Stron UC-NRLF $B Hta M3D AtiRIC. mt FIFTY MILLION STRONG OR OUR RURAL RESERVE BY Ernest Irving Antrim, A. M., Ph. D. Member of the Fourth Constitutional Convention of Ohio; co-author of ''The County Library, ^^ THE PIONEER PRESS VAN WERT, OHIO Copyright by The Pioneer Press 1916 Published April, 1916 . ■ U W, F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO y INTRODUCTION Bishop William F. Anderson, Methodist Episcopal Church THE Country Life movement is one of the most remark- able and significant facts of our day. It seems hardly credible that the first national commission was appointed in 1908. That any movement in so brief a time should have gripped the thought of the leaders of American life and should have created so extensive and high grade a literature upon the subject, is itself as fine a tribute to the importance of the work as could be imagined. The rural population of the United States includes over one- half of the entire population. We include, in the term " rural," villages and towns not exceeding twenty-five hundred in popu- lation. The thirteenth census revealed the following facts : That in only six of the forty-eight states was there a decrease in the rural population; eight states increased over fifty per cent; six between thirty and fifty per cent; twelve between twenty and thirty per cent; ten between ten and twenty per cent, and only sixteen of the entire number of states increased less than ten per cent. The value of farm property for the same period increased over one hundred per cent and aggre- gates at the present time more than forty billions of dollars. By common consent, the church is at the very heart of the rural life movement. If a body of men had been appointed to exalt the relation of the church to rural community life, they could not possibly have done it more effectively than it was done by the report of the first national commission on the rural life movement. That report is notable in the remarkable way in which it magnifies the church in its relation to the better- ment of rural community life. The movement has gripped our educational and constructive leaders in a way scarcely paralleled in so brief a period of time. It is the beginning of a new and better day for the rural life of America. And it will be seen at a glance that any effort to redeem American life 34Sf203 INTRODUCTION must include rural life, which is so much a constituent c national life. This volume itself is a testimonial to the fact that the move ment makes a strong appeal to the minds of laymen. Mi Antrim has given careful study to the subject, and deals wit the vital facts of the problem in a living and vital fashion. Thi little volume will be a valuable contribution to the already ric literature upon the subject. It has a real mission. May it hav multitudes of thoughtful and earnest readers. Cincinnati, Ohio, February 26, 1916. IV PREFACE THIS little volume modestly seeks to establish the four facts (i) that America, because of her location, her natural resources, her racial heritage, her history and the ideals of her people, gives promise of becoming, in the words of Sir Gilbert Parker, "the vast controlling factor in the destinies of modern nations;" (2) that Rural America, great relatively in the " Age of Homespun," less influential during the rise of the cities to supremacy, but today all athrob with new life, is enjoying a renaissance prophetic of a brilliant future; (3) that Rural Leadership, with a vision of the moun- tain-top variety, with the incentive of the most inviting careers in the field of human endeavor, and with the prospect of won- derful accomplishments in the Big Business of both the Secular and the Spiritual Kingdom, is enthusiastically assuming the responsibility of an inspiring task; and (4) that Rural Co- operation, in developing a more satisfactory economic plan, in building up a better social and recreational life, in strength- ening the agencies that contribute to intellectual growth, and in fusing the scattered forces of the spiritual realm into unified effort, is working out an epochal Program of Preparedness. The manuscript was read by Professor G. Walter Fiske, of the Oberlin Theological Seminary, Mr. Albert E. Roberts, of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Asso- ciations, and Mr. Percy F. Bicknell, literary critic, to all of whom, as well as to several others, grateful acknowledgment is made, for valuable criticisms and suggestions. E. I. A. Van Wert, Ohio, March 6, 1916. Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fiftymillionstroOOantrrich CONTENTS Page Chapter I. America 1 1. Equipment for a great task 2 2. Four perils of Urban America 10 3. Four perils of Rural America 14 4. Elimination of perils 17 Chapter II. Rural America 19 Life of Christ: Play, work, worship, health, love, rest 19 1. Play: Anything that one does out of pure love 25 2. Work: Anything that one does with serious effort 47 3. Worship: Attuning oneself to the Infinite . . 75 4. Health: The perfect adjustment of mind and body 83 5. Love: The greatest feeling of the heart . . 94 6. Rest: Recuperation through repose .... 100 7. Conclusion: Four fundamental needs . . . 103 Chapter III. Rural Leadership 108 1. Discovering, training and utilizing rural lead- ership 108 2. Qualities or characteristics of successful lead- ership 110 3. The results of inspired leadership .... 126 4. The price of leadership 128 Chapter IV. Rural Cooperation . . . . . . 130 1. Cooperation in the individual and in society . 130 2. Obstacles to cooperation in country and town 131 3. Units of cooperation 138 4. Methods of cooperation 140 5. The chief problem of country and town . . 141 6. The results of cooperative activities . . . 142 7. Conclusion: Cooperation a cosmic law, a divine injunction 149 vii FIFTY MILLION STRONG CHAPTER I AMERICA THE Marathon runner must have had a sturdy ancestry, a good environment, a clean life, a long period of special training, be in the pink of condition and have a mountain-top faith, if he would win. Likewise, America must have had a sturdy ancestry, a good environment, a clean life, a long period of special training, be in the pink of condition and have a mountain-top faith, if she would dominate the era inaugurated by the World War. A little investigation will show whether or not America is fitted for the leadership which she aspires to assume in the post bellum world, a shrinking, contracting world, a world wherein, among many other wonderful things, even the telephone talk of The New York Mail will be a reality. *' Hello, Calcutta ! Canarsie wants you.'' " I'm still ringing 9876 Shantung." " Never mind, Montclair ! New Guinea was calling, but the party's left the booth." "Here's Chihuahua, Vladivostok! Drop one rouble at a time, please ! " " Listen, Kansas City ! Tibet 2626 has been discontinued." " Hello, Tokio ; you say you can't understand the party in Buenos Ayres ? I'll have the manager put an interpretress on the line." " That b-r-r-r-r-r from the Glasgow exchange is spoiling the waves ! " " You want the correct time ? " " Quit your kidding, Greenwich ! " I FIFTY M'WL^ON STRONG First/ Ante flea's Ancestry. — The remote ancestor of the American people was an Aryan, most of whose descendants came over into Europe. In fact, a great majority of the inhabitants of Europe today are of Aryan lineage. The principal descendants of the great Aryan family were the Greek, the Roman, the Teuton and the Slav. Of these the Greek was the first to come into prominence. There was a great ancient Greek civilization, but, like all the other civiliza- tions of antiquity, it perished. The Greek nation of today is just emerging from Turkish dominancy, and under the in- spiration of the Greek Idea, which means the restoration of the Greece of earlier centuries, the Greek people is sure to rise again. The next to dominate world activities was the Roman, who created the civilization that preceded modern civiliza- tion. Modern civilization is chiefly indebted to the Teuton. The Slavic peoples are beginning to assert themselves in latter- day history and will some time occupy a more conspicuous place in world activities. There is little doubt in the mind of any investigator of world conditions that, in the marvelous development of modern civilization, the Teuton has taken the initiative and is today the most important factor. Now, the leading Teutonic nations are the English, the Germans, the Dutch and the Scandinavians. Everyone recognizes the fact that the world has for a generation, at least, responded most sympathetically to Teutonic influences and will quite likely for an indefinite period follow a Teutonic trend. The American people, largely descended from the four chief Teutonic peoples, is a composite nation. Of course, the basis of the American population is English, but the German, Dutch and Scandina- vian elements make the nation distinctively Teutonic. It must be concluded, then, that being of Aryan stock, descending from the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family, which has achieved more than any other branch of this great family, and representing an admixture of all the virile offshoots of this dominant branch, the American people can boast of a great ancestry. AMERICA Second, America's Environment. — At the start, let it be said that nearly all the achievements of history which occupy an important place in world annals have taken place in the temperate zone, and of all nations the United States possesses the most favorable location in the temperate zone for the development of a great civilization. Gladstone once said that " America has a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established by mankind." The strategic position of America is indicated by the following facts : " The United States faces the two great oceans; so does Canada; but with that exception there is no other commanding nation that has a great coast-hne on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With many miles of coast-line on the East, America looks forward toward the history-making nations of the past. Westward she faces the sea upon which look out the eyes of one-half the human race, where life is all athrob with the new awakening." The eight great nations that have been con- spicuous in world achievements during the past century are Great Britain, Germany, the United States, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Japan. The coast line of the United States is almost equal to that of the other seven nations combined. " The United States is the nearest com- manding power to the undeveloped parts of the world. The great undeveloped regions are the Canadian Northwest, Alaska, Siberia, Australia, . South America, Africa." Besides, the completion of the Panama Canal has added amazingly to the great preponderance already possessed. " The United States has many great harbors. Not one of the nations of Europe has more than two or three great harbors; several of them have none. Russia is too far north. Germany is at a disadvantage because she has no direct access to the Atlantic. Great Britain commands that ocean. The United States has several harbors on the east coast, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, while on the west coast there are two of the most important harbors in the Western Hemisphere opening into the Pacific Ocean — San Francisco Bay, where come and go the navies of the world, and Puget Sound, the Mediterranean 3 FIFTY MILLION STRONG of America, with its 1,500 miles of coast-line. The Encyclo- pedia Britannica says that the Mississippi River with its branches affords 35,000 miles of navigable waterway. All Europe has 17,000 miles, or less than one-half the length of the great central waterway of the United States. It is no wonder that Napoleon said, ' The nation which controls the Mississippi Valley will be the most powerful nation on earth.' " The United States enjoys "isolation from other commanding powers. The favorable location of the United States for internal development is equaled by no other nation in the world, because of the fact that it is separated by many thou- sands of miles of sea from the other powers of our time." ^ The preceding facts coupled with the two facts that America can supply all her own needs and is by virtue of the Monroe Doctrine guardian of the whole Western Hemisphere, lead to the belief that from the standpoint of environment America is facile princeps among the nations of earth. Third, America's Life. — Most of the early inhabitants of America came to this country during the two great upheavals in Europe that have contributed so much to modern civiliza- tion, viz., the Reformation and the English Revolution. Now, these two upheavals having been not local but European events, and their purposes having been, in the case of the Reformation, to secure religious liberty, and in the case of the Revolution, to obtain primarily political liberty, it can be readily seen that the two ideas that dominated the early colonists of the United States were religious and political liberty. With these two ideas in the very warp and woof of their natures and having in their new homes the major tasks of overcoming the Indians, conquering the wilderness, estab- lishing orderly governments and constructing a new society, the pioneer Americans developed into a people strong of body, magnificent in initiative, proud of their religious freedom and loving political liberty. With the beginning of the Revolu- tionary War, America entered upon a new era in her national ^ The several quotations of this paragraph are from " The Call of the World," W. E. Doughty, pp. 67, 68, 69. AMERICA life. Her first duty was to free herself from a tyrannous foe and this duty was well performed. Thereafter she under- took the building of a constitution, which, if democracy proves to be the regnant tendency of future civilization, will mark one of the epochs of world progress. From the adoption of the federal constitution down to the present time, two facts stand out in bold relief in the nation's life. One is the preser- vation of the union, which involved decades of controversy and a great civil war, and the second is the splendid achieve- ments of an aggressive people in taking possession of the greatest country, from the standpoint of material resources, under the sun. This record of a people, now one hundred million strong, indicates that America has lived a clean life. Fourth, America's Training. — No other nation on earth, during the past generation, not even the English nation, has responded so sympathetically to ideas that have world signifi- cance. In every field of human endeavor. America's interest has gone beyond the local. It is America that has had the big share in causing the world to become a contracting, shrinking world, because never in human history was there such a marvelous demonstration of inventive and scientific achievement as characterized the last century in the United States. America has also had a large share in the wonderful work of making plastic all the peoples of earth, preparing them to be molded into more perfect images of the Creator. Moreover, freed from the fear inspired by covetous neighbors and stimulated by the greatest inheritance of ideas that have ever filled the mind and heart of a people, America has been a nation of peace, contentment and prosperity. America has no great problems to solve such as the Civil War settled. There are plenty of problems to keep the nation busy for generations to come, but the point especially to be noted is that America for a period of half a century has had an abundance of surplus mental energy to give to the larger problems having world-wide significance, such as the gospel- izing of all peoples, discovering the hitherto undiscovered portions of the earth, investigating from many standpoints 5 FIFTY MILLION STRONG all the peoples and countries of the earth, pushing commerce to the ends of the world, relieving world suffering through great international organizations and the like. And all this has fitted America for world leadership without the taint of selfishness, the greed of gain and the ambition of dominancy. America has been trained for a great task. God made the Hebrews, twenty centuries before Christ, the medium through which He gave the world Christianity. Is He today making America the lever whereby humanity will be raised to a higher plane in world civilization? Fifth, America's Condition. — From the standpoint of finance, America, of all the nations of earth, is now supreme and bids fair to continue so indefinitely. While the other great powers have with reckless hand been wasting their substance, America has been gaining a relatively stronger position because of their waning strength, and at the same time increasing her possessions owing to an unusual demand for the things she has to sell. A short time ago, one of the papers had a cartoon representing Uncle Sam appearing at the door of his house and finding on the steps a little baby in a basket labeled " Financial Supremacy." Behind a tree appeared the half- starved mother labeled " Europe," who was waiting to see if Uncle Sam would take her baby in. Of course. Uncle Sam took it in. The recent organization of a fifty-million-dollar corporation in America to take care of international interests rather indicates that " Financial Supremacy " will be adopted by Uncle Sam and not returned to its mother. Furthermore, the Great War has put to the test her whole people from the standpoint of philanthropy. Never before has a nation re- sponded so magnificently to the call of a suffering world as has this nation during the Great War. Men and women by the thousands have given themselves to all the warring nations for purely humanitarian purposes, and those who have stayed at home have, with a prodigal hand, contributed of their surplus to mitigate as far as possible the suffering of many millions of innocent families made destitute by the war. At the same time, on all hands, efforts have been made to drag America 6 % AMERICA into the maelstrom of the war, but the collective conscience and wisdom of her people have enabled her steadily to pursue the even tenor of the way of neutrality. On several occasions America has suffered indignities at the hands of some of the belligerent nations, but she has kept ever in view the great duty that the next generation will impose upon her, and if she is able to assume the responsibilities of the New Era with clean hands her service to mankind will be all the greater. So, because of her expanding wealth, her aggressive humanitarian activities, her patience, endurance and charity during many trying days, America is in the pink of condition for any world duty that may await her. Sixth, America's Faith. — D'Annunzio has written most beautifully of the New Italy, and says, among other things, that the ideal of the New Italy, in its future endeavors, is a " maximum of individual and collective power." ^ What an inspiring motto this is for a nation, and does not the trend of affairs in recent years in America indicate that it also fits perfectly into her ambitions? There has been a resurgence of faith from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the gulf. She has set herself some herculean tasks and her faith that these tasks will be accomplished is great. In the missionary field the slogan is, " The world for Christ in this generation." It takes faith of a very high order to believe that this aspira- tion will come to fruition. But there is little doubt that by the close of this generation all peoples of earth will have heard the gospel of the Savior of Men. In the temperance field the slogan is, "A dry nation in 1920." Already nineteen states have adopted prohibition and all the other states of the Union are partially dry, whereas less than a generation ago almost the whole temperance map of the. nation was black. With great zeal the people are warring against impurity, making efforts to bring Christ into the business world that labor and capital may become partners, endeavoring to solve the slum problem of the cities and the isolation problem of the country, while scores of other problems are engaging the 1 See The Literary Digest, October 9, 191 5, p. 774. 7 FIFTY MILLION STRONG best thought of the natron, and the faith of all who are active in the work of an uplift character is of the mountain-top variety. With such a faith mountains can be moved. Let other countries glory in their past, Our country glories in her days to be, In her horizons, limitless and vast, Her plains that storm the senses like the sea; She has no ruins gray that men revere — Her time is now, her heritage is here. Anyone who has read the preceding paragraphs will con- clude that the writer is an optimist. He is indeed, but not so extreme an optimist as Pat, who was heard to exclaim on plunging past the tenth story of a twenty-story New York building, from the top floor of which he had just fallen — " All right, so far ! " Rather he is an optimist of the Brown- \ ing variety, believing that " God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." There is no question that " all's right with the world." From the time God spoke to Abraham, nearly forty centuries ago, the destinies of the peoples of earth have been in the hands of Almighty God, and he who possesses a discerning mind can see the hand of God in the affairs of men all through these millenniums. Now, the American people is not perfect, nor is it anywhere near perfect. But it may be contended that it is fundamentally sound. While the American nation as a whole reveals a number of imperfections that cause the pessimist to cry out in his despair that it is doomed, nevertheless beneath the imperfections there is a heart that beats true and pumps good red blood through a sound body, there is a conscience that is becoming more and more sensitive to the promptings of divinity, there is a mind possessed of a world vision and there is a will that is destined to rule. America is on the threshold of the world's greatest era, and in that era may the American people, one hundred million strong, be the Moses that will guide the one and one- half billion souls of earth toward the Promised Land ! Sir Gilbert Parker recently said : " We shall be wise if we 8 AMERICA keep ever in mind that the people of the United States must sooner or later be the vast controlling factor in the destinies of modern nations. There is population, there is wealth, and there is character." One ship drives East, another drives West, While the selfsame breezes blow; Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales. That bids them where to go. Like the winds of the sea are the currents of earth. As we journey along through life; 'Tis the set of the soul that decides the goal, And not the storms that are rife. Is not the " set of the soul " of America the creation of a great Christian world civilization? In the first half of this chapter have been sounded some encouraging notes. In the latter half a few minor chords will be struck. Today America is half city and half country. In round numbers there are fifty million inhabitants in her cities and fifty million inhabitants in the country. One thing is absolutely certain and that is the two populations must be in more or less perfect equipoise or development will be one- sided. No harm would be done if in the course of time America should become almost exclusively an agricultural nation, which the great French writer, Jules Meline, in his book, ''The Return to the Land," prophesies will* eventually be the future of all the nations, owing to the fact that the two things which have made some of the nations of the world industrial are rapidly being exhausted — coal and iron. But if in the course of time America should emphasize too greatly the industrial side of her national development and continue to agglomerate populations in ever-growing metropolitan cen- ters, a crisis might be precipitated that would retard progress. So the great problem is keeping in balance urbs and rus. Now, as a matter of fact, the tendency of the present time is a rapid increase of the population of the cities and a very slow 9 FIFTY MILLION STRONG . increase of the population of the country, taking the nation as a whole, the urban increase having been three times as great as the rural increase between 1900 and 1910. In many parts of the country there has for two or three decades been a gradual decrease, in the rural population. Some maintain that America has already gone too far and that there will have to be a migration of people to the country or the nation will be confronted with a very serious situation in the near future. Others, again, are of the opinion, that the nation is still safe and that the migration from country to city can continue much longer, without doing the nation as a whole any grave injury. Taking a middle ground, one may possibly assume that the country is in no immediate danger, but greater efforts must be put forth in the future to maintain the equilibrium between the two populations, or dire results will surely follow. Another fact of cardinal importance is this : the cities of the nation must come to have a more sympathetic understanding of the pountry, so that a more perfect cooperation may be developed between the two populations. There was a time, and that, too, not very many decades ago, when, owing to the miraculous rise of the cities, partially at the expense of the country, rural life sank to a low level. In the early days of this period the city not only preyed upon the country almost as heartlessly as the baron robbers of the feudal days preyed upon the cities of that day, but so great became the contempt of the rising cities for the degenerating country that Rural America fell into disfavor. But fortunately that period is past, never, it is believed, to return again, and rural life is now on the up-grade. The important matter is that there should be a perfect mutual understanding, and that each population should work out its own destiny, having the sym- pathy, the good wishes and the encouragement of the other, since the two ought to constitute a perfect unity. A careful study of Urban America and Rural America re- veals at least four major perils in each one. The four major perils of the city are race admixture, inefficient government, 10 AMERICA handicaps to physical and mental development, and spiritual atrophy. (i) Race Admixture. — Prof. E. A. Ross says: "As one traverses the gamut that leads from farms to towns, from towns to cities and from little cities to big, the proportion of American stock steadily diminishes, while the foreign stock increases its representation until in the great cities it consti- tutes three-fourths or even four-fifths of the population." ^ The time was when the vast majority of the immigrants to America's shores were Teutons. But in recent years, especially during the years when the cities have enjoyed their most phenomenal growth, the bulk of the immigrants have come from nations not of Teutonic origin. Naturally, if the Teutonic group of nations belong to the first class, most of the other nations and races must be farther down in the scale of civilization. So inevitably an inferior admixture in American metropolitan life lowers the type of the composite individual that represents Urban America. Therefore, the great question of the Urban half of America is, whether from the crucible of time a citizenship will emerge which will have within it the possibiHties of a higher development than are found among purely homogeneous peoples. America is conducting experiments today that have a most vital bearing on the his- tory of civilization. If in God's good time it is shown that a superior people assimilating less superior peoples drops to lower levels, then, for a time, at least, the American nation will be obliged to play a less important role in world affairs. (2) IneiRcient Government. — No less an authority than James Bryce says American municipal governments are fail- ures. Possibly the best governed cities of the world are the cities of the German Empire. It is a matter of record that there are fifteen hundred towns and villages in Germany that derive sufficient revenue from the land they own to exempt the citizens from all local taxes. One-third of these are so fortunate that they are able to declare annual dividends of from $20 to $100 to the citizens. Two fundamental facts ^ See The Century, New York, December, 19 13, p. 229. II FIFTY MILLION STRONG explain the wonderful records of German cities: one is the strong feeling that every resident has with reference to the general welfare; the other is that in all cases the people come into possession of the things that belong to them. The absence of these two fundamental facts in Urban America explains the dismal record of the municipal governments of the nation. When once the point is reached of subordinating the individual to the whole body of citizens and of transferring to the people those values that result from collectivity, then Urban America will have taken a long step forward. The tax rates of American cities have in many instances risen so high in recent years that further increases will jeopardize their very life. And bond issues have been made with such a prodigal hand that the aggregate debt of Urban America has reached staggering proportions. The Detroit Free Press has the following to say on municipal extravagance : " Receiverships for cities are a novelty for this generation in our municipal history, but Nashville has come to that low ebb of civic affairs, and there is talk now of having a receiver- ship for Montreal. When the blindly reckless course of financing by municipalities is considered, the wonder is not so much that we have one or two open bankruptcies among our cities, but that we are not having a long series of such disastrous and disgraceful failures. The tendency is pro- gressive, however; a little more time and receivers will be numerous enough. " Think for a minute of the financial status of some of our American cities. New York, with a population estimated at 5,625,000, has a net debt of $757,705,000, or about $134 per capita. Boston has some 