +a part of a living. I believe that the quest of education and the love +of music are religious, just as much as the desire for daily bread. One +might enumerate the whole series of economic wants, to satisfy which is +to live, but religion is the total of the reflections, and the complex +of customs which result from the lifelong quest for a living among +common folk. At its highest it is expressed by St. Augustine, "O God, +thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls are not at rest until we +find ourselves in thee." Bread is the first economic want, and God is +the greatest and the last. + +Economic wants among common folk are usually the source of religious +feeling. Few people desire to be rich; a lesser number strive to get +wealth; and very few attain a fortune. The most of men seek and get a +living. The best of men, and the most religious, are those whose +economic experience brings them a series of satisfactions, beginning +with bread, clothing, shelter, education in the essentials, music and a +little aesthetic culture, and gradually extending into higher forms of +human enjoyment. The simplest religious craving is for economic +assurance of supply. "The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want," is on +the most thumbed page of the Bible. The play of these economic +aspirations among poor people results in all the simpler and most +general religious feelings. With the rise of the aspirations of the +individual, and the ideals of the group, toward higher satisfactions, +the religious experiences should become nobler, more refined. The +penniless college student who prays for an education should be a nobler +worshipper than the fisherman who asks his mud-divinity for a good +catch. The group of Oberammergau players who present the Passion Play, a +highly complex satisfaction of wants, should be nobler believers and +worshippers than herdsmen who out on the hills pray for the increase of +their flocks and for a better price for wool. + +Communities differ from one another according to the living which they +supply, or the wants which they satisfy. Modern men will not live in a +community that does not satisfy a pretty long series of wants. For +instance, a graduate of the American common schools will desire bread, +clothing, shelter--all of comfortable quality--and education for his +children better than his own, musical enjoyment, aesthetic culture, the +possession of some books, access to many magazines and the reading of a +daily paper; and varied opportunities for the exercise of the play +spirit. The country community satisfies, in most of the United States, +only the first of these. It is a place for securing food, clothing and +shelter of a comfortable sort. Country people have in the past ten years +secured also a better supply of reading matter. Almost all the rest of +the series is lacking. The reason for the rural exodus is in the most of +cases the quest of education and of music, the craving for aesthetic +culture, and the desire for recreation. Country towns and small cities +therefore have come to be centers of education, of amusement and of +"culture." They are the first step upward on the series of economic +satisfaction. Men who have made some money on the farm "move into town," +for the satisfaction of the later wants in the series. + +None of these wants is itself sinful, for all of them make up life. They +are the steps on the way from bread to God. The business of the teacher +and preacher of religion is to know the wants of his people: study those +which are satisfied in his community, and so to build the community that +for most of its people and for the most desirable people, all the vital +necessities of life shall be satisfied, in the community in which the +desire for bread is satisfied. The problem of amusement exhibits these +principles clearly. Farming is austere, and few farming communities have +recreation adequate to the demand of the young people and the working +people who live on the farms. Agriculture is becoming more systematic +and more exacting in its demands: and systematic work creates a demand +for organized play. As this demand is not satisfied in the +country--indeed it is less generally satisfied now than in former +times--the youth and workingman from farming communities go to the towns +and larger villages for amusement. These centers of population have a +disproportionate burden therefore of cheap vaudeville shows, saloons, +professional baseball games, and moving-pictures. + +These amusements are, to a degree, abnormal in character because those +who enjoy them are away from their home community, and are suffering a +reaction from pent-up desires. Just as the lumberman or cowboy or sailor +when he comes to town "tears loose and paints the town red," so, in a +milder degree, the farmer's son or hired man, because he has at home no +recreations supplied by his church or school, patronizes in the town or +small city a cheaper and nastier theatre than one would expect to find +either in that town, or in his home community. The remedy is to make the +country community adequate to the wants of those who live there. The +church should promote recreation. The public school should supply +entertainment of a high standard, both to satisfy the play instinct and +to elevate the youth's ideals of amusement. The community which works +should be dependent on no other community for play. + +Common-school education is a function which country communities have +surrendered to the centers of population. The one-room country school +has long been inadequate; but the farmer has not improved it, preferring +to rely upon the town schools to which he will remove his family after +he has made enough money on the farm. I am told that about Crete, +Nebraska, a recent census revealed that half the normal child population +is missing from the country districts; and double the normal child +population is found in Crete. The quest of adequate schooling explains +the condition, which speaks ill for the country community of Nebraska. + +In all these cases religious service consists in completing the +community. The supply of wants, which are widely and keenly felt, is a +religious act. This has been the reason for the success of the Du Page +Presbyterian Church in Illinois.[22] The minister, Mr. McNutt, in a +religious spirit so well supplied the recreative life needed in the +community, that the community has been made whole. Just as Jesus made +sick or maimed men whole, as a religious act, so the community builder +who supplies to working farmers something besides labor on the land, is +making the community whole. + +The perfecting of the common school system in McNabb, by Mr. John Swaney +and other Friends, and in Rock Creek by Mr. R. E. Bone and other +Presbyterians, was a religious act for their communities in Illinois. +The farmers who have money can move to the town, but to complete the +country community is to satisfy the economic wants of the poor. The +wants of the poor are always of religious value. + +Moreover, the satisfaction of all wants in the community itself is a +moral gain. If individuals live this life in the bounds to which their +group and family associations are confined, the steadying influence of +society is at its greatest. Jacob Riis[23] noted among immigrants the +working of a lower sense of obligation due to absence from accustomed +home associations. Communities are compacted of the strongest moral +bonds. If churches would make men righteous they cannot do better than +to complete the community, especially in the country, as a place to live +in: making it a place for education as well as profit: of play as well +as work, of worship as well as of material comfort. + +Unfortunately churches in the country are too often recruiting stations +for the cities and colleges. The ministers are respectable pullers-in +for the city show. Nothing rejoices them so much as to help their young +men and women find a position in the city; unless it be to have a bright +lad or girl go off to college. When a country minister was reminded that +all these departures weakened the country community, and that very few +of them benefitted the lad or girl who goes to the city, he replied "you +cannot blame them; there is nothing here to keep them." + +"The rural exodus" has had its Moses in the rural college student, its +Aaron in the country minister, and its Miriam in the country school +teacher. These three have led a generation out of the country to perish +in the wilderness. For only a pitiful few of those who leave the country +come to prominence in the city. The most gain but a poor living there, +and very many go to ruin. The church should be the savior of the +community, as her Master is of the soul. + +It seems to me that this is done in a church in Ottumwa, Iowa, of which +Dr. W. H. Hormell is minister. It is in a stock-yards district, and the +daily occupation of many of the members is unclean, of some revolting. +But the church is a dynamo of spiritual forces. It supplies the +experiences most opposite to those of the slaughter-house. A half-dozen +chapels in surrounding neighborhoods, most of them in the country, are +outposts of the church, for each of which a superintendent is +responsible: and thus a man who is an underling at the slaughter-house +is a leader in the quest of eternal life. The whole company of workers +with the pastor, constitute a spiritual cabinet of the district. It is +not surprising that this church fascinates men. The minister cannot be +persuaded away, and a like devotion pervades his group of workers. The +intensity of the industrial labor is matched by the intensity of Bible +study, prayer and evangelism. The degradation and repulsion of the +leading industry of the place are equalled by the unworldly nobility and +optimism of the leading church. This church does not attempt to mend the +community--which might be found impossible--but only to serve the +community by supplying the satisfaction for spiritual wants. + +According to the law of diminishing returns, the first satisfactions of +any want have infinite value. What does this mean but that they have +religious value? The first drink of water to a famished man calls forth +a fervent "Thank, God." The first book printed is a Bible. The first +landing on American soil was a solemn religious occasion--and still is +for the immigrant. So the first gains of money are of religious value to +the poor. The first hundred dollars to a mechanic's family is invested +in a dozen benefits. The first thousand dollars which a working farmer +saves go into a home, a piano or books, or an education for a child. It +is all moral and spiritual good. Later thousands have diminishing moral +and spiritual values. Most of the churches and homes in America were +paid for out of the tithes of men and women who owned at the time a +margin of less than a thousand dollars. + +This is the reason for the religious character of economic life. The +most of people spend their lives with less than a thousand dollars. They +are poor, and money does them good, not harm. They need to know how to +use it. But the getting of their living is a process prolific in +religious feeling, because economic matters have to them the infinite +value of first satisfactions of all the simplest wants of life. + +The salvation of the community will be accomplished in satisfying the +higher wants of those whose lower wants are satisfied. For those who +"have made money" supply schools; for those who work supply recreation; +for the sick hospitals; for the invalid build sanitariums; and for all +men supply social life, the greatest need of human life on earth. For +those who are thus united to the community, and to one another in the +intricate network of associations, the opportunity of worship together, +and of sharing common spiritual interests becomes the highest economic +want. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 21: "I come that they may have life, and may have it +abundantly."--Jesus, in John 10:10.] + +[Footnote 22: "Modern Methods in the Country Church," by Matthew Brown +McNutt.] + +[Footnote 23: "The Making of an American," by Jacob Riis.] + + + + +VII + +THE COMMUNITY + + +The country community is defined by the team haul. People in the country +think of the community as that territory, with its people, which lies +within the team haul of a given center. Very often at this center is a +church, a school and a store, though not always, but always the country +community has a character of its own.[24] Social customs do not proceed +farther than the team haul. Imitation, which is an accepted mode of +social organization, does not go any farther in the country than the +customary drive with a horse and wagon. The influence of leading rural +personalities does not extend indefinitely in the country, but +disappears at the boundary of the next community. Intimate knowledge of +personalities is confined to the community and does not pass beyond the +team haul radius. Within this radius all the affairs or any individual +are known in minute detail; nobody hopes to live a life apart from the +knowledge of his neighbors; but beyond the community, so defined, this +knowledge quickly disappears. + +Men's lives are housed and their reputations are encircled by the +boundary of the team haul. + +The reason for this is economic and social. The life of the countryman +is lived within the round of barter and of marketing his products. The +team haul which defines the community is the radius within which men buy +and sell. It is also the radius within which a young man becomes +acquainted with the woman he is to marry. It is the radius of social +intercourse. Within this radius of the team haul families are accustomed +to visit with ten times the frequency with which they pass outside this +radius. Indeed, for most of them, one might say that social intercourse +is a hundred times as frequent within the team haul as without it. + +The average man would define the community as "the place where we live." +This definition contains every essential element, locality, personal and +social relations, and vital experiences. The community is that complex +of economic and social processes in which individuals find the +satisfactions not supplied in their homes. The community is the larger +social whole outside the household; a population complete in itself for +the needs of its residents from birth to death. It is a man's home town. + +This conception of the community as a vital common possession explains +the relation of religious, educational, ethical, economic institutions +to one another. The community is the clearing-house of all these +influences. It is the medium by which they exchange with one another, +in the interest of human life. The perfection of this exchange and the +abundance of communal influences makes the community good and desirable, +or poor and undesirable. + +Sometimes one says that the community is "a good place to live in." When +it is ample for the needs of individual lives men move into it, and the +average man finds there a contented and satisfied life. The decay of the +community is indicated by the departure of individuals and of families +in quest of a better centre for the supply of vital human needs. Some go +to make more money elsewhere, some depart for educational advantages and +some move away because social life is lacking or religious privileges +are not suitable. But these four vital essentials, economic, ethical, +educational and religious, make up the elements in the community's +service to the individual. + +The community is sometimes corrupted by vicious principles in its +construction; and then its members are in proportion defective. It +produces in excessive degree idiots, blind, deformed, neurotic, insane +or criminal individuals. + +The community, thus defined, is normally furnished with certain +institutions essential to the life of the people. In earlier days the +community was sufficient unto itself. Very little was imported. +Everything for use in the community was raised therein and manufactured +in the households. A system of exchange gradually was effected through +the country store. The country store of 1770 in Duchess County, New +York, had an amazing relation to a wide population. The radius of the +life dependent upon it was the same as the radius around the Quaker +Meeting, beside which this store was placed, and all the goods used in +the community with few exceptions were produced and manufactured in this +radius of the team haul of ten miles.[25] + +Nowadays the country community has normally a store, a blacksmith shop, +a church and a school. In the recent past certain classes of peddlers +regularly visited the country community, though their place in the rural +economy is diminishing. The country store in many communities is already +closed and its maintenance is surrounded with increasing difficulty. So +long, however, as the horse drawn vehicle is the type of transportation +in the country, the elements of the country community must remain +substantially the same.[26] + +The economic life of the community is necessarily a part of the general +economic life of the population as a whole. The world economy has in the +past hundred years, with the perfection of the means of transportation, +taken the place of the communal economy. In 1810 every country community +was obliged to manufacture its own raw products so far as possible +within its own limits. In 1910 it was no longer profitable for even a +country community to do so. The result is that the economic life of the +community is usually expressed in a specified industry to which the +whole community is primarily devoted. If it be a rural community this +organization takes the form of a "money crop." In the corn belt there +are other products raised from the soil besides corn, but the world +economy assigns to that fertile section the producing of corn as the +most profitable and the simplest task. In the coal region it tends to +the highest efficiency for the labor of the region to be concentrated +upon the supply of this fuel, although in addition the surface of the +soil may be cultivated and in the larger population centers other +industries are coming in to exploit the superfluous labor. None of these +competes with the primacy of the coal industry, which the world economy +assigns to that community. + +It is essential that in every community there should be one or more +industries by which men may live. It tends to the highest well-being of +the community, that is, to its possession of a maximum of vital +attraction for individuals, that this industry should supply a variety +of sources of income; that is, wages, profits and interest. If the +community can retain in its own bounds the owners of its industries, at +least in some numbers, and the capitalists whose wealth is invested in +these industries, it is of great service. If it can make life +attractive for wage-earners in these industries, the completeness of +that community has its testimonial in this variety and wealth of +attraction. The weakness of many American communities is shown in their +inability to retain within their bounds the owners of the businesses and +the employers of labor. The ideal character of some communities in +Massachusetts is due to the fact that in the same streets there daily +meet capitalists, superintendents, foremen and wage-earners who are +alike interested in the local industries. + +This power of the community to attract and hold individual lives, +supplying them with the vital necessities for which the individual +craves, is dependent in America upon educational institutions more than +upon any other factor. The French philosopher Desmoulin has said that +the Anglo-Saxon supremacy is due to the Anglo-Saxon love of the land and +of education. The American represents these two passions, and of the two +the love of education is at present, the stronger. The community which +is weak in its schools will not hold its people. The generation who at +present are the largest owners of American wealth are eager for +educational advantage: and the incoming stream of immigration promises +that in the days to come this craving for education will not diminish, +but will increase. + +The country community has been peculiarly weak in its educational +facilities, by a strange dullness and inertia due to the economic +prostration of the farming industry. For the two decades following 1880 +the country schools have failed to keep pace with the city schools. +Prof. Foght says, "While the public attention has been centered on work +and plans for the improvement of the city schools a great factor for or +against the public weal has been sadly neglected. This is the rural +school. One-half of our entire school population attend the rural +schools, which are still in the formative stage. The country youth is +entitled to just as thorough a preparation for thoughtful and +intelligent membership in the body politic as is the city youth. The +State, if it is wise, will not discriminate in favor of the one as +against the other, but will adjust its bounties in a manner equitable to +the needs of both. Heretofore the rural schools have received very +little attention from organized educational authority."[27] + +The effect of this neglect of the country school in the face of the +constructive statesmanship which has led in perfecting the city school +is seen in the exodus from the country community of very large numbers +of the most successful farmers. Evidences are abundant that this exodus +from the country community is primarily a quest of educational +advantage. Not in every case would the departing family confess that +they were seeking better schools: but it is probable that the majority +of them while giving a variety of primary reasons for moving would +assign the desire for education as the uniform secondary reason for +departing from the country community. + +It is impossible for the country church to retain its best ministers. +Many reasons enter into this, but always at the top of the list is the +desire for better educational opportunities for the ministers' children. +The advice has become proverbial in theological seminaries, "Go to the +country for five years." It is said that in New England there are three +classes of country ministers and the first of them is the bright young +man who will not long be in the country. + +The ethical, sometimes called the social factor in the community's life, +is no less essential. Organized work requires organized recreation. +Every community which has a systematic economy by which its residents +get their living is found to have a systematic though usually informal +and unrecognized provision for recreation. Somewhere in the bounds of +every working town in America is a playground. It is not the result of +"the playground movement," but of the play necessity in human nature. +The open lots where the town is not built up, the railroad yard, the +yard of a factory or the town common are used by common consent by the +young people and the working-people of the town as a playground. + +The departure of many persons from country communities is due to the +lack of social life: and the fascination of the city for bright and +energetic young men and women is due to the variety of recreation and +interest which it provides to those who expect to work and are willing +to work. Regular work means regular play. This fact cannot be too well +learned by those who study the religious and moral life of modern men. +The need of play is as real as the need of food or of sleep. + +This recreational life is highly ethical. The craving of the young and +of working-people for common places of recreation is a normal craving +due to the development of conscience as well as to weariness of body. +The exactions of modern labor create a craving for free and voluntary +movement. Those who are hired to work, and those who if they are +employers are bound to the routine of the desk or of the bench, seek to +breathe deeply the air of happy and self-expressive action. The result +is that play, especially team work, is highly moral. It is not only +personal and self-expressive, but it involves co-operation, +self-surrender, obedience and the correlation of one's own life with +other lives in a glorious complex of experiences, unexampled elsewhere +in modern life for their ethical value in developing adolescent minds in +the common humanities and moralities. The playground is an essential +field in the preparation of good citizens and it is not to be wondered +at that in country communities, where all provision of recreation is +difficult, and no public provision of playgrounds is thought of by those +in authority, that young people and working people, indeed all classes +of the population, tend to move away. + +The religious attraction of the community has just as real a value for +the satisfaction of individual life as the economic or ethical or the +educational. "Mankind is incurably religious," and the life from birth +to death cannot be complete in average cases without religious +experience. Indeed the conscious testimony of men to the community's +religious value for them is greater than any of the others. Religious +experience is indeed a form of community conscience. To many men the +church and the community are one. We cannot within our definition grant +this; but the testimony to the religious character of the country +community is a classic in American thought. The early days of every +community are hopeful and optimistic. The tendency has been therefore +for each religious communion to establish its own church. These early +Protestant churches were expressions of the community sense on behalf of +these people. The average American can best think of the community in +terms of a church and a school. For building up the community, +therefore, the maintenance of religious institutions is essential. + +We are concerned in these chapters most of all with the American +community in the country. Not because it is more important, but because +it is easier to understand and affords a better model for interpreting +other communities more complex and highly organized. In it one may see +the processes which affect the town and city communities; shifting of +population, economic changes, educational improvement or retrogression +and the processes of social life which express themselves in moral +conditions. The community is the field in which may be observed the +prosperity of the people as a whole. It is the local exhibit in which +the average man shows what has come to pass throughout the commonwealth +as a whole. + +American rural communities have been under the influence of swift and +sudden changes during the years of railroad development. This is +exhibited in the country community very clearly. There almost all the +causes which are at work in the city are seen and their operation is +easier to observe and to measure than in a city community. It is the +general impression that the country community has suffered greatly +though the loss of population. This is probably due to the diminishing +agricultural activity of the country. Thirty-four counties in Ohio are +producing less than the same counties were producing before the Civil +War. It is natural that the population of these counties should be on +the whole smaller than at that time. But it is more probable that the +social, educational and moral life of the people of these counties who +stayed in the country is slacker and less vigorous than in 1860. +Sometimes the population of a community remains stationary but the +economic weakness expresses itself in a retarded social, ethical and +religious life. + +There is high authority for the statement that the sifting of the +country community in recent years has on the whole improved it. Wilbert +L. Anderson says, "If this emigration of the best were the whole story, +it would be impossible to refute the charge of degeneracy. There is, +however, another aspect of the matter. The industrial revolution has put +a pressure upon rural life that is more important even than the +attraction of cities. That pressure has aggravated the severity of the +struggle for existence, and this grinding of the mill of evolution has +crushed the weaker strata of the population. Among those who have gone +are laborers and their families, the owners and occupants of the poorest +lands--the famous abandoned farms, and the weaklings and dependents. +Many of these have swollen the crowds of the factory towns; others have +supplied unskilled labor to the cities; in not a few cases they have +gone to their destruction in the slums, where residues of decadent folk +finally disappear. The human material that was most susceptible to +alcohol has gone into the mills of the gods. When all is summed up, the +clearance at the bottom is not less significant than the loss at the top +of the social scale. Natural selection works as effectually in toning up +the species by weeding out the worst as 'natural selection reversed' +works for degeneracy through the removal of the best. This purgation +has been overlooked; whether it offsets the injury in the highest +stratum is a fair question, but obviously no man is wise enough to +answer it. The opinion may be hazarded that when the two influences are +compounded, it will be found that the average child has moved but a +little way up or down the scale. This is a local question to which there +are as many answers as communities. The net result of these changes is a +gain in homogeneousness; in the country town the dream of equality is +nearer realization to-day than ever before."[28] + +It is the writer's belief that, allowing for local variation, this +statement is the best generalization of the condition throughout the +country. The rural population has been specialized. The country +community is finding its own kind of people. It has not yet, through +suitable institutions, learned to cultivate its problems and to train +its own leaders. That is precisely what will be accomplished through the +building up of the country community with which we are here concerned. +But already the country population is homogeneous and is selected with a +view to fitness for the environment of the rural community. As the city +is breeding its own stock, who are possessed with the problem of city +life and devoted to the interests of the city, so the country in the +shifting of modern populations is coming to have its own kind of people; +among whom the problems of the country community are beginning to be +discussed and the interests of the country community are being provided +for by suitable organizations. + +The building of communities, therefore, will provide the positive +agencies requisite for the needs of the present population in the +country. The purpose of those who serve the country population shall be +the construction of suitable institutions by which country life shall be +made worth while. These institutions must be economic, for the securing +of prosperity to country people, social institutions which shall build +up their moral character and life, educational institutions whereby the +problems of country life shall be understood in the light of all human +life, and religious institutions which shall crown the life of country +people with hope and animate the individual with the spirit of +self-sacrifice on behalf of all the people of the community and of the +world. + +The church should be a community center. There may be other centers of +the community where other functions are assembled, but the church should +lift up her eyes to the horizon in which she lives and comprehend all +the people in her service and affection. This does not mean that they +shall all be members of that church. The community spirit is itself +growing. Frequently the country community has attained a unity which the +churches ignore. For the church to become a community center means that +it represents in itself the united life of the people. Whatever be +their common interest that interest dwells in the church. + +In Hernando, Mississippi, the people are united. The interest of one is +the concern of all. Under the leadership of the families of old +land-owners the whole community responds to common impulses and is +organized under common ideals. No poor child of either a white or a +negro household is neglected or is overlooked. Yet in this community +churches have no federation and ministers have no regular means of +working together. A charity organization was recently formed in this +community as an organ by which the community should care for its poorer +members. This society was formed outside of the churches, no one of +which had the right to be a center for the community. It is true that +ministers and members of these churches were leaders in this community +enterprise, but the churches as organizations were not a part of it, +although its purposes are purely Christian. + +Prof. Alva Agee insists that "The country church does not serve the +community's needs as the community sees those needs." His meaning is +that when a community enterprise is to be launched the promoter of it +finds it necessary in the country to avoid the churches, lest his +enterprise be entangled in their differences. He is embarrassed also by +their lack of a community spirit. Frequently the same persons who to the +church contribute no community spirit are in the community itself +leaders of common enterprises. + +In contrast to these conditions the instance of Du Page Church at +Plainfield, Illinois, of which Rev. Matthew B. McNutt was recently the +minister, exhibits the power of a country church to make itself the +center of a whole community. This church, which in a year became famous +throughout the land, has earned its repute by ten years of devoted +service of its minister and the growing affection and union of its +people. The church serves so well the social needs of the community that +a social hall once popular has been closed and three granges in +succession have attempted to organize in the community and have failed. +Yet Du Page Church is passionately devotional and intensely missionary. +Its social life is but a legitimate expression of its community sense. +The minister and his people have had the power to see and to inspire a +common life among the people in the countryside. + +This chapter has been intended as a definition of the country community. +Its radius is the team haul, because the horse has been the means of +transportation in the country. The community is the round of life in +which the individual in the country passes his days: it is his larger +home. The definition of this greater household of the country must be +flexible, but however it be defined, it is the characteristic unit of +social organization among country people. The map of the United States +outside the great cities is made up of little societies bordering +sharply upon one another, differing from one another socially and +religiously. These little societies are the proper fields in which the +life of the church and the school is lived. Of these small societies the +church and the school are the expressions. In church and school the +country community has its highest life. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 24: The author expresses his indebtedness for this definition +to Dr. Willet M. Hays of the Department of Agriculture at Washington.] + +[Footnote 25: Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.] + +[Footnote 26: Professor C. J. Galpin of University of Wisconsin has done +precise work of great value, in defining the country community, as it +centers in the village. See his pamphlet, "A Method of Making a Social +Survey of the Rural Community," a bulletin of the Agricultural +Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin.] + +[Footnote 27: "The American Rural School," by Harold W. Foght.] + +[Footnote 28: "The Country Town," by Wilbert L. Anderson, D.D.] + + + + +VIII + +THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY + + +The change of ethical consciousness among church people in recent years +takes the form of a transference of interest from the individual to the +community. The literature of religious and ethical thought is full of +appeal to "serve the community." The working out of any religious or +ethical force in modern society is guided by the closely compacted and +highly organic character of present-day social life. + +In the old times in America, which have so recently gone, men were of +one class; the community was homogeneous; universal acquaintance +prevailed. + +The unit of value in American life until recent years was the successful +man, because we faced a continent unexplored. Unpossessed commercial +resources were before the people. The standard of the time of Horace +Greeley was the standard of individual success, of initial utility. The +town boasted of the man it had "turned out." The church measured its +value by the rich and benevolent farmer or merchant, and by the +individuals whose piety or literary success seemed to express the life +of the church. There was an opportunity for all, because crude +resources, numberless openings offered themselves to every one who had +character, industry and brains. + +Within a decade the American people have become conscious that their +resources are numbered. The free lands of the West are assigned. The +tons of coal under the ground are estimated. The amount of timber, of +copper and of iron still unexploited is known, and public discussion is +centered upon the limits to the growth of the American population, and +the possibilities of more economical organization of life. We can no +longer waste as once we could. The problem is now a problem of economy. +Instead of the standards of a time of plenty we are confronted with +problems of bare subsistence. + +In times of plenty, when resources are not yet exhausted, men's lives +diverge and the individual is the unit of thought and feeling. The +natural result of a time of plenty is the development and the endowment +of personality. But in times when a bare subsistence is the condition +with which many are confronted, men are drawn together and the community +becomes the unit of thought and feeling. Industry as it matures brings +men together. It becomes evident that they depend upon one another. + +Men who in a time of plenty would seek an independent fortune, under +conditions of bare subsistence are contented to secure employment and to +become dependent upon others. The problems of subsistence open +opportunities for exploitation and the stronger become related to great +numbers of weaker members of the community. Thus men's lives are +intensified, and the conditions out of which thought and feeling arise +are social conditions rather than individual. + +The country community under these circumstances rises into new +significance. In the early pioneer days the country community for a +similar reason was much in thought and feeling, because then men were +seeking a bare subsistence in the contest with nature. This +consciousness was lost as soon as the pioneer days were past and the +abundance of nature began to enrich mankind instead of antagonizing him. +Now, again, the country community has come into prominence because men +are confronted with a struggle to maintain an acceptable standard of +living. + +In dealing with a social whole, to accomplish certain purposes one must +deal with it in social terms. Social service is not quantitative, but +qualitative. Ministry to a community is not uniformly applied to all the +members. In social service there is no such thing as equality of all the +population. The differing values of men in a social population are +determined, as other values are measured, by the working of the law of +diminishing returns. + +Roughly stated, this law is that successive additions of any valued +thing bring ever diminished returns. The first quantity of anything is +of infinite value. For later increments the value is measurable, and +ever less with the increase. The application of this law in economics is +stated as follows by Professor John Bates Clark: + +"Labor, as thus applied to land, is subject to a law of diminishing +returns. Put one man on a quarter section of land, containing prairie +and forest, and he will get a rich return. Two laborers on the same +ground will get less per man; three will get still less; and, if you +enlarge the force to ten, it may be that the last man will get wages +only." + +"Modern studies of value, show that doses of consumer's goods, given in +a series to the same person have less and less utility per dose. The +final utility theory of value rests on the same principle as does the +theory of diminishing returns from agriculture; and this principle has a +far wider range of new applications." + +"We have undertaken to generalize the law that is at the basis of the +theory of value. In reality, it is all-comprehensive. The first +generalization to be made consists in applying the law, not to single +articles, but to consumers' wealth in all its forms. The richer man +becomes, the less can his wealth do for him. Not only a series of goods +that are all alike, but a succession of units of wealth itself, with no +such limitation, on its forms, becomes less and less useful per unit. +Give to a man not coats, but 'dollars,' one after another, and the +utility of the last will still be less than that of any other. The +early dollars feed, clothe and shelter the man, but the last one finds +it hard to do anything for him."[29] + +By this law successive deposits of immigrants and successive gains in +the American population are reducing the valuation of men for religious, +moral and educational use. The first man in any historic experience is +of infinite value. The first American, Columbus, will be famous forever, +but not because of any talents or enterprises of his. As a matter of +fact he blundered in discovering America and died ignorant of the feat +he had actually accomplished. But because he was the first white man on +a new continent he had infinite historical value. When the early +Europeans were increased to ten or to one thousand each of them entered +into fame, though men like John Smith were commonplace enough in their +performances. Their fame is measurable, but still great. When the number +of Americans was increased to eight millions everyone thought himself a +great citizen, the founder of a family and a potential millionaire. +Those were still the days of exceptional personality. The type of man in +those times was the landowner, the pioneer and the statesman. But now +there are ninety million Americans, all the valuable lands are assigned, +all the best positions are filled, every job is taken, and ten million +of the population are concerned about the problem of daily bread. These +ten million people are the marginal Americans. They are breadwinners, +and the breadwinner is the unit of value on whom the standard of +American social and religious life is measured. So far as there can be +an American type on whom policies in public life are measured, that type +is today the breadwinner. In the city the breadwinner is a working man +or an immigrant. In the country the marginal man is the tenant farmer; +or a working farmer, though he be the owner. The marginal man represents +the value of all men in the community. + +The law of diminishing returns works in the factory for fixing the wages +in any scale which prevails throughout a level of pay. It is equally +efficient in leveling men in the community. The employer does not pay +the working man on any level of wages in accordance with the value of +the few brilliant, trusty or inventive men in that group, but he pays +each man just that wage which he must offer to the last man he hires. +The marginal man standardizes the wage. The religious values of men are +standardized not upon the brilliant or saintly or accomplished, not upon +the well-to-do members of the community, but upon the poor who are just +able to stand and maintain themselves in the life of that community. + +The working of this law is not a matter of persuasion. It is the +inflexible condition with which religious and ethical institutions are +confronted. Churches should therefore estimate their policies by the +responses of the marginal people of the community. Religious standards +of value should be measured by final utility, not initial utility. The +complaint against the church today is reducible to this: that she +standardizes her ideals and her policies in accordance with the +prosperous and well-to-do. The eloquence and the character of her +ministers, the kind of music with which God is worshipped, the +comfortable pews, the carpets on the floor, are all of them unlike the +public hall which is supported by the dues of the poor. The taste +expressed in church matters is rather literary and aesthetic than +popular. The church which would appeal to the whole community must +standardize her work upon the poor man, and make her appeal to him. + +This principle is not only scientifically correct, but it works out in +practise. A minister who came into a well organized country community, +where there were a few land-holders, many tenants and numbers of farm +lands, found that the only appeal by which the whole community could be +reached was an appeal directed to the marginal people in the community. +When he sought the tenant farmer, he secured with him the land-holder, +and when he went after the hired man on the farm, he secured the farmer +who employed him. When he gained the adherence of the boys and girls he +secured the support of their parents, and when he rendered service to +little children, he could safely rely upon the gratitude and loyalty of +their mothers and fathers. + +This was the kind of work which Jesus did. He frankly made a selection +of the people to whom he should minister.[30] He knew no phrases about +all men being equal, and he made no profession of impartiality such as +today causes many ministers to loiter among the well-to-do, who care not +for them. Jesus said he had no time to spend with well people, because +he was sent to the sick. But the philosophy of his action was seen in +the fact that when he ministered to the sick he himself helped the well. +He "preached the gospel to the poor," but not because he had any +prejudice against the rich. By ministering to the poor he applied his +gospel to the margin of the community. That gospel has been of equal +value to the rich man, because the spiritual experiences of the poor are +the experience also of the rich. The modern minister who goes after rich +men specifically, or who goes after them with the same vigor with which +he seeks the poor, will receive but a grudging welcome. But if he +awakens the gratitude and support of the poor, he will find himself +sought by the rich, and sustained by their abundant gifts. + +Mr. Gilbert K. Chesterton, the English critic, has somewhere finely said +that the Master in his words to Simon Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon +this rock I will build my church," clearly recognized that Peter was a +shuffler and a weakling and a coward and it was upon just such common +material that the church was founded. It was not to be an aristocratic +organization. Its foundations were not laid upon skill and genius in +human character, but upon the weaker and commonplace traits, which +universal mankind possesses. + +So definite was the appeal of Jesus to the marginal people of his time, +that he has been twice criticized unjustly; once in his own time by the +Pharisees, and again in our time by the Socialists. The latter have +claimed that Jesus was "class conscious," that he was a partisan of the +poor, a proletarian radical. The unscientific character of Socialism is +displayed in this comment upon Jesus. His appeal was to the whole +community, as through Christian history his message has come uniformly +to men of all degrees, rich and poor, ignorant and learned, bad and +good. The religious genius of Jesus is shown in the fact that he +recognized what the Socialist does not, that to appeal to the whole +community a prophet must address his plea to the people on the margin of +the community. His measure of value must be final utility. + +One may go at large into this tempting field in illustrations. The +artistic experience of mankind is abundant in illustration of it. There +is no beauty of the ocean save in its shores--the margin of the +boundless expanse. Literary descriptions of the experiences of human +love are made up of descriptions of the margins of love. Married life is +depicted in courtship, and the sentiments of affection are described in +scenes of parting and meeting, which are the margins of companionship. + +This principle should be fundamental in all policies of reconstruction +of religious and ethical institutions. In the training of men for +religious service and for ethical leadership they should be accustomed +to think in terms of communal wholes, and this thinking will use as its +units of measure the characteristics of the marginal life. It is for +this reason that temperance reform in America has been so influential +within the past two decades. It is a communal form of ethics. It demands +that the community should act together in safeguarding the weaker +members of the community, the young men, and the working people. The old +temperance propaganda was individualistist. It recorded its results in +the number of persons who signed the pledge. Its results were almost as +gratifying if the pledges were signed by well-doing and orderly people +as if they were signed by drunkards. The modern temperance movement +draws its influence from its proposed effect upon the agricultural +laborer. + +The theological seminary of the past has been a literary institution. +During the period of its development the typical Christian was the +bright and aspiring young man in a community of boundless resources. To +such a man books are the interpreters of life. But in the modern period +with the congested population and close social organization, human +fellowship is an experience of greater value to most men than books. +Since the time of the invention of printing successive quantities of +literature have been given to the world, and under the law of +diminishing returns literature has come to have for many very small +returns. At the time of the Protestant Reformation the value of books in +the hands of the common people was infinite. For several generations +along with the extension of universal education this infinite value of +books continued for the people on the margin of the educated world. But +nowadays everybody in American progressive communities can read and +write: and in a universally educated population we arrive at the final +utility of books in human use. Great masses of poor people and also many +people of means use books within narrow limits only. They do not buy +them, they do not read them, they do not think in literary terms. Yet +they have access to books and they turn from them with a clear sense of +intelligent preference for other human values. Books are to them but an +alphabet and social life is the story. + +My own impression is that the life of the marginal man is social rather +than literary. His religion will be a social religion rather than a +biblical religion. The weakness of Protestantism is that it stubbornly +insists upon literary interpretation of God and upon a biblical +ministry, while the population around these Protestant churches +exemplifies the diminished value of literature for spiritual uses. + +The religious and ethical service of the days to come must interpret +the social life of the people. The great mass of the people care as +little for wealth as they do for books. The same argument as to the +diminished returns of literature may be repeated to describe the +diminished returns of private property. The economic revolution since +feudal days has exhausted the values of private property in satisfying +human need. The time was when property had an infinite value for +expressing personality. In days to come private property will still have +this value for many individuals. But among common folks generally +private property does not seem to have boundless value for human +satisfaction. Working men as I have known them do not take pains to get +rich. They know the way to wealth by economy and accumulation, but they +do not take it. They have a vast preference for the social intercourse, +friendly interchanges and mutual dependence by which their life is +refreshed, strengthened and sustained. Ethical policies of the future +while using literature and private property as efficient implements must +interpret social life itself as a flowing spring of religion and +morality. + +The training of religious and ethical leaders should be undertaken in +the theological seminary and in the university in such manner as to +standardize the influence of these institutions, by the life not of the +exceptional man, but of the common man. The influence of educated men +must be used to reconstruct churches and societies upon the standards +not of the wealthy, the learned, the genius and the well-to-do, but by +the experiences of the poor, the workingman and the immigrant. The +standard in all religious and ethical institutions which profess to +represent the community is today graded up to the professional and +exceptional. The reconstruction necessary is to grade down so that the +appeal shall be to the poor and struggling man whose condition is in +jeopardy, and whose status in the community is as yet undetermined. +Institutions which appeal to the community as a whole must standardize +their policy to the level of the margin of the community. + +The reconstruction of the theological seminaries is necessary, if they +are to fit men for service in communities. They render now a service +which is so valuable that one cannot pass over them lightly. They train +the candidate for the ministry by a process which develops and engages +his piety. Other university courses either ignore his religious feeling, +or if they develop it, do not harness it to the task of social +improvement. The theological seminary lays the yoke of service upon the +neck of prayer. This alone justifies its existence as a servant of the +church in the community. However, the instruction in the seminary is +rigidly grouped around courses in dead languages; which are jealous of +instruction in a living tongue. The history of discarded doctrines and +of discredited teachers is minutely taught through months, to the +exclusion of courses upon modern, living people, whose religious +experience is rich and striking. The purpose of seminary instruction is +personal culture instead of efficiency. It is the theory of the teachers +wherein they disagree with all other professional teachers, that "We do +not make preachers: the Lord makes them." They try therefore to impart +culture and personal distinction. + +The seminaries need first of all flexibility of courses. The whole +traditional schedule should be made elective. The demands of the time +would then have free course in the seminary, and would rearrange the +instruction according to actual present need. The cultivation of +practical piety should receive more attention. The social life of the +students, in close association with their professors and under religious +stimuli, should be made a more powerful force than it usually is, in +creating a common ideal of service to which the seminary should commit +itself. Above all, the seminary of theology should teach sociology and +economics, as a religious interpretation. Students should after a year's +class-room work be made to investigate and report upon actual +conditions, should be delegated to study social movements, report upon +them, and to lead in discussing them. They should be trained in the use +of statistics, in graphic display of conditions, and in the use of +public reports. In the senior year they should be employed definitely in +practical work for populations, under instructors. After graduation the +young minister should, more generally than now, be employed as an +assistant to an older minister, in a large organization. + +The influence of such social training would itself reform seminary +instruction. Thrust into a present-day curriculum, social science is a +foreign and alien intruder; but its value would soon be demonstrated and +other courses would be made over in new harmony with it. If some courses +be dropped, even if whole chairs be abandoned, it is better than that +the whole theological seminary be abandoned by students--which is the +apparent fate hanging over certain seminaries! What has here been said +is true of the schools of theology in all denominations, and applies +alike to both the conservative and the liberal. + +In conclusion, the writer believes that the church's future is with the +self-respecting poor. Jesus and nearly every leader of a great religious +movement was of the poor and labored with the poor. The sources of +religion are those named in the Beatitudes: poverty, meekness, sorrow, +hunger, ostracism; and those are all social experiences. The service of +the church should be to these; and in serving the marginal people, whose +life is composed of the Beatitudes, the church will serve all men. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 29: "The Distribution of Wealth," by John Bates Clark.] + +[Footnote 30: Luke, 6:20 ff; 15:1 ff.] + + + + +IX + +NEWCOMERS IN THE COMMUNITY + + +One general cause is bringing new people into the average country +community. The exploitation of land expresses the transition from the +period of the land farmer to that of the scientific farmer or +husbandman. The signs of this exploitation are the retirement of farmers +from the land, the incoming of new owners in some numbers and of tenant +farmers in a large degree, into the country community. The influence of +the absentee landlord begins to be felt in communities in which the +landowner was until 1890 the only type. In most of the older states +immigration from foreign lands has not greatly affected the country +community. In Wisconsin, Minnesota and other states of the Northwest +substantial sections of the community are invaded by people of sturdy +Germanic and Norse extraction. In New England the Poles, French, +Portuguese and some Jews are settling in the country. But throughout the +states of the Union as a whole the population, both the newcomers and +older stock, are American. + +The dates of this exploitation of land are, generally, from 1890 onward. +Reference is made elsewhere to the description of this process in the +Middle West.[31] + +Independent of these causes the same process has appeared in the South, +in Georgia, Mississippi and in West Tennessee, as well as other states. +In sections in which the values of land have not been doubled, as in +Illinois and in Indiana they have, the same exodus from the farm and +invasion of the country community by new people has taken place. + +One cause of this exploitation of land is the shrinkage in size of the +older families. Everywhere the exploitation of land is the greatest +where the soil is the richest and the farmers the most prosperous. Even +in the exceptional populations such as the Scotch Presbyterians and +Pennsylvania Germans, this effect of agricultural prosperity is slowly +at work. + +In Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in Washington County, where the +most substantial farmers in the country are found, the families in the +present generation are small. Many of the older stock have no children. +Families which have retained the title of their land for eight +generations are losing their hold upon the soil, by the fact that they +have none to inherit after them. + +Another cause of this exploitation of land is the increasing number of +small farms in certain regions. This means that in certain sections the +farming population has a new element, for the holders of these small +farms are many of them new to the community. + +The process, which is made clear by the census of 1910, is this. The +earlier retirement from the farms was by sale, the farmer taking money +instead of land. The second stage of retirement from the farm was +through absentee landlordism and the placing of tenants on the farm. +This process has come to an end in many sections of the Middle West, +with the return of the sons of the landlord to the family acres in the +country, so that there is a sort of rhythm in the flow of population +from the country into the town and backward to the land. In this process +there is no invasion by new people, except the temporary residence of +the tenant farmer in the country, and some of these have in the process +gained a footing by ownership of land. But this ebb and flow of +population out of the country community and back again has weakened and +strained the country church and school and has not yet begun to +strengthen them. There is every evidence that with a pleasant and +agreeable country life the country community can retain the best +elements of this population, which comes and goes. The country church +and school ought to take measures to retain the best of the country +population through these changes. + +Through all these causes the presence of a large proportion of aliens in +the community who are American born, but locally unattached by birth or +ownership, has effected great changes in the country church, and other +community institutions. The State of Illinois, which has a tenant farmer +population of more than 50 per cent in its richest sections, has +suffered severely through the loss of many country churches. There is no +precise measure of this loss, but a sociological survey recently made in +Illinois indicates that in the past twenty years more than fifteen +hundred country churches have been abandoned in the State. This +statement must be accepted as approximate, but the number is likely to +be greater rather than less. This abandonment of country churches has +come in the same period in which the proportion of tenant farmers has +greatly increased. Reference is made elsewhere to a similar condition in +the State of Delaware, in which the churches of the old land-owners have +been abandoned and replaced at heavy expense with poorer churches built +by the incoming tenant farmers. + +Everywhere in the United States this process has in some measure +affected the country. It does not much matter whether the proportion of +tenants is increasing or decreasing, the present effect is one of +instability. In New England where in the past ten years tenantry has +been diminished ten per cent, the country churches are weakened as +elsewhere. The churches have not yet had time to recover while the +population is in a state of change. + +The old order in the country is crumbling. The church is an expression +of stability. The people on whom the church always depends for its +audiences, its enthusiasm and its largest accessions, are marginal +people, working men, adolescent youths and those who are coming to a +position in the community. The exodus of these from the country +community, or the incoming of persons in these classes into the country +community, has been unfavorable to the country church at the present +time. + +It may be said at this point that a state of transition is for the time +being unfavorable to ethical and moral growth. Moral conditions are +sustained by custom, and where customs are in change, moral standards +must themselves be in transition. The country community is moral so far +as adhering to the standards of the past is concerned. But the +population themselves who have to do with the country are undergoing +extraordinary moral change, with incidental loss, and many of the +problems of the United States as a whole are made more acute by the +waste of the country community. Among these should be cited the +amusement question in the small town, the decadence of the theatre in +the cheaper vaudeville, the white slave traffic and the social disorders +peculiar to unskilled laborers, many of whom come from country +communities of the United States and Europe. + +It must be remembered, too, that the rural free delivery and the +telephone have entered the country community in the past twenty years +and their effect has not yet been recorded. It has probably been in the +direction of chilling instead of warming the social life of the +country. The old acquaintance and the intimate social relations of the +country community have not been helped by the telephone: and along with +the presence of aliens in the community, one-fourth or one-half or +three-fourths of the population, the telephone has had the effect of +lowering the standards of intimacy and separating the households in the +country one from another. The rural free delivery has put country people +into the general world economy and for the time being has loosened the +bonds of community life. + +In those states in which the trolley system has been extended into the +country, for instance Ohio and Indiana, the process of weakening the +country population has been hastened. Sunday becomes for country people +a day of visiting the town and in great numbers they gather at the +inter-urban stations. The city and town on Sunday is filled with +careless, hurrying groups of visitors, sight-seers and callers, who have +no such fixed interest as that to be expressed in church-going or in +substantial social processes. For the time being inter-urban trolley +lines have dissipated the life of the country communities. + +The duty of the church in the country under these conditions can be +accomplished only under a widened horizon. The minister and the leaders +of the church must lift up their eyes. They need not be discouraged if +for the time being they accomplish little, for the period of +exploitation must come to an end normally with the exhaustion of its +forces, before the better day can come. But this period is one of +enlargement. The units of social life will be spaced farther apart. The +country community will advance as soldiers say, "in open order." This is +true for the family life, in which the father, the mother and the +children have greater freedom from one another; as well as in the +community, in which neighbors become less intimately dependent on one +another. The church must therefore preach the world idea. At this time +of transition the country church should undertake its foreign missionary +service. The great causes of the Kingdom which are world-wide should be +presented to country people when they are lifting up their eyes from +local confines to look at the world and the city and the nation. As the +daily paper comes into the farmer's household the farmer's church should +interpret the history of the time in missionary terms. The literature of +the great missionary agencies should be distributed in the farm +household. Wherever the catalogue of the big store in Chicago or New +York is found on the center table, beside it should be placed a modern +book expressive of missionary evangelism. As the mind of the countryman +develops to comprehend the world in his daily thought under the impetus +of a daily newspaper, his conscience and his religious experience should +be expanded correspondingly. + +In a time of exploitation of land the country church should regenerate +its financial system. The system of barter passes away in the day of +speculation in farm land; and the country church which can find means to +endure the period of exploitation must put its financial system on a new +basis. The tenant farmer is crudely striving through problems of +scientific agriculture. He may, indeed, be a soil robber, but by his +waste of economic values he and other men are learning to conserve. The +financial system of the church should be placed at this time on a basis +of weekly contribution, for with the tenant farmer comes system, cash +payments, regular commercial processes. The business administration of +the church must be made to correspond. + +The country minister and schoolteacher must therefore become prophets of +the intellect and of the spirit, in the new order. If they cannot +minister to the new intelligence of the farmer and his children, their +institutions will necessarily decay. The farmer who succeeds in the new +social economy of the country will not endure old sermons which were +appropriate in his father's time. The emphasis must not be placed on +tradition, but upon inductive study. The preacher must not feed the +people on special instances, but upon representative cases. The +intelligence of the new type of farmer will not be satisfied with +sensations and with the unusual; but he demands to be trained in +standards of the new day, when science, system, organization and world +economy are making their demands on him and his very soul is concerned +in his response to those demands. + +The task of dealing with newcomers in the country community is +educational, financial and recreative. One should add that it is also +evangelistic, but I have in mind the possibility that these newcomers +may be Catholics with whom Protestant evangelism will not be successful. +It is possible also that they will be of another Protestant sect from +that of the reader of this chapter, so that to evangelize them would +mean proselyting. The writer believes very heartily in rural evangelism. +It is an essential process in building the country church. These +chapters are devoted primarily to the building of the country community +and in that process the securing of members for the country church is +preliminary only. Leaving, therefore, the question of rural evangelism +for treatment in another place, let us take up the educational treatment +of the newcomer in the country community. + +The proper machinery for this education is the common school and the +Sunday school. As the common school is treated elsewhere, the use of the +Sunday school in organizing the rural population belongs here. Few +churches realize the power and value of Sunday-school training. I am +insisting that the life of country people is religious. The use of the +Sunday school is to train the young of the community in religion. All +country people accept the Bible as a holy book. They all believe in the +education of their children and in much greater numbers than they will +respond for a church service their children will respond to the work of +religious culture on Sunday at the church. The Sunday-school +organization is interdenominational. Its lessons and its methods are a +common heritage of the churches at the present time. The machinery is +perfect, but the Sunday-school leaders lack vision and they lack the +progressive spirit. If only the teachers and ministers realized the +value of the Sunday school and its acceptance with the people, there +would be needed no other machinery for building the country community. + +The Sunday-school should be a close parallel to the day school. If the +day school in the community has any progressive features, the Sunday +school should use these and improve them. Between the two there should +exist the closest sympathy, not formal or definitely organized, but +actual and expressed in parallel lines of work. Where the day school is +graded, the Sunday school should accept the same grading, strongly +organizing all its classes. The pupils in the Sunday school should pass +by successive promotions from teacher to teacher and from grade to +grade. + +If the day school in the country is unprogressive and is taught by a +succession of indifferent persons, the Sunday school should practise +under the guidance of religious leaders those principles of modern +pedagogy which should be used in the common schools. Graded lessons, +the organization of material and progressive development of religious +truth from the simpler to the more complex, should find their place in +every Sunday school. The opportunity for service to the whole community +thus offered through the Sunday school is excelled by none in the +country community. + +The upper classes of the Sunday school should be organized. Young men +and women especially, who are in danger of finding the Sunday school +irksome because their intelligence has passed beyond its control, should +be organized in classes which on week days have a club or society +character. The Sunday school should use as an ally their tendency to +organization and should satisfy their social needs by giving them +regular and approved opportunities for meeting and for pleasure. + +Another principle which the Sunday school can practise for the benefit +of the community is the centralization of religious teaching. Even if +the common schools are not centralized, the children for the Sunday +school should be brought to the church from outlying regions in hired +wagons every week. It is better that a large Sunday school be maintained +under efficient leadership than that a number of small schools with +indifferent teachers should be maintained in various school districts. +The larger body can have better leadership. It is more closely under the +supervision of the minister, who is generally the superior in education +of the laymen, and the social value of the meetings of the Sunday +school will be greater in the larger body. All the arguments which make +for the centralization of the day school have force for the +consolidation of Sunday schools in one large school. + +The Sunday school offers a basis for church federation. In the community +it is frequently possible for Sunday schools to be united and for the +advantages of this common teaching to be made even greater because all +the children of the various churches are in one body. The best +leadership and the best teachers are thus secured and the community +spirit is cultivated through the young people and more loosely attached +members of the community. + +The older classes of the Sunday school on a basis of study of the Bible +should be organized for practical ends. The adult Bible class can be +made to have all the influence of the grange in the country community. +The fathers and mothers of the community may meet throughout the week +socially. They may undertake together the study of the economic life of +the community. Lecturers from the agricultural college, representatives +of the Play Ground Movement, of the county work of the Y. M. C. A., of +historical societies interested in the community's past and other +representatives of national movements, may be welcomed and heard by this +organized class, the basis of which is religious education. + +What I am urging may be accomplished by any church in some measure, +however divided the community may be. It is the business of the +individual church which has a vision of the community as a whole to act +as if it were a federation of churches. Frequently ministers are in +favor of church federation, as if that process were an end in itself. +The writer believes that the individual church can accomplish the ends +of federation if the union of churches can do so. The best means for +effecting federation of churches is to practise the program of +federation until it shall come about. + +The community made up in a degree of new families and the community in +which the newcomers are young men and women, children of the residents, +are bound to educate these invaders of the community, whether they come +from without or whether they come by "birthright membership," in the +spirit of benevolence. The giving of money to public uses is one of the +cherished social forces of our time. The country community is just +entering into the day of cash. The period of barter is over. The farmer +therefore needs in his ethical and his religious training, to have +definite culture as a philanthropist. The future of the farm-hand in +America is still very hopeful. The tenant farmer expects to be an owner. +The farmer's son believes himself to have a future. These hopes from +earliest years should be disciplined by the practise of giving. For this +end the church is a rarely well fitted means. The financial system of +the church must be made democratic. The custom of renting pews belonged +in the land-farmer period. The writer does not suggest that it be +abolished because it can often serve a more democratic purpose in its +mature forms under careful supervision than any substitute, but it is +all important that the country church be a training-school in the +consecration of money to the uses of the community and of the kingdom of +God. + +For the average countryman the kingdom of God should be embodied in the +country community. This is not to say that his vision should be narrow. +On the contrary his vision is often of the spread-eagle sort. He +overlooks the opportunities for benevolence which are near at hand. He +believes in foreign missions sometimes, and contributes impulsively to +the support of men in China who are paid a better salary than the pastor +in his own community. He applauds the gifts of millionaires and of city +people generally to hospitals, but he ignores the ravages of disease in +his own community. The divine imperative is that the country community +be first organized, by those who live there, for local well-being. For +this, contributions of money are necessary and they must be made by all +in the community. + +The question has been raised frequently whether an endowment is not +necessary for the country church. The writer began his ministry in a +country church which was generously endowed. He still believes in the +value of endowment for some country communities. Ex-President Eliot of +Harvard recently commended the principle of endowment to the New England +Country Church Association, as a solution of the rural problem. +President Butterfield of Massachusetts Agricultural College has +emphasized the same principle. It is quite likely that in the Eastern +States where the country community has been depleted by the departure of +an extraordinary number of families and individuals, an endowment would +be of value for the country church. One must not hold to a theoretic +opposition to such a method. The important thing is to provide a trained +pastor for the country community. In these Eastern communities a larger +proportion of the former members of the community have prospered than in +Western communities. Many of them are very rich. In these cases it is +but natural that an endowed church in the country community express the +ministry of the more prosperous citizen to his poorer brethren, but +everybody knows that these depleted communities--I will not say these +excessive fortunes--are among the most lamentable factors in American +life. + +The endowment of the church, however, is a very poor apology for a bad +situation. It has but limited use, and the creation of a large fund to +be used in the country community necessitates careful supervision by men +of such business ability as are not usually found in a country +community. To remedy such conditions as those with which President +Eliot and President Butterfield are most familiar is a specific +problem. It is not the general situation throughout the United States. +The purpose of these chapters is to make plain the way by which the +average American community may escape depletion, may retain the +leadership of its best minds and may prosper in a democratic way. I am +interested more in training the country population for the future than +in mending the mistakes of the past. But I believe that for depleted +country communities in New England, New York and Pennsylvania an +endowment of the country church would in many instances be effective: +and for them alone. + +Let the country church undertake its financial problem in a +business-like way. At the beginning of the year make a budget of all the +monies needed for the year's work. Face the issues of the year frankly. +Pay to the minister and to other employees of the church a sufficient +amount to provide them with needful things throughout the year. A living +wage is not enough. The minister especially needs a working salary. With +little variation throughout the country as a whole the minister in the +rural community should have in order to minister to his people, to +educate his children and to look forward without fear to old age, twelve +to fourteen hundred dollars a year and a house. Many country communities +have a more expensive standard, and there are a few in which less is +required. But in Southern States and in Western communities I have found +the conditions, created by the prices which prevail throughout the +country as a whole, at this standard. + +When the budget of the year is prepared, including missionary and +benevolent gifts, it should be distributed by the officers through +consultation with all the members of the church, young and old, rich and +poor, in such way as to secure a gift from every one and to meet the +obligations of the church as a whole. For the moral values of the +situation the small gift of the poor and of the child are even more +important than the large gift of the well-to-do. For the securing of +these gifts the envelope system, especially the so-called duplex +envelope, is the best means which can be generally used by churches. It +is a method flexible enough to reach every member and it represents in +its duplex form the double motive of giving to the community itself and +to those larger national and missionary enterprises to which the country +should contribute. + +The third method of developing the country community is recreative. I +mention it here for completeness of statement. Another chapter is +devoted to recreation in the country community. The amusements and +recreations of the country community are immersed in moral issues. The +ethical life of the community is the atmosphere in which social pleasure +is taken. Therefore the recreations of the community are to be provided +and supervised by those who would undertake to create a wholesome +community life. A maximum of provision and a minimum of supervision are +required. Country life is devoid of means for recreation. Some one must +provide it. Usually it is either neglected altogether, and the result is +dullness and monotony; or it is provided for a price, and the result is +an organized center of immorality. Recreation requires but little +supervision. The presence of older persons, and those of a humane +friendly spirit, is usually necessary to the games. These are based on +honor and with a few simple principles the young people and working +people of the community will organize their own play and find therein a +great benefit. + +To summarize this chapter, the acute problem in many communities today +is the merging of the life of newcomers in the community into the +organized social life which is older and more settled. This task belongs +above all to the country church. Many of the detailed applications are +for the school to follow out, but the business of the church is to see +and to inspire. If the church is not democratic, the community will be +hopelessly divided. If the church welcomes the newcomer and finds him a +place, the community will be inspired with a democratic spirit. The task +of the church is indicated in the new prosperity of the country which +tends from the first to remove from the community those who prosper. The +church's business is to win to the community all who come into it and to +release from its hold as few as possible. + +In a discussion of country life in a Tennessee college town the question +was asked of a professor of agriculture who was speaking about farm +tenantry, "What should the church do for the tenant farmer?" "Borrow +money for him and help him to buy land," said the professor. + +Such a solution might be the church's task, but the example of England's +policy for Ireland shows that the professor commended a governmental +rather than a religious service. For it is found that the Irish +farmer--a tenant on land whereon his ancestors have for centuries been +tenants--when he secures the land in fee through the new policies of the +British Government, frequently deserts the country community, selling +his land to a neighbor. Some sections of Ireland are said to have a new +kind of small tenantry and a new sort of small landlord. The task of the +country community begins where the task of government leaves off. It is +to inspire the resident in the country with a vision, and to lay upon +him the imperative, of building up the country community out of the +newcomers, who enter it by birth or by migration. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 31: "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross.] + + + + +X + +CO-OPERATION + + +In contrast to other classes of the population country people have a +marked preference for individual action and an aversion to co-operative +effort. The causes of this are historical. In general these causes are +of the past and they are not a matter of persuasion. The American farmer +has not co-operated in the past because: first, the necessities of his +life made him independent and impatient of the sacrifices necessary in +co-operating with his fellows. We have still many influences of the +pioneer in modern life. So long as agriculture is solitary work and its +processes take a man away from his fellows, co-operation will be +retarded. So long as the countryman has to practise a variety of trades, +he will be emotional, and the social life of the country will be broken +up by feuds, divisions, separations and continued misunderstandings. No +mere education as to alleged right and wrong can plaster over the old +economy with new ethical standards. Until the loneliness and the emotion +are taken out of farming country people cannot co-operate. + +A good part of the United States is still in the land farmer period. The +characteristic of the land farmer is his cultivation of group life. The +historical process by which this group life is broken up is +exploitation. Farmers whose lands have not been exploited and whose +group life has not suffered the undermining influence of exploitation +will not normally co-operate. I am convinced that in most farming +territories the loyalty of the countryman to his group is the second +reason for his refusal to co-operate. Again, this refusal of his is not +subject to persuasion. He is obeying an economic condition which shapes +his life and controls his action. Striking instances are furnished in +many regions of the amazing disloyalty of farmers to one another, and to +their own pledged word. These are to be explained by the type to which +the farmer in these sections conforms. We must not expect the land +farmer to obey the ethical standards of the husbandman. + +A good instance of this conformity to type was furnished in the case of +meetings held in Louisiana and Western Mississippi among the farmers who +raise cotton. The occasion of the meetings was the approach of the boll +weevil to their districts. The attendance upon the meetings was large, +indeed universal. The situation was clearly understood and the speakers +secured from the farmers present a promise quite unanimous to refrain +from cultivating cotton for a year. The purpose of this was to meet the +boll weevil with a territory in which he would find no food. Thus his +march eastward across the cotton field would be arrested. + +The farmers having made their promise and agreed heartily in the +proposal, adjourned. Weeks and months passed and the time approached for +planting cotton. Farmer after farmer, who had attended these meetings +and given his promise, privately decided that he would plant a cotton +crop and secretly expected that he would secure a larger price that year +because so many of his neighbors were to raise other crops. When the +full season for planting cotton had come it was discovered that so many +farmers had planted cotton that the plan of co-operation was a failure, +and the whole district went back to cotton, with full prospect of +assisting the boll weevil in his course toward the East. The reasons for +this action lie in the type of farmer who thus found it impossible to +co-operate. Each of these farmers regarded above all other things the +success of his own farm and his own family group. In contrast to this +interest no other claim, no exhortation and not even his word given in +public had any lasting influence upon his action. + +The third element in the inability of country people to co-operate is +the ideal of level democratic equality which prevails in the country. +Where universal land-ownership has been the rule every countryman thinks +himself "as good as anybody else." So long as this ideal prevails, that +subjection of himself to another, and the controlling of his action by +the interests of the community, are impossible. The farmer cannot +co-operate when he thinks of social life in terms of pure democracy. +There must be a large sense of team work, a loyal and instinctive +obedience to leaders, a devoted spirit which looks for honest +leadership, before there can be co-operation. These things come not by +persuasion, but by experience. Co-operation is the act of a mature +people. Not until country people have passed through earlier stages and +discarded earlier ideals can the preacher and the organizer and the +teacher successfully inculcate a spirit of co-operation. + +Country churches are highly representative in their present divided +condition. This multiplication of churches in the country is lamentable +chiefly because it registers the divided state of country life. It is +true that divided churches are religiously inefficient, but it is vastly +more important that divided churches are embodiments of what one country +minister calls "the tuberculosis of the American farmer, individualism." + +It was natural for the pioneer to desire a religion in terms of a +message of personal salvation. Personality in his lonely life was the +noblest, indeed the only form of humanity known to him, therefore the +herald was his minister and emotion was his religion. It is very natural +for the land farmer to organize religion in terms of group life. His +churches were only handmaids of his household. They had but the +beginnings of social organization. They taught the ethics of home life, +of the separate farm and of a land-owning people. Obviously the church +for the pioneer and for the land farmer could be a very weak and +indifferent organization, but efficient for the religious needs of those +independent, self-reliant types of countrymen. + +For these reasons in all parts of the country the pitiful story is heard +of divided communities. One need not recite it here. It usually is the +account of three hundred or four hundred people with five or six country +churches. At its worst there is a small community in which missionary +agencies are supporting ministers who do not average one hundred +possible families apiece in the community. The condition of Center Hall, +Pennsylvania, has been described in another chapter, in which there are +within a radius of four miles from a given point twenty-four country +churches. This community represents a condition of transition from the +land-farmer type to that of exploitation. Some of these churches are the +old churches of the land-owning resident farmers, but the most of them +are said to be the newer churches of tenants who have come into the +community. Our present concern is to recognize the relation of the +divided churches to the divided social life of the community. The +criticism of the country community must be made on an understanding of +the stage of development to which that community has attained. Whatever +is planned for the upbuilding of the country community must be planned +in harmony with the well-known facts of rural development. + +Business life introduces into the community a new standard of values. +Cash and credit take the place of barter. The exchange in kind on which +originally the community depended comes to an end. Business life very +shortly induces combination. The whole of modern business presents a +spectacle of universal combination and co-operation. The farmer who is +most conservative is surrounded on all sides by the aggressive forces of +business. Combined in their own interest they compete with him on +unequal terms. He stands alone and they stand combined. + +Americans are looking with growing interest on the experience of Denmark +where a multitude of co-operative associations represent the spirit of +the people. This spirit has been deliberately cultivated in the land for +forty years. It is the universal testimony of observers that the +prosperity of Denmark is dependent on these co-operative agencies and +upon this united spirit. The exodus from the country has been arrested, +agriculture has been made a desirable occupation, profitable for the +farmer and most probable for the state, and the people as a whole have +taken front rank in social and economic welfare. Essential to this +constructive period of Denmark's life is co-operation.[32] + +In Sir Horace Plunkett's recent book, "The Rural Life Problem in The +United States," he develops this principle clearly. He says that in the +organization of country life in Ireland it was necessary to go into the +very heart of the people's experience and organize their economic and +social processes in forms of co-operation. + +"When farmers combine, it is a combination not of money only, but of +personal effort in relation to the entire business. In a co-operative +creamery for example, the chief contribution of a shareholder is in +milk; in a co-operative elevator, corn; in other cases it may be fruit +or vegetables, or a variety of material things rather than cash. But it +is, most of all, a combination of neighbors within an area small enough +to allow of all the members meeting frequently at the business center. +As the system develops, the local associations are federated for larger +business transactions, but these are governed by delegates carefully +chosen by the members of the constituent bodies. The object of such +associations is primarily, not to declare a dividend, but rather to +improve the conditions of the industry for the members. + +"It is recognized that the poor man's co-operation is as important as +the rich man's subscription. 'One man, one vote,' is the almost +universal principle in co-operative bodies. + +"The distinction between the capitalistic basis of joint stock +organization and the more human character of the co-operative system is +fundamentally important. + +"In this matter I am here speaking from practical experience in Ireland. +Twenty years ago the pioneers of our rural life movement found it +necessary to concentrate their efforts upon the reorganization of the +farmer's business. + +"1. We began with the dairying industry, and already half the export of +Irish butter comes from the co-operative societies we established. + +"2. Organized bodies of farmers are learning to purchase their +agricultural requirements intelligently and economically. + +"3. They are also beginning to adopt the methods of the organized +foreign farmer in controlling the sale of their butter, eggs and poultry +in the British markets. + +"4. And they not only combine in agricultural production and +distribution, but are also making a promising beginning in grappling +with the problem of agricultural finance. It is in the last portion of +the Irish programme that by far the most interesting study of the +co-operative system can be made, on account of its success in the +poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, the attempt to enable the most +embarrassed section of the Irish peasantry to procure working capital +illustrates some features of agricultural co-operation which will have +suggestive value for American farmers. + +"A body of very poor persons, individually--in the commercial sense of +the term--insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has +been somewhat grandiloquently and yet truthfully called 'the +capitalization of their honesty and industry.' The way in which this is +done is remarkably ingenious. The credit society is organized in the +usual democratic way explained above, but its constitution is peculiar +in one respect. The members have to become jointly and severally +responsible for the debts of the association, which borrows on this +unlimited liability from the ordinary commercial bank, or, in some +cases, from Government sources. After the initial stage, when the +institution becomes firmly established, it attracts local deposits, and +thus the savings of the community, which are too often hoarded, are set +free to fructify in the community. The procedure by which the money +borrowed is lent to the members of the association is the essential +feature of the scheme. The member requiring the loan must state what he +is going to do with the money. He must satisfy the committee of the +association, who know the man and his business, that the proposed +investment is one which will enable him to repay both principal and +interest. He must enter into a bond with two sureties for the repayment +of the loan, and needless to say the characters of both the borrower and +his sureties are very carefully considered. The period for which the +loan is granted is arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined +by the committee after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the +loan has been made, it becomes the concern of every member of the +association to see that it is applied to the 'approved purpose'--as it +is technically called. What is more important is that all the borrower's +fellow-members become interested in his business and anxious for its +success. + +"The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in +Ireland and that, although their transactions are on a very modest +scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its +adherents and in the turnover,--this fact is, I think, a remarkable +testimony to the value of the co-operative system. The details I have +given illustrate one important distinction between co-operation, which +enables the farmer to do his business in a way that suits him, and the +urban form of combination, which is unsuited to his needs." + +The traditional economy that centered in the farm household was +independent. The ethical standards of country life recognized but small +obligations to those outside the household. Farmers still idealize an +individual, or rather a group, success. They entertain the hope that +their farm may raise some specialty for which a better price shall be +gained and by which an exceptional advantage in the market shall be +possessed. The conditions of the world economy are imposing upon the +farmer the necessity of co-operation. + +The prices of all the farmers' products are fixed by the marginal goods +put upon the market. For instance, the standard milk for which the price +is paid to dairy farmers, is the milk which can barely secure a +purchaser. The poor quality, relative uncleanness, and the low grade of +the marginal milk dominate the general market in every city, and the +farmer who produces a better grade gets nothing for the difference. It +is true that there is a special price paid by hospitals and a limited +market may be established by special institutions, but we are dealing +here with general conditions such as affect the average milk farmer and +the great bulk of the farmers. It is on these average conditions alone +that the country community can depend. + +Co-operation is the essential measure by which the producer of marginal +goods can be influenced. To raise the standard of his product it is +necessary to have a combination of producers. So long as the better +farmer is dependent by economic law upon those prices paid for marginal +goods, the only way for the better farmer to secure a better gain is to +engage in co-operation which shall include the poorer and the marginal +farmer. + +In the Kentucky counties which raise Burley tobacco, a few years ago the +tenant farmer was an economic slave. He sold his crop at a price +dictated by a combination of buyers. He lived throughout the year on +credit. His wife and his children were obliged to work in the field in +summer. He had nothing for contribution to community institutions. +Indeed, he very frequently ended the year without paying his debts for +food and clothing. + +The organizations of these farmers which have been formed in recent +years for self-protection have been blamed for some outrageous deeds. +Persons in sympathy with these organizations have burned the barns of +farmers unwilling to enter the combination. They have administered +whippings and threats right and left in the interest of the farmers' +organization. In their contest with the buyers to secure a better price +they have reduced to ashes some of the warehouses of the monopoly to +which they were obliged to sell their tobacco. These public outrages are +worthy of condemnation. The writer believes that they were not essential +to the process of co-operation by which the farmers fought their way to +better success, though the effect of these acts is a part of the +historical process. + +But the combination of farmers has redeemed the poorer, the tenant +farmer and the small farmer from economic slavery. His representatives +now fix the price of the product. There is one buyer and one seller, +competition being eliminated; and the price at which the tobacco is sold +is the farmers' price, not the manufacturer's price. As a result the +farmers are able to hire help. The wife and children no longer work in +the field. The bills are paid as they are incurred, instead of credit +slavery binding the farmer from year to year. Last of all this +prosperity has taken form in better roads, better schools and better +churches. It remains only to be said that among the farmers engaging in +this co-operative union there were many preachers and pastors of the +region. They took a large part in the combinations of farmers which +affected this great gain. They recognized that the fight of the farmers +for self-respect and for free existence was a religious struggle and +that the church had a common interest in the well being of the +population to which it ministered. + +Another instance of co-operation is seen in Delaware and on the "Eastern +Shore" where the soil had been exhausted. Methods of slavery days were +unfavorable to the land and after the War it was long neglected. In +recent years a new type of farmer has come into this territory. By +intensive cultivation with scientific methods, he is raising small +fruits, berries, vegetables and other products, for the nearby markets +in the great cities. The success of these farmers has been dependent +upon their produce exchanges. They have learned, contrary to the +traditional belief of farmers, that there is a greater profit for the +individual farmer in raising the same crop as his neighbor, than there +is in an especial crop which competes in the market for itself. That is +to say, in shipping a carload of strawberries the farmer gets a better +price when the car is filled with one kind of berry than he would +receive if the car was made up of a number of separate consignments +under different names and of different varieties. Co-operation has been +better for the individual than competition. + +It at once becomes evident that co-operation is an ethical and a +religious discipline. As soon as the farming population is saturated +with the idea, which these farmers fully understand who have prospered +by co-operation, the religious message in these territories will be a +new message of brotherhood. The old gospel of an individual salvation +apart from men and often at the expense of other men will be enlarged +and renewed into a gospel of social salvation. No man will be saved to a +Heaven apart or to a salvation which he attains by competition or by +comparison, but men shall be saved through their fellows and with their +fellows. The country church, of all our churches, will teach in the days +to come the gospel of unity. + +The writer's own experience as a country minister was a perfect +illustration of this union of all members of a community. In the +community Quakers, Irish Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and +Baptists were represented in nearly equal numbers. With people widely +diverse in their economic position, though dependent upon one another, +it became evident to all that the only religious experience of the +community must be an experience of unity. Under the leadership of an old +Quaker who supplied the funds and of two others of gracious spirit and +broad intellect, the whole community was united, on the condition that +all should share in that which any did. One church was organized to +receive all the adherents of Protestant faith and one service of worship +united all, whether within or without the church. Even the Roman +Catholics once or twice a year for twenty years have been brought +together in meetings which express the unity of the countryside. + +Other instances there are of co-operation among churches in the country, +but their number is not great. There is a supplementary co-operation in +the division of territory in some states. The church at Hanover, N. J., +has a territory six miles by four, in which no other church has been +established. This old Presbyterian congregation has peopled its +countryside with its chapels and has assembled the chapel worshippers +regularly at its services in the old church at the graveyard and the +manse. + +In Rock Creek, Illinois, the Presbyterian Church has a community to +itself, and ministers in its territory with the same efficiency with +which the Baptist church across the creek ministers to its territory, in +which it also has a religious monopoly. These two congregations respect +one another and have a sense of supplementing one another, which is a +form of co-operation. The ideal expressed in these two instances is +cherished by many. It is hoped that religious bodies may agree in time +to divide the territory, to give up churches, to sell or transfer +property rights and to shift their ministers from communities which have +too many to those communities not served at all. But the way for this +co-operation as an active principle has not yet opened. Its value is in +those communities which have had it from the first as an inheritance. +It has so far not proven a remedy to be applied for the cure of existing +evils. + +The writer believes that the path of co-operation is the efficient and +slow one of economic and social organization rather than the delusive +short-cut of religious union. People cannot be united in religion until +they are united in their social economy. The business of the church is +to organize co-operative enterprises, economic, social and educational, +and to school the people in the joy, to educate them in the advantages, +of life together. Co-operation must become a gospel. Union requires to +be a religious doctrine. It will be well for a long time to come to say +but little about organic union of churches and to say a great deal about +the union in the life of the people themselves. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 32: "Rural Denmark and Its Lessons," by H. Rider Haggard. See +also the Bulletins of the International Institute of Agriculture at +Rome, Italy.] + + + + +XI + +COMMON SCHOOLS + + +The weakness of the common schools in American rural communities shows +itself in their failure to educate the marginal people of the community, +in their failure to train average men and women for life in that +community, in their robbing the community of leadership by training +those on whom their influence is strongest, so that they go out from the +community never to return; and in their general disloyalty to the local +community with its needs and its problems. + +It is the boast of the people of the country school district that their +school has "sent out" so many people of distinction. On a rocky hillside +in a New England town there stands, between a wooded slope and a swamp, +an unpainted school building. Within and without it is more forbidding +than the average stable in that farming region. But the resident of that +neighborhood boasts of the number of distinguished persons who have gone +forth from the community, under the influence of that school. This is +characteristic of country places and country schools. The influence of +the school, so far as it has any, is that of disloyalty to the +neighborhood. It robs the neighborhood of leadership. It does nothing +to cultivate a spirit of sympathy with the life that must be lived +there. For every one whom it starts upon the exodus to other places it +leaves two at home uninspired, indifferent and mentally degenerate. + +Another fault of the one-room country school, which makes it a weak +support of the country community, is its lack of professional support. +Among four hundred teachers in such schools, throughout the country, not +one in a hundred expects to remain as a country schoolteacher for a +lifetime. There is no professional class devoted to the country school. +Its service is incidental in the lives of men devoted to something else. +It is a mere side issue. + +Besides, its building is inadequate. Too many needs, impossible to +satisfy, are assembled in a single room. Too many grades must be taught +there for any one child to receive the intense impression necessary for +his education. + +The third great fault of the country school is its total lack of +intelligent understanding of the country. Its teaching is suited to +prepare men for trade, but not for agriculture. Instead of making +farmers of the sons of farmers, the majority of whom should expect to +follow the profession of their fathers, the country school prepares them +for buying and selling, for calculation and for store keeping. It starts +the stream of country boys in the direction of the village store, the +end of which is the department store or clerical occupation in a great +city. + +The improvement of the one-room rural school is possible within narrow +limits only. A recent book[33] gives most sympathetic attention to this +problem of improvement, while asserting that reorganization alone will +be adequate to the situation. But there are improvements which, within +the limitations of the one-room school, are possible. The supervision of +these schools may be made closer and more efficient. By bringing to bear +upon them the oversight of experts in education the grade of teaching +may be elevated. The important principle is to discover the proper unit +of supervision. The town is too small and the county unit too large. It +is probable that with some rearrangement the county can be made the +proper unit of supervision, but the school should determine its problems +on a principle independent of political divisions. The first need of the +country school at the present time is to be adapted, by such supervision +of the district as shall correlate the country school with the units of +population resident in the country. In some places the district to be +supervised by one superintendent should be not much larger than a +township, in other places it might approach the bounds of a county, but +in all instances the supervising officer should have the relation of an +employed expert to the problems of the country. It is not enough that +untrained farmers or tradesmen occasionally visit the school in an +indifferent manner. Their indifference is the natural attitude of men +untrained in the task assigned to them. The officer who supervises +should be well adapted to his task and should visit with frequency, +criticize with trained intelligence, and train his teachers in a +constructive educational policy suitable to the district. + +Another improvement in rural schools may be had in a better normal +training of the teachers. At the present time the normal schools are +inadequate to the task of supplying teachers and beyond the supplying of +teachers for the city, they stop short. The training of teachers for +country schools must become a part of the normal provision for the +states. + +The minimum salary for teachers is a most important consideration. A +primary difficulty in the present situation is that the country school +teacher is ill paid. It is therefore impossible to secure and to retain +in the country persons of adequate mental and cultural value. In order +to secure funds for better payment of teachers, a readjustment of the +taxation in the various states is probably necessary, but this will be +slow of accomplishment. Some results may be effected in another way by a +minimum salary for teachers throughout the State. In this manner a +better grade of teachers can be secured for all schools. + +The most important improvement, however, in the country schools is +almost impossible in the one-room school. It is the teaching of the +gospel of the land. Out around the country school lies the open book of +nature. First of books the pupils should learn to read the book of +nature. The life of the birds and animals, so familiar to the children +yet so little known; the growth of plants, their beauty and their use, +and the nature, the tillage and the maintenance of the soil, are all +lessons easy to impart to those who are themselves instructed, yet the +present system of shifting teachers makes such instruction impossible. +It is the opinion of expert educators that the study of agriculture is +impossible in the one-room country school. With this opinion the writer +agrees, yet so great is the necessity of this very improvement and so +slow will be the changes which look to consolidation of schools, that +effort should be made at once by those in charge of the country school +to teach the children the lesson of the soil, of plant life, of animal +and bird life and of the world about them. These lessons are necessary +to their economic success. They are the very beginning of their +happiness in the country and of love for the country. In teaching them +the country school can best perform its duty to the present generation. + +The centralizing of country schools is the adequate solution of the +present situation. By this means the children from a wide area are +brought to a modern school building suitably placed in the country. When +necessary they are transported to and from the schools in wagons hired +for that purpose, in charge of reliable drivers. In this consolidated +school building, which has taken the place of three, five or even seven +one-room district schools now abandoned, there shall be at least two and +it may be five teachers. This group of teachers forms a permanent +nucleus and a center for the life of the country. The children are +assembled in a sufficient number to provide a large group, and their +social life is enjoyable as well as mentally stimulating. The weaknesses +of the one-room district school are in this institution corrected. There +is permanence in the teaching force, professional service, cumulative +influence, and the interests of the community find in the school a loyal +center of discussion. The consolidated rural school is an institution +for the first time adequate to the task of building up the whole +population. + +The first use to which the centralized rural school is adapted is to +halt the exodus from the country. The country community has now no check +upon the departure of its best people. The sifting of the country +community is done, not by the community itself, but by outside forces, +unfriendly and unintelligent as to the interests of the country. The +centralized rural school will retain in the country those who should be +interested in the country community. This will be accomplished by the +study of agriculture, which can adequately be taught only in a graded +school in the country. But much can be done even by the supply of an +adequate system of education in the country community. + +At Rock Creek, Illinois, the retirement of farmers to the cities and +towns had gone so far in 1905 that the intelligent and devoted members +of the community, who did not desire to leave the place where their +grandfathers had first broken the prairie sod, took counsel as to the +welfare of the community. The superficial fact of most consequence was +the presence of tenant farmers in the community. These tenants, however +desirable personally as neighbors, were of a short term of residence. +From one to five years was their longest term on one farm. The social +life of the community and its religious interests were beginning to +suffer. The sons of the early settlers, therefore, laid their plans by +which to control the selection of tenants. + +Their first plan was to form a farmer's union or syndicate, which should +undertake to run the farms of those who were retiring from the land. +This plan seemed promising and the makers of it congratulated themselves +upon controlling the future of the community. But reflection showed that +this method would have the effect of retiring more farmers from the land +and turning over the hiring of tenants to the few remaining loyal +owners, who would come in a short time to constitute the local real +estate agencies; while the majority of the owners would enjoy themselves +in towns and villages round about. + +The result was that the farmers undertook not to control the tenancy, +but to build up the community itself. They deliberately undertook the +reconstruction of the schools. Three school districts were merged in +one. An adequate building in which a group of teachers is employed was +erected. The children are transported in wagons hired for that purpose. +The grounds about the school building are made pleasant; and the school, +located near the manse and the church which had most influenced the +change, forms now a strong community center for a wide region. + +The result is all that could be desired. The retirement from the farms +has been checked; the neighborhood has become specially desirable for +residence. Farmers who had gone to the town find now that as good or +better schools are to be had in the community where their property lies +and where they pay their taxes. The rental price of land has increased +and it is difficult for tenants to come into the community unless they +are willing to pay an added rental in return for better school +privileges. The whole countryside has received an impetus and the +depression of country life has for this community departed. Mr. R. E. +Bone, "the fourth red-headed Presbyterian elder Bone in the Rock Creek +Church," takes great pride in the building up of the community which has +been effected through the consolidated school. + +A more mature example is the John Swaney Consolidated School in +Illinois. Here the leadership and generosity of John Swaney, a member of +the Society of Friends, have effected the consolidation of four school +districts at a point two miles from the village of McNab. This purely +rural consolidation was not effected without a contest. Indeed the McNab +school has had to fight for the gains it has made from the very +beginning. The school-house stands by the roadside, not even surrounded +by a group of residences. The grounds are peculiarly beautiful, being +shaded by great trees and extending in ample lawn about the building. In +the rear are stables for the horses which transport the children daily +from the outer bounds of the consolidated district. + +The school building contains four class-rooms with physical and chemical +laboratories. In one room are apparatus for cooking and sewing. In the +basement is a well-lighted shop where benches for manual training are +placed at the use of the boys. In the third story is an auditorium so +ample as to accommodate a basket-ball game and about two hundred +spectators. Frequent gatherings occur here in a simple spontaneous way. +This common school has all the social and intellectual power of the +old-fashioned country academy which once was so useful in the Eastern +States. A principal and four women teachers form the faculty of the John +Swaney school. The number of scholars in 1910 was one hundred and five, +the number of boys slightly exceeding that of girls. Of these about half +were in the primary and the grammar grades and about half in the high +school. Of the latter some twenty-five were tuition pupils from outside +of the district, so that the actual school group of the McNab +consolidated school, the children of the tax-payers, was in that year +eighty in number. + +The difference between the social life of eighty young people and eight +or eighteen young people, which one may find in a one-room school in the +country anywhere, is very great. Needless to say that the John Swaney +school has athletic teams, tennis tournament, baseball games, literary +and debating contests and is a strong aggressive force lending life and +vitality to the whole countryside. The older families of the +neighborhood are Quakers. The newer half of the population is of +Germanic stock. The influence of the school is upon all its pupils. The +high school retains practically all the sons of the Quaker families and +some of the newer population whose interest in education is less. + +But the crowning distinction of the John Swaney school is in its study +of agriculture, or broadly speaking in its industrial training. For with +agriculture must be classed manual training and domestic science. By +John Swaney's generosity twenty acres of land were presented to the +State for an experiment farm. This land adjoins the school grounds and a +regular part of the curriculum for the young men is the study of +agriculture. The result of this interpretation of country life in forms +of scholarship is that substantially all the graduates of the high +school annually go to the State University for training in scientific +agriculture, expecting to return to the farms and become rural residents +of Illinois. At the present time no more profitable training could be +given these young men and women. But aside from this economic +consideration, the social and moral value to the community in the return +of these young men and women to their own soil and the scenes of their +childhood is beyond estimation. The Quaker Meeting in this community is +not "laid down;" the church is not abandoned. Indeed all the activities +of the community are built up and the best of the community perpetuated +through the medium of this modern consolidated school. + +To sum up this chapter, the improvement of the one-room common schools +is possible, but for the satisfaction of the needs of the modern country +community that improvement is inadequate. The one-room country school is +an institution which in itself cannot be made to minister to modern +community life. It is simple and modern life is complete. It is casual +and irregular while the forces with which it has to deal are +steady-going and cumulative in their power. It is inexpert and served by +no specialized professional class, while modern life calls for the +service of experts in every direction. It has no social value, while +modern life is always social in its forms of action and requires social +interpretation for its best effects. + +A closing word should be said for a type of schools which has been +perfected in Denmark. They are known as the "Folk High Schools." These +are popular schools, adapted to the teaching of adults to get a living. +Denmark has an adequate supply of technical schools, and these latter +are not established to train scholars or scientists. Their use is to fit +men and women to meet the issues of life, at home, hand in hand, with +skill and enthusiasm. They use few text-books and have no examinations, +and six months are sufficient for a course of study. The schools are +religious and their foundation was the work of Rev. N. F. S. Grundtvig. +In songs and in patriotic exercises, all their own, they idealize +country life and the work of the mechanic. + +The academies of earlier days in rural America were centers of a similar +influence. But with the growth of the public-school system these have +been generally abandoned. It is a question whether some of them would +not serve a need which is felt today, if only they would train men for +modern country life with the same success which they once had in +training leaders for a former period. + +Then all the people lived in the country. Now only a third of the people +are concerned with the farm. So that the education of the modern country +boy or girl would require to be carried on in a different manner, in +order to retain the best of them in the country. The example of the +"Folk Schools" offers an analogy to what might be done in American +country life, if the academy could be transformed into an institution +for the education of the young in the country. + +All observers testify that the "Folk High Schools" have been the first +influence in transforming Denmark in the past forty years, from a nation +economically inferior to a nation rich and prosperous. This change has +been wrought through the betterment of the farmers and other country +people, by means of education in country life; and this education has +been economic, patriotic, co-operative and religious. So perfect has it +been that it is hard to analyze; but the acknowledged center of it has +been a system of schools in which the problem of living is taught as a +religion, an enthusiasm and a culture. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 33: "The American Rural School," H. W. Foght.] + + + + +XII + +RURAL MORALITY + + +The moral standards of the pioneer type and of the land-farmer type +prevail in the country. The world economy has precipitated on the farm +an era of exploitation which has not yet reached its highest point. +Meantime, according to the ethical ideals of the pioneer and of the +farmer, country people are moral. + +The investigations of the Country Life Commission brought general +testimony to the high standards of personal life which prevail in the +country. In such a representative state as Pennsylvania the standard of +conduct between the sexes was found to be good. The testimony of +physicians, among the best of rural observers, was nearly unanimous, in +Pennsylvania, to the good moral conditions prevailing in the intercourse +of men and women in the country. This indicates that the farmer economy +had superseded the economy of the pioneer. + +The moral problem of the pioneer period consisted of a struggle for +honesty in business contracts, and purity in the relation of men and +women. The story of every church in New England and Pennsylvania, until +about 1835 at which Professor Ross dates the beginning of the farmer +period, shows the bitter struggle between the standard accepted by the +church and that of the individuals who failed to conform. The standard +was inherited from the older communities of Europe. The conduct of +individuals grew out of the pioneer economy in which they were living. +Church records in New England and New York State are red with the story +of broken contracts, debt and adultery. The writer has carefully studied +the records of Oblong Meeting of the Society of Friends in Duchess +County, New York, and from a close knowledge of the community through +almost twenty years of residence in it, it is his belief that there were +more cases of adultery considered by Oblong Meeting in every average +year of the eighteenth century than were known to the whole community in +any ten years at the close of the nineteenth century. The farmer economy +in which the group life of the household prevailed over the individual +life had by the nineteenth century superseded the pioneer period, in +which individual action and independent personal initiative were the +prevailing mode. + +The coming of the exploiter into the farm community brings a new set of +ethical obligations concerning property and contracts. The farmer has +perfected the individual standards of the pioneer but he is not yet +endowed with social standards. He knows that it is right to give full +measure when he sells a commodity, but he does not yet see the evil of +breaches of contract. Farmers of high standing in their communities for +their personal character, who are truthful and "honest" in such +contractual relations as come down from their fathers, have been known +to use the school system of the town for their own private profit, or +that of members of their families, and to ignore financial obligations +which belong to the new period, in which money values have taken the +place of barter values. + +A good illustration is that of a deacon in a country church, whom I once +knew. His word was proverbially truthful. As widely as he was known his +reputation for piety and simple truthfulness, for honesty and purity of +life were universal. I do not think that he was consciously insincere, +but as a trustee in administering a fund devoted to public uses he +seemed to have a clear eye for only those enterprises through which he +or members of his family could indirectly secure incomes. Entrusted with +a public service which involved the improvement of the school system, so +far as he acted individually and without prompting by those who had been +accustomed all their lives to modern methods, his action was that of +loyalty to his own family and relationship. In so doing he regularly +would betray the community and the public interest. Yet he seemed to do +this ingenuously and without any conception of the moral standards of +people used to the values of money. + +I have known the same man, whose standing among farmers was that of a +blameless religious man, to borrow money, and in the period of the loan +so to conduct himself as to forfeit the respect of people used to +handling money. To them he seemed to be a conscious and deliberate +grafter. The explanation in my mind is that he suffered from the +transition out of the pioneer and farmer economy into the economy of the +exploiter. + +The history of the sale of lands in the country, in the recent +exploitation of farm-lands, contains many stories of the breach of +contract of farmers, and the inability of the farmer to sell wisely and +at the same time honestly. Contrasting the farmer in his knowledge of +financial obligation with the broker in the Stock Exchange, the latter +type stands out in strong contrast as an admirable example of financial +honesty to contracts, even if they be verbal only. The farmer on the +other hand has no conception of the relations on which the financial +system must be built. He is not an exploiter to begin with, but a +farmer. + +The transition from the older economy to the new is illustrated in the +dairy industry which surrounds every great city. The dairy farmer has +ideas of right and wrong which are purely individualistic. He believes +that he should not cheat the customer in the quantity of milk. He +recognizes that it is wrong, therefore, to water the milk, but he has no +conception of social morality concerning milk. He gives full measure: +but he cares nothing about purity of milk. He is restless and feels +himself oppressed under the demands of the inspector from the city, for +ventilation of his barns and for protection of the milk from impurity. I +have known few milk farmers who believed in giving pure milk and I never +knew one whose conscience was at ease in watering milk. That is, they +all believe in good measure and none believes in the principle of +sanitation. They stand at the transition from the old economy to the +new. + +A story is told among agricultural teachers in New York State to the +effect that an inspector following the trail of disease in a small city +traced it to impure milk supplied by a certain farm. In the absence of +the man he insisted on inspecting the dairy arrangements, being followed +from room to room by the farmer's indignant wife. Finally he said, "Show +me the strainer which you use in the milk," and she brought an old +shirt, very much soiled. Looking at it in dismay the inspector said, +"Could you not, at least, use a clean shirt?" At this the woman's +patience gave way and she declared, "Well, you needn't expect me to use +a clean shirt to strain dirty milk!" + +The packing of apples for market illustrates the transition from the +farmer economy in which the ethical standards are those of the +household, or family group, to the world economy in which the moral +standards are those of the world market. Apples are packed by all +classes of farmers, regardless of varying religious profession, in an +indifferent manner. The typical farmer hopes by competition with his +neighbors to gain a possibly better price. Instances of such successes +as come to certain family groups are endlessly discussed by farmers; and +the highest ideal that one meets among farmers who sell apples +throughout the Eastern States is expressed in the instance of some +family who have improved their own farm and their own orchard, so as to +win for the family or the farm a reputation in some particular market +and thus to gain a higher price. + +Contrast with this the marketing of apples by the Western fruit growers' +Associations. Among them, as for instance in the Hood Valley, Oregon, +apples are packed not by the farm owner with a view to competing with +his neighbors, but by the committee representing the whole district. The +individual farmer has no access to the market. He cannot hide his poor +fruit in an envelope of his best fruit, so as to deceive the buyer. The +committee has a reputation to maintain on behalf of the association, not +of the individual. The apples are marketed on their merits in accordance +with a certain standard. The impersonal demands of the world economy are +kept in mind. The individual farmer and farm are forgotten. The result +is that these far western growers, whose fruit is said in the East to be +inferior in flavor to the apples of New York and New England, can sell +their product in the eastern market at a higher price per box than the +New York or New England farmer can secure per barrel. + +The transition from farming to exploiting has brought out in full view +the wastefulness of the farmer economy which is being succeeded by +exploitation. The whole doctrine of conservation belongs in this +transition. Economy means, literally, housekeeping. The same meaning +appears in the word husbandry. It is a principle of saving. Its +extraordinary value at the present time is due to our sudden sense of +the wastefulness of farm life in recent years. Edward van Alstyne, an +agricultural authority in New York, says, "We farmers think we are most +economical, but we are the most wasteful of all men." The wastefulness +of American farming begins in the tillage of too many acres. The farmer +prefers wide fields even at the cost of poor crops. + +The New York Central Railroad, which is carrying on a propaganda of +husbandry, has appointed a man as expert farmer who increased the yield +of potatoes on his land from sixty to three hundred bushels per acre. +This brings out clearly that his neighbors are still producing sixty +bushels per acre, wasting four-fifths of their land values. This waste +is a wrong that should be denounced in the country church just as +sternly as doctrinal sins, which have occupied the attention of country +ministers in the past. + +Expert farmers say that if corn-stalks for fodder are left out in the +field until they are fed to the cattle they lose forty to fifty per cent +of their food values. This waste is sinful, but the sin is visible only +in the new economy of exploitation which counts all values in terms of +cash. No sooner is the sinfulness of waste observed than its connections +with moral delinquencies of country people becomes clear. In the +improvement of rural morality due to the sifting of country people +during the farmer period, it becomes evident that among a people so +serious-minded some delinquencies still remain. The immoralities that +still lurk and fester in the country are due very largely to waste. This +waste of human things is parallel to the waste of economic values. + +In a conference there was some difficulty in persuading a certain +country minister to speak. When finally he arose he said, "I am not much +interested in the scientific analysis of the country church. All I am +interested in is sin." One wonders whether he was dealing with the sins +of the country in their causes or in their effects, or was he simply +concerned with the sins which consist in opposing the doctrines of his +particular denomination, whatever it was. This wastefulness of the +values in the soil enters into the social life of the country. Farmers +care as little for the social values as for land values. Young men and +women ignore the moral importance of little things. They are not taught +that coarseness is wrong. They are not made to realize that cleanliness +and courtesy and reverence for the human body are of vital importance in +life. + +Country people are prudish and they cover with a strict reserve all +discussion of the moral relations of men and women. Yet in the same +communities there is loose private conversation and coarse references +are common. The strict standard of the household prevails within its +limits. Books and magazines must not discuss, however seriously, the +problems of life. But in the intercourse of the community there is not +the same care. The moral life of country people requires cultivation of +the leisure hours, the casual talk, the occasional meetings of men and +women, and especially of young people. + +The sale of votes in every election is a fixed quantity in the life of +certain country towns. It is to be counted on each year. The number of +votes for sale in each town is a known proportion of the whole, and +through certain counties the selling of votes is the political factor +everywhere present. These uniform facts point to a common cause. That +cause is the degeneration of a proportion of the rural population into +peasantry. + +The growth of a peasant population in America is surely our greatest +danger. A peasantry is a rural population whose moral and spiritual +state are controlled by their material states. There may be rich +peasants, though most peasants are poor. Peasants are a specialized +class, incapable of self-government and controlled by some political +masters who exercise for them essential rights of citizenship. The +peasants in Europe are the last to receive the ballot. In America they +are the first to surrender the ballot by selling their votes. + +A young minister called to a country parish denounced the sale of votes, +in his first year, and publicly fixed the whole blame on a prominent +political leader of the town, who was there present in the church. His +criticism was resented by the whole community. He was right, and so were +they. It is well to denounce the purchase of votes, but the duty of the +country church to Americanize the peasant class is the greater duty. The +presence of such a class in a town infallibly leads to this iniquity. +The sale of votes is as bad as the sale of woman's virtue, and both have +an automatic tendency to degrade the population. + +The danger sign of peasantry is a degraded standard of life. In this +town there is one household in which nobody works but the mother. "How +they live beats me," is the public comment of the neighbors. Through the +winter into that house are crowded the father and mother, two sons and +two daughters, the husband of one daughter and their two children, with +three other small children, whose presence in the house is due to the +loose good nature of the family. There is an indolent uncle of these +children. None of the household follows any gainful occupation. The +table is furnished with potatoes and pork. The attraction of the +household is the easy, loose, good-nature of all its members. There is +no one to complain of the indolence of the five grown men who lounge +about through the winter days. + +The presence of such a household in a town means degradation. Three of +these men can be purchased for money to vote, though they cannot be +hired for money to work. The daughters of the household are an equally +dangerous factor in the countryside. The cause of this moral peril is +the low grade of living to which the family has sunk. There is no known +state of ill-health to account for their indolence. The first duty of +the church in such a community is to regenerate such a household and to +lift the standard of ambition of its members. + +Slowly the country town is coming to realize that its reputation as well +as its progress is determined by this grade of citizen. No exceptional +success on the part of one or more families and no substantial goodness +by a whole grade of the population can compensate for the lowering of +the standard of the whole town by these people. The life and death, the +reputation and the progress of the town are dependent upon the +extinguishment of these peasant conditions. + +This is illustrated by the fact that where votes are for sale in a town +those purchased votes determine the election in the majority of cases. +They constitute the movable margin between the two parties; and by +shifting them one way or the other the political policy of the town is +determined. This fact illustrates the whole moral situation of the town, +for just by the same flexible margin is the moral life of the town +determined. The duty of the church therefore is with the people upon +the economic and social margin of the life of the rural community. + +The farmer's moral standards are opposed to combination. He believes in +personal righteousness and family morals. He does not believe in the +moral control of the individual or the household by the economic group. +It has been impossible, therefore, to combine the farmers in the East in +any general way so as to control their markets by maintaining a high +standard of product. The only control that is dreamed of by the leaders +of the farmers is the control of the quantity of their products. They do +not think of combination which will control themselves, and so maintain +a higher quality of product in order that thus they may dominate the +market in the great city. + +The present state of ethical opinion among Eastern farmers is not in +sympathy with the ethical demands of city populations. The Western fruit +growers' associations have fixed the standard for the farmers who raise +the fruit, first of all, and by means of this standard they have +conquered the market in distant cities. The standard to which they +compel their members to conform is the standard of the demand in the +world market. If the milk farmers about New York City are to combine +they must first impose a self-denying ordinance upon their own members +and furnish the city with a quality of milk in harmony with the demands +of modern sanitary experts. This is an ethical principle not of the +pioneer or the farmer economy, but of the new husbandry to which very +few farmers have conformed. + +In the building of country communities, therefore, the ethical teaching +must be of a new order. There is already a general teaching of morality +in the country churches. The temperance reform is a moral propaganda +born of the farmer economy. The expulsion of the saloon from country +places has been in obedience to the farmer's conscience. The temperance +reform exhibits the transformation from individual ethics which were +advocated in 1880 to communal ethics which are represented in the local +option aspects of this reform. In 1880 the individual was asked to sign +the pledge of total abstinence. In those days it was as important that +innocent children sign the pledge as that drunkards sign it. The lists +of pledge signers were padded with the names of persons who had never +tasted strong drink. In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League began its agitation, +which has proceeded among country people with increasing influence. The +individual is ignored and the pledge is signed now by the community, by +the county or by the state. The attack is not upon the individual +drunkard, but upon the community institution, the saloon. This is a +great gain in the direction of social ethics. It illustrates the +transformation from the pioneer whose impact was upon the individual to +the standards of the exploiter period in which the impact is upon the +commercial institution. The local option movement has had its growth in +the period of exploitation dated by Prof. Ross from 1890. In this +movement the country churches have been distributing centers, the places +of discussion and nuclei of moral energy. + +If the general moral standards of country people are to be transformed +from the pioneer formulae to those of the modern world economy, the +country churches must be led by men trained in economics and reinforced +by a thorough knowledge of social processes. The temperance movement +already begins to show the deficiencies of a propaganda purely negative. +Its leaders have shown no conspicuous sympathy with the play-ground +movement, which is an essential part of the same ethical process. If the +saloon is expelled something must be put in its place, but the +temperance reformers have not been wise enough for substitution: they +have only been skilful in expulsion. Country life, in its representative +communities, suffers today from monotony and emptiness. + +The ministers, teachers and other rural leaders need the training which +will equip them in positive and aggressive social construction. As the +economy of the exploiter comes in to transform the country community it +is necessary for the preacher and the teacher to train the population in +the ethical standards of the new time. Naturally new contractual +relations will prevail in business, and trusts will be committed to the +leading men in the farming community, for which they need definite moral +preparation. There is many a farmer in the United States who may be +safely entrusted with the honor of a woman, but cannot be entrusted with +a million dollars to spend in the interest of the community. In many a +country community it is perfectly safe to leave the door unlocked, but +it is not safe to purchase a quart of milk for a child. There is many a +farmer from whom it is morally safe to purchase an acre of ground, but +one cannot be sure in purchasing a cow from him that she will not be +tuberculous. These are new standards not required by the old economy and +not taught in the old meeting-house. + +One defect of the country church at the present time is that it has for +the countryman no message appropriate to the struggle in which he is +actually attempting to do right. Many churches in the country teach only +the standards of right and wrong to which the farmers already conform. +For a short time a new minister is popular with them because his new +voice and his fresh elocution contain a subtle flattery. He denounces +the sins to which they are not inclined and praises the virtues which +they have learned to practise from their fathers. But after about six +months of such preaching the farmer wearies of a preacher with no new +message. Indeed the countryman is puzzled and perplexed by modern +situations about which the minister has no knowledge. The farmer is +forced to be an economist, but the minister has never studied economics. +The farmer is face to face with problems of exploitation. The values +not merely of land but of money are in his thought. But the preacher has +had no training in finance and he cannot speak wisely or surely upon the +marginal problems with which the farmer is perplexed. + +The household economy of the farm is no longer sufficient. The sins are +not merely those of adultery and disobedience and disloyalty. They are +the sins of the world market and the world economy. In these moral +situations the minister is silent. He knows nothing about them. He is +inclined merely to object if the farmer purchases an automobile. He does +not see what the automobile is to do for the agriculturist. Sunday +observance, total abstinence, family purity, honesty as to personal +property, these are his stock in trade and these alone. It requires, +therefore, a genius to preach in the country, because only the most +brilliant preaching can render traditional moral standards interesting +among country people. + +It is proverbial among ministers that "the best preachers are needed in +the country." The reason for this is that none of the preachers has any +but an outworn standard to preach. They must reinforce it with +extraordinary eloquence in order to keep it attractive. Very ordinary +men, however, if they understand the modern spirit, can hold the +attention of country people. The grange has ministered to the farmer's +conscience. Yet its leaders have been commonplace men, unknown to the +nation at large. The great movements which have influenced the farmer +in the past twenty years have most of them been pushed to success by men +unknown to any but farmers. What orator has come into national +prominence out of the enterprises of agricultural life in the past two +decades? The farmer does not need great eloquence, but he does need a +thorough understanding of the moral and spiritual situations arising out +of the exploiter process in which he is immersed. He needs moral +teachers for the era of husbandry which is dawning in the country. + +"There is an actual and most conspicuous dearth of leadership of a high +order in rural life. This is evident when we consider the economic and +social importance of the agriculturists. The agriculturists constitute +about half of our population, they owned over 21 per cent of the total +wealth in 1900, and in 1909 their products had a value of $8,760,000, or +just about one-third that of the entire nation for that year. Yet this +vast and fundamental element of our nation elects no farmer presidents, +has scarcely any of its members in congress, but few in state +legislatures as compared with other classes; it has no governors nor +judges. In fact, this class is almost without leadership in the sphere +of political life and must depend on representatives of other classes to +secure justice. Economically it is relatively powerless likewise, +possessing practically no control over markets and prices through +organization in an age when organization dominates all economic lines, +accepting interest rates and freight rates offered it without the +ability to check or regulate them, and buying its goods at whatever +prices the industrial producers set. Its leadership up to the present +time has been of the sporadic and discontinuous sort. It has been +individualistic, lacking social outlook and vision. Consequently for +community purposes its significance has been slight."[34] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 34: Prof. John M. Gillette, in American Journal of Sociology, +March, 1910.] + + + + +XIII + +RECREATION + + +The time has passed in which the amusements of the community can be +neglected or dismissed with mere condemnation. In the husbandry of the +country every factor must be counted. We are dealing no longer with a +fatalistic country life, but with the economy of all resources. +Therefore the neglecting of the play life and ignoring the leisure +occupations of a country people are inconsistent with the new economy. + +Moreover the ancient method of condemning all recreations passed away +with the austere economy of earlier days. The churches in the country no +longer discipline their members for "going to frolics." The country +community no longer is of one mind as to the standard by which +recreation shall be governed. Yet every event of this sort is closely +inspected by the general attention. + +The experience of the cities, in which social control has gone much +farther than in the country under the deliberate harmonizing of life +with economic principles, has much to contribute for the building up of +rural society through various means, among which is recreation. + +The need of recreative activities in the country is shown by recent +surveys undertaken in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and +Kentucky by the Presbyterian Department of Church and Country Life. +Generally, throughout the farming population, it was discovered that no +common occasions and no common experiences fell to the lot of the +country community. In the course of the round year there is, in +thousands of farming communities in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, +no single meeting that brings all the people together. The small town +has its fireman's parade, to the small city comes once a year the circus +and to the great city comes an anniversary or an exposition. Every year +there is some common experience which welds the population, increases +acquaintance and intensifies social unity. The tillage of the soil in +those farming communities from which the blacksmith, the storekeeper, +the peddler and the shoemaker have departed, is very lonely. + +The telephone is the new system of nerves for the rural organism, but +the telephone is a cold, steel wire instead of the warm and cordial +personal meetings with which the countryside was once enlivened. In +eighty country towns in Pennsylvania, of which fifty are purely +agricultural, we found in our survey only three that had a common +leadership and a common assembling. The life of the people in these +communities is so solitary as to be almost repellent. Their social +habits are those of aggressive loneliness. This isolation in the +pioneer days made the country people cordial to the visitor: but in the +coming of the new economy the farmer shrinks from strangers, because he +has become accustomed to social divisions and classifications in which +he feels himself inferior; so that the loneliness of country life has +become not merely geographical, but sociological. The farmer is shut in +not merely by distances in miles, but by distances of social aversion +and suspicion. Difference has become a more hostile influence in the +country than distance. + +Organized industry necessitates organized recreation. The subjection of +mind and body to machine labor requires a reaction in the form of play. +All factory and industrial populations, without exception, provide +themselves with play-grounds of some sort. In the city where no public +provision is made the streets are used by the boys for their games, even +at the risk of injury or death from the passing traffic. Jane Addams has +shown, in a fine literary appeal in her "The Spirit of Youth and the +City Streets," the necessity of some provision for the recreations of +the young and of working people in a great city. + +This necessity is not primarily due to congestion of the population. Its +real sources are in the system and organization by which modern work is +done. This necessity is as characteristic of the rural community as it +is of the city, for on the farms as well as in the factory towns labor +is performed by machinery. This means that through the working hours of +the day, from eight to twelve in number, the attention of the worker +must be concentrated upon one task, patiently and steadfastly pursued. +The machine worker exerts himself in the control of great powers, horse +power or steam power, committed to his charge. He has no opportunity for +languor or rest. He has no choice. His job drives him. His movements are +fixed and regulated by the nature of the machine with which he is +working, and of the task to be accomplished. At the end of the day he +has acted involuntarily and mechanically until his own powers of will +and choice are accumulated. Being repressed through long hours of +prescribed labor he is ready for a rebound. His nature demands +self-expression. This self-expression takes the form of play. + +The recreation which results is organized. The laborer in a factory or +on a railroad is conscious of organization by the very nature of his +work. He labors with a machine driven by powers unseen but of whose +operation he is aware, in a great plant wherein his own labor is +co-ordinated with that of other workers like unto himself. The hours of +self-devotion and prescribed attention leave him free for sympathy with +the other workers, whose action and whose toil are organized with his +own, and on whose skill and devotion his life and limb and the +continuance of his job are dependent. When he turns to recreation he +naturally seeks to continue the silent communion with his +fellow-workers. The repressed personal energies are already prepared +for team work. He comes out of the factory bubbling over with good +fellowship and seeking for comradeship in the self-expression which the +long hours of the day have denied him. + +The result is that in every factory town the open spaces are devoted to +playground uses. Vacant lots, unoccupied fields, and the open street are +used by men and boys for their games. + +Exactly the same experience results from school and college organization +of education work. The student in the common schools does not choose his +course; it is prescribed for him by his family and by society. He does +not go to school because he is mentally ambitious, but because the +standards of universal education require it of him. Especially in the +colleges which inherit a great name and attract young men and women for +social advantage, the students are characterized by an involuntary +subjection to the routine of modern pedagogy. Educational discipline is +imposed upon them through the long hours of lectures and laboratory and +recitations. The students in high school and college are accumulating a +rebound of voluntary action. This organized self-expression takes the +form of school and college athletics, which has long since been adopted +as a part of the educational routine. No considerable number of +educators are in favor of abolishing it, and only a few venture to +believe in restricting college athletics. Its moral value is everywhere +tacitly recognized, and pretty generally it is consciously accepted by +college and school faculties. + +Play of this sort has great moral value. We are hired to work, and we do +it without choice or enthusiasm, but in play the natural forces and the +personal choice are at their maximum. Every action is chosen and is +saturated with the pleasure of self-expression. The result is that play +has high ethical value. + +Especially has organized recreation great moral power, because it +involves team work, and the subjection of the individual to the success +of the team. Organized recreation teaches self-denial in a multitude of +experiences which are all the more powerful because they are not +prescribed by any teacher or preacher, but are the free natural +expression of the human spirit under the government of chosen associates +working out together a common purpose. + +Therefore it is necessary to use play for the recreation of country +life. The word is literal, not figurative. It is not a problem merely of +games, nor the question of gymnasium, but a profound ethical enterprise +of disciplining the whole population through the use of the play spirit. +This question must be approached on the high plane of the teaching of +modern theorists, and the experience of such practical organizations as +the Young Men's Christian Association. + +The Christian Associations began their work in the lifetime of present +generations and for accomplishing certain purposes they have used +recreation. They provided a gymnasium, at first, in order to get men +into the prayer-meeting. They offered social parlors in which young men +could always hear the sound of sacred song. But the Young Men's +Christian Association has traveled far from its crude and early use of +recreation. Some of the early Association leaders are still living and +still leading. They have steadily advanced with care and wisdom in the +use of recreation. Within very recent years the leaders of the +Associations have countenanced the use of billiard tables. No longer is +the gymnasium an annex to the prayer-meeting. It has values of its own. +Without moralizing, these practical men have discovered that the social +parlors were good for ends of their own and not merely as a place for +hearing the distant sound of hymns. In other words, recreation is a form +of ethical culture. + +Rev. C. O. Gill, who was captain of the Yale football team in 1890, has +had an extended experience among farmers. He says, "The reason why +farmers cannot co-operate is in the fact that they did not play when +they were boys. They never learned team work. They cannot yield to one +another, or surrender themselves to the common purpose." The writer, +observing Mr. Gill coaching a university team, commented upon the good +spirits with which a player yielded his place on the team just before +the victory. Mr. Gill had removed him, as he explained to him, not +because he played poorly, but because a new formation required a +rearrangement of the team. In reply to comment upon the player's +self-forgetfulness, Mr. Gill said, "Football is the greatest school of +morals in the country. I learned more ethics from the coaches when I was +an undergraduate in Yale, than from all other sources combined." + +It is this high ethical value of recreation which causes the working man +to defend his amateur baseball team, and makes it so hard to repress +Sunday games. The working man admits the high value of the Sabbath, but +he sets a value also upon recreation, and without analysis of the +philosophy either of the Sabbath or of the play-ground, stoutly +maintains the goodness of recreation and its necessity for those who +have labored all the week. "I work six days in the week, and I must have +some time for recreation," is the working man's answer to all Sunday +reformers. Waiving for a moment the question of the Sabbath, the human +process to which the working man testifies is exactly as he describes +it. Organized labor and systematic industry will react on any population +in the form of systematic recreation. + +The Play-ground Movement, therefore, is extending itself throughout the +country by the very influence of modern industry. Given intelligence to +interpret it, and one understands at once the desire of philanthropic +and public spirited men and women to provide "a playground beside every +school building, open for all the people." + +Dr. Luther H. Gulick, who was born of missionary parents, was trained in +religious schools, graduated as a physician, employed for years in the +Young Men's Christian Association, and then made Play-Ground Director in +the New York Public Schools, has become legitimately the heir of the +experiences of the modern social conscience. He has summed up the +philosophy of working men, students, and of the people whose lives are +systematized, in a sentence: "There is a higher morality in the +reactions of play than in the experiences of labor." + +The tradition of the church has been opposed to amusement and +recreation. The church of our fathers recognized the moral possibilities +of play by calling all play immoral. The early Quakers filled their +records in the eighteenth century with denunciations of "frollicks." +Consciously they denounced amusement, acting no doubt in a wise +understanding of the rude, boisterous character of the pioneer's social +gatherings. Only unconsciously did the Quakers cultivate the spirit of +recreation in their social gatherings. It was permitted to have but few +and repressed opportunities. The decadence of the Quaker church is +probably due, in a considerable measure, to their stubborn unwillingness +to see both sides of this question. They saw that recreation was +immoral. They refused to see that its possible moral value was as great +as its moral danger. + +Extensive correspondence with working pastors, by means of a system of +questions sent out from a New York office, has brought this result. In +answer to the question, "What amusements of moral value are there in the +community?" the answer, "Baseball, boating, tennis, golf, bicycling, +etc." A smaller number of recreations was named in answer to the inquiry +for immoral sports. The subsequent question, "What is your position +before the community?" brought from the minister very often this answer: +"I am known to be opposed to all sports." Few ministers realize the +inconsistency of this position. They stand before the community as the +professed advocates of public and private morality, and they stand also +before the community as the professed and violent opponents, often, of +the public sports which are known to the young men and workingmen +generally as promoters of ethical culture and moral training. Is it any +wonder that the churches, in these communities, are often deserted by +the common people? + +In Lewistown, Pa., the old Presbyterian Church there, seeing the +congested character of the town population and the need of +breathing-places for the young people and working people, looked about +for a recreation field. The only available ground is the old cemetery, +in which the earlier members of the congregation have buried their dead. +This, the only open spot in the center of the town, it has been proposed +to turn into a playground, the bodies of the dead to be disinterred and +laid reverently away in a quieter place, and the ground newly +consecrated to the needs of the living, and of the young. The action +contemplated by this fine old church is emblematic of the modern spirit. +Christianity is no longer a mere reverence for death and the other +world. But it is an energetic service to the young, and the working +people, in this present world. It is no longer a solemn reverence for +the salvation of the individual soul in a heaven unseen, but it is a +social service, no less serious, unto the living and unto the young and +the employed. + +Certain modern sports, such as baseball, are free from the corruption +which has attached itself to horse-racing and pugilism. This corruption +is not in racing a horse, or punching an opponent. It is in the +dishonesty of the race, for horsemen believe that "there never was an +honest horse-race," and the followers of the prize ring are constantly +suspicious that the fight will be "fixed." The first question they ask +after the decision of the referee is generally, "Was it a frame-up?" The +moral power of baseball, tennis, football and the other most popular +sports, is in the confidence that the game is fairly played. This +fairness of the game is the widest extended school of ethical culture +that the American and British population know. Honorable recreation +trains in courage, manliness, co-operation, obedience, self-control, +presence of mind, and in every other of the general social virtues. It +makes men citizens and good soldiers when need comes. This was the +meaning of the remark of the Duke of Wellington, when, after the +conquest of Napoleon, he returned to view the playground at Eton, and +said, "Here the Battle of Waterloo was won." + +For the building up of a community, therefore, the promotion of +recreation is an essential. Just as necessary as the providing of common +schools for all the people, is the provision of public play-grounds for +all the people. As many as are the school houses so many, generally +speaking, should be the play-grounds accessible to all, under the care +of trained and responsible leaders, in which, without too much +government, the free movements of the young and the abounding +self-expression of the great mass of the employed shall have opportunity +to work out their own education through play, into public righteousness. + +The training of citizens for days to come demands exactly the qualities +which are imparted on the play-ground. Morality is not taught and +ethical culture is not imparted by precept, though precept and +exhortation have their due place in the analysis of moral and spiritual +matters, for the thoughtful. But the great number of people are not +ethically thoughtful, and in the acquirement of righteousness all people +are unconscious. The desired action in moral growth is universally +spontaneous. The most sober and intellectual of men must be caught off +his guard and must be lured into voluntary actions before any moral +habits can be formed in him. Mere analysis of truth or self-examination +makes no man good. But men become good by doing things first, and +thinking of them afterward. They can be just as good if they never think +about them, though thinking about ethical matters renders a service to +the community as a whole. + +It should be the duty, therefore, of the churches, who are acknowledged +before the whole community as repositories of the conscience of men, to +promote public recreation. Where necessary the church should even +provide a play-ground. In Galesburg, Ill., fifteen churches are +co-operating, through their men's societies, in a central council of +forty members. This Council is made up in the form of four Committees of +ten. Each Committee considers one great interest of the community. One +of these interests is recreation. It is the duty of this Committee in +winter to provide musical and literary entertainment and lectures. In +the summer this Committee has secured the use of the Knox College +recreation field, and employing a trained man, has opened it throughout +the summer as a play-ground for all the children of the city. + +The use of recreation for the building up of a community seems to +involve expensive apparatus and sometimes does so. Mrs. Russell Sage at +Sag Harbor, Long Island, has expended many thousands of dollars in the +experiment. Interested in the children, of whom there are about eight +hundred in the town, through the experience of giving them a Christmas +tree, she determined to devote to their use a piece of land on the +borders of the village, formerly used as a fair ground. This work is to +have local value for the children of this community, and has been used +as a demonstration center of the efficiency of recreation as a moral +discipline among the young. + +But most communities have not so much money to spend. The proposal of a +play-ground or of a gymnasium is itself sufficient to condemn the +doctrine of play. "We cannot afford it," settles the whole question. In +the country expensive apparatus is not necessary; nor do the farmer's +son and daughter require in recreation so much physical exercise. The +gymnasium is an artificial and expensive machinery for inducing sweat, +but the farmer needs no such artificial machine. The problem is purely +one of play, not of exercise. For this purpose a careful study of the +community, and of its tendencies and inclinations, is necessary. The +great essential of recreation in the country is the opportunity to meet +and to talk. Therefore the social life of gatherings in the church, and +in the schoolhouse, no matter what their program, provided it be +innocent, is valuable. Farmers will attend an auction, and go a long way +to a horse-race, or gather at a fair, without any intention of buying or +selling. The fundamental service rendered by the county fair and the +auction is an opportunity afforded to converse. This exercise of the +tongue is far more important in rural recreation than the exercise of +the biceps. But country people cannot talk without an occasion which +unlocks their tongues. They must not be directly solicited to converse +or they are silent. If the occasion is provided and is made to be +sufficiently plausible its greatest success will be in conversation. + +In almost every country community, therefore, there should be revival, +in various forms, of the old "Bees," which had so much of a place in the +former economy. If there is a widow who has no one to cut her wood, the +men of the country church should assemble to do it. If there is a +household whose bread winner and husbandman has died at the time of +planting corn, let the men of the community gather at an appointed day +and till the ground for the family, whose grief is greater at that +moment than their need. Let the women of the community assemble at noon +to provide an abundant repast. This was recently done by a countryside, +at the instigation of the minister, and the effect of it was lasting in +its values as well as intense in the joy of the day's work. It seems, in +view of the need of recreation, that no other quality is so important in +the country community as a lively leader. Resourceful, energetic and +fertile men in the rural ministry can accomplish vastly more than +conventional, orderly and proper men. + +The church in which I began my ministry used to have a play every +Christmas. We built out the pulpit platform with boards, we hung it +around with curtains, giving dressing-room space, and we placed lanterns +in front for foot-lights. The first play we gave made us anxious, for +the neighborhood was an old Quaker settlement; but we found that the +Quakers enjoyed the play immensely and were the best actors. We made it +a genuine expression of the Christmas spirit. We abolished the old +"speaking pieces." Our little stage offered the young people team work, +instead of individual elocution. The rehearsals filled a whole month +with happy and valuable meetings. Everybody co-operated in the labor +necessary to prepare the decorations and to take them down, during +Christmas week, and on the night of the play everybody was on hand, +Catholic, Protestant and heathen. + +The holidays of the passing year suggest the recreations of the country +church. These should not necessarily be productive of sweat, but the +country boy and girl do need the recreation of laughter and happy +meeting and social liveliness. Farm work is lonely and monotonous. Such +immorality as there is in the country has direct connection with the +tedium and dullness of long hours out-doors, alone. The recreations of +country life should be meetings for the celebration of great events of +the year. Easter expresses ideas which are age-old among country people: +it is both a pagan festival and a Christian anniversary. If Easter is +developed in a celebration of song or procession, of sermon and of +decoration, with full use of its symbolic value, it is sure to bring the +whole countryside together, in an experience of the New Year rising from +the grave of winter and of the divine Lord risen from the dead. + +Most country communities have no such celebration. In very many the +whole year passes without neighbors meeting for a common social +experience. This is why people move to the city, because every city, +great and small, has in the course of the year some events which bring +all the people to the curbstone. Country life has few such times and +therefore it is dull, because the richest experience of mankind is the +experience of common social joy. The best recreation is acquaintance and +conversation. The farmer's son spends many hours in silence. He wants +someone to help him to talk, and to talk unto some purpose. + +The Fourth of July is celebrated in Rock Creek, an Illinois community, +by a "wild animal show." Instead of explosives, which are discouraged, +the boys of the community bring together in small cages their animal +pets. The boys are encouraged to make small carts for the transportation +of their pets, and the crowning event of the day is the procession of +these carts, in an open place, before the great dinner, at which the +countryside sits down together. + +Recreation in the country, above all, should revolve about something to +eat. The farmer's business is to feed the world, and country people +love, above all things, the social joy of eating. Farmers' wives are the +best cooks and the country household perpetuates its culinary +traditions. Especially does a permanent farm population enrich its +household tradition with delicious recipes and beautiful customs of the +table. Thanksgiving Day should be the great celebration of the round +year in the country. What a comment upon the country community it is +that so few communities in the country meet together, in response to the +President's proclamation of thanksgiving, to express gratitude unto the +bountiful Father of all. + +The country church should minister to country people in some effective +gathering of all the countryside. A most fruitful method now in use is a +corn judging contest for the boys. + +In the Middle West the Corn Clubs for boys have had an extraordinary +value, and in the South, also, the Farmer's Co-operative Demonstration +Work has made use of the boys in the country community for demonstrating +progressive methods on the farm. Thanksgiving Day can be prepared for in +the preceding spring, and the boys and girls who have managed a garden, +or half acre, through the summer can make their showing at that time. +Such a competitive showing in the country, in the production of the +staple crop, is sure to bring together the whole countryside. + +The local history of the country community is a fruitful source of +recreation. Farmers look to the past, and even the new people in the +country are keen to hear the story of the old settlers and of the early +pioneers. Nothing is of greater value in developing and refreshing +country life than to enrich it by celebrating its early history. + +Recreation is essential to the moral life of any people. It is the +constructive method of making individuals into good citizens. Especially +valuable is it as a means of educating the young people and the working +people of the community. The craving for this social training and +ethical experience drives many out of the country community. Conversely, +training in social morality is to be undertaken especially by the +church, which possesses the conscience of the country community. This +training is expressed in the one phrase; the promotion of recreation. + + + + +XIV + +COMMON WORSHIP + + +The worship of God is an expression of the consciousness of kind. "This +consciousness is a social and a socializing force, sometimes exceedingly +delicate and subtle in its action; sometimes turbulent and all-powerful. +Assuming endlessly varied modes of prejudice and of prepossession, of +liking and disliking, it tends always to reconstruct and dominate every +mode of association and every social grouping."[35] This description by +Professor Giddings is so near to a description of worship, that it is +startling. + +Of all human acts of the conscientious man worship is the most highly +symbolic. They who worship are alike, and in their likeness are unlike +to others. It is an expression of their awareness of resemblance and of +difference. The definitions of consciousness of kind, as a sociological +process, go a long way to explain without further comment, both the +strength and the weakness of the churches in America. + +The churches have to struggle with a narrow and small social horizon. +Few people are so conscious of their kinship with all others in their +community that they desire those others to worship with them. The sense +of unlikeness to others is, unfortunately, as strong in their feelings +as the sense of likeness unto their own. In the American community with +many newcomers, and some foreigners, this sense of unlikeness is +natural. It is not to be wondered that men should think themselves more +like unto their old neighbors than unto the new. It is not surprising +that with new economic processes men should ignore their unity with +those who co-operate with them in getting a living, and should be +conscious of their unity with those whose living comes in the same form. +As a result, we have working men's churches and "rich men's clubs," +"college churches," "student pastors," churches which minister to old +families, and new chapels built by tenant farmers. But these phases of +worship are peculiar to the times of transition in which we live. The +immaturity of our economic processes, and the greater immaturity of our +economic knowledge, explain the failure of worshiping people to assemble +by communities; but the process which assembles men of kindred mind to +worship together now is capable of bringing men together in larger +wholes. + +The spirit of federation is in the air. The longing for religious unity +is a response to the stimuli of common experience in the same locality. +Men who meet throughout the week, if they worship at all, discover a +desire to worship together. The coming of great occasions and the +celebrations of anniversaries, train them in some common assemblies. I +remember how the tidings of the death of President McKinley brought +together all the people of the community in an act of worship. Their +response to a profound sense of danger was a community response, and the +church which was prompt to open its doors, found men of all faiths +within. + +At a recent meeting of the National Body of one of the greatest +Protestant churches, proceedings were halted by the moderator, who read +a telegram announcing the friendly action of another religious body. +This action looked toward union of the two denominations. It was a +response to overtures from the body there in session. Instantly the +whole assembly sprang up, applauding and cheering, and led by a clear, +musical voice, broke out in a hymn. That hymn is profoundly sociological +in its language, and its use is increasing among Christian people. It +expresses that worship which is a consciousness of kind. Its words are + + Blest be the tie that binds + Our hearts in Christian love: + The fellowship of kindred minds + Is like to that above. + + Before our Father's throne + We pour our ardent prayers; + Our fears, our hopes, our aims, are one, + Our comforts and our cares. + + We share our mutual woes, + Our mutual burdens bear, + And often for each other flows + The sympathizing tear. + + When we asunder part, + It gives us inward pain; + But we shall still be joined in heart, + And hope to meet again. + +It would be hard to find a member of a Protestant church in America, +among the older denominations, who does not know these words, and is not +accustomed to use them in response to the stimuli of kinship with other +Protestant Christians. + +The consciousness of kind is an awareness of differences and +resemblances. It is a finding of one's self among those to whom one is +like, and an aversion to those unto whom one is not like. Worship is an +expression of this common likeness. It is an enjoyment of fellowship. + +The experience of worship is impossible in an atmosphere of difference. +This is a reason for the cleavage of denominations, and the splitting of +congregations. Without this separating, men could not enjoy the uniting, +and without the aversion, men could not taste the sweets of fellowship. + +This brings us very near to the sacred experiences in which men find +God. A very early chapter in the Bible describes God as the "Friend" of +a man. In the succeeding pages he becomes the King, the Priest, the +Prophet, and the Father of men. In every one of them the mind of the +worshiper has expressed a profound sense, that God is found by the soul +in society. Herbert Spencer has insisted that all religion is ancestor +worship, that is, it grows out of the family group. + +Simmel teaches that religion is the resultant of the reactions of the +individual with his group fellows, and with the group as a whole. +Christian folk are accustomed to express this by calling one another +"brothers" and "sisters," meaning clearly that religion is a social +experience. + +This is not the place for extended biblical interpretation, but I am +convinced that the whole course of scripture will testify to this, that +in the peaceful, continuing, social unities men have found God, and in +the differences, in their group conflicts, in their wars, and in the +oppositions to their enemies, there has been found no religious +experience. That is, such conflict has intensified unity, and the +resulting unity has been ever richer in religion: but the thoughts for +God have come forth clothed always in terms and titles of fellowship, +unity and kinship. + +In country communities this principle explains the divisions and the +unities of religious life. In many towns, the Presbyterian church, for +instance, is the church of the old settler and the earlier farmers. A +new denomination has come in with the tenants and the invaders. That is, +men have found it impossible to worship in a constant experience of +difference. It is true that their difference is an element in their +religion, because the consciousness of difference is an element in the +consciousness of kind. + +In the Southern States, the white slave-holders worshiped, before the +war, in the same congregations with their negro slaves. They were +conscious of the plantation group, and of the economic unity with their +work-people. When emancipation came and the slaves were made free, they +must needs worship apart; and today, throughout the whole South, the +negro churches have been erected to express the consciousness of kind, +both on the part of the white and of the black. + +If this argument has force, it goes to prove that religion is, in a +small community, the strongest organizing force. The seeking after God +requires as a vehicle the consciousness of likeness and difference. It +can only proceed along those lines. + +The earnest desire of many common folk to know God is a working force, +which follows the cleavage of social classification. The churches become +expressions of social forms. In the country particularly, where life is +simpler and changes are slower, the church becomes an almost infallible +index of the social condition of the people. + +The duty, then, of the religious worker, and the task of the prophet and +the seer, is to enlarge the consciousness of kind. Worship is to be +placed on a larger plane. Americans must be taught to see their unity +with immigrants. Owners of land must be made to recognize that they are +one with their tenants. The employer must be shown that his alliances +are with those who help him to get his living. At once, when this task +is put before us, we see the futility of the ideals of our time. Church +workers and other teachers have played up before the eyes of the people +those ideals which separate men into artificial classes. The +consciousness of kind has been a consciousness of money and +consciousness of belonging to old families, or a consciousness of the +ideals of higher education. A great many American families live in the +ideal of sending their boys and girls to college. This leads them to +feel a difference between themselves and the larger number of people who +do not care for higher education, and who discover no energies in +themselves that move on the path of learning. The result is that their +worship is narrow; churches become culture clubs: the preachers are +exponents of literature: the service of worship is a liturgy of esthetic +pleasure. + +The true consciousness of kind must be economic and social. There is no +escape from this for religious people. They must go deep down to the +unities with men who co-operate with them in getting a living. The +Pittsburgh mill owner has no other unity by which he can find himself at +one with his foreign born mill-hand, than the fact that he and the +mill-hand are fellow workers in the mill. + +What other bond of union is there between the farm landlord and the farm +tenant? They have no common idealism. The one reads books, the other +does not. The one sends his son to college, the other sends his into the +stable and the field. The one is enjoying a life of leisure and his +hands are clean; the other sweats, saves, and produces, in soiled +clothing, and with hard, coarse hands. They have only one basis of +unity, namely, that they co-operate in tilling the soil, and in the +producing of food and raw materials. The teacher, or preacher, who +attempts in this case to escape the economic unity, will find no other. + +The trouble with most of the ideals which express themselves in +diversified worship, is that they are peculiar to the life of leisure, +they are a part of "the leisure class standard." Many teachers and +preachers reiterate similar demands which can only be responded to by +people who do not have to work. + +From this leisure class standard our ideals must be changed to the +standard of work, and the man who has vision is he who shall see the +economic, the industrial unities, and who with compelling voice, will +call men together to worship in a new consciousness of kind. + +Ministers in the country are feeling this very deeply. The pastor who +ministers to a whole community, boasts of it. He realizes he is serving +a true social unit. This is the joy of many country churches which might +be named, and the lack of it is the blight of many other country +communities. It must be clearly born in mind, however, that the church +can not organize a unity that is apart from the life of men. Religion +is the expression of social realities. There can be no "federation" of +those who are not conscious of their likeness and of their resemblances. +This means that the religious teaching of days to come must be a +teaching of the real unities of mankind. For in these true bonds of +union men are brought together. The efforts to assemble them in +artificial bonds, however ideal, will be futile. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 35: "Descriptive and Historical Sociology," by Prof. Franklin +H. Giddings, p. 275.] + + + + +SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +BOOKS + + The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, + Chas. R. Van Hise, The Macmillan Co. + + The Rural Life Problem of the United States, + Sir Horace Plunkett, The Macmillan Co. + + Principles of Rural Economics, + Thomas Nixon Carver, Ginn and Company + + The Country Life Movement in the United States, + L. H. Bailey, The Macmillan Co. + + Ireland in the New Century, + Sir Horace Plunkett, E. P. Dutton + + The American Rural School, + Harold W. Foght, The Macmillan Co. + + The Country Town. A Study of Rural Evolution, + Wilbert L. Anderson, The Baker & Taylor Co. + + Descriptive and Historical Sociology, + Franklin H. Giddings, The Macmillan Co. + + Rural Denmark and Its Lessons, + H. Rider Haggard, Longmans, Green & Co. + + Quaker Hill, A Sociological Study, + Warren H. Wilson, Privately printed + + Youth, + G. Stanley Hall, D. Appleton & Co. + + The Presbyterian Church in the United States, + Robert E. Thompson, Chas. Scribner's Sons + + Chapters in Rural Progress, + Kenyon L. Butterfield, The University of Chicago Press + + The Country Church and the Rural Problem, + Kenyon L. Butterfield, The University of Chicago Press + + The Story of John Frederick Oberlin, + Augustus Field Beard, The Pilgrim Press + + The Church of the Open Country, + Warren H. Wilson, Missionary Education Movement + + The Day of the Country Church, + J. O. Ashenhurst, Funk & Wagnalls Co. + + The Distribution of Wealth, + John Bates Clark, The MacMillan Co. + + +ARTICLES REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT + + The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911, + Statement by John L. Gillin. + + The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911, + The Drift of the City in Relation to the Rural Problem, + John M. Gillette. + + Modern Methods in the Country Church, + Matthew B. McNutt, Missionary Education Movement + + A Method of Making a Social Survey in a Rural Community, + C. J. Galpin, University of Wisconsin + Circular of information No. 29 + + Bulletins of International Institute of Agriculture, + Rome, Italy + + The Political Science Quarterly, December, 1910, + The Agrarian Changes in the middle West, + J. B. Ross + + + + +INDEX + + + Abandoned country churches, 126 + + Absentee landlords, 32-39 + + Academy,--Old New England, 25 + + Addams, Jane, 191 + + Adult Bible Class, 134 + + Agee, Prof. Alva, 105 + + Agriculture, teaching of, 167 + + Amish, 74 + + Amusement, problem of, 84 + + Anabaptist, 72 + + Anderson, Wilbert L., 102 + + Anti-Saloon League, 183 + + Apples, marketing of, 175 + + Augustine, Saint, 82 + + Austerity, 57 + + + Bailey, L. H., 50 + + "Bees", 203 + + Bellona, N. Y. 56 + + Boll weevil, 143 + + Bone, R. E., 86 + + Braddock, Rev. J. S., 58 + + Breach of contract, 174 + + Breadwinner, type, 113 + + Butterfield, Kenyon L., 137 + + + Casselton, N. D., 42 + + Centralized school, 163 + + Chaffee, farm, 43 + + Chester County, Pa., 124 + + Chesterton, Gilbert K., 115 + + Christmas play, 203 + + Church, Budget, 138 + Envelope system, 139 + Financial system, 130 + Records, 172 + + Clark, John Bates, 80, 111 + + College athletics, 193 + + Columbus, Christopher, 112 + + Community center, 104 + + Consciousness of kind, 208, 213 + + Corn Clubs, 206 + + Country Fair, promoted, 17 + + Country Life Commission, 171 + + Cranberry, N. J., church at, 27 + + Crete, Nebraska, 86 + + + Danish Folk Schools, 52, 169 + + Delaware, produce exchanges, 154 + + Demonstration work, 206 + + Denmark, 51, 147 + + Desmoulin, 96 + + Diminishing returns, law of, 88, 110 + + Donation, system, 27 + + Dunkers, 58, 67 + + Du Page Church, 106 + + + Eliot, Ex-President of Harvard, 137 + + Endowment of churches, 136 + + Exploitation of land, 32-33, 123, 124 + + + Family group, 19 + Shrinkage of, 124 + + Farm laborers, 22 + + Federation of churches, 135, 209 + + Foght, Harold W., 97, 160 + + Fourth of July celebration, 205 + + + Galesburg, Ill., 201 + + Galpin, Prof. C. J., 94 + + Giddings, Prof. Franklin H., 208 + + Gill, Rev. C. O., 195 + + Gillette, Prof. John M., 188 + + Gillin, Prof., 57, 58, 67 + + Greeley, Horace, 108 + + Group system, 10, 11, 12 + + Grundtvig, Bishop, 51, 53, 169 + + Gulick, Dr. Luther H., 197 + + + Haggard, H. Rider, 147 + + Hanover, N. J., 156 + + Hays, Willet M., 91 + + Hernando, Mississippi, 105 + + Holidays, celebration of, 204 + + Homestead act, 34 + + Hood River Valley, Oregon, fruit growers, 176 + + Hormell, Dr. W. H., 88 + + + Illinois, 126 + Survey of, 190 + + Immigrants, in country districts, 123 + + Indiana, survey of, 190 + + Ireland, Christian Brothers, 52 + Co-operative organizations, 147-151 + Country Life Movement, 80 + + + John Swaney Consolidated School, 165-166 + + + Kentucky, co-operative organizations, 152 + Survey of, 190 + + + Lancaster County, Pa., 57 + + Land values, 34 + + Leadership, 187 + + Lewistown, Pa., 198 + + + McNab, Ill., 166 + + McNutt, Rev. Matthew B., 86, 106 + + Marginal man, 113 + + Massachusetts communities, 96 + + Mennonites, 72 + + Middle Creek Church, 58 + + Minimum salary, 161 + + Missouri, survey of, 190 + + Money crop, 95 + + Mormons, 57, 62-78 + + Morrison, Rev. T. Maxwell, 56 + + Mountain community, 4 + + Mountaineers, 6, 8, 16 + + + New England Country Church Asso., 137 + + New York Central R. R., 177 + + + Oberammergau, 83 + + Oberlin, John Frederick, 14 + + Oblong meeting, 71, 172 + + Ohio, counties less productive, 101 + + Ottumwa, Iowa, 88 + + Over churching, 26, 145, 146 + + + Palatinates, 72 + + Pastor, need of, 13 + + Passion Play, 83 + + Penn, William, 72 + + Penn Yan, N. Y., 40 + + Pennsylvania Germans, 57, 62-78 + + Pennsylvania, survey of, 190 + + Planters, south, 18 + + Playground, 98 + + Playground movement, 134, 196 + + Plunkett, Sir Horace, 51, 147 + + Polk, Rev. Samuel, 54 + + Poor, ministry to, 115 + + Protestantism, 118 + + + Quaker Hill, 70, 94, 155 + + Quaker meeting, McNab, 168 + + Quakers, 70, 197, 204 + + + Rankin, David, 41 + + Recreation, importance of, 139, 194 + + Retired farmers, 36-38 + + Retirement from farm, process described, 125 + + Revivals, 7, 8, 9 + + Riis, Jacob, 87 + + Rock Creek, Ill., 156, 164, 205 + + Ross, Prof. J. B., 2, 21, 29, 32, 184 + + Rural evangelism, 131 + + Rural exodus, 87, 97 + + Rural free delivery, 128 + + + Sag Harbor, L. I., 201 + + Sage, Mrs. Russell, 201 + + Schenck, Norman C., 4 + + School, country, 23, 85, 60, 159 + + Scientific farming, 48 + + Scotch-Irish, 30, 57, 62-78 + + Simmel, 212 + + Slave-holding churches, 28 + + Smith, Adam, 5 + + Smith, John, 112 + + Socialism, 116 + + Social service, 110, XVI + + Spencer, Herbert, 212 + + Store, country, 22, 94 + + Sunday Schools, 131, 134 + + Swaney, John, 86 + + + Tardé, Gabriel, 59 + + Teachers, training of, 161 + + Team play, ethical value, 99 + + Telephone, rural, 128, 190 + + Temperance movement, 46, 117, 183 + + Tenant farmers, 35 + Tenants' lease, 40 + + Thompson, R. E., 65 + + Theological seminaries, 119-120 + + Trolley, inter-urban, 128 + + Types, economic, 3 + + + Utility, initial, 108 + Marginal, 109 + + + Van Alstyne, Edward, 177 + + Vote selling, 179 + + + Washington County, Pa., 124 + + Waterloo, Iowa, community church, 68 + + Wealth, conservation of, 47 + + West Nottingham, Md., church at, 54 + + Winnebago, Ill., 58 + + + Young Men's Christian Association, 134, 194 + + Young People's Societies, 28 + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note + + +The following changes have been made to the text: + +Page xi: "IX" changed to "XIII". + +Page 2: "are separated form" changed to "are separated from". + +Page 6: "langour" changed to "languor". + +Page 17: "this be brought" changed to "this he brought". + +Page 22: "desti-period" changed to "destination". + +Page 29: "estended" changed to "extended". + +Page 30: "recorded in out literature" changed to "recorded in our +literature". + +Page 86: "individiuals" changed to "individuals". + +Page 94: "In 1910 every country community" changed to "In 1810 every +country community". + +Page 105: "embarassed" changed to "embarrassed". + +Page 107: Footnote 24: "Willett" changed to "Willet" + +Page 116: "proletarean" changed to "proletarian". + +Page 123: "Portugese" changed to "Portuguese". + +Page 150: "gradiloquently" changed to "grandiloquently". + +Page 191: "Addam" changed to "Addams". + +Page 192: "elf-expression takes the form" changed to "self-expression +takes the form". + +Page 197: "inmoral" changed to "immoral". + +Page 198: "disintered" changed to "disinterred". + +Page 206: "frutiful" changed to "fruitful". + +Page 208: "expresssion" changed to "expression". + +Page 209: "immaturity of our ecnomic" changed to "immaturity of our +economic". + +Page 220: "Lewiston" changed to "Lewistown". + +Page 221: "XII" changed to "XVI". + +Page 221: "Tard" changed to "Tardé". + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of the Country Community, by +Warren H. 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Wilson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution of the Country Community + A Study in Religious Sociology + +Author: Warren H. Wilson + +Release Date: November 29, 2009 [EBook #30563] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Carla Foust, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note</h3> +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer +errors have been changed, and they are indicated with +a <a class="correction" title="like this" href="#tnotes">mouse-hover</a> +and listed at the +<a href="#tnotes">end of this book</a>. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. +</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>THE EVOLUTION OF<br /> + +THE COUNTRY<br /> + +COMMUNITY</h1> + +<p class="fm3">A STUDY IN RELIGIOUS SOCIOLOGY</p> + +<p class="fm3">BY</p> + +<p class="fm2">WARREN H. WILSON</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="fm3">THE PILGRIM PRESS</p> + +<p class="fm4">BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="fm4"><i>Copyright, 1912</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By Luther H. Cary</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +THE PILGRIM PRESS<br /> +BOSTON<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="fm3">TO</p> + +<p class="fm3">MISS ANNA B. TAFT</p> + +<p class="fm4">WHO FOUND THE WAY OF</p> + +<p class="fm3">RURAL LEADERSHIP</p> + +<p class="fm4">IN SERVICE ON THE NEGLECTED BORDERS OF</p> + +<p class="fm4"><span class="smcap">New England Towns</span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>The significance of the most significant things is rarely seized at the +moment of their appearance. Years or generations afterwards hindsight +discovers what foresight could not see.</p> + +<p>It is possible, I fear it is even probable, that earnest and intelligent +leaders of organized religious activity, like thousands of the rank and +file in parish work, will not immediately see the bearings and realize +the full importance of the ideas and the purposes that are clearly set +forth in this new and original book by my friend and sometime student, +Dr. Warren H. Wilson. That fact will in no wise prevent or even delay +the work which these ideas and purposes are mapping out and pushing to +realization.</p> + +<p>The Protestant churches have completed one full and rounded period of +their existence. The age of theology in which they played a conspicuous +part has passed away, never to return. The world has entered into the +full swing of the age of science and practical achievement. What the +work, the usefulness, and the destiny of the Protestant churches shall +henceforth be will depend entirely upon their own vision, their common +sense, and their adaptability to a new order of things. Embodying as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>they do resources, organization, the devotion and the energy of earnest +minds, they are in a position to achieve results of wellnigh +incalculable value if they apply themselves diligently and wisely to the +task of holding communities and individuals up to the high standard of +that "Good Life" which the most gifted social philosopher of all ages +told us, more than two thousand years ago, is the object for which +social activities and institutions exist.</p> + +<p>In one vast field of our social territory the problem of maintaining the +good life has become peculiar in its conditions and difficult in the +extreme. The rural community has suffered in nearly every imaginable way +from the rapid and rather crude development of our industrial +civilization. The emigration of strong, ambitious men to the towns, the +substitution of alien labor for the young and sturdy members of the +large American families of other days, the declining birth rate and the +disintegration of a hearty and cheerful neighborhood life, all have +worked together to create a problem of the rural neighborhood, the +country school and the country church unique in its difficulties, +sometimes in its discouragements.</p> + +<p>To deal with this problem two things are undeniably necessary. There +must be a thorough examination of it, a complete analysis and mastery of +its factors and conditions. The social survey has become as imperative +for the country pastor as the geological survey is for the mining +engineer. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> when the facts and conditions are known, the church must +resolutely set about the task of dealing with them in the practical +spirit of a practical age, without too much attention to the traditions +and the handicaps of an age that has gone by.</p> + +<p>It would not be possible, I think, to present these two aspects of the +problem of the country parish with more of first hand knowledge, or with +more of the wisdom that is born of sympathy and reverence for all that +is good in both the past and the present than the reader will find in +Dr. Wilson's pages. I welcome and commend this book as a fine product of +studies and labors at once scientific and practical.</p> + +<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Franklin H. Giddings.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS" id="TABLE_OF_CONTENTS"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="CONTENTS"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">CHAPTER</td> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdr">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr"> </td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a name="corr1" id="corr1"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn1" title="changed page number from 'IX' to 'XIII'">Introduction</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_xiii">XIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Pioneer</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Land Farmer</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Exploiter</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Husbandman</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Exceptional Communities</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Getting A Living</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Community</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Margin of the Community</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Newcomers in the Community</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Co-operation</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Common Schools</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rural Morality</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Recreation</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Common Worship</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2> + + + +<p>The church and the school are the eyes of the country community. They +serve during the early development of the community as means of +intelligence and help to develop the social consciousness, as well as to +connect the life within the community with the world outside. They +express intelligence and feeling. But when the community has come to +middle life, even though it be normally developing, the eyes fail. They +are infallible registers of the coming of mature years. At this time +they need a special treatment.</p> + +<p>Like the eyes, the country church and country school register the health +of the whole organism. Whatever affects the community affects the church +and the school. The changes which have come over the face of social life +in the country record themselves in the church and the school. These +institutions register the transformations in social life, they indicate +health and they give warning of decay. In a few instances the church or +school require the attention of the expert even in the infancy of the +community, just as the eyes of a child sometimes need the oculist, but +with normal growth the expert<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> is called in for problems which have to +do with maturity.</p> + +<p>In these chapters the center of attention will be the church, regarded +as an institution for building and organizing country life. It is not +the thought of the writer that the church be treated in ecclesiastical +terms. It is rather as a register of the well-being of the community +that the church is here studied. The condition of the church is regarded +as an index of the social and economic condition of the people. The +sources of religion are believed by the writer to be in the vital +experiences of the people themselves. In the process of religious +experience the church, the Bible, the ministry and other religious +methods and organizations are means of disciplining the forces of +religion, but they are not the sources of religion.</p> + +<p>The church in the country above all other institutions should see what +concerns country people as a whole. If vision be not given to the +church, country people will suffer. The Christian churches are rich in +the experience of country people. The Bible is written about a "Holy +Land." The exhortations of Scripture, especially of the Old Testament, +are devoted to constructive sociology, the building and organizing of an +agricultural people in an Asiatic country. Many of the problems are +oriental, but some of them are precisely the same as are today agitating +the American farmer. Religion is the highest valuation set upon life, +and the country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> church should have a vision of the present meaning as +well as the future development of country life in America.</p> + +<p>The country church ought to inspire. It is the business of other +agencies, and particularly of the schools and colleges, to impart +practical and economic aims. But these will not satisfy country people. +No section of modern life is so dependent upon idealism as are the +people who live in the country. Mere cash prosperity puts an end to +residence in most country communities. Commercial success leads toward +the city. The religious leaders alone have the duty of inspiring country +people with ideals higher than the commercial. It remains for the church +in particular to inspire with social idealism. Education seems +hopelessly individualistic. The schoolmaster can see only personalities +to be developed. It remains for the preacher to develop a kingdom and a +commonwealth. His ideals have been those of an organized society. The +tradition which he inherits from the past is saturated with family, +tribal and national remembrances. His exhortations for the future look +to organized social life in the world to come. He should know how to +construct ideals out of modern life, which are organic and social.</p> + +<p>Beyond these two duties I am not sure that the churches in the country +have exceptional function. The writer is not a teacher, and what is said +in this book about the country school is said solely because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> of the +dependence of all else upon this institution. The patient, detailed and +extensively constructive work in the country must be done by the +educator. It is well for the church to recognize its limits, and to +magnify its own function within them. Vision and inspiration are the +duty of religious leaders. The application of these in a variety of ways +to the generations of young people in the country is an educational task +which the church can do only in part.</p> + +<p>But the great necessity of arousing the church at the present time to +its duty as a builder of communities in the country is this. In all +parts of the United States country life is furnished with churches. +Perhaps not in sufficient degree in some localities, but in general the +task of religious organization is done. These religious societies hold +the key to the problem of country life. If they oppose modern socialized +ideals in the country, these ideals cannot penetrate the country. If the +church undertake constructive social service in the country, the task +will be done. The church can oppose effectively; it can support +efficiently. This situation lays a vast responsibility upon all +Christian churches, especially upon those that have an educated +ministry; for the future development of the country community as a good +place in which to live depends upon the country church.</p> + +<p>This is not the place to discuss whether a population can be improved +and whether a community can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> be saved. The pages that are to follow will +discuss these questions. It is the writer's belief that a population can +be improved by social service, that the community is the unit in which +such service should be rendered in the country, and that by the vision +and inspiration of the church in the country, this service is +conditioned. He believes with those who are leading in the service among +the poor in the great cities that the time has come when we have +sufficient intelligence to understand the life of country people, in +order to deal with the causes of human action; we have sufficient +resources wherewith to endow the needed agencies for the reconstruction +of country life; and we have a sufficient devotion among men of +intelligence and of means to direct this constructive social service +toward the entire well-being of country people and of the whole +commonwealth.</p> + +<p>The writer is indebted for help in the preparation of this book to Miss +Florence M. Lane, Miss Martha Wilson and to Miss Anna B. Taft, without +whose assistance and criticism the chapters could not have been prepared +and without whose encouragement they would not have been undertaken; +also to his teachers in Columbia University, especially Professors +Franklin H. Giddings and John Bates Clark whose teachings in the Social +Sciences furnish the beginning of a new method in investigating +religious experiences.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">New York</span>, July, 1912.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<p class="fm2">EVOLUTION OF THE COMMUNITY</p> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3>THE PIONEER</h3> + + +<p>The earliest settlers of the American wilderness had a struggle very +different from our own, who live in the twentieth century. Their +economic experience determined their character. They appear to us at +this distance to have common characteristics, habits and reactions upon +life; in which they differ from all who in easier times follow them. +They have more in common with one another than they have in common with +us. They differ less from one another than they differ from the modern +countryman. The pioneer life produced the pioneer type.</p> + +<p>To this type all their ways of life correspond. They hunted, fought, +dressed, traded, worshipped in their own way. Their houses, churches, +stores and schools were built, not as they would prefer, but as the +necessities of their life required. Their communities were pioneer +communities: their religious habits were suitable to frontier +experience.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> Modern men would find much to condemn in their ways: and +they would find our typical reactions surprising, even wicked. But each +conforms to type, and obeys economic necessity.</p> + +<p>There have been four economic types in American agriculture. These have +succeeded one another as the rural economy has gone through successive +transformations. They have been the pioneer, the land farmer, the +exploiter and the husbandman. Prof. J. B. Ross of Lafayette, Ind., has +clearly stated<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the periods by which these types +are separated +<a name="corr2" id="corr2"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn2" title="changed from 'form'">from</a> +one another. It remains for us to consider the communities and the +churches which have taken form in accordance with these successive +types.</p> + +<p>Prof. Ross has spoken only of the Middle West. With a slight +modification, the same might be said of the Eastern States, because the +rural economy of the Middle West is inherited from the East. His +statement made of this succession of economic types should be quoted in +full:</p> + +<p>"The agrarian occupation of the Middle West divides itself into three +periods. The first, which extends from the beginnings of immigration to +about the year 1835, is of significance chiefly because of the type of +immigrants who preempted the soil and the nature of their occupancy. The +second period, extending from 1835 to 1890, had as its chief objective +the enrichment of the group life. It was the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>period in which large +houses and commodious barns were erected, and in which the church and +the school were the centers of social activity. The third period, which +began about the year 1890, and which is not yet complete, is marked by a +transition from the era of resident proprietors of the land to that of +non-resident proprietors, and by the fact that the chief attention of +the land owners is paid to the improvement of the soil by fertilization +and drainage and to the increasing of facilities for communication and +for the marketing of farm products."</p> + +<p>Each of these types created by the habits of the people in getting their +living, had its own kind of a community, so that we have had pioneer, +land farmer, exploiter and husbandman communities. Indeed all these +types are now found contemporaneous with one another. We have also had +successive churches built by the pioneer, by the land farmer, by the +exploiter and by the husbandman. The present state of the country church +and community is explained best by saying that it is an effect of +transition from the pioneer and the land farmer types of church and +community to the exploiter and husbandman types.</p> + +<p>The pioneer lived alone. He placed his cabin without regard to social +experience. In the woods his axe alone was heard and on the prairie the +smoke from his sod house was sometimes answered by no other smoke in the +whole horizon. He worked and fought and pondered alone. +Self-preservation was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the struggle of his life, and personal salvation +was his aspiration in prayer. His relations with his fellows were purely +democratic and highly independent. The individual man with his family +lived alone in the face of man and God. The following is a description +by an eye witness of such a community which preserves in a mountain +country the conditions of pioneer life<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>.</p> + +<p>"It is pitiful to see the lack of co-operation among them. It is most +evident in business but makes itself known in the children, too. I +regard it as one reason why they do not play; they have been so isolated +that they do not allow the social instinct of their natures to express +itself. This, of course, is all unconsciously done on their part. +However, one cannot live long among them without finding out that they +are characterized by an intense individualism. It applies to all that +they do, and to it may be attached the blame for all the things which +they lack or do wrongfully. If a man has been wronged, he must +personally right the wrong. If a man runs for office, people support him +as a man and no questions are asked as to his platform. If a man +conducts a store, people buy from him because he sells the goods, not +because the goods commend themselves to them. And so by common consent +and practise, the individual interests are first. Naturally this leads +to many cases of lawlessness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> The game of some of our people is to +evade the law; of others, to ignore the law entirely."</p> + +<p>The pioneer had in his religion but one essential doctrine,—the +salvation of the soul. His church had no other concern than to save +individuals from the wrath to come. It had just one method, an annual +revival of religion.</p> + +<p>The loneliness of the pioneer's soul is an effect of his bodily +loneliness. The vast outdoors of nature forest or prairie or mountain, +made him silent and introspective even when in company. The variety of +impacts of nature upon his bodily life made him resourceful and +self-reliant; and upon his soul resulted in a reflective, melancholy +egotism. His religion must therefore begin and end in personal +salvation. It was a message, an emotion, a struggle, and a peace.