746,000 people and owes $83,969,000, which is about $111 per capita. New Orleans has 400,000 people and its debt is $37,753,ooo, or about $94 per capita. Baltimore's 583,000 population owes $52,780,000, or about $90 each. Montreal owes about $78,000,000 and estimates its popu- lation at 600,000, so that its per capita debt is about $130, which puts quite enough burden on its shoulders to raise doubts as to its capacity to carry the load. Nashville, already K 12 AMERICA in the receivership, is much better off, having 130,000 people to support a pubhc debt of about $7,000,000, or $53 each. "But if a community which ovires only $53 per capita finds itself unable to avoid bankruptcy, as Nashville did, how long will it be before our other heavy-laden cities with debts of $100 and more, run their course of extravagance and find themselves brought up sharply by their creditors? There is a definite end to recklessness for communities as well as for individuals. It is quite time that all our American dwellers in cities were heeding the warning plainly written all about them and were settling themselves to practice old-fashioned frugality and thrift." (3) Handicaps to Normal Physical and Mental Develop- ment. — Rousseau once said people were never created to be huddled together like ants in an ant-hill. In recent years city populations have been made the subject of the most painstak- ing study by sociologists and many others, and some startling conclusions have been reached. It is found to be absolutely true that the hurry, noise, confusion, strenuosity and the like of the city are gradually impairing the physical vigor of the American people. , Innumerable authorities might be quoted and this one paragraph might be expanded into a book to prove this point. It is also found to be absolutely true that city life in its complexity is detrimental to intellectual develop- ment. The mind, to develop normally, needs two things : quiet and leisure. Both are rarae aves in Urban America. Finally, the atmosphere that stimulates the development of initiative is almost absent in the city life of today. The trend of the times has effected a very great decrease of those who lead and a very great increase of those who are led. To illustrate : there is one city bank in the nation that has nearly a thousand employees. One man directs the affairs of this bank with possibly a half dozen official subordinates. All the rest are cogs in a great machine; and cogs do not develop initiative. The same amount of capital and deposits divided among country banks would be sufficient to establish a thousand institutions. The thousand institutions would 13 FIFTY MILLION STRONG have a thousand leaders instead of half a dozen. This example is typical of urban commercial and industrial life. The highest type of manhood and womanhood cannot be developed from a machine-like environment and such is the prevailing environ- ment in the cities. (4) Spiritual Atrophy. — In recent years there have been some marvelous revivals of religion. But in every case v^here unusual results have been achieved the revivals have been preceded by the most painstaking preparation imaginable, and have been conducted by an organization and in accordance with a system that have proved to be flawless. The forces of righteousness have been mobilized to the last individual and only forty-two centimeter guns have been employed. Further, the laws of psychology have been called to the aid of those behind the revivals in so dextrous a manner that the almost impregnable citadel that guards the emotional nature of the composite urban resident has been forced to capitulate. It is generally recognized that so great has become the spiritual atrophy in the cities that only efforts of a most unusual char- acter can bring victory. The average city resident seems to live near the surface, to borrow an expression from William James, and the multiplicity of distractions of city life pre- vents his frequent retirement into the sacred chambers of his personality, where the moral nature has its sanctuary. This surface life causes him to become susceptible to the influences of materialism and therefore makes him somewhat unre- sponsive to the inner voices. The four major perils of Rural America are low agricultural standards, absence of team-work, dearth of rural patriotism, and growth of urban ownership. (i) Low Agricultural Standards. — It is a notorious fact that the greatest mining operation of the past generation has been fertility mining in the United States. The nation has been living off the fertility of the wonderful soil with which God has blessed this continent. The census report tells a sad story of agricultural conditions. Countless acres have been absolutely abandoned because their fertility has been AMERICA reduced to such an extent that the land can be restored to agricultural health only after a long and costly period of convalescence. Furthermore, the loss of fertility is general in the nation. And what is saddest of all, the nation has been speeding along under the hypnotic influence of a great de- lusion. The wonderful reports of yields have lulled almost all the people into the belief that American agriculture is enjoying fundamental progress. The great mania of the American people has been to sacrifice everything on the altar of present gain. The magnificent forests of a few years ago are almost all gone, mines are being exhausted, and worst of aJl, the fertility of the soil is decreasing, and all this is taking place coincidentally with a rapidly increasing population. The Banker-Farmer says, America must " create a soil as well as a bank reserve." (2) Absence of Team-work. — Someone has said the present age is the age of the apotheosis of the middle man, and this is certainly true. Somewhere between the producer of the nation and the ultimate consumer, there is lost a sum of money so immense that it staggers the most fertile imagina- tion. It is known with absolute certainty that the producer receives only a pittance of what the consumer is obliged to pay, and the consumer pays an infinitely greater sum than the producer is able to get. Where does this tremendous sum go? Ask the middle man. The farmer is an individualist; his very occupation contributes to an individualistic develop- ment; he has scarcely got beyond the first stage in the cultiva- tion of the cooperative spirit. And yet the only possibility on earth of bringing the producer and the consumer closer to- gether is by means of a more perfect cooperation in the field of the producer. In the fall of 1915 a certain Ohio farmer received thirty cents a bushel for his apple crop delivered at the station four miles distant. At the same time there was possibly not a large city in the country where good apples could be bought for less than seventy-five cents a bushel. This typical case represents the problem that Rural America must solve if she is to enjoy further economic progress. 15 FIFTY MILLION STRONG According to The Banker-Farmer, " The city man gets only about thirty-five cents in value for every dollar he spends for food, and it takes the rest of that dollar to get the food to him." (3) Dearth of Rural Patriotism. — " Truly the creation of a rural civiHzation is the greatest need of our time." ^ But before a rural civilization can be created there must be more rural patriotism. Let a rural patriotism be developed and then many of the wonderful things which the country needs so much that it may enjoy greater progress and realize the infinite possibilities that it covets, will come. The greatest hindrance to the development of a rural patriotism is that very prevalent and quite contagious disease, urbanitis. It is an insidious disease and has become so widespread that one is often tempted to despair of its elimination. It especially aflfects country boys and girls, who, awed by the brilliant, the ephemeral, the attractive, the dazzling of city life, are weaned away from the country in large numbers every year and cast their lot in the cities. Pride in one's residence in Rural America must become general and all inclination to emphasize the city to the detriment of the country must disappear before a new day can dawn in Rural America. When the average resident of Rural America says, " I am a citizen of Rural America," with the earnestness and fervor which the average Englishman or German shows when he announces his citi- zenship to the world, then will there have developed a rural patriotism which will revolutionize Rural America. (4) Growth of Urban Ownership. — It is remembered that the Roman Empire was a coalition of cities. There was no rural life. The land was owned by those living in the cities and tilled by the slaves. This was a chief cause of Rome's fall. The first leader of Europe who recognized the fact that the strength of a nation depended on its rural health was Charlemagne, the greatest ruler of the Middle Ages. Fred- erick the Great, who reconstructed Prussia on the solid basis 1 See G. W. Russell article, Rural Manhood, New York, April, 1914. p. 143. 16 AMERICA of a flourishing and contented rural population, was another such leader. During the ten years between 1900 and 1910 the home owners of Rural America decreased and landlords in- creased one per cent. Edward Everett Hale once said, " Who ever heard of a man fighting for his boarding-house?" It is the home that causes a man to shoulder his gun. And the home in the country is as sacred as the home in the city. Now, any reader of this book who has owned land at a greater or less distance from his residence and is dependent on renters, knows from bitter experience what a tenant nation would mean. And if he has had experience with renters who have later become home owners in the country, he has noted the wonderful difference and is in a position to deplore the trend of America toward tenantry. It is a step toward an American peasantry, a step toward a decrease of population, a step toward rising prices, a step toward the supremacy of Urban Life and the submergence of Rural Life, a step toward ultimate ruin. Fortunately, anyone may have a part in the work of elimi- nating the perils (possibly " race admixture " is not a peril per se) that are today jeopardizing both Urban and Rural America. But he must dedicate himself to the task with no thought of pecuniary reward. From the beginning down to the present time there is possibly no record of a single achieve- ment in elevating the human race that has been prompted by the mercenary spirit and brought to fruition under the stimu- lus of financial gain. And not only may everyone have a part in the great work which is so diversified in character that there is room for all kinds of talent, but one need not seek far to find plenty to do. How aptly Charles Wagner expresses this thought : " A common weakness keeps many people from finding what is near them interesting; they see that only on its paltry side. The distant, on the contrary, draws and fascinates them. In this way a fabulous amount of good-will is wasted. People burn with ardor for humanity, for the public good, for righting distant wrongs, they walk through life, their eyes fixed on marvelous sights along the 17 FIFTY MILLION STRONG horizon, treading meanwhile on the feet of the passersby, or jostling them without being aware of their existence." ^ A certain Sunday-school teacher in a Kansas village through a long period of years has sent out into the world scores of boys who have been shining lights in the establishing of the Kingdom. Her influence through the godly young- men will never die and will lead to achievements that God alone can estimate. Not long ago, a very capable and success- ful teacher in a rural school, receiving $50 a month and having a little farm home near his school, was offered $150 a month to take a position in a city school. He refused to leave the country. The Rhodes scholar of South Carolina who spurned the city appointments and dedicated his life to the rural church of the South will be a shining example in generations to come of the principle of losing one's life to save it. Instances might be multiplied. The faithful Sunday- school teacher, the rural pedagogue and the Rhodes scholar, untouched by mammonism and taking the work nearest at hand, are having a share in the great work of producing a higher civilization. The task is not an easy one. The path- way that leads to a higher civilization is rugged and steep, and the words of Ibsen's Brand apply to all who, with their eye on the summit, struggle toward the goal: What will you gain? A will that's whole, A soaring faith, a single soul; The willingness to lose, that gave Itself rejoicing to the grave; A crown of thorns on .every brow. 1 Charles Wagner, " The Simple Life," p. 61. 18 CHAPTER II RURAL AMERICA THE life of the man who would do a great work must be whole and integral. The only complete life that this world has produced was that of Jesus Christ, which reveals six major elements: play, work, worship, health, love, and rest.^ Play: Anything that one does out of pure love. Work: Anything that one does with serious effort. Worship: Attuning oneself to the Infinite. Health: The perfect adjustment of mind and body. Love: The greatest feeling of the heart. Rest: Recuperation through repose. Play. — A study of the gospels leads one to infer that Christ better than any other person realized that the play instinct, next to that of self-preservation, is the strongest instinct in human nature. " From early childhood to old age the spirit of play runs flashing like a mountain brook through the life of a man. Tossing free on the hillsides of youth or gently rippling the surface in the lower valleys, it outlasts the jour- ney, brightening all the way. Seldom mentioned in the records of His life, but clearly leaping in the consciousness of Jesus, it stands revealed in His perfect love of children, in whose spontaneity and freshness of feeling He rejoiced." 2 Like the great creative intellects, who have been rightly and healthily sensitive to every kind of pleasure,^ Jesus was not an ascetic. He was a thorough believer in the sunshine of life ^ This classification was suggested by the six paintings of C. S. Pearce: Family, Religion, Labor, Study, Recreation, Rest. (See also ** What Men Live By " by Dr. R. C. Cabot.) 2 Richard H. Edwards, " Christianity and Amusements," p. 22. * Philip G. Hamerton, " The Intellectual Life," p. 64. 19 FIFTY MILLION STRONG and His disciples were a joyous company. What a message of glad tidings He gave to the world! How radiant with good cheer are some of His sayings ! Play may be considered the brilliant strand of the great fabric of Christianity, of which the life of the lowly Nazarene is the warp and woof. Work. — Christ believed thoroughly in work. He started life as a carpenter and thus dignified labor with the hands. There is no record of the years during which His energies were devoted to the trade of His choice, but His wonderful ministry indicates that He did His whole duty during those silent years of preparation for His life work. No other assumption is tenable when one studies His later achieve- ments. One of the greatest preachers of the present time spent a number of years in quiet preparation for life's duties, and, as a result, he is today a power in the whole Christian world. While other young men, their college work finished, at once plunged into the strenuous life, thus bringing to an end the growth which needs quiet and leisure, this young man • spent a few years in further preparation. Fenelon, writing on Eloquence, advises against allowing oneself early in life to become involved in engagements and recommends one's re- maining in retirement until the powers are matured. Joseph Cook, it is remembered, spent many years in developing the great powers of his mind. But his debut was brilliant and he exerted great influence in the intellectual world till his death. The silent years have prepared the greatest men of all time for their world tasks. One may be sure the silent years of Christ's life were years of conscientious preparation. And the three years that followed His silent years are the most brilliant in point of human achievement in the annals of history. Worship. — The purpose of Christ's coming among men was to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. And this Christ did during His brief ministry. But the one thing that stands out in bold relief, so clear-cut that its luster grows brighter with the passage of the centuries, is Christ's attitude on worship. How imperfectly is the word worship understood 20 RURAL AMERICA in its true significance ! One often hears of a parent worship- ing a child or a husband worshiping a wife, or vice versa; but how little depth has the finite feeling compared with that of Jesus Christ. Christ has given to all humanity a beautiful example of worship and His followers are exalted only to the extent to which they approximate unto the perfection of His worship. Here and there through the centuries there have been called out from the crowd men upon whom God has conferred special blessings. But in every case those thus honored have enjoyed the most intimate fellowship with the Father. The only way one can come to a more adequate un- derstanding of real worship is through a more perfect com- prehension of the relationship that existed between the Son and the Father. Health. — If ever there lived a man who believed in good health, that man was Jesus Christ. From a study of the New Testament, one notes that Christ lived in a time when the human race was fearfully afflicted. There was no such thing as medical science in those days, so it was quite natural that, with practically no means of relieving bodily pain, the ills of mortals should fill the age with suffering. How much of Christ's ministry was spent in healing the sick and ministering to the distressed! But in the midst of all His manifold service there is no record of His having been ill a single day in His whole life. Christ knew as no other man has ever known the value of a sound body. So all His life must have been devoted to the task of keeping Himself fit physically, as well as otherwise, for the great tasks that the Father had given Him to do. This must have been true or He would not have used the words recorded in John 17:4, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." Charles Wagner says, " Only simple and natural living can keep a body in full vigor." 1 Also, " What material things does a man need to live under the best conditions? A healthful diet, simple clothing, a sanitary dwelling place, air and exercise." 2 Charles 1 Charles Wagner, " The Simple Life," p. 68. 2 Charles Wagner, " The Simple Life," p. 68. FIFTY MILLION STRONG Wagner must have been thinking of the life of Christ when he thus expressed himself. Love. — The religion of Jesus Christ is founded on love. The highest instinct of humanity, in fact of the whole animal world, is that of self-preservation, and yet so great was Christ's love for humanity that He gave His life for its redemption. The greatest sacrifice that was possible for Him He willingly made. All Christians agree with Drummond that love is the greatest thing in the world. Next to Chris- tianity, the most aggressive religion on earth is Mohammedan- ism, a religion of force. Yet notwithstanding the fact that for many centuries these two religions have been striving for world-mastery, the ideal of the one being love and that of the other force, Christianity has made the more rapid prog- ress. Ever since the Middle Ages, Christianity has been driv- ing Islam from Europe and the likelihood is that some day every vestige of it will have disappeared from the continent. And just as Right always triumphs over Wrong in the end, even though Right may be on the scaffold and Wrong on the throne, so the Religion of Love is bound to triumph over the Religion of Force. " God standeth within the shadow keeping watch above His own." Rest. — Christ engaged in a very active life during His three years' ministry and He often found it necessary to withdraw from the stirring scenes of His work, and even from the companionship of His disciples, and seek repose. He found it necessary to renew His strength at intervals that He might always be at His best in doing the work that His father had given Him to do. The Germans have a word that has no equivalent in the English language. It is Menschen- muede, and it means, " tired of people." One is thrown almost constantly into contact with people in his daily work and often longs to get away into some quiet retreat where he can be absolutely alone with his thoughts. This was many times the feeling of Jesus. And He needed this self-com- munion that He might be better fitted for life's duties. He also needed physical rest each day. Although Jesus knew 22 RURAL AMERICA that His sojourn on earth would be short, yet His whole life was a continuous training for longevity. So both at intervals and daily, He sought repose, and as a result He was always in perfect condition physically. The highest ideal of the American people is to make the National Life whole and integral. What is being done in Rural America toward the accomplishment of this great end, will be considered in the remainder of this chapter under the six heads — Play, Work, Worship, Health, Love and Rest. Before undertaking this delightful task, however, it might be well to decide just what Rural America is. Of course all persons living in the country are rural residents, as are all persons living in the hundreds of small villages and towns of the nation. But to divide larger centers of population into two arbitrary classes and say that all places with a population of so many thousand shall be called cities and all other places shall constitute a part of Rural America, would be unscien- tific, for the reason that centers of population differ greatly in different parts of the country. This general statement may be made : Rural America consists of the farming communi- ties of the nation and all centers of population, regardless of size, that are more dependent on the surrounding country for their livelihood than on manufacture and industry. Now, in Urban America there is only one unit — the city. In Rural America, on the other hand, owing to the factor of distance, there are several units, the four most important of which are the county, the township, the school district, and the village. Besides these, there are numerous arbitrary units, the classification depending on the unifying element. Of all the units found in Rural America, the county has come into greatest prominence within recent years, and the reason for this is, it is best adapted to the realization of progressive ideals. The nation has in round numbers 3,000 counties, of which 2,500 are rural, and among the 2,500 there are 200 that have no incorporated villages. The 3,000 counties have been divided into three classes : those which have very large cities, 23 FIFTY MILLION STRONG and in which there is a tendency to make county and city boundaries coterminous ; those which have one or more cities that dominate the activities of their respective counties, and in which the tendency is to correlate city and county functions in such a way that both cities and counties may enjoy the most efficient government; and those in which the county govern- ment dominates the county. Now, standardization is possible among cities, since all cities are very much alike and have for the most part the same problems. So with all the munici- palities of the nation concentrating their best efforts on the solution of their common problems, each municipanty can take advantage of the investigations and profit by them. Counties cannot do this to the same extent, since the 2,500 rural counties of the nation differ in so many respects. The tendency among rural counties is twofold: to transfer to state governments some of the old county functions and to reduce to simplicity, for the sake of economy and efficiency, those that are retained. Moreover, many counties are giving special attention to agencies that have to do with the develop- ment of a higher average citizenship. To illustrate: counties are beginning to tax themselves under state laws to establish county libraries, county hospitals, county health agencies, county agricultural agencies, county experiment farms and the like, and are encouraging such institutions as County Y. M. C. A.'s, County Y. W. C. A.'s, County W. C. T. U.'s and county church and school associations, and under the stimulus that comes from industrial, commercial, philanthropic and other organizations, both without and within, are making progress in many directions. 1. Play The greatest asset of a nation is its children and the most important problem of a nation is preparing its children for the responsibiHties and duties of later life. Now it is only within the last few years that these two facts have become assertive in the collective consciousness of the American people, and hence the work of providing adequate opportuni- ties for the normal development of childhood into adulthood is yet in its incipiency. The child in its life " repeats the age- long struggle of mankind upward from savagery to civiliza- tion," 1 and unless all the stages of the struggle are experienced normal growth is not enjoyed and the adult is handicapped. During the first centuries following the fall of Rome, savagery, barbarity, robbery, murder, license, wanderlust, in- stability and turbulence were very much in evidence. Finally, however, the seething mass of humanity of Europe gradually began to take on a more or less permanent form and some semblance of order manifested itself. The individual stepped out from the crowd and Feudalism resulted, during the ascend- ancy of which Europe produced an aristocracy of leadership. A few more centuries and the Crusades came and welded Europe into a unit under the stimulus of the religious impulse. Then followed the German Reformation, which gave Europe religious liberty, and the French Revolution, which gave Europe poHtical liberty. Today the battle cry of mankind is economic liberty, the right of each individual " to a place in the sun." How beautifully the development of modern civilization parallels the growth of the child into the adult! First, the turbulent years of youth, the years of savagery, barbarity, the days of a superabundance of vitality and energy, the days of the "wild joy of living," the days of foundation-laying and ^ G. Walter Fiske, " Boy Life," p. 49. 25 FIFTY MILLION STRONG character-building, the days of elemental passions, correspond- ing to the life of the European people directly after the fall of Rome. Then begins to assert itself that wonderful faculty, the imagination, which has no sympathy with the hard, tan- gible, practical, matter-of-fact things of earth, but builds a world of magnificent unreality and fills it with a life which the average adult fails utterly to understand: Feudalism. Then comes the religious impulse and the child enters upon the battle royal for character: Crusades. Next a feeling of spiritual self-sufficience develops, which indicates a desire for independent thought in religious matters : German Reforma- tion. Then the will comes to its own and assumes control : French Revolution. And finally appears the desire to establish a home of one's own : Economic Liberty. Now to the extent to which the child passes through these periods in its develop- ment from childhood to adulthood, to that extent is it fitted for the complete life. Harnessing the energies of the youth of the nation during the developing years, is a big problem. North Carolina has a splendid plan for keepiiig its boys busy. During the summer boys who wish to work out of doors at reasonable wages are employed by the state and learn how to build good roads. From the New York State College of Agriculture it is learned that last year school children destroyed nearly a billion tent caterpillars. They collected over four million egg masses of the pest, each of which averaged two hundred eggs. One school of thirteen pupils collected 55,525 of these egg clusters and thus saved countless apple, peach and plum trees from blight. Reports from other states are similar to these from North CaroHna and New York. Only two things are needed — competent leadership and work that will appeal with a spice of romance to the youth of the nation, and results will be forthcoming. A. Play Grounds Reahzing the first fundamental needs of childhood, some of the good people of Boston, in the year 1882, started a play- 26 RURAL AMERICA ground movement, which has been called the greatest single movement of the nation. The purpose of the movement is, extending to child life an adequate opportunity to give the play instinct normal expression. The movement was inau- gurated at a time when the process of urbanizing America was rapidly transforming the nation's life. But a period of inactivity followed, which closed with a wonderful revival of interest in the city of Chicago in 1898, since which time the playground movement has become a dominant factor in American life. The movement has gathered wonderful mo- mentum in later years because playgrounds are proving to be agencies for decreasing juvenile crime, increasing health standarjds, promoting community spirit, and fashioning into unity heterogeneous urban populations. They have become both a constructive and a redemptive force and are contrib- uting to a brighter national outlook on life. The boy or girl who enjoys a normal play life during the formative years is sure to be an optimist. If a man or woman can look back to a childhood that had its share of play activities, the experi- ences of youth are a source of perennial joy and pleasure and the dark places of the later years are brightened by the reflection from life's brilliant beginnings. Once a Harvard graduate who had not made a very pronounced success out in the great world consoled himself with the memory : " Well, anyway I achieved a triumph in my student days on the base- ball diamond." The victory of his youth saved him from discouragement in the days when fortune turned her back on him. And so it will save the youth of the nation in the next generation. B. Boy Scouts and Camp-Fire Girls Two great organizations may be associated with the Play- ground Movement of the nation, viz., the Boy Scouts and the Camp-Fire Girls. The former had its origin at the time of the Boer War and developed from the practical use made of boys during the progress of the South African struggle. In reality a beginning in the great work of putting on a happier 27 FIFTY MILLION STRONG basis boy play activities was made in this country, but the Boy Scout Movement enjoyed marvelous popularity in Eng- land and her colonies following the Boer War, and the organ- ization that is in such a flourishing condition in this country today was imported from England after that country had developed an American idea. The Camp-Fire Girl Movement had its origin only a few years ago in this country and was started that girls might have the same opportunity for normal development along recreational lines as boys. These two movements have become nation-wide and they are today on so sound a basis that they have become a permanent factor in the national life. If a boy becomes a scout or a girl a camp- fire girl and they obey the rules and master the requirements of the respective organizations, there is no doubt that they will learn the duties and develop the fundamental virtues use- ful in after life. So the purpose of each organization is to make youth the brightest period of life at the same time that preparation is afforded for adulthood. There are many other organizations similar to these two, but not so well known, all aiming to provide adequately for the play needs of boys and girls. Now, the unfortunate thing about the three movements that have just been considered is that they have made compara- tively little progress in Rural America. One hears little, though much more than formerly, of playground activities, boy scouts and camp-fire girls in the villages and open country, notwithstanding the fact that more than half the children of the nation live in Rural America. These movements have been urban movements, but there is just as great need of them in Rural America. In a sense, the need is greater in Rural America, for the reason that the play activities of Urban America have become an added inducement for boys and girls to leave the farms and the villages for the cities. As Dr. G. W. Fiske felicitously characterized the situation in an address at the Ohio State Y. M. C. A. Convention of 1916, *' It is not so much dollar-hunger as fun-hunger that takes boys from the country to the cities." 