</p> + +<p>The second great characteristic of the pioneer was his emotional +tension. His impulses were strong and changeable. The emotional +instability of the pioneer grew out of his mixture of occupations. It +was necessary for him to practise all the trades. In the original +pioneer settlement this was literally true. In later periods of the +settlement of the land the pioneer still had many occupations and +representative sections of the country even until the present time +exhibit a mixture of occupations among country people most unlike the +ordered life of the Eastern States. Adam Smith in "Wealth of Nations" +makes clear that the practise of many occupations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> induces emotional +conditions. Between each two economic processes there is generated for +the worker at varied trades a +<a name="corr3" id="corr3"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn3" title="changed from 'langour'">languor</a>, +which burdens and confuses the +work of the man who practises many trades. This languor is the source of +the emotional instability of the pioneer.</p> + +<p>The pioneer's method of bridging the gap between his many occupations +was simple. When he had been hunting he found it hard to go to plowing: +and if plowing, on the same day to turn to tanning or to mending a roof. +When the pioneer had spent an hour in bartering with a neighbor he found +it difficult to turn himself to the shoeing of a horse or the clearing +of land. For this new effort his expedient was alcohol. He took a drink +of rum as a means of forcing himself to the new occupation. The result +is that alcoholic liquors occupy a large place in the economy of every +such pioneer people.</p> + +<p>In the mountain regions of the South, where the pioneer remains as an +arrested type, the rum jug occupies the same place in the economy of the +countryman as it occupied in the early settlements of the United States +generally. These "contemporary ancestors" of ours in the Appalachian +region have all the marks of the pioneer. Their simple life, their +varied occupations, and the relative independence of the community and +household, sufficient unto themselves, present a picture of the earlier +American conditions. It is obvious among them that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> the emotional +condition of the pioneer grew out of his economy and extended itself +into his church.</p> + +<p>This emotional instability of the pioneer shows itself in his social +life. The well known feuds of the mountain people exhibit this +condition. Feeling is at once violent and impulsive. The very reserve of +these unsmiling and serious people is an emotional state, for the meager +diet and heavy continued strains of their economic life poorly supply +and easily exhaust vitality.</p> + +<p>The frontier church exhibited emotional variability. It expressed itself +in the pioneer's one method; namely, an annual revival of religion. In +the pioneer churches there were few or no Sunday schools or other +societies. In those regions in which the pioneer has remained the type +of economic life Sunday schools do not thrive. Societies for young +people, for men, women and children do not there exist. The church is a +place only for preaching. Religion consists of a message whose use is to +excite emotion. Preaching is had as often as possible, but not +necessarily once a week. Essential, however, to the pioneer's +organization of his churches is a periodical if possible an annual, +revival of religion. The means used at this time are the announcement of +a gospel message and the arousing of emotion in response to this +message. There is little application of religious imperative to the +details of life. There is no recognition of social life, because the +pioneer economy is lonely and individual. The whole pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>cess of religion +consists in "coming through": in other words, the procuring of an +individual and highly personal experience of emotion.</p> + +<p>"Beneath the surface of life in these people so conservative, and so +indifferent to change as it is, there runs a strain of intense +emotionalism. When storms disturb the calm exterior, the mad waves lash +and beat and roar. And in religion this is most apparent. With them +emotionalism and religion are almost interchangeable quantities,—if +they are not identical.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>"It is in the revival service that you see the heart of the stolid +mountain man unmasked. The local mountain preachers know this fact well +and use it with great effect. A word must be said about these men who +work all through the week alongside of their fellows and preach to them +on Sunday. In some places there is a custom of holding service on +Saturday and Sunday. These men have generally 'come through'—a term +used to describe the process beginning with 'mourning' and continuing +through repenting and being saved. And generally they are men of +personality. They have a certain power with men, anyway, and they are +keen to see the effect of things on their audiences. Some of them have +learned to read the Bible after they have been converted. It is not so +much what they say that counts. If people looked for that they would go +away unfilled. But they have another thing in mind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> They want to feel +right. They go to church occasionally during revival drought, but always +during revival plenty. They go to get 'revived up.' The preacher who has +the best voice is the best preacher. He sways his audience. The more +ignorant he is, the better, for then the Spirit of God is not hindered +by the wisdom of man. The spirit comes upon him when he enters the +pulpit. He speaks through him to the waiting congregation. Of course +they do not know what he is saying for the man makes too much noise. But +they begin to feel that this is indeed the place where religion can be +found and where it is being distributed among the people.</p> + +<p>"Generally revivals occur as they have always done, about three times a +year. At these services the method requires that exhorters should be +present and perform. Several do so at the same time. The confusion is +great but the people breathe an atmosphere that begins to infect them. +Sooner or later weeping women are in the arms of some others' husbands +begging them to come to the mourning bench. Young girls single out the +boys that they like best and affectionately implore them to begin the +Christian life. All the time the choir is singing a swinging revival +hymn; the preacher is standing over his audience shouting 'Get busy, +sinners,' and two or three boys are scurrying back and forth carrying +water to the thirsty ones, while little groups of the faithful are +hovering over a penitent, smothering sinner, trying to 'pull her +through.' During this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> kind of a meeting which I attended at one time a +woman 'got happy' and went around slapping everyone she could get her +hand on, and skipping like a schoolgirl."</p> + +<p>The pioneer church has not fully passed away. Its one doctrine and its +one method have still a place in the more elaborate life of the modern +church. Like the rum jug which is preserved for medicinal purposes, the +revival has a use in the pathology of modern church life. The doctrine +of personal salvation which is of chief concern, in the ministry to the +adolescent population<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> of the modern church, is just as vital as ever; +though it is not the only doctrine of the church of the husbandman, +which has come in the country.</p> + +<p>A relic of the pioneer days is the custom known as the "Group System." +By this a preacher comes to a church once a month, or twice, and +preaches a sermon, returning promptly to his distant place of residence. +The early settlers of this country who originated this system were +lonely and individualized. They believed that religion consisted in a +mere message of salvation, so that all they required was to hear from a +preacher once in a while.</p> + +<p>But the districts in which the "Group System" is used have grown beyond +this religious satisfaction and the "Group System" no longer renders +adequate religious service. Religion has become a greater <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>ministry than +can be rendered in the form of a message, however well preached.</p> + +<p>Like all outworn customs, this one breeds abuses as it grows older. Its +value having passed away, it has forms of offensiveness. In sections of +Missouri where the farmers are rich they say with contempt, "None of the +ministers lives in the country." The "Group System," in a territory of +Missouri comprising forty-one churches, organizes its forces as follows: +these forty-one churches have nine ministers who live in five +communities and go out two miles, ten miles, sometimes thirty miles, in +various directions, for a fractional service to other communities than +those in which they live. Each of the two big towns has more than one +minister and none of the country churches has a pastor. Thus the value +of the family life of the preacher is cancelled. After all this +organization and division of the men into small fractions among the +churches, there are sixteen of these churches which have neither pastor +nor preacher.</p> + +<p>This "Group System" can be improved, as is done in Tennessee, by the +shortening of the journeys which must be made by the minister from his +home to his preaching point. Nevertheless, it gives to the country +community only a fraction of a man's time. He can interpret religion in +only three ways; in the sermon, the funeral service and the wedding. +Unfortunately mankind has to do many other things besides getting +married, buried or preached at.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>The country community needs a pastor. It is better for the minister who +preaches to the country to live in the country. There are some parts +which cannot support a pastor, but the minister to country churches +should know the daily round of country life. Religion can never be +embodied in a sermon; and when religion comes to be limited to a formal +act it is tinged with suspicion in the eyes of most men. Sermons and +funerals and weddings become to country people the windows by which +religion flies out of the community. Especially among farmers, religion +is a matter of every-day life. What religion the farmer has grows out of +his yearly struggle with the soil and with the elements. His belief in +God is a belief in Providence. His God is the creator of the sun and the +seasons, the wind and the rain. The man who does not with him share +these experiences cannot long interpret them for him in terms of +scripture or of church.</p> + +<p>The policy of the newer territories of the church must be to translate +the "Group System" into pastorates. The long range group service should +be transformed into short and compact group ministry; the pastor should +live in the country community and the length of his journey should never +be longer than his horse can drive. A group of churches which are not +more than ten miles apart constitute a country parish. Some few active +ministers are able to make thirty to forty miles on horseback on a +Sunday, among a scattered people. This is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> well, but as soon as the +railroad becomes an essential factor in the monthly visit of ministers +to the country, religion passes out of that community.</p> + +<p>The service of the country preacher, in other words, is essentially +confined to the country community, and the bounds of the country +community are determined by the length of the team haul or horseback +ride to which that population is accustomed. Within these bounds +religious life and expression are possible. Immersed in his own +community, the life of the minister and of his family attain immediate +religious value. The whole influence of the minister's home, the service +of his wife to the people, which is often greater than his own, and the +development of his children's life, these are all of religious use to +his people.</p> + +<p>A recent speaker upon this matter said, "I doubt if even the Lord Jesus +Christ could have saved this world if he had come down to it only once +in two weeks on Saturday and gone back on Monday morning."</p> + +<p>The pastor, then, is the type of community builder needed in the +country. The pastor works with a maximum of sincerity, while sincerity +may in preaching be reduced to the lowest terms. He is in constant, +intimate, personal contact. The preacher is dealing with theories and +ideals not always rooted in local experiences. The pastor lives the life +of the people. He is known to them and their lives are known to him. The +preacher may perform his oratorical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> ministry through knowledge of +populations long since dead and by description of foreign and alien +countries. It is possible to preach acceptably about kingdoms that have +not yet existed. But the work of a pastor is the development of ideals +out of situations. It is his business to inspire the daily life of his +people with high idealism and to construct those aspirations and +imaginations out of the daily work of mankind, which are proper to that +work and essential to that people.</p> + +<p>An illustrious example of such ministry is that of John Frederick +Oberlin,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> whose pastorate at Waldersbach in the Vosges consisted of a +service to his people in their every need, from the building of roads to +the organization and teaching of schools. It would have been impossible +for Oberlin to have served these people through preaching alone. Being a +mature community, indeed old in suffering and in poverty, they needed +the ministry of a pastor, and this service he rendered them in the +immersion of his life with theirs, and the bearing of their burdens, +even the most material and economic burden of the community, upon his +shoulders.</p> + +<p>The passing away of pioneer days discredits the ministry of mere +preaching, through increasing variation of communities, families and +individuals. The preacher's message is not widely varied. It is the +interpreting of tradition, gospel and dogma. His sources can all be +neatly arranged on a book <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>shelf. One suspects that the greater the +preacher, the fewer his books. On the contrary, the pastor's work is +necessitated by growing differences of his people. He must be all things +to many different kinds of men. In the country community this intimate +intercourse and varying sympathy take him through a wider range of human +experience than in a more classified community. He must plow with the +plowman, and hunt with the hunter, and converse with the seamstress, be +glad with the wedding company and bear the burden of sorrow in the day +of death. Moreover, nobody outside a country community knows how far a +family can go in the path to poverty and still live. No one knows how +eccentric and peculiar, how reserved and whimsical the life of a +household may be, in the country community, unless he has lived as +neighbor and friend to such a household. The preacher cannot know this. +Not all the experience of the world is written even in the Bible. The +spirit shall "teach us things to come." It is the pastor who learns +these things by his daily observation of the lives of men.</p> + +<p>The communities themselves in the country differ widely, even in +conformity to given types, and when all is said by the general student, +the pastor has the knowledge of his own community. It belongs peculiarly +to him. No one else can ever know it and there are no two communities +alike. In the intense localism of a community, its religious history is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +hidden away and its future is involved. The man who shall touch the +springs of the community's life must know these local conditions with +the intimate detail which only he commands who daily goes up and down +its paths. This man is the pastor. Except the country physician, no +other living man is such an observer as he.</p> + +<p>The end of the pioneer days means, therefore, to religious people, the +establishment of the pastorate. The religious leader for the pioneer was +the preacher, but the community which clings to preaching as a +satisfactory and final religious ministry is retrograde. In this +retarding of religious progress is the secret of the decline of many +communities. The great work of ministering to them is in supplanting the +preacher, who renders but a fractional service to the people, by a +pastor whose preaching is an announcement of the varied ministry in +which he serves as the curé of souls.</p> + +<p>The pioneer days are gone. Only in the Southern Appalachian region are +there arrested communities in which, in our time, the ways of our +American ancestors are seen. The community builder cannot change the +type of his people. He can only wait for the change, and enable his +people to conform to the new type. For this process new industries, new +ways of getting a living are necessary. The teacher or pastor can do +something to guide his people in the selection of constructive instead +of destructive industry.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>In East Tennessee and in the mountain counties of North Carolina +lumbering industries are for the time being employing the people. The +result will be a deeper impoverishment; for the timber is the people's +greatest source of actual and potential wealth. The leaders of the +mountain people should teach reforestation with a view to maintaining +the people's future wealth.</p> + +<p>In a mountain county of Kentucky a minister seeing that his people +needed a new economic life, before they could receive the religious life +of the new type, organized an annual county fair. To this +<a name="corr4" id="corr4"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn4" title="changed from 'be'">he</a> +brought, +with the help of outside friends, a breed of hogs better than his +mountain people knew. He cultivated competition in local industries, +weaving and cooking; and started his people on the path of economic +success of a new type.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, the pioneer was individualistic and emotional. These +traits were caused by his economic experience. While that experience +lasted, he could be made no other sort of man than this. To this type +his home and his business life and his church conformed. Within these +characteristics the efficiency of his social life was to be found.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross, +in American Journal of Economics, December, 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Rev. Norman C. Schenck.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Rev. Norman C. Schenck.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "Youth," by G. Stanley Hall.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Story of John Frederick Oberlin by Augustus Field Beard, +1909.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>THE LAND FARMER</h3> + + +<p>I shall use the term land farmer to describe the man who tilled the soil +in all parts of the country after pioneer days. He is usually called +simply the farmer. This is the type with which we are most familiar in +our present day literature and in dramatic representations of the +country. The land farmer, or farmer, is the typical countryman who in +the Middle West about 1835 succeeded the pioneer, and about 1890 was +followed by the exploiter of the land.</p> + +<p>In the Eastern States pioneer days ended before 1835. The land farmer +was the prevailing type throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and +Pennsylvania as early as 1800. In the South the contemporary of the land +farmer was the planter or slave holder. The modified type in the South +was due to an economic difference. The labor problem was solved in the +South by chattel slavery; in the North by the wage system. It is true +that throughout much of the South the small farmer held his own. These +men conformed to the type of the land farmer. But in the South they did +not dominate social and political life as the slave holder did.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> In the +Eastern States the whole social economy was, until a generation after +the Civil War, dominated by the land farmer.</p> + +<p>The characteristics of the land farmer are: first, his cultivation of +the first values of the land. His order of life is characterized by +initial utility. He lived in a time of plenty. The abundance of nature, +which was to the pioneer a detriment, was to the land farmer a source of +wealth. He tilled the soil and he cut the timber, he explored the earth +for mines, seeking everywhere the first values of a virgin land. As +these first values were exhausted, he moved on to new territories. All +his ideas of social life were those of initial utility. The rich man was +the standard and the admired citizen. The policies of government were +dominated by the ideas of a land holding people. Individualism proceeded +on radiating lines from any given center. The development of personality +is the clue to the history of that period.</p> + +<p>The second characteristic of the land farmer was his development of the +family group. He differed from the pioneer, whose life was lonely and +individual, in the perfection of group life in his period. He differs +from the exploiter who succeeds him in the country today in the fact +that exploitation has dissolved the family group. The experience of the +land farmer compacted and perfected the household group in the country. +The beginnings of this group life were in the pioneer period, but there +was not peace in which the family could develop nor were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> there +resources by which it could be endowed. The classic period of American +home life is that of the land farmer. The typical American home, as it +lives in sentiment, in literature and in idealism, is the home of the +land farmer.</p> + +<p>Third, the land farmer owned his home. He built upon his farm a +homestead which in most cases represented his ideal of domestic and +family comfort. He built for permanence. So far as his means permitted +he provided for his children and for generations of descendants after +them. He consecrated the soil to his people and to his name by setting +apart a graveyard on his own land, and there he buried his dead.</p> + +<p>Fourth, the land farmer had neighbors. His well-developed family group +would not have been possible without other groups in the same community +and the independence of the family group was relative, being perfected +by imitation and economic competition. The land-farmer type came to +maturity only when the whole of the land was possessed, when on every +side the family group was confronted with other family groups, and +neighborliness became universal. The family group is dependent through +intermarriage and relationship upon other groups in the community. +Family relationships thus came in the land-farmer communities to be very +general. Some rough and crude forms of economic co-operation also grew +up in this period, as modifications of the competition on which the +land-farmer type is based.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The farmer type produced a definite social life," says Prof. Ross. "The +second period, extending from 1835 to 1890, had as its chief objective +the enrichment of the group life."</p> + +<p>Fifth, the land farmer competed, by group conflict, with his neighbors. +Property was regarded by the land farmer as a family possession. +Competition was between group and group, between household and +household. The moral strength as well as the moral deficiencies of this +type of man flow from this competition. He considered himself +essentially bounden to the members of his own group by obligations and +free from moral obligations to others. The son received no wages from +his father for work on the farm and the daughter did not dream of pay or +of an allowance for her labor in the house. The land farmer conceived of +his estate as belonging to his family group and embodied in himself. +Therefore he had no wage obligations to son or daughter and he felt +himself obliged so to distribute his property as to care for all the +members of his household. This economic competition compacted the family +group and formed the basis for the social economy of the country +community. The land farmer had no ideal of community prosperity. His +thought for generations has been to make his own farm prosperous, to +raise some crop that others shall not raise, to have a harvest that +other men have not and to find a market which other men have not +discovered, by which he and his farm and his group may prosper.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> It is +hard to convince the land farmer, because of his immersion in this group +conflict, that the farmer's prosperity is dependent upon the prosperity +of other groups in the community.</p> + +<p>The presence of the small group is the sign of normal social life. The +group is not complete in itself, but is a unit in human association. So +that the farmer economy had its social life and its own type of +communities. The economy of the farmer period represents the ideals born +in the pioneer nation. The community of the farmer is the +<a name="corr5" id="corr5"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn5" title="changed from 'desti-period'">destination</a> of +the life of the pioneer. The farmer still practises a variety of +occupations. His tillage of the soil and his household economy are the +most conservative in all American population. He uses modern machinery +in the fields, but to a great degree his wife uses the old mechanisms in +the kitchen and in the household. The laborers employed on the farm are +received into the farmer's family under conditions of social equality. +The man who is this year a laborer may in a decade be a farmer. The +dignifying of personality with land ownership has been such a general +social experience in the country that every individual is thought of in +the farmer period as a potential landowner.</p> + +<p>The institutions of the rural community of the land-farmer type are the +country store, the rural school, and the church. The country store deals +in general merchandise and is a natural outgrowth of the stores of the +pioneer period in which barter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> constituted the whole of the commerce of +the community. In the pioneer store but a few commodities were imported +from the outer world. The greater part of the merchandise was made in +the community and distributed in the store. But the farmer's rural +economy is the dawning of the world economy and the general store in the +farming community becomes an economic institution requiring great +ability and centering in itself the forces of general as well as local +economics.</p> + +<p>The general storekeeper of this type in the country is at once a +business man, a money lender, an employer of labor and the manager of +the social center. He sells goods at a price so low as to maintain his +local trade against outside competition. He loans money on mortgages +throughout the community, and sells goods on credit. Judgment of men and +of properties is so essential to his business that if he can not +judiciously loan and give credit he cannot maintain a country store. +Around his warm stove in the winter and at his door in summer gather the +men of the community for discussion of politics, religion and social +affairs. In addition to all else, he has been usually the postmaster of +the community.</p> + +<p>The one-room rural school which is the prevailing type throughout the +country is a product of the land-farmer period. Its prevalence shows +that we are still in land-farmer conditions: and the criticism to which +it is now subjected indicates that we are conscious of a new epoch in +rural life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>It fits well into the life of the land farmer because it gives obviously +a mere hint of learning. It has been the boast of its advocates that it +taught only the "three Rs." Its training for life is rudimentary only: +it gives but an alphabet. The land farmer expected to live in his group. +Secure in his own acres and believing himself "as good as anybody," he +relied for his son and daughter not upon trained skill, but upon native +abilities, sterling character, independence and industry. Of all these +the household, not the school, is the source. So that the one-room +country school was satisfactory to those who created it.</p> + +<p>In another chapter the common schools are more fully discussed. Here it +may be said only that the creation of such a system was an honor to any +people. The farmers who out of a splendid idealism placed a schoolhouse +at every cross roads, on every hilltop and in every mountain valley, +exact a tribute of praise from their successors. The unit of measurement +of the school district, on which this system was based, was the day's +journey of a child six years of age. Two miles must be its longest +radius. The generation who spanned this continent with the measure of an +infant's pace, mapped the land into districts, erected houses at the +centers, and employed teachers as the masters of learning for these +little states, were men of statesmanlike power. The country school is a +nobler monument of the land farmer than anything else he has done.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>The rural "academy" was the most influential school of the land farmer's +time. Situated at the center of leading communities, in New England, +Pennsylvania and the older Eastern States, it was often under the +control or the influence of the parish minister. It generally exerted a +great influence for the building of the church and the community. Its +teachers were men of scholarly ideals. Its students were from the +locality, being selected by ambition for learning, and by their ability +to pay the tuition.</p> + +<p>The development of the high schools has generally resulted in the +abandonment of the academies. A few have survived and have adapted +themselves to new times. But it is to be doubted whether the common +schools have so far done as much for building and for organizing country +communities, for providing local leadership, for building churches, as +did the rural academies of New England, Pennsylvania and other Eastern +States.</p> + +<p>The farmer's church is the classic American type of church at its best. +The farming economy succeeded to the pioneer economy without serious +break. The troubles of the country church have their beginnings in the +period of the exploiter which is to follow, but the farmer developed the +church of the pioneer with sympathy and consistency. The church of the +farmer still values personal salvation above all. The revival methods +and the simplicity of doctrine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> have remained, but the farmer has added +typical methods of his own.</p> + +<p>The effect of this individualism is exhibited in the multiplication of +churches among farmers. So long as it is admitted that the church is for +personal salvation, it does not need to be a social institution. A small +group is as effective as a large one for securing salvation for +individuals. Two churches or three may as well serve a community as one, +if personal salvation be the service rendered. The gospel is for the +farmer good tidings,—not a call to social service. The result of the +farmer period has been, therefore, the multiplication of competitive +country churches. An instance of this competitive condition is: the +community in Kansas in which among four hundred people resident in a +field, there are seven churches, each of them attempting to maintain a +resident pastor. In Centre County, Pa., in a radius of four miles from a +given point, there are twenty-four country churches. In the same +territory within a radius of three miles are sixteen of these country +churches. This condition is satisfactory to the ideals of the farmer. If +the farmer type were permanent these churches might serve permanently +for the ministry of personal salvation. They are well attended by devout +and religious-minded people. Their condemnation is not in the farmer +economy but in the inevitable coming of the exploiter and the husbandman +with their different experience and different type of mind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this period the minister frequently is himself a tiller of the soil. +Many of the older churches had land, ten or twenty or forty acres, which +the minister was expected to till, and from it to secure a part of his +living. A church at Cranberry, N. J., had a farm of one hundred acres +until the close of the nineteenth century. But with the coming of the +exploiter and the husbandman the minister ceases to be an agriculturist.</p> + +<p>Like unto the tillage of the soil by the minister was the "donation" to +the minister, of vegetables, corn, honey and other farm products. At one +time this filled a large place in the supply of the minister's living. +In various communities the custom has remained with fine tenacity in the +presentation to the minister of portions of farm produce throughout the +year. But the portions so given are fewer, as years pass, and the total +quantity small. The donation of vegetables and farm produce has survived +in but a few places. The modes of life which succeeded to the farmer +economy are dependent on cash for the distribution of values, and the +"donation," if it remain at all, is a gift of money. Frequently the +"donation" has survived as a social gathering, being perpetuated in one +of its functions only, its earlier purposes and its essential form being +forgotten.</p> + +<p>The church of the land farmer corresponded by logical social causation +to the social economy of this type. It was seated with family pews +generally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> rented by the family group and sometimes owned in fee. In the +South the slave-holding churches, which have all passed away, had +galleries for the slaves, who worshipped thus under the same roof with +their masters. The preaching of this period was directed to the +development of group life. Its ethical standards were those of the +household group, in which private property in land, domestic morality, +filial and domestic experiences furnished the stimuli.</p> + +<p>The land-farmer's church had some organizations to correspond to the +differences in social life. The presence of the children in the family +group is represented in the Sunday schools and parochial schools built +during this period. The schools are in many cases highly organized, with +separate recognition of infancy, adolescence and middle life. In +Protestant churches the particular concerns of women and the religious +service rendered by them take form in women's societies in the churches, +mostly charitable and missionary.</p> + +<p>Finally, at the close of the land-farmer period, about 1890, there +sprang up the young people's societies, which in the ten closing years +of the land-farmer period reached a membership of hundreds of thousands +among the Protestant churches. These societies of young people +were organized in the churches to correspond to the growing +self-consciousness among adolescent members of the land-farmer's +household. The young men and women in the maturing of the family group +came to have a life of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> their own. As frequently happens, the family +group reached its highest development and perfection just before it was +to pass away.</p> + +<p>The church of the land-farmer is the typical Protestant church of the +United States. So influential has the farmer been in national life that +organized religion has idealized his type of church. It has been +transported to villages and towns. It has become the type of church most +frequent in the cities.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the Protestant churches in New York City are land-farmer +churches; "and that," says a noted city pastor, "is what ails them."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +This church centers its activities in preaching, rents or assigns its +pews to families, and organizes societies for the various factors of the +family group. It has Sunday schools, women's, men's and young people's +societies, with only one minister to supervise them all.</p> + +<p>The transformation of this type of church, so deeply rooted in the +idealism of the whole people, into a church better suited to city, +factory, town and mining settlement, has been the problem for Protestant +bodies to solve in the past twenty years. The beginning of this +transformation, it is striking to observe, came at the end of the +land-farmer period, about 1890.</p> + +<p>The land-farmer, then, whose period according to Prof. Ross, +<a name="corr6" id="corr6"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn6" title="changed from 'estended'">extended</a> +from 1835 to 1890 in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>Middle West, is the best known agricultural +type. He is the typical countryman as the countryman is imagined in the +cities and recorded in +<a name="corr7" id="corr7"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn7" title="changed from 'out'">our</a> +literature. It has been the American hope +that he should be the land-owner of the days to come. In East Tennessee +the farmer is still the type of landowner in country communities. In +some portions of Michigan and Minnesota the farmer type gives character +to the whole population, but generally throughout the country the +processes described by Prof. Ross have undermined the integrity of the +farmer type and broken his hold upon leadership of the country +population. Within the last two decades, since 1890, the farmer has been +gradually discouraged and has realized that his economy is not suited to +survive. The most representative farming communities today are those of +Scotch or Scotch-Irish people, whose instinctive tenacity, their +"clannishness," has perpetuated longer than in other instances the rural +economy and the country community.</p> + +<p>In using the term land-farmer I am aware of its close resemblance to the +term exploiter. The word itself points to exploitation of land. The land +farmer has used the raw materials of the country. He has tilled the soil +until its fertility was exhausted and then moved on to the newer regions +of the West, again to farm and to exploit the virgin riches of a +plenteous land. The planter in the South, possessing frequently more +than a thousand acres, was accustomed to till a portion of one hundred, +two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> hundred or four hundred acres, until its fertility had been +exhausted. Then he moved his slaves to another section, cleared the land +and cultivated it until its power to produce had also been exhausted. +The difference between land-farming and exploitation is the absence of +speculation in land in the former period.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Rev. Charles Stelzle.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>THE EXPLOITER</h3> + + +<p>The third type in American agriculture is the exploiter. Between the +farmer and the husbandman there is an economic revolution. In fact the +exploiter himself is a transition type between the farmer and the +husbandman. "The fundamental problem in American economics always has +been that of the distribution of land," says Prof. Ross. The exploiter +is, I presume, a temporary economic type, created in the period of +re-distribution of land. The characteristic of the exploiter is his +commercial valuation of all things. He is the man who sees only the +value of money.</p> + +<p>It was natural that with the maturing of an American population, the +exploitation of the natural resources should come. We have exploited the +forest, removing the timber from the hills and making out of its vast +resources a few fortunes. We wasted in the process nine-tenths for every +one-tenth of wealth accumulated by the exploiter. We have exploited the +coal and iron and other minerals. The exploitation of the oil deposits +and natural gas reservoirs has been a national experience and a national +scandal. The tendency to exploit every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> opportunity for private wealth +has characterized the past two decades.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>There are those who exploit the child vitality of the families of +working people, and the States have put legal checks in the way of child +labor. The exploitation of the labor of women has gone so far as to +threaten the vitality of the generation to be born, and laws have been +passed which forbid the employment of women except within limits. The +ethical discussion of the past decade is largely a keen analysis of the +methods of exploitation of resources, of men and of communities, and an +attempt to fix the bounds of the exploitation of values for private +wealth.</p> + +<p>There are those who exploit the farm. "Farms which from the original +entry until 1890 had been owned by the same family, or which had changed +owners but once or twice, and whose owners were proud to assert that +their broad acres had never been encumbered with mortgages, since 1890 +have been sold, in some instances as often as ten times, in more +numerous instances four or five times, and a large part of the purchase +price is secured by encumbering the estates!"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Agriculture, especially of the Middle West, is affected in all its parts +by the exploitation of land. To a traveller from the Eastern States, the +selling <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>and re-selling of farm land, without fertilization or +improvement by any of the successive owners, is a source of amazement.</p> + +<p>"The new lands opened under the Homestead act of half a century ago were +often exploited for temporary profit by soil robbers who were experts of +their kind. Owing to such farm management, the yield of the acre in the +United States gradually decreased. Very little intensive farming was +done."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>The commercial exploitation of land dissolves every permanent factor in +the farm economy. The country community of the land-farmer type is being +undermined and is crumbling away under the influence of exploitation. +The pioneers were a Westward emigration, pushing Westward the boundaries +of the country at the rate of fifty miles in a decade; but since 1890 +emigration has been eastward, and it is made up of farmers who move to +ever cheaper and cheaper lands to the East, the tide of higher prices +coming from the West. Already in central Illinois the values of land +seem to have reached the high water mark. About Galesburg "the Swedes +have got hold of the land and they will not sell." Among the last +recorded sales in this district were some at prices between two hundred +and two hundred fifty dollars per acre.</p> + +<p>It is not generally understood that this exploitation of farm lands has +extended over nearly the whole <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>country. Its spread is increasingly +rapid in the last two years. In the Gulf States and the Carolinas and in +Tennessee and Kentucky prices of farm land have increased in the last +five years from twenty-five to one hundred per cent. Even in the most +conservative counties in Pennsylvania the prices of farm land have +increased twenty to twenty-five per cent.</p> + +<p>The sign of this exploitation is a rapid increase in the market values +of farm land, due to frequent sale and purchase. This increase is +independent of any increase in essential value to the farmer. The net +income of the farmer may have been increased only five per cent, as in +the State of Indiana, whereas the values of farm land have increased in +the same period more than one hundred per cent. That is, the speculative +increases have been twenty times as much as the agricultural increase.</p> + +<p>Along with this change in farm values goes the increase or decrease in +the number of tenant farmers and the shifting of the ownership of land +to farm landlords. In some parts of the country this exploitation has +taken a purely speculative form. In all parts it is speculative in +character, but in some sections of the country the exploiters are +themselves farmers and the process is imposed upon the farmers +themselves by economic causes. This is true of the Illinois and Indiana +lands, which are under the influence of a system of drainage, but there +are other portions of the country in which the process is chiefly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +speculative. In some Western States the exploitation of farm land is in +the hands of speculators themselves, doing real estate business purely +as a matter of trade. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute a +process so general as this one to the power exerted by a class of real +estate agents. Its causes are deeper than the commercial process. They +go into the very roots of modern life. This should be clearly +understood, because when frankly realized it compels the adjustment of +social, educational and religious work to the period of exploitation.</p> + +<p>The effect of this process is upon all the life of country people. It +has created its own class of men. There was no intention in the mind of +earlier Americans that we should ever have a tenant class in America. +The assumption on which all our ideals are built has been that we would +be a land-owning people, but we are confronted with a tenantry problem +as difficult as any in the world. The process of exploiting land has +added to the social and economic life of the country the farm landlord, +whose influence upon the immediate future of the American country +community, church and school, in all sections will be great, and in many +communities will be dominating.</p> + +<p>The exploitation of land has produced the retired farmer. He is a pure +example of the weakness of the exploiter economy. Originally he was a +homesteader, or perhaps a purchaser of cheap land in the early days. He +expected not to remain a farmer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> but hoped for removal to the East or +to a college town. The motives which animated him were varied, but among +them none was so prominent as a desire for better education than was +provided for his children in the country community of the farmer type. +So that at forty or fifty years of age he seized an opportunity to sell +his land, as the prices were rising, and retired to the town with a cash +fortune for investment.</p> + +<p>Immediately the economic forces to which he had submitted himself made +of him a new type, for the retired farmer in the Middle West is a +characteristic type of the leading towns and cities. Some whole streets +in large centers are peopled with retired farmers. The civic policies of +scores of small municipalities are controlled in a measure by them, so +that journalists, religious leaders, reformers and politicians have very +clear-cut opinions as to the value of the retired farmer.</p> + +<p>The analysis of this situation is as follows. While the land which he +sold continued to increase in value, his small fortune began to diminish +in value. The interest on his money has been less every ten years; +whereas he formerly could loan at first for six and sometimes seven per +cent, he cannot loan safely now for more than five or six per cent.</p> + +<p>Meantime the prices of all things he has to buy are expressed in +cash,—no longer in kind as on the farm; and these cash prices are +growing. In the past decade they have almost doubled. This means<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> that +he is a poorer man. His money has a diminished purchasing power and he +has a smaller yearly income.</p> + +<p>In addition to this, his wants, and the wants of the members of the +family are increased two or three times. They cannot live as they lived +on the farm. They cannot dress as they dressed in the country. The +pressure of these increasing economic wants, demanding to be satisfied +out of a diminished income, with higher prices for the things to be +purchased, keeps the retired farmer a poor man. The result is that the +retired farmer is opposed to every step of progress in the growing town +in which he lives. He opposes every increase of taxation and fights +every assessment. He dreads a subscription list and hates to hear of +contributions. Although an intelligent and pious man, he has come to be +an obstacle to the building of libraries, churches and schools and +opposed to all humane and missionary activities. He is suffering from a +great economic mistake.</p> + +<p>Before leaving the exploiter it is to be said he also has his church. +The exploiter has built no community. He has contributed the retired +farmer to the large towns and small cities of the Middle West. It is +natural, therefore, that few exploiter churches are found in the +country. But in the larger centers there are churches whose doctrine and +methods are those of the exploiter. Indeed, at the present time the +exploiter's doctrine in ethics and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> religion is highly popular. It is +the doctrine of the consecration of wealth.</p> + +<p>There are in the larger cities churches whose business is to give; +Sunday after Sunday they hear pleas and consider the cases of college +presidents, superintendents of charities, secretaries of mission boards +and other official solicitors. These churches have systematized the +discipline of giving. Their boards of officers control the appeals that +shall be made to their people. Such churches are highly individualist in +character, and the preacher who ministers in such a church has a +doctrine of individual culture and responsibility.</p> + +<p>The exploiter's doctrine of systematic giving has gone into all of the +communities in which prosperous people live. It has become a moral code +for millionaires, and the response to it is annually measured in the +great gifts of men of large means to institutions which exist for the +use of all mankind.</p> + +<p>But not all the farm exploiters retired from the farm. The stronger and +more successful have become absentee landlords. These men have invested +their cash in farm lands. Distrusting the investments of the city +market, and fearing Wall Street, they have purchased increased acreage +in the country, and when the local market was exhausted, they have +invested in the Southwest and the far West, buying ever more and more +land. They have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> proven that "It is possible to maintain a vicious +economic method on a rising market."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>These landlords have leased their land in accordance with mere +expediency. No plans have been made in the American rural economy for a +tenantry. The lease, therefore, throughout the United States generally +is for only one year. This gives to the landlord the greatest freedom, +and to the tenant the least responsibility. Neither is willing to enter +into a contract by which the land itself can be benefitted. The landlord +is looking for the increase of the values of land, and is ever mindful +of a possible buyer. Moreover, he is watchful of the market for the crop +and of the size of the crop, so that he desires to be free at the end of +the year to make other arrangements.</p> + +<p>The tenant on his part is somewhat eager to do as he pleases for a year. +He expects to be himself an owner, and he does not expect to remain +permanently as a tenant on that farm. He reckons that he can get a good +deal out of the land in the year, and is unwilling to bind himself for a +long period. "The American system of farm tenantry is the worst of which +I have knowledge in any country."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>It is true that in some parts of the country leases of three and five +years are granted to tenants by the landlords. At Penn Yan, New York, a +reliable class of Danes secure such leases from the owners. I am <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>aware, +also, that in Delaware, in an old section dependent upon fertilization +for its crops, where the land is in the hands of a few representatives +of the old farmer type who have held it for generations, that the +tillage of the soil shows specialization. The landlord and the tenant +co-operate. The leases, while they are for but a year, specify how the +land shall be tilled, how fertilized. They require the rotation of crops +and the keeping of a certain number of cattle by the tenants. The +landlord personally oversees the tillage of several farms. This seems +the beginning of husbandry, instead of exploitation of the land.</p> + +<p>Another instance of the landlord who is more than a mere exploiter is +that of David Rankin, recently deceased. In the last years of his life +Mr. Rankin owned about thirty thousand acres of land in Missouri. It was +said in 1910 that he had seventeen thousand acres of corn. He had a +genius for estimating the values of land, the expensiveness of drainage, +and the possibilities of the market. He was an expert buyer of cattle, +and a master of the problems entering into progressive farming on a +large scale.</p> + +<p>From his vast acreage Mr. Rankin sold not one bushel of corn. All his +crops "went off on four legs." "He drove his corn to market," as they +say in the Middle West. He bought cattle from the ranches, for none were +bred on his own land. He fattened them for the market, translating corn +into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> beef and he was well aware of the values of pork in the economy of +such a farm. Nothing went to waste. According to the formula in +Nebraska, "For every cow keep a sow, that's the how." Mr. Rankin made +large profits from his cattle and hogs.</p> + +<p>It is true that he cared nothing for the community or its institutions. +On his wide acres family life was replaced by boarding-houses. Schools +and churches were closed, and many farmhouses built by the homesteaders +rotted down to their foundations. But David Rankin was a husbandman, if +not a humanist. His tillage of the soil was successful in that it +maintained the fertility of the soil, that it produced large quantities +of food for the consumer, and that it was profitable.</p> + +<p>The following is a description of community life under the influence of +such great landlords, by a Western observer:—</p> + +<p>"The city of Casselton, North Dakota, was originally started about the +year 1879. Thirty years ago the first settlers came to this great +prairie region from the New England and Central States. It was shortly +before this or about this time that the Northern Pacific Railroad was +built across this western prairie. The government gave to the road every +other section of land on each side of the railroad for thirty miles as a +bonus. That land was sold in the early days by the railroad to +purchasers for fifty cents an acre. It was some of the finest farming +land in the wide world. Out of those sales<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> grew some of the immense +farms that have been so famous over the country and while they are great +business concerns managed with fine business ability, yet they are not +much of a help in the settling of the country. Here within one mile of +Casselton is the famous Dalrymple farm of twenty-eight thousand acres. +This farm employs during the busy season what men it needs from the +drifting classes and puts no families on its broad acres. These men are +here a short season in the summer, then are gone. They are rushed with +work for that season, Sundays as well as other days from early morning +to late at night, making it almost impossible to touch their religious +life or even to count them a part of the community life.</p> + +<p>"Another farm is the Chaffee farm of thirty-five thousand acres. Mr. +Chaffee is a thorough business man but is a fine Christian and places a +good family on each section of land. He allows no Sunday work. Has a +little city kept up in beautiful condition in the center of his land +where he lives with his clerks and immediate helpers. Here they have a +neat little Congregational church and support their own minister. His +fine influence is felt all over the country. The partners in this farm +also have a land and loan corporation and also a large flour mill in +Casselton which employs about twenty-eight men, running day and night +during the busy season.</p> + +<p>"There are many farms smaller, from one thousand acres and up. Many also +of a quarter section.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Casselton was built simply as a center for this +beautiful and rich farming region. It is in the center of a strip six +miles long and twenty-five miles wide which is said to be one of the +finest sections in the land. There are other towns sprung up in the same +section also. Through the past thirty years farmers have retired, well +to do, and moved into the city. Here are now maintained excellent +schools."</p> + +<p>In conclusion: the exploitation of farm lands is a process with which +the church in the country cannot deal by persuasion. It is an economic +condition. They who are engaged in this process or are concerned in its +effects are in so far immune to the preacher who ignores or who does not +understand these economic conditions. Their action is conditioned by +their status. They will infallibly act with relation to the church in +accordance with the motives which arise out of their condition. That is, +they will act as tenant farmers, as retired farmers or as absentee +landlords. They must be treated on these terms. Their whole relation to +organized religion will be that of the condition in which they live and +by which they get their daily bread. This is a matter independent of +personal goodness. The church is dependent not on personal good +influences, but upon the response which a man makes in accordance with +his economic and social character.</p> + +<p>For instance, in Wisconsin a church worker found that thousands of acres +in a certain section were owned by a Milwaukee capitalist. He found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +that the tenant farmers on these acres were poor and struggling for a +better living, and he could not, among them, finance an adequate church. +He promptly went to Milwaukee and secured five minutes of the time and +attention of the absentee landlord. When he had stated the case and the +reasons why this large owner should give to the country church on his +acres, the man promptly said, "You have stated what I never before +realized and I will give you a contribution of one hundred dollars per +year for that church until you hear from me to the contrary."</p> + +<p>In contrast to this there is in Central Illinois a large estate of five +thousand acres. The owner lives in a distant city and his son tills the +land. It is known among the neighbors that the son has orders to oppose +all improvements of churches and of schools, "because there is no money +for us in the church or the school."</p> + +<p>It is useless to complain of the position in which a man is. The +minister's duty is to utilize him in his own status and to enable him to +practise the virtues which are open to him. The retired farmer can +become an active and devoted evangelist, preacher or organizer. He +should be made a leader in the intellectual development of the farmer's +problem of the region. He has leisure and intelligence and is often a +devout man. It is the business of the minister to transform this into +religious and social efficiency. The temperance movement in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> the Middle +West has had generous and devoted support from the retired farmers +living in the towns. The families of these one time farmers are seeking +after culture. The literary and aesthetic aspects of the community can +well be committed to members of these families. Their value for the +community is probably in these directions. Above all it is the business +of the minister to sympathize with the life they are living and to +enable them to live it to the highest advantage.</p> + +<p>The energies of the church should be devoted to the tenant farmer. Of +this more will be said in another place. He also must be treated in +sympathy with his social and economic experience and the religious +service rendered to him must be the complete betterment of his life as +he is trying to live it. He is not a sinner because he is a tenant and +what he does as a tenant is therefore not a misdemeanor, but a normal +reaction upon life. The church can help him in purging his life from the +iniquities peculiar to a tenant and a dependent. The noblest motives +must be brought out and the life he is to live should be given its own +ideals.</p> + +<p>Above all the period of exploitation must be understood by the teacher +and the preacher to be a preparation, a transition through which country +people are coming to organized and scientific agriculture. Gradually the +influence of science and the leadership of the departments and colleges +of agriculture are being extended in the country. Little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> by little, +whether through landlord or tenant, farming is becoming a profession +requiring brains, science and trained intelligence. The country church +should promote this process because only through its maturity can the +country church in the average community find its own establishment. The +reconstruction of the churches now going on corresponds to the +exploitation of the land. The duty of the church in the process of +exploitation is to build the community and to make itself the center of +the growing scientific industry on which the country community in the +future will be founded.</p> + +<p>The religion of the exploiter moves in the giving of money. Consecration +of his wealth is consecration of his world and of himself. The church +that would save him must teach him to give. His sins are those of greed, +his virtues are those of benevolence. His own type, not the least worthy +among men, should be honored in his religion. No man's conversion ever +makes him depart from his type, but be true to his type. Therefore the +religion for the exploiter of land is a religion of giving, to the poor +at his door, to the ignorant in this land, and to the needy of all +lands.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, +by Van Hise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> J. B. Ross—"Agrarian Changes in the Middle West."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson at the United States +Land and Irrigation Exposition, Chicago, Nov. 19, 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The Rural Life Problem in the United States, by Sir Horace +Plunkett.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Dean Chas. F. Curtiss, State College of Iowa.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>THE HUSBANDMAN</h3> + + +<p>The scientific farmer is dependent upon the world economy. He is the +local representative of agriculture, whose organization is national and +even international. He raises cotton in Georgia, but he "makes milk" in +Orange County, New York, because the market and the soil and the climate +and other conditions require of him this crop.</p> + +<p>He is dependent upon the college of agriculture for the methods by which +he can survive as a farmer. Tradition, which dominated the agriculture +of a former period, is a disappearing factor in husbandry of the soil. +The changes in market conditions are such as to impoverish the farmer +who learns only from the past. Tradition could teach the farmer how to +raise the raw materials, under the old economy, in which the farmhouse +and community were sufficient unto themselves. But in a time when the +wool of the sheep in Australia goes halfway round the world in its +passage from the back of a sheep to the back of a man, the sheep farmer +becomes dependent upon the scientist. He cannot afford to raise sheep +unless the scientific man assures him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> that in the production of wool +his land has its highest utility. "The American farm land is passing +into the hands of those who will use it to the highest advantage."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>The dependence of the scientific farmer or husbandman upon the world +market and upon the scientists who are studying agriculture enlarges the +circle of his life from the rural household to the rural community. In +the rural community agriculture can be taught; in the household it +cannot. The only teaching of the household is tradition; the teaching of +the community is in terms of science. The country school and the country +church take a greater place as community institutions just so soon as +the farmer passes out of the period of exploitation into that of +scientific husbandry.</p> + +<p>The husbandman is the economist in agriculture. He is to the farm what +the husband was to the household in old times. One is tempted to say +also that the husbandman is he who marries the land. American farm land +has suffered dishonor and degradation, but it has known all too little +the affection which could be figuratively expressed in marriage. The +Bible speaks of "marrying the land."—"Thy land shall be called Beulah +for thy land shall be married." Side by side in this country we have the +lands which have been dishonored, degraded, abandoned, dissolute, and +the lands husbanded, fertilized, enriched and made beautiful.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>The husbandman or rural economist cares more for qualities than for +quantity. He works not merely for intensive cultivation of the soil, but +also for the preservation of the soil and use of it in its own terms, at +its highest values.</p> + +<p>The principle at work is not the increase in the farmer's material gains +or possessions. The husbandry of the soil is not a mere increase in +market values. It is a deeper and more ethical welfare than that which +can be put in the bank. "Agriculture is a religious occupation." When it +sustains a permanent population and extends from generation to +generation the same experiences, agriculture is productive in the +highest degree of moral and religious values. In the words of Director +L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, "The land is holy."</p> + +<p>This is especially true at the present time, when the land is limited in +amount. Already the whole nation is dependent upon the farmer in the +degree intimated by the statement of Dean Bailey. "The census of 1900 +showed approximately one-third of our people on farms or closely +connected with farms, as against something like nine-tenths, a hundred +years previous. It is doubtful whether we have struck bottom, although +the rural exodus may have gone too far in some regions, and we may not +permanently strike bottom for sometime to come."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The service of the few to the many, therefore, is the present status of +the husbandman. The very <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>fact that one-third of the people must feed +all the people imposes religious and ethical conditions upon the farmer. +The dependence of the greater number for their welfare upon those who +are to till the soil brings that obligation, which the farmer is well +constituted to bear and to which his serious spirit gives response.</p> + +<p>This means that with the growing consciousness of the need of scientific +agriculture there will arise, indeed is now arising, a new ethical and +religious feeling among country people. The church which is made up of +scientific farmers is a new type of church.</p> + +<p>A notable testimony to the influence of the church in developing +husbandry is by Sir Horace Plunkett,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> who testifies to the religious +influence that led to the agrarian revolution in Denmark.</p> + +<p>"My friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational +experience of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on +agriculture as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organization +to a more genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. +Yet an inquirer will at once discover that it is to the 'High School' +founded by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which +are also excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly +due. A friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of state aid to +agriculture, found this to be the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers not +only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation upon +the history and literature of the country."</p> + +<p>Every observer of these Danish Folk High Schools testifies to their +religious enthusiasm, their patriotism and above all to the songs with +which their lecture hours are begun and ended. A graduate of these +schools living for years in America, the mother of children then +entering college, said, "Those songs helped me over the hardest period +of my life. I can always sing myself happy with them." The spirit which +pervades the schools was influential in Danish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> agriculture, as +expressed in the title of Grundtvig's best known hymn, "The Country +Church Bells." Under such an influence as this has the agricultural life +of Denmark taken the lead over its urban and manufacturing life.</p> + +<p>The modifying influence of husbandry upon the church and its teaching is +illustrated in the following incident. A farmer in Missouri had a good +stand of corn which promised all through the summer to produce an +excellent crop. Abundance of sun and rain favored the farmer's hope that +his returns would be large, but in the fall the crop proved a failure. +The farmer at once cast about for the cause of this disappointment. He +had his soil analyzed by a scientist and discovered that it was +deficient in nitrogen. The next year he devoted to supplying this lack +in the soil and in the year following had an abundant return in corn. +"Now that experience turned me away," said he, "from the country church, +because the teaching of the country church as I had been accustomed to +it was out of harmony with the study of the situation and the conquest +over nature. I had been taught in the country church to surrender under +such conditions to the will of Providence." The country church of the +husbandman must therefore be a church in harmony with the tillage of the +soil by science. Like the farm households about it, the church will +possess a large wealth of tradition, but the church of the scientific +farmer must be open to the teachings of science and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> must be responsive, +intelligent and alert in the intellectual leadership of the people.</p> + +<p>A church of this sort is at West Nottingham, Maryland. The minister Rev. +Samuel Polk, had been discouraged by the inattention of his people to +his message. He had come to feel that this is an unbelieving age and had +surrendered himself to the steadfast performance of his duties, the +preaching of the truth faithfully and the ministry to his people so far +as they would receive it. In addition he had the task of tilling forty +acres of land which belongs to the church. This he was doing faithfully, +but without much intelligent interest.</p> + +<p>An address on the country church in an agricultural college sent him +home with new ideas. He saw that his life as a farmer and as a preacher +had to be made one. He determined to preach to farmers and to till his +land as an example of Christian husbandry. He began as a scholar by +studying the scientific use of his land. He found at once that the +farmers about him were forced to study the tillage of their soil, +because it had been exhausted of fertility by methods of farming no +longer profitable. In the first year the preacher raised, by means of a +dust mulch through a dry summer, a crop of one hundred and seventy-five +bushels of potatoes. Meantime his preaching had been enlivened with new +illustrations and he was enabled to enforce, to the amazement of his +hearers, new impressions with old truths. The Scripture teaching which +had become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> dull and scholastic became live and modern, as he preached +the Old Testament to a people who were recognizing the sacredness of +land. His audiences began to increase. His influence on his people very +shortly passed bounds and reserves. When at the end of the season his +potato crop came in, the farmers gave sign of recognizing his leadership +as a farmer and as a preacher. Within a year this man had taken a place +as a first citizen, which no one else in the community could hold. +Because he was a preacher he could become the leading authority upon +farming and because he must needs be a farmer he found it possible to +preach with greater acceptance.</p> + +<p>This pastor gave up the methods of bookish preparation for preaching. He +preached as the Old Testament men did, to the occasion and to the event. +He spoke to the community as being a man himself immersed in the same +life as theirs. On a recent occasion when a woman was very sick in one +of the farm houses and had suffered from the neglect of her neighbors, +his sermon consisted of an appeal to visit the sick. That afternoon the +invalid was called on by thirty-eight people and sent a message before +night, begging the minister to hold the people back.</p> + +<p>There are a few ministers throughout the country who are successful +farmers. Many ministers are speculators in farm land. They belong in the +exploiter class. One more instance should be given<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> of the preacher who +promotes agriculture. In a recent discussion the writer was asked, "Do +you then believe that the minister should attend the agricultural +college," and he replied, "No. The agricultural college should be +brought to the country church."</p> + +<p>At Bellona, New York, the ministers of two churches, Methodist and +Presbyterian, united with their officers in a farmers' club, to which +others were admitted. This club under the leadership of Rev. T. Maxwell +Morrison, makes the nucleus of its work the study of the agriculture of +the neighborhood and the improvement of it. Lecturers from Cornell +University are brought throughout the year into the country community to +take up in succession the various aspects of farming which may be +improved. The market is studied, by chemical analysis the nature of the +soil is determined, and the possibilities of the community are raised to +their highest value by careful investigation.</p> + +<p>This farmers' club has social features as well. Other topics besides +farming are occasionally studied but the business of the club is +economic promotion of the well-being of the community. Incidentally, it +has furnished a social center for the countryside. The churches which +have had to do with it have been enlarged, their membership extended and +even their gifts to foreign missions have been increased in the period +of growth of the farmers' club.</p> + +<p>The elements of permanent cultivation of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> soil are found in greater +numbers among the Mormons, Scotch Irish Presbyterians, Pennsylvania +Germans, who are the best American agriculturists, than among the more +unstable populations of farmers. Those elements, however, are, simply +speaking, the following.</p> + +<p>A certain austerity of life always accompanies successful and permanent +agriculture. By this is meant a fixed relation between production and +consumption.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Successful tillers of the soil labor to produce an +abundant harvest. They live at the same time in a meager and sparing +manner. Production is with them raised to its highest power and +consumption is reduced to its lowest. This means austere living. Such +communities are found among the Scotch Irish farmers. Lancaster County, +Pennsylvania, is peopled with them and their tillage of the soil has +continued through two centuries.</p> + +<p>A notable illustration is in Illinois. The permanence of the conditions +of country life in this community is indicated by the long pastorate of +the minister who has just retired. Coming to the church at forty-eight +years of age, after other men have ceased from zealous service, he +ministered forty-two years to this parish of farmers, and has recently +retired at the age of ninety, leaving the church in ideal condition. +"The Middle Creek Church is distinctly a country charge, located in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>Southwest corner of Winnebago Township, of the County of Winnebago.</p> + +<p>"The church was organized in June, 1855, in a stone schoolhouse. The +present house of worship was erected and dedicated in 1861. Five +ministers served the church as supplies until 1865, when the Rev. J. S. +Braddock, D. D., became the pastor and carried on a splendid work for +forty-two years, when he laid down his pastorate in 1907, at the age of +ninety."</p> + +<p>"This community was settled by homesteaders and pioneers in the early +days of the West. Many of them came from Pennsylvania and some of them +were of Scotch descent. The history of the community has been but the +history of the development of a fertile Western Prairie country. It was +settled by strong Presbyterian men, and their descendants are now the +backbone of the community. There has been little change, but steady +growth."</p> + +<p>The second element in the community of husbandmen is mutual support. +Professor Gillin of the University of Iowa has described to me the +community of Dunkers whom he has studied,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> being deeply impressed +with their communal solidarity. Whenever a farm is for sale these +farmers at the meeting-house confer and decide at once upon a buyer +within their own religious fellowship. In the week following the +minister or a church member writes back to Pennsylvania and the +correspondence is pressed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>until a family comes out from the older +settlements in the Keystone State to purchase this farm in Iowa and to +extend the colony of his fellow Dunkers. Reference is made elsewhere to +the communal support given to their own members who suffer economic +hardship. The serious tillage of the soil necessarily involves mutual +support and the husbandman's life is in his community.</p> + +<p>The third factor in communal husbandry is progress. Everyone testifies +to the leadership of the "best families" in the transformation of the +older modes of the tillage of the soil to the newer. It is impossible +for the scientific agriculturist to make much improvement upon a country +community until the more progressive spirits and the more open minds +have been enlisted. Thereafter the better farming problem is solved. +There can be no modern agriculture in a community in which all are +equal. The communities of husbandmen will be as sharply differenced from +one another, so far as I can see, as men are in the great cities. +Leadership is the essential of progress. Gabriel Tardé has clearly +demonstrated that only those who are at the top of the social scale can +initiate social and economic enterprises. The cultivation of the soil +for generations to come must be highly progressive. To recover what we +have lost and to restore what has been wasted will exhaust the resources +of science and will tax the intelligence of the leaders among +husbandmen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>For this reason the ministers, teachers, and social workers in the +country should be not discouraged, but hopeful, when confronted with +rural landlords and capitalists. The business of the community leader is +to enlist in the common task those persons whose privileges are superior +and inspire them with a progressive spirit. Without their leadership the +community cannot progress. Without their privileges, wealth and superior +education, no progress is possible in the country.</p> + +<p>If these pages tell the truth, then agriculture is a mode of life +fertile in religious and ethical values. But it must be husbandry, not +exploitation. Religious farming is a lifelong agriculture, indeed it +involves generations, and its serious, devoted spirit waits for the +reward, which was planted by the diligent father or grandfather, to be +reaped by the son or grandson. Men will not so consecrate themselves to +their children's good without the steadying influence of religion. So +that agriculture and religion are each the cause, and each the effect, +of the other.</p> + +<p>If this is true, then the country church should promote the husbandry +of the soil. The agricultural college should be brought into the country +parish, for the church's sake. Indeed the minister would do well if his +scholarship be the learning of the husbandman. No other science has such +religious values. No other books have such immediate relation to the +well-being of the people. The min<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>ister is not ashamed to teach Greek, +or Latin,—dead languages. Why should he think it beneath him "to teach +the farmer how to farm," provided he can teach the farmer anything? If +he be a true scholar, the farmer, who is a practical man, needs his +learned co-operation in the most religious of occupations, that the land +may be holy.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Rural Economics, by Prof. Thos. Nixon Carver.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> "The Country-Life Movement," by L. H. Bailey.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> "Ireland in the New Century," by Sir Horace Plunkett.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Professor Thomas Nixon Carver.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See Chapter V.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITIES</h3> + + +<p>Most of this volume is devoted to the average conditions which prevail +throughout the United States. The attempt is made to deal with those +causes which are generally operative. It is the writer's opinion that +the causes dealt with in other chapters are the prevailing causes of +religious and social experience in the most of the United States. As +soon as the community, after its early settlement, becomes mature, these +causes show the effects here described. But there are exceptions which +should be noted and the cause of their different life made clear. These +exceptions are represented in the Mormons, the Scottish Presbyterians +and the Pennsylvania Germans.</p> + +<p>"The best farmers in the country are the Mormons, the Scotch +Presbyterians and Pennsylvania Germans." This sentence expresses a +general observation of Prof. Carver of Harvard, speaking as an +economist. The churches among these three classes of exceptionally +prosperous farmers show great tenacity and are free from the weakness +which otherwise prevails in the country church. There is a group of +causes underlying this exceptional character of the three classes of +farmers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>These exceptional farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. +The Mormons represent this organization in the highest degree. Perhaps +no other so large or so powerful a body of united farmers is found in +the whole country. They have approached the economic questions of +farming with determination to till the soil. They distrust city life and +condemn it. They teach their children and they discipline themselves to +love the country, to appreciate its advantages and to recognize that +their own welfare is bound up in their success as farmers, and in the +continuance of their farming communities. This agricultural organization +centers about their country churches. They have turned the force of +religion into a community making power, and from the highest to the +lowest of their church officers the Mormon people are devoted to +agriculture as a mode of living.</p> + +<p>This principle of organizing the community consciously for agriculture +results in the second condition of the life of these three exceptional +peoples.</p> + +<p>They build agricultural communities. The Mormons are organized by an +idea and by the power of leadership. They have recruited their +population through preachers and missionaries. This new population is +woven at once into the fabric of the community. They are not merely +employed in the community: they are married to the community. The +organization on which the Mormon community is based becomes embodied at +once in a society,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> with its own modes of religious, family, and moral +feeling and thought.</p> + +<p>These two principles are discovered in the Pennsylvania Germans. For +more than two centuries they have continued their settlements in +Pennsylvania. They are today a chain of societies loosely related to one +another through religious sympathy and a common tradition, but united +only in the possession of certain characteristics. They also are an +organization for agricultural life, though not so consciously organized +as the Mormons. Their societies are older and they have replaced with +instinctive processes that which is among the Mormons a matter of logic +and shrewd application of principles.</p> + +<p>The life of the Pennsylvania Germans is expressed in the community. They +have as much aversion to other people as they have fondness for their +own. Their religion consists of a set of customs in which to them the +character of the Christian is embodied. These customs can be expressed +and embodied only in the life of common people working on the land. They +make plainness, industry, and patience, austerity of life and other +agricultural virtues constitute sanctity. It is impossible to believe +sincerely in their mode of life and not be a farmer. It is easy to +believe the Pennsylvania Germans' code, if one is a farmer, and it is +profitable as well.</p> + +<p>The Scotch and the Scotch Irish Presbyterians represent a third +principle of agricultural success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> Their churches are tenacious and +their country communities outlive those of the average type. In them is +represented in the highest degree the principle of austerity. By this I +mean, as defined by an economist, the custom of living so as to produce +much and consume little. These people look upon life with severity. They +have little sympathy with the expansive and exuberant life of the young. +The men of the community, who are the producers, occupy a relatively +greater position than the women, who are the consumers. They exemplify +to a slight degree the conscious organization for agriculture, and in a +high degree the resultant social life which we have noted among the +Mormons and the Pennsylvania Germans; but to the highest degree the +Scottish Presbyterians represent this self-denial and rigidity of +life—which appears in the others also—and they embody it in their +creed. This austerity gives to them a forbidding character, and robs +them of some of the esthetic interest attaching to the other two, but it +is possible that they are more nearly the ideal type of American farmer +because of certain other traits possessed by them.</p> + +<p>The Scotch farmer has not in the United States settled in communities or +colonies, as he has in Canada, but the typical farming community of this +stock is Scotch Irish. As Prof. R. E. Thompson has shown,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> the +emigrants from the North of Ireland, who are themselves of Scotch +extraction, have colonized <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>extensively. That is, they have settled +their populations so as to cover a territory and possess it for +themselves. But the Scotch, from whom they derive many characteristics, +have settled no colony in the world except in the North of Ireland.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> +The peculiarity of these Scotch Irish farming settlements, as shown +especially in Pennsylvania, is their capacity to produce leaders in +sympathy with the whole of American life. The Mormons produce leaders, +but their influence is compromised by religious prejudices. The +Pennsylvania Germans have produced no leaders whom they can call their +own, and very few writers or educators. The Scotch Irish, on the other +hand, considered as farmers, have contributed an extraordinary +proportion of the leadership of the United States. They have been able +to maintain their own communities in the country and to find for these +communities a sufficient leadership, and they have sent forth into the +general population a multitude of men for leadership in the army, in the +legislatures, in the colleges and universities, and above all, in the +pulpit.</p> + +<p>In these three types of successful farmers religion is an essential +factor. No history can be written of the Mormons, of the "Pennsylvania +Dutch" or of the Scotch Presbyterian without recording their religious +devotion, their obedience to leaders, to customs and to creed. One +cannot live among them <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>without feeling the peculiar religious +atmosphere which belongs to each of them. They are admirable or +obnoxious, according as one likes or dislikes this religious character +of theirs, but it pervades the whole life of the community. If it be +true that there is no type of farmer—except the scientific farmer of +the past few years—who has succeeded as these three types have +succeeded, and there is no country community so tenacious as their +communities are, and if it be true that these farmers more uniformly +than other farmers are religiously organized, then it follows that there +is an essential relation so far as American agriculture goes, between +successful and permanent agriculture and a religious life. The country +church becomes the expression of a permanent and abiding rural +prosperity. Agriculture is shown by its very nature to require a +religious motive. An element of piety appears to be necessary in the +makeup of the successful farmer.</p> + +<p>In these three types of successful farmer there appears another +principle which is common to them all. They are not only organized for +farming, but they are organized as a mutual prosperity association, +based on their consciousness of kind. Prof. Gillin has called attention +to the habit of the Dunkers in Iowa, who are of the Pennsylvania German +sects, by which they extend their farming communities.</p> + +<p>"The thing that is needed is to make the church the center of the social +life of the community. That is easier where there is but one church than +where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> there are several, but federation is not essential. Thought must +be taken by the leaders to make the church central in every interest of +life. I know of a community where that has been done. It is the +community located south of Waterloo, Ia., in Orange Township. It is +composed of an up-to-date community of Pennsylvania Dutch Dunkers. From +the very first they have made the church central. When these great +changes of which I have spoken began to occur, the leaders of that +community began to take measures to checkmate the attractions of the +towns for their young people. For example, Fourth of July was made a day +of celebration at the church. When the people of other communities were +flocking to town by hundreds, the youth of that community were +gathering, in response to plans well thought out beforehand, to the +church grounds where patriotic songs were sung, games were played, a +picnic dinner was served, and a general good time was provided for the +young. They have also arranged that their young people have a place to +come to on Sunday nights where they can meet their friends. The elders +look to it that provisions are made for the gatherings of the young +people on Sunday so that they shall 'have a good time,' with due +arrangements for the boys and girls to get together under proper +conditions for their love-making. Even their church 'love feasts' held +twice a year, are also neighborhood gatherings for the young people. The +church is the center of everything. Is a farmers'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> institute to be held +in the community, or a teachers' institute? The church until very +recently was open to it. Is a farm to rent or for sale? At once the +leaders get busy with the mail, and soon a family from the East is on +their way to take it. This country church has not remained strong and +dominant in the country just by accident or even by federation. It has +survived because it had wise leaders who have met the changes with new +devices to attract the interest of the community and make the church +serve the community in all its affairs, but especially on the social +side. Such thought takes account of the 'marginal man' too. The hired +man and the hired girl, the foreigner and the tramp are welcome there. +No difference is made. There is pure democracy. With the growth of the +class spirit I do not know how that can survive. These hirelings are not +talked down to; they are considered one with the rest. They will some +day get enough to buy a farm and become leaders in the community, +perhaps. The church is theirs as much as anyone's else. It looks after +their interest, not only for the hereafter, but here and now. Under its +fostering care they form their life attachments, it provides for their +social pleasures, it is the center to which they come to discuss their +farming affairs or whatever interests them. And in spite of the fact +that the preaching has little contact with life and its interests, so +strong is the social spirit that the preaching can be left out of +account. What could be accomplished were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> the preaching as consciously +directed to forwarding the social interests of the community one can +only speculate."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>Thus they work for the propagation and extension of their own community. +The Scotch Presbyterians in like manner favor their own kindred and +their kindred in the faith, though, I think, in a lesser degree. The +Mormons are consolidated both by formal organization and by instinctive +preference for their own in a multitude of co-operating habits, through +which they build up their communities and contend with one another +against their economic and religious opponents. It is not enough to say +that this is clannishness; it is a mingling of kinship and religious +preferences. It constitutes the strongest form of agricultural +co-operation to be found in the United States.</p> + +<p>A Quaker community represents ideal community life. There is none poor. +The margin of the community is well cared for by the conscious and +deliberate service of the central and leading spirits in the community.</p> + +<p>At Quaker Hill, New York, there has been for almost two centuries a +community of Friends. The Meeting has now been "laid down" but the +customs and manners by which these peculiar people maintain their +community life have been wrought into the social texture of the present +population of Quaker <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>Hill. During two centuries this community has +cared for its own members in need. It was not beneath the dignity of the +Meeting to raise money and purchase a cow, early in the eighteenth +century, to "loan to the widow Irish," and at the close of the +nineteenth century, the few Quakers and the many Irish and other +"world's people" took part more than once in subscriptions by which the +burden was borne, which had fallen upon some workingman or poorer +neighbor through the death of horse or cow, or even to bear the expense +incidental to the death of his child.</p> + +<p>These Quakers co-operated in their business life. They made themselves +responsible that no member of their Meeting should be long in debt. From +1740 for 100 years and more, the records of the Meeting show that +marriage was made impossible and other vital experiences were forbidden +by the Meeting, unless the individual Quaker paid his debts and +maintained his business on a level dictated by the common opinion of the +Quaker body.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>In 1767, Oblong Meeting of Quaker Hill, New York, began the legislative +opposition of the Society of Friends to the institution of slavery. This +great economic movement expressed the degree to which the Quaker +discipline merged the religious life in the economic life. This +consolidation of religious and economic life was essential in the +community building of the Quakers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is surprising to many to discover that the "Pennsylvania Dutch" were +part of the same movement of population which brought the Quakers into +Pennsylvania. William Penn spoke German as well as English. His mother +was a German. When he inherited his father's claim against the British +Crown, and received from Charles the Second the grant of that extensive +territory in America on which he launched his Holy Experiment, he began +to advertise and to seek for settlers on the Continent as well as in +England.</p> + +<p>William Penn was a Quaker, and on the Continent he found immediate +response in the greatest number of cases among the various branches of +Mennonites, Anabaptist, and other sects, who shared a common group of +beliefs and experienced at this time a common persecution. William Penn, +therefore, reaped a harvest of responses in the territory between the +mouth of the Rhine and the Alps. His proposal made its own selection, +and brought to America a population calculated like the Quaker +population for the building of communities. The largest single +contribution was made by the Palatinates, who were at that period +undergoing extreme persecution.</p> + +<p>The communities founded within the first century after the opening of +Pennsylvania have remained to the present day, and the earliest +establishments of Mennonites and Quaker communities in Pennsylvania have +been duplicated in the westward stream<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> of immigration, especially in +Ohio and in Iowa. These people are roughly called the "Pennsylvania +Dutch." Even when one meets them in Michigan, Iowa or Minnesota, this +name clings to them, and the form of social organization which they +elaborated in Eastern Pennsylvania still persists.</p> + +<p>This social organization has varying characteristics. It is somewhat +difficult to analyze the intricate windings and entanglements of +doctrinal and practical belief in custom among the Mennonites, Amish and +Dunkers. Old school and new school have been formed in almost every one +of these sects. Eccentric and peculiar principles of belief in +organization have formed the lesser and the least permanent groups; but +there is a common principle in them all. Their ability to form +communities in the midst of hostile populations and adverse conditions +has been due to the co-operation between their religious and their +economic habits.</p> + +<p>The "Pennsylvania Dutch" have simple doctrinal characteristics. They +have never worked out in detail the logic of their beliefs. They put the +weight of their organization upon practical customs, as the Quakers did. +In some cases, this applied to clothing; in some or all of these sects +to the manner of speech; to family customs; but, the one peculiar +principle in it all, which has been vital to the success, to the +persistence, to the wide extension of these sectarian groups has been +that the religious life has penetrated the economic life. They have not +permitted mem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>bers of their community to be poor. They have turned the +attention of their religious sympathies to the economic margin of the +community. They have enforced the payment of debts, and they have +governed and controlled marriage conditions. By subtle enforcement of +custom having the power of laws, they have governed the community in its +vital relations, and perfected the system by which the poorest man shall +make his living and by which the richest man shall make his fortune.</p> + +<p>Recently, I was in Lancaster, Penn., and passing through a market I was +told by a resident that all the truck farming of the market for that +city had come into the hands of the Amish, and my friend added, "If you +go at an early hour to buy, and ask the price of certain vegetables, you +will probably be told, 'We do not know the price yet; we will have to +wait until all the farmers come in.'" That is, after two hundred and +more years of living as farmers in this section of Pennsylvania, these +sectarians maintain their community life, co-operate in the monopolizing +of an industry, and in fixing the price of the monopolized product in +the markets of a Pennsylvania city.</p> + +<p>This survey of community-building peoples in America may throw light +upon the recommendations of Sir Horace Plunkett for the organization of +country life upon an economic basis. The present writer heartily agrees +with him that the center of the community must be economic. He says that +"Bet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>ter business must come first" in constructive policies for American +country life, but "by failing to combine, American and British farmers +persistently disobey an accepted law."</p> + +<p>Social division is the impending danger which threatens the future of +the American community in the country. For if the analysis of +agricultural success in this chapter is correct, then the farmer is +exceedingly dependent upon his neighbor, and the permanence of rural +populations depends upon the social unity of the farmers in the +community. The highest expression of this social unity is in the +farmer's religion. Worship thus becomes a symbol of agricultural +prosperity. The writers and the orators have then truly spoken who +symbolized the beauty of rural life in the church steeple. The farmer +himself seems to recognize, in the church spire rising above the roofs +of the hamlet, the symbol of prosperous and satisfactory life in the +country.</p> + +<p>As the tillers of the soil come to the necessity of co-operation in the +new order of life in the country, as the old isolation passes away and +the modern farmer comes to recognize his necessary dependence upon other +farmers in the community, a common place of worship will become +necessary to the community. One church will of necessity express the +life of the community and the periodic meeting of all the people in one +house of worship will be the highest and most essential symbol of the +feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> and the thought and the aspirations of that community after +true prosperity and permanence.</p> + +<p>The purpose of this chapter has been to present the general +characteristics of the most exceptional communities in the country. +These are Mormon, Scotch Presbyterian and Pennsylvania German. By their +very names they indicate religious organization of the community and +"birthright membership" associations. They are grouped under the one +principle, that in them the religious organization is an expression of +their social economy. Their social and economic life is under the +domination of their religion.</p> + +<p>These farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. The +resultant social life constitutes a most intense organization in which +voluntary and conscious combination matures in instinctive union +embodied in blood relationship, neighborliness and economic union. These +populations show the correspondence between economic and religious +austerity. Thrift takes the form of dogmatic repression and finally +their organization and their relationship express themselves in +organized efforts for the well-being of the community. They deliberately +as well as instinctively co-operate.</p> + +<p>It is the writer's belief that these exceptional communities exhibit the +principles on which American life must be organized, if the farmer is to +be a success, if his schools are to progress, his churches to be +maintained, and if the country community is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> to be a good place to live +in. None of these populations can be imitated. It would be impossible +for a community to take over their modes any more than it could imbibe +their motives. The study of them throws light upon the problem of +country life in America. Above all things it illustrates the especial +union of the country church with the social economy of the farmer and +his household. It shows that the life of country people is co-operative, +that it is undermined by division and disunion and that in the open +country where man is least seen his society is most evident. The +dependence of each man upon his neighbor is increased in modern times by +the thinning out of the rural population and the increased economic +burden laid upon the farmer.</p> + +<p>Finally, the exceptional populations present an exceptional victory over +economic and natural forces. They abolish poverty within their own +bounds. Every one of the communities just described turns the power of +its common organization upon the problem of maintaining the lower margin +of the community. They who are in danger of falling behind are sustained +and carried on. None in these communities is permitted to fall into +pauperism. The workingman without capital, whether he be in their +meetings or only employed on their farms, is kept from want. The widow +with her little house and one cow is insured against the loss of any +feature of her small property. This seems to me to be the greatest +triumph of these communities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> It is the test, I am convinced, of their +organizations and of their success. In this they demonstrate one of the +greatest possibilities of country life. They show that in the open +country it is possible for men to live without the suffering and +degradation of poverty.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> History of American Presbyterianism, by R. E. Thompson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> An exception to this statement must be noted, in the +Scotch settlements in Canada and Nova Scotia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Professor John L. Gillin, in American Journal of +Sociology, March, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>GETTING A LIVING</h3> + + +<p>The core of a community must be economic. The main business of life is +to get a living.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The reason for existence of any community is found +in the living which it supplies its residents. Men are attracted to a +community by the increases in their living furnished by that community. +The first element in the getting of a living is the securing of daily +bread, shelter, clothing and the satisfaction of physical needs. It is a +mistake to think of the community as beginning in religious +institutions—narrowly understood—or in social gatherings or in +educational service. The initial human experience is the finding of +food.</p> + +<p>But the getting of a living is a long process. A living is more than +bread, and a roof and a coat. In quest of a living men go from the +country to the town and from the town to the city. They migrate from the +small city to the large. In each of these moves they secure a further +element in their living. Each of these communities is characterized by +the increase which it contributes to the living of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>citizens, but in +every community the initial experience is the securing of daily bread, +shelter, clothing and material economic gains. Whatever is done, +therefore, for the community in a service to all the people must have +initial concern with the purely economic welfare of the people.</p> + +<p>Sir Horace Plunkett's book, "The Rural Life Problem of the United +States," develops this principle very clearly. He shows that in the +Country Life Movement in Ireland it was necessary to go into the very +heart of the people's aspirations, and organize their economic needs.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to understand the word "economic" if one would read +these pages aright. Economic matters are not those of mere money. The +word has a greater meaning than has the word finance. It connotes +poverty as truly as wealth, and is greater than both. The economic +motive animates men in the quest of those vital satisfactions which the +individual craves, and the social group requires. Professor John Bates +Clark has somewhere described this motive as the desire to preserve the +present status, with slight improvement, for oneself and one's children +after him; the desire to live on the same economic standard in one's own +generation; and to be reasonably assured of the same security for one's +children. This is not the desire to get rich, though in individual cases +it is changed into a desire for wealth. But it is a far more general, +indeed a universal aspiration, which inspires most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> of the work of the +world. Industry is based on it. Civilization is propelled by it. It is +the desire to get a living and the quest of a living.</p> + +<p>I believe that this economic motive is religious. It is the quest of +what a man has not, but feels to be his. It engages his utmost efforts. +It is labor for his wife and children and for all his group fellows, and +therefore is involved in his holiest, most self-forgetting feelings. It +takes him back to his parents and reminds him constantly of his +ancestors. He forms his ideas of justice in his economic experiences. +His ultimate conviction as to the goodness or the badness of the world +are the outgrowth of his experience in getting a living. Therefore his +economic life is his wrestle with nature and with society. It generates +in him all the religion he has.</p> + +<p>I suppose it was for this reason that Jesus said "I am come that they +may have life, and that they may have it abundantly." Probably his +meaning was economic, in part, in the saying, "Man shall not live by +bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." +The quest of a living is a satisfaction of successive economic wants, of +which bread is but the first. Every truth that mankind knows involves +men in an economic want. Education is one of the most general wants. It +comes in the series somewhat later than bread. The love of music is an +economic want, which comes generally later than education. But both are +a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> part of a living. I believe that the quest of education and the love +of music are religious, just as much as the desire for daily bread. One +might enumerate the whole series of economic wants, to satisfy which is +to live, but religion is the total of the reflections, and the complex +of customs which result from the lifelong quest for a living among +common folk. At its highest it is expressed by St. Augustine, "O God, +thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls are not at rest until we +find ourselves in thee." Bread is the first economic want, and God is +the greatest and the last.</p> + +<p>Economic wants among common folk are usually the source of religious +feeling. Few people desire to be rich; a lesser number strive to get +wealth; and very few attain a fortune. The most of men seek and get a +living. The best of men, and the most religious, are those whose +economic experience brings them a series of satisfactions, beginning +with bread, clothing, shelter, education in the essentials, music and a +little aesthetic culture, and gradually extending into higher forms of +human enjoyment. The simplest religious craving is for economic +assurance of supply. "The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want," is on +the most thumbed page of the Bible. The play of these economic +aspirations among poor people results in all the simpler and most +general religious feelings. With the rise of the aspirations of the +individual, and the ideals of the group, toward higher satisfactions, +the religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> experiences should become nobler, more refined. The +penniless college student who prays for an education should be a nobler +worshipper than the fisherman who asks his mud-divinity for a good +catch. The group of Oberammergau players who present the Passion Play, a +highly complex satisfaction of wants, should be nobler believers and +worshippers than herdsmen who out on the hills pray for the increase of +their flocks and for a better price for wool.</p> + +<p>Communities differ from one another according to the living which they +supply, or the wants which they satisfy. Modern men will not live in a +community that does not satisfy a pretty long series of wants. For +instance, a graduate of the American common schools will desire bread, +clothing, shelter—all of comfortable quality—and education for his +children better than his own, musical enjoyment, aesthetic culture, the +possession of some books, access to many magazines and the reading of a +daily paper: and varied opportunities for the exercise of the play +spirit. The country community satisfies, in most of the United States, +only the first of these. It is a place for securing food, clothing and +shelter of a comfortable sort. Country people have in the past ten years +secured also a better supply of reading matter. Almost all the rest of +the series is lacking. The reason for the rural exodus is in the most of +cases the quest of education and of music, the craving for aesthetic +culture, and the desire for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> recreation. Country towns and small cities +therefore have come to be centers of education, of amusement and of +"culture." They are the first step upward on the series of economic +satisfaction. Men who have made some money on the farm "move into town," +for the satisfaction of the later wants in the series.</p> + +<p>None of these wants is itself sinful, for all of them make up life. They +are the steps on the way from bread to God. The business of the teacher +and preacher of religion is to know the wants of his people: study those +which are satisfied in his community, and so to build the community that +for most of its people and for the most desirable people, all the vital +necessities of life shall be satisfied, in the community in which the +desire for bread is satisfied. The problem of amusement exhibits these +principles clearly. Farming is austere, and few farming communities have +recreation adequate to the demand of the young people and the working +people who live on the farms. Agriculture is becoming more systematic +and more exacting in its demands: and systematic work creates a demand +for organized play. As this demand is not satisfied in the +country—indeed it is less generally satisfied now than in former +times—the youth and workingman from farming communities go to the towns +and larger villages for amusement. These centers of population have a +disproportionate burden therefore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> of cheap vaudeville shows, saloons, +professional baseball games, and moving-pictures.</p> + +<p>These amusements are, to a degree, abnormal in character because those +who enjoy them are away from their home community, and are suffering a +reaction from pent-up desires. Just as the lumberman or cowboy or sailor +when he comes to town "tears loose and paints the town red," so, in a +milder degree, the farmer's son or hired man, because he has at home no +recreations supplied by his church or school, patronizes in the town or +small city a cheaper and nastier theatre than one would expect to find +either in that town, or in his home community. The remedy is to make the +country community adequate to the wants of those who live there. The +church should promote recreation. The public school should supply +entertainment of a high standard, both to satisfy the play instinct and +to elevate the youth's ideals of amusement. The community which works +should be dependent on no other community for play.</p> + +<p>Common-school education is a function which country communities have +surrendered to the centers of population. The one-room country school +has long been inadequate; but the farmer has not improved it, preferring +to rely upon the town schools to which he will remove his family after +he has made enough money on the farm. I am told that about Crete, +Nebraska, a recent census revealed that half the normal child population +is missing from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the country districts; and double the normal child +population is found in Crete. The quest of adequate schooling explains +the condition, which speaks ill for the country community of Nebraska.</p> + +<p>In all these cases religious service consists in completing the +community. The supply of wants, which are widely and keenly felt, is a +religious act. This has been the reason for the success of the Du Page +Presbyterian Church in Illinois.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The minister, Mr. McNutt, in a +religious spirit so well supplied the recreative life needed in the +community, that the community has been made whole. Just as Jesus made +sick or maimed men whole, as a religious act, so the community builder +who supplies to working farmers something besides labor on the land, is +making the community whole.</p> + +<p>The perfecting of the common school system in McNabb, by Mr. John Swaney +and other Friends, and in Rock Creek by Mr. R. E. Bone and other +Presbyterians, was a religious act for their communities in Illinois. +The farmers who have money can move to the town, but to complete the +country community is to satisfy the economic wants of the poor. The +wants of the poor are always of religious value.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the satisfaction of all wants in the community itself is a +moral gain. If +<a name="corr8" id="corr8"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn8" title="changed from 'individiuals'">individuals</a> +live this life in the bounds to which their +group and family associations are confined, the steadying <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>influence of +society is at its greatest. Jacob Riis<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> noted among immigrants the +working of a lower sense of obligation due to absence from accustomed +home associations. Communities are compacted of the strongest moral +bonds. If churches would make men righteous they cannot do better than +to complete the community, especially in the country, as a place to live +in: making it a place for education as well as profit: of play as well +as work, of worship as well as of material comfort.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately churches in the country are too often recruiting stations +for the cities and colleges. The ministers are respectable pullers-in +for the city show. Nothing rejoices them so much as to help their young +men and women find a position in the city; unless it be to have a bright +lad or girl go off to college. When a country minister was reminded that +all these departures weakened the country community, and that very few +of them benefitted the lad or girl who goes to the city, he replied "you +cannot blame them; there is nothing here to keep them."</p> + +<p>"The rural exodus" has had its Moses in the rural college student, its +Aaron in the country minister, and its Miriam in the country school +teacher. These three have led a generation out of the country to perish +in the wilderness. For only a pitiful few of those who leave the country +come to prominence in the city. The most gain but a poor living there, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>and very many go to ruin. The church should be the savior of the +community, as her Master is of the soul.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that this is done in a church in Ottumwa, Iowa, of which +Dr. W. H. Hormell is minister. It is in a stock-yards district, and the +daily occupation of many of the members is unclean, of some revolting. +But the church is a dynamo of spiritual forces. It supplies the +experiences most opposite to those of the slaughter-house. A half-dozen +chapels in surrounding neighborhoods, most of them in the country, are +outposts of the church, for each of which a superintendent is +responsible: and thus a man who is an underling at the slaughter-house +is a leader in the quest of eternal life. The whole company of workers +with the pastor, constitute a spiritual cabinet of the district. It is +not surprising that this church fascinates men. The minister cannot be +persuaded away, and a like devotion pervades his group of workers. The +intensity of the industrial labor is matched by the intensity of Bible +study, prayer and evangelism. The degradation and repulsion of the +leading industry of the place are equalled by the unworldly nobility and +optimism of the leading church. This church does not attempt to mend the +community—which might be found impossible—but only to serve the +community by supplying the satisfaction for spiritual wants.</p> + +<p>According to the law of diminishing returns, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> first satisfactions of +any want have infinite value. What does this mean but that they have +religious value? The first drink of water to a famished man calls forth +a fervent "Thank, God." The first book printed is a Bible. The first +landing on American soil was a solemn religious occasion—and still is +for the immigrant. So the first gains of money are of religious value to +the poor. The first hundred dollars to a mechanic's family is invested +in a dozen benefits. The first thousand dollars which a working farmer +saves go into a home, a piano or books, or an education for a child. It +is all moral and spiritual good. Later thousands have diminishing moral +and spiritual values. Most of the churches and homes in America were +paid for out of the tithes of men and women who owned at the time a +margin of less than a thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>This is the reason for the religious character of economic life. The +most of people spend their lives with less than a thousand dollars. They +are poor, and money does them good, not harm. They need to know how to +use it. But the getting of their living is a process prolific in +religious feeling, because economic matters have to them the infinite +value of first satisfactions of all the simplest wants of life.</p> + +<p>The salvation of the community will be accomplished in satisfying the +higher wants of those whose lower wants are satisfied. For those who +"have made money" supply schools; for those who work supply recreation; +for the sick hospitals; for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> invalid build sanitariums; and for all +men supply social life, the greatest need of human life on earth. For +those who are thus united to the community, and to one another in the +intricate network of associations, the opportunity of worship together, +and of sharing common spiritual interests becomes the highest economic +want</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> "I come that they may have life, and may have it +abundantly."—Jesus, in John 10:10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> "Modern Methods in the Country Church," by Matthew Brown +McNutt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> "The Making of an American," by Jacob Riis.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>THE COMMUNITY</h3> + + +<p>The country community is defined by the team haul. People in the country +think of the community as that territory, with its people, which lies +within the team haul of a given center. Very often at this center is a +church, a school and a store, though not always, but always the country +community has a character of its own.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Social customs do not proceed +farther than the team haul. Imitation, which is an accepted mode of +social organization, does not go any farther in the country than the +customary drive with a horse and wagon. The influence of leading rural +personalities does not extend indefinitely in the country, but +disappears at the boundary of the next community. Intimate knowledge of +personalities is confined to the community and does not pass beyond the +team haul radius. Within this radius all the affairs or any individual +are known in minute detail; nobody hopes to live a life apart from the +knowledge of his neighbors; but beyond the community, so defined, this +knowledge quickly disappears.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>Men's lives are housed and their reputations are encircled by the +boundary of the team haul.</p> + +<p>The reason for this is economic and social. The life of the countryman +is lived within the round of barter and of marketing his products. The +team haul which defines the community is the radius within which men buy +and sell. It is also the radius within which a young man becomes +acquainted with the woman he is to marry. It is the radius of social +intercourse. Within this radius of the team haul families are accustomed +to visit with ten times the frequency with which they pass outside this +radius. Indeed, for most of them, one might say that social intercourse +is a hundred times as frequent within the team haul as without it.</p> + +<p>The average man would define the community as "the place where we live." +This definition contains every essential element, locality, personal and +social relations, and vital experiences. The community is that complex +of economic and social processes in which individuals find the +satisfactions not supplied in their homes. The community is the larger +social whole outside the household; a population complete in itself for +the needs of its residents from birth to death. It is a man's home town.</p> + +<p>This conception of the community as a vital common possession explains +the relation of religious, educational, ethical, economic institutions +to one another. The community is the clearing-house of all these +influences. It is the medium by which they exchange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> with one another, +in the interest of human life. The perfection of this exchange and the +abundance of communal influences makes the community good and desirable, +or poor and undesirable.</p> + +<p>Sometimes one says that the community is "a good place to live in." When +it is ample for the needs of individual lives men move into it, and the +average man finds there a contented and satisfied life. The decay of the +community is indicated by the departure of individuals and of families +in quest of a better centre for the supply of vital human needs. Some go +to make more money elsewhere, some depart for educational advantages and +some move away because social life is lacking or religious privileges +are not suitable. But these four vital essentials, economic, ethical, +educational and religious, make up the elements in the community's +service to the individual.</p> + +<p>The community is sometimes corrupted by vicious principles in its +construction; and then its members are in proportion defective. It +produces in excessive degree idiots, blind, deformed, neurotic, insane +or criminal individuals.</p> + +<p>The community, thus defined, is normally furnished with certain +institutions essential to the life of the people. In earlier days the +community was sufficient unto itself. Very little was imported. +Everything for use in the community was raised therein and manufactured +in the households. A system of exchange gradually was effected through +the coun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>try store. The country store of 1770 in Duchess County, New +York, had an amazing relation to a wide population. The radius of the +life dependent upon it was the same as the radius around the Quaker +Meeting, beside which this store was placed, and all the goods used in +the community with few exceptions were produced and manufactured in this +radius of the team haul of ten miles.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>Nowadays the country community has normally a store, a blacksmith shop, +a church and a school. In the recent past certain classes of peddlers +regularly visited the country community, though their place in the rural +economy is diminishing. The country store in many communities is already +closed and its maintenance is surrounded with increasing difficulty. So +long, however, as the horse drawn vehicle is the type of transportation +in the country, the elements of the country community must remain +substantially the same.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>The economic life of the community is necessarily a part of the general +economic life of the population as a whole. The world economy has in the +past hundred years, with the perfection of the means of transportation, +taken the place of the communal economy. In +<a name="corr9" id="corr9"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn9" title="changed from '1910'">1810</a> +every country community +was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>obliged to manufacture its own raw products so far as possible +within its own limits. In 1910 it was no longer profitable for even a +country community to do so. The result is that the economic life of the +community is usually expressed in a specified industry to which the +whole community is primarily devoted. If it be a rural community this +organization takes the form of a "money crop." In the corn belt there +are other products raised from the soil besides corn, but the world +economy assigns to that fertile section the producing of corn as the +most profitable and the simplest task. In the coal region it tends to +the highest efficiency for the labor of the region to be concentrated +upon the supply of this fuel, although in addition the surface of the +soil may be cultivated and in the larger population centers other +industries are coming in to exploit the superfluous labor. None of these +competes with the primacy of the coal industry, which the world economy +assigns to that community.</p> + +<p>It is essential that in every community there should be one or more +industries by which men may live. It tends to the highest well-being of +the community, that is, to its possession of a maximum of vital +attraction for individuals, that this industry should supply a variety +of sources of income; that is, wages, profits and interest. If the +community can retain in its own bounds the owners of its industries, at +least in some numbers, and the capitalists whose wealth is invested in +these industries, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> of great service. If it can make life +attractive for wage-earners in these industries, the completeness of +that community has its testimonial in this variety and wealth of +attraction. The weakness of many American communities is shown in their +inability to retain within their bounds the owners of the businesses and +the employers of labor. The ideal character of some communities in +Massachusetts is due to the fact that in the same streets there daily +meet capitalists, superintendents, foremen and wage-earners who are +alike interested in the local industries.</p> + +<p>This power of the community to attract and hold individual lives, +supplying them with the vital necessities for which the individual +craves, is dependent in America upon educational institutions more than +upon any other factor. The French philosopher Desmoulin has said that +the Anglo-Saxon supremacy is due to the Anglo-Saxon love of the land and +of education. The American represents these two passions, and of the two +the love of education is at present, the stronger. The community which +is weak in its schools will not hold its people. The generation who at +present are the largest owners of American wealth are eager for +educational advantage: and the incoming stream of immigration promises +that in the days to come this craving for education will not diminish, +but will increase.</p> + +<p>The country community has been peculiarly weak in its educational +facilities, by a strange dullness and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> inertia due to the economic +prostration of the farming industry. For the two decades following 1880 +the country schools have failed to keep pace with the city schools. +Prof. Foght says, "While the public attention has been centered on work +and plans for the improvement of the city schools a great factor for or +against the public weal has been sadly neglected. This is the rural +school. One-half of our entire school population attend the rural +schools, which are still in the formative stage. The country youth is +entitled to just as thorough a preparation for thoughtful and +intelligent membership in the body politic as is the city youth. The +State, if it is wise, will not discriminate in favor of the one as +against the other, but will adjust its bounties in a manner equitable to +the needs of both. Heretofore the rural schools have received very +little attention from organized educational authority."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>The effect of this neglect of the country school in the face of the +constructive statesmanship which has led in perfecting the city school +is seen in the exodus from the country community of very large numbers +of the most successful farmers. Evidences are abundant that this exodus +from the country community is primarily a quest of educational +advantage. Not in every case would the departing family confess that +they were seeking better schools: but it is probable that the majority +of them while <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>giving a variety of primary reasons for moving would +assign the desire for education as the uniform secondary reason for +departing from the country community.</p> + +<p>It is impossible for the country church to retain its best ministers. +Many reasons enter into this, but always at the top of the list is the +desire for better educational opportunities for the ministers' children. +The advice has become proverbial in theological seminaries, "Go to the +country for five years." It is said that in New England there are three +classes of country ministers and the first of them is the bright young +man who will not long be in the country.</p> + +<p>The ethical, sometimes called the social factor in the community's life, +is no less essential. Organized work requires organized recreation. +Every community which has a systematic economy by which its residents +get their living is found to have a systematic though usually informal +and unrecognized provision for recreation. Somewhere in the bounds of +every working town in America is a playground. It is not the result of +"the playground movement," but of the play necessity in human nature. +The open lots where the town is not built up, the railroad yard, the +yard of a factory or the town common are used by common consent by the +young people and the working-people of the town as a playground.</p> + +<p>The departure of many persons from country communities is due to the +lack of social life: and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> fascination of the city for bright and +energetic young men and women is due to the variety of recreation and +interest which it provides to those who expect to work and are willing +to work. Regular work means regular play. This fact cannot be too well +learned by those who study the religious and moral life of modern men. +The need of play is as real as the need of food or of sleep.</p> + +<p>This recreational life is highly ethical. The craving of the young and +of working-people for common places of recreation is a normal craving +due to the development of conscience as well as to weariness of body. +The exactions of modern labor create a craving for free and voluntary +movement. Those who are hired to work, and those who if they are +employers are bound to the routine of the desk or of the bench, seek to +breathe deeply the air of happy and self-expressive action. The result +is that play, especially team work, is highly moral. It is not only +personal and self-expressive, but it involves co-operation, +self-surrender, obedience and the correlation of one's own life with +other lives in a glorious complex of experiences, unexampled elsewhere +in modern life for their ethical value in developing adolescent minds in +the common humanities and moralities. The playground is an essential +field in the preparation of good citizens and it is not to be wondered +at that in country communities, where all provision of recreation is +difficult, and no public provision of playgrounds is thought of by those +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> authority, that young people and working people, indeed all classes +of the population, tend to move away.</p> + +<p>The religious attraction of the community has just as real a value for +the satisfaction of individual life as the economic or ethical or the +educational. "Mankind is incurably religious," and the life from birth +to death cannot be complete in average cases without religious +experience. Indeed the conscious testimony of men to the community's +religious value for them is greater than any of the others. Religious +experience is indeed a form of community conscience. To many men the +church and the community are one. We cannot within our definition grant +this; but the testimony to the religious character of the country +community is a classic in American thought. The early days of every +community are hopeful and optimistic. The tendency has been therefore +for each religious communion to establish its own church. These early +Protestant churches were expressions of the community sense on behalf of +these people. The average American can best think of the community in +terms of a church and a school. For building up the community, +therefore, the maintenance of religious institutions is essential.</p> + +<p>We are concerned in these chapters most of all with the American +community in the country. Not because it is more important, but because +it is easier to understand and affords a better model for interpreting +other communities more complex and highly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> organized. In it one may see +the processes which affect the town and city communities; shifting of +population, economic changes, educational improvement or retrogression +and the processes of social life which express themselves in moral +conditions. The community is the field in which may be observed the +prosperity of the people as a whole. It is the local exhibit in which +the average man shows what has come to pass throughout the commonwealth +as a whole.</p> + +<p>American rural communities have been under the influence of swift and +sudden changes during the years of railroad development. This is +exhibited in the country community very clearly. There almost all the +causes which are at work in the city are seen and their operation is +easier to observe and to measure than in a city community. It is the +general impression that the country community has suffered greatly +though the loss of population. This is probably due to the diminishing +agricultural activity of the country. Thirty-four counties in Ohio are +producing less than the same counties were producing before the Civil +War. It is natural that the population of these counties should be on +the whole smaller than at that time. But it is more probable that the +social, educational and moral life of the people of these counties who +stayed in the country is slacker and less vigorous than in 1860. +Sometimes the population of a community remains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> stationary but the +economic weakness expresses itself in a retarded social, ethical and +religious life.</p> + +<p>There is high authority for the statement that the sifting of the +country community in recent years has on the whole improved it. Wilbert +L. Anderson says, "If this emigration of the best were the whole story, +it would be impossible to refute the charge of degeneracy. There is, +however, another aspect of the matter. The industrial revolution has put +a pressure upon rural life that is more important even than the +attraction of cities. That pressure has aggravated the severity of the +struggle for existence, and this grinding of the mill of evolution has +crushed the weaker strata of the population. Among those who have gone +are laborers and their families, the owners and occupants of the poorest +lands—the famous abandoned farms, and the weaklings and dependents. +Many of these have swollen the crowds of the factory towns; others have +supplied unskilled labor to the cities; in not a few cases they have +gone to their destruction in the slums, where residues of decadent folk +finally disappear. The human material that was most susceptible to +alcohol has gone into the mills of the gods. When all is summed up, the +clearance at the bottom is not less significant than the loss at the top +of the social scale. Natural selection works as effectually in toning up +the species by weeding out the worst as 'natural selection reversed' +works for degeneracy through the removal of the best. This purgation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +has been overlooked; whether it offsets the injury in the highest +stratum is a fair question, but obviously no man is wise enough to +answer it. The opinion may be hazarded that when the two influences are +compounded, it will be found that the average child has moved but a +little way up or down the scale. This is a local question to which there +are as many answers as communities. The net result of these changes is a +gain in homogeneousness; in the country town the dream of equality is +nearer realization to-day than ever before."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>It is the writer's belief that, allowing for local variation, this +statement is the best generalization of the condition throughout the +country. The rural population has been specialized. The country +community is finding its own kind of people. It has not yet, through +suitable institutions, learned to cultivate its problems and to train +its own leaders. That is precisely what will be accomplished through the +building up of the country community with which we are here concerned. +But already the country population is homogeneous and is selected with a +view to fitness for the environment of the rural community. As the city +is breeding its own stock, who are possessed with the problem of city +life and devoted to the interests of the city, so the country in the +shifting of modern populations is coming to have its own kind of people; +among whom the problems of the country community are beginning <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>to be +discussed and the interests of the country community are being provided +for by suitable organizations.</p> + +<p>The building of communities, therefore, will provide the positive +agencies requisite for the needs of the present population in the +country. The purpose of those who serve the country population shall be +the construction of suitable institutions by which country life shall be +made worth while. These institutions must be economic, for the securing +of prosperity to country people, social institutions which shall build +up their moral character and life, educational institutions whereby the +problems of country life shall be understood in the light of all human +life, and religious institutions which shall crown the life of country +people with hope and animate the individual with the spirit of +self-sacrifice on behalf of all the people of the community and of the +world.</p> + +<p>The church should be a community center. There may be other centers of +the community where other functions are assembled, but the church should +lift up her eyes to the horizon in which she lives and comprehend all +the people in her service and affection. This does not mean that they +shall all be members of that church. The community spirit is itself +growing. Frequently the country community has attained a unity which the +churches ignore. For the church to become a community center means that +it represents in itself the united life of the people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> Whatever be +their common interest that interest dwells in the church.</p> + +<p>In Hernando, Mississippi, the people are united. The interest of one is +the concern of all. Under the leadership of the families of old +land-owners the whole community responds to common impulses and is +organized under common ideals. No poor child of either a white or a +negro household is neglected or is overlooked. Yet in this community +churches have no federation and ministers have no regular means of +working together. A charity organization was recently formed in this +community as an organ by which the community should care for its poorer +members. This society was formed outside of the churches, no one of +which had the right to be a center for the community. It is true that +ministers and members of these churches were leaders in this community +enterprise, but the churches as organizations were not a part of it, +although its purposes are purely Christian.</p> + +<p>Prof. Alva Agee insists that "The country church does not serve the +community's needs as the community sees those needs." His meaning is +that when a community enterprise is to be launched the promoter of it +finds it necessary in the country to avoid the churches, lest his +enterprise be entangled in their differences. He is +<a name="corr10" id="corr10"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn10" title="changed from 'embarassed'">embarrassed</a> +also by +their lack of a community spirit. Frequently the same persons who to the +church contribute no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> community spirit are in the community itself +leaders of common enterprises.</p> + +<p>In contrast to these conditions the instance of Du Page Church at +Plainfield, Illinois, of which Rev. Matthew B. McNutt was recently the +minister, exhibits the power of a country church to make itself the +center of a whole community. This church, which in a year became famous +throughout the land, has earned its repute by ten years of devoted +service of its minister and the growing affection and union of its +people. The church serves so well the social needs of the community that +a social hall once popular has been closed and three granges in +succession have attempted to organize in the community and have failed. +Yet Du Page Church is passionately devotional and intensely missionary. +Its social life is but a legitimate expression of its community sense. +The minister and his people have had the power to see and to inspire a +common life among the people in the countryside.</p> + +<p>This chapter has been intended as a definition of the country community. +Its radius is the team haul, because the horse has been the means of +transportation in the country. The community is the round of life in +which the individual in the country passes his days: it is his larger +home. The definition of this greater household of the country must be +flexible, but however it be defined, it is the characteristic unit of +social organization among country people. The map of the United States +outside the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> great cities is made up of little societies bordering +sharply upon one another, differing from one another socially and +religiously. These little societies are the proper fields in which the +life of the church and the school is lived. Of these small societies the +church and the school are the expressions. In church and school the +country community has its highest life.></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The author expresses his indebtedness for this definition +to Dr. +<a name="corr11" id="corr11"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn11" title="changed from 'Willett'">Willet</a> +M. Hays of the Department of Agriculture at Washington.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Professor C. J. Galpin of University of Wisconsin has done +precise work of great value, in defining the country community, as it +centers in the village. See his pamphlet, "A Method of Making a Social +Survey of the Rural Community," a bulletin of the Agricultural +Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> "The American Rural School," by Harold W. Foght.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> "The Country Town," by Wilbert L. Anderson, D.D.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY</h3> + + +<p>The change of ethical consciousness among church people in recent years +takes the form of a transference of interest from the individual to the +community. The literature of religious and ethical thought is full of +appeal to "serve the community." The working out of any religious or +ethical force in modern society is guided by the closely compacted and +highly organic character of present-day social life.</p> + +<p>In the old times in America, which have so recently gone, men were of +one class; the community was homogeneous; universal acquaintance +prevailed.</p> + +<p>The unit of value in American life until recent years was the successful +man, because we faced a continent unexplored. Unpossessed commercial +resources were before the people. The standard of the time of Horace +Greeley was the standard of individual success, of initial utility. The +town boasted of the man it had "turned out." The church measured its +value by the rich and benevolent farmer or merchant, and by the +individuals whose piety or literary success seemed to express<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the life +of the church. There was an opportunity for all, because crude +resources, numberless openings offered themselves to every one who had +character, industry and brains.</p> + +<p>Within a decade the American people have become conscious that their +resources are numbered. The free lands of the West are assigned. The +tons of coal under the ground are estimated. The amount of timber, of +copper and of iron still unexploited is known, and public discussion is +centered upon the limits to the growth of the American population, and +the possibilities of more economical organization of life. We can no +longer waste as once we could. The problem is now a problem of economy. +Instead of the standards of a time of plenty we are confronted with +problems of bare subsistence.</p> + +<p>In times of plenty, when resources are not yet exhausted, men's lives +diverge and the individual is the unit of thought and feeling. The +natural result of a time of plenty is the development and the endowment +of personality. But in times when a bare subsistence is the condition +with which many are confronted, men are drawn together and the community +becomes the unit of thought and feeling. Industry as it matures brings +men together. It becomes evident that they depend upon one another.</p> + +<p>Men who in a time of plenty would seek an independent fortune, under +conditions of bare subsistence are contented to secure employment and to +become dependent upon others. The problems of subsis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>tence open +opportunities for exploitation and the stronger become related to great +numbers of weaker members of the community. Thus men's lives are +intensified, and the conditions out of which thought and feeling arise +are social conditions rather than individual.</p> + +<p>The country community under these circumstances rises into new +significance. In the early pioneer days the country community for a +similar reason was much in thought and feeling, because then men were +seeking a bare subsistence in the contest with nature. This +consciousness was lost as soon as the pioneer days were past and the +abundance of nature began to enrich mankind instead of antagonizing him. +Now, again, the country community has come into prominence because men +are confronted with a struggle to maintain an acceptable standard of +living.</p> + +<p>In dealing with a social whole, to accomplish certain purposes one must +deal with it in social terms. Social service is not quantitative, but +qualitative. Ministry to a community is not uniformly applied to all the +members. In social service there is no such thing as equality of all the +population. The differing values of men in a social population are +determined, as other values are measured, by the working of the law of +diminishing returns.</p> + +<p>Roughly stated, this law is that successive additions of any valued +thing bring ever diminished returns. The first quantity of anything is +of infinite value. For later increments the value is measurable,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> and +ever less with the increase. The application of this law in economics is +stated as follows by Professor John Bates Clark:</p> + +<p>"Labor, as thus applied to land, is subject to a law of diminishing +returns. Put one man on a quarter section of land, containing prairie +and forest, and he will get a rich return. Two laborers on the same +ground will get less per man; three will get still less; and, if you +enlarge the force to ten, it may be that the last man will get wages +only."</p> + +<p>"Modern studies of value, show that doses of consumer's goods, given in +a series to the same person have less and less utility per dose. The +final utility theory of value rests on the same principle as does the +theory of diminishing returns from agriculture; and this principle has a +far wider range of new applications."</p> + +<p>"We have undertaken to generalize the law that is at the basis of the +theory of value. In reality, it is all-comprehensive. The first +generalization to be made consists in applying the law, not to single +articles, but to consumers' wealth in all its forms. The richer man +becomes, the less can his wealth do for him. Not only a series of goods +that are all alike, but a succession of units of wealth itself, with no +such limitation, on its forms, becomes less and less useful per unit. +Give to a man not coats, but 'dollars,' one after another, and the +utility of the last will still be less than that of any other. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +early dollars feed, clothe and shelter the man, but the last one finds +it hard to do anything for him."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>By this law successive deposits of immigrants and successive gains in +the American population are reducing the valuation of men for religious, +moral and educational use. The first man in any historic experience is +of infinite value. The first American, Columbus, will be famous forever, +but not because of any talents or enterprises of his. As a matter of +fact he blundered in discovering America and died ignorant of the feat +he had actually accomplished. But because he was the first white man on +a new continent he had infinite historical value. When the early +Europeans were increased to ten or to one thousand each of them entered +into fame, though men like John Smith were commonplace enough in their +performances. Their fame is measurable, but still great. When the number +of Americans was increased to eight millions everyone thought himself a +great citizen, the founder of a family and a potential millionaire. +Those were still the days of exceptional personality. The type of man in +those times was the landowner, the pioneer and the statesman. But now +there are ninety million Americans, all the valuable lands are assigned, +all the best positions are filled, every job is taken, and ten million +of the population are concerned about the problem of daily bread. These +ten million people are the marginal Americans. They are breadwinners, +and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>the breadwinner is the unit of value on whom the standard of +American social and religious life is measured. So far as there can be +an American type on whom policies in public life are measured, that type +is today the breadwinner. In the city the breadwinner is a working man +or an immigrant. In the country the marginal man is the tenant farmer; +or a working farmer, though he be the owner. The marginal man represents +the value of all men in the community.</p> + +<p>The law of diminishing returns works in the factory for fixing the wages +in any scale which prevails throughout a level of pay. It is equally +efficient in leveling men in the community. The employer does not pay +the working man on any level of wages in accordance with the value of +the few brilliant, trusty or inventive men in that group, but he pays +each man just that wage which he must offer to the last man he hires. +The marginal man standardizes the wage. The religious values of men are +standardized not upon the brilliant or saintly or accomplished, not upon +the well-to-do members of the community, but upon the poor who are just +able to stand and maintain themselves in the life of that community.</p> + +<p>The working of this law is not a matter of persuasion. It is the +inflexible condition with which religious and ethical institutions are +confronted. Churches should therefore estimate their policies by the +responses of the marginal people of the com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>munity. Religious standards +of value should be measured by final utility, not initial utility. The +complaint against the church today is reducible to this: that she +standardizes her ideals and her policies in accordance with the +prosperous and well-to-do. The eloquence and the character of her +ministers, the kind of music with which God is worshipped, the +comfortable pews, the carpets on the floor, are all of them unlike the +public hall which is supported by the dues of the poor. The taste +expressed in church matters is rather literary and aesthetic than +popular. The church which would appeal to the whole community must +standardize her work upon the poor man, and make her appeal to him.</p> + +<p>This principle is not only scientifically correct, but it works out in +practise. A minister who came into a well organized country community, +where there were a few land-holders, many tenants and numbers of farm +lands, found that the only appeal by which the whole community could be +reached was an appeal directed to the marginal people in the community. +When he sought the tenant farmer, he secured with him the land-holder, +and when he went after the hired man on the farm, he secured the farmer +who employed him. When he gained the adherence of the boys and girls he +secured the support of their parents, and when he rendered service to +little children, he could safely rely upon the gratitude and loyalty of +their mothers and fathers.</p> + +<p>This was the kind of work which Jesus did. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> frankly made a selection +of the people to whom he should minister.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> He knew no phrases about +all men being equal, and he made no profession of impartiality such as +today causes many ministers to loiter among the well-to-do, who care not +for them. Jesus said he had no time to spend with well people, because +he was sent to the sick. But the philosophy of his action was seen in +the fact that when he ministered to the sick he himself helped the well. +He "preached the gospel to the poor," but not because he had any +prejudice against the rich. By ministering to the poor he applied his +gospel to the margin of the community. That gospel has been of equal +value to the rich man, because the spiritual experiences of the poor are +the experience also of the rich. The modern minister who goes after rich +men specifically, or who goes after them with the same vigor with which +he seeks the poor, will receive but a grudging welcome. But if he +awakens the gratitude and support of the poor, he will find himself +sought by the rich, and sustained by their abundant gifts.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gilbert K. Chesterton, the English critic, has somewhere finely said +that the Master in his words to Simon Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon +this rock I will build my church," clearly recognized that Peter was a +shuffler and a weakling and a coward and it was upon just such common +material that the church was founded. It was not to be an aristocratic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>organization. Its foundations were not laid upon skill and genius in +human character, but upon the weaker and commonplace traits, which +universal mankind possesses.</p> + +<p>So definite was the appeal of Jesus to the marginal people of his time, +that he has been twice criticized unjustly; once in his own time by the +Pharisees, and again in our time by the Socialists. The latter have +claimed that Jesus was "class conscious," that he was a partisan of the +poor, a +<a name="corr12" id="corr12"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn12" title="changed from 'proletarean'">proletarian</a> +radical. The unscientific character of Socialism is +displayed in this comment upon Jesus. His appeal was to the whole +community, as through Christian history his message has come uniformly +to men of all degrees, rich and poor, ignorant and learned, bad and +good. The religious genius of Jesus is shown in the fact that he +recognized what the Socialist does not, that to appeal to the whole +community a prophet must address his plea to the people on the margin of +the community. His measure of value must be final utility.</p> + +<p>One may go at large into this tempting field in illustrations. The +artistic experience of mankind is abundant in illustration of it. There +is no beauty of the ocean save in its shores—the margin of the +boundless expanse. Literary descriptions of the experiences of human +love are made up of descriptions of the margins of love. Married life is +depicted in courtship, and the sentiments of affection are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> described in +scenes of parting and meeting, which are the margins of companionship.</p> + +<p>This principle should be fundamental in all policies of reconstruction +of religious and ethical institutions. In the training of men for +religious service and for ethical leadership they should be accustomed +to think in terms of communal wholes, and this thinking will use as its +units of measure the characteristics of the marginal life. It is for +this reason that temperance reform in America has been so influential +within the past two decades. It is a communal form of ethics. It demands +that the community should act together in safeguarding the weaker +members of the community, the young men, and the working people. The old +temperance propaganda was individualistist. It recorded its results in +the number of persons who signed the pledge. Its results were almost as +gratifying if the pledges were signed by well-doing and orderly people +as if they were signed by drunkards. The modern temperance movement +draws its influence from its proposed effect upon the agricultural +laborer.</p> + +<p>The theological seminary of the past has been a literary institution. +During the period of its development the typical Christian was the +bright and aspiring young man in a community of boundless resources. To +such a man books are the interpreters of life. But in the modern period +with the congested population and close social organization, human +fellowship is an experience of greater value to most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> men than books. +Since the time of the invention of printing successive quantities of +literature have been given to the world, and under the law of +diminishing returns literature has come to have for many very small +returns. At the time of the Protestant Reformation the value of books in +the hands of the common people was infinite. For several generations +along with the extension of universal education this infinite value of +books continued for the people on the margin of the educated world. But +nowadays everybody in American progressive communities can read and +write: and in a universally educated population we arrive at the final +utility of books in human use. Great masses of poor people and also many +people of means use books within narrow limits only. They do not buy +them, they do not read them, they do not think in literary terms. Yet +they have access to books and they turn from them with a clear sense of +intelligent preference for other human values. Books are to them but an +alphabet and social life is the story.</p> + +<p>My own impression is that the life of the marginal man is social rather +than literary. His religion will be a social religion rather than a +biblical religion. The weakness of Protestantism is that it stubbornly +insists upon literary interpretation of God and upon a biblical +ministry, while the population around these Protestant churches +exemplifies the diminished value of literature for spiritual uses.</p> + +<p>The religious and ethical service of the days to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> come must interpret +the social life of the people. The great mass of the people care as +little for wealth as they do for books. The same argument as to the +diminished returns of literature may be repeated to describe the +diminished returns of private property. The economic revolution since +feudal days has exhausted the values of private property in satisfying +human need. The time was when property had an infinite value for +expressing personality. In days to come private property will still have +this value for many individuals. But among common folks generally +private property does not seem to have boundless value for human +satisfaction. Working men as I have known them do not take pains to get +rich. They know the way to wealth by economy and accumulation, but they +do not take it. They have a vast preference for the social intercourse, +friendly interchanges and mutual dependence by which their life is +refreshed, strengthened and sustained. Ethical policies of the future +while using literature and private property as efficient implements must +interpret social life itself as a flowing spring of religion and +morality.</p> + +<p>The training of religious and ethical leaders should be undertaken in +the theological seminary and in the university in such manner as to +standardize the influence of these institutions, by the life not of the +exceptional man, but of the common man. The influence of educated men +must be used to reconstruct churches and societies upon the standards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +not of the wealthy, the learned, the genius and the well-to-do, but by +the experiences of the poor, the workingman and the immigrant. The +standard in all religious and ethical institutions which profess to +represent the community is today graded up to the professional and +exceptional. The reconstruction necessary is to grade down so that the +appeal shall be to the poor and struggling man whose condition is in +jeopardy, and whose status in the community is as yet undetermined. +Institutions which appeal to the community as a whole must standardize +their policy to the level of the margin of the community.</p> + +<p>The reconstruction of the theological seminaries is necessary, if they +are to fit men for service in communities. They render now a service +which is so valuable that one cannot pass over them lightly. They train +the candidate for the ministry by a process which develops and engages +his piety. Other university courses either ignore his religious feeling, +or if they develop it, do not harness it to the task of social +improvement. The theological seminary lays the yoke of service upon the +neck of prayer. This alone justifies its existence as a servant of the +church in the community. However, the instruction in the seminary is +rigidly grouped around courses in dead languages; which are jealous of +instruction in a living tongue. The history of discarded doctrines and +of discredited teachers is minutely taught through months, to the +exclusion of courses upon modern, living people, whose religious +experience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> is rich and striking. The purpose of seminary instruction is +personal culture instead of efficiency. It is the theory of the teachers +wherein they disagree with all other professional teachers, that "We do +not make preachers: the Lord makes them." They try therefore to impart +culture and personal distinction.</p> + +<p>The seminaries need first of all flexibility of courses. The whole +traditional schedule should be made elective. The demands of the time +would then have free course in the seminary, and would rearrange the +instruction according to actual present need. The cultivation of +practical piety should receive more attention. The social life of the +students, in close association with their professors and under religious +stimuli, should be made a more powerful force than it usually is, in +creating a common ideal of service to which the seminary should commit +itself. Above all, the seminary of theology should teach sociology and +economics, as a religious interpretation. Students should after a year's +class-room work be made to investigate and report upon actual +conditions, should be delegated to study social movements, report upon +them, and to lead in discussing them. They should be trained in the use +of statistics, in graphic display of conditions, and in the use of +public reports. In the senior year they should be employed definitely in +practical work for populations, under instructors. After graduation the +young minister should, more generally than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> now, be employed as an +assistant to an older minister, in a large organization.</p> + +<p>The influence of such social training would itself reform seminary +instruction. Thrust into a present-day curriculum, social science is a +foreign and alien intruder; but its value would soon be demonstrated and +other courses would be made over in new harmony with it. If some courses +be dropped, even if whole chairs be abandoned, it is better than that +the whole theological seminary be abandoned by students—which is the +apparent fate hanging over certain seminaries! What has here been said +is true of the schools of theology in all denominations, and applies +alike to both the conservative and the liberal.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, the writer believes that the church's future is with the +self-respecting poor. Jesus and nearly every leader of a great religious +movement was of the poor and labored with the poor. The sources of +religion are those named in the Beatitudes: poverty, meekness, sorrow, +hunger, ostracism; and those are all social experiences. The service of +the church should be to these; and in serving the marginal people, whose +life is composed of the Beatitudes, the church will serve all men.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> "The Distribution of Wealth," by John Bates Clark.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Luke, 6:20 ff; 15:1 ff.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>NEWCOMERS IN THE COMMUNITY</h3> + + +<p>One general cause is bringing new people into the average country +community. The exploitation of land expresses the transition from the +period of the land farmer to that of the scientific farmer or +husbandman. The signs of this exploitation are the retirement of farmers +from the land, the incoming of new owners in some numbers and of tenant +farmers in a large degree, into the country community. The influence of +the absentee landlord begins to be felt in communities in which the +landowner was until 1890 the only type. In most of the older states +immigration from foreign lands has not greatly affected the country +community. In Wisconsin, Minnesota and other states of the Northwest +substantial sections of the community are invaded by people of sturdy +Germanic and Norse extraction. In New England the Poles, French, +<a name="corr13" id="corr13"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn13" title="changed from 'Portugese'">Portuguese</a> +and some Jews are settling in the country. But throughout the +states of the Union as a whole the population, both the newcomers and +older stock, are American.</p> + +<p>The dates of this exploitation of land are, generally, from 1890 onward. +Reference is made elsewhere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> to the description of this process in the +Middle West.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>Independent of these causes the same process has appeared in the South, +in Georgia, Mississippi and in West Tennessee, as well as other states. +In sections in which the values of land have not been doubled, as in +Illinois and in Indiana they have, the same exodus from the farm and +invasion of the country community by new people has taken place.</p> + +<p>One cause of this exploitation of land is the shrinkage in size of the +older families. Everywhere the exploitation of land is the greatest +where the soil is the richest and the farmers the most prosperous. Even +in the exceptional populations such as the Scotch Presbyterians and +Pennsylvania Germans, this effect of agricultural prosperity is slowly +at work.</p> + +<p>In Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in Washington County, where the +most substantial farmers in the country are found, the families in the +present generation are small. Many of the older stock have no children. +Families which have retained the title of their land for eight +generations are losing their hold upon the soil, by the fact that they +have none to inherit after them.</p> + +<p>Another cause of this exploitation of land is the increasing number of +small farms in certain regions. This means that in certain sections the +farming <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>population has a new element, for the holders of these small +farms are many of them new to the community.</p> + +<p>The process, which is made clear by the census of 1910, is this. The +earlier retirement from the farms was by sale, the farmer taking money +instead of land. The second stage of retirement from the farm was +through absentee landlordism and the placing of tenants on the farm. +This process has come to an end in many sections of the Middle West, +with the return of the sons of the landlord to the family acres in the +country, so that there is a sort of rhythm in the flow of population +from the country into the town and backward to the land. In this process +there is no invasion by new people, except the temporary residence of +the tenant farmer in the country, and some of these have in the process +gained a footing by ownership of land. But this ebb and flow of +population out of the country community and back again has weakened and +strained the country church and school and has not yet begun to +strengthen them. There is every evidence that with a pleasant and +agreeable country life the country community can retain the best +elements of this population, which comes and goes. The country church +and school ought to take measures to retain the best of the country +population through these changes.</p> + +<p>Through all these causes the presence of a large proportion of aliens in +the community who are American born, but locally unattached by birth or +ownership, has effected great changes in the country church,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> and other +community institutions. The State of Illinois, which has a tenant farmer +population of more than 50 per cent in its richest sections, has +suffered severely through the loss of many country churches. There is no +precise measure of this loss, but a sociological survey recently made in +Illinois indicates that in the past twenty years more than fifteen +hundred country churches have been abandoned in the State. This +statement must be accepted as approximate, but the number is likely to +be greater rather than less. This abandonment of country churches has +come in the same period in which the proportion of tenant farmers has +greatly increased. Reference is made elsewhere to a similar condition in +the State of Delaware, in which the churches of the old land-owners have +been abandoned and replaced at heavy expense with poorer churches built +by the incoming tenant farmers.</p> + +<p>Everywhere in the United States this process has in some measure +affected the country. It does not much matter whether the proportion of +tenants is increasing or decreasing, the present effect is one of +instability. In New England where in the past ten years tenantry has +been diminished ten per cent, the country churches are weakened as +elsewhere. The churches have not yet had time to recover while the +population is in a state of change.</p> + +<p>The old order in the country is crumbling. The church is an expression +of stability. The people on whom the church always depends for its +audiences,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> its enthusiasm and its largest accessions, are marginal +people, working men, adolescent youths and those who are coming to a +position in the community. The exodus of these from the country +community, or the incoming of persons in these classes into the country +community, has been unfavorable to the country church at the present +time.</p> + +<p>It may be said at this point that a state of transition is for the time +being unfavorable to ethical and moral growth. Moral conditions are +sustained by custom, and where customs are in change, moral standards +must themselves be in transition. The country community is moral so far +as adhering to the standards of the past is concerned. But the +population themselves who have to do with the country are undergoing +extraordinary moral change, with incidental loss, and many of the +problems of the United States as a whole are made more acute by the +waste of the country community. Among these should be cited the +amusement question in the small town, the decadence of the theatre in +the cheaper vaudeville, the white slave traffic and the social disorders +peculiar to unskilled laborers, many of whom come from country +communities of the United States and Europe.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered, too, that the rural free delivery and the +telephone have entered the country community in the past twenty years +and their effect has not yet been recorded. It has probably been in the +direction of chilling instead of warming the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> social life of the +country. The old acquaintance and the intimate social relations of the +country community have not been helped by the telephone: and along with +the presence of aliens in the community, one-fourth or one-half or +three-fourths of the population, the telephone has had the effect of +lowering the standards of intimacy and separating the households in the +country one from another. The rural free delivery has put country people +into the general world economy and for the time being has loosened the +bonds of community life.</p> + +<p>In those states in which the trolley system has been extended into the +country, for instance Ohio and Indiana, the process of weakening the +country population has been hastened. Sunday becomes for country people +a day of visiting the town and in great numbers they gather at the +inter-urban stations. The city and town on Sunday is filled with +careless, hurrying groups of visitors, sight-seers and callers, who have +no such fixed interest as that to be expressed in church-going or in +substantial social processes. For the time being inter-urban trolley +lines have dissipated the life of the country communities.</p> + +<p>The duty of the church in the country under these conditions can be +accomplished only under a widened horizon. The minister and the leaders +of the church must lift up their eyes. They need not be discouraged if +for the time being they accomplish little, for the period of +exploitation must come to an end<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> normally with the exhaustion of its +forces, before the better day can come. But this period is one of +enlargement. The units of social life will be spaced farther apart. The +country community will advance as soldiers say, "in open order." This is +true for the family life, in which the father, the mother and the +children have greater freedom from one another; as well as in the +community, in which neighbors become less intimately dependent on one +another. The church must therefore preach the world idea. At this time +of transition the country church should undertake its foreign missionary +service. The great causes of the Kingdom which are world-wide should be +presented to country people when they are lifting up their eyes from +local confines to look at the world and the city and the nation. As the +daily paper comes into the farmer's household the farmer's church should +interpret the history of the time in missionary terms. The literature of +the great missionary agencies should be distributed in the farm +household. Wherever the catalogue of the big store in Chicago or New +York is found on the center table, beside it should be placed a modern +book expressive of missionary evangelism. As the mind of the countryman +develops to comprehend the world in his daily thought under the impetus +of a daily newspaper, his conscience and his religious experience should +be expanded correspondingly.</p> + +<p>In a time of exploitation of land the country church should regenerate +its financial system. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> system of barter passes away in the day of +speculation in farm land; and the country church which can find means to +endure the period of exploitation must put its financial system on a new +basis. The tenant farmer is crudely striving through problems of +scientific agriculture. He may, indeed, be a soil robber, but by his +waste of economic values he and other men are learning to conserve. The +financial system of the church should be placed at this time on a basis +of weekly contribution, for with the tenant farmer comes system, cash +payments, regular commercial processes. The business administration of +the church must be made to correspond.</p> + +<p>The country minister and schoolteacher must therefore become prophets of +the intellect and of the spirit, in the new order. If they cannot +minister to the new intelligence of the farmer and his children, their +institutions will necessarily decay. The farmer who succeeds in the new +social economy of the country will not endure old sermons which were +appropriate in his father's time. The emphasis must not be placed on +tradition, but upon inductive study. The preacher must not feed the +people on special instances, but upon representative cases. The +intelligence of the new type of farmer will not be satisfied with +sensations and with the unusual; but he demands to be trained in +standards of the new day, when science, system, organization and world +economy are making their demands on him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> and his very soul is concerned +in his response to those demands.</p> + +<p>The task of dealing with newcomers in the country community is +educational, financial and recreative. One should add that it is also +evangelistic, but I have in mind the possibility that these newcomers +may be Catholics with whom Protestant evangelism will not be successful. +It is possible also that they will be of another Protestant sect from +that of the reader of this chapter, so that to evangelize them would +mean proselyting. The writer believes very heartily in rural evangelism. +It is an essential process in building the country church. These +chapters are devoted primarily to the building of the country community +and in that process the securing of members for the country church is +preliminary only. Leaving, therefore, the question of rural evangelism +for treatment in another place, let us take up the educational treatment +of the newcomer in the country community.</p> + +<p>The proper machinery for this education is the common school and the +Sunday school. As the common school is treated elsewhere, the use of the +Sunday school in organizing the rural population belongs here. Few +churches realize the power and value of Sunday-school training. I am +insisting that the life of country people is religious. The use of the +Sunday school is to train the young of the community in religion. All +country people accept the Bible as a holy book. They all believe in the +edu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>cation of their children and in much greater numbers than they will +respond for a church service their children will respond to the work of +religious culture on Sunday at the church. The Sunday-school +organization is interdenominational. Its lessons and its methods are a +common heritage of the churches at the present time. The machinery is +perfect, but the Sunday-school leaders lack vision and they lack the +progressive spirit. If only the teachers and ministers realized the +value of the Sunday school and its acceptance with the people, there +would be needed no other machinery for building the country community.</p> + +<p>The Sunday-school should be a close parallel to the day school. If the +day school in the community has any progressive features, the Sunday +school should use these and improve them. Between the two there should +exist the closest sympathy, not formal or definitely organized, but +actual and expressed in parallel lines of work. Where the day school is +graded, the Sunday school should accept the same grading, strongly +organizing all its classes. The pupils in the Sunday school should pass +by successive promotions from teacher to teacher and from grade to +grade.</p> + +<p>If the day school in the country is unprogressive and is taught by a +succession of indifferent persons, the Sunday school should practise +under the guidance of religious leaders those principles of modern +pedagogy which should be used in the common schools.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> Graded lessons, +the organization of material and progressive development of religious +truth from the simpler to the more complex, should find their place in +every Sunday school. The opportunity for service to the whole community +thus offered through the Sunday school is excelled by none in the +country community.</p> + +<p>The upper classes of the Sunday school should be organized. Young men +and women especially, who are in danger of finding the Sunday school +irksome because their intelligence has passed beyond its control, should +be organized in classes which on week days have a club or society +character. The Sunday school should use as an ally their tendency to +organization and should satisfy their social needs by giving them +regular and approved opportunities for meeting and for pleasure.</p> + +<p>Another principle which the Sunday school can practise for the benefit +of the community is the centralization of religious teaching. Even if +the common schools are not centralized, the children for the Sunday +school should be brought to the church from outlying regions in hired +wagons every week. It is better that a large Sunday school be maintained +under efficient leadership than that a number of small schools with +indifferent teachers should be maintained in various school districts. +The larger body can have better leadership. It is more closely under the +supervision of the minister, who is generally the superior in education +of the laymen, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> social value of the meetings of the Sunday +school will be greater in the larger body. All the arguments which make +for the centralization of the day school have force for the +consolidation of Sunday schools in one large school.</p> + +<p>The Sunday school offers a basis for church federation. In the community +it is frequently possible for Sunday schools to be united and for the +advantages of this common teaching to be made even greater because all +the children of the various churches are in one body. The best +leadership and the best teachers are thus secured and the community +spirit is cultivated through the young people and more loosely attached +members of the community.</p> + +<p>The older classes of the Sunday school on a basis of study of the Bible +should be organized for practical ends. The adult Bible class can be +made to have all the influence of the grange in the country community. +The fathers and mothers of the community may meet throughout the week +socially. They may undertake together the study of the economic life of +the community. Lecturers from the agricultural college, representatives +of the Play Ground Movement, of the county work of the Y. M. C. A., of +historical societies interested in the community's past and other +representatives of national movements, may be welcomed and heard by this +organized class, the basis of which is religious education.</p> + +<p>What I am urging may be accomplished by any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> church in some measure, +however divided the community may be. It is the business of the +individual church which has a vision of the community as a whole to act +as if it were a federation of churches. Frequently ministers are in +favor of church federation, as if that process were an end in itself. +The writer believes that the individual church can accomplish the ends +of federation if the union of churches can do so. The best means for +effecting federation of churches is to practise the program of +federation until it shall come about.</p> + +<p>The community made up in a degree of new families and the community in +which the newcomers are young men and women, children of the residents, +are bound to educate these invaders of the community, whether they come +from without or whether they come by "birthright membership," in the +spirit of benevolence. The giving of money to public uses is one of the +cherished social forces of our time. The country community is just +entering into the day of cash. The period of barter is over. The farmer +therefore needs in his ethical and his religious training, to have +definite culture as a philanthropist. The future of the farm-hand in +America is still very hopeful. The tenant farmer expects to be an owner. +The farmer's son believes himself to have a future. These hopes from +earliest years should be disciplined by the practise of giving. For this +end the church is a rarely well fitted means. The financial system of +the church must be made democratic. The cus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>tom of renting pews belonged +in the land-farmer period. The writer does not suggest that it be +abolished because it can often serve a more democratic purpose in its +mature forms under careful supervision than any substitute, but it is +all important that the country church be a training-school in the +consecration of money to the uses of the community and of the kingdom of +God.</p> + +<p>For the average countryman the kingdom of God should be embodied in the +country community. This is not to say that his vision should be narrow. +On the contrary his vision is often of the spread-eagle sort. He +overlooks the opportunities for benevolence which are near at hand. He +believes in foreign missions sometimes, and contributes impulsively to +the support of men in China who are paid a better salary than the pastor +in his own community. He applauds the gifts of millionaires and of city +people generally to hospitals, but he ignores the ravages of disease in +his own community. The divine imperative is that the country community +be first organized, by those who live there, for local well-being. For +this, contributions of money are necessary and they must be made by all +in the community.</p> + +<p>The question has been raised frequently whether an endowment is not +necessary for the country church. The writer began his ministry in a +country church which was generously endowed. He still believes in the +value of endowment for some country commu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>nities. Ex-President Eliot of +Harvard recently commended the principle of endowment to the New England +Country Church Association, as a solution of the rural problem. +President Butterfield of Massachusetts Agricultural College has +emphasized the same principle. It is quite likely that in the Eastern +States where the country community has been depleted by the departure of +an extraordinary number of families and individuals, an endowment would +be of value for the country church. One must not hold to a theoretic +opposition to such a method. The important thing is to provide a trained +pastor for the country community. In these Eastern communities a larger +proportion of the former members of the community have prospered than in +Western communities. Many of them are very rich. In these cases it is +but natural that an endowed church in the country community express the +ministry of the more prosperous citizen to his poorer brethren, but +everybody knows that these depleted communities—I will not say these +excessive fortunes—are among the most lamentable factors in American +life.</p> + +<p>The endowment of the church, however, is a very poor apology for a bad +situation. It has but limited use, and the creation of a large fund to +be used in the country community necessitates careful supervision by men +of such business ability as are not usually found in a country +community. To remedy such conditions as those with which President +Eliot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> and President Butterfield are most familiar is a specific +problem. It is not the general situation throughout the United States. +The purpose of these chapters is to make plain the way by which the +average American community may escape depletion, may retain the +leadership of its best minds and may prosper in a democratic way. I am +interested more in training the country population for the future than +in mending the mistakes of the past. But I believe that for depleted +country communities in New England, New York and Pennsylvania an +endowment of the country church would in many instances be effective: +and for them alone.</p> + +<p>Let the country church undertake its financial problem in a +business-like way. At the beginning of the year make a budget of all the +monies needed for the year's work. Face the issues of the year frankly. +Pay to the minister and to other employees of the church a sufficient +amount to provide them with needful things throughout the year. A living +wage is not enough. The minister especially needs a working salary. With +little variation throughout the country as a whole the minister in the +rural community should have in order to minister to his people, to +educate his children and to look forward without fear to old age, twelve +to fourteen hundred dollars a year and a house. Many country communities +have a more expensive standard, and there are a few in which less is +required. But in Southern States and in Western communities I have found +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> conditions, created by the prices which prevail throughout the +country as a whole, at this standard.</p> + +<p>When the budget of the year is prepared, including missionary and +benevolent gifts, it should be distributed by the officers through +consultation with all the members of the church, young and old, rich and +poor, in such way as to secure a gift from every one and to meet the +obligations of the church as a whole. For the moral values of the +situation the small gift of the poor and of the child are even more +important than the large gift of the well-to-do. For the securing of +these gifts the envelope system, especially the so-called duplex +envelope, is the best means which can be generally used by churches. It +is a method flexible enough to reach every member and it represents in +its duplex form the double motive of giving to the community itself and +to those larger national and missionary enterprises to which the country +should contribute.</p> + +<p>The third method of developing the country community is recreative. I +mention it here for completeness of statement. Another chapter is +devoted to recreation in the country community. The amusements and +recreations of the country community are immersed in moral issues. The +ethical life of the community is the atmosphere in which social pleasure +is taken. Therefore the recreations of the community are to be provided +and supervised by those who would undertake to create a wholesome +community life. A maximum of provision and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> minimum of supervision are +required. Country life is devoid of means for recreation. Some one must +provide it. Usually it is either neglected altogether, and the result is +dullness and monotony; or it is provided for a price, and the result is +an organized center of immorality. Recreation requires but little +supervision. The presence of older persons, and those of a humane +friendly spirit, is usually necessary to the games. These are based on +honor and with a few simple principles the young people and working +people of the community will organize their own play and find therein a +great benefit.</p> + +<p>To summarize this chapter, the acute problem in many communities today +is the merging of the life of newcomers in the community into the +organized social life which is older and more settled. This task belongs +above all to the country church. Many of the detailed applications are +for the school to follow out, but the business of the church is to see +and to inspire. If the church is not democratic, the community will be +hopelessly divided. If the church welcomes the newcomer and finds him a +place, the community will be inspired with a democratic spirit. The task +of the church is indicated in the new prosperity of the country which +tends from the first to remove from the community those who prosper. The +church's business is to win to the community all who come into it and to +release from its hold as few as possible.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<p>In a discussion of country life in a Tennessee college town the question +was asked of a professor of agriculture who was speaking about farm +tenantry, "What should the church do for the tenant farmer?" "Borrow +money for him and help him to buy land," said the professor.</p> + +<p>Such a solution might be the church's task, but the example of England's +policy for Ireland shows that the professor commended a governmental +rather than a religious service. For it is found that the Irish +farmer—a tenant on land whereon his ancestors have for centuries been +tenants—when he secures the land in fee through the new policies of the +British Government, frequently deserts the country community, selling +his land to a neighbor. Some sections of Ireland are said to have a new +kind of small tenantry and a new sort of small landlord. The task of the +country community begins where the task of government leaves off. It is +to inspire the resident in the country with a vision, and to lay upon +him the imperative, of building up the country community out of the +newcomers, who enter it by birth or by migration.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>CO-OPERATION</h3> + + +<p>In contrast to other classes of the population country people have a +marked preference for individual action and an aversion to co-operative +effort. The causes of this are historical. In general these causes are +of the past and they are not a matter of persuasion. The American farmer +has not co-operated in the past because: first, the necessities of his +life made him independent and impatient of the sacrifices necessary in +co-operating with his fellows. We have still many influences of the +pioneer in modern life. So long as agriculture is solitary work and its +processes take a man away from his fellows, co-operation will be +retarded. So long as the countryman has to practise a variety of trades, +he will be emotional, and the social life of the country will be broken +up by feuds, divisions, separations and continued misunderstandings. No +mere education as to alleged right and wrong can plaster over the old +economy with new ethical standards. Until the loneliness and the emotion +are taken out of farming country people cannot co-operate.</p> + +<p>A good part of the United States is still in the land farmer period. The +characteristic of the land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> farmer is his cultivation of group life. The +historical process by which this group life is broken up is +exploitation. Farmers whose lands have not been exploited and whose +group life has not suffered the undermining influence of exploitation +will not normally co-operate. I am convinced that in most farming +territories the loyalty of the countryman to his group is the second +reason for his refusal to co-operate. Again, this refusal of his is not +subject to persuasion. He is obeying an economic condition which shapes +his life and controls his action. Striking instances are furnished in +many regions of the amazing disloyalty of farmers to one another, and to +their own pledged word. These are to be explained by the type to which +the farmer in these sections conforms. We must not expect the land +farmer to obey the ethical standards of the husbandman.</p> + +<p>A good instance of this conformity to type was furnished in the case of +meetings held in Louisiana and Western Mississippi among the farmers who +raise cotton. The occasion of the meetings was the approach of the boll +weevil to their districts. The attendance upon the meetings was large, +indeed universal. The situation was clearly understood and the speakers +secured from the farmers present a promise quite unanimous to refrain +from cultivating cotton for a year. The purpose of this was to meet the +boll weevil with a territory in which he would find no food. Thus his +march eastward across the cotton field would be arrested.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>The farmers having made their promise and agreed heartily in the +proposal, adjourned. Weeks and months passed and the time approached for +planting cotton. Farmer after farmer, who had attended these meetings +and given his promise, privately decided that he would plant a cotton +crop and secretly expected that he would secure a larger price that year +because so many of his neighbors were to raise other crops. When the +full season for planting cotton had come it was discovered that so many +farmers had planted cotton that the plan of co-operation was a failure, +and the whole district went back to cotton, with full prospect of +assisting the boll weevil in his course toward the East. The reasons for +this action lie in the type of farmer who thus found it impossible to +co-operate. Each of these farmers regarded above all other things the +success of his own farm and his own family group. In contrast to this +interest no other claim, no exhortation and not even his word given in +public had any lasting influence upon his action.</p> + +<p>The third element in the inability of country people to co-operate is +the ideal of level democratic equality which prevails in the country. +Where universal land-ownership has been the rule every countryman thinks +himself "as good as anybody else." So long as this ideal prevails, that +subjection of himself to another, and the controlling of his action by +the interests of the community, are impossible. The farmer cannot +co-operate when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> thinks of social life in terms of pure democracy. +There must be a large sense of team work, a loyal and instinctive +obedience to leaders, a devoted spirit which looks for honest +leadership, before there can be co-operation. These things come not by +persuasion, but by experience. Co-operation is the act of a mature +people. Not until country people have passed through earlier stages and +discarded earlier ideals can the preacher and the organizer and the +teacher successfully inculcate a spirit of co-operation.</p> + +<p>Country churches are highly representative in their present divided +condition. This multiplication of churches in the country is lamentable +chiefly because it registers the divided state of country life. It is +true that divided churches are religiously inefficient, but it is vastly +more important that divided churches are embodiments of what one country +minister calls "the tuberculosis of the American farmer, individualism."</p> + +<p>It was natural for the pioneer to desire a religion in terms of a +message of personal salvation. Personality in his lonely life was the +noblest, indeed the only form of humanity known to him, therefore the +herald was his minister and emotion was his religion. It is very natural +for the land farmer to organize religion in terms of group life. His +churches were only handmaids of his household. They had but the +beginnings of social organization. They taught the ethics of home life, +of the separate farm and of a land-owning people. Obviously the church<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +for the pioneer and for the land farmer could be a very weak and +indifferent organization, but efficient for the religious needs of those +independent, self-reliant types of countrymen.</p> + +<p>For these reasons in all parts of the country the pitiful story is heard +of divided communities. One need not recite it here. It usually is the +account of three hundred or four hundred people with five or six country +churches. At its worst there is a small community in which missionary +agencies are supporting ministers who do not average one hundred +possible families apiece in the community. The condition of Center Hall, +Pennsylvania, has been described in another chapter, in which there are +within a radius of four miles from a given point twenty-four country +churches. This community represents a condition of transition from the +land-farmer type to that of exploitation. Some of these churches are the +old churches of the land-owning resident farmers, but the most of them +are said to be the newer churches of tenants who have come into the +community. Our present concern is to recognize the relation of the +divided churches to the divided social life of the community. The +criticism of the country community must be made on an understanding of +the stage of development to which that community has attained. Whatever +is planned for the upbuilding of the country community must be planned +in harmony with the well-known facts of rural development.</p> + +<p>Business life introduces into the community a new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> standard of values. +Cash and credit take the place of barter. The exchange in kind on which +originally the community depended comes to an end. Business life very +shortly induces combination. The whole of modern business presents a +spectacle of universal combination and co-operation. The farmer who is +most conservative is surrounded on all sides by the aggressive forces of +business. Combined in their own interest they compete with him on +unequal terms. He stands alone and they stand combined.</p> + +<p>Americans are looking with growing interest on the experience of Denmark +where a multitude of co-operative associations represent the spirit of +the people. This spirit has been deliberately cultivated in the land for +forty years. It is the universal testimony of observers that the +prosperity of Denmark is dependent on these co-operative agencies and +upon this united spirit. The exodus from the country has been arrested, +agriculture has been made a desirable occupation, profitable for the +farmer and most probable for the state, and the people as a whole have +taken front rank in social and economic welfare. Essential to this +constructive period of Denmark's life is co-operation.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>In Sir Horace Plunkett's recent book, "The Rural Life Problem in The +United States," he develops <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>this principle clearly. He says that in the +organization of country life in Ireland it was necessary to go into the +very heart of the people's experience and organize their economic and +social processes in forms of co-operation.</p> + +<p>"When farmers combine, it is a combination not of money only, but of +personal effort in relation to the entire business. In a co-operative +creamery for example, the chief contribution of a shareholder is in +milk; in a co-operative elevator, corn; in other cases it may be fruit +or vegetables, or a variety of material things rather than cash. But it +is, most of all, a combination of neighbors within an area small enough +to allow of all the members meeting frequently at the business center. +As the system develops, the local associations are federated for larger +business transactions, but these are governed by delegates carefully +chosen by the members of the constituent bodies. The object of such +associations is primarily, not to declare a dividend, but rather to +improve the conditions of the industry for the members.</p> + +<p>"It is recognized that the poor man's co-operation is as important as +the rich man's subscription. 'One man, one vote,' is the almost +universal principle in co-operative bodies.</p> + +<p>"The distinction between the capitalistic basis of joint stock +organization and the more human character of the co-operative system is +fundamentally important.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<p>"In this matter I am here speaking from practical experience in Ireland. +Twenty years ago the pioneers of our rural life movement found it +necessary to concentrate their efforts upon the reorganization of the +farmer's business.</p> + +<p>"1. We began with the dairying industry, and already half the export of +Irish butter comes from the co-operative societies we established.</p> + +<p>"2. Organized bodies of farmers are learning to purchase their +agricultural requirements intelligently and economically.</p> + +<p>"3. They are also beginning to adopt the methods of the organized +foreign farmer in controlling the sale of their butter, eggs and poultry +in the British markets.</p> + +<p>"4. And they not only combine in agricultural production and +distribution, but are also making a promising beginning in grappling +with the problem of agricultural finance. It is in the last portion of +the Irish programme that by far the most interesting study of the +co-operative system can be made, on account of its success in the +poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, the attempt to enable the most +embarrassed section of the Irish peasantry to procure working capital +illustrates some features of agricultural co-operation which will have +suggestive value for American farmers.</p> + +<p>"A body of very poor persons, individually—in the commercial sense of +the term—insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has +been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> somewhat +<a name="corr14" id="corr14"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn14" title="changed from 'gradiloquently'">grandiloquently</a> +and yet truthfully called 'the +capitalization of their honesty and industry.' The way in which this is +done is remarkably ingenious. The credit society is organized in the +usual democratic way explained above, but its constitution is peculiar +in one respect. The members have to become jointly and severally +responsible for the debts of the association, which borrows on this +unlimited liability from the ordinary commercial bank, or, in some +cases, from Government sources. After the initial stage, when the +institution becomes firmly established, it attracts local deposits, and +thus the savings of the community, which are too often hoarded, are set +free to fructify in the community. The procedure by which the money +borrowed is lent to the members of the association is the essential +feature of the scheme. The member requiring the loan must state what he +is going to do with the money. He must satisfy the committee of the +association, who know the man and his business, that the proposed +investment is one which will enable him to repay both principal and +interest. He must enter into a bond with two sureties for the repayment +of the loan, and needless to say the characters of both the borrower and +his sureties are very carefully considered. The period for which the +loan is granted is arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined +by the committee after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the +loan has been made, it becomes the concern of every member of the +as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>sociation to see that it is applied to the 'approved purpose'—as it +is technically called. What is more important is that all the borrower's +fellow-members become interested in his business and anxious for its +success.</p> + +<p>"The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in +Ireland and that, although their transactions are on a very modest +scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its +adherents and in the turnover,—this fact is, I think, a remarkable +testimony to the value of the co-operative system. The details I have +given illustrate one important distinction between co-operation, which +enables the farmer to do his business in a way that suits him, and the +urban form of combination, which is unsuited to his needs."</p> + +<p>The traditional economy that centered in the farm household was +independent. The ethical standards of country life recognized but small +obligations to those outside the household. Farmers still idealize an +individual, or rather a group, success. They entertain the hope that +their farm may raise some specialty for which a better price shall be +gained and by which an exceptional advantage in the market shall be +possessed. The conditions of the world economy are imposing upon the +farmer the necessity of co-operation.</p> + +<p>The prices of all the farmers' products are fixed by the marginal goods +put upon the market. For instance, the standard milk for which the price +is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> paid to dairy farmers, is the milk which can barely secure a +purchaser. The poor quality, relative uncleanness, and the low grade of +the marginal milk dominate the general market in every city, and the +farmer who produces a better grade gets nothing for the difference. It +is true that there is a special price paid by hospitals and a limited +market may be established by special institutions, but we are dealing +here with general conditions such as affect the average milk farmer and +the great bulk of the farmers. It is on these average conditions alone +that the country community can depend.</p> + +<p>Co-operation is the essential measure by which the producer of marginal +goods can be influenced. To raise the standard of his product it is +necessary to have a combination of producers. So long as the better +farmer is dependent by economic law upon those prices paid for marginal +goods, the only way for the better farmer to secure a better gain is to +engage in co-operation which shall include the poorer and the marginal +farmer.</p> + +<p>In the Kentucky counties which raise Burley tobacco, a few years ago the +tenant farmer was an economic slave. He sold his crop at a price +dictated by a combination of buyers. He lived throughout the year on +credit. His wife and his children were obliged to work in the field in +summer. He had nothing for contribution to community institutions. +Indeed, he very frequently ended the year without paying his debts for +food and clothing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>The organizations of these farmers which have been formed in recent +years for self-protection have been blamed for some outrageous deeds. +Persons in sympathy with these organizations have burned the barns of +farmers unwilling to enter the combination. They have administered +whippings and threats right and left in the interest of the farmers' +organization. In their contest with the buyers to secure a better price +they have reduced to ashes some of the warehouses of the monopoly to +which they were obliged to sell their tobacco. These public outrages are +worthy of condemnation. The writer believes that they were not essential +to the process of co-operation by which the farmers fought their way to +better success, though the effect of these acts is a part of the +historical process.