28 RURAL AMERICA C. Play Parks Not only playgrounds without number have been established, especially in the cities, but a beginning has been made in the matter of play parks, with stands and suitable buildings. These parks provide for all the games that interest both young and old, and arrangements have been made in some of them for winter as well as summer sports, since recreation must be an all-the-year-round affair. Parks of this sort encourage the organization of game leagues of various sorts, which bring young people together from neighboring town- ships, villages and cities in all kinds of contests. There is no reason why neighboring counties, townships, villages and cities should not organize in the interest of sports and thus put the sport life of whole sections on a high plane. Simply a begin- ning has been made in the sport activities of the youth, not only in Rural America, where least progress has been made owing to many handicaps, but in Urban America as well. A German school-teacher in one of the trenches recently made the statement that the Germany of the future must make more ample provision for organized out-of-door play, for the sake of the future physical fitness of the young manhood of the nation, if for no other. England and America have possibly done more in this direction than any other nation, excepting Switzerland, and their boys and girls have in a majority of cases as a result laid a good foundation for longevity. D. Rural Entertainment Halls A movement coming to have increasing significance in recent months has to do with rural entertainment halls, where all kinds of productions can be given, but particularly where such productions can be presented as are of special interest in the country, and where moving pictures of the better class, be- cause of the availabihty of pictures and films at very low prices, can Hkewise be shown. Of course rural entertainments must compete with attractions in towns and cities, but with the growing spirit of loyalty that is beginning to assert itself 29 FIFTY MILLION STRONG in Rural America, there will come to be little trouble in holding the people in their own communities. E. The County Fair The county fair, which is annually held in many counties of the United States and seems to be growing more popular in Rural America, is the one big play event of the year for the open country. It is the one event in which all the people take an interest. It assembles the best products of field and garden; it interests the women and girls in choice specimens of the art of cooking; it exhibits the finest farm animals; it shows many samples of needle and similar work; it collects the select wares of the merchant; it gives the results of the county educational activities : school work, library work, chautauquas, institutes, etc.; it calls attention to the efforts put forth in the interest of a better religious life — efforts put forth in the churches, in the Sunday-schools, in the Young Peoples' societies, in social service, etc.; it provides an abund- ance of amusement. The county fair promotes sociability, stimulates rural patriotism and leads to cooperation. From one end of the country to the other the cry has gone forth that the greatest need of the nation is a more wholesome social life in Rural America. The county fair is doing its part in supplying this need and it does it by showing the people both the pleasures and the advantages of getting to- gether. Furthermore, anyone who spends the better part of a week in a study of the best things that his county produces is pretty sure to have kindled on the altar of his heart the > fire of county patriotism. And where one finds a developing social life and evidences of county patriotism, one is likely to see the cooperative spirit begin to manifest itself. When the county fair reflects the collective life of the county at its best, it is doing a work whose value cannot be estimated.^ ^ Lowering of standards through cheap attractions, permitted for mer- cenary reasons, is a tendency to be deplored in some counties. 30 RURAL AMERICA F. Community Centers A term one sees in almost every number of every periodical devoted to the interests of Rural America is " community center." Again and again do editors and other writers empha- size the need of the establishing of community centers in the villages and open country. And the propaganda in the interest of their establishment is bearing fruit. Of course, wherever a consolidated school is erected, provision is made for com- munity gatherings, and the institution is planned to take care of all the many activities of the surrounding country. Churches also make excellent meeting places for the people. Unfortunately the cooperating or federating or unionizing of the dead and dying churches of the different denominations of Rural America has made such little progress that the Rural Church is doing less than the Rural School in the work of putting social life in the country on a higher plane. Often farmers bequeath beautiful, well-located properties for the benefit of a whole neighborhood. There is a record of a number of such cases, particularly in the Mississippi Valley. The Chicago Tribune recently contained the follow- ing interesting item: " With the purpose of making rural life more comfortable, Jasper Thompson, banker, farmer, philos- opher, and philanthropist, has turned over to the rural com- munity in which he lives a community home. Four miles west of Forest City, in Winnebago County, la., on a farm valued at $100,000, the community home is located. In the front is a valley of the richest agricultural land, fringed with oak, walnut and box elder. The building is of artistic design, built of brick and concrete. In the building are large halls, comfort rooms, reception rooms, library, sleeping rooms, living rooms, dining-room and kitchen. ' Sunnyside Farm ' is the name given to this social center. It belongs to the people, and it is theirs to build up a community friendliness that will make for a more happy and contented people." But the largest number of community centers are found in the Httle agricultural villages of the nation. A village, to- gether with the contiguous territory, has enough people to 31 FIFTY MILLION STRONG maintain on a most healthy basis a community-center building fitted to take care of all activities for which such buildings are erected. The state that has taken the lead in the estab- lishment of community centers is Wisconsin. The community building at Spring Valley, a village of one thousand inhabit- ants in Pierce County, is typical. It is 50 x 100 in dimensions and cost $7,388. The building is used for the folloviring purposes : " Entertainments, shows, plays, moving pictures, entertain- ment courses of the extension division of the state university, school plays, amateur theatricals, banquets and suppers, har- vest festivals, political meetings, good roads meetings, farm- ers' institutes, dancing parties, art exhibits, band practice, orchestra practice, meetings of the town and country club, public receptions, social parties." During the past few years many manufacturing plants and large business concerns have erected community buildings. Some of these are solely for employees, while others are quite liberal in the matter of extending the privileges of member- ship. Of special interest is the fact that such community buildings are becoming more numerous in the rural districts and encourage the residents of the farming sections to become members. The most widely known of this class is the large community building of the Hershey Chocolate Company, of Hershey, Pennsylvania. G. The Rural Chautauqua Most persons are quite familiar with the great Chautauqua movement of the nation. It has not been so many years since Chautauqua, New York, inaugurated the movement that has become nation wide. In the early years, however, only a few institutions similar to that in New York were established, but gradually the number increased, and finally the larger towns and many of the cities began to provide annually for a week or more of entertainments under the auspices of a Chautauqua Association. The villages seemed to be too small to finance a Chautauqua program. But as time passed, as the Chautau- RURAL AMERICA qua spirit began to take possession of the whole people and as the agencies supplying the talent found ways of providing courses of great excellence within the financial reach of the smallest villages, the movement became quite general, and greater and greater numbers of people living in territory hitherto unreached have, during the past few years, been given the pleasure of enjoying the very best talent of the country right at their own homes. The writer took a long automobile trip during the summer of 1915 through many rural sections and found that nearly all the communities of a thousand population and over that were visited were adver- tising a Chautauqua Week. The Chautauqua is the most democratic institution of the whole nation and is a success because it has found out just what pleases the people and is constantly giving the people the very thing they want. The institutions that are doing the largest service in con- nection with the play and recreational life of Rural America are the rural library, the rural Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and the rural Young Women's Christian Association. All three likewise emphasize the intellectual and the spiritual, but one of their most important activities lies in the field of play and recreation, and for that reason they are considered under the head of PLAY. H. The Rural Library 1 The trend of recent years in the library activities of the country has been toward rural extension, with the idea of placing books in the homes of those on the farms as well as of those living in the towns and cities. In earher years books were accessible only to the few. Today a majority of the people enjoy library privileges, and the drift of library legisla- tion in the several states indicates a purpose to make provision for the country people, many of whom still have no opportuni- ties to get books, except through purchase. 1 Saida B. and Ernest I. Antrim, " The County Library," pp. 233-239. 140, 187. 33 FIFTY MILLION STRONG All the states of the Union have state libraries. All the states except a very few have library commissions. Available statistics indicate that Wisconsin spends more money per capita through her state library and library commission than any other state in the Union, and consequently of all the states does most for her people in library matters. One of the many functions of state library commissions is the organiza- tion and management of traveling library systems. Traveling libraries are usually sent in small collections of twenty-five or fifty volumes, and the expenses are paid wholly or in part by the state or altogether by the recipients. Such libraries con- sist of general and special collections. The former are for the most part available for all the people; while the latter consist largely of libraries for children, for foreigners, for the blind, for study clubs, for granges, for public and private schools and for Sunday-schools and churches. Many of the states send out annually over a thousand collections, which in the aggregate contain a large number of books. Making the county the unit represents a comparatively new movement in the library history of the country. Yet this movement is making quite rapid progress. There are at present nineteen states that have county library laws, and, as far as can be learned, there are 103 county libraries serving the library interests of their respective counties. The names of the states having county library laws are : Ohio, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Oregon, Nebraska, New York, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Missouri, California, Maryland, Washington, Ken- tucky, North CaroHna, Montana, Texas, West Virginia, and Nevada; and the county libraries by states are: California, 26; Wisconsin, 14; Wyoming, 13; Minnesota, 10; Ohio, 8; Oregon, 5; North Carolina, 4; Missouri, 4; New York, 3; Kentucky, 2; Montana, 2; Indiana, 2; Alabama, 2; Colorado, 2 ; Washington, i ; Illinois, i ; Maryland, i ; Pennsylvania, i ; Oklahoma, i ; and Tennessee, i.^ Many incidents might be given showing the value of the -'^ Data assembled in 191 5. 34 RURAL AMERICA extension of library privileges to rural residents. Two must suffice : In a county library collection at a station in a very small village, a boy, one day, chanced to secure a book on electricity and became so interested that he returned for another, and, as there happened to be three books on electricity in that collection, he took them all in turn and then begged his father to send him aw^ay to school. The father did so and the young man is doing well now in the electrical business in one of the larger towns of the county. It is the aim of the county library to aid those living in the country to appreciate the wonderful opportunities for pleasure and profit that lie within the '' Home Acre " or the " Home Ten Acres " or the " Home Farm." However, all young men in the country are not fitted for farming any more than all ministers' sons are fitted to become ministers. In the above incident, the boy whose bent was electricity " found himself " through a library book. The following incident illustrates the personal and careful supervision of a township superintendent in connection with the schools under his care. He told the county librarian he had made the discovery that in one of the schools the boys had got into the way of reading books of a '' blood and thunder " type, and he asked her opinion as to how the matter might be best handled. She wisely suggested that he satisfy this natural craving of the boys for adventure by supplying them with wholesome books of adventure of the right sort and on sub- jects of interest to every normal boy. Accordingly, a list was made up including tales about Indians and the real West, stories of Daniel Boone and the pioneer days, inspiring books of true heroism and real exploits. The teacher reported that the good books soon displaced the " cheap literature." Of all the county library states, Ohio is the pioneer in the present county library movement, and California has the greatest number of county libraries. Quite a number of states have also passed township library laws, which enable the people of townships to tax themselves for library pur- 35 FIFTY MILLION STRONG poses. An incident illustrating the good that can result from township extension comes from Monoma County, Iowa. A certain township librarian in this county, called the " Horse- back Lady," has so extended the library work of the county in accordance with the township law of the state, that at the present time six townships and three towns are cooperating under her efficient supervision. " Here is a story I was told about a boy reader whom the ' Horse-back Lady ' has visited. Somebody met him riding against a frightful prairie storm, sleet lashing his face. * Why on earth aren't you at home — ^ somebody sick?' asked the startled friend, who was making for his own dwelling. ' I'm goin' to the liberry,' was the reply. ' Someone come an' tol' me all about " Tom Sawyer " herself, an' I'm goin* to have it, I ain't froze but one ear yet, an' I ain't got but one more to freeze, an' anyhow I'm goin' to have that book.' " ^ The establishment of municipal libraries has reached the greatest development in the state of Massachusetts, which " is unique in having a library in every city and town of the state, with one exception — Newbury — and that town has library privileges in Newburyport, one and one-half miles distant, making appropriation toward its m.aintenance." Many states permit their municipal libraries to do rural extension work, which is greatly increasing the number of country resi- dents who enjoy library privileges. In many states, too, school district libraries are being established in large numbers. Unquestionably every state should have a state library and a library commission. As a matter of fact, all the states do have state libraries, although some of them accomplish much less than others. All the states, except a few, have library commissions. Likewise, it would seem desirable that all the states should have county, township and municipal library laws adapted to their respective needs. No two states are exactly alike, and there are few cases where the laws of one state would fit perfectly into the conditions of another state. 1 See The Outlook, January 24, 1914, p. 202. 36 RURAL AMERICA Some states desire to emphasize the county as a unit and to adapt all libraries organized under other laws to the county system. Others make the township the predominating unit and strive to bring library privileges to all the people of the state through township extension. Finally, a number of states make the municipality the library center and bend every effort to reach as many of the people as possible from the town and city. Recent experience reveals that, of the library laws thus far enacted, the county law seems to provide best for the exten- sion of library privileges to all the people. And a careful study of library movements of the country indicates that if all the people are to be reached in the matter of library serv- ice, the county should be made the unit in library legislation. States which emphasize the other library laws mentioned are doing excellent work, but in none of these states is it likely that all the people will enjoy library privileges to the extent that would be possible under a county law. Andrew Carnegie has asked Dr. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, to work out for him a plan for the establishment of county libraries throughout the country. So it is possible that the great library friend of the people will, as the crowning act of his life, provide with library privileges through the establishment of county libraries all the people of Rural America who desire such institutions. It might be stated here by way of conclusion that a hasty study of the library legislation of the country covering the past twelve or fourteen years reveals several interesting facts : (i) A tendency to make state libraries more serviceable. (2) A gradual increase in the number of state library com- missions and in the appropriations for their work. (3) The passage of many measures that place on a more substantial basis hundreds of the libraries of the country organized under county, township and municipal library laws. (4) The gathering of greater and greater momentum from year to year of the rural extension library movement. 37 FIFTY MILLION STRONG To give the reader an idea of what can be accompHshed in the supplying of a rural population with library service, a brief account will be given of the work of the Brumback Library of Van Wert County, Ohio, which has been called the pioneer county library of the country. In a county of 405 square miles, having a population of 29,119, of whom 12,825 live in incorporated towns and 16,294 in the open country, this library with 25,000 books distributed, from the central library, sixteen branches and nearly all the rural schools, 98,011 volumes in the year 1915. That is over three 1)Ooks for every resident in the county, a high average even for a city library having a compact constituency. The num- ber of borrowers was 62 per cent of the population. The work at central library was done by six employees, including the janitor, and the total cost to the county for the county-wide service was $8,858.38, which represents less than one-fifth of a mill on a tax duplicate of over $50,000,000 and is 35 cents per capita.i /. Rural Y. M. C. A. and Y, W. C. A. Through a period of many years the cities of the country have been establishing Christian Associations for both sexes, and these have greatly increased in number during the past decade. For thousands of young men and women these asso- ciations provide good homes, good board, physical training, social and recreational pleasure, and spiritual and intellectual culture. Thus, they are doing a work the value of which cannot be estimated. They recognize as few other institu- tions do that life is whole and integral, and, without giving undue emphasis to any particular side of one's nature, they plan their work with the view of developing a symmetrical manhood and womanhood. Now, just as these two institutions are needed in the cities, so they are needed in the country; and within the past few years wonderful progress has been made in the establishing ^ See Annual Report of The Brumback Library of Van Wert County for 1915. RURAL AMERICA of rural associations. The unit that has generally been adopted is the county, since experience shows the futility of attempting to carry on successful work with smaller rural units. The thing that has proved to be the greatest handicap in rural work has been securing men and women living in villages and in the open country and widely separated from one another to cooperate in an enterprise for the benefit of a whole county. This requires a leadership of the very highest type. The average county resident sees certain needs right at home, but his vision does not always reach far. His inclination is to let the other village or township or section of the county take care of itself. So next in import- ance to a competent leader is a county board that is broad enough to see beyond the borders of its own community, to pay liberally for the support of the whole work and to give of its time in an effort to get others to contribute to the work. The county Young Men's Christian Association has an easier time in becoming established in rural counties than the county Young Women's Christian Association, because everybody recognizes that boys, whose work lies out in the world, must receive attention or they will fail to develop into men of character. But there is just as much reason why girls should have the same opportunities to fit themselves for the responsibilities and duties of life. The donor of the first county Young Women's Christian Association building (county work in the past has been done without the aid of buildings) put a large sum in the building, equipment and endowment chiefly because of his conviction that better girls would make better boys. And there is a world of truth in this statement. The one thing more than any other that is safeguarding this nation today may be considered the collect- ive influence and the high ideals of the finest womanhood of the nation. Every man who stands for the common virtues freely acknowledges the debt he owes to womanhood. The greatest poet since Shakespeare, Goethe, closed his master- piece " Faust " with these beautiful words : " Das Ewigweib- 39 FIFTY MILLION STRONG liche zieht uns hinan." How true it is, that "The eternal feminine leads us upward and onward." So to the extent to which the womanhood of the nation is placed on a higher plane, to that extent is the manhood of the nation elevated. What is the first work of these two associations in the country? A complete survey of the particular section in which they will be active. Unless one has a quite intimate knowledge of the territory, it will be impossible to prepare a program that will perfectly fit the needs of that territory. A thousand facts are brought out by surveys. For instance, one learns the exact character of the population ; the number, denomination, etc., of all the churches; the standing of the schools; the economic condition of the people; what other organizations are doing; and the status of agriculture and village life. Knowing all these things and many others, one is in a position to plan for cooperative and supplementary work. After the survey the available leadership will determine the program of activities in natural order. Play or recreational features should constitute the first work. If one studies the play life of Rural America in the growing and already voluminous literature of the subject, he is amazed at the diversity of the activities of a recreational character. But unfortunately the activities are so scattered and so few rural sections can be found anywhere that have developed anything like a system in providing wholesome amusements for all the people, that one regrets the failure leadership has thus far made in this direction. The chief reason why so little definite progress has been made is, professionalism and commercialism have secured a tight grip on the recreations and amusements of the nation and only an enlightened con- science will lead to their emancipation. Different parts of the country differ greatly in their recrea- tions. There is a record of one rural county that emphasizes county Sunday-school picnics. Several are held annually and each is given under the auspices of two or more schools working together. In this way picnics occur all over '^ 40 RURAL AMERICA the county and a healthy rivalry exists among the various sections of the county. Of course each group of schools vies with all others in the preparation of the most interesting program of events. A certain section of another county is very musical and in the course of each year a number of musical entertainments take place. Other counties emphasize athletic events in their gatherings. Still others take a special interest in the history of their local territory and have annual celebrations of a commemorative character. Moreover, pag- eants and festivals are becoming quite common in many parts of the country. Eaton County, Michigan, conducts township play picnics in connection with the eighth grade promotion exercises of the country schools. All the rural schools of the country co- operate in these athletic events and they are held in different parts of the county. In Greene County, Ohio, the two Christian Associations unite in giving county carnivals. Boy Scout maneuvers, the exercises of groups of small girls, athletic events, band concerts and the Hke provide pleasure for young and old ahke. A very successful play festival in Delta, Colorado, a year ago, was attended by a large crowd. The features of the day were relay races, boys' and girls' basketball games, potato races, football games, nail-driving contests, archball games and other events. In Charlevoix, Michigan, a series of play festivals was conducted during the spring of 1914. Because of the great number taking part in these festivals, widespread interest and enthusiasm were aroused. The winners in the contests received their rewards in the form of attractive badges. Windsor County, Vermont, has for a number of years had an annual county play day on the fair grounds. This is given under the auspices of the County Young Men's Christian Association. In 1914 there were 450 different contestants and eighteen separate com- munities represented. Interesting features of the day were an anglers' tournament, a demonstration of first aid to the injured, a number of athletic events participated in by boys and girls, and trap shooting. A barbecue was served at noon, 41 FIFTY MILLION STRONG and a military band gave the large crowd the benefit of good music during the day.