</p> + +<p>But the combination of farmers has redeemed the poorer, the tenant +farmer and the small farmer from economic slavery. His representatives +now fix the price of the product. There is one buyer and one seller, +competition being eliminated; and the price at which the tobacco is sold +is the farmers' price, not the manufacturer's price. As a result the +farmers are able to hire help. The wife and children no longer work in +the field. The bills are paid as they are incurred, instead of credit +slavery binding the farmer from year to year. Last of all this +prosperity has taken form in better roads, better schools and better +churches. It remains only to be said that among the farmers engaging in +this co-operative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> union there were many preachers and pastors of the +region. They took a large part in the combinations of farmers which +affected this great gain. They recognized that the fight of the farmers +for self-respect and for free existence was a religious struggle and +that the church had a common interest in the well being of the +population to which it ministered.</p> + +<p>Another instance of co-operation is seen in Delaware and on the "Eastern +Shore" where the soil had been exhausted. Methods of slavery days were +unfavorable to the land and after the War it was long neglected. In +recent years a new type of farmer has come into this territory. By +intensive cultivation with scientific methods, he is raising small +fruits, berries, vegetables and other products, for the nearby markets +in the great cities. The success of these farmers has been dependent +upon their produce exchanges. They have learned, contrary to the +traditional belief of farmers, that there is a greater profit for the +individual farmer in raising the same crop as his neighbor, than there +is in an especial crop which competes in the market for itself. That is +to say, in shipping a carload of strawberries the farmer gets a better +price when the car is filled with one kind of berry than he would +receive if the car was made up of a number of separate consignments +under different names and of different varieties. Co-operation has been +better for the individual than competition.</p> + +<p>It at once becomes evident that co-operation is an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> ethical and a +religious discipline. As soon as the farming population is saturated +with the idea, which these farmers fully understand who have prospered +by co-operation, the religious message in these territories will be a +new message of brotherhood. The old gospel of an individual salvation +apart from men and often at the expense of other men will be enlarged +and renewed into a gospel of social salvation. No man will be saved to a +Heaven apart or to a salvation which he attains by competition or by +comparison, but men shall be saved through their fellows and with their +fellows. The country church, of all our churches, will teach in the days +to come the gospel of unity.</p> + +<p>The writer's own experience as a country minister was a perfect +illustration of this union of all members of a community. In the +community Quakers, Irish Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and +Baptists were represented in nearly equal numbers. With people widely +diverse in their economic position, though dependent upon one another, +it became evident to all that the only religious experience of the +community must be an experience of unity. Under the leadership of an old +Quaker who supplied the funds and of two others of gracious spirit and +broad intellect, the whole community was united, on the condition that +all should share in that which any did. One church was organized to +receive all the adherents of Protestant faith and one service of worship +united all, whether within or without the church. Even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> the Roman +Catholics once or twice a year for twenty years have been brought +together in meetings which express the unity of the countryside.</p> + +<p>Other instances there are of co-operation among churches in the country, +but their number is not great. There is a supplementary co-operation in +the division of territory in some states. The church at Hanover, N. J., +has a territory six miles by four, in which no other church has been +established. This old Presbyterian congregation has peopled its +countryside with its chapels and has assembled the chapel worshippers +regularly at its services in the old church at the graveyard and the +manse.</p> + +<p>In Rock Creek, Illinois, the Presbyterian Church has a community to +itself, and ministers in its territory with the same efficiency with +which the Baptist church across the creek ministers to its territory, in +which it also has a religious monopoly. These two congregations respect +one another and have a sense of supplementing one another, which is a +form of co-operation. The ideal expressed in these two instances is +cherished by many. It is hoped that religious bodies may agree in time +to divide the territory, to give up churches, to sell or transfer +property rights and to shift their ministers from communities which have +too many to those communities not served at all. But the way for this +co-operation as an active principle has not yet opened. Its value is in +those communities which have had it from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> the first as an inheritance. +It has so far not proven a remedy to be applied for the cure of existing +evils.</p> + +<p>The writer believes that the path of co-operation is the efficient and +slow one of economic and social organization rather than the delusive +short-cut of religious union. People cannot be united in religion until +they are united in their social economy. The business of the church is +to organize co-operative enterprises, economic, social and educational, +and to school the people in the joy, to educate them in the advantages, +of life together. Co-operation must become a gospel. Union requires to +be a religious doctrine. It will be well for a long time to come to say +but little about organic union of churches and to say a great deal about +the union in the life of the people themselves.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> "Rural Denmark and Its Lessons," by H. Rider Haggard. See +also the Bulletins of the International Institute of Agriculture at +Rome, Italy.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<h3>COMMON SCHOOLS</h3> + + +<p>The weakness of the common schools in American rural communities shows +itself in their failure to educate the marginal people of the community, +in their failure to train average men and women for life in that +community, in their robbing the community of leadership by training +those on whom their influence is strongest, so that they go out from the +community never to return; and in their general disloyalty to the local +community with its needs and its problems.</p> + +<p>It is the boast of the people of the country school district that their +school has "sent out" so many people of distinction. On a rocky hillside +in a New England town there stands, between a wooded slope and a swamp, +an unpainted school building. Within and without it is more forbidding +than the average stable in that farming region. But the resident of that +neighborhood boasts of the number of distinguished persons who have gone +forth from the community, under the influence of that school. This is +characteristic of country places and country schools. The influence of +the school, so far as it has any, is that of disloyalty to the +neighborhood. It robs the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> neighborhood of leadership. It does nothing +to cultivate a spirit of sympathy with the life that must be lived +there. For every one whom it starts upon the exodus to other places it +leaves two at home uninspired, indifferent and mentally degenerate.</p> + +<p>Another fault of the one-room country school, which makes it a weak +support of the country community, is its lack of professional support. +Among four hundred teachers in such schools, throughout the country, not +one in a hundred expects to remain as a country schoolteacher for a +lifetime. There is no professional class devoted to the country school. +Its service is incidental in the lives of men devoted to something else. +It is a mere side issue.</p> + +<p>Besides, its building is inadequate. Too many needs, impossible to +satisfy, are assembled in a single room. Too many grades must be taught +there for any one child to receive the intense impression necessary for +his education.</p> + +<p>The third great fault of the country school is its total lack of +intelligent understanding of the country. Its teaching is suited to +prepare men for trade, but not for agriculture. Instead of making +farmers of the sons of farmers, the majority of whom should expect to +follow the profession of their fathers, the country school prepares them +for buying and selling, for calculation and for store keeping. It starts +the stream of country boys in the direction of the village store, the +end of which is the department store or clerical occupation in a great +city.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + +<p>The improvement of the one-room rural school is possible within narrow +limits only. A recent book<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> gives most sympathetic attention to this +problem of improvement, while asserting that reorganization alone will +be adequate to the situation. But there are improvements which, within +the limitations of the one-room school, are possible. The supervision of +these schools may be made closer and more efficient. By bringing to bear +upon them the oversight of experts in education the grade of teaching +may be elevated. The important principle is to discover the proper unit +of supervision. The town is too small and the county unit too large. It +is probable that with some rearrangement the county can be made the +proper unit of supervision, but the school should determine its problems +on a principle independent of political divisions. The first need of the +country school at the present time is to be adapted, by such supervision +of the district as shall correlate the country school with the units of +population resident in the country. In some places the district to be +supervised by one superintendent should be not much larger than a +township, in other places it might approach the bounds of a county, but +in all instances the supervising officer should have the relation of an +employed expert to the problems of the country. It is not enough that +untrained farmers or tradesmen occasionally visit the school in an +indifferent manner. Their indifference is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>the natural attitude of men +untrained in the task assigned to them. The officer who supervises +should be well adapted to his task and should visit with frequency, +criticize with trained intelligence, and train his teachers in a +constructive educational policy suitable to the district.</p> + +<p>Another improvement in rural schools may be had in a better normal +training of the teachers. At the present time the normal schools are +inadequate to the task of supplying teachers and beyond the supplying of +teachers for the city, they stop short. The training of teachers for +country schools must become a part of the normal provision for the +states.</p> + +<p>The minimum salary for teachers is a most important consideration. A +primary difficulty in the present situation is that the country school +teacher is ill paid. It is therefore impossible to secure and to retain +in the country persons of adequate mental and cultural value. In order +to secure funds for better payment of teachers, a readjustment of the +taxation in the various states is probably necessary, but this will be +slow of accomplishment. Some results may be effected in another way by a +minimum salary for teachers throughout the State. In this manner a +better grade of teachers can be secured for all schools.</p> + +<p>The most important improvement, however, in the country schools is +almost impossible in the one-room school. It is the teaching of the +gospel of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> land. Out around the country school lies the open book of +nature. First of books the pupils should learn to read the book of +nature. The life of the birds and animals, so familiar to the children +yet so little known; the growth of plants, their beauty and their use, +and the nature, the tillage and the maintenance of the soil, are all +lessons easy to impart to those who are themselves instructed, yet the +present system of shifting teachers makes such instruction impossible. +It is the opinion of expert educators that the study of agriculture is +impossible in the one-room country school. With this opinion the writer +agrees, yet so great is the necessity of this very improvement and so +slow will be the changes which look to consolidation of schools, that +effort should be made at once by those in charge of the country school +to teach the children the lesson of the soil, of plant life, of animal +and bird life and of the world about them. These lessons are necessary +to their economic success. They are the very beginning of their +happiness in the country and of love for the country. In teaching them +the country school can best perform its duty to the present generation.</p> + +<p>The centralizing of country schools is the adequate solution of the +present situation. By this means the children from a wide area are +brought to a modern school building suitably placed in the country. When +necessary they are transported to and from the schools in wagons hired +for that purpose, in charge of reliable drivers. In this consolidated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +school building, which has taken the place of three, five or even seven +one-room district schools now abandoned, there shall be at least two and +it may be five teachers. This group of teachers forms a permanent +nucleus and a center for the life of the country. The children are +assembled in a sufficient number to provide a large group, and their +social life is enjoyable as well as mentally stimulating. The weaknesses +of the one-room district school are in this institution corrected. There +is permanence in the teaching force, professional service, cumulative +influence, and the interests of the community find in the school a loyal +center of discussion. The consolidated rural school is an institution +for the first time adequate to the task of building up the whole +population.</p> + +<p>The first use to which the centralized rural school is adapted is to +halt the exodus from the country. The country community has now no check +upon the departure of its best people. The sifting of the country +community is done, not by the community itself, but by outside forces, +unfriendly and unintelligent as to the interests of the country. The +centralized rural school will retain in the country those who should be +interested in the country community. This will be accomplished by the +study of agriculture, which can adequately be taught only in a graded +school in the country. But much can be done even by the supply of an +adequate system of education in the country community.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>At Rock Creek, Illinois, the retirement of farmers to the cities and +towns had gone so far in 1905 that the intelligent and devoted members +of the community, who did not desire to leave the place where their +grandfathers had first broken the prairie sod, took counsel as to the +welfare of the community. The superficial fact of most consequence was +the presence of tenant farmers in the community. These tenants, however +desirable personally as neighbors, were of a short term of residence. +From one to five years was their longest term on one farm. The social +life of the community and its religious interests were beginning to +suffer. The sons of the early settlers, therefore, laid their plans by +which to control the selection of tenants.</p> + +<p>Their first plan was to form a farmer's union or syndicate, which should +undertake to run the farms of those who were retiring from the land. +This plan seemed promising and the makers of it congratulated themselves +upon controlling the future of the community. But reflection showed that +this method would have the effect of retiring more farmers from the land +and turning over the hiring of tenants to the few remaining loyal +owners, who would come in a short time to constitute the local real +estate agencies; while the majority of the owners would enjoy themselves +in towns and villages round about.</p> + +<p>The result was that the farmers undertook not to control the tenancy, +but to build up the community itself. They deliberately undertook the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +reconstruction of the schools. Three school districts were merged in +one. An adequate building in which a group of teachers is employed was +erected. The children are transported in wagons hired for that purpose. +The grounds about the school building are made pleasant; and the school, +located near the manse and the church which had most influenced the +change, forms now a strong community center for a wide region.</p> + +<p>The result is all that could be desired. The retirement from the farms +has been checked; the neighborhood has become specially desirable for +residence. Farmers who had gone to the town find now that as good or +better schools are to be had in the community where their property lies +and where they pay their taxes. The rental price of land has increased +and it is difficult for tenants to come into the community unless they +are willing to pay an added rental in return for better school +privileges. The whole countryside has received an impetus and the +depression of country life has for this community departed. Mr. R. E. +Bone, "the fourth red-headed Presbyterian elder Bone in the Rock Creek +Church," takes great pride in the building up of the community which has +been effected through the consolidated school.</p> + +<p>A more mature example is the John Swaney Consolidated School in +Illinois. Here the leadership and generosity of John Swaney, a member of +the Society of Friends, have effected the consolidation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> of four school +districts at a point two miles from the village of McNab. This purely +rural consolidation was not effected without a contest. Indeed the McNab +school has had to fight for the gains it has made from the very +beginning. The school-house stands by the roadside, not even surrounded +by a group of residences. The grounds are peculiarly beautiful, being +shaded by great trees and extending in ample lawn about the building. In +the rear are stables for the horses which transport the children daily +from the outer bounds of the consolidated district.</p> + +<p>The school building contains four class-rooms with physical and chemical +laboratories. In one room are apparatus for cooking and sewing. In the +basement is a well-lighted shop where benches for manual training are +placed at the use of the boys. In the third story is an auditorium so +ample as to accommodate a basket-ball game and about two hundred +spectators. Frequent gatherings occur here in a simple spontaneous way. +This common school has all the social and intellectual power of the +old-fashioned country academy which once was so useful in the Eastern +States. A principal and four women teachers form the faculty of the John +Swaney school. The number of scholars in 1910 was one hundred and five, +the number of boys slightly exceeding that of girls. Of these about half +were in the primary and the grammar grades and about half in the high +school. Of the latter some twenty-five were tuition pupils<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> from outside +of the district, so that the actual school group of the McNab +consolidated school, the children of the tax-payers, was in that year +eighty in number.</p> + +<p>The difference between the social life of eighty young people and eight +or eighteen young people, which one may find in a one-room school in the +country anywhere, is very great. Needless to say that the John Swaney +school has athletic teams, tennis tournament, baseball games, literary +and debating contests and is a strong aggressive force lending life and +vitality to the whole countryside. The older families of the +neighborhood are Quakers. The newer half of the population is of +Germanic stock. The influence of the school is upon all its pupils. The +high school retains practically all the sons of the Quaker families and +some of the newer population whose interest in education is less.</p> + +<p>But the crowning distinction of the John Swaney school is in its study +of agriculture, or broadly speaking in its industrial training. For with +agriculture must be classed manual training and domestic science. By +John Swaney's generosity twenty acres of land were presented to the +State for an experiment farm. This land adjoins the school grounds and a +regular part of the curriculum for the young men is the study of +agriculture. The result of this interpretation of country life in forms +of scholarship is that substantially all the graduates of the high +school annually go to the State University for training in scientific<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +agriculture, expecting to return to the farms and become rural residents +of Illinois. At the present time no more profitable training could be +given these young men and women. But aside from this economic +consideration, the social and moral value to the community in the return +of these young men and women to their own soil and the scenes of their +childhood is beyond estimation. The Quaker Meeting in this community is +not "laid down;" the church is not abandoned. Indeed all the activities +of the community are built up and the best of the community perpetuated +through the medium of this modern consolidated school.</p> + +<p>To sum up this chapter, the improvement of the one-room common schools +is possible, but for the satisfaction of the needs of the modern country +community that improvement is inadequate. The one-room country school is +an institution which in itself cannot be made to minister to modern +community life. It is simple and modern life is complete. It is casual +and irregular while the forces with which it has to deal are +steady-going and cumulative in their power. It is inexpert and served by +no specialized professional class, while modern life calls for the +service of experts in every direction. It has no social value, while +modern life is always social in its forms of action and requires social +interpretation for its best effects.</p> + +<p>A closing word should be said for a type of schools which has been +perfected in Denmark. They are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> known as the "Folk High Schools." These +are popular schools, adapted to the teaching of adults to get a living. +Denmark has an adequate supply of technical schools, and these latter +are not established to train scholars or scientists. Their use is to fit +men and women to meet the issues of life, at home, hand in hand, with +skill and enthusiasm. They use few text-books and have no examinations, +and six months are sufficient for a course of study. The schools are +religious and their foundation was the work of Rev. N. F. S. Grundtvig. +In songs and in patriotic exercises, all their own, they idealize +country life and the work of the mechanic.</p> + +<p>The academies of earlier days in rural America were centers of a similar +influence. But with the growth of the public-school system these have +been generally abandoned. It is a question whether some of them would +not serve a need which is felt today, if only they would train men for +modern country life with the same success which they once had in +training leaders for a former period.</p> + +<p>Then all the people lived in the country. Now only a third of the people +are concerned with the farm. So that the education of the modern country +boy or girl would require to be carried on in a different manner, in +order to retain the best of them in the country. The example of the +"Folk Schools" offers an analogy to what might be done in American +country life, if the academy could be transformed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> into an institution +for the education of the young in the country.</p> + +<p>All observers testify that the "Folk High Schools" have been the first +influence in transforming Denmark in the past forty years, from a nation +economically inferior to a nation rich and prosperous. This change has +been wrought through the betterment of the farmers and other country +people, by means of education in country life; and this education has +been economic, patriotic, co-operative and religious. So perfect has it +been that it is hard to analyze; but the acknowledged center of it has +been a system of schools in which the problem of living is taught as a +religion, an enthusiasm and a culture.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> "The American Rural School," H. W. Foght.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<h3>RURAL MORALITY</h3> + + +<p>The moral standards of the pioneer type and of the land-farmer type +prevail in the country. The world economy has precipitated on the farm +an era of exploitation which has not yet reached its highest point. +Meantime, according to the ethical ideals of the pioneer and of the +farmer, country people are moral.</p> + +<p>The investigations of the Country Life Commission brought general +testimony to the high standards of personal life which prevail in the +country. In such a representative state as Pennsylvania the standard of +conduct between the sexes was found to be good. The testimony of +physicians, among the best of rural observers, was nearly unanimous, in +Pennsylvania, to the good moral conditions prevailing in the intercourse +of men and women in the country. This indicates that the farmer economy +had superseded the economy of the pioneer.</p> + +<p>The moral problem of the pioneer period consisted of a struggle for +honesty in business contracts, and purity in the relation of men and +women. The story of every church in New England and Pennsylvania, until +about 1835 at which Professor Ross<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> dates the beginning of the farmer +period, shows the bitter struggle between the standard accepted by the +church and that of the individuals who failed to conform. The standard +was inherited from the older communities of Europe. The conduct of +individuals grew out of the pioneer economy in which they were living. +Church records in New England and New York State are red with the story +of broken contracts, debt and adultery. The writer has carefully studied +the records of Oblong Meeting of the Society of Friends in Duchess +County, New York, and from a close knowledge of the community through +almost twenty years of residence in it, it is his belief that there were +more cases of adultery considered by Oblong Meeting in every average +year of the eighteenth century than were known to the whole community in +any ten years at the close of the nineteenth century. The farmer economy +in which the group life of the household prevailed over the individual +life had by the nineteenth century superseded the pioneer period, in +which individual action and independent personal initiative were the +prevailing mode.</p> + +<p>The coming of the exploiter into the farm community brings a new set of +ethical obligations concerning property and contracts. The farmer has +perfected the individual standards of the pioneer but he is not yet +endowed with social standards. He knows that it is right to give full +measure when he sells a commodity, but he does not yet see the evil of +breaches of contract. Farmers of high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> standing in their communities for +their personal character, who are truthful and "honest" in such +contractual relations as come down from their fathers, have been known +to use the school system of the town for their own private profit, or +that of members of their families, and to ignore financial obligations +which belong to the new period, in which money values have taken the +place of barter values.</p> + +<p>A good illustration is that of a deacon in a country church, whom I once +knew. His word was proverbially truthful. As widely as he was known his +reputation for piety and simple truthfulness, for honesty and purity of +life were universal. I do not think that he was consciously insincere, +but as a trustee in administering a fund devoted to public uses he +seemed to have a clear eye for only those enterprises through which he +or members of his family could indirectly secure incomes. Entrusted with +a public service which involved the improvement of the school system, so +far as he acted individually and without prompting by those who had been +accustomed all their lives to modern methods, his action was that of +loyalty to his own family and relationship. In so doing he regularly +would betray the community and the public interest. Yet he seemed to do +this ingenuously and without any conception of the moral standards of +people used to the values of money.</p> + +<p>I have known the same man, whose standing among farmers was that of a +blameless religious man, to borrow money, and in the period of the loan +so to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> conduct himself as to forfeit the respect of people used to +handling money. To them he seemed to be a conscious and deliberate +grafter. The explanation in my mind is that he suffered from the +transition out of the pioneer and farmer economy into the economy of the +exploiter.</p> + +<p>The history of the sale of lands in the country, in the recent +exploitation of farm-lands, contains many stories of the breach of +contract of farmers, and the inability of the farmer to sell wisely and +at the same time honestly. Contrasting the farmer in his knowledge of +financial obligation with the broker in the Stock Exchange, the latter +type stands out in strong contrast as an admirable example of financial +honesty to contracts, even if they be verbal only. The farmer on the +other hand has no conception of the relations on which the financial +system must be built. He is not an exploiter to begin with, but a +farmer.</p> + +<p>The transition from the older economy to the new is illustrated in the +dairy industry which surrounds every great city. The dairy farmer has +ideas of right and wrong which are purely individualistic. He believes +that he should not cheat the customer in the quantity of milk. He +recognizes that it is wrong, therefore, to water the milk, but he has no +conception of social morality concerning milk. He gives full measure: +but he cares nothing about purity of milk. He is restless and feels +himself oppressed under the demands of the inspector from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> the city, for +ventilation of his barns and for protection of the milk from impurity. I +have known few milk farmers who believed in giving pure milk and I never +knew one whose conscience was at ease in watering milk. That is, they +all believe in good measure and none believes in the principle of +sanitation. They stand at the transition from the old economy to the +new.</p> + +<p>A story is told among agricultural teachers in New York State to the +effect that an inspector following the trail of disease in a small city +traced it to impure milk supplied by a certain farm. In the absence of +the man he insisted on inspecting the dairy arrangements, being followed +from room to room by the farmer's indignant wife. Finally he said, "Show +me the strainer which you use in the milk," and she brought an old +shirt, very much soiled. Looking at it in dismay the inspector said, +"Could you not, at least, use a clean shirt?" At this the woman's +patience gave way and she declared, "Well, you needn't expect me to use +a clean shirt to strain dirty milk!"</p> + +<p>The packing of apples for market illustrates the transition from the +farmer economy in which the ethical standards are those of the +household, or family group, to the world economy in which the moral +standards are those of the world market. Apples are packed by all +classes of farmers, regardless of varying religious profession, in an +indifferent manner. The typical farmer hopes by competition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> with his +neighbors to gain a possibly better price. Instances of such successes +as come to certain family groups are endlessly discussed by farmers; and +the highest ideal that one meets among farmers who sell apples +throughout the Eastern States is expressed in the instance of some +family who have improved their own farm and their own orchard, so as to +win for the family or the farm a reputation in some particular market +and thus to gain a higher price.</p> + +<p>Contrast with this the marketing of apples by the Western fruit growers' +Associations. Among them, as for instance in the Hood Valley, Oregon, +apples are packed not by the farm owner with a view to competing with +his neighbors, but by the committee representing the whole district. The +individual farmer has no access to the market. He cannot hide his poor +fruit in an envelope of his best fruit, so as to deceive the buyer. The +committee has a reputation to maintain on behalf of the association, not +of the individual. The apples are marketed on their merits in accordance +with a certain standard. The impersonal demands of the world economy are +kept in mind. The individual farmer and farm are forgotten. The result +is that these far western growers, whose fruit is said in the East to be +inferior in flavor to the apples of New York and New England, can sell +their product in the eastern market at a higher price per box than the +New York or New England farmer can secure per barrel.</p> + +<p>The transition from farming to exploiting has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> brought out in full view +the wastefulness of the farmer economy which is being succeeded by +exploitation. The whole doctrine of conservation belongs in this +transition. Economy means, literally, housekeeping. The same meaning +appears in the word husbandry. It is a principle of saving. Its +extraordinary value at the present time is due to our sudden sense of +the wastefulness of farm life in recent years. Edward van Alstyne, an +agricultural authority in New York, says, "We farmers think we are most +economical, but we are the most wasteful of all men." The wastefulness +of American farming begins in the tillage of too many acres. The farmer +prefers wide fields even at the cost of poor crops.</p> + +<p>The New York Central Railroad, which is carrying on a propaganda of +husbandry, has appointed a man as expert farmer who increased the yield +of potatoes on his land from sixty to three hundred bushels per acre. +This brings out clearly that his neighbors are still producing sixty +bushels per acre, wasting four-fifths of their land values. This waste +is a wrong that should be denounced in the country church just as +sternly as doctrinal sins, which have occupied the attention of country +ministers in the past.</p> + +<p>Expert farmers say that if corn-stalks for fodder are left out in the +field until they are fed to the cattle they lose forty to fifty per cent +of their food values. This waste is sinful, but the sin is visible only +in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> new economy of exploitation which counts all values in terms of +cash. No sooner is the sinfulness of waste observed than its connections +with moral delinquencies of country people becomes clear. In the +improvement of rural morality due to the sifting of country people +during the farmer period, it becomes evident that among a people so +serious-minded some delinquencies still remain. The immoralities that +still lurk and fester in the country are due very largely to waste. This +waste of human things is parallel to the waste of economic values.</p> + +<p>In a conference there was some difficulty in persuading a certain +country minister to speak. When finally he arose he said, "I am not much +interested in the scientific analysis of the country church. All I am +interested in is sin." One wonders whether he was dealing with the sins +of the country in their causes or in their effects, or was he simply +concerned with the sins which consist in opposing the doctrines of his +particular denomination, whatever it was. This wastefulness of the +values in the soil enters into the social life of the country. Farmers +care as little for the social values as for land values. Young men and +women ignore the moral importance of little things. They are not taught +that coarseness is wrong. They are not made to realize that cleanliness +and courtesy and reverence for the human body are of vital importance in +life.</p> + +<p>Country people are prudish and they cover with a strict reserve all +discussion of the moral relations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> of men and women. Yet in the same +communities there is loose private conversation and coarse references +are common. The strict standard of the household prevails within its +limits. Books and magazines must not discuss, however seriously, the +problems of life. But in the intercourse of the community there is not +the same care. The moral life of country people requires cultivation of +the leisure hours, the casual talk, the occasional meetings of men and +women, and especially of young people.</p> + +<p>The sale of votes in every election is a fixed quantity in the life of +certain country towns. It is to be counted on each year. The number of +votes for sale in each town is a known proportion of the whole, and +through certain counties the selling of votes is the political factor +everywhere present. These uniform facts point to a common cause. That +cause is the degeneration of a proportion of the rural population into +peasantry.</p> + +<p>The growth of a peasant population in America is surely our greatest +danger. A peasantry is a rural population whose moral and spiritual +state are controlled by their material states. There may be rich +peasants, though most peasants are poor. Peasants are a specialized +class, incapable of self-government and controlled by some political +masters who exercise for them essential rights of citizenship. The +peasants in Europe are the last to receive the ballot. In America they +are the first to surrender the ballot by selling their votes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>A young minister called to a country parish denounced the sale of votes, +in his first year, and publicly fixed the whole blame on a prominent +political leader of the town, who was there present in the church. His +criticism was resented by the whole community. He was right, and so were +they. It is well to denounce the purchase of votes, but the duty of the +country church to Americanize the peasant class is the greater duty. The +presence of such a class in a town infallibly leads to this iniquity. +The sale of votes is as bad as the sale of woman's virtue, and both have +an automatic tendency to degrade the population.</p> + +<p>The danger sign of peasantry is a degraded standard of life. In this +town there is one household in which nobody works but the mother. "How +they live beats me," is the public comment of the neighbors. Through the +winter into that house are crowded the father and mother, two sons and +two daughters, the husband of one daughter and their two children, with +three other small children, whose presence in the house is due to the +loose good nature of the family. There is an indolent uncle of these +children. None of the household follows any gainful occupation. The +table is furnished with potatoes and pork. The attraction of the +household is the easy, loose, good-nature of all its members. There is +no one to complain of the indolence of the five grown men who lounge +about through the winter days.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>The presence of such a household in a town means degradation. Three of +these men can be purchased for money to vote, though they cannot be +hired for money to work. The daughters of the household are an equally +dangerous factor in the countryside. The cause of this moral peril is +the low grade of living to which the family has sunk. There is no known +state of ill-health to account for their indolence. The first duty of +the church in such a community is to regenerate such a household and to +lift the standard of ambition of its members.</p> + +<p>Slowly the country town is coming to realize that its reputation as well +as its progress is determined by this grade of citizen. No exceptional +success on the part of one or more families and no substantial goodness +by a whole grade of the population can compensate for the lowering of +the standard of the whole town by these people. The life and death, the +reputation and the progress of the town are dependent upon the +extinguishment of these peasant conditions.</p> + +<p>This is illustrated by the fact that where votes are for sale in a town +those purchased votes determine the election in the majority of cases. +They constitute the movable margin between the two parties; and by +shifting them one way or the other the political policy of the town is +determined. This fact illustrates the whole moral situation of the town, +for just by the same flexible margin is the moral life of the town +determined. The duty of the church<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> therefore is with the people upon +the economic and social margin of the life of the rural community.</p> + +<p>The farmer's moral standards are opposed to combination. He believes in +personal righteousness and family morals. He does not believe in the +moral control of the individual or the household by the economic group. +It has been impossible, therefore, to combine the farmers in the East in +any general way so as to control their markets by maintaining a high +standard of product. The only control that is dreamed of by the leaders +of the farmers is the control of the quantity of their products. They do +not think of combination which will control themselves, and so maintain +a higher quality of product in order that thus they may dominate the +market in the great city.</p> + +<p>The present state of ethical opinion among Eastern farmers is not in +sympathy with the ethical demands of city populations. The Western fruit +growers' associations have fixed the standard for the farmers who raise +the fruit, first of all, and by means of this standard they have +conquered the market in distant cities. The standard to which they +compel their members to conform is the standard of the demand in the +world market. If the milk farmers about New York City are to combine +they must first impose a self-denying ordinance upon their own members +and furnish the city with a quality of milk in harmony with the demands +of modern sanitary experts. This is an ethical principle not of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +pioneer or the farmer economy, but of the new husbandry to which very +few farmers have conformed.</p> + +<p>In the building of country communities, therefore, the ethical teaching +must be of a new order. There is already a general teaching of morality +in the country churches. The temperance reform is a moral propaganda +born of the farmer economy. The expulsion of the saloon from country +places has been in obedience to the farmer's conscience. The temperance +reform exhibits the transformation from individual ethics which were +advocated in 1880 to communal ethics which are represented in the local +option aspects of this reform. In 1880 the individual was asked to sign +the pledge of total abstinence. In those days it was as important that +innocent children sign the pledge as that drunkards sign it. The lists +of pledge signers were padded with the names of persons who had never +tasted strong drink. In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League began its agitation, +which has proceeded among country people with increasing influence. The +individual is ignored and the pledge is signed now by the community, by +the county or by the state. The attack is not upon the individual +drunkard, but upon the community institution, the saloon. This is a +great gain in the direction of social ethics. It illustrates the +transformation from the pioneer whose impact was upon the individual to +the standards of the exploiter period in which the impact is upon the +commercial institution. The local option movement has had its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> growth in +the period of exploitation dated by Prof. Ross from 1890. In this +movement the country churches have been distributing centers, the places +of discussion and nuclei of moral energy.</p> + +<p>If the general moral standards of country people are to be transformed +from the pioneer formulae to those of the modern world economy, the +country churches must be led by men trained in economics and reinforced +by a thorough knowledge of social processes. The temperance movement +already begins to show the deficiencies of a propaganda purely negative. +Its leaders have shown no conspicuous sympathy with the play-ground +movement, which is an essential part of the same ethical process. If the +saloon is expelled something must be put in its place, but the +temperance reformers have not been wise enough for substitution: they +have only been skilful in expulsion. Country life, in its representative +communities, suffers today from monotony and emptiness.</p> + +<p>The ministers, teachers and other rural leaders need the training which +will equip them in positive and aggressive social construction. As the +economy of the exploiter comes in to transform the country community it +is necessary for the preacher and the teacher to train the population in +the ethical standards of the new time. Naturally new contractual +relations will prevail in business, and trusts will be committed to the +leading men in the farming community, for which they need definite moral +prepara<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>tion. There is many a farmer in the United States who may be +safely entrusted with the honor of a woman, but cannot be entrusted with +a million dollars to spend in the interest of the community. In many a +country community it is perfectly safe to leave the door unlocked, but +it is not safe to purchase a quart of milk for a child. There is many a +farmer from whom it is morally safe to purchase an acre of ground, but +one cannot be sure in purchasing a cow from him that she will not be +tuberculous. These are new standards not required by the old economy and +not taught in the old meeting-house.</p> + +<p>One defect of the country church at the present time is that it has for +the countryman no message appropriate to the struggle in which he is +actually attempting to do right. Many churches in the country teach only +the standards of right and wrong to which the farmers already conform. +For a short time a new minister is popular with them because his new +voice and his fresh elocution contain a subtle flattery. He denounces +the sins to which they are not inclined and praises the virtues which +they have learned to practise from their fathers. But after about six +months of such preaching the farmer wearies of a preacher with no new +message. Indeed the countryman is puzzled and perplexed by modern +situations about which the minister has no knowledge. The farmer is +forced to be an economist, but the minister has never studied economics. +The farmer is face to face with problems of exploitation. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> values +not merely of land but of money are in his thought. But the preacher has +had no training in finance and he cannot speak wisely or surely upon the +marginal problems with which the farmer is perplexed.</p> + +<p>The household economy of the farm is no longer sufficient. The sins are +not merely those of adultery and disobedience and disloyalty. They are +the sins of the world market and the world economy. In these moral +situations the minister is silent. He knows nothing about them. He is +inclined merely to object if the farmer purchases an automobile. He does +not see what the automobile is to do for the agriculturist. Sunday +observance, total abstinence, family purity, honesty as to personal +property, these are his stock in trade and these alone. It requires, +therefore, a genius to preach in the country, because only the most +brilliant preaching can render traditional moral standards interesting +among country people.</p> + +<p>It is proverbial among ministers that "the best preachers are needed in +the country." The reason for this is that none of the preachers has any +but an outworn standard to preach. They must reinforce it with +extraordinary eloquence in order to keep it attractive. Very ordinary +men, however, if they understand the modern spirit, can hold the +attention of country people. The grange has ministered to the farmer's +conscience. Yet its leaders have been commonplace men, unknown to the +nation at large.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> The great movements which have influenced the farmer +in the past twenty years have most of them been pushed to success by men +unknown to any but farmers. What orator has come into national +prominence out of the enterprises of agricultural life in the past two +decades? The farmer does not need great eloquence, but he does need a +thorough understanding of the moral and spiritual situations arising out +of the exploiter process in which he is immersed. He needs moral +teachers for the era of husbandry which is dawning in the country.</p> + +<p>"There is an actual and most conspicuous dearth of leadership of a high +order in rural life. This is evident when we consider the economic and +social importance of the agriculturists. The agriculturists constitute +about half of our population, they owned over 21 per cent of the total +wealth in 1900, and in 1909 their products had a value of $8,760,000, or +just about one-third that of the entire nation for that year. Yet this +vast and fundamental element of our nation elects no farmer presidents, +has scarcely any of its members in congress, but few in state +legislatures as compared with other classes; it has no governors nor +judges. In fact, this class is almost without leadership in the sphere +of political life and must depend on representatives of other classes to +secure justice. Economically it is relatively powerless likewise, +possessing practically no control over markets and prices through +organization in an age when organization dominates all economic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> lines, +accepting interest rates and freight rates offered it without the +ability to check or regulate them, and buying its goods at whatever +prices the industrial producers set. Its leadership up to the present +time has been of the sporadic and discontinuous sort. It has been +individualistic, lacking social outlook and vision. Consequently for +community purposes its significance has been slight."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Prof. John M. Gillette, in American Journal of Sociology, +March, 1910.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<h3>RECREATION</h3> + + +<p>The time has passed in which the amusements of the community can be +neglected or dismissed with mere condemnation. In the husbandry of the +country every factor must be counted. We are dealing no longer with a +fatalistic country life, but with the economy of all resources. +Therefore the neglecting of the play life and ignoring the leisure +occupations of a country people are inconsistent with the new economy.</p> + +<p>Moreover the ancient method of condemning all recreations passed away +with the austere economy of earlier days. The churches in the country no +longer discipline their members for "going to frolics." The country +community no longer is of one mind as to the standard by which +recreation shall be governed. Yet every event of this sort is closely +inspected by the general attention.</p> + +<p>The experience of the cities, in which social control has gone much +farther than in the country under the deliberate harmonizing of life +with economic principles, has much to contribute for the building up of +rural society through various means, among which is recreation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + +<p>The need of recreative activities in the country is shown by recent +surveys undertaken in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and +Kentucky by the Presbyterian Department of Church and Country Life. +Generally, throughout the farming population, it was discovered that no +common occasions and no common experiences fell to the lot of the +country community. In the course of the round year there is, in +thousands of farming communities in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, +no single meeting that brings all the people together. The small town +has its fireman's parade, to the small city comes once a year the circus +and to the great city comes an anniversary or an exposition. Every year +there is some common experience which welds the population, increases +acquaintance and intensifies social unity. The tillage of the soil in +those farming communities from which the blacksmith, the storekeeper, +the peddler and the shoemaker have departed, is very lonely.</p> + +<p>The telephone is the new system of nerves for the rural organism, but +the telephone is a cold, steel wire instead of the warm and cordial +personal meetings with which the countryside was once enlivened. In +eighty country towns in Pennsylvania, of which fifty are purely +agricultural, we found in our survey only three that had a common +leadership and a common assembling. The life of the people in these +communities is so solitary as to be almost repellent. Their social +habits are those of aggressive loneliness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> This isolation in the +pioneer days made the country people cordial to the visitor: but in the +coming of the new economy the farmer shrinks from strangers, because he +has become accustomed to social divisions and classifications in which +he feels himself inferior; so that the loneliness of country life has +become not merely geographical, but sociological. The farmer is shut in +not merely by distances in miles, but by distances of social aversion +and suspicion. Difference has become a more hostile influence in the +country than distance.</p> + +<p>Organized industry necessitates organized recreation. The subjection of +mind and body to machine labor requires a reaction in the form of play. +All factory and industrial populations, without exception, provide +themselves with play-grounds of some sort. In the city where no public +provision is made the streets are used by the boys for their games, even +at the risk of injury or death from the passing traffic. Jane +<a name="corr15" id="corr15"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn15" title="changed from 'Addam'">Addams</a> +has +shown, in a fine literary appeal in her "The Spirit of Youth and the +City Streets," the necessity of some provision for the recreations of +the young and of working people in a great city.</p> + +<p>This necessity is not primarily due to congestion of the population. Its +real sources are in the system and organization by which modern work is +done. This necessity is as characteristic of the rural community as it +is of the city, for on the farms as well as in the factory towns labor +is performed by machinery. This means that through the working<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> hours of +the day, from eight to twelve in number, the attention of the worker +must be concentrated upon one task, patiently and steadfastly pursued. +The machine worker exerts himself in the control of great powers, horse +power or steam power, committed to his charge. He has no opportunity for +languor or rest. He has no choice. His job drives him. His movements are +fixed and regulated by the nature of the machine with which he is +working, and of the task to be accomplished. At the end of the day he +has acted involuntarily and mechanically until his own powers of will +and choice are accumulated. Being repressed through long hours of +prescribed labor he is ready for a rebound. His nature demands +self-expression. This +<a name="corr16" id="corr16"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn16" title="changed from 'elf-expression'">self-expression</a> +takes the form of play.</p> + +<p>The recreation which results is organized. The laborer in a factory or +on a railroad is conscious of organization by the very nature of his +work. He labors with a machine driven by powers unseen but of whose +operation he is aware, in a great plant wherein his own labor is +co-ordinated with that of other workers like unto himself. The hours of +self-devotion and prescribed attention leave him free for sympathy with +the other workers, whose action and whose toil are organized with his +own, and on whose skill and devotion his life and limb and the +continuance of his job are dependent. When he turns to recreation he +naturally seeks to continue the silent communion with his +fellow-workers. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> repressed personal energies are already prepared +for team work. He comes out of the factory bubbling over with good +fellowship and seeking for comradeship in the self-expression which the +long hours of the day have denied him.</p> + +<p>The result is that in every factory town the open spaces are devoted to +playground uses. Vacant lots, unoccupied fields, and the open street are +used by men and boys for their games.</p> + +<p>Exactly the same experience results from school and college organization +of education work. The student in the common schools does not choose his +course; it is prescribed for him by his family and by society. He does +not go to school because he is mentally ambitious, but because the +standards of universal education require it of him. Especially in the +colleges which inherit a great name and attract young men and women for +social advantage, the students are characterized by an involuntary +subjection to the routine of modern pedagogy. Educational discipline is +imposed upon them through the long hours of lectures and laboratory and +recitations. The students in high school and college are accumulating a +rebound of voluntary action. This organized self-expression takes the +form of school and college athletics, which has long since been adopted +as a part of the educational routine. No considerable number of +educators are in favor of abolishing it, and only a few venture to +believe in restricting college athletics. Its moral value is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> everywhere +tacitly recognized, and pretty generally it is consciously accepted by +college and school faculties.</p> + +<p>Play of this sort has great moral value. We are hired to work, and we do +it without choice or enthusiasm, but in play the natural forces and the +personal choice are at their maximum. Every action is chosen and is +saturated with the pleasure of self-expression. The result is that play +has high ethical value.</p> + +<p>Especially has organized recreation great moral power, because it +involves team work, and the subjection of the individual to the success +of the team. Organized recreation teaches self-denial in a multitude of +experiences which are all the more powerful because they are not +prescribed by any teacher or preacher, but are the free natural +expression of the human spirit under the government of chosen associates +working out together a common purpose.</p> + +<p>Therefore it is necessary to use play for the recreation of country +life. The word is literal, not figurative. It is not a problem merely of +games, nor the question of gymnasium, but a profound ethical enterprise +of disciplining the whole population through the use of the play spirit. +This question must be approached on the high plane of the teaching of +modern theorists, and the experience of such practical organizations as +the Young Men's Christian Association.</p> + +<p>The Christian Associations began their work in the lifetime of present +generations and for accom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>plishing certain purposes they have used +recreation. They provided a gymnasium, at first, in order to get men +into the prayer-meeting. They offered social parlors in which young men +could always hear the sound of sacred song. But the Young Men's +Christian Association has traveled far from its crude and early use of +recreation. Some of the early Association leaders are still living and +still leading. They have steadily advanced with care and wisdom in the +use of recreation. Within very recent years the leaders of the +Associations have countenanced the use of billiard tables. No longer is +the gymnasium an annex to the prayer-meeting. It has values of its own. +Without moralizing, these practical men have discovered that the social +parlors were good for ends of their own and not merely as a place for +hearing the distant sound of hymns. In other words, recreation is a form +of ethical culture.</p> + +<p>Rev. C. O. Gill, who was captain of the Yale football team in 1890, has +had an extended experience among farmers. He says, "The reason why +farmers cannot co-operate is in the fact that they did not play when +they were boys. They never learned team work. They cannot yield to one +another, or surrender themselves to the common purpose." The writer, +observing Mr. Gill coaching a university team, commented upon the good +spirits with which a player yielded his place on the team just before +the victory. Mr. Gill had removed him, as he explained to him, not +because he played poorly, but because a new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> formation required a +rearrangement of the team. In reply to comment upon the player's +self-forgetfulness, Mr. Gill said, "Football is the greatest school of +morals in the country. I learned more ethics from the coaches when I was +an undergraduate in Yale, than from all other sources combined."</p> + +<p>It is this high ethical value of recreation which causes the working man +to defend his amateur baseball team, and makes it so hard to repress +Sunday games. The working man admits the high value of the Sabbath, but +he sets a value also upon recreation, and without analysis of the +philosophy either of the Sabbath or of the play-ground, stoutly +maintains the goodness of recreation and its necessity for those who +have labored all the week. "I work six days in the week, and I must have +some time for recreation," is the working man's answer to all Sunday +reformers. Waiving for a moment the question of the Sabbath, the human +process to which the working man testifies is exactly as he describes +it. Organized labor and systematic industry will react on any population +in the form of systematic recreation.</p> + +<p>The Play-ground Movement, therefore, is extending itself throughout the +country by the very influence of modern industry. Given intelligence to +interpret it, and one understands at once the desire of philanthropic +and public spirited men and women to provide "a playground beside every +school building, open for all the people."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dr. Luther H. Gulick, who was born of missionary parents, was trained in +religious schools, graduated as a physician, employed for years in the +Young Men's Christian Association, and then made Play-Ground Director in +the New York Public Schools, has become legitimately the heir of the +experiences of the modern social conscience. He has summed up the +philosophy of working men, students, and of the people whose lives are +systematized, in a sentence: "There is a higher morality in the +reactions of play than in the experiences of labor."</p> + +<p>The tradition of the church has been opposed to amusement and +recreation. The church of our fathers recognized the moral possibilities +of play by calling all play immoral. The early Quakers filled their +records in the eighteenth century with denunciations of "frollicks." +Consciously they denounced amusement, acting no doubt in a wise +understanding of the rude, boisterous character of the pioneer's social +gatherings. Only unconsciously did the Quakers cultivate the spirit of +recreation in their social gatherings. It was permitted to have but few +and repressed opportunities. The decadence of the Quaker church is +probably due, in a considerable measure, to their stubborn unwillingness +to see both sides of this question. They saw that recreation was +<a name="corr17" id="corr17"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn17" title="changed from 'inmoral'">immoral</a>. +They refused to see that its possible moral value was as great +as its moral danger.</p> + +<p>Extensive correspondence with working pastors, by means of a system of +questions sent out from a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> New York office, has brought this result. In +answer to the question, "What amusements of moral value are there in the +community?" the answer, "Baseball, boating, tennis, golf, bicycling, +etc." A smaller number of recreations was named in answer to the inquiry +for immoral sports. The subsequent question, "What is your position +before the community?" brought from the minister very often this answer: +"I am known to be opposed to all sports." Few ministers realize the +inconsistency of this position. They stand before the community as the +professed advocates of public and private morality, and they stand also +before the community as the professed and violent opponents, often, of +the public sports which are known to the young men and workingmen +generally as promoters of ethical culture and moral training. Is it any +wonder that the churches, in these communities, are often deserted by +the common people?</p> + +<p>In Lewistown, Pa., the old Presbyterian Church there, seeing the +congested character of the town population and the need of +breathing-places for the young people and working people, looked about +for a recreation field. The only available ground is the old cemetery, +in which the earlier members of the congregation have buried their dead. +This, the only open spot in the center of the town, it has been proposed +to turn into a playground, the bodies of the dead to be +<a name="corr18" id="corr18"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn18" title="changed from 'disintered'">disinterred</a> +and +laid reverently away in a quieter place, and the ground newly +consecrated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> to the needs of the living, and of the young. The action +contemplated by this fine old church is emblematic of the modern spirit. +Christianity is no longer a mere reverence for death and the other +world. But it is an energetic service to the young, and the working +people, in this present world. It is no longer a solemn reverence for +the salvation of the individual soul in a heaven unseen, but it is a +social service, no less serious, unto the living and unto the young and +the employed.</p> + +<p>Certain modern sports, such as baseball, are free from the corruption +which has attached itself to horse-racing and pugilism. This corruption +is not in racing a horse, or punching an opponent. It is in the +dishonesty of the race, for horsemen believe that "there never was an +honest horse-race," and the followers of the prize ring are constantly +suspicious that the fight will be "fixed." The first question they ask +after the decision of the referee is generally, "Was it a frame-up?" The +moral power of baseball, tennis, football and the other most popular +sports, is in the confidence that the game is fairly played. This +fairness of the game is the widest extended school of ethical culture +that the American and British population know. Honorable recreation +trains in courage, manliness, co-operation, obedience, self-control, +presence of mind, and in every other of the general social virtues. It +makes men citizens and good soldiers when need comes. This was the +meaning of the remark of the Duke of Wellington,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> when, after the +conquest of Napoleon, he returned to view the playground at Eton, and +said, "Here the Battle of Waterloo was won."</p> + +<p>For the building up of a community, therefore, the promotion of +recreation is an essential. Just as necessary as the providing of common +schools for all the people, is the provision of public play-grounds for +all the people. As many as are the school houses so many, generally +speaking, should be the play-grounds accessible to all, under the care +of trained and responsible leaders, in which, without too much +government, the free movements of the young and the abounding +self-expression of the great mass of the employed shall have opportunity +to work out their own education through play, into public righteousness.</p> + +<p>The training of citizens for days to come demands exactly the qualities +which are imparted on the play-ground. Morality is not taught and +ethical culture is not imparted by precept, though precept and +exhortation have their due place in the analysis of moral and spiritual +matters, for the thoughtful. But the great number of people are not +ethically thoughtful, and in the acquirement of righteousness all people +are unconscious. The desired action in moral growth is universally +spontaneous. The most sober and intellectual of men must be caught off +his guard and must be lured into voluntary actions before any moral +habits can be formed in him. Mere analysis of truth or self-examination +makes no man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> good. But men become good by doing things first, and +thinking of them afterward. They can be just as good if they never think +about them, though thinking about ethical matters renders a service to +the community as a whole.</p> + +<p>It should be the duty, therefore, of the churches, who are acknowledged +before the whole community as repositories of the conscience of men, to +promote public recreation. Where necessary the church should even +provide a play-ground. In Galesburg, Ill., fifteen churches are +co-operating, through their men's societies, in a central council of +forty members. This Council is made up in the form of four Committees of +ten. Each Committee considers one great interest of the community. One +of these interests is recreation. It is the duty of this Committee in +winter to provide musical and literary entertainment and lectures. In +the summer this Committee has secured the use of the Knox College +recreation field, and employing a trained man, has opened it throughout +the summer as a play-ground for all the children of the city.</p> + +<p>The use of recreation for the building up of a community seems to +involve expensive apparatus and sometimes does so. Mrs. Russell Sage at +Sag Harbor, Long Island, has expended many thousands of dollars in the +experiment. Interested in the children, of whom there are about eight +hundred in the town, through the experience of giving them a Christmas +tree, she determined to devote to their use a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> piece of land on the +borders of the village, formerly used as a fair ground. This work is to +have local value for the children of this community, and has been used +as a demonstration center of the efficiency of recreation as a moral +discipline among the young.</p> + +<p>But most communities have not so much money to spend. The proposal of a +play-ground or of a gymnasium is itself sufficient to condemn the +doctrine of play. "We cannot afford it," settles the whole question. In +the country expensive apparatus is not necessary; nor do the farmer's +son and daughter require in recreation so much physical exercise. The +gymnasium is an artificial and expensive machinery for inducing sweat, +but the farmer needs no such artificial machine. The problem is purely +one of play, not of exercise. For this purpose a careful study of the +community, and of its tendencies and inclinations, is necessary. The +great essential of recreation in the country is the opportunity to meet +and to talk. Therefore the social life of gatherings in the church, and +in the schoolhouse, no matter what their program, provided it be +innocent, is valuable. Farmers will attend an auction, and go a long way +to a horse-race, or gather at a fair, without any intention of buying or +selling. The fundamental service rendered by the county fair and the +auction is an opportunity afforded to converse. This exercise of the +tongue is far more important in rural recreation than the exercise of +the biceps. But country people cannot talk without an occasion which +unlocks their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> tongues. They must not be directly solicited to converse +or they are silent. If the occasion is provided and is made to be +sufficiently plausible its greatest success will be in conversation.</p> + +<p>In almost every country community, therefore, there should be revival, +in various forms, of the old "Bees," which had so much of a place in the +former economy. If there is a widow who has no one to cut her wood, the +men of the country church should assemble to do it. If there is a +household whose bread winner and husbandman has died at the time of +planting corn, let the men of the community gather at an appointed day +and till the ground for the family, whose grief is greater at that +moment than their need. Let the women of the community assemble at noon +to provide an abundant repast. This was recently done by a countryside, +at the instigation of the minister, and the effect of it was lasting in +its values as well as intense in the joy of the day's work. It seems, in +view of the need of recreation, that no other quality is so important in +the country community as a lively leader. Resourceful, energetic and +fertile men in the rural ministry can accomplish vastly more than +conventional, orderly and proper men.</p> + +<p>The church in which I began my ministry used to have a play every +Christmas. We built out the pulpit platform with boards, we hung it +around with curtains, giving dressing-room space, and we placed lanterns +in front for foot-lights. The first play we gave made us anxious, for +the neighborhood was an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> old Quaker settlement; but we found that the +Quakers enjoyed the play immensely and were the best actors. We made it +a genuine expression of the Christmas spirit. We abolished the old +"speaking pieces." Our little stage offered the young people team work, +instead of individual elocution. The rehearsals filled a whole month +with happy and valuable meetings. Everybody co-operated in the labor +necessary to prepare the decorations and to take them down, during +Christmas week, and on the night of the play everybody was on hand, +Catholic, Protestant and heathen.</p> + +<p>The holidays of the passing year suggest the recreations of the country +church. These should not necessarily be productive of sweat, but the +country boy and girl do need the recreation of laughter and happy +meeting and social liveliness. Farm work is lonely and monotonous. Such +immorality as there is in the country has direct connection with the +tedium and dullness of long hours out-doors, alone. The recreations of +country life should be meetings for the celebration of great events of +the year. Easter expresses ideas which are age-old among country people: +it is both a pagan festival and a Christian anniversary. If Easter is +developed in a celebration of song or procession, of sermon and of +decoration, with full use of its symbolic value, it is sure to bring the +whole countryside together, in an experience of the New Year rising from +the grave of winter and of the divine Lord risen from the dead.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<p>Most country communities have no such celebration. In very many the +whole year passes without neighbors meeting for a common social +experience. This is why people move to the city, because every city, +great and small, has in the course of the year some events which bring +all the people to the curbstone. Country life has few such times and +therefore it is dull, because the richest experience of mankind is the +experience of common social joy. The best recreation is acquaintance and +conversation. The farmer's son spends many hours in silence. He wants +someone to help him to talk, and to talk unto some purpose.</p> + +<p>The Fourth of July is celebrated in Rock Creek, an Illinois community, +by a "wild animal show." Instead of explosives, which are discouraged, +the boys of the community bring together in small cages their animal +pets. The boys are encouraged to make small carts for the transportation +of their pets, and the crowning event of the day is the procession of +these carts, in an open place, before the great dinner, at which the +countryside sits down together.</p> + +<p>Recreation in the country, above all, should revolve about something to +eat. The farmer's business is to feed the world, and country people +love, above all things, the social joy of eating. Farmers' wives are the +best cooks and the country household perpetuates its culinary +traditions. Especially does a permanent farm population enrich its +household tradition with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> delicious recipes and beautiful customs of the +table. Thanksgiving Day should be the great celebration of the round +year in the country. What a comment upon the country community it is +that so few communities in the country meet together, in response to the +President's proclamation of thanksgiving, to express gratitude unto the +bountiful Father of all.</p> + +<p>The country church should minister to country people in some effective +gathering of all the countryside. A most fruitful method now in use is a +corn judging contest for the boys.</p> + +<p>In the Middle West the Corn Clubs for boys have had an extraordinary +value, and in the South, also, the Farmer's Co-operative Demonstration +Work has made use of the boys in the country community for demonstrating +progressive methods on the farm. Thanksgiving Day can be prepared for in +the preceding spring, and the boys and girls who have managed a garden, +or half acre, through the summer can make their showing at that time. +Such a competitive showing in the country, in the production of the +staple crop, is sure to bring together the whole countryside.</p> + +<p>The local history of the country community is a +<a name="corr19" id="corr19"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn19" title="changed from 'frutiful'">fruitful</a> +source of +recreation. Farmers look to the past, and even the new people in the +country are keen to hear the story of the old settlers and of the early +pioneers. Nothing is of greater value in developing and refreshing +country life than to enrich it by celebrating its early history.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p>Recreation is essential to the moral life of any people. It is the +constructive method of making individuals into good citizens. Especially +valuable is it as a means of educating the young people and the working +people of the community. The craving for this social training and +ethical experience drives many out of the country community. Conversely, +training in social morality is to be undertaken especially by the +church, which possesses the conscience of the country community. This +training is expressed in the one phrase; the promotion of recreation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<h3>COMMON WORSHIP</h3> + + +<p>The worship of God is an +<a name="corr20" id="corr20"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn20" title="changed from 'expresssion'">expression</a> +of the consciousness of kind. "This +consciousness is a social and a socializing force, sometimes exceedingly +delicate and subtle in its action; sometimes turbulent and all-powerful. +Assuming endlessly varied modes of prejudice and of prepossession, of +liking and disliking, it tends always to reconstruct and dominate every +mode of association and every social grouping."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> This description by +Professor Giddings is so near to a description of worship, that it is +startling.</p> + +<p>Of all human acts of the conscientious man worship is the most highly +symbolic. They who worship are alike, and in their likeness are unlike +to others. It is an expression of their awareness of resemblance and of +difference. The definitions of consciousness of kind, as a sociological +process, go a long way to explain without further comment, both the +strength and the weakness of the churches in America.</p> + +<p>The churches have to struggle with a narrow and small social horizon. +Few people are so conscious <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>of their kinship with all others in their +community that they desire those others to worship with them. The sense +of unlikeness to others is, unfortunately, as strong in their feelings +as the sense of likeness unto their own. In the American community with +many newcomers, and some foreigners, this sense of unlikeness is +natural. It is not to be wondered that men should think themselves more +like unto their old neighbors than unto the new. It is not surprising +that with new economic processes men should ignore their unity with +those who co-operate with them in getting a living, and should be +conscious of their unity with those whose living comes in the same form. +As a result, we have working men's churches and "rich men's clubs," +"college churches," "student pastors," churches which minister to old +families, and new chapels built by tenant farmers. But these phases of +worship are peculiar to the times of transition in which we live. The +immaturity of our +<a name="corr21" id="corr21"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn21" title="changed from 'ecnomic'">economic</a> +processes, and the greater immaturity of our +economic knowledge, explain the failure of worshiping people to assemble +by communities; but the process which assembles men of kindred mind to +worship together now is capable of bringing men together in larger +wholes.</p> + +<p>The spirit of federation is in the air. The longing for religious unity +is a response to the stimuli of common experience in the same locality. +Men who meet throughout the week, if they worship at all, discover a +desire to worship together. The coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> of great occasions and the +celebrations of anniversaries, train them in some common assemblies. I +remember how the tidings of the death of President McKinley brought +together all the people of the community in an act of worship. Their +response to a profound sense of danger was a community response, and the +church which was prompt to open its doors, found men of all faiths +within.</p> + +<p>At a recent meeting of the National Body of one of the greatest +Protestant churches, proceedings were halted by the moderator, who read +a telegram announcing the friendly action of another religious body. +This action looked toward union of the two denominations. It was a +response to overtures from the body there in session. Instantly the +whole assembly sprang up, applauding and cheering, and led by a clear, +musical voice, broke out in a hymn. That hymn is profoundly sociological +in its language, and its use is increasing among Christian people. It +expresses that worship which is a consciousness of kind. Its words are</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blest be the tie that binds</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Our hearts in Christian love:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The fellowship of kindred minds</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Is like to that above.</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Before our Father's throne</span><br /> +<span class="i1">We pour our ardent prayers;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Our fears, our hopes, our aims, are one,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Our comforts and our cares.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We share our mutual woes,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Our mutual burdens bear,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And often for each other flows</span><br /> +<span class="i1">The sympathizing tear.</span><br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When we asunder part,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">It gives us inward pain;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But we shall still be joined in heart,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">And hope to meet again.</span><br /> +</div></div> + +<p>It would be hard to find a member of a Protestant church in America, +among the older denominations, who does not know these words, and is not +accustomed to use them in response to the stimuli of kinship with other +Protestant Christians.</p> + +<p>The consciousness of kind is an awareness of differences and +resemblances. It is a finding of one's self among those to whom one is +like, and an aversion to those unto whom one is not like. Worship is an +expression of this common likeness. It is an enjoyment of fellowship.</p> + +<p>The experience of worship is impossible in an atmosphere of difference. +This is a reason for the cleavage of denominations, and the splitting of +congregations. Without this separating, men could not enjoy the uniting, +and without the aversion, men could not taste the sweets of fellowship.</p> + +<p>This brings us very near to the sacred experiences in which men find +God. A very early chapter in the Bible describes God as the "Friend" of +a man. In the succeeding pages he becomes the King, the Priest, the +Prophet, and the Father of men. In every one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> of them the mind of the +worshiper has expressed a profound sense, that God is found by the soul +in society. Herbert Spencer has insisted that all religion is ancestor +worship, that is, it grows out of the family group.</p> + +<p>Simmel teaches that religion is the resultant of the reactions of the +individual with his group fellows, and with the group as a whole. +Christian folk are accustomed to express this by calling one another +"brothers" and "sisters," meaning clearly that religion is a social +experience.</p> + +<p>This is not the place for extended biblical interpretation, but I am +convinced that the whole course of scripture will testify to this, that +in the peaceful, continuing, social unities men have found God, and in +the differences, in their group conflicts, in their wars, and in the +oppositions to their enemies, there has been found no religious +experience. That is, such conflict has intensified unity, and the +resulting unity has been ever richer in religion: but the thoughts for +God have come forth clothed always in terms and titles of fellowship, +unity and kinship.</p> + +<p>In country communities this principle explains the divisions and the +unities of religious life. In many towns, the Presbyterian church, for +instance, is the church of the old settler and the earlier farmers. A +new denomination has come in with the tenants and the invaders. That is, +men have found it impossible to worship in a constant experience of +difference. It is true that their difference is an element<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> in their +religion, because the consciousness of difference is an element in the +consciousness of kind.</p> + +<p>In the Southern States, the white slave-holders worshiped, before the +war, in the same congregations with their negro slaves. They were +conscious of the plantation group, and of the economic unity with their +work-people. When emancipation came and the slaves were made free, they +must needs worship apart; and today, throughout the whole South, the +negro churches have been erected to express the consciousness of kind, +both on the part of the white and of the black.</p> + +<p>If this argument has force, it goes to prove that religion is, in a +small community, the strongest organizing force. The seeking after God +requires as a vehicle the consciousness of likeness and difference. It +can only proceed along those lines.</p> + +<p>The earnest desire of many common folk to know God is a working force, +which follows the cleavage of social classification. The churches become +expressions of social forms. In the country particularly, where life is +simpler and changes are slower, the church becomes an almost infallible +index of the social condition of the people.</p> + +<p>The duty, then, of the religious worker, and the task of the prophet and +the seer, is to enlarge the consciousness of kind. Worship is to be +placed on a larger plane. Americans must be taught to see their unity +with immigrants. Owners of land must be made to recognize that they are +one with their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> tenants. The employer must be shown that his alliances +are with those who help him to get his living. At once, when this task +is put before us, we see the futility of the ideals of our time. Church +workers and other teachers have played up before the eyes of the people +those ideals which separate men into artificial classes. The +consciousness of kind has been a consciousness of money and +consciousness of belonging to old families, or a consciousness of the +ideals of higher education. A great many American families live in the +ideal of sending their boys and girls to college. This leads them to +feel a difference between themselves and the larger number of people who +do not care for higher education, and who discover no energies in +themselves that move on the path of learning. The result is that their +worship is narrow; churches become culture clubs: the preachers are +exponents of literature: the service of worship is a liturgy of esthetic +pleasure.</p> + +<p>The true consciousness of kind must be economic and social. There is no +escape from this for religious people. They must go deep down to the +unities with men who co-operate with them in getting a living. The +Pittsburgh mill owner has no other unity by which he can find himself at +one with his foreign born mill-hand, than the fact that he and the +mill-hand are fellow workers in the mill.</p> + +<p>What other bond of union is there between the farm landlord and the farm +tenant? They have no common idealism. The one reads books, the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +does not. The one sends his son to college, the other sends his into the +stable and the field. The one is enjoying a life of leisure and his +hands are clean; the other sweats, saves, and produces, in soiled +clothing, and with hard, coarse hands. They have only one basis of +unity, namely, that they co-operate in tilling the soil, and in the +producing of food and raw materials. The teacher, or preacher, who +attempts in this case to escape the economic unity, will find no other.</p> + +<p>The trouble with most of the ideals which express themselves in +diversified worship, is that they are peculiar to the life of leisure, +they are a part of "the leisure class standard." Many teachers and +preachers reiterate similar demands which can only be responded to by +people who do not have to work.</p> + +<p>From this leisure class standard our ideals must be changed to the +standard of work, and the man who has vision is he who shall see the +economic, the industrial unities, and who with compelling voice, will +call men together to worship in a new consciousness of kind.</p> + +<p>Ministers in the country are feeling this very deeply. The pastor who +ministers to a whole community, boasts of it. He realizes he is serving +a true social unit. This is the joy of many country churches which might +be named, and the lack of it is the blight of many other country +communities. It must be clearly born in mind, however, that the church +can not organize a unity that is apart from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> the life of men. Religion +is the expression of social realities. There can be no "federation" of +those who are not conscious of their likeness and of their resemblances. +This means that the religious teaching of days to come must be a +teaching of the real unities of mankind. For in these true bonds of +union men are brought together. The efforts to assemble them in +artificial bonds, however ideal, will be futile.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> "Descriptive and Historical Sociology," by Prof. Franklin +H. Giddings, p. 275.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="SELECTED_BIBLIOGRAPHY" id="SELECTED_BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> + + +<h3>BOOKS</h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Chas. R. Van Hise, The Macmillan Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Rural Life Problem of the United States,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sir Horace Plunkett, The Macmillan Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Principles of Rural Economics,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thomas Nixon Carver, Ginn and Company</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Country Life Movement in the United States,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">L. H. Bailey, The Macmillan Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ireland in the New Century,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Sir Horace Plunkett, E. P. Dutton</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The American Rural School,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Harold W. Foght, The Macmillan Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Country Town. A Study of Rural Evolution,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Wilbert L. Anderson, The Baker & Taylor Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Descriptive and Historical Sociology,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Franklin H. Giddings, The Macmillan Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rural Denmark and Its Lessons,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">H. Rider Haggard, Longmans, Green & Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Quaker Hill, A Sociological Study,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Warren H. Wilson, Privately printed</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Youth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">G. Stanley Hall, D. Appleton & Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Presbyterian Church in the United States,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Robert E. Thompson, Chas. Scribner's Sons</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chapters in Rural Progress,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Kenyon L. Butterfield, The University of Chicago Press</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Country Church and the Rural Problem,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Kenyon L. Butterfield, The University of Chicago Press</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Story of John Frederick Oberlin,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Augustus Field Beard, The Pilgrim Press</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Church of the Open Country,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Warren H. Wilson, Missionary Education Movement</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Day of the Country Church,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">J. O. Ashenhurst, Funk & Wagnalls Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Distribution of Wealth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">John Bates Clark, The MacMillan Co.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Articles Referred to in the Text</span></h3> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Statement by John L. Gillin.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The Drift of the City in Relation to the Rural Problem,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">John M. Gillette.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Modern Methods in the Country Church,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Matthew B. McNutt, Missionary Education Movement</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">A Method of Making a Social Survey in a Rural Community,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">C. J. Galpin, University of Wisconsin</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Circular of information No. 29</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bulletins of International Institute of Agriculture,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Rome, Italy</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The Political Science Quarterly, December, 1910,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The Agrarian Changes in the middle West,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">J. B. Ross</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Abandoned country churches, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Absentee landlords, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>-<a href='#Page_39'>39</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Academy,—Old New England, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Addams, Jane, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Adult Bible Class, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Agee, Prof. Alva, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Agriculture, teaching of, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Amish, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Amusement, problem of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Anabaptist, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Anderson, Wilbert L., <a href='#Page_102'>102</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Anti-Saloon League, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Apples, marketing of, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Augustine, Saint, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Austerity, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bailey, L. H., <a href='#Page_50'>50</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Bees", <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bellona, N. Y., <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Boll weevil, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Bone, R. E., <a href='#Page_86'>86</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Braddock, Rev. J. S., <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Breach of contract, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Breadwinner, type, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Butterfield, Kenyon L., <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Casselton, N. D., <a href='#Page_42'>42</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Centralized school, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chaffee, farm, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chester County, Pa., <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Chesterton, Gilbert K., <a href='#Page_115'>115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Christmas play, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Church, Budget, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Envelope system, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Financial system, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Records, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Clark, John Bates, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">College athletics, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Columbus, Christopher, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Community center, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Consciousness of kind, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_213'>213</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Corn Clubs, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Country Fair, promoted, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Country Life Commission, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Cranberry, N. J., church at, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Crete, Nebraska, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Danish Folk Schools, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Delaware, produce exchanges, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Demonstration work, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Denmark, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Desmoulin, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Diminishing returns, law of, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Donation, system, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dunkers,<a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Du Page Church, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Eliot, Ex-President of Harvard, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Endowment of churches, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Exploitation of land, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>-<a href='#Page_33'>33</a>, +<a href='#Page_123'>123</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Family group, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> + +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Shrinkage of, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Farm laborers, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Federation of churches, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Foght, Harold W., <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Fourth of July celebration, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Galesburg, Ill., <a href='#Page_201'>201</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Galpin, Prof. C. J., <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Giddings, Prof. Franklin H., <a href='#Page_208'>208</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gill, Rev. C. O., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gillette, Prof. John M., <a href='#Page_188'>188</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gillin, Prof., <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Greeley, Horace, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Group system, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Grundtvig, Bishop, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Gulick, Dr. Luther H., <a href='#Page_197'>197</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Haggard, H. Rider, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hanover, N. J., <a href='#Page_156'>156</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hays, Willet M., <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hernando, Mississippi, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Holidays, celebration of, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Homestead act, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hood River Valley, Oregon, fruit growers, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Hormell, Dr. W. H., <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Illinois, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Survey of, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Immigrants, in country districts, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Indiana, survey of, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ireland, Christian Brothers, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Co-operative organizations, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>-<a href='#Page_151'>151</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Country Life Movement, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">John Swaney Consolidated School, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>-<a href='#Page_166'>166</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Kentucky, co-operative organizations, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Survey of, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lancaster County, Pa., <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Land values, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Leadership, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> +<a name="corr22" id="corr22"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn22" title="changed from 'Lewiston'">Lewistown</a>, Pa., <a href='#Page_198'>198</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">McNab, Ill., <a href='#Page_166'>166</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">McNutt, Rev. Matthew B., <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Marginal man, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Massachusetts communities, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mennonites, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Middle Creek Church, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Minimum salary, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Missouri, survey of, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Money crop, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mormons, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>-<a href='#Page_78'>78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Morrison, Rev. T. Maxwell, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mountain community, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Mountaineers, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, +<a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">New England Country Church Asso., <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">New York Central R. R., <a href='#Page_177'>177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Oberammergau, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Oberlin, John Frederick, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Oblong meeting, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ohio, counties less productive, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ottumwa, Iowa, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Over churching, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Palatinates, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pastor, need of, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Passion Play, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> + +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Penn, William, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Penn Yan, N. Y., <a href='#Page_40'>40</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pennsylvania Germans, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>-<a href='#Page_78'>78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pennsylvania, survey of, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Planters, south, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Playground, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Playground movement, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Plunkett, Sir Horace, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Polk, Rev. Samuel, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Poor, ministry to, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Protestantism, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Quaker Hill, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Quaker meeting, McNab, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Quakers, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rankin, David, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Recreation, importance of, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Retired farmers, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>-<a href='#Page_38'>38</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Retirement from farm, process described, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Revivals, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Riis, Jacob, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rock Creek, Ill., <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Ross, Prof. J. B., <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a>, +<a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rural evangelism, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rural exodus, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Rural free delivery, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sag Harbor, L. I., <a href='#Page_201'>201</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sage, Mrs. Russell, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Schenck, Norman C., <a href='#Page_4'>4</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">School, country, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, +<a href='#Page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Scientific farming, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Scotch-Irish, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, +<a href='#Page_62'>62</a>-<a href='#Page_78'>78</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Simmel, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Slave-holding churches, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Smith, Adam, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Smith, John, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Socialism, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><a name="corr23" id="corr23"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn23" title="changed page number from 'XII' to 'XVI'">Social service</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_xvi'>XVI</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Spencer, Herbert, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Store, country, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sunday Schools, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Swaney, John, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> +<a name="corr24" id="corr24"></a><a class="correction" href="#cn24" title="changed from 'Tard'">Tardé</a>, Gabriel, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Teachers, training of, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Team play, ethical value, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Telephone, rural, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Temperance movement, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Tenant farmers, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Tenants' lease, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thompson, R. E., <a href='#Page_65'>65</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Theological seminaries, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>-<a href='#Page_120'>120</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Trolley, inter-urban, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Types, economic, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Utility, initial, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Marginal, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Van Alstyne, Edward, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Vote selling, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Washington County, Pa., <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Waterloo, Iowa, community church, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Wealth, conservation of, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">West Nottingham, Md., church at, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Winnebago, Ill., <a href='#Page_58'>58</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Young Men's Christian Association, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, +<a href='#Page_194'>194</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Young People's Societies, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's note<a name="tnotes" id="tnotes"></a></h3> + +<p> +The following changes have been made to the text:</p> + +<p>Page xi: "IX" changed to "<a name="cn1" id="cn1"></a><a href="#corr1">XIII</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 2: "are separated form" changed to "are separated <a name="cn2" id="cn2"></a><a href="#corr2">from</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 6: "langour" changed to "<a name="cn3" id="cn3"></a><a href="#corr3">languor</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 17: "this be brought" changed to "this +<a name="cn4" id="cn4"></a><a href="#corr4">he</a> brought".