^ Instances similar to these might be multiplied, indicating that the play activities of the nation are beginning to find widespread expression in the rural sections. So the rural Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Christian Association find it comparatively easy in any county to formulate a play program that will appeal to the people. Another step of the two associations is providing for a program of work designed to assist young people in their more serious activities. Of course, the work of the county, like that of the city, is two-fold: work in which the hands play the larger part and work in which the brains play the larger part. It is less the duty of a rural association to give instruction than to cooperate with the agencies through which instruction is given. For example, rural secretaries can accomplish wonderful work through cooperation with the schools ; with the government and states in agricultural exten- sion work; and with the institutions that supply rural sections with books and periodicals. A further duty consists in training young men and women for the responsibilities and duties of the city, since many boys and girls that are fitted, and others that are unfitted, leave the country for the city. Instruction of the right char- acter can save thousands that would otherwise be lost in the fierce struggle of urban life. A well-known social worker in a large American city recently made the statement that 85 per cent of the human wreckage of his city was of rural origin.^ To show how great the present drift is from village to city, some statistics prepared by one of the leading educators of the state of Ohio, Prof. C. W. McClure, many years super- intendent of the public school of Germantown, Ohio, a town of 1,776 inhabitants, will be given. During the eleven years beginning in 1904 and ending in 1915 the school graduated 179 1 These instances are taken from several numbers of Rural Manhood. 2 See Proceedings of Country Church Conference held December 8-10, 1915- 42 RURAL AMERICA pupils, of whom 76 were boys and 103 girls. Of the 76 boys 14, and of the 103 girls 10, have graduated from college, and 21 and 15 respectively are either attending college now with a view to graduation or have had one or more years of college work. Of the 76 boys 23, and of the 103 girls 53, reside at Germantown; 48 and 49 respectively reside elsewhere, for the most part in cities ; and 5 and i respectively are dead. Of the 24 that have graduated from recognized colleges, only one now lives in Germantown, and that one is a young woman graduate of 1914. What deductions can be drawn from these data? (i) A large percentage of the college graduates, in this case over 95 per cent, leave home, most of them for the cities. (2) A large percentage of all the high school graduates leave home, in this case over 60 per cent, which is much lower than it would be if it were not for the recent graduates, more of whom are at home now than will be later. Most of these, too, go to the cities. Another duty of the secretaries of the two rural associations is preparing a program for the spiritual activities of the young people. In the preparation of such a program the insti- tution to be considered is the rural church. The number of boys and girls that can be actually reached in a county is small, but if secretaries and pastors are real leaders a more perfect cooperation among the churches may be effected and excellent results secured through team-work. The work of providing for the spiritual welfare of the youth of a county belongs to the churches, but the churches thus far have not done their full duty. A study of a county that has never had either secre- tary and of another that has enjoyed the leadership of one or both through a period of years, reveals the wonderful differ- ence between the activities oi the youth of the two counties in spiritual matters. Another important duty of the rural secretary is fusing into cooperative effort all the county's scattered activities and movements of a praiseworthy character. Of course this can- not be done in a day. But the right sort of leader can in 43 FIFTY MILLION STRONG time get results. The student of rural life finds Rural America today in a marvelously plastic condition. Even during the wonderful years preceding the crusades, the people of Europe were in no more plastic condition than Rural America is at the present time. The crusades heralded the Renais- sance, the real birth of modern civilization. The stirrings in Rural America today herald the coming of a new day that will re-fashion country life and thus create a greater America. The County Young Women's Christian Association is still in its pioneer days, but it now has organized counties in ten states, and on January i, 1916, there were six field county secretaries and fourteen local county secretaries. The first county conference was held in August, 1915, at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The purpose of the County Young Women's Christian Association is to furnish an adequate plan by which all the girls of a county can have trained Christian leadership for the development of all sides of their lives. It makes use of all available local leadership and resources, and makes possible county-wide events, such as camps, field meets, exhib- its and girls' congresses. Besides the regular county associa- tion work, there is a form of work known as Eight Week Clubs which is placed in the hands of college girls in their home communities during the summer months. Large numbers of college girls throughout the United States have taken courses in country leadership and have led such clubs during the past three summers.^ The County Young Men's Christian Association is operating in 1916 in 94 counties, having 124 employed secretaries, includ- ing 7 international and 15 state secretaries, and 2,250 leaders and assistant leaders and expending in its work over $220,000. The communities engaged in the work in 1915 numbered 925, which had a membership of 25,640. During the year, lectures and practical talks were attended by almost ioo, /. Country Social Life Yesterday and Today In the " Homespun Age "of the nation, to use an expres- sion of Horace Bushnell, the country's social life was rural in its character, since there were no cities in the present sense of the term. The centers of population which bore the name cities were simply big country towns, and the social life of the country reflected itself in practically all the cities of the nation. As a matter of fact, according to the census of 1800, there were only six cities in the whole country with a population in excess of 8,000.2 i^ those pioneer days the social life of the country had largely to do with barn raisings, plowing contests, log rollings, singing schools, sewing cir- cles, apple parings, quilting parties, husking bees, spelling matches, camp meetings, barbecues and the like. Now if one studies those activities, he finds in most of them a blending of work and play. But the age of coal and steam effected a change in the social life of the nation, which previously had been distinctively rural in its character. Cities have created a social life of their own and the youth of Rural America have been partially won over to the social life of the cities. The characteristic of the social life of Urban America is pleasure for pleasure's sake. The element of work is absent. But how- ever greatly Urban America has influenced Rural America, the rural population still clings pretty tenaciously to the custom of getting keen pleasure from the social activities that repre- sent a blending of work and play. The late Miss Anna B. Taft, of the Department of Church and Country Life of the Presbyterian Church, calls rural recreation a purposeful recreation and goes on to say : " The average country citizen is more serious-minded than his city brother. In his moments of ^ Data furnished by Mr. A. E. Roberts of the International Y. M. C. A. Committee. 2 W. L. Anderson, " The Country Town," p. 31. 45 FIFTY MILLION STRONG relaxation he does not want merely to be amused. His life is made up so largely of actual labor and encased in such an economic austerity that he does not react to the frivolous and light. There must be something to the play life that fits his need."i Further proof of this fact may be found in the reading of country people. An investigation of the reading statistics of a rural county, covering a period of nine suc- cessive years, shows that, on the whole, the people living in the open country read more serious books than are read by city residents.2 The following item taken from the German- town (Ohio) Press is to the point: "On Wednesday morning of last week a number of merry farmers found their way to the woods of the John Kinsey farm. Owing to sickness the renter, Mr. Hoffman, had been unable to cut his winter's wood, and the near-by farmers, prompted by a feeling of neighborliness, enjoyed a day of fun and frolic in preparing for him a big pile of fuel. Twenty-five farmers had a part in the pleasure of the day." ^ See " Country Church Work," p, 14. 2 Saida B. and Ernest I. Antrim, ** The County Library," p. 223. 46 2. Work " There is one friend who will never fail you while you have hands to move and a brain to plan. In your dreariest hours she will be your sweet refuge, and in times of pros- perity she will guard you from ' pride which goeth before destruction.' She will bring you long nights of restful sleep at the end of your busy days, she will absorb you more and more. Her name is Work, and neither the highest nor the lowest can be happy for long without her." There is little in life but labor. And tomorrow may find that a dream ; Success is the bride of Endeavor, And luck — but a meteor's gleam. There are thousands of persons in the United States today that are not obliged to work, since their fortunes are ample to maintain them in idleness. But there never was an idle person who was happy, nor was there ever a busy person, even though his work might not have been to his taste, that did not get more happiness out of activity than he could pos- sibly have obtained from idleness. In an article entitled " Why Does a Rich Man Work? " ^ H. F. Dix says : " Always, as a mother returns rapturously to her young children, so they [the rich men], the homing instinct being strong, return when vacation is over with new zest to their work. The railroads, banks and corporations which absorb them are children of their enterprise and energy, and so the lure of the market place is not that of mere money, but is primal in its origin and wholly normal and right. It is the appeal of Work to the man-soul." There is a great variety of work done in Rural America, but ^ See The Independent, November 22, 19 15, p. 306. 47 FIFTY MILLION STRONG the most important is that of the schools. So the Rural School will be considered first. A. The Rural School The writer recently had the privilege of talking to an elderly lady nearing the century mark whose mind is as clear as a bell on the happenings of eighty-five and ninety years ago. The principal topic of conversation was the country school. In her youth America was a rural nation, and the few schools of the open country and the schools of the towns and cities were, in respect to their courses of study, very much the same, the only difference being the time required to complete the courses. Manufacture and industry played a minor part in the national life in those days. The rule was thousands of scattered units supplying the needs of the people. Rural America and Urban America were one and the towns and cities might have been designated trading points and commodity clearing-houses for all the people. The work of the country showed fully as much diversity as that of the town and city, since the farmer was in those days both producer and manu- facturer. Social intercourse was continuous. One never heard of the lure of the city; the civilization of the nation was distinctively a rural civilization. What a change this elderly lady has witnessed! And one of the unfortunate things respecting the change is that, although all the schools of her youth fairly well met the requirements of the nation, in the meantime the town and city schools have made tremendous progress, adapting their courses to the needs of the pupils, while the country schools have lagged behind. Had the country schools gone forward like the city schools there would not be today in Rural Amer- ica a school problem that is engaging the attention of the whole country, and life in the open country would be vastly different if, in the passage of the years, the rural educa- tional system had kept pace with that of Urban America. The schools of Urban America have advanced along three very important lines. First, towns and cities have for years vied with one another in the erection of school buildings con- "^ 48 RURAL AMERICA taining all the facilities for the education of urban youth. Men are usually quite conservative in the matter of taxing themselves for public improvements, but there seems to be no disposition anywhere to practice economy when it comes to public education. The result is, in most towns and cities of the present day the schools are among the show places. Dur- ing the past two or three years there has been considerable depression in the business world, and complaint has been quite general. Architects who several years ago had scores of men in their offices have reduced the number to a minimumi owing to the great falling off in building operations. But, in the erection of school houses in the towns and cities, there seems to be more activity than ever, which is an indication that Urban America is equipping herself perfectly for the educa- tion of her youth, in spite of financial depression. Now, the rule of Urban America has been, not only to provide first-class school buildings, but, in the second place, to have courses of study that aim adequately to prepare pupils for the work they will be called upon to do when their school life is ended. The tendency, which is nation wide, is to make the curricula more responsive to the requirements of the day. And, thirdly, the teaching profession has been greatly improved, so that today one cannot become a teacher in very many of the public schools of the towns and cities of the country without ade- quate preparation. Thus, along the line of school buildings, courses of study and teachers, town and city schools have taken long strides. But Rural America has, on the whole, not shared in this progress. With her one-room schools, often having unsuitable grounds, with courses of study that in most cases are inadequate and with teachers who frequently go to the country to get experience that they may later teach in towns and cities. Rural America has not kept pace with Urban America in school matters. And what she has done has too often borne the urban stamp. Just as Daniel, in prayer, looked toward Jerusalem, so the country, educationally, has been turning its eyes toward the city. Now, the chief thing that has kept the country back edu- 49 FIFTY MILLION STRONG cationally has been its small educational unit. In earlier years the little school district was the ideal educational unit and served admirably the needs of the day when the nona- genarian was a school girl. But the slogan of the twentieth century is centralization, consolidation, and the little school districts are very much out of harmony with the spirit of the age. Of course there are some school districts today which in spite of their many handicaps do wonderfully well; but where one such school exists there are many backward schools, and this greatly retards the symmetrical development of the nation. But fortunately a new day is dawning in Rural America. The fifty millions of Rural America are catching the vision of the possibilities of a greater rural civilization, public sen- timent is crystallizing in the interest of a rural school system that will be perfectly responsive to the needs of the new era, and the next generation will see marvelous changes. A study of national educational progress warrants three generaliza- tions: (i) a disposition on the part of all the states to clothe the state boards of education with larger powers and respon- sibilities, the boards themselves to select the state superin- tendents ; (2) an inclination to increase the size of the educational unit, which in a majority of cases is made the county; and (3) a nation-wide desire to have in the country as good buildings, as well adapted courses of study and as capable teachers as are found in the cities. In a recent interesting article Mr. W. K. Tate gives a concrete example of rural school work that is worthy of imita- tion, with the changes made necessary in different parts of the country, in all Rural America. " In the experimental country school on the campus of the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South Carolina, the school day usually begins in the garden. Arithmetic is studied in connection with the measurements of the plots, the planting of the seed, the weighing and estimating of the crop, the study of the soil, the building of the fence. After the youngest children have laid out their garden plots and planted their seed, they must label the beds and make notes in their garden books of the time of 50 RURAL AMERICA planting and other facts connected with the garden. Thus arises the necessity for reading and writing. The recipes in the school kitchen, and the directions of the day, written on the blackboard, serve as reading lessons. On the library table are displayed attractive books that deal with the things the children are studying in the gardens and on the play-grounds. The child who has been watching the mocking-bird build a nest in the peach tree eagerly reads the bird primer. The group that has found a cocoon and has watched the butterfly emerge from it, listens attentively to the story from the but- terfly book. In that school the school-house is like a country home, with its gardens, its kitchen, its shop and its living room. Much of the day the children spend in the open air, either in the garden itself, or on the big piazza. In the shop there is a little formal manual training, but with simple tools the boys and girls make the things needed in their work. In the kitchen the luncheon for the children and teacher is pre- pared and cooked during the progress of the school day. Much of the food is produced in the garden, and the children thus study all the processes connected with its production and preparation." ^ The same writer concludes his article with the two following paragraphs : " The new country school will always have an auditorium that may be used as a community meeting place. There the school gives its entertainments; the community literary so- ciety, the farmers' organization, and the women's clubs meet there; in it are held the lyceum attractions that are gradually spreading into the country districts. In addition to its grounds and gardens, the country school will have its experimental and demonstration plots, under the direction of the principal and the teacher of agriculture, and there the farmers of the community will meet at intervals for conference and instruction. " The school farm will be tilled with the help of the school horses that pull the wagons in which the children are brought 1 W. K. Tate, " The New Country School," p. 4. 51 FIFTY MILLION STRONG to the school. The play-ground will expand into a community athletic field, with a special building for a community fair. Beside the school house will be the teachers' home. The teachers will be appointed for a term of ten years, will live in the community all the year around, and will take a leading part in the community social life. Near the school house will be the community church, with its resident pastor. About these two regenerated institutions will center a new country life, efficient and socially satisfying." ^ B, Rural Life Bureaus of the Federal Government The work of the Federal Government in the Rural Field is largely in the hands of bureaus, many of which have recently been established. On the first day of 1916, for example, the new Bureau of Social Centers began operations. To put the schools and churches of Rural America into use in the every- day life of Americans as an Americanizing, industrial, social, educational and religious influence of the broadest character, is the purpose of this new bureau. Much attention will be given those communities in which there are large numbers of immi- grants, since it is recognized that the sons and daughters of America's polyglot foreign population must be assimilated. Many other bureaus are doing an equally important work, the aim of the Federal Government being to supervise all the more important activities of Rural America and to render assistance in the organization of the Rural Field.2 C. Extension Work ^ The editors of The Country Gentleman recently made the statement that " probably the greatest improvement in country life conditions is resulting from the work now being done under the provision of the Smith-Lever Act."* Before the passage of this act in May, 1914, the Federal Government, 1 W. K. Tate, " The New Country School," p. 8. 2 The work of Institutes and Granges would be considered at length under the head of Work, were it not so well known. 3 Inforrnation under the several sections down to that on Banks ob- tained from sources too numerous to mention. * From a letter to the author. 52 RURAL AMERICA through its Agricultural Department, the forty-eight states through their Agricultural Departments, Colleges of Agricul- ture and Experiment Stations, the almost three thousand coun- ties, and the many institutions, organizations and individuals not connected with the Federal Government or any of its political subdivisions, cooperated to a greater or less extent in the interest of a better rural life. Bulletins were issued in great number, agricultural trains were run, short courses were given, movable schools were put into operation, extension work of a varied character was conducted, county agricultural agencies for a third of the counties of the nation had been established, boys* and girls' clubs were organized all over the country, and many other things were done. This act welds into unity practically all the agencies con- tributing to agricultural progress through the establishment of a permanent national system of agricultural extension work, work that will carry innumerable benefits to the very door of every farm home. And since all the forty-eight states have assented to the provisions of the act, agricultural progress will henceforth be nation-wide in its character. The work is being done through the State Agricultural Colleges. The Smith-Lever Act appropriates $10,000 of federal funds an- nually to each of the forty-eight states and increases the amount yearly until 1923, when the annual Government appropriation will be $4,580,000. The additional appropria- tion is divided among the states in the proportion that the rural population of each state bears to the total rural popula- tion of the states. Any state, however, to share in this extra federal Smith-Lever fund must appropriate and spend in extension work at least an equal amount of money from sources within the state. In addition to the Smith-Lever funds, the Department of Agriculture during 1916 will expend from its own appropria- tions over $1,025,000, and the states will raise $2,650,600. This will make a grand total of $4,750,000, including the Smith- Lever fund, to be spent in the fiscal year of 1915-16 in bringing practical and helpful instruction to the farmer and FIFTY MILLION STRONG his family in their own communities. Most of this addi- tional money is used in connection with county agencies, boys' and girls' clubs, demonstration work, home economics, extension work, extension work through specialists, and movable schools. That an idea may be had of the exact character of the work that will be done in each of the forty-eight states under the provisions of the Smith-Lever Act, a condensed statement of the last annual report of the state of Ohio will be given. Of course it must be remembered in considering this report that the work is only in its incipiency, and that there will be annual enlargements with increased appropriations. Hence, by leaps and bounds the nation is sure to go forward in rural development. Ohio Staff workers came into direct contact with 40,000 persons last year and an additional 34,000 inspected exhibits. There was participation in 48 one-week extension schools, 39 popular evening meetings, 60 spraying and pruning demonstrations, 24 boys' live stock judging contests in 22, counties, 82 fertilizer meetings in 44 counties, 13 community and church meetings, 12 women's club meetings, 6 corn shows, 11 domestic science contests and exhibits, 20 farm and orchard demonstrations, 18 miscellaneous meetings, 16 high school programs, 6 pupils' and parents' meetings, 8 cow testing association organizations, 8 township surveys relative to wheat culture, 10 fruit thinning demonstrations, etc. In addition, a Farmers' Week was held in February and a Country Life Week in August, and fifteen county normal schools in agriculture and thirty-four normal schools in domestic science were conducted. Furthermore, 50,000 bulletins were issued periodically, and the number distributed during the year almost reached a half million. Also, 5,500 poultry sheets, representing eleven differ- ent issues, were published. Then bi-weekly news letters were mailed to 800 newspapers in the state, each of which made approximately two newspaper columns and consisted of items 54 RURAL AMERICA on seasonable suggestions on farm, garden, home work, etc. Investigation showed that 80 per cent of all these letters were used, either in whole or in part, by the newspapers. For correspondence courses, 140 lessons have been completed on the following subjects: Alfalfa, bee keeping, clover culture, concrete on the farm, corn culture, dairy farming, farm accounts, farm water supply and sanitation, home economics, orchard fruits, garden products, potato raising, poultry farm- ing, sheep farming, soil fertility, vegetable growing and tobacco growing. This underestimates rather than exaggerates the work, since there are many activities of a detailed character that cannot be mentioned. Of course in other states the work is adapted to the needs of the several states, so that each state does the things that will be most helpful to its own country life. In 1923 and thereafter the state of Ohio will have available for this work annually the large sum of fully $350,000. D. County Agent The county agent has been a big factor in promoting the interests of rural life for a period of twelve years, and already over one thousand counties in the forty-eight states have taken advantage of the provisions of the law relative to county agents. Many of these counties also have county experiment farms. There is no doubt that counties having experiment farms under the direction of competent county agents are in a position to make wonderful progress in agricultural development. It is found that experimentation in one part of a state will not prove, except in a general way, very helpful to any portion of the state except that contiguous to the farm on which the experiments are con- ducted. Soil, climate and many other factors make it neces- sary that each county do its own experimenting and accept very little that has not been proved successful within the county itself. Hence, there ought to be not only a county agent, but an experiment farm, in every agricultural county 55 FIFTY MILLION STRONG in the United States. If a good agent is secured first, the farm will surely follow. The annual report of the county agent of Jewell County, Kansas, will be of interest, since it shows what the average county agent accomplishes during the year : Farmers visited on their farms 281 Total number of visits made 552 Total number of miles traveled by agent 7,507 Business calls on agent at his office 359 Telephone calls 450 Meetings addressed 115 Attendance at meetings 8,8S4 Average attendance at meetings yy Total attendance at judging contests 540 Stock judging contests 13 Boys' and girls' clubs organized 9 Number enrolled in boys' and girls' contest work 183 Circulars, club letters and bulletins written 34 Copies of above circulars distributed 8,329 Copies of state and U. S. bulletins distributed. . 4,369 Letters written 1,079 Total of all publications distributed ^3,777 Men enrolled in five-acre contest 23 Bushels of grain listed for sale 2,390 Number of head of live stock listed for sale.. 99 Number of farmers cooperating in demonstrations 64 Types of demonstrations 24 Total number of demonstrations 117 E. Boys' and Girls' Club Work Boys' and girls' club work furnishes one of the best oppor- tunities for teaching by example. Boys' corn and other agricultural clubs have been in existence for some years. The department, in cooperation with various agricultural colleges, did a great deal to popularize this demonstration work and make it effective through acre contests in corn growing. Boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 18 are admitted to these clubs, the work being conducted very largely RURAL AMERICA in cooperation with school officials and teachers in the rural communities. These clubs are supervised by state agents or assistants located at the agricultural colleges, and represent both the colleges and the department. They are assisted by county agents, who aid in the organization and maintenance of the work, and by club specialists from the offices of the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work in the United States Department of Agriculture. By far the most wide-spread and numerous organizations of this character are the boys' corn clubs, but there are also clubs for the growing of potatoes, grain, apples, as well as for raising pigs and poultry. The prizes offered in practically all of them have educational value, such as scholarships at the agricultural colleges or short courses, trips to points of interest, etc. The object of girls' demonstration work is to teach girls gardening and the canning of vegetables and fruits for home and market; to teach the family how to utilize the surplus and waste products of the farm and garden; to stimulate cooperation among members of the family and in the com- munity; to provide a means for girls to earn money at home; to pave the way for practical demonstrations in home economics; to furnish teachers a plan for correlating home work with school work. Out of the girls' canning club work, which is extensive in the southern states, has grown the employment of county women agents. They occupy the same position to women and girls of the county that men agents do to the men and boys of the county. F. Banks Within recent years much has been done for the farmer in financial matters. Before the passage of the Bank Act of December, 1913, there were four types of banking institu- tions in the country: national banks, state banks, private banks and building and loan associations. The first were an outgrowth of the Civil War and were established to furnish a market for government bonds and to provide a national 57 FIFTY MILLION STRONG currency. The second had been in existence since the close of the Revolutionary War, and differ in the several states, since they are organized under charters granted by the states, although in recent years the tendency has been to model the state laws after the federal laws. The third had their origin at the close of the War of 1812 and have been until recent years little hampered by law in their management. Building and loan associations came a decade or so after the establish- ment of private banks, and have been a boon to thousands of people in enabling them to purchase homes by mortgaging future savings. In December, 1913, a federal banking law was passed pro- viding for twelve federal reserve banks, with which all other banks of the country may become affiliated on complying with the conditions imposed. The new law corrects two evils that in the past half century have led to the loss of bilhons of money, viz., an inelastic currency and an immobile reserve. The federal reserve batiks eliminate the two major defects in the nation's banking system through the issuing and retir- ing of federal reserve notes in response to the demands of the business world, and through the opportunity offered member banks of strengthening reserves by negotiating loans based on commercial paper. The removal of these two defects in the banking system of the nation has been a very great help to Rural America, since the banks of Rural America had, before the passage of the Act of 1913, been largely at the mercy of the city banks, most of their reserve having been kept in city institu- tions. Hence, if trouble arose in the cities — and there is where panics always started — the reserves of the country banks became more or less unavailable, owing to the distress of the city banks, and the country banks were dependent on the small amount of cash they had in their vaults to satisfy the needs of their depositors. Now, with all the assets of the country banks constantly liquid, regardless of urban condi- tions, the country has been placed on a sound financial basis. In addition, national banks are permitted under the law to ^ 58 RURAL AMERICA place a considerable per cent of their assets in mortgage loans, which releases many millions of dollars for long-time investments that hitherto had to be put, for the most part, in short-time securities. Dr. Charles L, Stewart, of the University of Illinois, thinks that the present banking system, with the changes made by the Federal Act of 1913, may prove adequate to the needs of Rural America under certain conditions. At the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, held at Chicago, November 29 and 30 and December i and 2, 1915, he made the following statement: ''The present type of banks, if subjected to proper super- vision, given certain privileges and enlightened by a scientific study of the credit needs of the farm in different Hues of agriculture, should relieve the American farmer of the need of undertaking to develop a separate banking system." G. Rural Credits In recent years both Congress and the legislatures of many of the states have given the subject of rural credits a great deal of consideration. A few laws have been passed and several of the states are planning to give the farmers aid. However, no plan has been tried long enough to enable one to judge whether it will prove to be an unqualified success. Many agricultural associations in foreign countries, formed for the purpose of extending credit to farmers, embody the idea of collective liability. It has been generally agreed that associations of this character would not be a success in this country, for the reason that the American farmer is an individualist and does not care to assume any indebtedness beyond that which he himself contracts. However, the likelihood is that plans will be evolved, not containing the feature of collective liability, which will still permit farmers to secure all the money to which they are entitled and at any time that it is needed, at minimum rates. When one realizes that the best talent of the nation is working on the problem, one concludes that plans will be forthcoming in harmony with the spirit of Rural America and productive 59 FIFTY MILLION STRONG of as good results as those found in any other part of the world. In this connection, a word from the late Hon. Henry Wallace, of Des Moines, Iowa, is very much in place. He says that the big need of Rural America is not so much greater facilities for getting in debt, since a plentiful supply of money at low rates gives rise to land speculation, which leads both to a transfer of land to the rich and to a rise in its value, thereby causing a decrease in the number of poor land- owners, but greater facilities for getting out of debt. The facilities for getting in debt are abundant. If the opportuni- ties for getting out of debt show an equally great increase, then the young man who wants to become a tenant and the tenant who wants to buy a farm will be given the kind of help that is most needed in Rural America. The former can be best aided through a long lease, which must be made the rule instead of the exception if this nation is not to become a nation of city dwellers and peasants, and the latter can be best aided through loans extending over a long period of years. Both would thus have plenty of time to build up the land and the danger of a nation of tenant farmers would be removed. The strengthened condition of the thousands of rural banks of the country due to the passage of the Money Bill of December, 1913, has already proved to be a boon to many sections of Rural America. So if the law can be reinforced by the passage of a workable rural credits law by Congress and by supplementary laws in the several states, the chief cause that has militated against tenants' getting hold of the land will have been removed. At the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits (November-December, 1915) many plans for improving the credit conditions of Rural America were suggested by speakers of national reputation. Some of these will be briefly con- sidered. The Hon. Harris Weinstock, member of the Cali- fornia Rural Credit Commission, advocated, as a remedy for absentee landlordism, that the several states buy and improve 60 RURAL AMERICA land and sell the same to persons intending to adopt the calling of farming. He referred to the success of the Irish and Australian land acts and recommended a 5 per cent initial payment on the land and a one-third payment on equipment. The Hon. Charles W. Holman, expert on land problems, also held that state aid would prove to be the only remedy for absentee landlordism. He said that the greatest real estate deal of history was the buying out of the Irish landlords by the British Government. In 1876 one-half the land of Ireland was owned by 700 persons. Today there are over 400,000 home owners and only 200,000 tenants, and no other nation of the world has made more progress agriculturally during the past generation than Ireland. Dr. Elwood Mead, of the Univer- sity of California, stated that the Australian and New Zea- land methods, in the matter of getting the land into the hands of the home owners, were better adapted to conditions in the United States than any other foreign plans. Australia, for example, finances the farmers on small tracts of land, provides supervisors for groups of farmers and gives pur- chasers a long time to pay for their land, charging them low rates of interest. Men are drawn to the land and the government has profited financially through the undertaking. On the other hand, Mr. F. W. Thompson, president of the Farm Mortgage Bankers' Association, called attention to the resolution adopted by his association at their conven- tion in October, 1915, which provided for national land mortgage banks, supervised like national banks, and having the double function of (i) negotiating, buying and selling individual farm mortgages and (2) issuing farm mortgage bonds against the collective mortgage security held. He maintained that the average interest rate of the farm mortgage loans of the country aggregating two billion dollars was not excessive, being only 6^ per cent. Robert D. Kent, a New Jersey banker, suggested a national system of building and loan associations, with local and district associations and a great national association. Such an arrangement, he be- lieved, would stimulate initiative, encourage self-help and 61 FIFTY MILLION STRONG place on the market under the guarantee of the national association a new type of mortgage bond, a gilt-edged invest- ment for all the people. The Hon. Myron T. Herrick, former United States ambassador to France, thought that the credit facilities of the farmer should be improved through private initiative rather than state aid, although uniform laws to standardize credits, to provide careful supervision and to guarantee perfect safety should be passed. He spoke of the unenviable state aid experiences of Denmark, France, Russia and some of the Balkan countries and referred to the experience of the Federal Government in 1836, when the surplus of the treasury was deposited with twenty-six states. New York^ the most populous state, lost all of its share, over four millions, most of which was invested in farm loans. He also referred to the recent experience of the Federal Government in irrigation projects, which have cost over $100,000,000 and have proved unsatisfactory both to the Government and to the settlers. All agree, however, that the credit facilities of the United States are bad. So his first recommendation is the enactment of proper real estate laws, with the adop- tion by all the states of the Torrens system, with the revision, where necessary, of foreclosure laws, and with the enactment of permissive laws with reference to bond and mortgage companies and landshafts. Early in the 1915-1916 session of Congress there was introduced in the House a rural credits bill providing for a federal loan board to be appointed by the president and a number of federal loan banks, each to have a capital of at least $500,000. These federal loan banks would loan to farmers through local associations. Of course, this bill is likely to be considerably modified before it is enacted into law if it should finally become a statute. H. Taxation A study of the taxation laws of the country reveals the fact that most of the states still have what is known as the t^ 62 RURAL AMERICA general property tax (abolished in the following states: Vir- ginia, 1902; Minnesota, 1906; Oklahoma, 1907; Michigan, 1909; Arizona, 191 1; Maine, 1913; New Mexico, 1914; North Dakota, 1914; Kentucky and Maryland, 1915), which means that all kinds of property are taxed on the same basis. Of course there is a good deal of difference among the states in the matter of appraisement. In some states property is appraised at only a fraction of its real value, while in other states the appraisement is higher, and in a few states all property is on the duplicate at its real value. This system of taxation, which has come, down from the early days, when nearly all property consisted of real estate and tangible per- sonal property, is now proving generally unsatisfactory owing to the vast increase in intangible personal property, which can be concealed, thus throwing the burden of taxation on real estate and tangible personal property. Owing to the great amount of intangible personal property in the cities, much of which escapes taxation, the farmer has felt the burden of unjust taxation and made complaint all over the country. The result has been that the general property tax has been either abolished or modified in many states. Certain kinds of property have been exempted from taxation altogether, or taxed at lower rates, and in a few states the laws have worked to the advantage of the farmer, since some of the exemptions, as well as the property on which the rates have been lowered, are found on the farm. However, in the matter of taxation, a study of the situation reveals the fact that the greatest benefit from new laws has gone to the residents of cities, since most of them have to do with personal property, which is found to a much greater value in municipal centers than in the country. One real benefit has come to the farmer in several states in the exemp- tion of mortgages from taxation, which increases the desira- bility of the mortgage from an investment standpoint and reduces, at least theoretically, the rate of interest. There is not a single state in the Union that has a tax law that is giving general satisfaction. The great drawback to the 63 FIFTY MILLION STRONG passage of a law that would be absolutely fair for all residents of a state is the unfortunate element of selfish- ness that enters into human nature. Possibly, sometime, Americans, like Greeks in the palmy days of Greece, will subordinate private welfare to the general welfare, making private life simple and pubHc life ample and rich, and then tax troubles will disappear. /. Blue Sky Laws There was a time in this country when the peddler of stocks and bonds of uncertain value did a thriving business. Statisticians estimate the losses of the people through invest- ments in such securities by the hundreds of millions. How- ever, one state after another has passed what Kansas, leading the way, called a blue sky law, which throws so many obstacles in the way of the illegitimate handling of stocks and bonds that the swindler finds his way beset with impedi- ments, and the business of disposing of wild-cat securities to the gullible has languished. Although the farmer is no more susceptible to the fairy tales of the swindler than the average citizen, yet easy money has always had a very strong attrac- tion for him, for the reason that his profits represent the sweat of his brow. So, through the passage of these protective laws, the farmers of America are being saved millions of money annually that in preceding years filled the coffers of the wily stockjobber. Recent months, however, have witnessed a sort of reaction against blue sky legislation, with the result that some of the laws already passed may be repealed or modified. It is claimed that the severity of the laws is very detrimental to the interests of legitimate stock and bond concerns. Still, there is no likelihood that the states will revert to the leniency of the days when the business was absolutely unhampered. /. Good Roads The past decade has been a decade of good road building, and the farmer is the one receiving the greatest benefit. Of 1^ 64 RURAL AMERICA course most of the roads being built are paid for by the farmers themselves. But to a greater extent than ever before are the several states going into the business of con- structing highways, and these are being built largely at state expense. And since many of the states have urban popula- tions that are greatly in excess of the rural populations, it can readily be seen that the cities are paying the larger share for the very roads that bring the farmers into touch with the urban centers and thus make their products more valuable because of the improvement in transportation facili- ties. Besides, the likelihood is that the Federal Government will in due time have a financial part in the construction of some of the roads of the country, and this, too, will accrue to the advantage of the farmer. The nation has entered the automobile era, the slogan of which is good roads. The auto- mobile era is making a new epoch in the national life, and if it does nothing more than give the nation good roads it will have served a good purpose for the fifty million people of Rural America. At the present time, the several political subdivisions of the forty-eight states expend annually in road work $174,035,083, the total road mileage of the country is 2,273,131, and of this mileage almost 11 per cent has been improved. K. Economic Cooperation The spirit of cooperation is beginning to permeate the whole of Rural America. There is an increasing tendency to cooperation in all activities. One scarcely finds a county, for example, that does not have its local mutual insurance company, and many counties have a number of such com- panies. The time is likely to come when the insurance idea will have been so widely adopted that one can protect himself against almost all hazards found in the open country. In recent years, rural telephone companies have become quite numerous, with the result that there are few sections any- where that do not enjoy perfect telephone service. One also finds here and there cooperative arrangements for securing 6s FIFTY MILLION STRONG both gas and electricity. In many parts of the country central electric light plants supply power and light, where desired, within a radius of many miles. Besides, most persons have heard of the discoveries that make possible both lighting and heating by electricity at a distance and by wireless. Investi- gation also shows that there are organizations of many kinds having to do with cooperative buying and selling. However, all cooperative activities are for the most part local in char- acter and nothing has yet been worked out that is national in its scope. The many units found in Rural America make the problem of cooperation on a very large scale very diffi- cult of solution. At the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits the slogan was cooperation. Millard R. Myers, editor of the American Cooperative Journal, advocated the adoption of the Rochdale plan in cooperative activities. This means : ( i ) every customer a shareholder; (2) every shareholder one vote; (3) interest paid on money invested; and (4) surplus divided on the basis of patronage. Hon. Frank L. McVey, president of the conference, stated that although the farmers of the nation {^6 per cent of the population) have had for several years an annual income of nine billion dollars, yet agriculture has not prospered, and he mentioned three needs : better agri- culture, better markets and better finance. And back of all three, he maintained, there must be organization, cooperation. Producers of iron ore are organized for the transportation, melting and manufacture of their product, and its sale to the consumer, and many other producers have found it necessary to do the same thing. American agriculture must organize also if she would hold her own. In Germany, according to Hon. David Lubin, of Rome, Italy, an autocratic government devised an economic system for the farming population and put it into operation for a double purpose : to elevate the farm- ing population to a higher plane, and, through strengthening the position of the conservative farming population, to coun- teract the tendencies of the socialistic and radical urban popu- lation. Mr. Lubin says the American farmer is naturally RURAL AMERICA brighter than the German farmer, but the German farmer is today the brightest in the world owing to the fact of govern- ment aid. Unquestionably a group of federal experts with unlimited power could within a generation revolutionize American agricultural conditions. But many persons think it would be better for the farming population to attain the uplands of achievement through their own initiative than to rise as a result of outside initiative. The Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett, of Dublin, Ireland, said the value of cooperative movements can be especially seen in crises. He pointed out that the food situation in Europe during the war would be infinitely worse if it were not for the organization among farmers that prevails in nearly all the countries. Cooperation was especially urged at the conference in the matter of marketing. Many speakers made the statement that the farmers of the nation lose annually untold sums because, in their unorganized condition, they deal almost solely with organized bodies of men. W. J. Kittle, of Chicago, secretary of the Milk Producers' Association, said that 12,500 dairy farmers supply Chicago with one and one-quarter mil- Hon quarts of milk daily. This milk is produced on land worth from $150 to $250 per acre by cows worth $100 a head. Labor costs $35 to $40 a month and feed is always high. Yet the farmer averages only from 25^c to 4c a quart for his milk, when the actual cost of production is according to experts 5c a quart. Hon. Wilfred Wheeler, secretary of the Massachu- setts State Board of Agriculture, said the situation relative to dairy farming was equally serious not only in his state but in all New England. According to The Banker-Farmer there are 14,000,000 cows in the country, owned by 1,400,000 persons, and two-thirds of these earn a profit of only 30c a year each. The two chief reasons given for failure to get results in marketing farm products, according to Charles J. Brand, chief of the Bureau of Markets and Rural Organization, were non- standardization and lack of uniformity in containers. Dr. Charles McCarthy recommended that each state should have its own brands or labels, that there should be state administra- 67 FIFTY MILLION STRONG tive bodies charged with the responsibility of making rules, that only such goods as answered requirements should be given brands or labels, and that the commissioners of the several states should cooperate with one another. There is quite a number of organizations whose brands are famous. These are found especially in fruit sections and dairy products districts. Of the numerous cooperative enterprises in North America possibly the largest, in point of products handled, may be considered the three grain companies of Western Canada. George F. Chipman, of Winnipeg, said these include 490 ele- vators, which have already handled more than 250,000,000 bushels of grain at a profit of $1,600,000. The speaker pre- dicted that they would eventually handle three-fourths of the grain crop of Canada and go extensively into the other lines of business having to do with the farmer. Thirteen states now have marketing bureaus, which are giving special attention to the marketing of farm crops. W. G. Scholtz, director of the Idaho Department of Markets, said his state is doing three important things through the recently established department of which he is director. It conducts a free employment bureau to assist farmers to secure laborers, and laborers to get work. It aims to eliminate fraud in land sales and helps buyers to find land at reasonable prices. It aids in the marketing of farm products at maxi- mum prices. Clarence Ousley, of Texas, claimed there was a preventable waste in the cotton crop of the South running as high as $300,000,000, and this was largely due to faulty han- dling, marketing and transporting. To eliminate this waste within her own borders, Texas passed a warehouse law pro- viding for the storage not only of cotton, but of all other agricultural products. Through regulated ginning, baling, sampling and grading, Texas hopes to save her farmers mil- lions of dollars annually, and, through the issuance of ware- house receipts, make it possible to borrow money on stored cotton, thus preventing the anaual dtmiping of cotton on thq market. The officers of the thirteen state marketing bureaus recently 68 RURAL AMERICA held a meeting at Chicago, and organized a national associa- tion of marketing officials. They strongly urge the creation of marketing bureaus in all of the states which have none at the present time, with the thought that when each state has a marketing bureau, a national marketing plan can be devised which will result in introducing improved methods of market- ing, thereby eliminating a great deal of waste. John Lee Coulter, dean of the College of Agriculture, West Virginia, made the statement that there are 5,000,000 tenants and farm laborers in the United States and that the future of the United States is dependent on these men. The follow- ing is the program which he recommends : 1. An act of Congress providing for a complete scheme of farm land banks. 2. Legislative acts of the states supplementing the national law and providing for state institutions to do various phases of the mortgage business which the national farm land bank would not care to undertake. 3. Legislation by the states simplifying the laws pertain- ing to titles, deeds, foreclosures and exemptions. 4. An up-to-date state bureau of farm lands with a com- plete list of farms for sale and farms for rent, and with as much detail concerning these as possible. 5. A thorough scheme of rural education with county organ- ization, so provided that every county headquarters would have a complete list and careful rating of all farms in the county. 6. Such state legislation as is necessary to take over by some public service corporation lands not already developed — these lands to be developed, parceled, and sold on advantageous terms to select farmers who, not owning any land, are seeking to become permanent settlers, with the idea of living upon and operating their own farms. The state that has done the most in the field of economic cooperative activities is Minnesota. On January i, 1914, there were in the state 2,013 cooperative establishments, and these, in 1913, did a total business of $60,759,208. These figures are 69 FIFTY MILLION STRONG taken from a bulletin of the agricultural experiment station of the University of Minnesota. The records were compiled with great care after investigations by experts. In the lead of cooperative enterprises are the creameries, of which, in 1914, there were 614, which represent y2 per cent of all the creameries of the state. Their business amounted to $21,675,252. Forty-two per cent of the farmers of the state are patrons of these creameries. In no other state is the butter industry controlled to such an extent by the farmers themselves. The extent of the business and the cost of con- ducting it are shown in the following figures: Total pounds of butter made in 1913 74,934,940 Average number of pounds per creamery. 122,044 Total paid farmers for butter fat $19,988,321 Average paid farmers per creamery $32,554 Total running expenses $1,628,931 Expense per pound of butter made (cents) 2.2 Total number of patrons. 65,191 Average number of patrons per creamery. . 106 Total number of cows belonging to patrons 504,975 Average number of cows per creamery. . . . 