</p> + +<p>Page 22: "desti-period" changed to "<a name="cn5" id="cn5"></a><a href="#corr5">destination</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 29: "estended" changed to "<a name="cn6" id="cn6"></a><a href="#corr6">extended</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 30: "recorded in out literature" changed to "recorded in <a name="cn7" id="cn7"></a><a href="#corr7">our</a> +literature".</p> + +<p>Page 86: "individiuals" changed to "<a name="cn8" id="cn8"></a><a href="#corr8">individuals</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 94: "In 1910 every country community" changed to "In +<a name="cn9" id="cn9"></a><a href="#corr9">1810</a> every +country community".</p> + +<p>Page 105: "embarassed" changed to "<a name="cn10" id="cn10"></a><a href="#corr10">embarrassed</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 107: Footnote 24: "Willett" changed to "<a name="cn11" id="cn11"></a><a href="#corr11">Willet</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 116: "proletarean" changed to "<a name="cn12" id="cn12"></a><a href="#corr12">proletarian</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 123: "Portugese" changed to "<a name="cn13" id="cn13"></a><a href="#corr13">Portuguese</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 150: "gradiloquently" changed to "<a name="cn14" id="cn14"></a><a href="#corr14">grandiloquently</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 191: "Addam" changed to "<a name="cn15" id="cn15"></a><a href="#corr15">Addams</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 192: "elf-expression takes the form" changed to "<a name="cn16" id="cn16"></a><a href="#corr16">self-expression</a> +takes the form".</p> + +<p>Page 197: "inmoral" changed to "<a name="cn17" id="cn17"></a><a href="#corr17">immoral</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 198: "disintered" changed to "<a name="cn18" id="cn18"></a><a href="#corr18">disinterred</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 206: "frutiful" changed to "<a name="cn19" id="cn19"></a><a href="#corr19">fruitful</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 208: "expresssion" changed to "<a name="cn20" id="cn20"></a><a href="#corr20">expression</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 209: "immaturity of our ecnomic" changed to "immaturity of our +<a name="cn21" id="cn21"></a><a href="#corr21">economic</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 220: "Lewiston" changed to "<a name="cn22" id="cn22"></a><a href="#corr22">Lewistown</a>".</p> + +<p>Page 221: "XII" changed to "<a name="cn23" id="cn23"></a><a href="#corr23">XVI</a>"</p> + +<p>Page 221: "Tard" changed to "<a name="cn24" id="cn24"></a><a href="#corr24">Tardé</a>".</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of the Country Community, by +Warren H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution of the Country Community + A Study in Religious Sociology + +Author: Warren H. Wilson + +Release Date: November 29, 2009 [EBook #30563] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Carla Foust, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + +Transcriber's note + + +Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer +errors have been changed and are listed at the end. All other +inconsistencies are as in the original. + + + + +THE EVOLUTION OF THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY + + + + + THE EVOLUTION OF + + THE COUNTRY + + COMMUNITY + + A STUDY IN RELIGIOUS SOCIOLOGY + + BY + + WARREN H. WILSON + + + + THE PILGRIM PRESS + BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO + + + + + _Copyright, 1912_, + BY LUTHER H. CARY + + + THE PILGRIM PRESS + BOSTON + + + + + TO + + MISS ANNA B. TAFT + + WHO FOUND THE WAY OF + + RURAL LEADERSHIP + + IN SERVICE ON THE NEGLECTED BORDERS OF + + NEW ENGLAND TOWNS + + + + +PREFACE + + +The significance of the most significant things is rarely seized at the +moment of their appearance. Years or generations afterwards hindsight +discovers what foresight could not see. + +It is possible, I fear it is even probable, that earnest and intelligent +leaders of organized religious activity, like thousands of the rank and +file in parish work, will not immediately see the bearings and realize +the full importance of the ideas and the purposes that are clearly set +forth in this new and original book by my friend and sometime student, +Dr. Warren H. Wilson. That fact will in no wise prevent or even delay +the work which these ideas and purposes are mapping out and pushing to +realization. + +The Protestant churches have completed one full and rounded period of +their existence. The age of theology in which they played a conspicuous +part has passed away, never to return. The world has entered into the +full swing of the age of science and practical achievement. What the +work, the usefulness, and the destiny of the Protestant churches shall +henceforth be will depend entirely upon their own vision, their common +sense, and their adaptability to a new order of things. Embodying as +they do resources, organization, the devotion and the energy of earnest +minds, they are in a position to achieve results of wellnigh +incalculable value if they apply themselves diligently and wisely to the +task of holding communities and individuals up to the high standard of +that "Good Life" which the most gifted social philosopher of all ages +told us, more than two thousand years ago, is the object for which +social activities and institutions exist. + +In one vast field of our social territory the problem of maintaining the +good life has become peculiar in its conditions and difficult in the +extreme. The rural community has suffered in nearly every imaginable way +from the rapid and rather crude development of our industrial +civilization. The emigration of strong, ambitious men to the towns, the +substitution of alien labor for the young and sturdy members of the +large American families of other days, the declining birth rate and the +disintegration of a hearty and cheerful neighborhood life, all have +worked together to create a problem of the rural neighborhood, the +country school and the country church unique in its difficulties, +sometimes in its discouragements. + +To deal with this problem two things are undeniably necessary. There +must be a thorough examination of it, a complete analysis and mastery of +its factors and conditions. The social survey has become as imperative +for the country pastor as the geological survey is for the mining +engineer. And when the facts and conditions are known, the church must +resolutely set about the task of dealing with them in the practical +spirit of a practical age, without too much attention to the traditions +and the handicaps of an age that has gone by. + +It would not be possible, I think, to present these two aspects of the +problem of the country parish with more of first hand knowledge, or with +more of the wisdom that is born of sympathy and reverence for all that +is good in both the past and the present than the reader will find in +Dr. Wilson's pages. I welcome and commend this book as a fine product of +studies and labors at once scientific and practical. + + FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION IX + + I THE PIONEER 1 + + II THE LAND FARMER 18 + + III THE EXPLOITER 32 + + IV THE HUSBANDMAN 48 + + V EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITIES 62 + + VI GETTING A LIVING 79 + + VII THE COMMUNITY 91 + + VIII THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY 108 + + IX NEWCOMERS IN THE COMMUNITY 123 + + X CO-OPERATION 142 + + XI COMMON SCHOOLS 158 + + XII RURAL MORALITY 171 + + XIII RECREATION 189 + + XIV COMMON WORSHIP 208 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The church and the school are the eyes of the country community. They +serve during the early development of the community as means of +intelligence and help to develop the social consciousness, as well as to +connect the life within the community with the world outside. They +express intelligence and feeling. But when the community has come to +middle life, even though it be normally developing, the eyes fail. They +are infallible registers of the coming of mature years. At this time +they need a special treatment. + +Like the eyes, the country church and country school register the health +of the whole organism. Whatever affects the community affects the church +and the school. The changes which have come over the face of social life +in the country record themselves in the church and the school. These +institutions register the transformations in social life, they indicate +health and they give warning of decay. In a few instances the church or +school require the attention of the expert even in the infancy of the +community, just as the eyes of a child sometimes need the oculist, but +with normal growth the expert is called in for problems which have to +do with maturity. + +In these chapters the center of attention will be the church, regarded +as an institution for building and organizing country life. It is not +the thought of the writer that the church be treated in ecclesiastical +terms. It is rather as a register of the well-being of the community +that the church is here studied. The condition of the church is regarded +as an index of the social and economic condition of the people. The +sources of religion are believed by the writer to be in the vital +experiences of the people themselves. In the process of religious +experience the church, the Bible, the ministry and other religious +methods and organizations are means of disciplining the forces of +religion, but they are not the sources of religion. + +The church in the country above all other institutions should see what +concerns country people as a whole. If vision be not given to the +church, country people will suffer. The Christian churches are rich in +the experience of country people. The Bible is written about a "Holy +Land." The exhortations of Scripture, especially of the Old Testament, +are devoted to constructive sociology, the building and organizing of an +agricultural people in an Asiatic country. Many of the problems are +oriental, but some of them are precisely the same as are today agitating +the American farmer. Religion is the highest valuation set upon life, +and the country church should have a vision of the present meaning as +well as the future development of country life in America. + +The country church ought to inspire. It is the business of other +agencies, and particularly of the schools and colleges, to impart +practical and economic aims. But these will not satisfy country people. +No section of modern life is so dependent upon idealism as are the +people who live in the country. Mere cash prosperity puts an end to +residence in most country communities. Commercial success leads toward +the city. The religious leaders alone have the duty of inspiring country +people with ideals higher than the commercial. It remains for the church +in particular to inspire with social idealism. Education seems +hopelessly individualistic. The schoolmaster can see only personalities +to be developed. It remains for the preacher to develop a kingdom and a +commonwealth. His ideals have been those of an organized society. The +tradition which he inherits from the past is saturated with family, +tribal and national remembrances. His exhortations for the future look +to organized social life in the world to come. He should know how to +construct ideals out of modern life, which are organic and social. + +Beyond these two duties I am not sure that the churches in the country +have exceptional function. The writer is not a teacher, and what is said +in this book about the country school is said solely because of the +dependence of all else upon this institution. The patient, detailed and +extensively constructive work in the country must be done by the +educator. It is well for the church to recognize its limits, and to +magnify its own function within them. Vision and inspiration are the +duty of religious leaders. The application of these in a variety of ways +to the generations of young people in the country is an educational task +which the church can do only in part. + +But the great necessity of arousing the church at the present time to +its duty as a builder of communities in the country is this. In all +parts of the United States country life is furnished with churches. +Perhaps not in sufficient degree in some localities, but in general the +task of religious organization is done. These religious societies hold +the key to the problem of country life. If they oppose modern socialized +ideals in the country, these ideals cannot penetrate the country. If the +church undertake constructive social service in the country, the task +will be done. The church can oppose effectively; it can support +efficiently. This situation lays a vast responsibility upon all +Christian churches, especially upon those that have an educated +ministry; for the future development of the country community as a good +place in which to live depends upon the country church. + +This is not the place to discuss whether a population can be improved +and whether a community can be saved. The pages that are to follow will +discuss these questions. It is the writer's belief that a population can +be improved by social service, that the community is the unit in which +such service should be rendered in the country, and that by the vision +and inspiration of the church in the country, this service is +conditioned. He believes with those who are leading in the service among +the poor in the great cities that the time has come when we have +sufficient intelligence to understand the life of country people, in +order to deal with the causes of human action; we have sufficient +resources wherewith to endow the needed agencies for the reconstruction +of country life; and we have a sufficient devotion among men of +intelligence and of means to direct this constructive social service +toward the entire well-being of country people and of the whole +commonwealth. + +The writer is indebted for help in the preparation of this book to Miss +Florence M. Lane, Miss Martha Wilson and to Miss Anna B. Taft, without +whose assistance and criticism the chapters could not have been prepared +and without whose encouragement they would not have been undertaken; +also to his teachers in Columbia University, especially Professors +Franklin H. Giddings and John Bates Clark whose teachings in the Social +Sciences furnish the beginning of a new method in investigating +religious experiences. + +NEW YORK, July, 1912. + + + + +EVOLUTION OF THE COMMUNITY + +I + +THE PIONEER + + +The earliest settlers of the American wilderness had a struggle very +different from our own, who live in the twentieth century. Their +economic experience determined their character. They appear to us at +this distance to have common characteristics, habits and reactions upon +life; in which they differ from all who in easier times follow them. +They have more in common with one another than they have in common with +us. They differ less from one another than they differ from the modern +countryman. The pioneer life produced the pioneer type. + +To this type all their ways of life correspond. They hunted, fought, +dressed, traded, worshipped in their own way. Their houses, churches, +stores and schools were built, not as they would prefer, but as the +necessities of their life required. Their communities were pioneer +communities: their religious habits were suitable to frontier +experience. Modern men would find much to condemn in their ways: and +they would find our typical reactions surprising, even wicked. But each +conforms to type, and obeys economic necessity. + +There have been four economic types in American agriculture. These have +succeeded one another as the rural economy has gone through successive +transformations. They have been the pioneer, the land farmer, the +exploiter and the husbandman. Prof. J. B. Ross of Lafayette, Ind., has +clearly stated[1] the periods by which these types are separated from +one another. It remains for us to consider the communities and the +churches which have taken form in accordance with these successive +types. + +Prof. Ross has spoken only of the Middle West. With a slight +modification, the same might be said of the Eastern States, because the +rural economy of the Middle West is inherited from the East. His +statement made of this succession of economic types should be quoted in +full: + +"The agrarian occupation of the Middle West divides itself into three +periods. The first, which extends from the beginnings of immigration to +about the year 1835, is of significance chiefly because of the type of +immigrants who preempted the soil and the nature of their occupancy. The +second period, extending from 1835 to 1890, had as its chief objective +the enrichment of the group life. It was the period in which large +houses and commodious barns were erected, and in which the church and +the school were the centers of social activity. The third period, which +began about the year 1890, and which is not yet complete, is marked by a +transition from the era of resident proprietors of the land to that of +non-resident proprietors, and by the fact that the chief attention of +the land owners is paid to the improvement of the soil by fertilization +and drainage and to the increasing of facilities for communication and +for the marketing of farm products." + +Each of these types created by the habits of the people in getting their +living, had its own kind of a community, so that we have had pioneer, +land farmer, exploiter and husbandman communities. Indeed all these +types are now found contemporaneous with one another. We have also had +successive churches built by the pioneer, by the land farmer, by the +exploiter and by the husbandman. The present state of the country church +and community is explained best by saying that it is an effect of +transition from the pioneer and the land farmer types of church and +community to the exploiter and husbandman types. + +The pioneer lived alone. He placed his cabin without regard to social +experience. In the woods his axe alone was heard and on the prairie the +smoke from his sod house was sometimes answered by no other smoke in the +whole horizon. He worked and fought and pondered alone. +Self-preservation was the struggle of his life, and personal salvation +was his aspiration in prayer. His relations with his fellows were purely +democratic and highly independent. The individual man with his family +lived alone in the face of man and God. The following is a description +by an eye witness of such a community which preserves in a mountain +country the conditions of pioneer life[2]. + +"It is pitiful to see the lack of co-operation among them. It is most +evident in business but makes itself known in the children, too. I +regard it as one reason why they do not play; they have been so isolated +that they do not allow the social instinct of their natures to express +itself. This, of course, is all unconsciously done on their part. +However, one cannot live long among them without finding out that they +are characterized by an intense individualism. It applies to all that +they do, and to it may be attached the blame for all the things which +they lack or do wrongfully. If a man has been wronged, he must +personally right the wrong. If a man runs for office, people support him +as a man and no questions are asked as to his platform. If a man +conducts a store, people buy from him because he sells the goods, not +because the goods commend themselves to them. And so by common consent +and practise, the individual interests are first. Naturally this leads +to many cases of lawlessness. The game of some of our people is to +evade the law; of others, to ignore the law entirely." + +The pioneer had in his religion but one essential doctrine,--the +salvation of the soul. His church had no other concern than to save +individuals from the wrath to come. It had just one method, an annual +revival of religion. + +The loneliness of the pioneer's soul is an effect of his bodily +loneliness. The vast outdoors of nature forest or prairie or mountain, +made him silent and introspective even when in company. The variety of +impacts of nature upon his bodily life made him resourceful and +self-reliant; and upon his soul resulted in a reflective, melancholy +egotism. His religion must therefore begin and end in personal +salvation. It was a message, an emotion, a struggle, and a peace. + +The second great characteristic of the pioneer was his emotional +tension. His impulses were strong and changeable. The emotional +instability of the pioneer grew out of his mixture of occupations. It +was necessary for him to practise all the trades. In the original +pioneer settlement this was literally true. In later periods of the +settlement of the land the pioneer still had many occupations and +representative sections of the country even until the present time +exhibit a mixture of occupations among country people most unlike the +ordered life of the Eastern States. Adam Smith in "Wealth of Nations" +makes clear that the practise of many occupations induces emotional +conditions. Between each two economic processes there is generated for +the worker at varied trades a languor, which burdens and confuses the +work of the man who practises many trades. This languor is the source of +the emotional instability of the pioneer. + +The pioneer's method of bridging the gap between his many occupations +was simple. When he had been hunting he found it hard to go to plowing: +and if plowing, on the same day to turn to tanning or to mending a roof. +When the pioneer had spent an hour in bartering with a neighbor he found +it difficult to turn himself to the shoeing of a horse or the clearing +of land. For this new effort his expedient was alcohol. He took a drink +of rum as a means of forcing himself to the new occupation. The result +is that alcoholic liquors occupy a large place in the economy of every +such pioneer people. + +In the mountain regions of the South, where the pioneer remains as an +arrested type, the rum jug occupies the same place in the economy of the +countryman as it occupied in the early settlements of the United States +generally. These "contemporary ancestors" of ours in the Appalachian +region have all the marks of the pioneer. Their simple life, their +varied occupations, and the relative independence of the community and +household, sufficient unto themselves, present a picture of the earlier +American conditions. It is obvious among them that the emotional +condition of the pioneer grew out of his economy and extended itself +into his church. + +This emotional instability of the pioneer shows itself in his social +life. The well known feuds of the mountain people exhibit this +condition. Feeling is at once violent and impulsive. The very reserve of +these unsmiling and serious people is an emotional state, for the meager +diet and heavy continued strains of their economic life poorly supply +and easily exhaust vitality. + +The frontier church exhibited emotional variability. It expressed itself +in the pioneer's one method; namely, an annual revival of religion. In +the pioneer churches there were few or no Sunday schools or other +societies. In those regions in which the pioneer has remained the type +of economic life Sunday schools do not thrive. Societies for young +people, for men, women and children do not there exist. The church is a +place only for preaching. Religion consists of a message whose use is to +excite emotion. Preaching is had as often as possible, but not +necessarily once a week. Essential, however, to the pioneer's +organization of his churches is a periodical if possible an annual, +revival of religion. The means used at this time are the announcement of +a gospel message and the arousing of emotion in response to this +message. There is little application of religious imperative to the +details of life. There is no recognition of social life, because the +pioneer economy is lonely and individual. The whole process of religion +consists in "coming through": in other words, the procuring of an +individual and highly personal experience of emotion. + +"Beneath the surface of life in these people so conservative, and so +indifferent to change as it is, there runs a strain of intense +emotionalism. When storms disturb the calm exterior, the mad waves lash +and beat and roar. And in religion this is most apparent. With them +emotionalism and religion are almost interchangeable quantities,--if +they are not identical.[3] + +"It is in the revival service that you see the heart of the stolid +mountain man unmasked. The local mountain preachers know this fact well +and use it with great effect. A word must be said about these men who +work all through the week alongside of their fellows and preach to them +on Sunday. In some places there is a custom of holding service on +Saturday and Sunday. These men have generally 'come through'--a term +used to describe the process beginning with 'mourning' and continuing +through repenting and being saved. And generally they are men of +personality. They have a certain power with men, anyway, and they are +keen to see the effect of things on their audiences. Some of them have +learned to read the Bible after they have been converted. It is not so +much what they say that counts. If people looked for that they would go +away unfilled. But they have another thing in mind. They want to feel +right. They go to church occasionally during revival drought, but always +during revival plenty. They go to get 'revived up.' The preacher who has +the best voice is the best preacher. He sways his audience. The more +ignorant he is, the better, for then the Spirit of God is not hindered +by the wisdom of man. The spirit comes upon him when he enters the +pulpit. He speaks through him to the waiting congregation. Of course +they do not know what he is saying for the man makes too much noise. But +they begin to feel that this is indeed the place where religion can be +found and where it is being distributed among the people. + +"Generally revivals occur as they have always done, about three times a +year. At these services the method requires that exhorters should be +present and perform. Several do so at the same time. The confusion is +great but the people breathe an atmosphere that begins to infect them. +Sooner or later weeping women are in the arms of some others' husbands +begging them to come to the mourning bench. Young girls single out the +boys that they like best and affectionately implore them to begin the +Christian life. All the time the choir is singing a swinging revival +hymn; the preacher is standing over his audience shouting 'Get busy, +sinners,' and two or three boys are scurrying back and forth carrying +water to the thirsty ones, while little groups of the faithful are +hovering over a penitent, smothering sinner, trying to 'pull her +through.' During this kind of a meeting which I attended at one time a +woman 'got happy' and went around slapping everyone she could get her +hand on, and skipping like a schoolgirl." + +The pioneer church has not fully passed away. Its one doctrine and its +one method have still a place in the more elaborate life of the modern +church. Like the rum jug which is preserved for medicinal purposes, the +revival has a use in the pathology of modern church life. The doctrine +of personal salvation which is of chief concern, in the ministry to the +adolescent population[4] of the modern church, is just as vital as ever; +though it is not the only doctrine of the church of the husbandman, +which has come in the country. + +A relic of the pioneer days is the custom known as the "Group System." +By this a preacher comes to a church once a month, or twice, and +preaches a sermon, returning promptly to his distant place of residence. +The early settlers of this country who originated this system were +lonely and individualized. They believed that religion consisted in a +mere message of salvation, so that all they required was to hear from a +preacher once in a while. + +But the districts in which the "Group System" is used have grown beyond +this religious satisfaction and the "Group System" no longer renders +adequate religious service. Religion has become a greater ministry than +can be rendered in the form of a message, however well preached. + +Like all outworn customs, this one breeds abuses as it grows older. Its +value having passed away, it has forms of offensiveness. In sections of +Missouri where the farmers are rich they say with contempt, "None of the +ministers lives in the country." The "Group System," in a territory of +Missouri comprising forty-one churches, organizes its forces as follows: +these forty-one churches have nine ministers who live in five +communities and go out two miles, ten miles, sometimes thirty miles, in +various directions, for a fractional service to other communities than +those in which they live. Each of the two big towns has more than one +minister and none of the country churches has a pastor. Thus the value +of the family life of the preacher is cancelled. After all this +organization and division of the men into small fractions among the +churches, there are sixteen of these churches which have neither pastor +nor preacher. + +This "Group System" can be improved, as is done in Tennessee, by the +shortening of the journeys which must be made by the minister from his +home to his preaching point. Nevertheless, it gives to the country +community only a fraction of a man's time. He can interpret religion in +only three ways; in the sermon, the funeral service and the wedding. +Unfortunately mankind has to do many other things besides getting +married, buried or preached at. + +The country community needs a pastor. It is better for the minister who +preaches to the country to live in the country. There are some parts +which cannot support a pastor, but the minister to country churches +should know the daily round of country life. Religion can never be +embodied in a sermon; and when religion comes to be limited to a formal +act it is tinged with suspicion in the eyes of most men. Sermons and +funerals and weddings become to country people the windows by which +religion flies out of the community. Especially among farmers, religion +is a matter of every-day life. What religion the farmer has grows out of +his yearly struggle with the soil and with the elements. His belief in +God is a belief in Providence. His God is the creator of the sun and the +seasons, the wind and the rain. The man who does not with him share +these experiences cannot long interpret them for him in terms of +scripture or of church. + +The policy of the newer territories of the church must be to translate +the "Group System" into pastorates. The long range group service should +be transformed into short and compact group ministry; the pastor should +live in the country community and the length of his journey should never +be longer than his horse can drive. A group of churches which are not +more than ten miles apart constitute a country parish. Some few active +ministers are able to make thirty to forty miles on horseback on a +Sunday, among a scattered people. This is well, but as soon as the +railroad becomes an essential factor in the monthly visit of ministers +to the country, religion passes out of that community. + +The service of the country preacher, in other words, is essentially +confined to the country community, and the bounds of the country +community are determined by the length of the team haul or horseback +ride to which that population is accustomed. Within these bounds +religious life and expression are possible. Immersed in his own +community, the life of the minister and of his family attain immediate +religious value. The whole influence of the minister's home, the service +of his wife to the people, which is often greater than his own, and the +development of his children's life, these are all of religious use to +his people. + +A recent speaker upon this matter said, "I doubt if even the Lord Jesus +Christ could have saved this world if he had come down to it only once +in two weeks on Saturday and gone back on Monday morning." + +The pastor, then, is the type of community builder needed in the +country. The pastor works with a maximum of sincerity, while sincerity +may in preaching be reduced to the lowest terms. He is in constant, +intimate, personal contact. The preacher is dealing with theories and +ideals not always rooted in local experiences. The pastor lives the life +of the people. He is known to them and their lives are known to him. The +preacher may perform his oratorical ministry through knowledge of +populations long since dead and by description of foreign and alien +countries. It is possible to preach acceptably about kingdoms that have +not yet existed. But the work of a pastor is the development of ideals +out of situations. It is his business to inspire the daily life of his +people with high idealism and to construct those aspirations and +imaginations out of the daily work of mankind, which are proper to that +work and essential to that people. + +An illustrious example of such ministry is that of John Frederick +Oberlin,[5] whose pastorate at Waldersbach in the Vosges consisted of a +service to his people in their every need, from the building of roads to +the organization and teaching of schools. It would have been impossible +for Oberlin to have served these people through preaching alone. Being a +mature community, indeed old in suffering and in poverty, they needed +the ministry of a pastor, and this service he rendered them in the +immersion of his life with theirs, and the bearing of their burdens, +even the most material and economic burden of the community, upon his +shoulders. + +The passing away of pioneer days discredits the ministry of mere +preaching, through increasing variation of communities, families and +individuals. The preacher's message is not widely varied. It is the +interpreting of tradition, gospel and dogma. His sources can all be +neatly arranged on a book shelf. One suspects that the greater the +preacher, the fewer his books. On the contrary, the pastor's work is +necessitated by growing differences of his people. He must be all things +to many different kinds of men. In the country community this intimate +intercourse and varying sympathy take him through a wider range of human +experience than in a more classified community. He must plow with the +plowman, and hunt with the hunter, and converse with the seamstress, be +glad with the wedding company and bear the burden of sorrow in the day +of death. Moreover, nobody outside a country community knows how far a +family can go in the path to poverty and still live. No one knows how +eccentric and peculiar, how reserved and whimsical the life of a +household may be, in the country community, unless he has lived as +neighbor and friend to such a household. The preacher cannot know this. +Not all the experience of the world is written even in the Bible. The +spirit shall "teach us things to come." It is the pastor who learns +these things by his daily observation of the lives of men. + +The communities themselves in the country differ widely, even in +conformity to given types, and when all is said by the general student, +the pastor has the knowledge of his own community. It belongs peculiarly +to him. No one else can ever know it and there are no two communities +alike. In the intense localism of a community, its religious history is +hidden away and its future is involved. The man who shall touch the +springs of the community's life must know these local conditions with +the intimate detail which only he commands who daily goes up and down +its paths. This man is the pastor. Except the country physician, no +other living man is such an observer as he. + +The end of the pioneer days means, therefore, to religious people, the +establishment of the pastorate. The religious leader for the pioneer was +the preacher, but the community which clings to preaching as a +satisfactory and final religious ministry is retrograde. In this +retarding of religious progress is the secret of the decline of many +communities. The great work of ministering to them is in supplanting the +preacher, who renders but a fractional service to the people, by a +pastor whose preaching is an announcement of the varied ministry in +which he serves as the cure of souls. + +The pioneer days are gone. Only in the Southern Appalachian region are +there arrested communities in which, in our time, the ways of our +American ancestors are seen. The community builder cannot change the +type of his people. He can only wait for the change, and enable his +people to conform to the new type. For this process new industries, new +ways of getting a living are necessary. The teacher or pastor can do +something to guide his people in the selection of constructive instead +of destructive industry. + +In East Tennessee and in the mountain counties of North Carolina +lumbering industries are for the time being employing the people. The +result will be a deeper impoverishment; for the timber is the people's +greatest source of actual and potential wealth. The leaders of the +mountain people should teach reforestation with a view to maintaining +the people's future wealth. + +In a mountain county of Kentucky a minister seeing that his people +needed a new economic life, before they could receive the religious life +of the new type, organized an annual county fair. To this he brought, +with the help of outside friends, a breed of hogs better than his +mountain people knew. He cultivated competition in local industries, +weaving and cooking; and started his people on the path of economic +success of a new type. + +In conclusion, the pioneer was individualistic and emotional. These +traits were caused by his economic experience. While that experience +lasted, he could be made no other sort of man than this. To this type +his home and his business life and his church conformed. Within these +characteristics the efficiency of his social life was to be found. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross, +in American Journal of Economics, December, 1910.] + +[Footnote 2: Rev. Norman C. Schenck.] + +[Footnote 3: Rev. Norman C. Schenck.] + +[Footnote 4: "Youth," by G. Stanley Hall.] + +[Footnote 5: Story of John Frederick Oberlin by Augustus Field Beard, +1909.] + + + + +II + +THE LAND FARMER + + +I shall use the term land farmer to describe the man who tilled the soil +in all parts of the country after pioneer days. He is usually called +simply the farmer. This is the type with which we are most familiar in +our present day literature and in dramatic representations of the +country. The land farmer, or farmer, is the typical countryman who in +the Middle West about 1835 succeeded the pioneer, and about 1890 was +followed by the exploiter of the land. + +In the Eastern States pioneer days ended before 1835. The land farmer +was the prevailing type throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and +Pennsylvania as early as 1800. In the South the contemporary of the land +farmer was the planter or slave holder. The modified type in the South +was due to an economic difference. The labor problem was solved in the +South by chattel slavery; in the North by the wage system. It is true +that throughout much of the South the small farmer held his own. These +men conformed to the type of the land farmer. But in the South they did +not dominate social and political life as the slave holder did. In the +Eastern States the whole social economy was, until a generation after +the Civil War, dominated by the land farmer. + +The characteristics of the land farmer are: first, his cultivation of +the first values of the land. His order of life is characterized by +initial utility. He lived in a time of plenty. The abundance of nature, +which was to the pioneer a detriment, was to the land farmer a source of +wealth. He tilled the soil and he cut the timber, he explored the earth +for mines, seeking everywhere the first values of a virgin land. As +these first values were exhausted, he moved on to new territories. All +his ideas of social life were those of initial utility. The rich man was +the standard and the admired citizen. The policies of government were +dominated by the ideas of a land holding people. Individualism proceeded +on radiating lines from any given center. The development of personality +is the clue to the history of that period. + +The second characteristic of the land farmer was his development of the +family group. He differed from the pioneer, whose life was lonely and +individual, in the perfection of group life in his period. He differs +from the exploiter who succeeds him in the country today in the fact +that exploitation has dissolved the family group. The experience of the +land farmer compacted and perfected the household group in the country. +The beginnings of this group life were in the pioneer period, but there +was not peace in which the family could develop nor were there +resources by which it could be endowed. The classic period of American +home life is that of the land farmer. The typical American home, as it +lives in sentiment, in literature and in idealism, is the home of the +land farmer. + +Third, the land farmer owned his home. He built upon his farm a +homestead which in most cases represented his ideal of domestic and +family comfort. He built for permanence. So far as his means permitted +he provided for his children and for generations of descendants after +them. He consecrated the soil to his people and to his name by setting +apart a graveyard on his own land, and there he buried his dead. + +Fourth, the land farmer had neighbors. His well-developed family group +would not have been possible without other groups in the same community +and the independence of the family group was relative, being perfected +by imitation and economic competition. The land-farmer type came to +maturity only when the whole of the land was possessed, when on every +side the family group was confronted with other family groups, and +neighborliness became universal. The family group is dependent through +intermarriage and relationship upon other groups in the community. +Family relationships thus came in the land-farmer communities to be very +general. Some rough and crude forms of economic co-operation also grew +up in this period, as modifications of the competition on which the +land-farmer type is based. + +"The farmer type produced a definite social life," says Prof. Ross. "The +second period, extending from 1835 to 1890, had as its chief objective +the enrichment of the group life." + +Fifth, the land farmer competed, by group conflict, with his neighbors. +Property was regarded by the land farmer as a family possession. +Competition was between group and group, between household and +household. The moral strength as well as the moral deficiencies of this +type of man flow from this competition. He considered himself +essentially bounden to the members of his own group by obligations and +free from moral obligations to others. The son received no wages from +his father for work on the farm and the daughter did not dream of pay or +of an allowance for her labor in the house. The land farmer conceived of +his estate as belonging to his family group and embodied in himself. +Therefore he had no wage obligations to son or daughter and he felt +himself obliged so to distribute his property as to care for all the +members of his household. This economic competition compacted the family +group and formed the basis for the social economy of the country +community. The land farmer had no ideal of community prosperity. His +thought for generations has been to make his own farm prosperous, to +raise some crop that others shall not raise, to have a harvest that +other men have not and to find a market which other men have not +discovered, by which he and his farm and his group may prosper. It is +hard to convince the land farmer, because of his immersion in this group +conflict, that the farmer's prosperity is dependent upon the prosperity +of other groups in the community. + +The presence of the small group is the sign of normal social life. The +group is not complete in itself, but is a unit in human association. So +that the farmer economy had its social life and its own type of +communities. The economy of the farmer period represents the ideals born +in the pioneer nation. The community of the farmer is the destination of +the life of the pioneer. The farmer still practises a variety of +occupations. His tillage of the soil and his household economy are the +most conservative in all American population. He uses modern machinery +in the fields, but to a great degree his wife uses the old mechanisms in +the kitchen and in the household. The laborers employed on the farm are +received into the farmer's family under conditions of social equality. +The man who is this year a laborer may in a decade be a farmer. The +dignifying of personality with land ownership has been such a general +social experience in the country that every individual is thought of in +the farmer period as a potential landowner. + +The institutions of the rural community of the land-farmer type are the +country store, the rural school, and the church. The country store deals +in general merchandise and is a natural outgrowth of the stores of the +pioneer period in which barter constituted the whole of the commerce of +the community. In the pioneer store but a few commodities were imported +from the outer world. The greater part of the merchandise was made in +the community and distributed in the store. But the farmer's rural +economy is the dawning of the world economy and the general store in the +farming community becomes an economic institution requiring great +ability and centering in itself the forces of general as well as local +economics. + +The general storekeeper of this type in the country is at once a +business man, a money lender, an employer of labor and the manager of +the social center. He sells goods at a price so low as to maintain his +local trade against outside competition. He loans money on mortgages +throughout the community, and sells goods on credit. Judgment of men and +of properties is so essential to his business that if he can not +judiciously loan and give credit he cannot maintain a country store. +Around his warm stove in the winter and at his door in summer gather the +men of the community for discussion of politics, religion and social +affairs. In addition to all else, he has been usually the postmaster of +the community. + +The one-room rural school which is the prevailing type throughout the +country is a product of the land-farmer period. Its prevalence shows +that we are still in land-farmer conditions: and the criticism to which +it is now subjected indicates that we are conscious of a new epoch in +rural life. + +It fits well into the life of the land farmer because it gives obviously +a mere hint of learning. It has been the boast of its advocates that it +taught only the "three Rs." Its training for life is rudimentary only: +it gives but an alphabet. The land farmer expected to live in his group. +Secure in his own acres and believing himself "as good as anybody," he +relied for his son and daughter not upon trained skill, but upon native +abilities, sterling character, independence and industry. Of all these +the household, not the school, is the source. So that the one-room +country school was satisfactory to those who created it. + +In another chapter the common schools are more fully discussed. Here it +may be said only that the creation of such a system was an honor to any +people. The farmers who out of a splendid idealism placed a schoolhouse +at every cross roads, on every hilltop and in every mountain valley, +exact a tribute of praise from their successors. The unit of measurement +of the school district, on which this system was based, was the day's +journey of a child six years of age. Two miles must be its longest +radius. The generation who spanned this continent with the measure of an +infant's pace, mapped the land into districts, erected houses at the +centers, and employed teachers as the masters of learning for these +little states, were men of statesmanlike power. The country school is a +nobler monument of the land farmer than anything else he has done. + +The rural "academy" was the most influential school of the land farmer's +time. Situated at the center of leading communities, in New England, +Pennsylvania and the older Eastern States, it was often under the +control or the influence of the parish minister. It generally exerted a +great influence for the building of the church and the community. Its +teachers were men of scholarly ideals. Its students were from the +locality, being selected by ambition for learning, and by their ability +to pay the tuition. + +The development of the high schools has generally resulted in the +abandonment of the academies. A few have survived and have adapted +themselves to new times. But it is to be doubted whether the common +schools have so far done as much for building and for organizing country +communities, for providing local leadership, for building churches, as +did the rural academies of New England, Pennsylvania and other Eastern +States. + +The farmer's church is the classic American type of church at its best. +The farming economy succeeded to the pioneer economy without serious +break. The troubles of the country church have their beginnings in the +period of the exploiter which is to follow, but the farmer developed the +church of the pioneer with sympathy and consistency. The church of the +farmer still values personal salvation above all. The revival methods +and the simplicity of doctrine have remained, but the farmer has added +typical methods of his own. + +The effect of this individualism is exhibited in the multiplication of +churches among farmers. So long as it is admitted that the church is for +personal salvation, it does not need to be a social institution. A small +group is as effective as a large one for securing salvation for +individuals. Two churches or three may as well serve a community as one, +if personal salvation be the service rendered. The gospel is for the +farmer good tidings,--not a call to social service. The result of the +farmer period has been, therefore, the multiplication of competitive +country churches. An instance of this competitive condition is: the +community in Kansas in which among four hundred people resident in a +field, there are seven churches, each of them attempting to maintain a +resident pastor. In Centre County, Pa., in a radius of four miles from a +given point, there are twenty-four country churches. In the same +territory within a radius of three miles are sixteen of these country +churches. This condition is satisfactory to the ideals of the farmer. If +the farmer type were permanent these churches might serve permanently +for the ministry of personal salvation. They are well attended by devout +and religious-minded people. Their condemnation is not in the farmer +economy but in the inevitable coming of the exploiter and the husbandman +with their different experience and different type of mind. + +In this period the minister frequently is himself a tiller of the soil. +Many of the older churches had land, ten or twenty or forty acres, which +the minister was expected to till, and from it to secure a part of his +living. A church at Cranberry, N. J., had a farm of one hundred acres +until the close of the nineteenth century. But with the coming of the +exploiter and the husbandman the minister ceases to be an agriculturist. + +Like unto the tillage of the soil by the minister was the "donation" to +the minister, of vegetables, corn, honey and other farm products. At one +time this filled a large place in the supply of the minister's living. +In various communities the custom has remained with fine tenacity in the +presentation to the minister of portions of farm produce throughout the +year. But the portions so given are fewer, as years pass, and the total +quantity small. The donation of vegetables and farm produce has survived +in but a few places. The modes of life which succeeded to the farmer +economy are dependent on cash for the distribution of values, and the +"donation," if it remain at all, is a gift of money. Frequently the +"donation" has survived as a social gathering, being perpetuated in one +of its functions only, its earlier purposes and its essential form being +forgotten. + +The church of the land farmer corresponded by logical social causation +to the social economy of this type. It was seated with family pews +generally rented by the family group and sometimes owned in fee. In the +South the slave-holding churches, which have all passed away, had +galleries for the slaves, who worshipped thus under the same roof with +their masters. The preaching of this period was directed to the +development of group life. Its ethical standards were those of the +household group, in which private property in land, domestic morality, +filial and domestic experiences furnished the stimuli. + +The land-farmer's church had some organizations to correspond to the +differences in social life. The presence of the children in the family +group is represented in the Sunday schools and parochial schools built +during this period. The schools are in many cases highly organized, with +separate recognition of infancy, adolescence and middle life. In +Protestant churches the particular concerns of women and the religious +service rendered by them take form in women's societies in the churches, +mostly charitable and missionary. + +Finally, at the close of the land-farmer period, about 1890, there +sprang up the young people's societies, which in the ten closing years +of the land-farmer period reached a membership of hundreds of thousands +among the Protestant churches. These societies of young people +were organized in the churches to correspond to the growing +self-consciousness among adolescent members of the land-farmer's +household. The young men and women in the maturing of the family group +came to have a life of their own. As frequently happens, the family +group reached its highest development and perfection just before it was +to pass away. + +The church of the land-farmer is the typical Protestant church of the +United States. So influential has the farmer been in national life that +organized religion has idealized his type of church. It has been +transported to villages and towns. It has become the type of church most +frequent in the cities. + +Nearly all the Protestant churches in New York City are land-farmer +churches; "and that," says a noted city pastor, "is what ails them."[6] +This church centers its activities in preaching, rents or assigns its +pews to families, and organizes societies for the various factors of the +family group. It has Sunday schools, women's, men's and young people's +societies, with only one minister to supervise them all. + +The transformation of this type of church, so deeply rooted in the +idealism of the whole people, into a church better suited to city, +factory, town and mining settlement, has been the problem for Protestant +bodies to solve in the past twenty years. The beginning of this +transformation, it is striking to observe, came at the end of the +land-farmer period, about 1890. + +The land-farmer, then, whose period according to Prof. Ross, extended +from 1835 to 1890 in the Middle West, is the best known agricultural +type. He is the typical countryman as the countryman is imagined in the +cities and recorded in our literature. It has been the American hope +that he should be the land-owner of the days to come. In East Tennessee +the farmer is still the type of landowner in country communities. In +some portions of Michigan and Minnesota the farmer type gives character +to the whole population, but generally throughout the country the +processes described by Prof. Ross have undermined the integrity of the +farmer type and broken his hold upon leadership of the country +population. Within the last two decades, since 1890, the farmer has been +gradually discouraged and has realized that his economy is not suited to +survive. The most representative farming communities today are those of +Scotch or Scotch-Irish people, whose instinctive tenacity, their +"clannishness," has perpetuated longer than in other instances the rural +economy and the country community. + +In using the term land-farmer I am aware of its close resemblance to the +term exploiter. The word itself points to exploitation of land. The land +farmer has used the raw materials of the country. He has tilled the soil +until its fertility was exhausted and then moved on to the newer regions +of the West, again to farm and to exploit the virgin riches of a +plenteous land. The planter in the South, possessing frequently more +than a thousand acres, was accustomed to till a portion of one hundred, +two hundred or four hundred acres, until its fertility had been +exhausted. Then he moved his slaves to another section, cleared the land +and cultivated it until its power to produce had also been exhausted. +The difference between land-farming and exploitation is the absence of +speculation in land in the former period. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 6: Rev. Charles Stelzle.] + + + + +III + +THE EXPLOITER + + +The third type in American agriculture is the exploiter. Between the +farmer and the husbandman there is an economic revolution. In fact the +exploiter himself is a transition type between the farmer and the +husbandman. "The fundamental problem in American economics always has +been that of the distribution of land," says Prof. Ross. The exploiter +is, I presume, a temporary economic type, created in the period of +re-distribution of land. The characteristic of the exploiter is his +commercial valuation of all things. He is the man who sees only the +value of money. + +It was natural that with the maturing of an American population, the +exploitation of the natural resources should come. We have exploited the +forest, removing the timber from the hills and making out of its vast +resources a few fortunes. We wasted in the process nine-tenths for every +one-tenth of wealth accumulated by the exploiter. We have exploited the +coal and iron and other minerals. The exploitation of the oil deposits +and natural gas reservoirs has been a national experience and a national +scandal. The tendency to exploit every opportunity for private wealth +has characterized the past two decades.[7] + +There are those who exploit the child vitality of the families of +working people, and the States have put legal checks in the way of child +labor. The exploitation of the labor of women has gone so far as to +threaten the vitality of the generation to be born, and laws have been +passed which forbid the employment of women except within limits. The +ethical discussion of the past decade is largely a keen analysis of the +methods of exploitation of resources, of men and of communities, and an +attempt to fix the bounds of the exploitation of values for private +wealth. + +There are those who exploit the farm. "Farms which from the original +entry until 1890 had been owned by the same family, or which had changed +owners but once or twice, and whose owners were proud to assert that +their broad acres had never been encumbered with mortgages, since 1890 +have been sold, in some instances as often as ten times, in more +numerous instances four or five times, and a large part of the purchase +price is secured by encumbering the estates!"[8] + +Agriculture, especially of the Middle West, is affected in all its parts +by the exploitation of land. To a traveller from the Eastern States, the +selling and re-selling of farm land, without fertilization or +improvement by any of the successive owners, is a source of amazement. + +"The new lands opened under the Homestead act of half a century ago were +often exploited for temporary profit by soil robbers who were experts of +their kind. Owing to such farm management, the yield of the acre in the +United States gradually decreased. Very little intensive farming was +done."[9] + +The commercial exploitation of land dissolves every permanent factor in +the farm economy. The country community of the land-farmer type is being +undermined and is crumbling away under the influence of exploitation. +The pioneers were a Westward emigration, pushing Westward the boundaries +of the country at the rate of fifty miles in a decade; but since 1890 +emigration has been eastward, and it is made up of farmers who move to +ever cheaper and cheaper lands to the East, the tide of higher prices +coming from the West. Already in central Illinois the values of land +seem to have reached the high water mark. About Galesburg "the Swedes +have got hold of the land and they will not sell." Among the last +recorded sales in this district were some at prices between two hundred +and two hundred fifty dollars per acre. + +It is not generally understood that this exploitation of farm lands has +extended over nearly the whole country. Its spread is increasingly +rapid in the last two years. In the Gulf States and the Carolinas and in +Tennessee and Kentucky prices of farm land have increased in the last +five years from twenty-five to one hundred per cent. Even in the most +conservative counties in Pennsylvania the prices of farm land have +increased twenty to twenty-five per cent. + +The sign of this exploitation is a rapid increase in the market values +of farm land, due to frequent sale and purchase. This increase is +independent of any increase in essential value to the farmer. The net +income of the farmer may have been increased only five per cent, as in +the State of Indiana, whereas the values of farm land have increased in +the same period more than one hundred per cent. That is, the speculative +increases have been twenty times as much as the agricultural increase. + +Along with this change in farm values goes the increase or decrease in +the number of tenant farmers and the shifting of the ownership of land +to farm landlords. In some parts of the country this exploitation has +taken a purely speculative form. In all parts it is speculative in +character, but in some sections of the country the exploiters are +themselves farmers and the process is imposed upon the farmers +themselves by economic causes. This is true of the Illinois and Indiana +lands, which are under the influence of a system of drainage, but there +are other portions of the country in which the process is chiefly +speculative. In some Western States the exploitation of farm land is in +the hands of speculators themselves, doing real estate business purely +as a matter of trade. It would be a mistake, however, to attribute a +process so general as this one to the power exerted by a class of real +estate agents. Its causes are deeper than the commercial process. They +go into the very roots of modern life. This should be clearly +understood, because when frankly realized it compels the adjustment of +social, educational and religious work to the period of exploitation. + +The effect of this process is upon all the life of country people. It +has created its own class of men. There was no intention in the mind of +earlier Americans that we should ever have a tenant class in America. +The assumption on which all our ideals are built has been that we would +be a land-owning people, but we are confronted with a tenantry problem +as difficult as any in the world. The process of exploiting land has +added to the social and economic life of the country the farm landlord, +whose influence upon the immediate future of the American country +community, church and school, in all sections will be great, and in many +communities will be dominating. + +The exploitation of land has produced the retired farmer. He is a pure +example of the weakness of the exploiter economy. Originally he was a +homesteader, or perhaps a purchaser of cheap land in the early days. He +expected not to remain a farmer, but hoped for removal to the East or +to a college town. The motives which animated him were varied, but among +them none was so prominent as a desire for better education than was +provided for his children in the country community of the farmer type. +So that at forty or fifty years of age he seized an opportunity to sell +his land, as the prices were rising, and retired to the town with a cash +fortune for investment. + +Immediately the economic forces to which he had submitted himself made +of him a new type, for the retired farmer in the Middle West is a +characteristic type of the leading towns and cities. Some whole streets +in large centers are peopled with retired farmers. The civic policies of +scores of small municipalities are controlled in a measure by them, so +that journalists, religious leaders, reformers and politicians have very +clear-cut opinions as to the value of the retired farmer. + +The analysis of this situation is as follows. While the land which he +sold continued to increase in value, his small fortune began to diminish +in value. The interest on his money has been less every ten years; +whereas he formerly could loan at first for six and sometimes seven per +cent, he cannot loan safely now for more than five or six per cent. + +Meantime the prices of all things he has to buy are expressed in +cash,--no longer in kind as on the farm; and these cash prices are +growing. In the past decade they have almost doubled. This means that +he is a poorer man. His money has a diminished purchasing power and he +has a smaller yearly income. + +In addition to this, his wants, and the wants of the members of the +family are increased two or three times. They cannot live as they lived +on the farm. They cannot dress as they dressed in the country. The +pressure of these increasing economic wants, demanding to be satisfied +out of a diminished income, with higher prices for the things to be +purchased, keeps the retired farmer a poor man. The result is that the +retired farmer is opposed to every step of progress in the growing town +in which he lives. He opposes every increase of taxation and fights +every assessment. He dreads a subscription list and hates to hear of +contributions. Although an intelligent and pious man, he has come to be +an obstacle to the building of libraries, churches and schools and +opposed to all humane and missionary activities. He is suffering from a +great economic mistake. + +Before leaving the exploiter it is to be said he also has his church. +The exploiter has built no community. He has contributed the retired +farmer to the large towns and small cities of the Middle West. It is +natural, therefore, that few exploiter churches are found in the +country. But in the larger centers there are churches whose doctrine and +methods are those of the exploiter. Indeed, at the present time the +exploiter's doctrine in ethics and religion is highly popular. It is +the doctrine of the consecration of wealth. + +There are in the larger cities churches whose business is to give; +Sunday after Sunday they hear pleas and consider the cases of college +presidents, superintendents of charities, secretaries of mission boards +and other official solicitors. These churches have systematized the +discipline of giving. Their boards of officers control the appeals that +shall be made to their people. Such churches are highly individualist in +character, and the preacher who ministers in such a church has a +doctrine of individual culture and responsibility. + +The exploiter's doctrine of systematic giving has gone into all of the +communities in which prosperous people live. It has become a moral code +for millionaires, and the response to it is annually measured in the +great gifts of men of large means to institutions which exist for the +use of all mankind. + +But not all the farm exploiters retired from the farm. The stronger and +more successful have become absentee landlords. These men have invested +their cash in farm lands. Distrusting the investments of the city +market, and fearing Wall Street, they have purchased increased acreage +in the country, and when the local market was exhausted, they have +invested in the Southwest and the far West, buying ever more and more +land. They have proven that "It is possible to maintain a vicious +economic method on a rising market."[10] + +These landlords have leased their land in accordance with mere +expediency. No plans have been made in the American rural economy for a +tenantry. The lease, therefore, throughout the United States generally +is for only one year. This gives to the landlord the greatest freedom, +and to the tenant the least responsibility. Neither is willing to enter +into a contract by which the land itself can be benefitted. The landlord +is looking for the increase of the values of land, and is ever mindful +of a possible buyer. Moreover, he is watchful of the market for the crop +and of the size of the crop, so that he desires to be free at the end of +the year to make other arrangements. + +The tenant on his part is somewhat eager to do as he pleases for a year. +He expects to be himself an owner, and he does not expect to remain +permanently as a tenant on that farm. He reckons that he can get a good +deal out of the land in the year, and is unwilling to bind himself for a +long period. "The American system of farm tenantry is the worst of which +I have knowledge in any country."[11] + +It is true that in some parts of the country leases of three and five +years are granted to tenants by the landlords. At Penn Yan, New York, a +reliable class of Danes secure such leases from the owners. I am aware, +also, that in Delaware, in an old section dependent upon fertilization +for its crops, where the land is in the hands of a few representatives +of the old farmer type who have held it for generations, that the +tillage of the soil shows specialization. The landlord and the tenant +co-operate. The leases, while they are for but a year, specify how the +land shall be tilled, how fertilized. They require the rotation of crops +and the keeping of a certain number of cattle by the tenants. The +landlord personally oversees the tillage of several farms. This seems +the beginning of husbandry, instead of exploitation of the land. + +Another instance of the landlord who is more than a mere exploiter is +that of David Rankin, recently deceased. In the last years of his life +Mr. Rankin owned about thirty thousand acres of land in Missouri. It was +said in 1910 that he had seventeen thousand acres of corn. He had a +genius for estimating the values of land, the expensiveness of drainage, +and the possibilities of the market. He was an expert buyer of cattle, +and a master of the problems entering into progressive farming on a +large scale. + +From his vast acreage Mr. Rankin sold not one bushel of corn. All his +crops "went off on four legs." "He drove his corn to market," as they +say in the Middle West. He bought cattle from the ranches, for none were +bred on his own land. He fattened them for the market, translating corn +into beef and he was well aware of the values of pork in the economy of +such a farm. Nothing went to waste. According to the formula in +Nebraska, "For every cow keep a sow, that's the how." Mr. Rankin made +large profits from his cattle and hogs. + +It is true that he cared nothing for the community or its institutions. +On his wide acres family life was replaced by boarding-houses. Schools +and churches were closed, and many farmhouses built by the homesteaders +rotted down to their foundations. But David Rankin was a husbandman, if +not a humanist. His tillage of the soil was successful in that it +maintained the fertility of the soil, that it produced large quantities +of food for the consumer, and that it was profitable. + +The following is a description of community life under the influence of +such great landlords, by a Western observer:-- + +"The city of Casselton, North Dakota, was originally started about the +year 1879. Thirty years ago the first settlers came to this great +prairie region from the New England and Central States. It was shortly +before this or about this time that the Northern Pacific Railroad was +built across this western prairie. The government gave to the road every +other section of land on each side of the railroad for thirty miles as a +bonus. That land was sold in the early days by the railroad to +purchasers for fifty cents an acre. It was some of the finest farming +land in the wide world. Out of those sales grew some of the immense +farms that have been so famous over the country and while they are great +business concerns managed with fine business ability, yet they are not +much of a help in the settling of the country. Here within one mile of +Casselton is the famous Dalrymple farm of twenty-eight thousand acres. +This farm employs during the busy season what men it needs from the +drifting classes and puts no families on its broad acres. These men are +here a short season in the summer, then are gone. They are rushed with +work for that season, Sundays as well as other days from early morning +to late at night, making it almost impossible to touch their religious +life or even to count them a part of the community life. + +"Another farm is the Chaffee farm of thirty-five thousand acres. Mr. +Chaffee is a thorough business man but is a fine Christian and places a +good family on each section of land. He allows no Sunday work. Has a +little city kept up in beautiful condition in the center of his land +where he lives with his clerks and immediate helpers. Here they have a +neat little Congregational church and support their own minister. His +fine influence is felt all over the country. The partners in this farm +also have a land and loan corporation and also a large flour mill in +Casselton which employs about twenty-eight men, running day and night +during the busy season. + +"There are many farms smaller, from one thousand acres and up. Many also +of a quarter section. Casselton was built simply as a center for this +beautiful and rich farming region. It is in the center of a strip six +miles long and twenty-five miles wide which is said to be one of the +finest sections in the land. There are other towns sprung up in the same +section also. Through the past thirty years farmers have retired, well +to do, and moved into the city. Here are now maintained excellent +schools." + +In conclusion: the exploitation of farm lands is a process with which +the church in the country cannot deal by persuasion. It is an economic +condition. They who are engaged in this process or are concerned in its +effects are in so far immune to the preacher who ignores or who does not +understand these economic conditions. Their action is conditioned by +their status. They will infallibly act with relation to the church in +accordance with the motives which arise out of their condition. That is, +they will act as tenant farmers, as retired farmers or as absentee +landlords. They must be treated on these terms. Their whole relation to +organized religion will be that of the condition in which they live and +by which they get their daily bread. This is a matter independent of +personal goodness. The church is dependent not on personal good +influences, but upon the response which a man makes in accordance with +his economic and social character. + +For instance, in Wisconsin a church worker found that thousands of acres +in a certain section were owned by a Milwaukee capitalist. He found +that the tenant farmers on these acres were poor and struggling for a +better living, and he could not, among them, finance an adequate church. +He promptly went to Milwaukee and secured five minutes of the time and +attention of the absentee landlord. When he had stated the case and the +reasons why this large owner should give to the country church on his +acres, the man promptly said, "You have stated what I never before +realized and I will give you a contribution of one hundred dollars per +year for that church until you hear from me to the contrary." + +In contrast to this there is in Central Illinois a large estate of five +thousand acres. The owner lives in a distant city and his son tills the +land. It is known among the neighbors that the son has orders to oppose +all improvements of churches and of schools, "because there is no money +for us in the church or the school." + +It is useless to complain of the position in which a man is. The +minister's duty is to utilize him in his own status and to enable him to +practise the virtues which are open to him. The retired farmer can +become an active and devoted evangelist, preacher or organizer. He +should be made a leader in the intellectual development of the farmer's +problem of the region. He has leisure and intelligence and is often a +devout man. It is the business of the minister to transform this into +religious and social efficiency. The temperance movement in the Middle +West has had generous and devoted support from the retired farmers +living in the towns. The families of these one time farmers are seeking +after culture. The literary and aesthetic aspects of the community can +well be committed to members of these families. Their value for the +community is probably in these directions. Above all it is the business +of the minister to sympathize with the life they are living and to +enable them to live it to the highest advantage. + +The energies of the church should be devoted to the tenant farmer. Of +this more will be said in another place. He also must be treated in +sympathy with his social and economic experience and the religious +service rendered to him must be the complete betterment of his life as +he is trying to live it. He is not a sinner because he is a tenant and +what he does as a tenant is therefore not a misdemeanor, but a normal +reaction upon life. The church can help him in purging his life from the +iniquities peculiar to a tenant and a dependent. The noblest motives +must be brought out and the life he is to live should be given its own +ideals. + +Above all the period of exploitation must be understood by the teacher +and the preacher to be a preparation, a transition through which country +people are coming to organized and scientific agriculture. Gradually the +influence of science and the leadership of the departments and colleges +of agriculture are being extended in the country. Little by little, +whether through landlord or tenant, farming is becoming a profession +requiring brains, science and trained intelligence. The country church +should promote this process because only through its maturity can the +country church in the average community find its own establishment. The +reconstruction of the churches now going on corresponds to the +exploitation of the land. The duty of the church in the process of +exploitation is to build the community and to make itself the center of +the growing scientific industry on which the country community in the +future will be founded. + +The religion of the exploiter moves in the giving of money. Consecration +of his wealth is consecration of his world and of himself. The church +that would save him must teach him to give. His sins are those of greed, +his virtues are those of benevolence. His own type, not the least worthy +among men, should be honored in his religion. No man's conversion ever +makes him depart from his type, but be true to his type. Therefore the +religion for the exploiter of land is a religion of giving, to the poor +at his door, to the ignorant in this land, and to the needy of all +lands. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, +by Van Hise.] + +[Footnote 8: J. B. Ross--"Agrarian Changes in the Middle West."] + +[Footnote 9: Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson at the United States +Land and Irrigation Exposition, Chicago, Nov. 19, 1910.] + +[Footnote 10: The Rural Life Problem in the United States, by Sir Horace +Plunkett.] + +[Footnote 11: Dean Chas. F. Curtiss, State College of Iowa.] + + + + +IV + +THE HUSBANDMAN + + +The scientific farmer is dependent upon the world economy. He is the +local representative of agriculture, whose organization is national and +even international. He raises cotton in Georgia, but he "makes milk" in +Orange County, New York, because the market and the soil and the climate +and other conditions require of him this crop. + +He is dependent upon the college of agriculture for the methods by which +he can survive as a farmer. Tradition, which dominated the agriculture +of a former period, is a disappearing factor in husbandry of the soil. +The changes in market conditions are such as to impoverish the farmer +who learns only from the past. Tradition could teach the farmer how to +raise the raw materials, under the old economy, in which the farmhouse +and community were sufficient unto themselves. But in a time when the +wool of the sheep in Australia goes halfway round the world in its +passage from the back of a sheep to the back of a man, the sheep farmer +becomes dependent upon the scientist. He cannot afford to raise sheep +unless the scientific man assures him that in the production of wool +his land has its highest utility. "The American farm land is passing +into the hands of those who will use it to the highest advantage."[12] + +The dependence of the scientific farmer or husbandman upon the world +market and upon the scientists who are studying agriculture enlarges the +circle of his life from the rural household to the rural community. In +the rural community agriculture can be taught; in the household it +cannot. The only teaching of the household is tradition; the teaching of +the community is in terms of science. The country school and the country +church take a greater place as community institutions just so soon as +the farmer passes out of the period of exploitation into that of +scientific husbandry. + +The husbandman is the economist in agriculture. He is to the farm what +the husband was to the household in old times. One is tempted to say +also that the husbandman is he who marries the land. American farm land +has suffered dishonor and degradation, but it has known all too little +the affection which could be figuratively expressed in marriage. The +Bible speaks of "marrying the land."--"Thy land shall be called Beulah +for thy land shall be married." Side by side in this country we have the +lands which have been dishonored, degraded, abandoned, dissolute, and +the lands husbanded, fertilized, enriched and made beautiful. + +The husbandman or rural economist cares more for qualities than for +quantity. He works not merely for intensive cultivation of the soil, but +also for the preservation of the soil and use of it in its own terms, at +its highest values. + +The principle at work is not the increase in the farmer's material gains +or possessions. The husbandry of the soil is not a mere increase in +market values. It is a deeper and more ethical welfare than that which +can be put in the bank. "Agriculture is a religious occupation." When it +sustains a permanent population and extends from generation to +generation the same experiences, agriculture is productive in the +highest degree of moral and religious values. In the words of Director +L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, "The land is holy." + +This is especially true at the present time, when the land is limited in +amount. Already the whole nation is dependent upon the farmer in the +degree intimated by the statement of Dean Bailey. "The census of 1900 +showed approximately one-third of our people on farms or closely +connected with farms, as against something like nine-tenths, a hundred +years previous. It is doubtful whether we have struck bottom, although +the rural exodus may have gone too far in some regions, and we may not +permanently strike bottom for sometime to come."[13] + +The service of the few to the many, therefore, is the present status of +the husbandman. The very fact that one-third of the people must feed +all the people imposes religious and ethical conditions upon the farmer. +The dependence of the greater number for their welfare upon those who +are to till the soil brings that obligation, which the farmer is well +constituted to bear and to which his serious spirit gives response. + +This means that with the growing consciousness of the need of scientific +agriculture there will arise, indeed is now arising, a new ethical and +religious feeling among country people. The church which is made up of +scientific farmers is a new type of church. + +A notable testimony to the influence of the church in developing +husbandry is by Sir Horace Plunkett,[14] who testifies to the religious +influence that led to the agrarian revolution in Denmark. + +"My friends and I have been deeply impressed by the educational +experience of Denmark, where the people, who are as much dependent on +agriculture as are the Irish, have brought it by means of organization +to a more genuine success than it has attained anywhere else in Europe. +Yet an inquirer will at once discover that it is to the 'High School' +founded by Bishop Grundtvig, and not to the agricultural schools, which +are also excellent, that the extraordinary national progress is mainly +due. A friend of mine who was studying the Danish system of state aid to +agriculture, found this to be the opinion of the Danes of all classes, +and was astounded at the achievements of the associations of farmers not +only in the manufacture of butter, but in a far more difficult +undertaking, the manufacture of bacon in large factories equipped with +all the most modern machinery and appliances which science had devised +for the production of the finished article. He at first concluded that +this success in a highly technical industry by bodies of farmers +indicated a very perfect system of technical education. But he soon +found another cause. As one of the leading educators and agriculturists +of the country put it to him: 'It's not technical instruction, it's the +humanities.' I would like to add that it is also, if I may coin a term, +the 'nationalities,' for nothing is more evident to the student of +Danish education or, I might add, of the excellent system of the +Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their +success is to be found in their national basis and their foundation upon +the history and literature of the country." + +Every observer of these Danish Folk High Schools testifies to their +religious enthusiasm, their patriotism and above all to the songs with +which their lecture hours are begun and ended. A graduate of these +schools living for years in America, the mother of children then +entering college, said, "Those songs helped me over the hardest period +of my life. I can always sing myself happy with them." The spirit which +pervades the schools was influential in Danish agriculture, as +expressed in the title of Grundtvig's best known hymn, "The Country +Church Bells." Under such an influence as this has the agricultural life +of Denmark taken the lead over its urban and manufacturing life. + +The modifying influence of husbandry upon the church and its teaching is +illustrated in the following incident. A farmer in Missouri had a good +stand of corn which promised all through the summer to produce an +excellent crop. Abundance of sun and rain favored the farmer's hope that +his returns would be large, but in the fall the crop proved a failure. +The farmer at once cast about for the cause of this disappointment. He +had his soil analyzed by a scientist and discovered that it was +deficient in nitrogen. The next year he devoted to supplying this lack +in the soil and in the year following had an abundant return in corn. +"Now that experience turned me away," said he, "from the country church, +because the teaching of the country church as I had been accustomed to +it was out of harmony with the study of the situation and the conquest +over nature. I had been taught in the country church to surrender under +such conditions to the will of Providence." The country church of the +husbandman must therefore be a church in harmony with the tillage of the +soil by science. Like the farm households about it, the church will +possess a large wealth of tradition, but the church of the scientific +farmer must be open to the teachings of science and must be responsive, +intelligent and alert in the intellectual leadership of the people. + +A church of this sort is at West Nottingham, Maryland. The minister Rev. +Samuel Polk, had been discouraged by the inattention of his people to +his message. He had come to feel that this is an unbelieving age and had +surrendered himself to the steadfast performance of his duties, the +preaching of the truth faithfully and the ministry to his people so far +as they would receive it. In addition he had the task of tilling forty +acres of land which belongs to the church. This he was doing faithfully, +but without much intelligent interest. + +An address on the country church in an agricultural college sent him +home with new ideas. He saw that his life as a farmer and as a preacher +had to be made one. He determined to preach to farmers and to till his +land as an example of Christian husbandry. He began as a scholar by +studying the scientific use of his land. He found at once that the +farmers about him were forced to study the tillage of their soil, +because it had been exhausted of fertility by methods of farming no +longer profitable. In the first year the preacher raised, by means of a +dust mulch through a dry summer, a crop of one hundred and seventy-five +bushels of potatoes. Meantime his preaching had been enlivened with new +illustrations and he was enabled to enforce, to the amazement of his +hearers, new impressions with old truths. The Scripture teaching which +had become dull and scholastic became live and modern, as he preached +the Old Testament to a people who were recognizing the sacredness of +land. His audiences began to increase. His influence on his people very +shortly passed bounds and reserves. When at the end of the season his +potato crop came in, the farmers gave sign of recognizing his leadership +as a farmer and as a preacher. Within a year this man had taken a place +as a first citizen, which no one else in the community could hold. +Because he was a preacher he could become the leading authority upon +farming and because he must needs be a farmer he found it possible to +preach with greater acceptance. + +This pastor gave up the methods of bookish preparation for preaching. He +preached as the Old Testament men did, to the occasion and to the event. +He spoke to the community as being a man himself immersed in the same +life as theirs. On a recent occasion when a woman was very sick in one +of the farm houses and had suffered from the neglect of her neighbors, +his sermon consisted of an appeal to visit the sick. That afternoon the +invalid was called on by thirty-eight people and sent a message before +night, begging the minister to hold the people back. + +There are a few ministers throughout the country who are successful +farmers. Many ministers are speculators in farm land. They belong in the +exploiter class. One more instance should be given of the preacher who +promotes agriculture. In a recent discussion the writer was asked, "Do +you then believe that the minister should attend the agricultural +college," and he replied, "No. The agricultural college should be +brought to the country church." + +At Bellona, New York, the ministers of two churches, Methodist and +Presbyterian, united with their officers in a farmers' club, to which +others were admitted. This club under the leadership of Rev. T. Maxwell +Morrison, makes the nucleus of its work the study of the agriculture of +the neighborhood and the improvement of it. Lecturers from Cornell +University are brought throughout the year into the country community to +take up in succession the various aspects of farming which may be +improved. The market is studied, by chemical analysis the nature of the +soil is determined, and the possibilities of the community are raised to +their highest value by careful investigation. + +This farmers' club has social features as well. Other topics besides +farming are occasionally studied but the business of the club is +economic promotion of the well-being of the community. Incidentally, it +has furnished a social center for the countryside. The churches which +have had to do with it have been enlarged, their membership extended and +even their gifts to foreign missions have been increased in the period +of growth of the farmers' club. + +The elements of permanent cultivation of the soil are found in greater +numbers among the Mormons, Scotch Irish Presbyterians, Pennsylvania +Germans, who are the best American agriculturists, than among the more +unstable populations of farmers. Those elements, however, are, simply +speaking, the following. + +A certain austerity of life always accompanies successful and permanent +agriculture. By this is meant a fixed relation between production and +consumption.[15] Successful tillers of the soil labor to produce an +abundant harvest. They live at the same time in a meager and sparing +manner. Production is with them raised to its highest power and +consumption is reduced to its lowest. This means austere living. Such +communities are found among the Scotch Irish farmers. Lancaster County, +Pennsylvania, is peopled with them and their tillage of the soil has +continued through two centuries. + +A notable illustration is in Illinois. The permanence of the conditions +of country life in this community is indicated by the long pastorate of +the minister who has just retired. Coming to the church at forty-eight +years of age, after other men have ceased from zealous service, he +ministered forty-two years to this parish of farmers, and has recently +retired at the age of ninety, leaving the church in ideal condition. +"The Middle Creek Church is distinctly a country charge, located in the +Southwest corner of Winnebago Township, of the County of Winnebago. + +"The church was organized in June, 1855, in a stone schoolhouse. The +present house of worship was erected and dedicated in 1861. Five +ministers served the church as supplies until 1865, when the Rev. J. S. +Braddock, D. D., became the pastor and carried on a splendid work for +forty-two years, when he laid down his pastorate in 1907, at the age of +ninety." + +"This community was settled by homesteaders and pioneers in the early +days of the West. Many of them came from Pennsylvania and some of them +were of Scotch descent. The history of the community has been but the +history of the development of a fertile Western Prairie country. It was +settled by strong Presbyterian men, and their descendants are now the +backbone of the community. There has been little change, but steady +growth." + +The second element in the community of husbandmen is mutual support. +Professor Gillin of the University of Iowa has described to me the +community of Dunkers whom he has studied,[16] being deeply impressed +with their communal solidarity. Whenever a farm is for sale these +farmers at the meeting-house confer and decide at once upon a buyer +within their own religious fellowship. In the week following the +minister or a church member writes back to Pennsylvania and the +correspondence is pressed, until a family comes out from the older +settlements in the Keystone State to purchase this farm in Iowa and to +extend the colony of his fellow Dunkers. Reference is made elsewhere to +the communal support given to their own members who suffer economic +hardship. The serious tillage of the soil necessarily involves mutual +support and the husbandman's life is in his community. + +The third factor in communal husbandry is progress. Everyone testifies +to the leadership of the "best families" in the transformation of the +older modes of the tillage of the soil to the newer. It is impossible +for the scientific agriculturist to make much improvement upon a country +community until the more progressive spirits and the more open minds +have been enlisted. Thereafter the better farming problem is solved. +There can be no modern agriculture in a community in which all are +equal. The communities of husbandmen will be as sharply differenced from +one another, so far as I can see, as men are in the great cities. +Leadership is the essential of progress. Gabriel Tarde has clearly +demonstrated that only those who are at the top of the social scale can +initiate social and economic enterprises. The cultivation of the soil +for generations to come must be highly progressive. To recover what we +have lost and to restore what has been wasted will exhaust the resources +of science and will tax the intelligence of the leaders among +husbandmen. + +For this reason the ministers, teachers, and social workers in the +country should be not discouraged, but hopeful, when confronted with +rural landlords and capitalists. The business of the community leader is +to enlist in the common task those persons whose privileges are superior +and inspire them with a progressive spirit. Without their leadership the +community cannot progress. Without their privileges, wealth and superior +education, no progress is possible in the country. + +If these pages tell the truth, then agriculture is a mode of life +fertile in religious and ethical values. But it must be husbandry, not +exploitation. Religious farming is a lifelong agriculture, indeed it +involves generations, and its serious, devoted spirit waits for the +reward, which was planted by the diligent father or grandfather, to be +reaped by the son or grandson. Men will not so consecrate themselves to +their children's good without the steadying influence of religion. So +that agriculture and religion are each the cause, and each the effect, +of the other. + +If this is true, then the country church should promote the husbandry +of the soil. The agricultural college should be brought into the country +parish, for the church's sake. Indeed the minister would do well if his +scholarship be the learning of the husbandman. No other science has such +religious values. No other books have such immediate relation to the +well-being of the people. The minister is not ashamed to teach Greek, +or Latin,--dead languages. Why should he think it beneath him "to teach +the farmer how to farm," provided he can teach the farmer anything? If +he be a true scholar, the farmer, who is a practical man, needs his +learned co-operation in the most religious of occupations, that the land +may be holy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: Rural Economics, by Prof. Thos. Nixon Carver.] + +[Footnote 13: "The Country-Life Movement," by L. H. Bailey.] + +[Footnote 14: "Ireland in the New Century," by Sir Horace Plunkett.] + +[Footnote 15: Professor Thomas Nixon Carver.] + +[Footnote 16: See Chapter V.] + + + + +V + +EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITIES + + +Most of this volume is devoted to the average conditions which prevail +throughout the United States. The attempt is made to deal with those +causes which are generally operative. It is the writer's opinion that +the causes dealt with in other chapters are the prevailing causes of +religious and social experience in the most of the United States. As +soon as the community, after its early settlement, becomes mature, these +causes show the effects here described. But there are exceptions which +should be noted and the cause of their different life made clear. These +exceptions are represented in the Mormons, the Scottish Presbyterians +and the Pennsylvania Germans. + +"The best farmers in the country are the Mormons, the Scotch +Presbyterians and Pennsylvania Germans." This sentence expresses a +general observation of Prof. Carver of Harvard, speaking as an +economist. The churches among these three classes of exceptionally +prosperous farmers show great tenacity and are free from the weakness +which otherwise prevails in the country church. There is a group of +causes underlying this exceptional character of the three classes of +farmers. + +These exceptional farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. +The Mormons represent this organization in the highest degree. Perhaps +no other so large or so powerful a body of united farmers is found in +the whole country. They have approached the economic questions of +farming with determination to till the soil. They distrust city life and +condemn it. They teach their children and they discipline themselves to +love the country, to appreciate its advantages and to recognize that +their own welfare is bound up in their success as farmers, and in the +continuance of their farming communities. This agricultural organization +centers about their country churches. They have turned the force of +religion into a community making power, and from the highest to the +lowest of their church officers the Mormon people are devoted to +agriculture as a mode of living. + +This principle of organizing the community consciously for agriculture +results in the second condition of the life of these three exceptional +peoples. + +They build agricultural communities. The Mormons are organized by an +idea and by the power of leadership. They have recruited their +population through preachers and missionaries. This new population is +woven at once into the fabric of the community. They are not merely +employed in the community: they are married to the community. The +organization on which the Mormon community is based becomes embodied at +once in a society, with its own modes of religious, family, and moral +feeling and thought. + +These two principles are discovered in the Pennsylvania Germans. For +more than two centuries they have continued their settlements in +Pennsylvania. They are today a chain of societies loosely related to one +another through religious sympathy and a common tradition, but united +only in the possession of certain characteristics. They also are an +organization for agricultural life, though not so consciously organized +as the Mormons. Their societies are older and they have replaced with +instinctive processes that which is among the Mormons a matter of logic +and shrewd application of principles. + +The life of the Pennsylvania Germans is expressed in the community. They +have as much aversion to other people as they have fondness for their +own. Their religion consists of a set of customs in which to them the +character of the Christian is embodied. These customs can be expressed +and embodied only in the life of common people working on the land. They +make plainness, industry, and patience, austerity of life and other +agricultural virtues constitute sanctity. It is impossible to believe +sincerely in their mode of life and not be a farmer. It is easy to +believe the Pennsylvania Germans' code, if one is a farmer, and it is +profitable as well. + +The Scotch and the Scotch Irish Presbyterians represent a third +principle of agricultural success. Their churches are tenacious and +their country communities outlive those of the average type. In them is +represented in the highest degree the principle of austerity. By this I +mean, as defined by an economist, the custom of living so as to produce +much and consume little. These people look upon life with severity. They +have little sympathy with the expansive and exuberant life of the young. +The men of the community, who are the producers, occupy a relatively +greater position than the women, who are the consumers. They exemplify +to a slight degree the conscious organization for agriculture, and in a +high degree the resultant social life which we have noted among the +Mormons and the Pennsylvania Germans; but to the highest degree the +Scottish Presbyterians represent this self-denial and rigidity of +life--which appears in the others also--and they embody it in their +creed. This austerity gives to them a forbidding character, and robs +them of some of the esthetic interest attaching to the other two, but it +is possible that they are more nearly the ideal type of American farmer +because of certain other traits possessed by them. + +The Scotch farmer has not in the United States settled in communities or +colonies, as he has in Canada, but the typical farming community of this +stock is Scotch Irish. As Prof. R. E. Thompson has shown,[17] the +emigrants from the North of Ireland, who are themselves of Scotch +extraction, have colonized extensively. That is, they have settled +their populations so as to cover a territory and possess it for +themselves. But the Scotch, from whom they derive many characteristics, +have settled no colony in the world except in the North of Ireland.