822 These creameries are operated on a truly cooperative basis. After deducting from their gross receipts enough to cover expenses, they distribute the remaining profits according to the amount of butter fat brought by each patron. In all excepting 3^ per cent of the creameries, the one-man one- vote principle prevails. In 1913, the state had 34 cooperative cheese factories. These manufactured 4,201,743 pounds of cheese at a value of $637,324, and paid patrons in cash $563,845. They were oper- ated at an expense of $73,379. It also had 270 farmers' ele- vators, with an aggregate membership of about 34,5oo. Following the harvesting of the 1912 crops, the total business of these elevators amounted to $24,000,000. The farmers own a majority of the stock of the elevators and in all save 70 RURAL AMERICA SVi per cent each stockholder has but one vote, regardless of the number of shares he owns. Cooperative stores are less numerous. Of the 120 stores reporting, sixty-one rendered detailed reports showing a total business of $2,593,643, an avefage of $43,518 for each store. The cooperative store movement has been marked by a num- ber of failures, but there are no figures to prove that the experiences of cooperative stores have been much, if any, worse than those of privately owned stores. Farmers own 81 per cent of the stock in fifty-nine of the stores, and if the average should hold for the rest of the 120, the movement is in line with the development of the cooperative spirit in other directions. A more recent development in cooperative marketing in Minnesota has to do with live stock shipping associations. On January i* 1914, there were 115 such organizations, and many have been formed since. The value of the live stock marketed through associations in 1913 was approximately $6,000,000, 12 per cent of the total. There are 600 cooperative telephone companies, which do an annual business of $900,000, and 154 township mutual fire insurance companies, which were the first successful cooperative enterprises in the state. Receipts from premiums in 1913 were $696,732, and the total amount of insurance outstanding January i, 1914, was $342,- 223,319. The cost of each $100 of insurance in force was 18 cents, as against 46 cents for stock companies soliciting business on three-year contracts. The number of policies in force at the end of 1913 was 158,283, an average of 1,128 for each company. The Hon. Myron T. Herrick, in his address before the National Conference on Markets and Rural Credits, gave the following comprehensive definition of an economic cooperative association: "A cooperative association may be defined as a voluntary union of persons for utilizing their collective energies or resources, or a part of them, under their manage- ment, in some economic enterprise carried on upon their common account with a view to their mutual and individual 71 FIFTY MILLION STRONG benefit." All the speakers at the conference agreed that an association such as that just defined would be the only means of creating a greater Rural America. L. Politics In political matters two movements have been more or less general in Rural America: one, a movement to give to the people more power in government; the other, a movement to reconcile politics and religion, which have been, in a measure, divorced from the beginning. The former may be studied in the great amount of federal and state legislation of recent years. It has not been very many years, for example, since little was known in the United States of the initiative and referendum, which are forbidding Latin derivatives. But today eighteen of the forty-eight states provide for either one or both of them in their constitutions. South Dakota made the start in 1898 and the other seventeen states followed in rapid succession. The latter movement is in evidence everywhere. There has been a great resurgence of conscience in Rural America, and a mighty effort is being put forth to purify the political life of the nation. M. Foundations In a number of cities of the country, notably Cleveland, St. Louis and Chicago, there have recently been established foundations to handle bequests dedicated to community wel- fare. There are thousands of persons dying every year who would like to leave part or all of their estates for the benefit of the people. But the difficulty has been to arrange for the wise handling of the bequests. How much money is willed to private individuals, or left to relatives that do not need it, or foolishly given away, which would be set aside for the good of all, if confidence could be inspired in prospective benefactors that their bequests would be in safe hands after their death. Now, the problem has been solved in some communities through the establishment of foundations, which are sure to be well managed all through the future, each 72 RURAL AMERICA bequest to be administered in accordance with the wishes of the donor. Such a foundation might be called a clearing house of bequests, gifts, donations, etc., and should be estab- lished in every community. Even small communities of a thousand people might well have them, and there is no reason why such institutions would not fill a need in townships and counties. They would, in time, receive property of various kinds that would surprise even the most sanguine. They would encourage philanthropy. They would correct miscel- laneous and harmful charity. They would promote local spirit. They would eventually become a strong factor in putting Rural America on a soHd foundation. Almost every community today contains would-be benefactors, and the need of an organization which will inspire confidence and encourage giving for the general welfare is becoming more and more urgent as the nation increases in wealth. A^. Efficiency All know that one of the big words of the present age is efficiency, which is just now playing a very important part in the industrial world. Of course the reason why men are giving the matter of efficiency so much attention in the indus- trial world is because it increases profits, and profits rule the nation, even though it is gradually dawning on the national consciousness that profits are not the whole of life. The expression is gaining currency, " Man does not live by cash alone." Now, it is comparatively easy to develop efficiency in the industrial world, where great aggregations of men are under the direction of trained leaders and where the rule is, few units and increasing expertness of leaders. But in Rural America, where the units are innumerable and almost every man is his own master, efficiency makes very slow progress. It is no serious criticism of Rural America to say that the amount of her wasted and misdirected energy is beyond com- putation. R. L. Gray, in The Saturday Evening Post, speaks very much to the point in this connection: " A young man was husking corn at two cents a bushel 73 FIFTY MILLION STRONG twelve years ago and was barely able to earn a dollar a day while men in the same field earned twice as much. They worked no harder than he did and not so long. He began watching to see where he lost time. He was slow in moving from stalk to stalk and saw at once that it required no more energy to move quickly that it did to move slowly. He had taken one long step on the road to improvement. Then he saw that he was making five distinct motions in getting an ear from the husk when only two were necessary, so he learned to make two and get the ear clean. The third fall he husked fifty bushels in four hours more easily than he had in ten hours at the beginning. " In my boyhood there was a chum with whom I spent many pleasant days. He was the hardest worker and the most ingenious boy in the neighborhood. When he went out to feed the horses in the morning he watered and fed the hogs, because the yards were on the way to the barn. When he had fed the horses he went to the pasture and drove up the cows, because the barn was on the way to the pasture. That boy would not take twenty steps where five would do. He could do more in a day than any man in the neighborhood, and he did it with less exertion because he knew how to work and kept his mind on what he was doing. " Here is a suggestion that if followed for a week will be fairly well followed for life. While beginning the morning- chores map out the day*s w^ork, estimate the time it will take to do it. If anything else can be done to advantage, gain time enough to do it. Make life a living contract and live up to it. Deal with the agent promptly and fire the loafer. Time is worth money to the live farmer and it isn't worth fifteen cents a million years to the loafer. Tighten up the screwy and get rid of the lost motion." 74 3. Worship " About seven million years ago, more or less, a stupid slow-moving lizard known to science as brontosaurus roamed the earth. He was thirty feet tall and seventy feet long. He weighty over thirty tons. As he lumbered along, each of his ponderous feet left a track that occupied one square yard. No one knows why he became extinct. Perhaps the earth shrugged her shoulders one day and brontosaurus could not adapt himself to the change. Nature scrapped him." The scrap heap of America is beginning to assume huge propor- tions, since mighty efforts are being put forth everywhere to discard the things not conducive to progress. The country church of yesterday was adequate to the needs of pioneer times, but she has fallen behind and hence must suffer the fate of brontosaurus. Country life experts agree that the present rural church is, to a greater extent than any other rural institution, a remnant of a past civilization. The new country church is an entirely different institution. Although there are many agencies in Rural America that are further- ing the religious welfare of the people, the only one that will be considered under the head of Worship will be the rural church, since others are considered under other headings. A. The Rural Church The " Old Time Religion " is more strongly entrenched in Rural America than in Urban America : there, many persons consider this earth a place of probation and there, too, the piety of the fathers continues to prevail. Urban America is more inclined to discard the old and adopt the new, regardless of the advice of Alexander Pope: Be not the first by whom the new is tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. 75 FIFTY MILLION STRONG A poet recently satirized this inclination of Urban America in these words: Father is a Futurist, mother is a Suf., Grandma's a Conservative, hates newfangled stuff; Brother's an Impressionist, sister's Academic, Uncle Tom's Cubistical and baby is Eugenic. Although it is not to be regretted that emphasis in urban religious activity is being transferred from life beyond the grave to life on this side of the grave, since life on earth is the important thing today, yet the decay of the piety of earlier days, which is more prevalent in the city than in the country, is to be deplored. It is the decay of the old time piety that causes The Wall Street lournal to express itself thus: "What America needs more than railway extension, and western irrigation, and low tariff, and a bigger wheat crop, and a merchant marine, and a new navy, is a revival of piety — the kind father and mother used to have — piety that counted it good business to stop for daily family prayer before breakfast, right in the middle of harvest; that quit field work a half hour early Thursday night, so as to get the chores done in time for prayer-meeting; that borrowed money to pay the preacher^s salary. That's what we need now to clean this country of the filth of graft, and of greed, petty and big; of worship of fine houses and big lands and high offices and grand social functions. What is this big thing we are worshiping but a vain repetition of what de- cayed nations fell down and worshiped just before their lights went out? Great wealth never made a nation sub- stantial nor honorable. There is nothing on earth that looks good that is so dangerous for a man or a nation as quick, easy, big money. If you do resist its deadly influence the chances are it will get your son." Some time ago a man arose in a prayer service and asked an interest in the prayers of those present because he was RURAL AMERICA getting rich rapidly. America has been getting rich so rapidly in recent years that a great resurgence of prayer is needed to save her from the curse of materialism. Prof. L. P. Jacks recently made the statement that the chief cause of the great war was, the economic development of the world has outstripped the moral development.^ The wealth of the cities has for a generation been growing by leaps and bounds owing to the triumphs Urban America has been achieving in the field of world commerce, and a combination of causes has added bilHons to the wealth of the farmer. But the most hopeful sign of the present is that the wealth of the farmer is likely to increase more slowly in the future than it did in the recent past, which will prevent the extinction of piety in the country, where it has continued to live since the days of the fathers. Fortunately, it shows many signs of revival in the country, and, with the country safe. Urban America will be safe. At the Country Church Conference, Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 9, 10, 1915, the statement was made that three- fourths of the members of urban churches join by letter, which indicates migration from country to city, while three-fourths of the members of rural churches are gained by profession of faith. The new religion of Rural America has a double creed: (a) the country is the best place on earth to own a home, to make a living and to rear a family, and (b) the country must take the initiative in the great work of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. This creed is coming to be generally accepted in spite of the fact that here and there the country church has tried " to digest an urban religion under an urbanized leadership," with consequent severe pains and extreme nausea. A study of the rural field reveals the following facts: (i) The whole nation seems to know that the country church must be made a regnant institution in Rural America. (2) The problem of the country church is being studied in a scientific ^ See The Atlantic Monthly, September, 1915, p. 419. 77 FIFTY MILLION STRONG manner. Students are realizing that the rural church, like other rural institutions, must be given its proper setting in rural life. (3) The number of institutions, associations, organizations, societies, etc., that are seeking a solution of the rural church problem, in the light of the scientific method, is increasing from year to year, and their efforts are bearing wonderful fruit. (4) Leadership is beginning to realize that the problems of the country demanding solution before Rural America can boast of the great rural civilization of which her wonderful inherent powers give promise, are worthy of the best minds in the whole nation. No big man can possibly be happy with a little task. Rural America for the next genera- tion contains the big tasks of the country, and these are invit- ing leadership to a test of its powers. Among the handicaps to the development of a strong rural church may be mentioned: (i) Diminishing membership. With a decrease in the population of the country, it is quite natural that the membership of the country churches should decrease. In many a country church has the writer discussed this matter with some of the leading members. Invariably he is told of this family and that family and the other family having moved from the neighborhood and of a reduction in the number of farms. Of course this sort of thing stirs the blood of the fighting man, and, in all live churches, great efforts are being put forth to get the entire community into the churches, that they may hold their own. But one can gather little inspiration from the task of building up a church in a community with a diminishing population. The next census, however, will likely show the country population decreasing less rapidly. (2) Traction lines and automobiles. Each is a great temptation to the resident of the farm on Sunday, especially if he has been busy all week, with little oppor- tunity for social diversion. How easy it is to take the trac- tion car for a pleasure ride or a trip somewhere, or to run out the automobile for a few hours' spin on the good roads, even to the other side of the county, if one desires. The number of automobiles is increasing very rapidly in the \v 78 RURAL AMERICA country. At a county fair held by a rural county in Septem- ber, 1915, a group of investigators counted on the grounds 1,750 automobiles at one time on the big day. The farmer has come to regard the automobile as not only a luxury but a necessity in the life of his family. (3) Attractive town and city churches with excellent music and eloquent pastors. Within recent years, hundreds and thousands of town and city churches have increased their membership at the expense of the country churches. Today there is hardly a town or city church that does not have its growing rural membership. It is only during the past decade that special attention has been given to a study of crowds and the results of the study are amazing. Although much can be accomplished by small groups, yet there is more inspiration when the company is large than when only two or three are gathered together. Now, if this problem is to be solved, the first need is a more perfect cooperation among the individuals, churches, organizations, institutions, societies, associations, etc., that are bending their efforts to the renaissance of the rural church. It will be impossible at this point to go into details, but a word might be said about the denominations that have country churches. Not only should each of the^e have a department, whose whole time is devoted to the work of the rural church, but they should work out a plan of cooperation. Denominational jealousies must be eliminated, and denomina- tions must be broad enough to solve the problems of each country community in a spirit of concession. As long as denominations are more concerned about the welfare of individual churches than about the welfare of communities, so long will the solution of the country church problem be delayed. " Loyalty to one's own church is surely a virtue. But when one's loyalty to his church exceeds his loyalty to the Kingdom, then a law of the Kingdom is broken and some one's life is broken with it." Reorganizations and new align- ments are needed on a big scale in the rural field. The rural church situation is somewhat different in different parts of the country. In New England and the Middle States 79 FIFTY MILLION STRONG one finds depleted land fertility, abandoned farms and great urban development with a rather homogeneous rural popula- tion; in the South one finds sections held back by several centuries of slavery, devastated by a four years' civil war, handicapped by the co-existence of two races equal in popu- lation, the inferior of which must be elevated at the expense of the superior, and suffering from all the troubles of a hitherto one crop country; in the great Mississippi Valley one finds rich lands gradually losing their fertility, farms decreasing in number and increasing in size, and a population of considerable heterogeneity; in the Great West one finds for the most part semi-arid land made productive through irrigation, and a population representing some of the best people of the East and Mississippi Valley scattered over wide areas. In all these sections there is tremendous activity in the great work of solving the country church problem. New Ejigland and the Middle States are thoroughly awake; the South, to any one who attended the great Conference for Education and Industry in 1915, seems to have assumed the responsibilities for her herculean task with a determination to achieve victory; the Mississippi Valley is endeavoring to fuse all the agencies of rural progress into a triumphant force for shaping the destiny of the world's greatest rural popula- tion, and the Great West is building a civilization of its own on the experiences of America's past. Of epoch-making importance was the Country Church Conference held in Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 9, 10, 1915, under the direction of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. A condensed statement of the secretary of the Commission on Church and Country Life follows : In 1910, 1911 and 1912 the Federal Council of Churches (thirty-one denominations) maintained a bureau and clearing house of research, information and promotion, touching the various church and country life interests. Since 1913 a special committee has been in charge of this work and an executive gives to it his undivided attention. During the year 1915, Ohio has been the field of investigation and study, the work 80 RURAL AMERICA done being supplementary to that of the Presbyterian Church and the Ohio Rural Life Survey in 1912 and 1913. On the completion of the Ohio survey, the committee will meet to determine the best plan of action. The data thus far gathered indicate that one-fourth of Ohio's townships (9,000 square miles) have no resident pastors and most of the churches in this area are declining in membership. In each township there are on the average four churches, one church to every 286 persons. Surveys made in other states reveal similar conditions. The only hope for improvement lies in inter- denominational cooperation. During the year 1916 there will be made in Ohio a special study of successful country churches, and bulletins of the work will be printed for the rural pastors of the state and students of theological seminaries, the purpose being to create higher ideals and standards. It is also proposed to hold an increased number of church institutes in the various counties. Interdenominational organization for country church better- ment has given an esprit de corps to the country ministry, has filled rural pastors with faith and courage for the future and has increased confidence and respect for country church work. Moreover, many good men, hitherto of the cities, have been drawn to country parishes and scores of young men are entering the ministry with the idea of devoting their lives to the rural field. Many excellent addresses were delivered at the conference and reports of very great interest were made on the following subj ects : (i) Function, Platform and Policy of the Country Church. (2) Financing the Country Church. (3) The Training of Country Pastors and Other Leaders. (4) Church Cooperation and Federation. (5) The Allies of the Country Church. (6) The Country Church as a Community Center. (7) The Church and Rural Economy. 81 FIFTY MILLION STRONG The report closes with these significant words : " It appears from our observation in Ohio that in large areas the denominations working independently of one an- other have failed to prevent serious decline in the rural churches, and that it is entirely unlikely that without inter- denominational cooperation the churches will be able to overcome the difficulties of the situation. If this is true in Ohio and in other states also, the need of interdenominational organization is obvious." 82 4. Health There are many movements in Rural America having to do with the physical health of the people. Two of these will be considered at some little length : the Rural Sanitation Move- ment initiated by the North Carolina State Board of Health and the County Hospital Movement started in the state of Iowa. A. Rural Sanitation Movement North Carohna provides for rural sanitation by two meth- ods : the county unit system under state direction and the county health agent system under local direction. The former costs annually from $500 to $1,000 and the latter from $3,000 to $4,000 per county. The former is considered preferable in the beginning, even in rich counties, as it is sure to prove a stepping-stone to the latter. Two concrete illustrations will give the reader an idea as to what is done under the former method: First, the North Carolina Board of Health contracted some months ago with ten counties, for a county appropriation of $500, to administer free typhoid immunization to those citizens of the ten counties who wished to be immunized. In the first set of five counties complete treatment was given to 26,537 persons, and it was estimated that the number in all the coun- ties would reach 50,000, or one-eighth of the total population. Second, for a county appropriation of $10 per school the State Board of Health arranged, through the county authori- ties and with the teachers, a program of constructive Health Days for quite a number of the schools of the state. Two weeks before the Health Day the teacher receives from the State Board of Health hand-bills announcing the date and program for Health Day, which are distributed through the whole school and community. The representative of the 83 FIFTY MILLION STRONG State Board of Health arrives at the school at lo A. M. on Health Day and first makes a fifteen-minute talk to the children and visitors on the importance and knowledge of the laws of health. He then makes a medical examination of the pupils and gives each defective child a card to its parents, notifying the parents of the nature of the defect and urging them to see the inspector after the evening exer- cises. The inspector mails a report of the inspection to the State Board of Health, which keeps in touch with the parents of the defective children until they are treated. The in- spector then questions the children after the manner of the old-time spelHng match on a health catechism, which has been supplied to the school in sufficient number at least one month before Health Day, after which there is adjournment until 8 P. M. The evening exercises consist of from three to four short illustrated lectures by the inspector on the more important subjects of sanitation, interspersed with the reading of selected compositions by the pupils. The last item on the program is the awarding of prizes, a first prize for the best knowledge of the health catechism and a second prize for the best composi- tion. The inspector grades, score-card manner, each school on the excellence of its showing on Health Day. When the work in a county has been completed, a county prize is awarded for the best composition, and another prize for the best knowledge of the health catechism. The inspector can handle one rural school a day, but village and town schools require a longer time. Thus, the whole county is covered. It can readily be seen that this broadens the vision of all the people, and the way is paved either for increased appropriations for similar work along special lines or for the adoption of the county agent plan, which will be next considered. The county health agent receives a salary of $2,500 per annum and devotes his whole time to his work. The two phases of his work that occupy most of his time represent his activities in the schools and in the public dispensaries. He aims to visit each school in the county once a year, pick out the pupils that ^ I RURAL AMERICA are defective, get in touch with the parents of these pupils, that their defects, as far as possible, may be corrected, and give talks and illustrated lectures for the benefit of both pupils and parents. He also designates certain places in the county where, at given times, he will meet all persons who may desire to be vaccinated against small-pox or typhoid fever or consult him privately either about their own health or about any matter having to do with the sanitary welfare of the county. In these interviews he is able to discover incipient diseases that in many cases would prove fatal if neglected. Of course all other work in the field of sanitation in the county would represent part of the duties of the county agent. It is estimated that 20 per cent of all school children have defective vision, 5 per cent defective hearing and 5 per cent adenoids. It is further found that, in the average county of 30,000 inhabitants, there are 540 annual deaths, 200 of which are preventable, and that, on an average, one person out of ten is sick every day in the year. Now, if the average human life is worth to the community $1,700 (the estimate of ex- perts) then the loss per annum to a county of 30,000 in pre- ventable death is the astounding sum of $340,000. And this sum can be greatly increased if there be added to it the loss due to sickness, doctors' bills and undertakers' fees. If the health officer is able to reduce the death rate only one per thousand, he saves his community the large sum of $51,000, giving only the value of the individuals saved and considering none of the many items that would greatly increase the sum. This work is initiated by the state, but executed through the county machinery. The average county has one murder a year, and in many cases thousands of dollars are spent in bringing the criminal to justice. Nor can a county be blamed for keeping court procedure on a high plane. But an in- finitely greater work is that of conserving human life through preventive measures and thus saving the county untold wealth that through carelessness and neglect is forever lost. The importance of a health agent for a county may be seen 8s FIFTY MILLION STRONG in the following case : In a certain school two girls were among the most healthy and brightest-looking of all the pupils. These girls later went to college, but were forced within a year to abandon their college work on account of their eyes. The diagnosis of the oculist was to the effect that if these girls' eyes had been examined when they were children and if the defects had been corrected at that time, they would have been able to complete their college education and would not have been handicapped all through life as a result of impaired vision. In China the doctor is paid not for attending patients when sick but for keeping them well. In this country more and more attention is being given to the great work of keeping people well.i B. The County Hospital Movement The first county hospital law was passed by the Iowa legis- lature in 1909, and the first county hospital in the state was estabhshed in Washington County the following year. Four other states, viz., North Carolina, Texas, Kansas and Indiana, have passed similar laws, and in still other states the desirability of such a statute is being considered. New York has a township hospital law patterned after the Iowa county law. North Carolina is proving to be one of the most aggressive states in the Union in the matter of con- serving the health of its people. Texas, with four counties arranging for hospitals; Kansas, with many counties inter- ested, and Indiana, with one or more large projects on hand, indicate encouraging progress in the movement. The origina- tor of the county hospital idea is Dr. E. E. Hunger, of Spencer, Iowa. Like most country doctors he had lost many cases that might have been saved if the country offered a man as fair a chance for life as the city affords. His sympathy went out to those country patients, and their disadvantage oppressed him. He knew that many of these rural deaths would be preventable if there were adequate facilities at hand ^ The data contained in the several preceding paragraphs were fur- nished the writer by the North Carolina State Board of Health. \ 86 RURAL AMERICA for proper surgical or medical treatment. Since these facili- ties were lacking he was forced to see men and women and children die unnecessarily, and he cared tremendously. The doctor in speaking of the county hospital said : " It will be conducted on a strictly ethical basis and made the community health center, from which health information will be dis- seminated by both precept and example. Its equipment will be complete with every facility for up-to-date work; it will have a pathological and bacteriological laboratory, which should be auxiliary to the laboratory of the State Board of Health; it will confer great benefits on both patients and physicians through an X-ray laboratory; it will provide ambulance service, and it will have a training-school for nurses." ^ Two additional advantages of a county hospital in a rural county might be mentioned. It will greatly raise the standards of the medical profession of the county, and, as a health clearing-house of the entire citizenship of the county, it will not only effect a saving of life in many cases where life would otherwise be sacrificed, but it will render equally great service in the field of prevention and sanitation. In many rural communities of a number of states there are found hospitals that are operated either privately or under the direction of churches or other organizations or associations. One of the most notable of these is nearing completion in Van Wert County, Ohio, and bears the name The Van Wert County Hospital. The funds for this hospital were provided by a public-spirited man of large means, George H. Marsh, who is investing about $75,000 in the hospital grounds, build- ing, equipment and nurses' home. The institution will, when finished, be as well adapted for the purposes for which it is intended as possibly any other rural hospital in the country. Another benefactor left an endowment of $25,000 for this hospital, which, since the experience of the two Iowa county hospitals shows that it is possible to operate such an institu- 1 See The World's Work, September, 19 15, p. 605. 