[18] +The peculiarity of these Scotch Irish farming settlements, as shown +especially in Pennsylvania, is their capacity to produce leaders in +sympathy with the whole of American life. The Mormons produce leaders, +but their influence is compromised by religious prejudices. The +Pennsylvania Germans have produced no leaders whom they can call their +own, and very few writers or educators. The Scotch Irish, on the other +hand, considered as farmers, have contributed an extraordinary +proportion of the leadership of the United States. They have been able +to maintain their own communities in the country and to find for these +communities a sufficient leadership, and they have sent forth into the +general population a multitude of men for leadership in the army, in the +legislatures, in the colleges and universities, and above all, in the +pulpit. + +In these three types of successful farmers religion is an essential +factor. No history can be written of the Mormons, of the "Pennsylvania +Dutch" or of the Scotch Presbyterian without recording their religious +devotion, their obedience to leaders, to customs and to creed. One +cannot live among them without feeling the peculiar religious +atmosphere which belongs to each of them. They are admirable or +obnoxious, according as one likes or dislikes this religious character +of theirs, but it pervades the whole life of the community. If it be +true that there is no type of farmer--except the scientific farmer of +the past few years--who has succeeded as these three types have +succeeded, and there is no country community so tenacious as their +communities are, and if it be true that these farmers more uniformly +than other farmers are religiously organized, then it follows that there +is an essential relation so far as American agriculture goes, between +successful and permanent agriculture and a religious life. The country +church becomes the expression of a permanent and abiding rural +prosperity. Agriculture is shown by its very nature to require a +religious motive. An element of piety appears to be necessary in the +makeup of the successful farmer. + +In these three types of successful farmer there appears another +principle which is common to them all. They are not only organized for +farming, but they are organized as a mutual prosperity association, +based on their consciousness of kind. Prof. Gillin has called attention +to the habit of the Dunkers in Iowa, who are of the Pennsylvania German +sects, by which they extend their farming communities. + +"The thing that is needed is to make the church the center of the social +life of the community. That is easier where there is but one church than +where there are several, but federation is not essential. Thought must +be taken by the leaders to make the church central in every interest of +life. I know of a community where that has been done. It is the +community located south of Waterloo, Ia., in Orange Township. It is +composed of an up-to-date community of Pennsylvania Dutch Dunkers. From +the very first they have made the church central. When these great +changes of which I have spoken began to occur, the leaders of that +community began to take measures to checkmate the attractions of the +towns for their young people. For example, Fourth of July was made a day +of celebration at the church. When the people of other communities were +flocking to town by hundreds, the youth of that community were +gathering, in response to plans well thought out beforehand, to the +church grounds where patriotic songs were sung, games were played, a +picnic dinner was served, and a general good time was provided for the +young. They have also arranged that their young people have a place to +come to on Sunday nights where they can meet their friends. The elders +look to it that provisions are made for the gatherings of the young +people on Sunday so that they shall 'have a good time,' with due +arrangements for the boys and girls to get together under proper +conditions for their love-making. Even their church 'love feasts' held +twice a year, are also neighborhood gatherings for the young people. The +church is the center of everything. Is a farmers' institute to be held +in the community, or a teachers' institute? The church until very +recently was open to it. Is a farm to rent or for sale? At once the +leaders get busy with the mail, and soon a family from the East is on +their way to take it. This country church has not remained strong and +dominant in the country just by accident or even by federation. It has +survived because it had wise leaders who have met the changes with new +devices to attract the interest of the community and make the church +serve the community in all its affairs, but especially on the social +side. Such thought takes account of the 'marginal man' too. The hired +man and the hired girl, the foreigner and the tramp are welcome there. +No difference is made. There is pure democracy. With the growth of the +class spirit I do not know how that can survive. These hirelings are not +talked down to; they are considered one with the rest. They will some +day get enough to buy a farm and become leaders in the community, +perhaps. The church is theirs as much as anyone's else. It looks after +their interest, not only for the hereafter, but here and now. Under its +fostering care they form their life attachments, it provides for their +social pleasures, it is the center to which they come to discuss their +farming affairs or whatever interests them. And in spite of the fact +that the preaching has little contact with life and its interests, so +strong is the social spirit that the preaching can be left out of +account. What could be accomplished were the preaching as consciously +directed to forwarding the social interests of the community one can +only speculate."[19] + +Thus they work for the propagation and extension of their own community. +The Scotch Presbyterians in like manner favor their own kindred and +their kindred in the faith, though, I think, in a lesser degree. The +Mormons are consolidated both by formal organization and by instinctive +preference for their own in a multitude of co-operating habits, through +which they build up their communities and contend with one another +against their economic and religious opponents. It is not enough to say +that this is clannishness; it is a mingling of kinship and religious +preferences. It constitutes the strongest form of agricultural +co-operation to be found in the United States. + +A Quaker community represents ideal community life. There is none poor. +The margin of the community is well cared for by the conscious and +deliberate service of the central and leading spirits in the community. + +At Quaker Hill, New York, there has been for almost two centuries a +community of Friends. The Meeting has now been "laid down" but the +customs and manners by which these peculiar people maintain their +community life have been wrought into the social texture of the present +population of Quaker Hill. During two centuries this community has +cared for its own members in need. It was not beneath the dignity of the +Meeting to raise money and purchase a cow, early in the eighteenth +century, to "loan to the widow Irish," and at the close of the +nineteenth century, the few Quakers and the many Irish and other +"world's people" took part more than once in subscriptions by which the +burden was borne, which had fallen upon some workingman or poorer +neighbor through the death of horse or cow, or even to bear the expense +incidental to the death of his child. + +These Quakers co-operated in their business life. They made themselves +responsible that no member of their Meeting should be long in debt. From +1740 for 100 years and more, the records of the Meeting show that +marriage was made impossible and other vital experiences were forbidden +by the Meeting, unless the individual Quaker paid his debts and +maintained his business on a level dictated by the common opinion of the +Quaker body.[20] + +In 1767, Oblong Meeting of Quaker Hill, New York, began the legislative +opposition of the Society of Friends to the institution of slavery. This +great economic movement expressed the degree to which the Quaker +discipline merged the religious life in the economic life. This +consolidation of religious and economic life was essential in the +community building of the Quakers. + +It is surprising to many to discover that the "Pennsylvania Dutch" were +part of the same movement of population which brought the Quakers into +Pennsylvania. William Penn spoke German as well as English. His mother +was a German. When he inherited his father's claim against the British +Crown, and received from Charles the Second the grant of that extensive +territory in America on which he launched his Holy Experiment, he began +to advertise and to seek for settlers on the Continent as well as in +England. + +William Penn was a Quaker, and on the Continent he found immediate +response in the greatest number of cases among the various branches of +Mennonites, Anabaptist, and other sects, who shared a common group of +beliefs and experienced at this time a common persecution. William Penn, +therefore, reaped a harvest of responses in the territory between the +mouth of the Rhine and the Alps. His proposal made its own selection, +and brought to America a population calculated like the Quaker +population for the building of communities. The largest single +contribution was made by the Palatinates, who were at that period +undergoing extreme persecution. + +The communities founded within the first century after the opening of +Pennsylvania have remained to the present day, and the earliest +establishments of Mennonites and Quaker communities in Pennsylvania have +been duplicated in the westward stream of immigration, especially in +Ohio and in Iowa. These people are roughly called the "Pennsylvania +Dutch." Even when one meets them in Michigan, Iowa or Minnesota, this +name clings to them, and the form of social organization which they +elaborated in Eastern Pennsylvania still persists. + +This social organization has varying characteristics. It is somewhat +difficult to analyze the intricate windings and entanglements of +doctrinal and practical belief in custom among the Mennonites, Amish and +Dunkers. Old school and new school have been formed in almost every one +of these sects. Eccentric and peculiar principles of belief in +organization have formed the lesser and the least permanent groups; but +there is a common principle in them all. Their ability to form +communities in the midst of hostile populations and adverse conditions +has been due to the co-operation between their religious and their +economic habits. + +The "Pennsylvania Dutch" have simple doctrinal characteristics. They +have never worked out in detail the logic of their beliefs. They put the +weight of their organization upon practical customs, as the Quakers did. +In some cases, this applied to clothing; in some or all of these sects +to the manner of speech; to family customs; but, the one peculiar +principle in it all, which has been vital to the success, to the +persistence, to the wide extension of these sectarian groups has been +that the religious life has penetrated the economic life. They have not +permitted members of their community to be poor. They have turned the +attention of their religious sympathies to the economic margin of the +community. They have enforced the payment of debts, and they have +governed and controlled marriage conditions. By subtle enforcement of +custom having the power of laws, they have governed the community in its +vital relations, and perfected the system by which the poorest man shall +make his living and by which the richest man shall make his fortune. + +Recently, I was in Lancaster, Penn., and passing through a market I was +told by a resident that all the truck farming of the market for that +city had come into the hands of the Amish, and my friend added, "If you +go at an early hour to buy, and ask the price of certain vegetables, you +will probably be told, 'We do not know the price yet; we will have to +wait until all the farmers come in.'" That is, after two hundred and +more years of living as farmers in this section of Pennsylvania, these +sectarians maintain their community life, co-operate in the monopolizing +of an industry, and in fixing the price of the monopolized product in +the markets of a Pennsylvania city. + +This survey of community-building peoples in America may throw light +upon the recommendations of Sir Horace Plunkett for the organization of +country life upon an economic basis. The present writer heartily agrees +with him that the center of the community must be economic. He says that +"Better business must come first" in constructive policies for American +country life, but "by failing to combine, American and British farmers +persistently disobey an accepted law." + +Social division is the impending danger which threatens the future of +the American community in the country. For if the analysis of +agricultural success in this chapter is correct, then the farmer is +exceedingly dependent upon his neighbor, and the permanence of rural +populations depends upon the social unity of the farmers in the +community. The highest expression of this social unity is in the +farmer's religion. Worship thus becomes a symbol of agricultural +prosperity. The writers and the orators have then truly spoken who +symbolized the beauty of rural life in the church steeple. The farmer +himself seems to recognize, in the church spire rising above the roofs +of the hamlet, the symbol of prosperous and satisfactory life in the +country. + +As the tillers of the soil come to the necessity of co-operation in the +new order of life in the country, as the old isolation passes away and +the modern farmer comes to recognize his necessary dependence upon other +farmers in the community, a common place of worship will become +necessary to the community. One church will of necessity express the +life of the community and the periodic meeting of all the people in one +house of worship will be the highest and most essential symbol of the +feeling and the thought and the aspirations of that community after +true prosperity and permanence. + +The purpose of this chapter has been to present the general +characteristics of the most exceptional communities in the country. +These are Mormon, Scotch Presbyterian and Pennsylvania German. By their +very names they indicate religious organization of the community and +"birthright membership" associations. They are grouped under the one +principle, that in them the religious organization is an expression of +their social economy. Their social and economic life is under the +domination of their religion. + +These farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. The +resultant social life constitutes a most intense organization in which +voluntary and conscious combination matures in instinctive union +embodied in blood relationship, neighborliness and economic union. These +populations show the correspondence between economic and religious +austerity. Thrift takes the form of dogmatic repression and finally +their organization and their relationship express themselves in +organized efforts for the well-being of the community. They deliberately +as well as instinctively co-operate. + +It is the writer's belief that these exceptional communities exhibit the +principles on which American life must be organized, if the farmer is to +be a success, if his schools are to progress, his churches to be +maintained, and if the country community is to be a good place to live +in. None of these populations can be imitated. It would be impossible +for a community to take over their modes any more than it could imbibe +their motives. The study of them throws light upon the problem of +country life in America. Above all things it illustrates the especial +union of the country church with the social economy of the farmer and +his household. It shows that the life of country people is co-operative, +that it is undermined by division and disunion and that in the open +country where man is least seen his society is most evident. The +dependence of each man upon his neighbor is increased in modern times by +the thinning out of the rural population and the increased economic +burden laid upon the farmer. + +Finally, the exceptional populations present an exceptional victory over +economic and natural forces. They abolish poverty within their own +bounds. Every one of the communities just described turns the power of +its common organization upon the problem of maintaining the lower margin +of the community. They who are in danger of falling behind are sustained +and carried on. None in these communities is permitted to fall into +pauperism. The workingman without capital, whether he be in their +meetings or only employed on their farms, is kept from want. The widow +with her little house and one cow is insured against the loss of any +feature of her small property. This seems to me to be the greatest +triumph of these communities. It is the test, I am convinced, of their +organizations and of their success. In this they demonstrate one of the +greatest possibilities of country life. They show that in the open +country it is possible for men to live without the suffering and +degradation of poverty. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 17: History of American Presbyterianism, by R. E. Thompson.] + +[Footnote 18: An exception to this statement must be noted, in the +Scotch settlements in Canada and Nova Scotia.] + +[Footnote 19: Professor John L. Gillin, in American Journal of +Sociology, March, 1911.] + +[Footnote 20: Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.] + + + + +VI + +GETTING A LIVING + + +The core of a community must be economic. The main business of life is +to get a living.[21] The reason for existence of any community is found +in the living which it supplies its residents. Men are attracted to a +community by the increases in their living furnished by that community. +The first element in the getting of a living is the securing of daily +bread, shelter, clothing and the satisfaction of physical needs. It is a +mistake to think of the community as beginning in religious +institutions--narrowly understood--or in social gatherings or in +educational service. The initial human experience is the finding of +food. + +But the getting of a living is a long process. A living is more than +bread, and a roof and a coat. In quest of a living men go from the +country to the town and from the town to the city. They migrate from the +small city to the large. In each of these moves they secure a further +element in their living. Each of these communities is characterized by +the increase which it contributes to the living of its citizens, but in +every community the initial experience is the securing of daily bread, +shelter, clothing and material economic gains. Whatever is done, +therefore, for the community in a service to all the people must have +initial concern with the purely economic welfare of the people. + +Sir Horace Plunkett's book, "The Rural Life Problem of the United +States," develops this principle very clearly. He shows that in the +Country Life Movement in Ireland it was necessary to go into the very +heart of the people's aspirations, and organize their economic needs. + +It is necessary to understand the word "economic" if one would read +these pages aright. Economic matters are not those of mere money. The +word has a greater meaning than has the word finance. It connotes +poverty as truly as wealth, and is greater than both. The economic +motive animates men in the quest of those vital satisfactions which the +individual craves, and the social group requires. Professor John Bates +Clark has somewhere described this motive as the desire to preserve the +present status, with slight improvement, for oneself and one's children +after him; the desire to live on the same economic standard in one's own +generation; and to be reasonably assured of the same security for one's +children. This is not the desire to get rich, though in individual cases +it is changed into a desire for wealth. But it is a far more general, +indeed a universal aspiration, which inspires most of the work of the +world. Industry is based on it. Civilization is propelled by it. It is +the desire to get a living and the quest of a living. + +I believe that this economic motive is religious. It is the quest of +what a man has not, but feels to be his. It engages his utmost efforts. +It is labor for his wife and children and for all his group fellows, and +therefore is involved in his holiest, most self-forgetting feelings. It +takes him back to his parents and reminds him constantly of his +ancestors. He forms his ideas of justice in his economic experiences. +His ultimate conviction as to the goodness or the badness of the world +are the outgrowth of his experience in getting a living. Therefore his +economic life is his wrestle with nature and with society. It generates +in him all the religion he has. + +I suppose it was for this reason that Jesus said "I am come that they +may have life, and that they may have it abundantly." Probably his +meaning was economic, in part, in the saying, "Man shall not live by +bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." +The quest of a living is a satisfaction of successive economic wants, of +which bread is but the first. Every truth that mankind knows involves +men in an economic want. Education is one of the most general wants. It +comes in the series somewhat later than bread. The love of music is an +economic want, which comes generally later than education. But both are +a part of a living. I believe that the quest of education and the love +of music are religious, just as much as the desire for daily bread. One +might enumerate the whole series of economic wants, to satisfy which is +to live, but religion is the total of the reflections, and the complex +of customs which result from the lifelong quest for a living among +common folk. At its highest it is expressed by St. Augustine, "O God, +thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls are not at rest until we +find ourselves in thee." Bread is the first economic want, and God is +the greatest and the last. + +Economic wants among common folk are usually the source of religious +feeling. Few people desire to be rich; a lesser number strive to get +wealth; and very few attain a fortune. The most of men seek and get a +living. The best of men, and the most religious, are those whose +economic experience brings them a series of satisfactions, beginning +with bread, clothing, shelter, education in the essentials, music and a +little aesthetic culture, and gradually extending into higher forms of +human enjoyment. The simplest religious craving is for economic +assurance of supply. "The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want," is on +the most thumbed page of the Bible. The play of these economic +aspirations among poor people results in all the simpler and most +general religious feelings. With the rise of the aspirations of the +individual, and the ideals of the group, toward higher satisfactions, +the religious experiences should become nobler, more refined. The +penniless college student who prays for an education should be a nobler +worshipper than the fisherman who asks his mud-divinity for a good +catch. The group of Oberammergau players who present the Passion Play, a +highly complex satisfaction of wants, should be nobler believers and +worshippers than herdsmen who out on the hills pray for the increase of +their flocks and for a better price for wool. + +Communities differ from one another according to the living which they +supply, or the wants which they satisfy. Modern men will not live in a +community that does not satisfy a pretty long series of wants. For +instance, a graduate of the American common schools will desire bread, +clothing, shelter--all of comfortable quality--and education for his +children better than his own, musical enjoyment, aesthetic culture, the +possession of some books, access to many magazines and the reading of a +daily paper; and varied opportunities for the exercise of the play +spirit. The country community satisfies, in most of the United States, +only the first of these. It is a place for securing food, clothing and +shelter of a comfortable sort. Country people have in the past ten years +secured also a better supply of reading matter. Almost all the rest of +the series is lacking. The reason for the rural exodus is in the most of +cases the quest of education and of music, the craving for aesthetic +culture, and the desire for recreation. Country towns and small cities +therefore have come to be centers of education, of amusement and of +"culture." They are the first step upward on the series of economic +satisfaction. Men who have made some money on the farm "move into town," +for the satisfaction of the later wants in the series. + +None of these wants is itself sinful, for all of them make up life. They +are the steps on the way from bread to God. The business of the teacher +and preacher of religion is to know the wants of his people: study those +which are satisfied in his community, and so to build the community that +for most of its people and for the most desirable people, all the vital +necessities of life shall be satisfied, in the community in which the +desire for bread is satisfied. The problem of amusement exhibits these +principles clearly. Farming is austere, and few farming communities have +recreation adequate to the demand of the young people and the working +people who live on the farms. Agriculture is becoming more systematic +and more exacting in its demands: and systematic work creates a demand +for organized play. As this demand is not satisfied in the +country--indeed it is less generally satisfied now than in former +times--the youth and workingman from farming communities go to the towns +and larger villages for amusement. These centers of population have a +disproportionate burden therefore of cheap vaudeville shows, saloons, +professional baseball games, and moving-pictures. + +These amusements are, to a degree, abnormal in character because those +who enjoy them are away from their home community, and are suffering a +reaction from pent-up desires. Just as the lumberman or cowboy or sailor +when he comes to town "tears loose and paints the town red," so, in a +milder degree, the farmer's son or hired man, because he has at home no +recreations supplied by his church or school, patronizes in the town or +small city a cheaper and nastier theatre than one would expect to find +either in that town, or in his home community. The remedy is to make the +country community adequate to the wants of those who live there. The +church should promote recreation. The public school should supply +entertainment of a high standard, both to satisfy the play instinct and +to elevate the youth's ideals of amusement. The community which works +should be dependent on no other community for play. + +Common-school education is a function which country communities have +surrendered to the centers of population. The one-room country school +has long been inadequate; but the farmer has not improved it, preferring +to rely upon the town schools to which he will remove his family after +he has made enough money on the farm. I am told that about Crete, +Nebraska, a recent census revealed that half the normal child population +is missing from the country districts; and double the normal child +population is found in Crete. The quest of adequate schooling explains +the condition, which speaks ill for the country community of Nebraska. + +In all these cases religious service consists in completing the +community. The supply of wants, which are widely and keenly felt, is a +religious act. This has been the reason for the success of the Du Page +Presbyterian Church in Illinois.[22] The minister, Mr. McNutt, in a +religious spirit so well supplied the recreative life needed in the +community, that the community has been made whole. Just as Jesus made +sick or maimed men whole, as a religious act, so the community builder +who supplies to working farmers something besides labor on the land, is +making the community whole. + +The perfecting of the common school system in McNabb, by Mr. John Swaney +and other Friends, and in Rock Creek by Mr. R. E. Bone and other +Presbyterians, was a religious act for their communities in Illinois. +The farmers who have money can move to the town, but to complete the +country community is to satisfy the economic wants of the poor. The +wants of the poor are always of religious value. + +Moreover, the satisfaction of all wants in the community itself is a +moral gain. If individuals live this life in the bounds to which their +group and family associations are confined, the steadying influence of +society is at its greatest. Jacob Riis[23] noted among immigrants the +working of a lower sense of obligation due to absence from accustomed +home associations. Communities are compacted of the strongest moral +bonds. If churches would make men righteous they cannot do better than +to complete the community, especially in the country, as a place to live +in: making it a place for education as well as profit: of play as well +as work, of worship as well as of material comfort. + +Unfortunately churches in the country are too often recruiting stations +for the cities and colleges. The ministers are respectable pullers-in +for the city show. Nothing rejoices them so much as to help their young +men and women find a position in the city; unless it be to have a bright +lad or girl go off to college. When a country minister was reminded that +all these departures weakened the country community, and that very few +of them benefitted the lad or girl who goes to the city, he replied "you +cannot blame them; there is nothing here to keep them." + +"The rural exodus" has had its Moses in the rural college student, its +Aaron in the country minister, and its Miriam in the country school +teacher. These three have led a generation out of the country to perish +in the wilderness. For only a pitiful few of those who leave the country +come to prominence in the city. The most gain but a poor living there, +and very many go to ruin. The church should be the savior of the +community, as her Master is of the soul. + +It seems to me that this is done in a church in Ottumwa, Iowa, of which +Dr. W. H. Hormell is minister. It is in a stock-yards district, and the +daily occupation of many of the members is unclean, of some revolting. +But the church is a dynamo of spiritual forces. It supplies the +experiences most opposite to those of the slaughter-house. A half-dozen +chapels in surrounding neighborhoods, most of them in the country, are +outposts of the church, for each of which a superintendent is +responsible: and thus a man who is an underling at the slaughter-house +is a leader in the quest of eternal life. The whole company of workers +with the pastor, constitute a spiritual cabinet of the district. It is +not surprising that this church fascinates men. The minister cannot be +persuaded away, and a like devotion pervades his group of workers. The +intensity of the industrial labor is matched by the intensity of Bible +study, prayer and evangelism. The degradation and repulsion of the +leading industry of the place are equalled by the unworldly nobility and +optimism of the leading church. This church does not attempt to mend the +community--which might be found impossible--but only to serve the +community by supplying the satisfaction for spiritual wants. + +According to the law of diminishing returns, the first satisfactions of +any want have infinite value. What does this mean but that they have +religious value? The first drink of water to a famished man calls forth +a fervent "Thank, God." The first book printed is a Bible. The first +landing on American soil was a solemn religious occasion--and still is +for the immigrant. So the first gains of money are of religious value to +the poor. The first hundred dollars to a mechanic's family is invested +in a dozen benefits. The first thousand dollars which a working farmer +saves go into a home, a piano or books, or an education for a child. It +is all moral and spiritual good. Later thousands have diminishing moral +and spiritual values. Most of the churches and homes in America were +paid for out of the tithes of men and women who owned at the time a +margin of less than a thousand dollars. + +This is the reason for the religious character of economic life. The +most of people spend their lives with less than a thousand dollars. They +are poor, and money does them good, not harm. They need to know how to +use it. But the getting of their living is a process prolific in +religious feeling, because economic matters have to them the infinite +value of first satisfactions of all the simplest wants of life. + +The salvation of the community will be accomplished in satisfying the +higher wants of those whose lower wants are satisfied. For those who +"have made money" supply schools; for those who work supply recreation; +for the sick hospitals; for the invalid build sanitariums; and for all +men supply social life, the greatest need of human life on earth. For +those who are thus united to the community, and to one another in the +intricate network of associations, the opportunity of worship together, +and of sharing common spiritual interests becomes the highest economic +want. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 21: "I come that they may have life, and may have it +abundantly."--Jesus, in John 10:10.] + +[Footnote 22: "Modern Methods in the Country Church," by Matthew Brown +McNutt.] + +[Footnote 23: "The Making of an American," by Jacob Riis.] + + + + +VII + +THE COMMUNITY + + +The country community is defined by the team haul. People in the country +think of the community as that territory, with its people, which lies +within the team haul of a given center. Very often at this center is a +church, a school and a store, though not always, but always the country +community has a character of its own.[24] Social customs do not proceed +farther than the team haul. Imitation, which is an accepted mode of +social organization, does not go any farther in the country than the +customary drive with a horse and wagon. The influence of leading rural +personalities does not extend indefinitely in the country, but +disappears at the boundary of the next community. Intimate knowledge of +personalities is confined to the community and does not pass beyond the +team haul radius. Within this radius all the affairs or any individual +are known in minute detail; nobody hopes to live a life apart from the +knowledge of his neighbors; but beyond the community, so defined, this +knowledge quickly disappears. + +Men's lives are housed and their reputations are encircled by the +boundary of the team haul. + +The reason for this is economic and social. The life of the countryman +is lived within the round of barter and of marketing his products. The +team haul which defines the community is the radius within which men buy +and sell. It is also the radius within which a young man becomes +acquainted with the woman he is to marry. It is the radius of social +intercourse. Within this radius of the team haul families are accustomed +to visit with ten times the frequency with which they pass outside this +radius. Indeed, for most of them, one might say that social intercourse +is a hundred times as frequent within the team haul as without it. + +The average man would define the community as "the place where we live." +This definition contains every essential element, locality, personal and +social relations, and vital experiences. The community is that complex +of economic and social processes in which individuals find the +satisfactions not supplied in their homes. The community is the larger +social whole outside the household; a population complete in itself for +the needs of its residents from birth to death. It is a man's home town. + +This conception of the community as a vital common possession explains +the relation of religious, educational, ethical, economic institutions +to one another. The community is the clearing-house of all these +influences. It is the medium by which they exchange with one another, +in the interest of human life. The perfection of this exchange and the +abundance of communal influences makes the community good and desirable, +or poor and undesirable. + +Sometimes one says that the community is "a good place to live in." When +it is ample for the needs of individual lives men move into it, and the +average man finds there a contented and satisfied life. The decay of the +community is indicated by the departure of individuals and of families +in quest of a better centre for the supply of vital human needs. Some go +to make more money elsewhere, some depart for educational advantages and +some move away because social life is lacking or religious privileges +are not suitable. But these four vital essentials, economic, ethical, +educational and religious, make up the elements in the community's +service to the individual. + +The community is sometimes corrupted by vicious principles in its +construction; and then its members are in proportion defective. It +produces in excessive degree idiots, blind, deformed, neurotic, insane +or criminal individuals. + +The community, thus defined, is normally furnished with certain +institutions essential to the life of the people. In earlier days the +community was sufficient unto itself. Very little was imported. +Everything for use in the community was raised therein and manufactured +in the households. A system of exchange gradually was effected through +the country store. The country store of 1770 in Duchess County, New +York, had an amazing relation to a wide population. The radius of the +life dependent upon it was the same as the radius around the Quaker +Meeting, beside which this store was placed, and all the goods used in +the community with few exceptions were produced and manufactured in this +radius of the team haul of ten miles.[25] + +Nowadays the country community has normally a store, a blacksmith shop, +a church and a school. In the recent past certain classes of peddlers +regularly visited the country community, though their place in the rural +economy is diminishing. The country store in many communities is already +closed and its maintenance is surrounded with increasing difficulty. So +long, however, as the horse drawn vehicle is the type of transportation +in the country, the elements of the country community must remain +substantially the same.[26] + +The economic life of the community is necessarily a part of the general +economic life of the population as a whole. The world economy has in the +past hundred years, with the perfection of the means of transportation, +taken the place of the communal economy. In 1810 every country community +was obliged to manufacture its own raw products so far as possible +within its own limits. In 1910 it was no longer profitable for even a +country community to do so. The result is that the economic life of the +community is usually expressed in a specified industry to which the +whole community is primarily devoted. If it be a rural community this +organization takes the form of a "money crop." In the corn belt there +are other products raised from the soil besides corn, but the world +economy assigns to that fertile section the producing of corn as the +most profitable and the simplest task. In the coal region it tends to +the highest efficiency for the labor of the region to be concentrated +upon the supply of this fuel, although in addition the surface of the +soil may be cultivated and in the larger population centers other +industries are coming in to exploit the superfluous labor. None of these +competes with the primacy of the coal industry, which the world economy +assigns to that community. + +It is essential that in every community there should be one or more +industries by which men may live. It tends to the highest well-being of +the community, that is, to its possession of a maximum of vital +attraction for individuals, that this industry should supply a variety +of sources of income; that is, wages, profits and interest. If the +community can retain in its own bounds the owners of its industries, at +least in some numbers, and the capitalists whose wealth is invested in +these industries, it is of great service. If it can make life +attractive for wage-earners in these industries, the completeness of +that community has its testimonial in this variety and wealth of +attraction. The weakness of many American communities is shown in their +inability to retain within their bounds the owners of the businesses and +the employers of labor. The ideal character of some communities in +Massachusetts is due to the fact that in the same streets there daily +meet capitalists, superintendents, foremen and wage-earners who are +alike interested in the local industries. + +This power of the community to attract and hold individual lives, +supplying them with the vital necessities for which the individual +craves, is dependent in America upon educational institutions more than +upon any other factor. The French philosopher Desmoulin has said that +the Anglo-Saxon supremacy is due to the Anglo-Saxon love of the land and +of education. The American represents these two passions, and of the two +the love of education is at present, the stronger. The community which +is weak in its schools will not hold its people. The generation who at +present are the largest owners of American wealth are eager for +educational advantage: and the incoming stream of immigration promises +that in the days to come this craving for education will not diminish, +but will increase. + +The country community has been peculiarly weak in its educational +facilities, by a strange dullness and inertia due to the economic +prostration of the farming industry. For the two decades following 1880 +the country schools have failed to keep pace with the city schools. +Prof. Foght says, "While the public attention has been centered on work +and plans for the improvement of the city schools a great factor for or +against the public weal has been sadly neglected. This is the rural +school. One-half of our entire school population attend the rural +schools, which are still in the formative stage. The country youth is +entitled to just as thorough a preparation for thoughtful and +intelligent membership in the body politic as is the city youth. The +State, if it is wise, will not discriminate in favor of the one as +against the other, but will adjust its bounties in a manner equitable to +the needs of both. Heretofore the rural schools have received very +little attention from organized educational authority."[27] + +The effect of this neglect of the country school in the face of the +constructive statesmanship which has led in perfecting the city school +is seen in the exodus from the country community of very large numbers +of the most successful farmers. Evidences are abundant that this exodus +from the country community is primarily a quest of educational +advantage. Not in every case would the departing family confess that +they were seeking better schools: but it is probable that the majority +of them while giving a variety of primary reasons for moving would +assign the desire for education as the uniform secondary reason for +departing from the country community. + +It is impossible for the country church to retain its best ministers. +Many reasons enter into this, but always at the top of the list is the +desire for better educational opportunities for the ministers' children. +The advice has become proverbial in theological seminaries, "Go to the +country for five years." It is said that in New England there are three +classes of country ministers and the first of them is the bright young +man who will not long be in the country. + +The ethical, sometimes called the social factor in the community's life, +is no less essential. Organized work requires organized recreation. +Every community which has a systematic economy by which its residents +get their living is found to have a systematic though usually informal +and unrecognized provision for recreation. Somewhere in the bounds of +every working town in America is a playground. It is not the result of +"the playground movement," but of the play necessity in human nature. +The open lots where the town is not built up, the railroad yard, the +yard of a factory or the town common are used by common consent by the +young people and the working-people of the town as a playground. + +The departure of many persons from country communities is due to the +lack of social life: and the fascination of the city for bright and +energetic young men and women is due to the variety of recreation and +interest which it provides to those who expect to work and are willing +to work. Regular work means regular play. This fact cannot be too well +learned by those who study the religious and moral life of modern men. +The need of play is as real as the need of food or of sleep. + +This recreational life is highly ethical. The craving of the young and +of working-people for common places of recreation is a normal craving +due to the development of conscience as well as to weariness of body. +The exactions of modern labor create a craving for free and voluntary +movement. Those who are hired to work, and those who if they are +employers are bound to the routine of the desk or of the bench, seek to +breathe deeply the air of happy and self-expressive action. The result +is that play, especially team work, is highly moral. It is not only +personal and self-expressive, but it involves co-operation, +self-surrender, obedience and the correlation of one's own life with +other lives in a glorious complex of experiences, unexampled elsewhere +in modern life for their ethical value in developing adolescent minds in +the common humanities and moralities. The playground is an essential +field in the preparation of good citizens and it is not to be wondered +at that in country communities, where all provision of recreation is +difficult, and no public provision of playgrounds is thought of by those +in authority, that young people and working people, indeed all classes +of the population, tend to move away. + +The religious attraction of the community has just as real a value for +the satisfaction of individual life as the economic or ethical or the +educational. "Mankind is incurably religious," and the life from birth +to death cannot be complete in average cases without religious +experience. Indeed the conscious testimony of men to the community's +religious value for them is greater than any of the others. Religious +experience is indeed a form of community conscience. To many men the +church and the community are one. We cannot within our definition grant +this; but the testimony to the religious character of the country +community is a classic in American thought. The early days of every +community are hopeful and optimistic. The tendency has been therefore +for each religious communion to establish its own church. These early +Protestant churches were expressions of the community sense on behalf of +these people. The average American can best think of the community in +terms of a church and a school. For building up the community, +therefore, the maintenance of religious institutions is essential. + +We are concerned in these chapters most of all with the American +community in the country. Not because it is more important, but because +it is easier to understand and affords a better model for interpreting +other communities more complex and highly organized. In it one may see +the processes which affect the town and city communities; shifting of +population, economic changes, educational improvement or retrogression +and the processes of social life which express themselves in moral +conditions. The community is the field in which may be observed the +prosperity of the people as a whole. It is the local exhibit in which +the average man shows what has come to pass throughout the commonwealth +as a whole. + +American rural communities have been under the influence of swift and +sudden changes during the years of railroad development. This is +exhibited in the country community very clearly. There almost all the +causes which are at work in the city are seen and their operation is +easier to observe and to measure than in a city community. It is the +general impression that the country community has suffered greatly +though the loss of population. This is probably due to the diminishing +agricultural activity of the country. Thirty-four counties in Ohio are +producing less than the same counties were producing before the Civil +War. It is natural that the population of these counties should be on +the whole smaller than at that time. But it is more probable that the +social, educational and moral life of the people of these counties who +stayed in the country is slacker and less vigorous than in 1860. +Sometimes the population of a community remains stationary but the +economic weakness expresses itself in a retarded social, ethical and +religious life. + +There is high authority for the statement that the sifting of the +country community in recent years has on the whole improved it. Wilbert +L. Anderson says, "If this emigration of the best were the whole story, +it would be impossible to refute the charge of degeneracy. There is, +however, another aspect of the matter. The industrial revolution has put +a pressure upon rural life that is more important even than the +attraction of cities. That pressure has aggravated the severity of the +struggle for existence, and this grinding of the mill of evolution has +crushed the weaker strata of the population. Among those who have gone +are laborers and their families, the owners and occupants of the poorest +lands--the famous abandoned farms, and the weaklings and dependents. +Many of these have swollen the crowds of the factory towns; others have +supplied unskilled labor to the cities; in not a few cases they have +gone to their destruction in the slums, where residues of decadent folk +finally disappear. The human material that was most susceptible to +alcohol has gone into the mills of the gods. When all is summed up, the +clearance at the bottom is not less significant than the loss at the top +of the social scale. Natural selection works as effectually in toning up +the species by weeding out the worst as 'natural selection reversed' +works for degeneracy through the removal of the best. This purgation +has been overlooked; whether it offsets the injury in the highest +stratum is a fair question, but obviously no man is wise enough to +answer it. The opinion may be hazarded that when the two influences are +compounded, it will be found that the average child has moved but a +little way up or down the scale. This is a local question to which there +are as many answers as communities. The net result of these changes is a +gain in homogeneousness; in the country town the dream of equality is +nearer realization to-day than ever before."[28] + +It is the writer's belief that, allowing for local variation, this +statement is the best generalization of the condition throughout the +country. The rural population has been specialized. The country +community is finding its own kind of people. It has not yet, through +suitable institutions, learned to cultivate its problems and to train +its own leaders. That is precisely what will be accomplished through the +building up of the country community with which we are here concerned. +But already the country population is homogeneous and is selected with a +view to fitness for the environment of the rural community. As the city +is breeding its own stock, who are possessed with the problem of city +life and devoted to the interests of the city, so the country in the +shifting of modern populations is coming to have its own kind of people; +among whom the problems of the country community are beginning to be +discussed and the interests of the country community are being provided +for by suitable organizations. + +The building of communities, therefore, will provide the positive +agencies requisite for the needs of the present population in the +country. The purpose of those who serve the country population shall be +the construction of suitable institutions by which country life shall be +made worth while. These institutions must be economic, for the securing +of prosperity to country people, social institutions which shall build +up their moral character and life, educational institutions whereby the +problems of country life shall be understood in the light of all human +life, and religious institutions which shall crown the life of country +people with hope and animate the individual with the spirit of +self-sacrifice on behalf of all the people of the community and of the +world. + +The church should be a community center. There may be other centers of +the community where other functions are assembled, but the church should +lift up her eyes to the horizon in which she lives and comprehend all +the people in her service and affection. This does not mean that they +shall all be members of that church. The community spirit is itself +growing. Frequently the country community has attained a unity which the +churches ignore. For the church to become a community center means that +it represents in itself the united life of the people. Whatever be +their common interest that interest dwells in the church. + +In Hernando, Mississippi, the people are united. The interest of one is +the concern of all. Under the leadership of the families of old +land-owners the whole community responds to common impulses and is +organized under common ideals. No poor child of either a white or a +negro household is neglected or is overlooked. Yet in this community +churches have no federation and ministers have no regular means of +working together. A charity organization was recently formed in this +community as an organ by which the community should care for its poorer +members. This society was formed outside of the churches, no one of +which had the right to be a center for the community. It is true that +ministers and members of these churches were leaders in this community +enterprise, but the churches as organizations were not a part of it, +although its purposes are purely Christian. + +Prof. Alva Agee insists that "The country church does not serve the +community's needs as the community sees those needs." His meaning is +that when a community enterprise is to be launched the promoter of it +finds it necessary in the country to avoid the churches, lest his +enterprise be entangled in their differences. He is embarrassed also by +their lack of a community spirit. Frequently the same persons who to the +church contribute no community spirit are in the community itself +leaders of common enterprises. + +In contrast to these conditions the instance of Du Page Church at +Plainfield, Illinois, of which Rev. Matthew B. McNutt was recently the +minister, exhibits the power of a country church to make itself the +center of a whole community. This church, which in a year became famous +throughout the land, has earned its repute by ten years of devoted +service of its minister and the growing affection and union of its +people. The church serves so well the social needs of the community that +a social hall once popular has been closed and three granges in +succession have attempted to organize in the community and have failed. +Yet Du Page Church is passionately devotional and intensely missionary. +Its social life is but a legitimate expression of its community sense. +The minister and his people have had the power to see and to inspire a +common life among the people in the countryside. + +This chapter has been intended as a definition of the country community. +Its radius is the team haul, because the horse has been the means of +transportation in the country. The community is the round of life in +which the individual in the country passes his days: it is his larger +home. The definition of this greater household of the country must be +flexible, but however it be defined, it is the characteristic unit of +social organization among country people. The map of the United States +outside the great cities is made up of little societies bordering +sharply upon one another, differing from one another socially and +religiously. These little societies are the proper fields in which the +life of the church and the school is lived. Of these small societies the +church and the school are the expressions. In church and school the +country community has its highest life. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 24: The author expresses his indebtedness for this definition +to Dr. Willet M. Hays of the Department of Agriculture at Washington.] + +[Footnote 25: Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.] + +[Footnote 26: Professor C. J. Galpin of University of Wisconsin has done +precise work of great value, in defining the country community, as it +centers in the village. See his pamphlet, "A Method of Making a Social +Survey of the Rural Community," a bulletin of the Agricultural +Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin.] + +[Footnote 27: "The American Rural School," by Harold W. Foght.] + +[Footnote 28: "The Country Town," by Wilbert L. Anderson, D.D.] + + + + +VIII + +THE MARGIN OF THE COMMUNITY + + +The change of ethical consciousness among church people in recent years +takes the form of a transference of interest from the individual to the +community. The literature of religious and ethical thought is full of +appeal to "serve the community." The working out of any religious or +ethical force in modern society is guided by the closely compacted and +highly organic character of present-day social life. + +In the old times in America, which have so recently gone, men were of +one class; the community was homogeneous; universal acquaintance +prevailed. + +The unit of value in American life until recent years was the successful +man, because we faced a continent unexplored. Unpossessed commercial +resources were before the people. The standard of the time of Horace +Greeley was the standard of individual success, of initial utility. The +town boasted of the man it had "turned out." The church measured its +value by the rich and benevolent farmer or merchant, and by the +individuals whose piety or literary success seemed to express the life +of the church. There was an opportunity for all, because crude +resources, numberless openings offered themselves to every one who had +character, industry and brains. + +Within a decade the American people have become conscious that their +resources are numbered. The free lands of the West are assigned. The +tons of coal under the ground are estimated. The amount of timber, of +copper and of iron still unexploited is known, and public discussion is +centered upon the limits to the growth of the American population, and +the possibilities of more economical organization of life. We can no +longer waste as once we could. The problem is now a problem of economy. +Instead of the standards of a time of plenty we are confronted with +problems of bare subsistence. + +In times of plenty, when resources are not yet exhausted, men's lives +diverge and the individual is the unit of thought and feeling. The +natural result of a time of plenty is the development and the endowment +of personality. But in times when a bare subsistence is the condition +with which many are confronted, men are drawn together and the community +becomes the unit of thought and feeling. Industry as it matures brings +men together. It becomes evident that they depend upon one another. + +Men who in a time of plenty would seek an independent fortune, under +conditions of bare subsistence are contented to secure employment and to +become dependent upon others. The problems of subsistence open +opportunities for exploitation and the stronger become related to great +numbers of weaker members of the community. Thus men's lives are +intensified, and the conditions out of which thought and feeling arise +are social conditions rather than individual. + +The country community under these circumstances rises into new +significance. In the early pioneer days the country community for a +similar reason was much in thought and feeling, because then men were +seeking a bare subsistence in the contest with nature. This +consciousness was lost as soon as the pioneer days were past and the +abundance of nature began to enrich mankind instead of antagonizing him. +Now, again, the country community has come into prominence because men +are confronted with a struggle to maintain an acceptable standard of +living. + +In dealing with a social whole, to accomplish certain purposes one must +deal with it in social terms. Social service is not quantitative, but +qualitative. Ministry to a community is not uniformly applied to all the +members. In social service there is no such thing as equality of all the +population. The differing values of men in a social population are +determined, as other values are measured, by the working of the law of +diminishing returns. + +Roughly stated, this law is that successive additions of any valued +thing bring ever diminished returns. The first quantity of anything is +of infinite value. For later increments the value is measurable, and +ever less with the increase. The application of this law in economics is +stated as follows by Professor John Bates Clark: + +"Labor, as thus applied to land, is subject to a law of diminishing +returns. Put one man on a quarter section of land, containing prairie +and forest, and he will get a rich return. Two laborers on the same +ground will get less per man; three will get still less; and, if you +enlarge the force to ten, it may be that the last man will get wages +only." + +"Modern studies of value, show that doses of consumer's goods, given in +a series to the same person have less and less utility per dose. The +final utility theory of value rests on the same principle as does the +theory of diminishing returns from agriculture; and this principle has a +far wider range of new applications." + +"We have undertaken to generalize the law that is at the basis of the +theory of value. In reality, it is all-comprehensive. The first +generalization to be made consists in applying the law, not to single +articles, but to consumers' wealth in all its forms. The richer man +becomes, the less can his wealth do for him. Not only a series of goods +that are all alike, but a succession of units of wealth itself, with no +such limitation, on its forms, becomes less and less useful per unit. +Give to a man not coats, but 'dollars,' one after another, and the +utility of the last will still be less than that of any other. The +early dollars feed, clothe and shelter the man, but the last one finds +it hard to do anything for him."[29] + +By this law successive deposits of immigrants and successive gains in +the American population are reducing the valuation of men for religious, +moral and educational use. The first man in any historic experience is +of infinite value. The first American, Columbus, will be famous forever, +but not because of any talents or enterprises of his. As a matter of +fact he blundered in discovering America and died ignorant of the feat +he had actually accomplished. But because he was the first white man on +a new continent he had infinite historical value. When the early +Europeans were increased to ten or to one thousand each of them entered +into fame, though men like John Smith were commonplace enough in their +performances. Their fame is measurable, but still great. When the number +of Americans was increased to eight millions everyone thought himself a +great citizen, the founder of a family and a potential millionaire. +Those were still the days of exceptional personality. The type of man in +those times was the landowner, the pioneer and the statesman. But now +there are ninety million Americans, all the valuable lands are assigned, +all the best positions are filled, every job is taken, and ten million +of the population are concerned about the problem of daily bread. These +ten million people are the marginal Americans. They are breadwinners, +and the breadwinner is the unit of value on whom the standard of +American social and religious life is measured. So far as there can be +an American type on whom policies in public life are measured, that type +is today the breadwinner. In the city the breadwinner is a working man +or an immigrant. In the country the marginal man is the tenant farmer; +or a working farmer, though he be the owner. The marginal man represents +the value of all men in the community. + +The law of diminishing returns works in the factory for fixing the wages +in any scale which prevails throughout a level of pay. It is equally +efficient in leveling men in the community. The employer does not pay +the working man on any level of wages in accordance with the value of +the few brilliant, trusty or inventive men in that group, but he pays +each man just that wage which he must offer to the last man he hires. +The marginal man standardizes the wage. The religious values of men are +standardized not upon the brilliant or saintly or accomplished, not upon +the well-to-do members of the community, but upon the poor who are just +able to stand and maintain themselves in the life of that community. + +The working of this law is not a matter of persuasion. It is the +inflexible condition with which religious and ethical institutions are +confronted. Churches should therefore estimate their policies by the +responses of the marginal people of the community. Religious standards +of value should be measured by final utility, not initial utility. The +complaint against the church today is reducible to this: that she +standardizes her ideals and her policies in accordance with the +prosperous and well-to-do. The eloquence and the character of her +ministers, the kind of music with which God is worshipped, the +comfortable pews, the carpets on the floor, are all of them unlike the +public hall which is supported by the dues of the poor. The taste +expressed in church matters is rather literary and aesthetic than +popular. The church which would appeal to the whole community must +standardize her work upon the poor man, and make her appeal to him. + +This principle is not only scientifically correct, but it works out in +practise. A minister who came into a well organized country community, +where there were a few land-holders, many tenants and numbers of farm +lands, found that the only appeal by which the whole community could be +reached was an appeal directed to the marginal people in the community. +When he sought the tenant farmer, he secured with him the land-holder, +and when he went after the hired man on the farm, he secured the farmer +who employed him. When he gained the adherence of the boys and girls he +secured the support of their parents, and when he rendered service to +little children, he could safely rely upon the gratitude and loyalty of +their mothers and fathers. + +This was the kind of work which Jesus did. He frankly made a selection +of the people to whom he should minister.[30] He knew no phrases about +all men being equal, and he made no profession of impartiality such as +today causes many ministers to loiter among the well-to-do, who care not +for them. Jesus said he had no time to spend with well people, because +he was sent to the sick. But the philosophy of his action was seen in +the fact that when he ministered to the sick he himself helped the well. +He "preached the gospel to the poor," but not because he had any +prejudice against the rich. By ministering to the poor he applied his +gospel to the margin of the community. That gospel has been of equal +value to the rich man, because the spiritual experiences of the poor are +the experience also of the rich. The modern minister who goes after rich +men specifically, or who goes after them with the same vigor with which +he seeks the poor, will receive but a grudging welcome. But if he +awakens the gratitude and support of the poor, he will find himself +sought by the rich, and sustained by their abundant gifts. + +Mr. Gilbert K. Chesterton, the English critic, has somewhere finely said +that the Master in his words to Simon Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon +this rock I will build my church," clearly recognized that Peter was a +shuffler and a weakling and a coward and it was upon just such common +material that the church was founded. It was not to be an aristocratic +organization. Its foundations were not laid upon skill and genius in +human character, but upon the weaker and commonplace traits, which +universal mankind possesses. + +So definite was the appeal of Jesus to the marginal people of his time, +that he has been twice criticized unjustly; once in his own time by the +Pharisees, and again in our time by the Socialists. The latter have +claimed that Jesus was "class conscious," that he was a partisan of the +poor, a proletarian radical. The unscientific character of Socialism is +displayed in this comment upon Jesus. His appeal was to the whole +community, as through Christian history his message has come uniformly +to men of all degrees, rich and poor, ignorant and learned, bad and +good. The religious genius of Jesus is shown in the fact that he +recognized what the Socialist does not, that to appeal to the whole +community a prophet must address his plea to the people on the margin of +the community. His measure of value must be final utility. + +One may go at large into this tempting field in illustrations. The +artistic experience of mankind is abundant in illustration of it. There +is no beauty of the ocean save in its shores--the margin of the +boundless expanse. Literary descriptions of the experiences of human +love are made up of descriptions of the margins of love. Married life is +depicted in courtship, and the sentiments of affection are described in +scenes of parting and meeting, which are the margins of companionship. + +This principle should be fundamental in all policies of reconstruction +of religious and ethical institutions. In the training of men for +religious service and for ethical leadership they should be accustomed +to think in terms of communal wholes, and this thinking will use as its +units of measure the characteristics of the marginal life. It is for +this reason that temperance reform in America has been so influential +within the past two decades. It is a communal form of ethics. It demands +that the community should act together in safeguarding the weaker +members of the community, the young men, and the working people. The old +temperance propaganda was individualistist. It recorded its results in +the number of persons who signed the pledge. Its results were almost as +gratifying if the pledges were signed by well-doing and orderly people +as if they were signed by drunkards. The modern temperance movement +draws its influence from its proposed effect upon the agricultural +laborer. + +The theological seminary of the past has been a literary institution. +During the period of its development the typical Christian was the +bright and aspiring young man in a community of boundless resources. To +such a man books are the interpreters of life. But in the modern period +with the congested population and close social organization, human +fellowship is an experience of greater value to most men than books. +Since the time of the invention of printing successive quantities of +literature have been given to the world, and under the law of +diminishing returns literature has come to have for many very small +returns. At the time of the Protestant Reformation the value of books in +the hands of the common people was infinite. For several generations +along with the extension of universal education this infinite value of +books continued for the people on the margin of the educated world. But +nowadays everybody in American progressive communities can read and +write: and in a universally educated population we arrive at the final +utility of books in human use. Great masses of poor people and also many +people of means use books within narrow limits only. They do not buy +them, they do not read them, they do not think in literary terms. Yet +they have access to books and they turn from them with a clear sense of +intelligent preference for other human values. Books are to them but an +alphabet and social life is the story. + +My own impression is that the life of the marginal man is social rather +than literary. His religion will be a social religion rather than a +biblical religion. The weakness of Protestantism is that it stubbornly +insists upon literary interpretation of God and upon a biblical +ministry, while the population around these Protestant churches +exemplifies the diminished value of literature for spiritual uses. + +The religious and ethical service of the days to come must interpret +the social life of the people. The great mass of the people care as +little for wealth as they do for books. The same argument as to the +diminished returns of literature may be repeated to describe the +diminished returns of private property. The economic revolution since +feudal days has exhausted the values of private property in satisfying +human need. The time was when property had an infinite value for +expressing personality. In days to come private property will still have +this value for many individuals. But among common folks generally +private property does not seem to have boundless value for human +satisfaction. Working men as I have known them do not take pains to get +rich. They know the way to wealth by economy and accumulation, but they +do not take it. They have a vast preference for the social intercourse, +friendly interchanges and mutual dependence by which their life is +refreshed, strengthened and sustained. Ethical policies of the future +while using literature and private property as efficient implements must +interpret social life itself as a flowing spring of religion and +morality. + +The training of religious and ethical leaders should be undertaken in +the theological seminary and in the university in such manner as to +standardize the influence of these institutions, by the life not of the +exceptional man, but of the common man. The influence of educated men +must be used to reconstruct churches and societies upon the standards +not of the wealthy, the learned, the genius and the well-to-do, but by +the experiences of the poor, the workingman and the immigrant. The +standard in all religious and ethical institutions which profess to +represent the community is today graded up to the professional and +exceptional. The reconstruction necessary is to grade down so that the +appeal shall be to the poor and struggling man whose condition is in +jeopardy, and whose status in the community is as yet undetermined. +Institutions which appeal to the community as a whole must standardize +their policy to the level of the margin of the community. + +The reconstruction of the theological seminaries is necessary, if they +are to fit men for service in communities. They render now a service +which is so valuable that one cannot pass over them lightly. They train +the candidate for the ministry by a process which develops and engages +his piety. Other university courses either ignore his religious feeling, +or if they develop it, do not harness it to the task of social +improvement. The theological seminary lays the yoke of service upon the +neck of prayer. This alone justifies its existence as a servant of the +church in the community. However, the instruction in the seminary is +rigidly grouped around courses in dead languages; which are jealous of +instruction in a living tongue. The history of discarded doctrines and +of discredited teachers is minutely taught through months, to the +exclusion of courses upon modern, living people, whose religious +experience is rich and striking. The purpose of seminary instruction is +personal culture instead of efficiency. It is the theory of the teachers +wherein they disagree with all other professional teachers, that "We do +not make preachers: the Lord makes them." They try therefore to impart +culture and personal distinction. + +The seminaries need first of all flexibility of courses. The whole +traditional schedule should be made elective. The demands of the time +would then have free course in the seminary, and would rearrange the +instruction according to actual present need. The cultivation of +practical piety should receive more attention. The social life of the +students, in close association with their professors and under religious +stimuli, should be made a more powerful force than it usually is, in +creating a common ideal of service to which the seminary should commit +itself. Above all, the seminary of theology should teach sociology and +economics, as a religious interpretation. Students should after a year's +class-room work be made to investigate and report upon actual +conditions, should be delegated to study social movements, report upon +them, and to lead in discussing them. They should be trained in the use +of statistics, in graphic display of conditions, and in the use of +public reports. In the senior year they should be employed definitely in +practical work for populations, under instructors. After graduation the +young minister should, more generally than now, be employed as an +assistant to an older minister, in a large organization. + +The influence of such social training would itself reform seminary +instruction. Thrust into a present-day curriculum, social science is a +foreign and alien intruder; but its value would soon be demonstrated and +other courses would be made over in new harmony with it. If some courses +be dropped, even if whole chairs be abandoned, it is better than that +the whole theological seminary be abandoned by students--which is the +apparent fate hanging over certain seminaries! What has here been said +is true of the schools of theology in all denominations, and applies +alike to both the conservative and the liberal. + +In conclusion, the writer believes that the church's future is with the +self-respecting poor. Jesus and nearly every leader of a great religious +movement was of the poor and labored with the poor. The sources of +religion are those named in the Beatitudes: poverty, meekness, sorrow, +hunger, ostracism; and those are all social experiences. The service of +the church should be to these; and in serving the marginal people, whose +life is composed of the Beatitudes, the church will serve all men. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 29: "The Distribution of Wealth," by John Bates Clark.] + +[Footnote 30: Luke, 6:20 ff; 15:1 ff.] + + + + +IX + +NEWCOMERS IN THE COMMUNITY + + +One general cause is bringing new people into the average country +community. The exploitation of land expresses the transition from the +period of the land farmer to that of the scientific farmer or +husbandman. The signs of this exploitation are the retirement of farmers +from the land, the incoming of new owners in some numbers and of tenant +farmers in a large degree, into the country community. The influence of +the absentee landlord begins to be felt in communities in which the +landowner was until 1890 the only type. In most of the older states +immigration from foreign lands has not greatly affected the country +community. In Wisconsin, Minnesota and other states of the Northwest +substantial sections of the community are invaded by people of sturdy +Germanic and Norse extraction. In New England the Poles, French, +Portuguese and some Jews are settling in the country. But throughout the +states of the Union as a whole the population, both the newcomers and +older stock, are American. + +The dates of this exploitation of land are, generally, from 1890 onward. +Reference is made elsewhere to the description of this process in the +Middle West.[31] + +Independent of these causes the same process has appeared in the South, +in Georgia, Mississippi and in West Tennessee, as well as other states. +In sections in which the values of land have not been doubled, as in +Illinois and in Indiana they have, the same exodus from the farm and +invasion of the country community by new people has taken place. + +One cause of this exploitation of land is the shrinkage in size of the +older families. Everywhere the exploitation of land is the greatest +where the soil is the richest and the farmers the most prosperous. Even +in the exceptional populations such as the Scotch Presbyterians and +Pennsylvania Germans, this effect of agricultural prosperity is slowly +at work. + +In Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in Washington County, where the +most substantial farmers in the country are found, the families in the +present generation are small. Many of the older stock have no children. +Families which have retained the title of their land for eight +generations are losing their hold upon the soil, by the fact that they +have none to inherit after them. + +Another cause of this exploitation of land is the increasing number of +small farms in certain regions. This means that in certain sections the +farming population has a new element, for the holders of these small +farms are many of them new to the community. + +The process, which is made clear by the census of 1910, is this. The +earlier retirement from the farms was by sale, the farmer taking money +instead of land. The second stage of retirement from the farm was +through absentee landlordism and the placing of tenants on the farm. +This process has come to an end in many sections of the Middle West, +with the return of the sons of the landlord to the family acres in the +country, so that there is a sort of rhythm in the flow of population +from the country into the town and backward to the land. In this process +there is no invasion by new people, except the temporary residence of +the tenant farmer in the country, and some of these have in the process +gained a footing by ownership of land. But this ebb and flow of +population out of the country community and back again has weakened and +strained the country church and school and has not yet begun to +strengthen them. There is every evidence that with a pleasant and +agreeable country life the country community can retain the best +elements of this population, which comes and goes. The country church +and school ought to take measures to retain the best of the country +population through these changes. + +Through all these causes the presence of a large proportion of aliens in +the community who are American born, but locally unattached by birth or +ownership, has effected great changes in the country church, and other +community institutions. The State of Illinois, which has a tenant farmer +population of more than 50 per cent in its richest sections, has +suffered severely through the loss of many country churches. There is no +precise measure of this loss, but a sociological survey recently made in +Illinois indicates that in the past twenty years more than fifteen +hundred country churches have been abandoned in the State. This +statement must be accepted as approximate, but the number is likely to +be greater rather than less. This abandonment of country churches has +come in the same period in which the proportion of tenant farmers has +greatly increased. Reference is made elsewhere to a similar condition in +the State of Delaware, in which the churches of the old land-owners have +been abandoned and replaced at heavy expense with poorer churches built +by the incoming tenant farmers. + +Everywhere in the United States this process has in some measure +affected the country. It does not much matter whether the proportion of +tenants is increasing or decreasing, the present effect is one of +instability. In New England where in the past ten years tenantry has +been diminished ten per cent, the country churches are weakened as +elsewhere. The churches have not yet had time to recover while the +population is in a state of change. + +The old order in the country is crumbling. The church is an expression +of stability. The people on whom the church always depends for its +audiences, its enthusiasm and its largest accessions, are marginal +people, working men, adolescent youths and those who are coming to a +position in the community. The exodus of these from the country +community, or the incoming of persons in these classes into the country +community, has been unfavorable to the country church at the present +time. + +It may be said at this point that a state of transition is for the time +being unfavorable to ethical and moral growth. Moral conditions are +sustained by custom, and where customs are in change, moral standards +must themselves be in transition. The country community is moral so far +as adhering to the standards of the past is concerned. But the +population themselves who have to do with the country are undergoing +extraordinary moral change, with incidental loss, and many of the +problems of the United States as a whole are made more acute by the +waste of the country community. Among these should be cited the +amusement question in the small town, the decadence of the theatre in +the cheaper vaudeville, the white slave traffic and the social disorders +peculiar to unskilled laborers, many of whom come from country +communities of the United States and Europe. + +It must be remembered, too, that the rural free delivery and the +telephone have entered the country community in the past twenty years +and their effect has not yet been recorded. It has probably been in the +direction of chilling instead of warming the social life of the +country. The old acquaintance and the intimate social relations of the +country community have not been helped by the telephone: and along with +the presence of aliens in the community, one-fourth or one-half or +three-fourths of the population, the telephone has had the effect of +lowering the standards of intimacy and separating the households in the +country one from another. The rural free delivery has put country people +into the general world economy and for the time being has loosened the +bonds of community life. + +In those states in which the trolley system has been extended into the +country, for instance Ohio and Indiana, the process of weakening the +country population has been hastened. Sunday becomes for country people +a day of visiting the town and in great numbers they gather at the +inter-urban stations. The city and town on Sunday is filled with +careless, hurrying groups of visitors, sight-seers and callers, who have +no such fixed interest as that to be expressed in church-going or in +substantial social processes. For the time being inter-urban trolley +lines have dissipated the life of the country communities. + +The duty of the church in the country under these conditions can be +accomplished only under a widened horizon. The minister and the leaders +of the church must lift up their eyes. They need not be discouraged if +for the time being they accomplish little, for the period of +exploitation must come to an end normally with the exhaustion of its +forces, before the better day can come. But this period is one of +enlargement. The units of social life will be spaced farther apart. The +country community will advance as soldiers say, "in open order." This is +true for the family life, in which the father, the mother and the +children have greater freedom from one another; as well as in the +community, in which neighbors become less intimately dependent on one +another. The church must therefore preach the world idea. At this time +of transition the country church should undertake its foreign missionary +service. The great causes of the Kingdom which are world-wide should be +presented to country people when they are lifting up their eyes from +local confines to look at the world and the city and the nation. As the +daily paper comes into the farmer's household the farmer's church should +interpret the history of the time in missionary terms. The literature of +the great missionary agencies should be distributed in the farm +household. Wherever the catalogue of the big store in Chicago or New +York is found on the center table, beside it should be placed a modern +book expressive of missionary evangelism. As the mind of the countryman +develops to comprehend the world in his daily thought under the impetus +of a daily newspaper, his conscience and his religious experience should +be expanded correspondingly. + +In a time of exploitation of land the country church should regenerate +its financial system. The system of barter passes away in the day of +speculation in farm land; and the country church which can find means to +endure the period of exploitation must put its financial system on a new +basis. The tenant farmer is crudely striving through problems of +scientific agriculture. He may, indeed, be a soil robber, but by his +waste of economic values he and other men are learning to conserve. The +financial system of the church should be placed at this time on a basis +of weekly contribution, for with the tenant farmer comes system, cash +payments, regular commercial processes. The business administration of +the church must be made to correspond. + +The country minister and schoolteacher must therefore become prophets of +the intellect and of the spirit, in the new order. If they cannot +minister to the new intelligence of the farmer and his children, their +institutions will necessarily decay. The farmer who succeeds in the new +social economy of the country will not endure old sermons which were +appropriate in his father's time. The emphasis must not be placed on +tradition, but upon inductive study. The preacher must not feed the +people on special instances, but upon representative cases. The +intelligence of the new type of farmer will not be satisfied with +sensations and with the unusual; but he demands to be trained in +standards of the new day, when science, system, organization and world +economy are making their demands on him and his very soul is concerned +in his response to those demands. + +The task of dealing with newcomers in the country community is +educational, financial and recreative. One should add that it is also +evangelistic, but I have in mind the possibility that these newcomers +may be Catholics with whom Protestant evangelism will not be successful. +It is possible also that they will be of another Protestant sect from +that of the reader of this chapter, so that to evangelize them would +mean proselyting. The writer believes very heartily in rural evangelism. +It is an essential process in building the country church. These +chapters are devoted primarily to the building of the country community +and in that process the securing of members for the country church is +preliminary only. Leaving, therefore, the question of rural evangelism +for treatment in another place, let us take up the educational treatment +of the newcomer in the country community. + +The proper machinery for this education is the common school and the +Sunday school. As the common school is treated elsewhere, the use of the +Sunday school in organizing the rural population belongs here. Few +churches realize the power and value of Sunday-school training. I am +insisting that the life of country people is religious. The use of the +Sunday school is to train the young of the community in religion. All +country people accept the Bible as a holy book. They all believe in the +education of their children and in much greater numbers than they will +respond for a church service their children will respond to the work of +religious culture on Sunday at the church. The Sunday-school +organization is interdenominational. Its lessons and its methods are a +common heritage of the churches at the present time. The machinery is +perfect, but the Sunday-school leaders lack vision and they lack the +progressive spirit. If only the teachers and ministers realized the +value of the Sunday school and its acceptance with the people, there +would be needed no other machinery for building the country community. + +The Sunday-school should be a close parallel to the day school. If the +day school in the community has any progressive features, the Sunday +school should use these and improve them. Between the two there should +exist the closest sympathy, not formal or definitely organized, but +actual and expressed in parallel lines of work. Where the day school is +graded, the Sunday school should accept the same grading, strongly +organizing all its classes. The pupils in the Sunday school should pass +by successive promotions from teacher to teacher and from grade to +grade. + +If the day school in the country is unprogressive and is taught by a +succession of indifferent persons, the Sunday school should practise +under the guidance of religious leaders those principles of modern +pedagogy which should be used in the common schools. Graded lessons, +the organization of material and progressive development of religious +truth from the simpler to the more complex, should find their place in +every Sunday school. The opportunity for service to the whole community +thus offered through the Sunday school is excelled by none in the +country community. + +The upper classes of the Sunday school should be organized. Young men +and women especially, who are in danger of finding the Sunday school +irksome because their intelligence has passed beyond its control, should +be organized in classes which on week days have a club or society +character. The Sunday school should use as an ally their tendency to +organization and should satisfy their social needs by giving them +regular and approved opportunities for meeting and for pleasure. + +Another principle which the Sunday school can practise for the benefit +of the community is the centralization of religious teaching. Even if +the common schools are not centralized, the children for the Sunday +school should be brought to the church from outlying regions in hired +wagons every week. It is better that a large Sunday school be maintained +under efficient leadership than that a number of small schools with +indifferent teachers should be maintained in various school districts. +The larger body can have better leadership. It is more closely under the +supervision of the minister, who is generally the superior in education +of the laymen, and the social value of the meetings of the Sunday +school will be greater in the larger body. All the arguments which make +for the centralization of the day school have force for the +consolidation of Sunday schools in one large school. + +The Sunday school offers a basis for church federation. In the community +it is frequently possible for Sunday schools to be united and for the +advantages of this common teaching to be made even greater because all +the children of the various churches are in one body. The best +leadership and the best teachers are thus secured and the community +spirit is cultivated through the young people and more loosely attached +members of the community. + +The older classes of the Sunday school on a basis of study of the Bible +should be organized for practical ends. The adult Bible class can be +made to have all the influence of the grange in the country community. +The fathers and mothers of the community may meet throughout the week +socially. They may undertake together the study of the economic life of +the community. Lecturers from the agricultural college, representatives +of the Play Ground Movement, of the county work of the Y. M. C. A., of +historical societies interested in the community's past and other +representatives of national movements, may be welcomed and heard by this +organized class, the basis of which is religious education. + +What I am urging may be accomplished by any church in some measure, +however divided the community may be. It is the business of the +individual church which has a vision of the community as a whole to act +as if it were a federation of churches. Frequently ministers are in +favor of church federation, as if that process were an end in itself. +The writer believes that the individual church can accomplish the ends +of federation if the union of churches can do so. The best means for +effecting federation of churches is to practise the program of +federation until it shall come about. + +The community made up in a degree of new families and the community in +which the newcomers are young men and women, children of the residents, +are bound to educate these invaders of the community, whether they come +from without or whether they come by "birthright membership," in the +spirit of benevolence. The giving of money to public uses is one of the +cherished social forces of our time. The country community is just +entering into the day of cash. The period of barter is over. The farmer +therefore needs in his ethical and his religious training, to have +definite culture as a philanthropist. The future of the farm-hand in +America is still very hopeful. The tenant farmer expects to be an owner. +The farmer's son believes himself to have a future. These hopes from +earliest years should be disciplined by the practise of giving. For this +end the church is a rarely well fitted means. The financial system of +the church must be made democratic. The custom of renting pews belonged +in the land-farmer period. The writer does not suggest that it be +abolished because it can often serve a more democratic purpose in its +mature forms under careful supervision than any substitute, but it is +all important that the country church be a training-school in the +consecration of money to the uses of the community and of the kingdom of +God. + +For the average countryman the kingdom of God should be embodied in the +country community. This is not to say that his vision should be narrow. +On the contrary his vision is often of the spread-eagle sort. He +overlooks the opportunities for benevolence which are near at hand. He +believes in foreign missions sometimes, and contributes impulsively to +the support of men in China who are paid a better salary than the pastor +in his own community. He applauds the gifts of millionaires and of city +people generally to hospitals, but he ignores the ravages of disease in +his own community. The divine imperative is that the country community +be first organized, by those who live there, for local well-being. For +this, contributions of money are necessary and they must be made by all +in the community. + +The question has been raised frequently whether an endowment is not +necessary for the country church. The writer began his ministry in a +country church which was generously endowed. He still believes in the +value of endowment for some country communities. Ex-President Eliot of +Harvard recently commended the principle of endowment to the New England +Country Church Association, as a solution of the rural problem. +President Butterfield of Massachusetts Agricultural College has +emphasized the same principle. It is quite likely that in the Eastern +States where the country community has been depleted by the departure of +an extraordinary number of families and individuals, an endowment would +be of value for the country church. One must not hold to a theoretic +opposition to such a method. The important thing is to provide a trained +pastor for the country community. In these Eastern communities a larger +proportion of the former members of the community have prospered than in +Western communities. Many of them are very rich. In these cases it is +but natural that an endowed church in the country community express the +ministry of the more prosperous citizen to his poorer brethren, but +everybody knows that these depleted communities--I will not say these +excessive fortunes--are among the most lamentable factors in American +life. + +The endowment of the church, however, is a very poor apology for a bad +situation. It has but limited use, and the creation of a large fund to +be used in the country community necessitates careful supervision by men +of such business ability as are not usually found in a country +community. To remedy such conditions as those with which President +Eliot and President Butterfield are most familiar is a specific +problem. It is not the general situation throughout the United States. +The purpose of these chapters is to make plain the way by which the +average American community may escape depletion, may retain the +leadership of its best minds and may prosper in a democratic way. I am +interested more in training the country population for the future than +in mending the mistakes of the past. But I believe that for depleted +country communities in New England, New York and Pennsylvania an +endowment of the country church would in many instances be effective: +and for them alone. + +Let the country church undertake its financial problem in a +business-like way. At the beginning of the year make a budget of all the +monies needed for the year's work. Face the issues of the year frankly. +Pay to the minister and to other employees of the church a sufficient +amount to provide them with needful things throughout the year. A living +wage is not enough. The minister especially needs a working salary. With +little variation throughout the country as a whole the minister in the +rural community should have in order to minister to his people, to +educate his children and to look forward without fear to old age, twelve +to fourteen hundred dollars a year and a house. Many country communities +have a more expensive standard, and there are a few in which less is +required. But in Southern States and in Western communities I have found +the conditions, created by the prices which prevail throughout the +country as a whole, at this standard. + +When the budget of the year is prepared, including missionary and +benevolent gifts, it should be distributed by the officers through +consultation with all the members of the church, young and old, rich and +poor, in such way as to secure a gift from every one and to meet the +obligations of the church as a whole. For the moral values of the +situation the small gift of the poor and of the child are even more +important than the large gift of the well-to-do. For the securing of +these gifts the envelope system, especially the so-called duplex +envelope, is the best means which can be generally used by churches. It +is a method flexible enough to reach every member and it represents in +its duplex form the double motive of giving to the community itself and +to those larger national and missionary enterprises to which the country +should contribute. + +The third method of developing the country community is recreative. I +mention it here for completeness of statement. Another chapter is +devoted to recreation in the country community. The amusements and +recreations of the country community are immersed in moral issues. The +ethical life of the community is the atmosphere in which social pleasure +is taken. Therefore the recreations of the community are to be provided +and supervised by those who would undertake to create a wholesome +community life. A maximum of provision and a minimum of supervision are +required. Country life is devoid of means for recreation. Some one must +provide it. Usually it is either neglected altogether, and the result is +dullness and monotony; or it is provided for a price, and the result is +an organized center of immorality. Recreation requires but little +supervision. The presence of older persons, and those of a humane +friendly spirit, is usually necessary to the games. These are based on +honor and with a few simple principles the young people and working +people of the community will organize their own play and find therein a +great benefit. + +To summarize this chapter, the acute problem in many communities today +is the merging of the life of newcomers in the community into the +organized social life which is older and more settled. This task belongs +above all to the country church. Many of the detailed applications are +for the school to follow out, but the business of the church is to see +and to inspire. If the church is not democratic, the community will be +hopelessly divided. If the church welcomes the newcomer and finds him a +place, the community will be inspired with a democratic spirit. The task +of the church is indicated in the new prosperity of the country which +tends from the first to remove from the community those who prosper. The +church's business is to win to the community all who come into it and to +release from its hold as few as possible. + +In a discussion of country life in a Tennessee college town the question +was asked of a professor of agriculture who was speaking about farm +tenantry, "What should the church do for the tenant farmer?" "Borrow +money for him and help him to buy land," said the professor. + +Such a solution might be the church's task, but the example of England's +policy for Ireland shows that the professor commended a governmental +rather than a religious service. For it is found that the Irish +farmer--a tenant on land whereon his ancestors have for centuries been +tenants--when he secures the land in fee through the new policies of the +British Government, frequently deserts the country community, selling +his land to a neighbor. Some sections of Ireland are said to have a new +kind of small tenantry and a new sort of small landlord. The task of the +country community begins where the task of government leaves off. It is +to inspire the resident in the country with a vision, and to lay upon +him the imperative, of building up the country community out of the +newcomers, who enter it by birth or by migration. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 31: "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross.] + + + + +X + +CO-OPERATION + + +In contrast to other classes of the population country people have a +marked preference for individual action and an aversion to co-operative +effort. The causes of this are historical. In general these causes are +of the past and they are not a matter of persuasion. The American farmer +has not co-operated in the past because: first, the necessities of his +life made him independent and impatient of the sacrifices necessary in +co-operating with his fellows. We have still many influences of the +pioneer in modern life. So long as agriculture is solitary work and its +processes take a man away from his fellows, co-operation will be +retarded. So long as the countryman has to practise a variety of trades, +he will be emotional, and the social life of the country will be broken +up by feuds, divisions, separations and continued misunderstandings. No +mere education as to alleged right and wrong can plaster over the old +economy with new ethical standards. Until the loneliness and the emotion +are taken out of farming country people cannot co-operate. + +A good part of the United States is still in the land farmer period. The +characteristic of the land farmer is his cultivation of group life. The +historical process by which this group life is broken up is +exploitation. Farmers whose lands have not been exploited and whose +group life has not suffered the undermining influence of exploitation +will not normally co-operate. I am convinced that in most farming +territories the loyalty of the countryman to his group is the second +reason for his refusal to co-operate. Again, this refusal of his is not +subject to persuasion. He is obeying an economic condition which shapes +his life and controls his action. Striking instances are furnished in +many regions of the amazing disloyalty of farmers to one another, and to +their own pledged word. These are to be explained by the type to which +the farmer in these sections conforms. We must not expect the land +farmer to obey the ethical standards of the husbandman. + +A good instance of this conformity to type was furnished in the case of +meetings held in Louisiana and Western Mississippi among the farmers who +raise cotton. The occasion of the meetings was the approach of the boll +weevil to their districts. The attendance upon the meetings was large, +indeed universal. The situation was clearly understood and the speakers +secured from the farmers present a promise quite unanimous to refrain +from cultivating cotton for a year. The purpose of this was to meet the +boll weevil with a territory in which he would find no food. Thus his +march eastward across the cotton field would be arrested. + +The farmers having made their promise and agreed heartily in the +proposal, adjourned. Weeks and months passed and the time approached for +planting cotton. Farmer after farmer, who had attended these meetings +and given his promise, privately decided that he would plant a cotton +crop and secretly expected that he would secure a larger price that year +because so many of his neighbors were to raise other crops. When the +full season for planting cotton had come it was discovered that so many +farmers had planted cotton that the plan of co-operation was a failure, +and the whole district went back to cotton, with full prospect of +assisting the boll weevil in his course toward the East. The reasons for +this action lie in the type of farmer who thus found it impossible to +co-operate. Each of these farmers regarded above all other things the +success of his own farm and his own family group. In contrast to this +interest no other claim, no exhortation and not even his word given in +public had any lasting influence upon his action. + +The third element in the inability of country people to co-operate is +the ideal of level democratic equality which prevails in the country. +Where universal land-ownership has been the rule every countryman thinks +himself "as good as anybody else." So long as this ideal prevails, that +subjection of himself to another, and the controlling of his action by +the interests of the community, are impossible. The farmer cannot +co-operate when he thinks of social life in terms of pure democracy. +There must be a large sense of team work, a loyal and instinctive +obedience to leaders, a devoted spirit which looks for honest +leadership, before there can be co-operation. These things come not by +persuasion, but by experience. Co-operation is the act of a mature +people. Not until country people have passed through earlier stages and +discarded earlier ideals can the preacher and the organizer and the +teacher successfully inculcate a spirit of co-operation. + +Country churches are highly representative in their present divided +condition. This multiplication of churches in the country is lamentable +chiefly because it registers the divided state of country life. It is +true that divided churches are religiously inefficient, but it is vastly +more important that divided churches are embodiments of what one country +minister calls "the tuberculosis of the American farmer, individualism." + +It was natural for the pioneer to desire a religion in terms of a +message of personal salvation. Personality in his lonely life was the +noblest, indeed the only form of humanity known to him, therefore the +herald was his minister and emotion was his religion. It is very natural +for the land farmer to organize religion in terms of group life. His +churches were only handmaids of his household. They had but the +beginnings of social organization. They taught the ethics of home life, +of the separate farm and of a land-owning people. Obviously the church +for the pioneer and for the land farmer could be a very weak and +indifferent organization, but efficient for the religious needs of those +independent, self-reliant types of countrymen. + +For these reasons in all parts of the country the pitiful story is heard +of divided communities. One need not recite it here. It usually is the +account of three hundred or four hundred people with five or six country +churches. At its worst there is a small community in which missionary +agencies are supporting ministers who do not average one hundred +possible families apiece in the community. The condition of Center Hall, +Pennsylvania, has been described in another chapter, in which there are +within a radius of four miles from a given point twenty-four country +churches. This community represents a condition of transition from the +land-farmer type to that of exploitation. Some of these churches are the +old churches of the land-owning resident farmers, but the most of them +are said to be the newer churches of tenants who have come into the +community. Our present concern is to recognize the relation of the +divided churches to the divided social life of the community. The +criticism of the country community must be made on an understanding of +the stage of development to which that community has attained. Whatever +is planned for the upbuilding of the country community must be planned +in harmony with the well-known facts of rural development. + +Business life introduces into the community a new standard of values. +Cash and credit take the place of barter. The exchange in kind on which +originally the community depended comes to an end. Business life very +shortly induces combination. The whole of modern business presents a +spectacle of universal combination and co-operation. The farmer who is +most conservative is surrounded on all sides by the aggressive forces of +business. Combined in their own interest they compete with him on +unequal terms. He stands alone and they stand combined. + +Americans are looking with growing interest on the experience of Denmark +where a multitude of co-operative associations represent the spirit of +the people. This spirit has been deliberately cultivated in the land for +forty years. It is the universal testimony of observers that the +prosperity of Denmark is dependent on these co-operative agencies and +upon this united spirit. The exodus from the country has been arrested, +agriculture has been made a desirable occupation, profitable for the +farmer and most probable for the state, and the people as a whole have +taken front rank in social and economic welfare. Essential to this +constructive period of Denmark's life is co-operation.[32] + +In Sir Horace Plunkett's recent book, "The Rural Life Problem in The +United States," he develops this principle clearly. He says that in the +organization of country life in Ireland it was necessary to go into the +very heart of the people's experience and organize their economic and +social processes in forms of co-operation. + +"When farmers combine, it is a combination not of money only, but of +personal effort in relation to the entire business. In a co-operative +creamery for example, the chief contribution of a shareholder is in +milk; in a co-operative elevator, corn; in other cases it may be fruit +or vegetables, or a variety of material things rather than cash. But it +is, most of all, a combination of neighbors within an area small enough +to allow of all the members meeting frequently at the business center. +As the system develops, the local associations are federated for larger +business transactions, but these are governed by delegates carefully +chosen by the members of the constituent bodies. The object of such +associations is primarily, not to declare a dividend, but rather to +improve the conditions of the industry for the members. + +"It is recognized that the poor man's co-operation is as important as +the rich man's subscription. 'One man, one vote,' is the almost +universal principle in co-operative bodies. + +"The distinction between the capitalistic basis of joint stock +organization and the more human character of the co-operative system is +fundamentally important. + +"In this matter I am here speaking from practical experience in Ireland. +Twenty years ago the pioneers of our rural life movement found it +necessary to concentrate their efforts upon the reorganization of the +farmer's business. + +"1. We began with the dairying industry, and already half the export of +Irish butter comes from the co-operative societies we established. + +"2. Organized bodies of farmers are learning to purchase their +agricultural requirements intelligently and economically. + +"3. They are also beginning to adopt the methods of the organized +foreign farmer in controlling the sale of their butter, eggs and poultry +in the British markets. + +"4. And they not only combine in agricultural production and +distribution, but are also making a promising beginning in grappling +with the problem of agricultural finance. It is in the last portion of +the Irish programme that by far the most interesting study of the +co-operative system can be made, on account of its success in the +poorest parts of the Island. Furthermore, the attempt to enable the most +embarrassed section of the Irish peasantry to procure working capital +illustrates some features of agricultural co-operation which will have +suggestive value for American farmers. + +"A body of very poor persons, individually--in the commercial sense of +the term--insolvent, manage to create a new basis of security which has +been somewhat grandiloquently and yet truthfully called 'the +capitalization of their honesty and industry.' The way in which this is +done is remarkably ingenious. The credit society is organized in the +usual democratic way explained above, but its constitution is peculiar +in one respect. The members have to become jointly and severally +responsible for the debts of the association, which borrows on this +unlimited liability from the ordinary commercial bank, or, in some +cases, from Government sources. After the initial stage, when the +institution becomes firmly established, it attracts local deposits, and +thus the savings of the community, which are too often hoarded, are set +free to fructify in the community. The procedure by which the money +borrowed is lent to the members of the association is the essential +feature of the scheme. The member requiring the loan must state what he +is going to do with the money. He must satisfy the committee of the +association, who know the man and his business, that the proposed +investment is one which will enable him to repay both principal and +interest. He must enter into a bond with two sureties for the repayment +of the loan, and needless to say the characters of both the borrower and +his sureties are very carefully considered. The period for which the +loan is granted is arranged to meet the needs of the case, as determined +by the committee after a full discussion with the borrower. Once the +loan has been made, it becomes the concern of every member of the +association to see that it is applied to the 'approved purpose'--as it +is technically called. What is more important is that all the borrower's +fellow-members become interested in his business and anxious for its +success. + +"The fact that nearly three hundred of these societies are at work in +Ireland and that, although their transactions are on a very modest +scale, the system is steadily growing both in the numbers of its +adherents and in the turnover,--this fact is, I think, a remarkable +testimony to the value of the co-operative system. The details I have +given illustrate one important distinction between co-operation, which +enables the farmer to do his business in a way that suits him, and the +urban form of combination, which is unsuited to his needs." + +The traditional economy that centered in the farm household was +independent. The ethical standards of country life recognized but small +obligations to those outside the household. Farmers still idealize an +individual, or rather a group, success. They entertain the hope that +their farm may raise some specialty for which a better price shall be +gained and by which an exceptional advantage in the market shall be +possessed. The conditions of the world economy are imposing upon the +farmer the necessity of co-operation. + +The prices of all the farmers' products are fixed by the marginal goods +put upon the market. For instance, the standard milk for which the price +is paid to dairy farmers, is the milk which can barely secure a +purchaser. The poor quality, relative uncleanness, and the low grade of +the marginal milk dominate the general market in every city, and the +farmer who produces a better grade gets nothing for the difference. It +is true that there is a special price paid by hospitals and a limited +market may be established by special institutions, but we are dealing +here with general conditions such as affect the average milk farmer and +the great bulk of the farmers. It is on these average conditions alone +that the country community can depend. + +Co-operation is the essential measure by which the producer of marginal +goods can be influenced. To raise the standard of his product it is +necessary to have a combination of producers. So long as the better +farmer is dependent by economic law upon those prices paid for marginal +goods, the only way for the better farmer to secure a better gain is to +engage in co-operation which shall include the poorer and the marginal +farmer. + +In the Kentucky counties which raise Burley tobacco, a few years ago the +tenant farmer was an economic slave. He sold his crop at a price +dictated by a combination of buyers. He lived throughout the year on +credit. His wife and his children were obliged to work in the field in +summer. He had nothing for contribution to community institutions. +Indeed, he very frequently ended the year without paying his debts for +food and clothing. + +The organizations of these farmers which have been formed in recent +years for self-protection have been blamed for some outrageous deeds. +Persons in sympathy with these organizations have burned the barns of +farmers unwilling to enter the combination. They have administered +whippings and threats right and left in the interest of the farmers' +organization. In their contest with the buyers to secure a better price +they have reduced to ashes some of the warehouses of the monopoly to +which they were obliged to sell their tobacco. These public outrages are +worthy of condemnation. The writer believes that they were not essential +to the process of co-operation by which the farmers fought their way to +better success, though the effect of these acts is a part of the +historical process. + +But the combination of farmers has redeemed the poorer, the tenant +farmer and the small farmer from economic slavery. His representatives +now fix the price of the product. There is one buyer and one seller, +competition being eliminated; and the price at which the tobacco is sold +is the farmers' price, not the manufacturer's price. As a result the +farmers are able to hire help. The wife and children no longer work in +the field. The bills are paid as they are incurred, instead of credit +slavery binding the farmer from year to year. Last of all this +prosperity has taken form in better roads, better schools and better +churches. It remains only to be said that among the farmers engaging in +this co-operative union there were many preachers and pastors of the +region. They took a large part in the combinations of farmers which +affected this great gain. They recognized that the fight of the farmers +for self-respect and for free existence was a religious struggle and +that the church had a common interest in the well being of the +population to which it ministered. + +Another instance of co-operation is seen in Delaware and on the "Eastern +Shore" where the soil had been exhausted. Methods of slavery days were +unfavorable to the land and after the War it was long neglected. In +recent years a new type of farmer has come into this territory. By +intensive cultivation with scientific methods, he is raising small +fruits, berries, vegetables and other products, for the nearby markets +in the great cities. The success of these farmers has been dependent +upon their produce exchanges. They have learned, contrary to the +traditional belief of farmers, that there is a greater profit for the +individual farmer in raising the same crop as his neighbor, than there +is in an especial crop which competes in the market for itself. That is +to say, in shipping a carload of strawberries the farmer gets a better +price when the car is filled with one kind of berry than he would +receive if the car was made up of a number of separate consignments +under different names and of different varieties. Co-operation has been +better for the individual than competition. + +It at once becomes evident that co-operation is an ethical and a +religious discipline. As soon as the farming population is saturated +with the idea, which these farmers fully understand who have prospered +by co-operation, the religious message in these territories will be a +new message of brotherhood. The old gospel of an individual salvation +apart from men and often at the expense of other men will be enlarged +and renewed into a gospel of social salvation. No man will be saved to a +Heaven apart or to a salvation which he attains by competition or by +comparison, but men shall be saved through their fellows and with their +fellows. The country church, of all our churches, will teach in the days +to come the gospel of unity. + +The writer's own experience as a country minister was a perfect +illustration of this union of all members of a community. In the +community Quakers, Irish Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and +Baptists were represented in nearly equal numbers. With people widely +diverse in their economic position, though dependent upon one another, +it became evident to all that the only religious experience of the +community must be an experience of unity. Under the leadership of an old +Quaker who supplied the funds and of two others of gracious spirit and +broad intellect, the whole community was united, on the condition that +all should share in that which any did. One church was organized to +receive all the adherents of Protestant faith and one service of worship +united all, whether within or without the church. Even the Roman +Catholics once or twice a year for twenty years have been brought +together in meetings which express the unity of the countryside. + +Other instances there are of co-operation among churches in the country, +but their number is not great. There is a supplementary co-operation in +the division of territory in some states. The church at Hanover, N. J., +has a territory six miles by four, in which no other church has been +established. This old Presbyterian congregation has peopled its +countryside with its chapels and has assembled the chapel worshippers +regularly at its services in the old church at the graveyard and the +manse. + +In Rock Creek, Illinois, the Presbyterian Church has a community to +itself, and ministers in its territory with the same efficiency with +which the Baptist church across the creek ministers to its territory, in +which it also has a religious monopoly. These two congregations respect +one another and have a sense of supplementing one another, which is a +form of co-operation. The ideal expressed in these two instances is +cherished by many. It is hoped that religious bodies may agree in time +to divide the territory, to give up churches, to sell or transfer +property rights and to shift their ministers from communities which have +too many to those communities not served at all. But the way for this +co-operation as an active principle has not yet opened. Its value is in +those communities which have had it from the first as an inheritance. +It has so far not proven a remedy to be applied for the cure of existing +evils. + +The writer believes that the path of co-operation is the efficient and +slow one of economic and social organization rather than the delusive +short-cut of religious union. People cannot be united in religion until +they are united in their social economy. The business of the church is +to organize co-operative enterprises, economic, social and educational, +and to school the people in the joy, to educate them in the advantages, +of life together. Co-operation must become a gospel. Union requires to +be a religious doctrine. It will be well for a long time to come to say +but little about organic union of churches and to say a great deal about +the union in the life of the people themselves. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 32: "Rural Denmark and Its Lessons," by H. Rider Haggard. See +also the Bulletins of the International Institute of Agriculture at +Rome, Italy.] + + + + +XI + +COMMON SCHOOLS + + +The weakness of the common schools in American rural communities shows +itself in their failure to educate the marginal people of the community, +in their failure to train average men and women for life in that +community, in their robbing the community of leadership by training +those on whom their influence is strongest, so that they go out from the +community never to return; and in their general disloyalty to the local +community with its needs and its problems. + +It is the boast of the people of the country school district that their +school has "sent out" so many people of distinction. On a rocky hillside +in a New England town there stands, between a wooded slope and a swamp, +an unpainted school building. Within and without it is more forbidding +than the average stable in that farming region. But the resident of that +neighborhood boasts of the number of distinguished persons who have gone +forth from the community, under the influence of that school. This is +characteristic of country places and country schools. The influence of +the school, so far as it has any, is that of disloyalty to the +neighborhood. It robs the neighborhood of leadership. It does nothing +to cultivate a spirit of sympathy with the life that must be lived +there. For every one whom it starts upon the exodus to other places it +leaves two at home uninspired, indifferent and mentally degenerate. + +Another fault of the one-room country school, which makes it a weak +support of the country community, is its lack of professional support. +Among four hundred teachers in such schools, throughout the country, not +one in a hundred expects to remain as a country schoolteacher for a +lifetime. There is no professional class devoted to the country school. +Its service is incidental in the lives of men devoted to something else. +It is a mere side issue. + +Besides, its building is inadequate. Too many needs, impossible to +satisfy, are assembled in a single room. Too many grades must be taught +there for any one child to receive the intense impression necessary for +his education. + +The third great fault of the country school is its total lack of +intelligent understanding of the country. Its teaching is suited to +prepare men for trade, but not for agriculture. Instead of making +farmers of the sons of farmers, the majority of whom should expect to +follow the profession of their fathers, the country school prepares them +for buying and selling, for calculation and for store keeping. It starts +the stream of country boys in the direction of the village store, the +end of which is the department store or clerical occupation in a great +city. + +The improvement of the one-room rural school is possible within narrow +limits only. A recent book[33] gives most sympathetic attention to this +problem of improvement, while asserting that reorganization alone will +be adequate to the situation. But there are improvements which, within +the limitations of the one-room school, are possible. The supervision of +these schools may be made closer and more efficient. By bringing to bear +upon them the oversight of experts in education the grade of teaching +may be elevated. The important principle is to discover the proper unit +of supervision. The town is too small and the county unit too large. It +is probable that with some rearrangement the county can be made the +proper unit of supervision, but the school should determine its problems +on a principle independent of political divisions. The first need of the +country school at the present time is to be adapted, by such supervision +of the district as shall correlate the country school with the units of +population resident in the country. In some places the district to be +supervised by one superintendent should be not much larger than a +township, in other places it might approach the bounds of a county, but +in all instances the supervising officer should have the relation of an +employed expert to the problems of the country. It is not enough that +untrained farmers or tradesmen occasionally visit the school in an +indifferent manner. Their indifference is the natural attitude of men +untrained in the task assigned to them. The officer who supervises +should be well adapted to his task and should visit with frequency, +criticize with trained intelligence, and train his teachers in a +constructive educational policy suitable to the district. + +Another improvement in rural schools may be had in a better normal +training of the teachers. At the present time the normal schools are +inadequate to the task of supplying teachers and beyond the supplying of +teachers for the city, they stop short. The training of teachers for +country schools must become a part of the normal provision for the +states. + +The minimum salary for teachers is a most important consideration. A +primary difficulty in the present situation is that the country school +teacher is ill paid. It is therefore impossible to secure and to retain +in the country persons of adequate mental and cultural value. In order +to secure funds for better payment of teachers, a readjustment of the +taxation in the various states is probably necessary, but this will be +slow of accomplishment. Some results may be effected in another way by a +minimum salary for teachers throughout the State. In this manner a +better grade of teachers can be secured for all schools. + +The most important improvement, however, in the country schools is +almost impossible in the one-room school. It is the teaching of the +gospel of the land. Out around the country school lies the open book of +nature. First of books the pupils should learn to read the book of +nature. The life of the birds and animals, so familiar to the children +yet so little known; the growth of plants, their beauty and their use, +and the nature, the tillage and the maintenance of the soil, are all +lessons easy to impart to those who are themselves instructed, yet the +present system of shifting teachers makes such instruction impossible. +It is the opinion of expert educators that the study of agriculture is +impossible in the one-room country school. With this opinion the writer +agrees, yet so great is the necessity of this very improvement and so +slow will be the changes which look to consolidation of schools, that +effort should be made at once by those in charge of the country school +to teach the children the lesson of the soil, of plant life, of animal +and bird life and of the world about them. These lessons are necessary +to their economic success. They are the very beginning of their +happiness in the country and of love for the country. In teaching them +the country school can best perform its duty to the present generation. + +The centralizing of country schools is the adequate solution of the +present situation. By this means the children from a wide area are +brought to a modern school building suitably placed in the country. When +necessary they are transported to and from the schools in wagons hired +for that purpose, in charge of reliable drivers. In this consolidated +school building, which has taken the place of three, five or even seven +one-room district schools now abandoned, there shall be at least two and +it may be five teachers. This group of teachers forms a permanent +nucleus and a center for the life of the country. The children are +assembled in a sufficient number to provide a large group, and their +social life is enjoyable as well as mentally stimulating. The weaknesses +of the one-room district school are in this institution corrected. There +is permanence in the teaching force, professional service, cumulative +influence, and the interests of the community find in the school a loyal +center of discussion. The consolidated rural school is an institution +for the first time adequate to the task of building up the whole +population. + +The first use to which the centralized rural school is adapted is to +halt the exodus from the country. The country community has now no check +upon the departure of its best people. The sifting of the country +community is done, not by the community itself, but by outside forces, +unfriendly and unintelligent as to the interests of the country. The +centralized rural school will retain in the country those who should be +interested in the country community. This will be accomplished by the +study of agriculture, which can adequately be taught only in a graded +school in the country. But much can be done even by the supply of an +adequate system of education in the country community. + +At Rock Creek, Illinois, the retirement of farmers to the cities and +towns had gone so far in 1905 that the intelligent and devoted members +of the community, who did not desire to leave the place where their +grandfathers had first broken the prairie sod, took counsel as to the +welfare of the community. The superficial fact of most consequence was +the presence of tenant farmers in the community. These tenants, however +desirable personally as neighbors, were of a short term of residence. +From one to five years was their longest term on one farm. The social +life of the community and its religious interests were beginning to +suffer. The sons of the early settlers, therefore, laid their plans by +which to control the selection of tenants. + +Their first plan was to form a farmer's union or syndicate, which should +undertake to run the farms of those who were retiring from the land. +This plan seemed promising and the makers of it congratulated themselves +upon controlling the future of the community. But reflection showed that +this method would have the effect of retiring more farmers from the land +and turning over the hiring of tenants to the few remaining loyal +owners, who would come in a short time to constitute the local real +estate agencies; while the majority of the owners would enjoy themselves +in towns and villages round about. + +The result was that the farmers undertook not to control the tenancy, +but to build up the community itself. They deliberately undertook the +reconstruction of the schools. Three school districts were merged in +one. An adequate building in which a group of teachers is employed was +erected. The children are transported in wagons hired for that purpose. +The grounds about the school building are made pleasant; and the school, +located near the manse and the church which had most influenced the +change, forms now a strong community center for a wide region. + +The result is all that could be desired. The retirement from the farms +has been checked; the neighborhood has become specially desirable for +residence. Farmers who had gone to the town find now that as good or +better schools are to be had in the community where their property lies +and where they pay their taxes. The rental price of land has increased +and it is difficult for tenants to come into the community unless they +are willing to pay an added rental in return for better school +privileges. The whole countryside has received an impetus and the +depression of country life has for this community departed. Mr. R. E. +Bone, "the fourth red-headed Presbyterian elder Bone in the Rock Creek +Church," takes great pride in the building up of the community which has +been effected through the consolidated school. + +A more mature example is the John Swaney Consolidated School in +Illinois. Here the leadership and generosity of John Swaney, a member of +the Society of Friends, have effected the consolidation of four school +districts at a point two miles from the village of McNab. This purely +rural consolidation was not effected without a contest. Indeed the McNab +school has had to fight for the gains it has made from the very +beginning. The school-house stands by the roadside, not even surrounded +by a group of residences. The grounds are peculiarly beautiful, being +shaded by great trees and extending in ample lawn about the building. In +the rear are stables for the horses which transport the children daily +from the outer bounds of the consolidated district. + +The school building contains four class-rooms with physical and chemical +laboratories. In one room are apparatus for cooking and sewing. In the +basement is a well-lighted shop where benches for manual training are +placed at the use of the boys. In the third story is an auditorium so +ample as to accommodate a basket-ball game and about two hundred +spectators. Frequent gatherings occur here in a simple spontaneous way. +This common school has all the social and intellectual power of the +old-fashioned country academy which once was so useful in the Eastern +States. A principal and four women teachers form the faculty of the John +Swaney school. The number of scholars in 1910 was one hundred and five, +the number of boys slightly exceeding that of girls. Of these about half +were in the primary and the grammar grades and about half in the high +school. Of the latter some twenty-five were tuition pupils from outside +of the district, so that the actual school group of the McNab +consolidated school, the children of the tax-payers, was in that year +eighty in number. + +The difference between the social life of eighty young people and eight +or eighteen young people, which one may find in a one-room school in the +country anywhere, is very great. Needless to say that the John Swaney +school has athletic teams, tennis tournament, baseball games, literary +and debating contests and is a strong aggressive force lending life and +vitality to the whole countryside. The older families of the +neighborhood are Quakers. The newer half of the population is of +Germanic stock. The influence of the school is upon all its pupils. The +high school retains practically all the sons of the Quaker families and +some of the newer population whose interest in education is less. + +But the crowning distinction of the John Swaney school is in its study +of agriculture, or broadly speaking in its industrial training. For with +agriculture must be classed manual training and domestic science. By +John Swaney's generosity twenty acres of land were presented to the +State for an experiment farm. This land adjoins the school grounds and a +regular part of the curriculum for the young men is the study of +agriculture. The result of this interpretation of country life in forms +of scholarship is that substantially all the graduates of the high +school annually go to the State University for training in scientific +agriculture, expecting to return to the farms and become rural residents +of Illinois. At the present time no more profitable training could be +given these young men and women. But aside from this economic +consideration, the social and moral value to the community in the return +of these young men and women to their own soil and the scenes of their +childhood is beyond estimation. The Quaker Meeting in this community is +not "laid down;" the church is not abandoned. Indeed all the activities +of the community are built up and the best of the community perpetuated +through the medium of this modern consolidated school. + +To sum up this chapter, the improvement of the one-room common schools +is possible, but for the satisfaction of the needs of the modern country +community that improvement is inadequate. The one-room country school is +an institution which in itself cannot be made to minister to modern +community life. It is simple and modern life is complete. It is casual +and irregular while the forces with which it has to deal are +steady-going and cumulative in their power. It is inexpert and served by +no specialized professional class, while modern life calls for the +service of experts in every direction. It has no social value, while +modern life is always social in its forms of action and requires social +interpretation for its best effects. + +A closing word should be said for a type of schools which has been +perfected in Denmark. They are known as the "Folk High Schools." These +are popular schools, adapted to the teaching of adults to get a living. +Denmark has an adequate supply of technical schools, and these latter +are not established to train scholars or scientists. Their use is to fit +men and women to meet the issues of life, at home, hand in hand, with +skill and enthusiasm. They use few text-books and have no examinations, +and six months are sufficient for a course of study. The schools are +religious and their foundation was the work of Rev. N. F. S. Grundtvig. +In songs and in patriotic exercises, all their own, they idealize +country life and the work of the mechanic. + +The academies of earlier days in rural America were centers of a similar +influence. But with the growth of the public-school system these have +been generally abandoned. It is a question whether some of them would +not serve a need which is felt today, if only they would train men for +modern country life with the same success which they once had in +training leaders for a former period. + +Then all the people lived in the country. Now only a third of the people +are concerned with the farm. So that the education of the modern country +boy or girl would require to be carried on in a different manner, in +order to retain the best of them in the country. The example of the +"Folk Schools" offers an analogy to what might be done in American +country life, if the academy could be transformed into an institution +for the education of the young in the country. + +All observers testify that the "Folk High Schools" have been the first +influence in transforming Denmark in the past forty years, from a nation +economically inferior to a nation rich and prosperous. This change has +been wrought through the betterment of the farmers and other country +people, by means of education in country life; and this education has +been economic, patriotic, co-operative and religious. So perfect has it +been that it is hard to analyze; but the acknowledged center of it has +been a system of schools in which the problem of living is taught as a +religion, an enthusiasm and a culture. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 33: "The American Rural School," H. W. Foght.] + + + + +XII + +RURAL MORALITY + + +The moral standards of the pioneer type and of the land-farmer type +prevail in the country. The world economy has precipitated on the farm +an era of exploitation which has not yet reached its highest point. +Meantime, according to the ethical ideals of the pioneer and of the +farmer, country people are moral. + +The investigations of the Country Life Commission brought general +testimony to the high standards of personal life which prevail in the +country. In such a representative state as Pennsylvania the standard of +conduct between the sexes was found to be good. The testimony of +physicians, among the best of rural observers, was nearly unanimous, in +Pennsylvania, to the good moral conditions prevailing in the intercourse +of men and women in the country. This indicates that the farmer economy +had superseded the economy of the pioneer. + +The moral problem of the pioneer period consisted of a struggle for +honesty in business contracts, and purity in the relation of men and +women. The story of every church in New England and Pennsylvania, until +about 1835 at which Professor Ross dates the beginning of the farmer +period, shows the bitter struggle between the standard accepted by the +church and that of the individuals who failed to conform. The standard +was inherited from the older communities of Europe. The conduct of +individuals grew out of the pioneer economy in which they were living. +Church records in New England and New York State are red with the story +of broken contracts, debt and adultery. The writer has carefully studied +the records of Oblong Meeting of the Society of Friends in Duchess +County, New York, and from a close knowledge of the community through +almost twenty years of residence in it, it is his belief that there were +more cases of adultery considered by Oblong Meeting in every average +year of the eighteenth century than were known to the whole community in +any ten years at the close of the nineteenth century. The farmer economy +in which the group life of the household prevailed over the individual +life had by the nineteenth century superseded the pioneer period, in +which individual action and independent personal initiative were the +prevailing mode. + +The coming of the exploiter into the farm community brings a new set of +ethical obligations concerning property and contracts. The farmer has +perfected the individual standards of the pioneer but he is not yet +endowed with social standards. He knows that it is right to give full +measure when he sells a commodity, but he does not yet see the evil of +breaches of contract. Farmers of high standing in their communities for +their personal character, who are truthful and "honest" in such +contractual relations as come down from their fathers, have been known +to use the school system of the town for their own private profit, or +that of members of their families, and to ignore financial obligations +which belong to the new period, in which money values have taken the +place of barter values. + +A good illustration is that of a deacon in a country church, whom I once +knew. His word was proverbially truthful. As widely as he was known his +reputation for piety and simple truthfulness, for honesty and purity of +life were universal. I do not think that he was consciously insincere, +but as a trustee in administering a fund devoted to public uses he +seemed to have a clear eye for only those enterprises through which he +or members of his family could indirectly secure incomes. Entrusted with +a public service which involved the improvement of the school system, so +far as he acted individually and without prompting by those who had been +accustomed all their lives to modern methods, his action was that of +loyalty to his own family and relationship. In so doing he regularly +would betray the community and the public interest. Yet he seemed to do +this ingenuously and without any conception of the moral standards of +people used to the values of money. + +I have known the same man, whose standing among farmers was that of a +blameless religious man, to borrow money, and in the period of the loan +so to conduct himself as to forfeit the respect of people used to +handling money. To them he seemed to be a conscious and deliberate +grafter. The explanation in my mind is that he suffered from the +transition out of the pioneer and farmer economy into the economy of the +exploiter. + +The history of the sale of lands in the country, in the recent +exploitation of farm-lands, contains many stories of the breach of +contract of farmers, and the inability of the farmer to sell wisely and +at the same time honestly. Contrasting the farmer in his knowledge of +financial obligation with the broker in the Stock Exchange, the latter +type stands out in strong contrast as an admirable example of financial +honesty to contracts, even if they be verbal only. The farmer on the +other hand has no conception of the relations on which the financial +system must be built. He is not an exploiter to begin with, but a +farmer. + +The transition from the older economy to the new is illustrated in the +dairy industry which surrounds every great city. The dairy farmer has +ideas of right and wrong which are purely individualistic. He believes +that he should not cheat the customer in the quantity of milk. He +recognizes that it is wrong, therefore, to water the milk, but he has no +conception of social morality concerning milk. He gives full measure: +but he cares nothing about purity of milk. He is restless and feels +himself oppressed under the demands of the inspector from the city, for +ventilation of his barns and for protection of the milk from impurity. I +have known few milk farmers who believed in giving pure milk and I never +knew one whose conscience was at ease in watering milk. That is, they +all believe in good measure and none believes in the principle of +sanitation. They stand at the transition from the old economy to the +new. + +A story is told among agricultural teachers in New York State to the +effect that an inspector following the trail of disease in a small city +traced it to impure milk supplied by a certain farm. In the absence of +the man he insisted on inspecting the dairy arrangements, being followed +from room to room by the farmer's indignant wife. Finally he said, "Show +me the strainer which you use in the milk," and she brought an old +shirt, very much soiled. Looking at it in dismay the inspector said, +"Could you not, at least, use a clean shirt?" At this the woman's +patience gave way and she declared, "Well, you needn't expect me to use +a clean shirt to strain dirty milk!" + +The packing of apples for market illustrates the transition from the +farmer economy in which the ethical standards are those of the +household, or family group, to the world economy in which the moral +standards are those of the world market. Apples are packed by all +classes of farmers, regardless of varying religious profession, in an +indifferent manner. The typical farmer hopes by competition with his +neighbors to gain a possibly better price. Instances of such successes +as come to certain family groups are endlessly discussed by farmers; and +the highest ideal that one meets among farmers who sell apples +throughout the Eastern States is expressed in the instance of some +family who have improved their own farm and their own orchard, so as to +win for the family or the farm a reputation in some particular market +and thus to gain a higher price. + +Contrast with this the marketing of apples by the Western fruit growers' +Associations. Among them, as for instance in the Hood Valley, Oregon, +apples are packed not by the farm owner with a view to competing with +his neighbors, but by the committee representing the whole district. The +individual farmer has no access to the market. He cannot hide his poor +fruit in an envelope of his best fruit, so as to deceive the buyer. The +committee has a reputation to maintain on behalf of the association, not +of the individual. The apples are marketed on their merits in accordance +with a certain standard. The impersonal demands of the world economy are +kept in mind. The individual farmer and farm are forgotten. The result +is that these far western growers, whose fruit is said in the East to be +inferior in flavor to the apples of New York and New England, can sell +their product in the eastern market at a higher price per box than the +New York or New England farmer can secure per barrel. + +The transition from farming to exploiting has brought out in full view +the wastefulness of the farmer economy which is being succeeded by +exploitation. The whole doctrine of conservation belongs in this +transition. Economy means, literally, housekeeping. The same meaning +appears in the word husbandry. It is a principle of saving. Its +extraordinary value at the present time is due to our sudden sense of +the wastefulness of farm life in recent years. Edward van Alstyne, an +agricultural authority in New York, says, "We farmers think we are most +economical, but we are the most wasteful of all men." The wastefulness +of American farming begins in the tillage of too many acres. The farmer +prefers wide fields even at the cost of poor crops. + +The New York Central Railroad, which is carrying on a propaganda of +husbandry, has appointed a man as expert farmer who increased the yield +of potatoes on his land from sixty to three hundred bushels per acre. +This brings out clearly that his neighbors are still producing sixty +bushels per acre, wasting four-fifths of their land values. This waste +is a wrong that should be denounced in the country church just as +sternly as doctrinal sins, which have occupied the attention of country +ministers in the past. + +Expert farmers say that if corn-stalks for fodder are left out in the +field until they are fed to the cattle they lose forty to fifty per cent +of their food values. This waste is sinful, but the sin is visible only +in the new economy of exploitation which counts all values in terms of +cash. No sooner is the sinfulness of waste observed than its connections +with moral delinquencies of country people becomes clear. In the +improvement of rural morality due to the sifting of country people +during the farmer period, it becomes evident that among a people so +serious-minded some delinquencies still remain. The immoralities that +still lurk and fester in the country are due very largely to waste. This +waste of human things is parallel to the waste of economic values. + +In a conference there was some difficulty in persuading a certain +country minister to speak. When finally he arose he said, "I am not much +interested in the scientific analysis of the country church. All I am +interested in is sin." One wonders whether he was dealing with the sins +of the country in their causes or in their effects, or was he simply +concerned with the sins which consist in opposing the doctrines of his +particular denomination, whatever it was. This wastefulness of the +values in the soil enters into the social life of the country. Farmers +care as little for the social values as for land values. Young men and +women ignore the moral importance of little things. They are not taught +that coarseness is wrong. They are not made to realize that cleanliness +and courtesy and reverence for the human body are of vital importance in +life. + +Country people are prudish and they cover with a strict reserve all +discussion of the moral relations of men and women. Yet in the same +communities there is loose private conversation and coarse references +are common. The strict standard of the household prevails within its +limits. Books and magazines must not discuss, however seriously, the +problems of life. But in the intercourse of the community there is not +the same care. The moral life of country people requires cultivation of +the leisure hours, the casual talk, the occasional meetings of men and +women, and especially of young people. + +The sale of votes in every election is a fixed quantity in the life of +certain country towns. It is to be counted on each year. The number of +votes for sale in each town is a known proportion of the whole, and +through certain counties the selling of votes is the political factor +everywhere present. These uniform facts point to a common cause. That +cause is the degeneration of a proportion of the rural population into +peasantry. + +The growth of a peasant population in America is surely our greatest +danger. A peasantry is a rural population whose moral and spiritual +state are controlled by their material states. There may be rich +peasants, though most peasants are poor. Peasants are a specialized +class, incapable of self-government and controlled by some political +masters who exercise for them essential rights of citizenship. The +peasants in Europe are the last to receive the ballot. In America they +are the first to surrender the ballot by selling their votes. + +A young minister called to a country parish denounced the sale of votes, +in his first year, and publicly fixed the whole blame on a prominent +political leader of the town, who was there present in the church. His +criticism was resented by the whole community. He was right, and so were +they. It is well to denounce the purchase of votes, but the duty of the +country church to Americanize the peasant class is the greater duty. The +presence of such a class in a town infallibly leads to this iniquity. +The sale of votes is as bad as the sale of woman's virtue, and both have +an automatic tendency to degrade the population. + +The danger sign of peasantry is a degraded standard of life. In this +town there is one household in which nobody works but the mother. "How +they live beats me," is the public comment of the neighbors. Through the +winter into that house are crowded the father and mother, two sons and +two daughters, the husband of one daughter and their two children, with +three other small children, whose presence in the house is due to the +loose good nature of the family. There is an indolent uncle of these +children. None of the household follows any gainful occupation. The +table is furnished with potatoes and pork. The attraction of the +household is the easy, loose, good-nature of all its members. There is +no one to complain of the indolence of the five grown men who lounge +about through the winter days. + +The presence of such a household in a town means degradation. Three of +these men can be purchased for money to vote, though they cannot be +hired for money to work. The daughters of the household are an equally +dangerous factor in the countryside. The cause of this moral peril is +the low grade of living to which the family has sunk. There is no known +state of ill-health to account for their indolence. The first duty of +the church in such a community is to regenerate such a household and to +lift the standard of ambition of its members. + +Slowly the country town is coming to realize that its reputation as well +as its progress is determined by this grade of citizen. No exceptional +success on the part of one or more families and no substantial goodness +by a whole grade of the population can compensate for the lowering of +the standard of the whole town by these people. The life and death, the +reputation and the progress of the town are dependent upon the +extinguishment of these peasant conditions. + +This is illustrated by the fact that where votes are for sale in a town +those purchased votes determine the election in the majority of cases. +They constitute the movable margin between the two parties; and by +shifting them one way or the other the political policy of the town is +determined. This fact illustrates the whole moral situation of the town, +for just by the same flexible margin is the moral life of the town +determined. The duty of the church therefore is with the people upon +the economic and social margin of the life of the rural community. + +The farmer's moral standards are opposed to combination. He believes in +personal righteousness and family morals. He does not believe in the +moral control of the individual or the household by the economic group. +It has been impossible, therefore, to combine the farmers in the East in +any general way so as to control their markets by maintaining a high +standard of product. The only control that is dreamed of by the leaders +of the farmers is the control of the quantity of their products. They do +not think of combination which will control themselves, and so maintain +a higher quality of product in order that thus they may dominate the +market in the great city. + +The present state of ethical opinion among Eastern farmers is not in +sympathy with the ethical demands of city populations. The Western fruit +growers' associations have fixed the standard for the farmers who raise +the fruit, first of all, and by means of this standard they have +conquered the market in distant cities. The standard to which they +compel their members to conform is the standard of the demand in the +world market. If the milk farmers about New York City are to combine +they must first impose a self-denying ordinance upon their own members +and furnish the city with a quality of milk in harmony with the demands +of modern sanitary experts. This is an ethical principle not of the +pioneer or the farmer economy, but of the new husbandry to which very +few farmers have conformed. + +In the building of country communities, therefore, the ethical teaching +must be of a new order. There is already a general teaching of morality +in the country churches. The temperance reform is a moral propaganda +born of the farmer economy. The expulsion of the saloon from country +places has been in obedience to the farmer's conscience. The temperance +reform exhibits the transformation from individual ethics which were +advocated in 1880 to communal ethics which are represented in the local +option aspects of this reform. In 1880 the individual was asked to sign +the pledge of total abstinence. In those days it was as important that +innocent children sign the pledge as that drunkards sign it. The lists +of pledge signers were padded with the names of persons who had never +tasted strong drink. In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League began its agitation, +which has proceeded among country people with increasing influence. The +individual is ignored and the pledge is signed now by the community, by +the county or by the state. The attack is not upon the individual +drunkard, but upon the community institution, the saloon. This is a +great gain in the direction of social ethics. It illustrates the +transformation from the pioneer whose impact was upon the individual to +the standards of the exploiter period in which the impact is upon the +commercial institution. The local option movement has had its growth in +the period of exploitation dated by Prof. Ross from 1890. In this +movement the country churches have been distributing centers, the places +of discussion and nuclei of moral energy. + +If the general moral standards of country people are to be transformed +from the pioneer formulae to those of the modern world economy, the +country churches must be led by men trained in economics and reinforced +by a thorough knowledge of social processes. The temperance movement +already begins to show the deficiencies of a propaganda purely negative. +Its leaders have shown no conspicuous sympathy with the play-ground +movement, which is an essential part of the same ethical process. If the +saloon is expelled something must be put in its place, but the +temperance reformers have not been wise enough for substitution: they +have only been skilful in expulsion. Country life, in its representative +communities, suffers today from monotony and emptiness. + +The ministers, teachers and other rural leaders need the training which +will equip them in positive and aggressive social construction. As the +economy of the exploiter comes in to transform the country community it +is necessary for the preacher and the teacher to train the population in +the ethical standards of the new time. Naturally new contractual +relations will prevail in business, and trusts will be committed to the +leading men in the farming community, for which they need definite moral +preparation. There is many a farmer in the United States who may be +safely entrusted with the honor of a woman, but cannot be entrusted with +a million dollars to spend in the interest of the community. In many a +country community it is perfectly safe to leave the door unlocked, but +it is not safe to purchase a quart of milk for a child. There is many a +farmer from whom it is morally safe to purchase an acre of ground, but +one cannot be sure in purchasing a cow from him that she will not be +tuberculous. These are new standards not required by the old economy and +not taught in the old meeting-house. + +One defect of the country church at the present time is that it has for +the countryman no message appropriate to the struggle in which he is +actually attempting to do right. Many churches in the country teach only +the standards of right and wrong to which the farmers already conform. +For a short time a new minister is popular with them because his new +voice and his fresh elocution contain a subtle flattery. He denounces +the sins to which they are not inclined and praises the virtues which +they have learned to practise from their fathers. But after about six +months of such preaching the farmer wearies of a preacher with no new +message. Indeed the countryman is puzzled and perplexed by modern +situations about which the minister has no knowledge. The farmer is +forced to be an economist, but the minister has never studied economics. +The farmer is face to face with problems of exploitation. The values +not merely of land but of money are in his thought. But the preacher has +had no training in finance and he cannot speak wisely or surely upon the +marginal problems with which the farmer is perplexed. + +The household economy of the farm is no longer sufficient. The sins are +not merely those of adultery and disobedience and disloyalty. They are +the sins of the world market and the world economy. In these moral +situations the minister is silent. He knows nothing about them. He is +inclined merely to object if the farmer purchases an automobile. He does +not see what the automobile is to do for the agriculturist. Sunday +observance, total abstinence, family purity, honesty as to personal +property, these are his stock in trade and these alone. It requires, +therefore, a genius to preach in the country, because only the most +brilliant preaching can render traditional moral standards interesting +among country people. + +It is proverbial among ministers that "the best preachers are needed in +the country." The reason for this is that none of the preachers has any +but an outworn standard to preach. They must reinforce it with +extraordinary eloquence in order to keep it attractive. Very ordinary +men, however, if they understand the modern spirit, can hold the +attention of country people. The grange has ministered to the farmer's +conscience. Yet its leaders have been commonplace men, unknown to the +nation at large. The great movements which have influenced the farmer +in the past twenty years have most of them been pushed to success by men +unknown to any but farmers. What orator has come into national +prominence out of the enterprises of agricultural life in the past two +decades? The farmer does not need great eloquence, but he does need a +thorough understanding of the moral and spiritual situations arising out +of the exploiter process in which he is immersed. He needs moral +teachers for the era of husbandry which is dawning in the country. + +"There is an actual and most conspicuous dearth of leadership of a high +order in rural life. This is evident when we consider the economic and +social importance of the agriculturists. The agriculturists constitute +about half of our population, they owned over 21 per cent of the total +wealth in 1900, and in 1909 their products had a value of $8,760,000, or +just about one-third that of the entire nation for that year. Yet this +vast and fundamental element of our nation elects no farmer presidents, +has scarcely any of its members in congress, but few in state +legislatures as compared with other classes; it has no governors nor +judges. In fact, this class is almost without leadership in the sphere +of political life and must depend on representatives of other classes to +secure justice. Economically it is relatively powerless likewise, +possessing practically no control over markets and prices through +organization in an age when organization dominates all economic lines, +accepting interest rates and freight rates offered it without the +ability to check or regulate them, and buying its goods at whatever +prices the industrial producers set. Its leadership up to the present +time has been of the sporadic and discontinuous sort. It has been +individualistic, lacking social outlook and vision. Consequently for +community purposes its significance has been slight."[34] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 34: Prof. John M. Gillette, in American Journal of Sociology, +March, 1910.] + + + + +XIII + +RECREATION + + +The time has passed in which the amusements of the community can be +neglected or dismissed with mere condemnation. In the husbandry of the +country every factor must be counted. We are dealing no longer with a +fatalistic country life, but with the economy of all resources. +Therefore the neglecting of the play life and ignoring the leisure +occupations of a country people are inconsistent with the new economy. + +Moreover the ancient method of condemning all recreations passed away +with the austere economy of earlier days. The churches in the country no +longer discipline their members for "going to frolics." The country +community no longer is of one mind as to the standard by which +recreation shall be governed. Yet every event of this sort is closely +inspected by the general attention. + +The experience of the cities, in which social control has gone much +farther than in the country under the deliberate harmonizing of life +with economic principles, has much to contribute for the building up of +rural society through various means, among which is recreation. + +The need of recreative activities in the country is shown by recent +surveys undertaken in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and +Kentucky by the Presbyterian Department of Church and Country Life. +Generally, throughout the farming population, it was discovered that no +common occasions and no common experiences fell to the lot of the +country community. In the course of the round year there is, in +thousands of farming communities in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, +no single meeting that brings all the people together. The small town +has its fireman's parade, to the small city comes once a year the circus +and to the great city comes an anniversary or an exposition. Every year +there is some common experience which welds the population, increases +acquaintance and intensifies social unity. The tillage of the soil in +those farming communities from which the blacksmith, the storekeeper, +the peddler and the shoemaker have departed, is very lonely. + +The telephone is the new system of nerves for the rural organism, but +the telephone is a cold, steel wire instead of the warm and cordial +personal meetings with which the countryside was once enlivened. In +eighty country towns in Pennsylvania, of which fifty are purely +agricultural, we found in our survey only three that had a common +leadership and a common assembling. The life of the people in these +communities is so solitary as to be almost repellent. Their social +habits are those of aggressive loneliness. This isolation in the +pioneer days made the country people cordial to the visitor: but in the +coming of the new economy the farmer shrinks from strangers, because he +has become accustomed to social divisions and classifications in which +he feels himself inferior; so that the loneliness of country life has +become not merely geographical, but sociological. The farmer is shut in +not merely by distances in miles, but by distances of social aversion +and suspicion. Difference has become a more hostile influence in the +country than distance. + +Organized industry necessitates organized recreation. The subjection of +mind and body to machine labor requires a reaction in the form of play. +All factory and industrial populations, without exception, provide +themselves with play-grounds of some sort. In the city where no public +provision is made the streets are used by the boys for their games, even +at the risk of injury or death from the passing traffic. Jane Addams has +shown, in a fine literary appeal in her "The Spirit of Youth and the +City Streets," the necessity of some provision for the recreations of +the young and of working people in a great city. + +This necessity is not primarily due to congestion of the population. Its +real sources are in the system and organization by which modern work is +done. This necessity is as characteristic of the rural community as it +is of the city, for on the farms as well as in the factory towns labor +is performed by machinery. This means that through the working hours of +the day, from eight to twelve in number, the attention of the worker +must be concentrated upon one task, patiently and steadfastly pursued. +The machine worker exerts himself in the control of great powers, horse +power or steam power, committed to his charge. He has no opportunity for +languor or rest. He has no choice. His job drives him. His movements are +fixed and regulated by the nature of the machine with which he is +working, and of the task to be accomplished. At the end of the day he +has acted involuntarily and mechanically until his own powers of will +and choice are accumulated. Being repressed through long hours of +prescribed labor he is ready for a rebound. His nature demands +self-expression. This self-expression takes the form of play. + +The recreation which results is organized. The laborer in a factory or +on a railroad is conscious of organization by the very nature of his +work. He labors with a machine driven by powers unseen but of whose +operation he is aware, in a great plant wherein his own labor is +co-ordinated with that of other workers like unto himself. The hours of +self-devotion and prescribed attention leave him free for sympathy with +the other workers, whose action and whose toil are organized with his +own, and on whose skill and devotion his life and limb and the +continuance of his job are dependent. When he turns to recreation he +naturally seeks to continue the silent communion with his +fellow-workers. The repressed personal energies are already prepared +for team work. He comes out of the factory bubbling over with good +fellowship and seeking for comradeship in the self-expression which the +long hours of the day have denied him. + +The result is that in every factory town the open spaces are devoted to +playground uses. Vacant lots, unoccupied fields, and the open street are +used by men and boys for their games. + +Exactly the same experience results from school and college organization +of education work. The student in the common schools does not choose his +course; it is prescribed for him by his family and by society. He does +not go to school because he is mentally ambitious, but because the +standards of universal education require it of him. Especially in the +colleges which inherit a great name and attract young men and women for +social advantage, the students are characterized by an involuntary +subjection to the routine of modern pedagogy. Educational discipline is +imposed upon them through the long hours of lectures and laboratory and +recitations. The students in high school and college are accumulating a +rebound of voluntary action. This organized self-expression takes the +form of school and college athletics, which has long since been adopted +as a part of the educational routine. No considerable number of +educators are in favor of abolishing it, and only a few venture to +believe in restricting college athletics. Its moral value is everywhere +tacitly recognized, and pretty generally it is consciously accepted by +college and school faculties. + +Play of this sort has great moral value. We are hired to work, and we do +it without choice or enthusiasm, but in play the natural forces and the +personal choice are at their maximum. Every action is chosen and is +saturated with the pleasure of self-expression. The result is that play +has high ethical value. + +Especially has organized recreation great moral power, because it +involves team work, and the subjection of the individual to the success +of the team. Organized recreation teaches self-denial in a multitude of +experiences which are all the more powerful because they are not +prescribed by any teacher or preacher, but are the free natural +expression of the human spirit under the government of chosen associates +working out together a common purpose. + +Therefore it is necessary to use play for the recreation of country +life. The word is literal, not figurative. It is not a problem merely of +games, nor the question of gymnasium, but a profound ethical enterprise +of disciplining the whole population through the use of the play spirit. +This question must be approached on the high plane of the teaching of +modern theorists, and the experience of such practical organizations as +the Young Men's Christian Association. + +The Christian Associations began their work in the lifetime of present +generations and for accomplishing certain purposes they have used +recreation. They provided a gymnasium, at first, in order to get men +into the prayer-meeting. They offered social parlors in which young men +could always hear the sound of sacred song. But the Young Men's +Christian Association has traveled far from its crude and early use of +recreation. Some of the early Association leaders are still living and +still leading. They have steadily advanced with care and wisdom in the +use of recreation. Within very recent years the leaders of the +Associations have countenanced the use of billiard tables. No longer is +the gymnasium an annex to the prayer-meeting. It has values of its own. +Without moralizing, these practical men have discovered that the social +parlors were good for ends of their own and not merely as a place for +hearing the distant sound of hymns. In other words, recreation is a form +of ethical culture. + +Rev. C. O. Gill, who was captain of the Yale football team in 1890, has +had an extended experience among farmers. He says, "The reason why +farmers cannot co-operate is in the fact that they did not play when +they were boys. They never learned team work. They cannot yield to one +another, or surrender themselves to the common purpose." The writer, +observing Mr. Gill coaching a university team, commented upon the good +spirits with which a player yielded his place on the team just before +the victory. Mr. Gill had removed him, as he explained to him, not +because he played poorly, but because a new formation required a +rearrangement of the team. In reply to comment upon the player's +self-forgetfulness, Mr. Gill said, "Football is the greatest school of +morals in the country. I learned more ethics from the coaches when I was +an undergraduate in Yale, than from all other sources combined." + +It is this high ethical value of recreation which causes the working man +to defend his amateur baseball team, and makes it so hard to repress +Sunday games. The working man admits the high value of the Sabbath, but +he sets a value also upon recreation, and without analysis of the +philosophy either of the Sabbath or of the play-ground, stoutly +maintains the goodness of recreation and its necessity for those who +have labored all the week. "I work six days in the week, and I must have +some time for recreation," is the working man's answer to all Sunday +reformers. Waiving for a moment the question of the Sabbath, the human +process to which the working man testifies is exactly as he describes +it. Organized labor and systematic industry will react on any population +in the form of systematic recreation. + +The Play-ground Movement, therefore, is extending itself throughout the +country by the very influence of modern industry. Given intelligence to +interpret it, and one understands at once the desire of philanthropic +and public spirited men and women to provide "a playground beside every +school building, open for all the people." + +Dr. Luther H. Gulick, who was born of missionary parents, was trained in +religious schools, graduated as a physician, employed for years in the +Young Men's Christian Association, and then made Play-Ground Director in +the New York Public Schools, has become legitimately the heir of the +experiences of the modern social conscience. He has summed up the +philosophy of working men, students, and of the people whose lives are +systematized, in a sentence: "There is a higher morality in the +reactions of play than in the experiences of labor." + +The tradition of the church has been opposed to amusement and +recreation. The church of our fathers recognized the moral possibilities +of play by calling all play immoral. The early Quakers filled their +records in the eighteenth century with denunciations of "frollicks." +Consciously they denounced amusement, acting no doubt in a wise +understanding of the rude, boisterous character of the pioneer's social +gatherings. Only unconsciously did the Quakers cultivate the spirit of +recreation in their social gatherings. It was permitted to have but few +and repressed opportunities. The decadence of the Quaker church is +probably due, in a considerable measure, to their stubborn unwillingness +to see both sides of this question. They saw that recreation was +immoral. They refused to see that its possible moral value was as great +as its moral danger. + +Extensive correspondence with working pastors, by means of a system of +questions sent out from a New York office, has brought this result. In +answer to the question, "What amusements of moral value are there in the +community?" the answer, "Baseball, boating, tennis, golf, bicycling, +etc." A smaller number of recreations was named in answer to the inquiry +for immoral sports. The subsequent question, "What is your position +before the community?" brought from the minister very often this answer: +"I am known to be opposed to all sports." Few ministers realize the +inconsistency of this position. They stand before the community as the +professed advocates of public and private morality, and they stand also +before the community as the professed and violent opponents, often, of +the public sports which are known to the young men and workingmen +generally as promoters of ethical culture and moral training. Is it any +wonder that the churches, in these communities, are often deserted by +the common people? + +In Lewistown, Pa., the old Presbyterian Church there, seeing the +congested character of the town population and the need of +breathing-places for the young people and working people, looked about +for a recreation field. The only available ground is the old cemetery, +in which the earlier members of the congregation have buried their dead. +This, the only open spot in the center of the town, it has been proposed +to turn into a playground, the bodies of the dead to be disinterred and +laid reverently away in a quieter place, and the ground newly +consecrated to the needs of the living, and of the young. The action +contemplated by this fine old church is emblematic of the modern spirit. +Christianity is no longer a mere reverence for death and the other +world. But it is an energetic service to the young, and the working +people, in this present world. It is no longer a solemn reverence for +the salvation of the individual soul in a heaven unseen, but it is a +social service, no less serious, unto the living and unto the young and +the employed. + +Certain modern sports, such as baseball, are free from the corruption +which has attached itself to horse-racing and pugilism. This corruption +is not in racing a horse, or punching an opponent. It is in the +dishonesty of the race, for horsemen believe that "there never was an +honest horse-race," and the followers of the prize ring are constantly +suspicious that the fight will be "fixed." The first question they ask +after the decision of the referee is generally, "Was it a frame-up?" The +moral power of baseball, tennis, football and the other most popular +sports, is in the confidence that the game is fairly played. This +fairness of the game is the widest extended school of ethical culture +that the American and British population know. Honorable recreation +trains in courage, manliness, co-operation, obedience, self-control, +presence of mind, and in every other of the general social virtues. It +makes men citizens and good soldiers when need comes. This was the +meaning of the remark of the Duke of Wellington, when, after the +conquest of Napoleon, he returned to view the playground at Eton, and +said, "Here the Battle of Waterloo was won." + +For the building up of a community, therefore, the promotion of +recreation is an essential. Just as necessary as the providing of common +schools for all the people, is the provision of public play-grounds for +all the people. As many as are the school houses so many, generally +speaking, should be the play-grounds accessible to all, under the care +of trained and responsible leaders, in which, without too much +government, the free movements of the young and the abounding +self-expression of the great mass of the employed shall have opportunity +to work out their own education through play, into public righteousness. + +The training of citizens for days to come demands exactly the qualities +which are imparted on the play-ground. Morality is not taught and +ethical culture is not imparted by precept, though precept and +exhortation have their due place in the analysis of moral and spiritual +matters, for the thoughtful. But the great number of people are not +ethically thoughtful, and in the acquirement of righteousness all people +are unconscious. The desired action in moral growth is universally +spontaneous. The most sober and intellectual of men must be caught off +his guard and must be lured into voluntary actions before any moral +habits can be formed in him. Mere analysis of truth or self-examination +makes no man good. But men become good by doing things first, and +thinking of them afterward. They can be just as good if they never think +about them, though thinking about ethical matters renders a service to +the community as a whole. + +It should be the duty, therefore, of the churches, who are acknowledged +before the whole community as repositories of the conscience of men, to +promote public recreation. Where necessary the church should even +provide a play-ground. In Galesburg, Ill., fifteen churches are +co-operating, through their men's societies, in a central council of +forty members. This Council is made up in the form of four Committees of +ten. Each Committee considers one great interest of the community. One +of these interests is recreation. It is the duty of this Committee in +winter to provide musical and literary entertainment and lectures. In +the summer this Committee has secured the use of the Knox College +recreation field, and employing a trained man, has opened it throughout +the summer as a play-ground for all the children of the city. + +The use of recreation for the building up of a community seems to +involve expensive apparatus and sometimes does so. Mrs. Russell Sage at +Sag Harbor, Long Island, has expended many thousands of dollars in the +experiment. Interested in the children, of whom there are about eight +hundred in the town, through the experience of giving them a Christmas +tree, she determined to devote to their use a piece of land on the +borders of the village, formerly used as a fair ground. This work is to +have local value for the children of this community, and has been used +as a demonstration center of the efficiency of recreation as a moral +discipline among the young. + +But most communities have not so much money to spend. The proposal of a +play-ground or of a gymnasium is itself sufficient to condemn the +doctrine of play. "We cannot afford it," settles the whole question. In +the country expensive apparatus is not necessary; nor do the farmer's +son and daughter require in recreation so much physical exercise. The +gymnasium is an artificial and expensive machinery for inducing sweat, +but the farmer needs no such artificial machine. The problem is purely +one of play, not of exercise. For this purpose a careful study of the +community, and of its tendencies and inclinations, is necessary. The +great essential of recreation in the country is the opportunity to meet +and to talk. Therefore the social life of gatherings in the church, and +in the schoolhouse, no matter what their program, provided it be +innocent, is valuable. Farmers will attend an auction, and go a long way +to a horse-race, or gather at a fair, without any intention of buying or +selling. The fundamental service rendered by the county fair and the +auction is an opportunity afforded to converse. This exercise of the +tongue is far more important in rural recreation than the exercise of +the biceps. But country people cannot talk without an occasion which +unlocks their tongues. They must not be directly solicited to converse +or they are silent. If the occasion is provided and is made to be +sufficiently plausible its greatest success will be in conversation. + +In almost every country community, therefore, there should be revival, +in various forms, of the old "Bees," which had so much of a place in the +former economy. If there is a widow who has no one to cut her wood, the +men of the country church should assemble to do it. If there is a +household whose bread winner and husbandman has died at the time of +planting corn, let the men of the community gather at an appointed day +and till the ground for the family, whose grief is greater at that +moment than their need. Let the women of the community assemble at noon +to provide an abundant repast. This was recently done by a countryside, +at the instigation of the minister, and the effect of it was lasting in +its values as well as intense in the joy of the day's work. It seems, in +view of the need of recreation, that no other quality is so important in +the country community as a lively leader. Resourceful, energetic and +fertile men in the rural ministry can accomplish vastly more than +conventional, orderly and proper men. + +The church in which I began my ministry used to have a play every +Christmas. We built out the pulpit platform with boards, we hung it +around with curtains, giving dressing-room space, and we placed lanterns +in front for foot-lights. The first play we gave made us anxious, for +the neighborhood was an old Quaker settlement; but we found that the +Quakers enjoyed the play immensely and were the best actors. We made it +a genuine expression of the Christmas spirit. We abolished the old +"speaking pieces." Our little stage offered the young people team work, +instead of individual elocution. The rehearsals filled a whole month +with happy and valuable meetings. Everybody co-operated in the labor +necessary to prepare the decorations and to take them down, during +Christmas week, and on the night of the play everybody was on hand, +Catholic, Protestant and heathen. + +The holidays of the passing year suggest the recreations of the country +church. These should not necessarily be productive of sweat, but the +country boy and girl do need the recreation of laughter and happy +meeting and social liveliness. Farm work is lonely and monotonous. Such +immorality as there is in the country has direct connection with the +tedium and dullness of long hours out-doors, alone. The recreations of +country life should be meetings for the celebration of great events of +the year. Easter expresses ideas which are age-old among country people: +it is both a pagan festival and a Christian anniversary. If Easter is +developed in a celebration of song or procession, of sermon and of +decoration, with full use of its symbolic value, it is sure to bring the +whole countryside together, in an experience of the New Year rising from +the grave of winter and of the divine Lord risen from the dead. + +Most country communities have no such celebration. In very many the +whole year passes without neighbors meeting for a common social +experience. This is why people move to the city, because every city, +great and small, has in the course of the year some events which bring +all the people to the curbstone. Country life has few such times and +therefore it is dull, because the richest experience of mankind is the +experience of common social joy. The best recreation is acquaintance and +conversation. The farmer's son spends many hours in silence. He wants +someone to help him to talk, and to talk unto some purpose. + +The Fourth of July is celebrated in Rock Creek, an Illinois community, +by a "wild animal show." Instead of explosives, which are discouraged, +the boys of the community bring together in small cages their animal +pets. The boys are encouraged to make small carts for the transportation +of their pets, and the crowning event of the day is the procession of +these carts, in an open place, before the great dinner, at which the +countryside sits down together. + +Recreation in the country, above all, should revolve about something to +eat. The farmer's business is to feed the world, and country people +love, above all things, the social joy of eating. Farmers' wives are the +best cooks and the country household perpetuates its culinary +traditions. Especially does a permanent farm population enrich its +household tradition with delicious recipes and beautiful customs of the +table. Thanksgiving Day should be the great celebration of the round +year in the country. What a comment upon the country community it is +that so few communities in the country meet together, in response to the +President's proclamation of thanksgiving, to express gratitude unto the +bountiful Father of all. + +The country church should minister to country people in some effective +gathering of all the countryside. A most fruitful method now in use is a +corn judging contest for the boys. + +In the Middle West the Corn Clubs for boys have had an extraordinary +value, and in the South, also, the Farmer's Co-operative Demonstration +Work has made use of the boys in the country community for demonstrating +progressive methods on the farm. Thanksgiving Day can be prepared for in +the preceding spring, and the boys and girls who have managed a garden, +or half acre, through the summer can make their showing at that time. +Such a competitive showing in the country, in the production of the +staple crop, is sure to bring together the whole countryside. + +The local history of the country community is a fruitful source of +recreation. Farmers look to the past, and even the new people in the +country are keen to hear the story of the old settlers and of the early +pioneers. Nothing is of greater value in developing and refreshing +country life than to enrich it by celebrating its early history. + +Recreation is essential to the moral life of any people. It is the +constructive method of making individuals into good citizens. Especially +valuable is it as a means of educating the young people and the working +people of the community. The craving for this social training and +ethical experience drives many out of the country community. Conversely, +training in social morality is to be undertaken especially by the +church, which possesses the conscience of the country community. This +training is expressed in the one phrase; the promotion of recreation. + + + + +XIV + +COMMON WORSHIP + + +The worship of God is an expression of the consciousness of kind. "This +consciousness is a social and a socializing force, sometimes exceedingly +delicate and subtle in its action; sometimes turbulent and all-powerful. +Assuming endlessly varied modes of prejudice and of prepossession, of +liking and disliking, it tends always to reconstruct and dominate every +mode of association and every social grouping."[35] This description by +Professor Giddings is so near to a description of worship, that it is +startling. + +Of all human acts of the conscientious man worship is the most highly +symbolic. They who worship are alike, and in their likeness are unlike +to others. It is an expression of their awareness of resemblance and of +difference. The definitions of consciousness of kind, as a sociological +process, go a long way to explain without further comment, both the +strength and the weakness of the churches in America. + +The churches have to struggle with a narrow and small social horizon. +Few people are so conscious of their kinship with all others in their +community that they desire those others to worship with them. The sense +of unlikeness to others is, unfortunately, as strong in their feelings +as the sense of likeness unto their own. In the American community with +many newcomers, and some foreigners, this sense of unlikeness is +natural. It is not to be wondered that men should think themselves more +like unto their old neighbors than unto the new. It is not surprising +that with new economic processes men should ignore their unity with +those who co-operate with them in getting a living, and should be +conscious of their unity with those whose living comes in the same form. +As a result, we have working men's churches and "rich men's clubs," +"college churches," "student pastors," churches which minister to old +families, and new chapels built by tenant farmers. But these phases of +worship are peculiar to the times of transition in which we live. The +immaturity of our economic processes, and the greater immaturity of our +economic knowledge, explain the failure of worshiping people to assemble +by communities; but the process which assembles men of kindred mind to +worship together now is capable of bringing men together in larger +wholes. + +The spirit of federation is in the air. The longing for religious unity +is a response to the stimuli of common experience in the same locality. +Men who meet throughout the week, if they worship at all, discover a +desire to worship together. The coming of great occasions and the +celebrations of anniversaries, train them in some common assemblies. I +remember how the tidings of the death of President McKinley brought +together all the people of the community in an act of worship. Their +response to a profound sense of danger was a community response, and the +church which was prompt to open its doors, found men of all faiths +within. + +At a recent meeting of the National Body of one of the greatest +Protestant churches, proceedings were halted by the moderator, who read +a telegram announcing the friendly action of another religious body. +This action looked toward union of the two denominations. It was a +response to overtures from the body there in session. Instantly the +whole assembly sprang up, applauding and cheering, and led by a clear, +musical voice, broke out in a hymn. That hymn is profoundly sociological +in its language, and its use is increasing among Christian people. It +expresses that worship which is a consciousness of kind. Its words are + + Blest be the tie that binds + Our hearts in Christian love: + The fellowship of kindred minds + Is like to that above. + + Before our Father's throne + We pour our ardent prayers; + Our fears, our hopes, our aims, are one, + Our comforts and our cares. + + We share our mutual woes, + Our mutual burdens bear, + And often for each other flows + The sympathizing tear. + + When we asunder part, + It gives us inward pain; + But we shall still be joined in heart, + And hope to meet again. + +It would be hard to find a member of a Protestant church in America, +among the older denominations, who does not know these words, and is not +accustomed to use them in response to the stimuli of kinship with other +Protestant Christians. + +The consciousness of kind is an awareness of differences and +resemblances. It is a finding of one's self among those to whom one is +like, and an aversion to those unto whom one is not like. Worship is an +expression of this common likeness. It is an enjoyment of fellowship. + +The experience of worship is impossible in an atmosphere of difference. +This is a reason for the cleavage of denominations, and the splitting of +congregations. Without this separating, men could not enjoy the uniting, +and without the aversion, men could not taste the sweets of fellowship. + +This brings us very near to the sacred experiences in which men find +God. A very early chapter in the Bible describes God as the "Friend" of +a man. In the succeeding pages he becomes the King, the Priest, the +Prophet, and the Father of men. In every one of them the mind of the +worshiper has expressed a profound sense, that God is found by the soul +in society. Herbert Spencer has insisted that all religion is ancestor +worship, that is, it grows out of the family group. + +Simmel teaches that religion is the resultant of the reactions of the +individual with his group fellows, and with the group as a whole. +Christian folk are accustomed to express this by calling one another +"brothers" and "sisters," meaning clearly that religion is a social +experience. + +This is not the place for extended biblical interpretation, but I am +convinced that the whole course of scripture will testify to this, that +in the peaceful, continuing, social unities men have found God, and in +the differences, in their group conflicts, in their wars, and in the +oppositions to their enemies, there has been found no religious +experience. That is, such conflict has intensified unity, and the +resulting unity has been ever richer in religion: but the thoughts for +God have come forth clothed always in terms and titles of fellowship, +unity and kinship. + +In country communities this principle explains the divisions and the +unities of religious life. In many towns, the Presbyterian church, for +instance, is the church of the old settler and the earlier farmers. A +new denomination has come in with the tenants and the invaders. That is, +men have found it impossible to worship in a constant experience of +difference. It is true that their difference is an element in their +religion, because the consciousness of difference is an element in the +consciousness of kind. + +In the Southern States, the white slave-holders worshiped, before the +war, in the same congregations with their negro slaves. They were +conscious of the plantation group, and of the economic unity with their +work-people. When emancipation came and the slaves were made free, they +must needs worship apart; and today, throughout the whole South, the +negro churches have been erected to express the consciousness of kind, +both on the part of the white and of the black. + +If this argument has force, it goes to prove that religion is, in a +small community, the strongest organizing force. The seeking after God +requires as a vehicle the consciousness of likeness and difference. It +can only proceed along those lines. + +The earnest desire of many common folk to know God is a working force, +which follows the cleavage of social classification. The churches become +expressions of social forms. In the country particularly, where life is +simpler and changes are slower, the church becomes an almost infallible +index of the social condition of the people. + +The duty, then, of the religious worker, and the task of the prophet and +the seer, is to enlarge the consciousness of kind. Worship is to be +placed on a larger plane. Americans must be taught to see their unity +with immigrants. Owners of land must be made to recognize that they are +one with their tenants. The employer must be shown that his alliances +are with those who help him to get his living. At once, when this task +is put before us, we see the futility of the ideals of our time. Church +workers and other teachers have played up before the eyes of the people +those ideals which separate men into artificial classes. The +consciousness of kind has been a consciousness of money and +consciousness of belonging to old families, or a consciousness of the +ideals of higher education. A great many American families live in the +ideal of sending their boys and girls to college. This leads them to +feel a difference between themselves and the larger number of people who +do not care for higher education, and who discover no energies in +themselves that move on the path of learning. The result is that their +worship is narrow; churches become culture clubs: the preachers are +exponents of literature: the service of worship is a liturgy of esthetic +pleasure. + +The true consciousness of kind must be economic and social. There is no +escape from this for religious people. They must go deep down to the +unities with men who co-operate with them in getting a living. The +Pittsburgh mill owner has no other unity by which he can find himself at +one with his foreign born mill-hand, than the fact that he and the +mill-hand are fellow workers in the mill. + +What other bond of union is there between the farm landlord and the farm +tenant? They have no common idealism. The one reads books, the other +does not. The one sends his son to college, the other sends his into the +stable and the field. The one is enjoying a life of leisure and his +hands are clean; the other sweats, saves, and produces, in soiled +clothing, and with hard, coarse hands. They have only one basis of +unity, namely, that they co-operate in tilling the soil, and in the +producing of food and raw materials. The teacher, or preacher, who +attempts in this case to escape the economic unity, will find no other. + +The trouble with most of the ideals which express themselves in +diversified worship, is that they are peculiar to the life of leisure, +they are a part of "the leisure class standard." Many teachers and +preachers reiterate similar demands which can only be responded to by +people who do not have to work. + +From this leisure class standard our ideals must be changed to the +standard of work, and the man who has vision is he who shall see the +economic, the industrial unities, and who with compelling voice, will +call men together to worship in a new consciousness of kind. + +Ministers in the country are feeling this very deeply. The pastor who +ministers to a whole community, boasts of it. He realizes he is serving +a true social unit. This is the joy of many country churches which might +be named, and the lack of it is the blight of many other country +communities. It must be clearly born in mind, however, that the church +can not organize a unity that is apart from the life of men. Religion +is the expression of social realities. There can be no "federation" of +those who are not conscious of their likeness and of their resemblances. +This means that the religious teaching of days to come must be a +teaching of the real unities of mankind. For in these true bonds of +union men are brought together. The efforts to assemble them in +artificial bonds, however ideal, will be futile. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 35: "Descriptive and Historical Sociology," by Prof. Franklin +H. Giddings, p. 275.] + + + + +SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +BOOKS + + The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, + Chas. R. Van Hise, The Macmillan Co. + + The Rural Life Problem of the United States, + Sir Horace Plunkett, The Macmillan Co. + + Principles of Rural Economics, + Thomas Nixon Carver, Ginn and Company + + The Country Life Movement in the United States, + L. H. Bailey, The Macmillan Co. + + Ireland in the New Century, + Sir Horace Plunkett, E. P. Dutton + + The American Rural School, + Harold W. Foght, The Macmillan Co. + + The Country Town. A Study of Rural Evolution, + Wilbert L. Anderson, The Baker & Taylor Co. + + Descriptive and Historical Sociology, + Franklin H. Giddings, The Macmillan Co. + + Rural Denmark and Its Lessons, + H. Rider Haggard, Longmans, Green & Co. + + Quaker Hill, A Sociological Study, + Warren H. Wilson, Privately printed + + Youth, + G. Stanley Hall, D. Appleton & Co. + + The Presbyterian Church in the United States, + Robert E. Thompson, Chas. Scribner's Sons + + Chapters in Rural Progress, + Kenyon L. Butterfield, The University of Chicago Press + + The Country Church and the Rural Problem, + Kenyon L. Butterfield, The University of Chicago Press + + The Story of John Frederick Oberlin, + Augustus Field Beard, The Pilgrim Press + + The Church of the Open Country, + Warren H. Wilson, Missionary Education Movement + + The Day of the Country Church, + J. O. Ashenhurst, Funk & Wagnalls Co. + + The Distribution of Wealth, + John Bates Clark, The MacMillan Co. + + +ARTICLES REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT + + The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911, + Statement by John L. Gillin. + + The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1911, + The Drift of the City in Relation to the Rural Problem, + John M. Gillette. + + Modern Methods in the Country Church, + Matthew B. McNutt, Missionary Education Movement + + A Method of Making a Social Survey in a Rural Community, + C. J. Galpin, University of Wisconsin + Circular of information No. 29 + + Bulletins of International Institute of Agriculture, + Rome, Italy + + The Political Science Quarterly, December, 1910, + The Agrarian Changes in the middle West, + J. B. Ross + + + + +INDEX + + + Abandoned country churches, 126 + + Absentee landlords, 32-39 + + Academy,--Old New England, 25 + + Addams, Jane, 191 + + Adult Bible Class, 134 + + Agee, Prof. Alva, 105 + + Agriculture, teaching of, 167 + + Amish, 74 + + Amusement, problem of, 84 + + Anabaptist, 72 + + Anderson, Wilbert L., 102 + + Anti-Saloon League, 183 + + Apples, marketing of, 175 + + Augustine, Saint, 82 + + Austerity, 57 + + + Bailey, L. H., 50 + + "Bees", 203 + + Bellona, N. Y. 56 + + Boll weevil, 143 + + Bone, R. E., 86 + + Braddock, Rev. J. S., 58 + + Breach of contract, 174 + + Breadwinner, type, 113 + + Butterfield, Kenyon L., 137 + + + Casselton, N. D., 42 + + Centralized school, 163 + + Chaffee, farm, 43 + + Chester County, Pa., 124 + + Chesterton, Gilbert K., 115 + + Christmas play, 203 + + Church, Budget, 138 + Envelope system, 139 + Financial system, 130 + Records, 172 + + Clark, John Bates, 80, 111 + + College athletics, 193 + + Columbus, Christopher, 112 + + Community center, 104 + + Consciousness of kind, 208, 213 + + Corn Clubs, 206 + + Country Fair, promoted, 17 + + Country Life Commission, 171 + + Cranberry, N. J., church at, 27 + + Crete, Nebraska, 86 + + + Danish Folk Schools, 52, 169 + + Delaware, produce exchanges, 154 + + Demonstration work, 206 + + Denmark, 51, 147 + + Desmoulin, 96 + + Diminishing returns, law of, 88, 110 + + Donation, system, 27 + + Dunkers, 58, 67 + + Du Page Church, 106 + + + Eliot, Ex-President of Harvard, 137 + + Endowment of churches, 136 + + Exploitation of land, 32-33, 123, 124 + + + Family group, 19 + Shrinkage of, 124 + + Farm laborers, 22 + + Federation of churches, 135, 209 + + Foght, Harold W., 97, 160 + + Fourth of July celebration, 205 + + + Galesburg, Ill., 201 + + Galpin, Prof. C. J., 94 + + Giddings, Prof. Franklin H., 208 + + Gill, Rev. C. O., 195 + + Gillette, Prof. John M., 188 + + Gillin, Prof., 57, 58, 67 + + Greeley, Horace, 108 + + Group system, 10, 11, 12 + + Grundtvig, Bishop, 51, 53, 169 + + Gulick, Dr. Luther H., 197 + + + Haggard, H. Rider, 147 + + Hanover, N. J., 156 + + Hays, Willet M., 91 + + Hernando, Mississippi, 105 + + Holidays, celebration of, 204 + + Homestead act, 34 + + Hood River Valley, Oregon, fruit growers, 176 + + Hormell, Dr. W. H., 88 + + + Illinois, 126 + Survey of, 190 + + Immigrants, in country districts, 123 + + Indiana, survey of, 190 + + Ireland, Christian Brothers, 52 + Co-operative organizations, 147-151 + Country Life Movement, 80 + + + John Swaney Consolidated School, 165-166 + + + Kentucky, co-operative organizations, 152 + Survey of, 190 + + + Lancaster County, Pa., 57 + + Land values, 34 + + Leadership, 187 + + Lewistown, Pa., 198 + + + McNab, Ill., 166 + + McNutt, Rev. Matthew B., 86, 106 + + Marginal man, 113 + + Massachusetts communities, 96 + + Mennonites, 72 + + Middle Creek Church, 58 + + Minimum salary, 161 + + Missouri, survey of, 190 + + Money crop, 95 + + Mormons, 57, 62-78 + + Morrison, Rev. T. Maxwell, 56 + + Mountain community, 4 + + Mountaineers, 6, 8, 16 + + + New England Country Church Asso., 137 + + New York Central R. R., 177 + + + Oberammergau, 83 + + Oberlin, John Frederick, 14 + + Oblong meeting, 71, 172 + + Ohio, counties less productive, 101 + + Ottumwa, Iowa, 88 + + Over churching, 26, 145, 146 + + + Palatinates, 72 + + Pastor, need of, 13 + + Passion Play, 83 + + Penn, William, 72 + + Penn Yan, N. Y., 40 + + Pennsylvania Germans, 57, 62-78 + + Pennsylvania, survey of, 190 + + Planters, south, 18 + + Playground, 98 + + Playground movement, 134, 196 + + Plunkett, Sir Horace, 51, 147 + + Polk, Rev. Samuel, 54 + + Poor, ministry to, 115 + + Protestantism, 118 + + + Quaker Hill, 70, 94, 155 + + Quaker meeting, McNab, 168 + + Quakers, 70, 197, 204 + + + Rankin, David, 41 + + Recreation, importance of, 139, 194 + + Retired farmers, 36-38 + + Retirement from farm, process described, 125 + + Revivals, 7, 8, 9 + + Riis, Jacob, 87 + + Rock Creek, Ill., 156, 164, 205 + + Ross, Prof. J. B., 2, 21, 29, 32, 184 + + Rural evangelism, 131 + + Rural exodus, 87, 97 + + Rural free delivery, 128 + + + Sag Harbor, L. I., 201 + + Sage, Mrs. Russell, 201 + + Schenck, Norman C., 4 + + School, country, 23, 85, 60, 159 + + Scientific farming, 48 + + Scotch-Irish, 30, 57, 62-78 + + Simmel, 212 + + Slave-holding churches, 28 + + Smith, Adam, 5 + + Smith, John, 112 + + Socialism, 116 + + Social service, 110, XVI + + Spencer, Herbert, 212 + + Store, country, 22, 94 + + Sunday Schools, 131, 134 + + Swaney, John, 86 + + + Tarde, Gabriel, 59 + + Teachers, training of, 161 + + Team play, ethical value, 99 + + Telephone, rural, 128, 190 + + Temperance movement, 46, 117, 183 + + Tenant farmers, 35 + Tenants' lease, 40 + + Thompson, R. E., 65 + + Theological seminaries, 119-120 + + Trolley, inter-urban, 128 + + Types, economic, 3 + + + Utility, initial, 108 + Marginal, 109 + + + Van Alstyne, Edward, 177 + + Vote selling, 179 + + + Washington County, Pa., 124 + + Waterloo, Iowa, community church, 68 + + Wealth, conservation of, 47 + + West Nottingham, Md., church at, 54 + + Winnebago, Ill., 58 + + + Young Men's Christian Association, 134, 194 + + Young People's Societies, 28 + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note + + +The following changes have been made to the text: + +Page xi: "IX" changed to "XIII". + +Page 2: "are separated form" changed to "are separated from". + +Page 6: "langour" changed to "languor". + +Page 17: "this be brought" changed to "this he brought". + +Page 22: "desti-period" changed to "destination". + +Page 29: "estended" changed to "extended". + +Page 30: "recorded in out literature" changed to "recorded in our +literature". + +Page 86: "individiuals" changed to "individuals". + +Page 94: "In 1910 every country community" changed to "In 1810 every +country community". + +Page 105: "embarassed" changed to "embarrassed". + +Page 107: Footnote 24: "Willett" changed to "Willet" + +Page 116: "proletarean" changed to "proletarian". + +Page 123: "Portugese" changed to "Portuguese". + +Page 150: "gradiloquently" changed to "grandiloquently". + +Page 191: "Addam" changed to "Addams". + +Page 192: "elf-expression takes the form" changed to "self-expression +takes the form". + +Page 197: "inmoral" changed to "immoral". + +Page 198: "disintered" changed to "disinterred". + +Page 206: "frutiful" changed to "fruitful". + +Page 208: "expresssion" changed to "expression". + +Page 209: "immaturity of our ecnomic" changed to "immaturity of our +economic". + +Page 220: "Lewiston" changed to "Lewistown". + +Page 221: "XII" changed to "XVI". + +Page 221: "Tard" changed to "Tarde". + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of the Country Community, by +Warren H. 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