87 FIFTY MILLION STRONG tion with little or no deficit, will be able to do a county-wide work without fear of annual shortage. C. Other Health Movements It would be impossible even to mention the scores of activities carried on by many, many different agencies — such as the great foundations, large estates dedicated to welfare work, churches, societies and individuals — that have to do 'with raising health standards in the United States. It is esti- mated that the preventable death and sickness loss of the nation greatly exceeds the stupendous sum of two billion dollars annually. The main purpose of the health activities of the nation is to reduce this large sum, fully twice the national debt, to a minimum and at the same time vastly increase the aggregate vitality, efficiency and happiness of the country's hundred million inhabitants. D. Eugenics There is a movement in Rural America, which, though in its incipiency, deserves consideration. Possibly one is going too far in calling it a movement. But all persons somewhat conversant with the agricultural literature of the nation must admit that, whether or not the activities to which reference is made represent an incipient movement, there are noticeable manifestations of a desire on the part of the whole Rural World to produce in coming generations a more perfect human stock. In recent years eugenics has been the subject of much thought throughout the whole country. To such an extent have the people taken it up that in several states laws have been passed. In some cases these have been too radical. But a beginning has been made that in due time will result in much good. '' Ninety-six per cent of the young of wild ani- mals are born perfect. Eighty-two per cent of children are physically defective at birth. Ninety-two per cent of animals live to old age. 229 children out of 1,000 die the first year. There are 310,000 feeble-minded in the United States outside •of asylums and 28,000 feeble-minded in asylums. There are 88 RURAL AMERICA 168,000 insane and epileptics. Every time we double our popu- lation we quadruple our mentally defective." ^ Now, the attitude of Rural America on eugenics is some- what different from that of Urban America because of one important fact. In recent years much attention has been given by farmers all over the country to the matter of pure- bred live stock. Today thousands of farmers in almost every state, compared with only a handful just a few years ago, are giving their best thought to the matter of producing the finest type of all kinds of farm animals through intelligent breeding. Farmers have learned from experience that it pays to pro- duce such stock, and the only reason why the number already engaged in the business does not increase more rapidly is because of the large outlay of money necessary in the begin- ning. But in spite of this handicap each year the number increases. At the present time the collective sentiment of Rural America is favorable to and enthusiastic for pure-bred live stock. In fact, there is little doubt that agricultural America is entering upon a period when pure-bred live stock will be the rule rather than the exception. With the sentiment in the matter of breeding farm animals so universal throughout the length and breadth of America, it is quite natural that some thought should be given to the subject of human stock. So along with the movement to produce the highest type of farm animals of all kinds, there is beginning to develop a sentiment favorable to the produc- tion of a finer human stock. It is the universality of this sentiment that has led to its crystallization in the laws of a number of states. People have progressed sufficiently in this country to enable them to give attention to matters other than those having to do almost solely with making a living. They have begun to realize that if further advancement is to be made the average American citizen must be a finer specimen of humanity, since the nation is no better than the sum of one hundred million individuals, and the only way to make a finer composite man is to make a finer individual man. ^ See The Mountain State Bulletin. 89 FIFTY MILLION STRONG One thing is quite certain, America should have her atten- tion directed to the need of a finer citizenship, not so much to stimulate the passage of radical laws as to create a public sentiment that will find expression in accomplishment. What with the heterogeneous character of the nation's metropolitan population, which represents admixtures of races and peoples that come from parts of the world where the struggle for mere existence has been the one thing commanding the atten- tion of the great majority of the people, thus preventing the development of the higher sentiments, it is imperative that America give the matter of eugenics careful consideration. It is generally recognized that America in undertaking the assimilation of almost all the peoples of earth has assumed a tremendous task. But the other task of developing a higher average stock is equally difficult. Anyone who has come a good deal into contact with people, wherever found, in the city as well as in the country, is almost appalled at the great amount of mediocrity and even sub-normality. The following beautiful stanza is found in Prof. G. W. Fiske's illuminating little book, " Boy Life." A fire-mist and a planet, A crystal and a cell, A jelly-fish and a saurian, And caves where cave men dwell; Then a sense of law and beauty, And a face turned from a clod; Some call it evolution, But others call it God. How inspiring the thought that the Infinite God, Who presided over this great world process, is not satisfied with the composite human being that inhabits the earth today! Back of the face turned from a clod is a mind, and in that mind there is an irresistible longing to rise to higher levels in response to higher voices. And in God's own time this longing will come to realization. 90 RURAL AMERICA E. Temperance The greatest moral movement of the past generation is that of temperance. Twenty years ago the temperance map of the United States was almost as black as Stygian night. Today there are nineteen white states, with the prospect of many others in the course of the next decade. Nine or ten states expect to vote in 1916. Besides the nineteen states in which the sale of liquor is prohibited, all the other states have prohibition territory. More than half the nation's popula- tion live in temperance areas, and when all the laws that have been passed become effective there will be no saloons in nine-tenths of the country. Of course this means that Rural America is almost all temperance territory, since the ten per cent of the land where the saloons are permitted under the law consists, for the most part, of the metropolitan centers and contiguous territory, with the exception of the two great Western States, Montana and Nevada, which have large wet areas. As soon as the agricultural population of these two states has increased sufficiently, they will likely join many of the other western states and make the West almost solidly dry. The one thought that needs emphasis here is the thought that it is Rural America that is leading the way in making America a saloonless nation. Public sentiment is an irresistible force. Today public sentiment against the open saloon is crystallizing with marvel- ous rapidity, and, when it has once crystallized throughout the nation, the saloon will be doomed. For the sake of the welfare of 100,000,000 people an infinite multitude is praying to God that the day may be hastened. The transformation wrought in a county which has abolished the manufacture and sale of liquor is set forth in the follow- ing paragraph from a speech made by Congressman Webb, of North Carolina: " About ten years ago, I stood on historic King Mountain, and saw the smoke of thirty-eight government distilleries rising toward heaven. I saw no macadamized roads ; scarcely a schoolhouse where our boys and girls might obtain the 91 FIFTY MILLION STRONG rudiments of an education. I saw saloons throughout the length and breadth of Gaston County. There were only two or three factories giving employment to two or three hundred people. Two years ago, about ten years after the people had driven out this curse, I went back. I found macadamized roads in almost every part of the county; I saw magnificent churches of every denomination ; I found schoolhouses in every district. There was not the smoke of a single brewery, and instead of the smoke of thirty-eight government distil- leries I saw ascending to the glory of God in business the smoke of forty-eight of the largest cotton factories in the United States of America." And that is the transformation that, on a larger scale, will be witnessed in America a decade after the banishment of the saloon from her borders. F. Dietetics There is scarcely an intelligently trained farmer in the United States that could not define the term "balanced ration." From one end of the country to the other farmers understand pretty well the meaning of a balanced ration in the feeding of live stock, and have become informed on the nutritive value of various feeds. The result has been that the putting of all kinds of stock in prime condition for the market at a minimum cost, the keeping of work animals ready for service with the most economic use of grain, hay, etc., the securing of the greatest butter- fat returns from cows with the least consumption of high-priced food products, the obtaining of large tgg yields from poultry with scarcely more than the utilization of the odds and ends of the farm, have received the most careful consideration by all successful rural life residents. But the thing that has been neglected is human dietetics. Most people in both country and city eat too much, without thought of what constitutes a balanced ration. On the farm food of all kinds is cooked in large quantities and eaten with a hearty appetite. On threshing days, when the work is especially strenuous, the threshers RURAL AMERICA partake of fully a score of dishes, some of which are hard to digest, with the result that they are unfitted for work and must force themselves to do their part. Not only do country folk eat too much, but what they eat is sometimes not pre- pared so well as it might be, even though the expression " good country dinner " is often heard in the cities. The impression should not be given that the country is more at fault than the cities in the matter of failure to observe the rules of dietetics, because the country does on the whole better than the cities. But if just as much attention were given to human dietetics as is given to the matter of a " bal- anced ration " for the live stock of the farm, money would be saved, in that less food would be eaten and less money would be spent for patent medicines and doctors' services. The Great War, which has forced the so-called Central Powers to depend almost solely upon their own resources in the matter of food, has led Germany to the most extensive experiments in dietetics in the history of the world. The study of the question has been in the hands of sixteen special- ists and their prehminary report is published under the title, "The Food Supply of the German People and the English Starvation Plan." Possibly future historians will conclude that the chief by-product of the War was the progress made in the solution of the greatest problem with which the human race has to deal, the problem of food supply. The findings of this learned committee will be of value to the whole world. 93 5. Love The night has a thousand eyes and the day but one, But the light of the whole world dies with the dying sun ; The mind has a thousand eyes and the heart but one; But the light of the whole world dies when love is gone. The most perfect abiding place of love is the home. And love is the constant inmate of only such homes as make a strong appeal to their members. The appeal within the home depends on the mother. Some time ago a lady from the country signing herself "A Rural Juliet" contributed an article to Wallaces' Farmer entitled, " How May We Keep Our Husbands Romeos? " This article is most interesting and its conclusions hold good in city and country alike. " Romeo, the literary cognomen of lovers, is a word that has been much abused. We would not have our husbands merely sighing sweethearts. We want them to accomplish great things through the sympathy and inspiration which we can give them. We want them to be successful business men, and an aid to the community. If our husbands exert an influence for good, this is sure to be felt beyond the home community. If our husbands are great, and we keep them still lovers, then we shall have a reflected greatness, which is more than to be great ourselves. That was the original idea God had when He created woman. She was to be a: helper rather than the leader; but if she is to be a helper, she must have the honor and respect to which she is entitled. She does not always have this honor and respect from her husband, and that is the reason why she has of late years, in many instances, taken the initiative. "How can a wife keep her husband a lover through life? Many women, in the rural districts especially, allow their husbands to come from work in the evening and find them still in morning wrapper and with hair disarranged. One is 94 RURAL AMERICA much more attractive if she wear a becoming little one-piece dress and her hair is combed. Then, what an improvement it is if the table is neat and adorned with a small bouquet of flowers ! Let the home be filled with brightness and the husband's mind be got off the sordid, practical things of life. Let him never be met with complaint and a recital of the troubles of the day. Let a husband who is tired and dirty and hot and possibly cross, come in from the field and find a neat and tidy home, presided over by a trim little wife and adorned by children with clean faces and with everything in readiness for a good hot supper served on an attractive table, and one has a candidate for the role of Romeo. Pretty soon that good man sits up and takes notice, and then he begins to be more careful, and finally he wants his cold plunge and some clean clothes before he is willing to sit down at the table. But even though he does continue to neglect his own personal appearance he loves his wife more for trying to please him. " If a man is able, he should employ a girl to help with the work, so his wife can have more time for him and the chil- dren. If he is not able, then the wife should not make a drudge of herself for the house, but should let some things go. What if the house is not swept every day? What if there is a trace of dust on the furniture now and then? Above all things, she should keep herself attractive. Then, it is necessary to take a little time to cultivate one's mind, that one may be a real companion to her husband. A wife should study her husband's greatest pleasures and try to enter into them with zest. A man would rather come home and find a smiling, happy wife, with a sparkle in her eye at his return, than to find the home spotless and his wife a bundle of nerves. " And this thing of farmers spending evenings lounging around some country store, or playing cards in the back of the barber shop, can be stopped if the wife tries. If the husband says, ' I'm going down town this evening,' the wife might add, * Well, just a minute and the children and I will go with you.' Or ask him if he wouldn't like to telephone 95 FIFTY MILLION STRONG some of his friends, and have them come out and spend the evening, or just mention the fact of having read such an interesting article on such and such a subject. Wouldn't he like to have it read aloud that night? Or suggest a ride together in the soft evening twilight. Let almost anything be done so long as there is an appeal to the family spirit. Occasionally let someone keep the children, while a short trip is taken to the nearest large town or city to hear some good music, to mix and mingle with the crowds, for the sake of a good time and to broaden one's outlook on life. "If the husband has a business proposition that is troubling him and he shows an inclination to talk of it he should be encouraged to do so, and perhaps some suggestion of the wife will give him an idea that had never occurred to him. How unfortunate the statement, ' Oh, don't bother me with busi- ness; I don't have time for such things.' A wife who takes an intelligent interest in whatever concerns her husband is honored for her interest. " Sometimes it is necessary to gently reprimand one's hus- band, if he becomes too lax in small courtesies, as, for ex- ample, * Dear, hadn't you noticed that I dropped my hand- kerchief?' or 'Did you forget to assist me into the buggy?' One probably would not have to call his attention to such little matters many times until he would remember himself. Some- times, too, it is necessary to show some spirit at a slight or hurt that could have been avoided. If it is necessary, let there be some resentment, but no pouting or nagging. But most important of all is : courtesy and affection in oneself encourage them in others. Once a wife asked her husband what it was he loved in her so much, after years of married life had taken the bloom from her cheek and the sparkle from her eye. She was not such a fine housekeeper as some others, either. He replied : * It is your spirit, my dear, your spirit. That's what I have admired all these years,' and he gently , and reverently kissed her." A home in which there is a Juliet is sure to be a happy home. And such a home will be a model not only on the 96 RURAL AMERICA inside but on the outside as well, because where ideal condi- tions prevail within they are sure in time to prevail without. The husband that loves the home which his wife makes so attractive for him on the inside is pretty sure to take an interest in making the home attractive on the outside. He will keep all the buildings on the farm in repair and painted, he will keep the lawn mowed and the grounds around the buildings neat and tidy, he will keep the fence rows clean and the whole farm in presentable shape. Finally, he will become so interested that he will devote a little time to land- scape gardening, that the farm may not only be his means of livelihood but contribute to the aesthetic pleasures of his whole family. Everyone knows that when one must do his very best to make a living and is almost constantly treading dangerously close to the poverty line, he has little time for the aesthetic values of life. But statisticians assert that not one-tenth of the people of this country are either on or below the poverty level, and most of this per cent are to be found in the cities; so there are comparatively few people living in Rural America with whom the economic problem is so assertive that there is no time for life's finer things. In reality, there are few people in the whole country unable to rise somewhat if they will. During the disastrous retreat of Napoleon from Mos- cow in 1812 there presented himself one morning to Napoleon one of his generals shaved and neatly dressed. Because of his neat personal appearance, under distressing circumstances, Napoleon looked at him and said, " General, you are a great man." Many and many an attractive home in Rural America represents real greatness on the part of the inmates because of the economic struggle that takes almost all the time and strength of the family. Really, the marked improvement that is taking place in Rural America today in aesthetics had in most cases its origin among the mothers who were Juliets to admiring Romeos. First comes economic independence. Then comes the beauti- fying of the little home. Then follows community improve- 97 FIFTY MILLION STRONG ment. This is the reason why there is as much need of the rural Y. W. C. A. as there is of the rural Y. M. C. A. In a way there is a greater need. When the first county Y. W. C. A. was building, a man of prominence expressed the opinion that there was little demand for such an institution. He failed utterly to understand that a nation can rise no higher than its homes and the one great purpose of the Y. W. C. A. is to elevate the home life of the nation. Thousands of young women seek employment today. A very large class of them become employees of shops, factories and mills ; an equally large class become bookkeepers, stenog- raphers and clerks; a third class become teachers or adopt similar callings. A study of the laws of the various states soon convinces one that much attention has been given in recent years to the employment of women in shop, factory and mill. A great deal has also been done to better the condition of young women clerks, stenographers and book- keepers. And, finally, the vocation of teaching and similar callings adopted by young women have in many cases been made much more attractive as well as profitable. In these three classes of work in the labor, business and professional worlds, young women are enjoying greater advantages from year to year. In all three the hours of labor are in many states fixed and the number of hours has been reduced from time to time. In all three surroundings have been improved. In all three wages have been increased. In all three the physical, mental and moral welfare of the employees is receiv- ing more and more attention. In all three opportunities are given to advance. But, unfortunately, employment in the home, which in the past has especially appealed to young women from Rural America, has not shared in the advantages that have made more attractive the other callings adopted by young women. The collective happiness of the American people is, to a large extent, dependent on helpers in tens of thousands of homes. This being true, let the same attention be given to the calling of household service and the same efforts be put forth to 98 RURAL AMERICA regulate it and render it both profitable and attractive and it will become a vocation in which young women will take pride in becoming more efficient. As a woman's calling it has advantages over other vocations. It preeminently fits a young woman to manage a home of her own and the natural ambition of every young woman is to preside over a home of her own. Household service is a healthful vocation. The monotony and drudgery of the factory, mill and shop, the lack of proper exercise taken by the clerk, bookkeeper, stenographer, and the strain of teaching and similar callings, lead to the breakdown of thousands of young women annually. More- over, a household employee, receiving reasonable wages, can, as a rule, save more money than can be saved by young women engaged in any other line of work, since her board, room, etc., are provided. But the important thought here is the following: Placing on a better basis this honorable calling will add an element of strength to America's homes, the bulwark of the nation. 99 6. Rest The greatest passion of the resident of the city is getting out into the country occasionally for the sake of a rest. The city is so full of hurry and change and activity and strain that if one would not either temporarily or permanently impair his physical reserve he must periodically seek recupera- tion in some quiet retreat of Rural America. A synonym of city is fiux. On the other hand, one finds in the country absence of all those things that enter into the intensity of city life. But the impression is quite general, especially in the city, that there is a great deal of drudgery in the country. Too much has been made in the past of the drudgery of country life. Life in the country has no more drudgery than life in the city. All life is full of drudgery, and unless one have his share of it he will fail to develop symmetrically. The poet who laboriously corrects his manuscript and gives the very best effort of his life to the clothing of immortal thoughts in immortal verse is experiencing drudgery. It is said of Wordsworth that he often dreaded the drudgery of poetic composition and found the task of writing very labor- ious. The chemist in his laboratory encounters drudgery of the most trying kind. The teacher or professor in correcting papers and compositions and in doing many other things that his work demands, comes to understand drudgery. The banker has an endless amount of detail in his work, much of which is annoying. The trained nurse, the physician, the minister, in short, everybody who works undergoes drudgery. No one has a monopoly of drudgery. " Of all the work that produces results," said a famous English Bishop, " nine-tenths must be drudgery." i There is no work, from the highest to the lowest, that can be done well by anyone who is afraid of drudgery. The average person understands most perfectly ^ Philip G. Hamerton, " The Intellectual Life," p. 70. 100 RURAL AMERICA ^,^ , . , the drudgery in his own work but sees only the brighter side of the other fellow's work. But drudgery is always asso- ciated with exhilaration: the pendulum swings just as far one way as it does the other. If one submits to a good deal of drudgery the compensation lies in the marvelous spiritual rebound of a mountain-top variety. In a little poem entitled " Drudgery Divine " Juliet Sill gives utterance to some inspiring thoughts on this subject: O' bumblebee, on the red-topped clover, Aren't you tired, you busy rover, Of doing the same thing over and over? Gathering honey all day long. Singing the same little humming song, Aren't you tired, you golden rover, Of doing the same things over and over? O little bird with the crimson breast, Aren't you tired of building the nest? Isn't it time to stop and rest? Straw after straw you patiently bring, Song after song you cheerily sing, O little bird, in the crimson vest, Isn't it time to take a rest? O busy heart, O toiling mother. Aren't you tired of work and of bother, The same dull task and never another? Over and over you brew and bake. Over and over you mend and make, Aren't you tired, O weary mother, Of the same dull round and never another? Then low from the heart of the bee and the bird, And low from the heart of the mother this word, Sweet and calm and clear I heard: Over and over God paints the skies, Over and over He makes the sun rise, Over and over He tints the flowers. Over and over He sends the showers. Over and over He guides the stars, Over and over the dawn unbars. lOI FIFTY MILLION STRONG If over and over God deigns to work, Why should we faint — one duty shirk? So over and over our tasks we do, Sure of reward if our work be true. This is the message which clear I heard From the heart of the mother, the bee, and the bird. Both for perfect rest from the labors of the day and for the purpose of building oneself up, the country is ideal. The nights are so quiet that anyone accustomed to the constant hum of city life finds the change delightful. A sojourn in the country acts as a sedative and prepares the nervous system for the demands of the city. And as the years go by, Rural America is contributing more and more to the recupera- tion of the whole people. The Federal Government has taken great pride in setting aside thousands and millions of acres in the most attractive parts of the nation for the pleasure of all. These great reserves have been called playgrounds, and their purpose is to bring the people closer to Nature's heart and to fit them for the larger life of the future. Urbs is coming to know more and more intimately Rus and the bene- fits are beyond computation. The boundless acres of Rus, her thousands of beauty spots, her innumerable retreats, are transforming both Urban and Rural America and giving the nation a brighter outlook on life. What is it in Rural America that is contributing so much to this brighter outlook on life? Is it not her possession of those things in prodigal abundance that are the heritage of all persons? Lucy Larcom expresses this thought felicitously. COMMON THINGS OF EARTH I said it on the meadow path, I say it on the mountain stairs. The best things any mortal hath Are those that every mortal shares. The grass is softer to our tread. For rest it yields unnumbered feet; Sweeter to us the wild rose red Because she makes the whole world sweet. 102 7. Conclusion A perusal of the preceding chapter must induce the con- clusion that several fundamental things are necessary if Rural America would attain the heights that lie within her reach, and these may be expressed in four simple statements: (i) Most of the five million renters and hired laborers of the country must become home owners. (2) Farming must be put on a profitable basis. (3) Rural America must offer careers to ambitious youth. (4) An element of romance must be injected into Country Life. (i) Rural Home Owners. — Some day a plan will be adopted that will solve the home-owner problem. It will take time, however, to work out a satisfactory plan, and the next quarter of a century is likely to be one of experimentation. If no more is done within the next few years than simply to put a stop to the increase of tenants, much will have been accomplished. A satisfactory plan will contain at least four factors : the purchaser must pay no more than the land is worth ; he must be given the privilege of buying with a small immediate payment; the rate of interest on deferred payments must be low, and the time of the obligation must be suffi- ciently long. Every year Rural America is the scene of thou- sands of tragedies resulting from the purchase of land at speculative prices from soulless speculators. These tragedies have ruined many homes, especially in the newly developed sections. Many men pay entirely too much for their land, they learn too late that the promises of the promoter are often of the mirage variety, notes fall due with no money to pay them, high interest rates confront them, and finally either foreclosure or forfeiture stares them in the face. This evil has become so serious in recent years that a number of states are passing laws looking to its elimination, and a number of associations of a philanthropic character have been formed 103 FIFTY MILLION STRONG to help all persons desirous of migrating to the country to do so by a safe route. The writer has in recent years assisted a number of young men in the purchase of homes in the country. An average industrious young man can, if buying a farm at a reasonable price, charged a low rate of interest and given plenty of time to meet his obligation, pay for a good farm, even though his initial payment is small. This cannot be done, however, on land that has lost its fertility, except in rare cases. In 1908 a young man was furnished $5,100 out of $5,500 for the pur- chase of a 6o-acre farm. Since then, or in eight years, he has tiled the land reasonably well, put some money on the buildings, considerably increased the fertility of the soil, and reduced his total indebtedness to $2,100. In four more years, if he continues to do equally well, he will be entirely out of debt and possess a farm worth $9,000. The important thing is to work out a plan, national in its scope, that will give all deserving young men opportunities for the purchase of homes in the country. (2) Farming Put on a Profitable Basis, — The four funda- mental things needed to put farming on a profitable basis with present low yields per acre are standardizing farm products, standardizing containers, economic transportation and scientific selling. Absence of standardization is detri- mental to the sale of all products and especially those of a high-grade character. Every first-class farmer in the Corn Belt has marketed a good many bushels of good corn for which the elevators have never paid a sufficient amount be- cause of the fact that there is so much poor corn. Elevators base their prices on corn of average quality. In a general way this is a rule all over the Corn Belt. The efforts which the federal government, the several states and numerous co- operative bodies, as well as corporations, are putting forth to correct this defect will eventually lead to the adoption of a national plan. Federal and state laws have also been passed relative to containers, but progress in this direction, too, is just in its incipient stage. The aim in the matter of trans- 104 RURAL AMERICA portation must be, after cooperative assembling of farm products, distribution by the shortest hauls and at a minimum cost. Hauls will be shortened only through a better under- standing of markets. The greatest loss sustained by farmers is due to unorganized selling. When the ten billion dollars' worth of farm products are annually marketed in a scientific manner, the greatest organization feat in the history of the world will have been accomplished; and the success of numerous cooperative enterprises among farmers shows the feat to be a possibility. B. F. Harris, editor of The Banker- Farmer, says that based on the investigations of the Federal Department of Agriculture one-third of the farmers in the prosperous agricultural sections of the country, if 5% be allowed on their working capital, are actually losing money. (3) Rural Careers. — It is very hard to get an energetic young man or woman to go into anything that apparently has no future. In the past, it has been taken for granted that only the city oflFered careers. Fathers have talked doctor, lawyer, professor and the like to the young man, and stenog- rapher, clerk, nurse, teacher and the like to the young woman, with the result that nearly all the ambitious youth of the country have cast their eyes cityward. Comparatively few people have had a vision of the possibilities of Rural America. But now here and there are found men and women who have shown to the world that one can have a career in the country. Already there have come to be teachers and preachers and other rural workers that have accomplished wonderful things in Rural America and have demonstrated the bigness of the field. It is likely that within the next few years numerous instances of successful work in Rural America will be as- sembled. When it is shown what has been and is being done in many places, young men and women will be inspired to undertake work in the rural field and great good will accrue from the influx of capable leaders with a vision. This will soon be followed by a higher average of leadership in Rural America, especially among preachers. Ministers who have made a notable success of certain rural churches will be sent, 105 FIFTY MILLION STRONG when it seems wise to change pastors, to other rural churches that have had equally good pastors. In this way the good work of the country will be conserved and desirable fields will be enlarged. Thus, in time, every denomination that is suc- cessful in its country work will have transformed many weak rural churches into strong rural churches and added to the number of its capable rural pastors. Whenever weak men are sent to pastoral flocks, even if they have for a number of years been well shepherded, the wprk is sure to suffer. If a rural pastor achieves brilliant success he is entitled to the best churches the country contains. Let able pastors with strong rural inclinations oncie reahze that they will be given work commensurate with their abilities and there will be no dearth of good rural leaders. The same may be said of all other rural workers. (4) Putting Romance into Rural Life. — Young men and women freely dedicate their lives to missionary activities in spite of the sacrifice and privation to which they will be subjected. Volunteers always seem to be forthcoming. Every great missionary convention results in the enlistment of numerous workers. Otie of the reasons for this is economic. Foreign missionaries supported by the great church missionary boards are never paid less than $900 per annum and from that up to $2,500, and they are not sent abroad unless the money is pledged to finance their work. On the other hand, in the home field, many workers receive less than $400 a year, and the average salary for all work in the country does not exceed $600 or $700. It is readily seen that a man cannot enjoy the comforts of life and educate a family on this amount of money. Solve the economic problem and the other prob- lems will yield more easily to solution. At the National Country Church Conference, December, 1915, one speaker made the statement that at a certain theological seminary a number of young women engaged to young pastors in their senior year, decHned to marry the young men if they chose rural fields, preferring to marry foreign missionaries. Depri- vation of those things that contribute to soul culture, that 106 RURAL AMERICA foster the higher ideals, that give one a fighting chance in his efforts to reach a worthy goal, and romance do not go to- gether. Remove the financial handicaps that today shackle the spirit of rural leadership and let it have a chance to rise to inviting heights and it will raise all Rural America with it. Under the stimulus of romance there will come a marvelous transformation in the Rural Field. Rural America, owned by six million home owners, its manifold activities put on a profitable basis, its work offering careers of great attractiveness, and crowned with a halo of romance, will develop the greatest civilization the world has known. 107 CHAPTER III RURAL LEADERSHIP SOMEONE has said he would rather meet a flock of lions led by a sheep than a flock of sheep led by a lion. This statement invites consideration of the subject of leadership. The one dominant thought in the preceding chapter, unless the writer has failed of his purpose, is leadership. It is leadership that is responsible for the progress Rural America has made, and it is leadership of a still more exalted type that will be the means of placing the crown of a higher civilization on the brow of the new Rural America. There are three classes of leaders in Rural America : those who know they are leaders and exercise their leadership ; those who know they are leaders, but because of modesty and diffi- dence fail to make use of their God-given talent; and those who are totally ignorant of their capacity for directing others. So a great responsibility rests on the leaders of the first class, since they must not only exercise their leadership, and of course exercise it rightly, but inspire the leaders who fail for want of courage to do their duty and reveal to the leaders ignorant of their powers the hidden talents of their natures. There might be mentioned a fourth class : those who are mis- taken in the belief that they are leaders and therefore prove to be a handicap to progressive work. Leaders are born, not made, and fortunately an intensive study of rural sections warrants the generahzation that there is an abundance of leadership in the country. Rural America is like a sleeping giant that is just beginning to rouse himself. What a change there will be when the sleeping giant, having become fully awake, begins to" utilize to the utmost all the powers of his nature ! Among the inspiring sights of the Great West are the wonderful reservoirs where bilhons of K io8 RURAL LEADERSHIP gallons of water are stored. Before the construction of these reservoirs there were millions of acres of land beyond the Mississippi which, though producing more bountifully today than any section of the Mississippi Valley, were practically worthless. The water existed in as large quantities and the soil contained as much fertility then as now, but the water had not been mobilized, to use a war term, and could not be used when, where and as needed, as it can at present. Today there is an abundance of leadership in the country, but this leadership, like the water of the Great West, must be mobilized so that it can be used when, where and as needed. The greatest need, then, of Rural America is to utilize her leadership. But before country leadership can be utiHzed it must be trained somewhat. Untrained leadership is a good deal like an unpruned, unsprayed fruit tree. In the Great Northwest, orcharding has been reduced to a science, and one sees in that country thousands of acres of fruit trees that are beautiful in their symmetry and bear almost perfect fruit because they have been properly pruned and sprayed. How different many of the neglected orchards of the Mississippi Valley, in which one finds ill-shapen trees and much gnarly and worm-eaten fruit! Only a small percentage of the fruit from the average Mississippi Valley orchard is perfect and fit to use, because the orchards have not receiyed proper attention. Now the question is, who will train the country leadership so that there may be a symmetrical development, with a fruit- age large in yield and perfect in character? Unfortunately, in the past, facilities for training leadership for Rural America have been very meager. The educational system of the nation has been ill adapted to the great task of preparing the youth of the nation for all the nation's work. As a rule, boys and girls have been educated away from rather than for the coun- try, and the educational life of the nation has had a distinct- ively urban flavor. But a change is taking place. The courses of study of all the schools, from the lowest to the highest, are being gradually modified, that they may become more 109 FIFTY MILLION STRONG responsive to the needs of the great body of American pupils and students, half rural and half urban. So it is possible now for a country lad to go to urban institutions of learning and receive a training that will fit him to become a leader of leaders and a trainer of leaders in Rural America. Notwith- standing the fact that half the ministers of this country are rural ministers, there was, until recent years, not a single theological school that devoted any special attention to the training of young men for rural pastoral work. But the start has been made in training young ministers for the rural field, and the likelihood is that in good time America will have a magnificent rural ministry, dedicated to the interests of Rural America, having its own conventions to discuss the problems of rural life, developing a rural esprit de corps, aspiring only to life service in the country, containing strong, virile men, many of whom because of their familiarity with the movements and activities that are contributing to a greater rural civilization are as worthy of the degree Doctor of Country Life as any urban minister is worthy of his Doctor of Divinity. What has been said of rural pastors can be in a measure also said of every other class of rural workers. The most hopeful sign in America today is that the trend relative to Rural America is in the right direction. A study of successful leadership reveals its qualities, or characteristics, and to the extent to which one possesses these, to that extent is one qualified for successful leader- ship. ^ A first requisite of successful leadership is a sense of humor, and it is on this that the crises of life make the heaviest demands. Many and many a time when all appeared lost or when it seemed useless to put forth any more effort, a word, a gesture or an act has saved a situation and turned defeat into victory. Numerous instances might be given in illustration. Accounts of polar expeditions, hazardous ex- plorations, military campaigns and the like, abound in cases to the point. ^ The writer names twelve qualities or characteristics of successful leadership. The fundamentals of leadership, according to Prof. G. Wal- ter Fiske, are: Knowledge, Power, Skill, Character, Vision. fc^ I ID RURAL LEADERSHIP Just as food, however well cooked, fails to appeal to the taste unless it has been properly seasoned, so life itself proves to be savorless unless there is injected into it something of the spice and pungency that only a sense of humor can give. The part that the sense of humor has played in world history is no inconspicuous part. Civilization's debt to the sense of humor is far greater than the world suspects. The following little poem shows what the sense of humor has to encounter constantly : Nothing to do but work. Nothing to eat but food, Nothing to wear but clothes, To keep one from going nude. Nothing to breathe but air, Quick as a flash 'tis gone; Nowhere to fall but off, Nowhere to stand but on. Nothing to comb but hair. Nowhere to sleep but in bed, Nothing to weep but tears. Nothing to bury but dead. Nothing to sing but songs. Ah, well ! alas ! alack ! Nowhere to go but out. Nowhere to come but back; Nothing to see but sights, Nothing to quench but thirst, Nothing to have but what we've got; Thus, through life we are cursed. Nothing to strike but a gait, Everything moves that goes; Nothing at all but common sense. Can ever withstand these woes. Blessed is the man or woman who possesses a sense of humor, because with it these woes and others can be with- stood; without it life is a "vale of tears," "an empty vessel," and all the other sad things found in some of the old hymns. Ill FIFTY MILLION STRONG " Life is a beautiful adventure," to quote Charles Frohman, who went down with the Lusitania. The Brownings experi- enced the "wild joy of living," the Goethes, the Scotts, the Lincolns and hosts of others found life packed full of interest. All these were possessed of a lively sense of humor. A second essential of leadership is imagination. The imagination is the wonderful faculty of the mind that uses the materials at the disposal of all, and, taking every kind of liberty with them, produces combinations that fill the world with perennial newness, beauty and attractiveness. Some- times the materials at hand are very meager, and unless one's imagination is fully equal to the situation stagnation or. ennui or pessimism or despair results. Miss Jessie Field, in quoting from Eggleston and Bruere, brings out this thought beauti- fully. " Starting at Nowhere with Nothing and getting Somewhere with Something, is after all the test of useful leadership." ^ The sentence might have closed with these words, " is evidence of the possession of a rare faculty of imagination." The writer continues : " This nation would be transformed if every rural worker would do his or her work in so unusual a manner that the unusual would become the usual." 2. What is it if not imagination that takes the usual and transforms it into the unusual? A teacher with imagination in one of the Southern States conceived the idea of arousing among her pupils an interest in good books. In the past little had been done with books, the little country school having no library whatever and the homes from which the pupils came having only motley collections of books, few of which were adapted to the needs of the growing child. So this teacher secured one of the most delightful children's books and began to read it aloud to the school. In a very short time the starved little minds were literally devouring the wonderful incidents of the story. Taking advantage of this natural avidity of the pupils, the teacher told them that if they could raise some money they might have a collection 1 " College Women and Country Leadership," p. 14. 2 " College Women and Country Leadership," p. 14. RURAL LEADERSHIP of books like the one from which she was reading. The children were ready to do anything, and eagerly sold vege- tables in order to provide sufficient funds to purchase the books desired.^ That teacher possessed imagination. She did the usual in the unusual way and got wonderful results. In every avenue of life, in every job, in every task, in every duty, if imagination is given free play, how vastly different life becomes ! Once two preachers preached upon the subject of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to the Court of King Solomon. The one possessed imagination and the other had little imagination. The preacher gifted with imagination painted a picture of this beautiful incident that simply charmed his hearers. His sermon was like a great moving picture from beginning to end. The unimaginative preacher strug- gled hard in his effort to portray the scene in an interesting manner, but the beautiful colors that brightened the other picture were absent, uninteresting details protruded them- selves upon the audience, and the congregation dispersed far from edified. The one picture was like a beautiful sunset on a great expanse of water; the other was like a sunset blurred by the murky atmosphere of a great industrial center. One of the great needs of the time, in this materialistic land, is giving more attention to the development of the faculty that can transform the commonplace into the unusual. A chief reason why the German nation has made such wonderful strides in aesthetics is this : under the leadership of Schiller, over a century ago, they began the " assiduous cultivation of the things that give joy to the soul." ^ A third essential of leadership is tact. What a vast amount of trouble is caused in the world by failure to exercise tact. Tact might be called that rare quality of mind that enables one to make his way along the crowded avenue of life with a minimum of jolts, jostles and elbow jabs. The pupils in the third grade of a certain city school one afternoon shortly 1 Prof. M. L. Bonham, Southern Conference for Education and In- dustry, 19 1 5. 2 See The Atlantic Monthly, October, 1915, p. 560. 113 FIFTY MILLION STRONG before three-thirty became very restless. The nerves of the teacher, too, were on edge, but she was quite equal to the situation. After a moment's thought she got the children's attention with these words : " I want all of you to close your eyes and put your heads on your desks, and while in that position be very quiet for several minutes and each one make a wish. It may be the good fairy is near at hand." This gave the nerves of the teacher and pupils alike a chance to relax. The remainder of the closing hour was delightfully spent in a recital of the wishes. How different the closing hour would have been had not tact come to the rescue ! Much of the trouble in churches is of a mercenary origin. If finances are on an unsatisfactory basis and they receive emphasis on all occasions, in a short time trouble arises and spirituality suffers. A preacher who can solve the financial problems of a church and do so in such a manner that a good taste is left in the mouth even of the penurious, is of course a genius and richly endowed with the coveted quality of tact. Some time ago there was a large city church whose finances had fallen into a disordered state. The pastor inaugurated a financial cam- paign with the idea of permanently solving the financial prob- lem of the church. His plan was rather revolutionary and some of the best informed laymen feared complications. But he was persistent. The first Sunday on which the plan was announced two sermons were preached on the grace of giving, and the consensus of opinion was that all had been won over to the new plan and great enthusiasm had been aroused for its success. Of course all depended on the announcement. But the preacher had an abundance of tact, and tact won the victory. The plan was put into operation with good results. A study of biography reveals the strikingly varying degrees of success with which the perplexities, the difficulties, and the hazards of life are encoifntered. One person wends his way from childhood to old age, and serenity accompanies him throughout the whole journey. Another reaches the goal only after many periods of storm and stress. In the case of the first, tact paved the way; in the case of the second, absence of tact made the way rough and rugged. '^ 114 RURAL LEADERSHIP A fourth essential of leadership is quick wit. Once two college students, one of whom was named Wiggin, and both of whom were full of the spirit of fun, desired to catch a train on the point of starting, and their path was impeded by an immense crowd of people — men, women and children. They realized that only two ways were open to them if they would reach the train: one was strategy and the other main force. They chose the former. One of the boys, both of whom were fine specimens of physical manhood, shouted in stentorian tones : " Make way for Wiggin of New York." The crowd fell back, the boys reached their train in good time, no one in the crowd was hurt and all enjoyed the joke. Quick wit saved the day. While a certain bishop was stationed in the great mission field of Africa, he on one occasion came into contact with a tribe that threatened his life. It happened that the bishop had both false teeth and false hair. He first removed his teeth and then his hair, when he realized that something must be done to prevent the savages killing him, appeahng to their superstitious natures with all the art at his command. In a very short time he was looked upon as a superhuman being. The quick wit of the bishop not only saved his life but enabled him to start the great work of bringing this savage tribe to Jesus Christ. A fifth essential of leadership is candor. There is a dis- position on the part of the average person to indulge in a good deal of sparring in his dealing with others. However, unless this is done as sparingly as possible, one is pretty sure in the course of time to fall into the habit of duplicity. Many a time the results of candor are feared when candor is by far the best poHcy. In recalling incidents out of one's life one plainly sees how frequently a little more candor would have saved an immense amount of trouble. In fact, unless there is candor when candor is quite in place, there must later be resort to bluntness of the most pronounced type, and this often leads to unfortunate results. No sensible person ever shows resentment in the face of candor. But all persons are justified in feeling aggrieved when candor has been wanting IIS FIFTY MILLION STRONG to such an extent that complications follow. American diplo- macy has been called " shirt-sleeve diplomacy " because its chief characteristic is candor instead of intrigue. Candor is especially essential in all rural work, for the reason that Rural America is now thoroughly awake and ready for an advance along the whole front. The forces of Rural America are full of vitality, energy, enthusiasm, opti- mism, but progress must be slow pending the accumulation of sufficient experience. So leadership has an arduous task in holding in line the army of Rural America and seeing to it that no step is taken and no move made for which there has not been proper preparation. And this v/ill require above everything else candor. Dr. Henry van Dyke has expressed himself very forcefully on this point : " Are we quite sure that the world needs us to do this particular work which frets us so? There is such a thing as taking ourselves and the world too seriously. Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain idea that every man is bound to be a critic of life, and to let no day pass without finding some fault with the general order of things, or projecting some plan for its improvement." The Wall Street Journal also makes some interesting observations on this head. " One of the things ailing this country at present is the activity in it of too many people who belong to the professional uplifting class. That old disciplinary order of training which aimed at mental fiber, knowledge of fact and grasp of principles, has given place to the study of 'problems,' and methods of in- vestigating ' social conditions/ and the remedies for every sort of ill man has been heir to in all the ages. The result is a mass of half-baked measures in municipal, state and federal legislatures. The sooner we get back to the primal fact in human classification that the professional uplifter, in nine cases out of ten, is a loafer, the better it will be for the heart and the head as well as the purse of the country and its taxpayers." A sixth essential of leadership is courage. One of the few ii6 RURAL LEADERSHIP things that are universally hated in this world is cowardice. Even a coward hates cowardice in another coward. Some years ago a man of considerable prominence on the Pacific coast was taking an ocean voyage with his wife and children. A storm arose and their vessel was wrecked with great loss of life. Did this man do all in his power to save his wife and family? No! he deserted them absolutely and saved himself. The first instinct of the whole animal world is self- preservation. However, this instinct and courage make a wonderful combination. The courage that prompts one to risk his own life to save another's is a high type of courage, but there is another type of courage that is also deserving of the highest consideration, and that is the courage that seeks to make life one continuous triumph. Time was when this world was looked upon simply as a place of probation. Ser- mons, songs and testimonies emphasized continuously the transitoriness of this life and the glories of the life to come. Today a change is taking place. The great emphasis is placed upon this life, and the thought is that if one does his best in this life he will have had the best preparation for the life to come. The result is, the churches today are placing stress on living instead of dying. The poet, Ernest Crosby, expresses this thought admirably in these verses : So " he died for his faith." That is fine — More than most of us do. But stay ! Can you add to that line That he lived for it, too? It is easy to die. Men have died For a wish or a whim — From bravado, passion, or pride; Was it hard for him? But to live; every day to live out All the truth that he dreamt. While his friends met his conduct with doubt, And the world with contempt! 117 FIFTY MILLION STRONG Was it thus that he plodded ahead, Never turning aside? Then we'll talk of the life that he led — Never mind how he died. So the thought that needs most emphasis is living a life that will count for most, and the one thing required almost above everything else in living such a life, is courage. To master the little vexations of daily occurrence, to banish dis- cord and promote harmony, to combat indifference and apathy, to arouse enthusiasm, and to do the thousand and one other things that are necessary to the accomplishment of results, requires courage. Possibly no more eloquent words were ever uttered on the subject of courage than those spoken by the great Frenchman, Jean Jaures : " Courage consists in meet- ing without flinching the tests of every kind, physical and moral, which life brings. To have courage, in the infinite disorder of the life which solicits us on all sides, is to choose one occupation and to do it well, whatever it may be. Courage consists in being both a practical man and a philosopher; in understanding one's work, systematizing it, examining it, and yet in coordinating it with life in general. Courage consists in watching one's machine for spinning or weaving so closely that no thread may break, and at the same time in preparing a more fraternal social order where the machines will be the common servants of free workers. Courage consists in being master of one's faults, not servant to them. To have courage is to love life and regard death tranquilly, to strive for the ideal and to undertake the real; to work and give ourselves up to great causes without knowing what recompense, if any, the inscrutable universe reserves for our efforts; to seek truth and to proclaim it." The seventh essential of leadership is faith. It is quite likely that almost everyone familiar with the Bible would, if asked to select the half dozen greatest chapters of Holy Writ, make the eleventh chapter of Hebrews one of the number. This is the great chapter on faith. Faith is one of the big things of life. All the achievements of earth worth while rest on a ii8 RURAL LEADERSHIP foundation of faith. What a wonderful group of men and women are named in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews ! This chapter has been called the Bible's roll of honor and the wonderful names represent the Hebrew Hall of Fame. Osborne, in quoting Walter Rauschenbusch, speaks elo- quently of the Miracle of Spring.^ Today the trees are leaf- less, the grass is dead, the woods are still. In a short time, however, what a transformation ! New-born leaves array the whole forest in a dress of green, the lawns and meadows look beautiful covered with their new carpet of spring and all the woods resound with the music of the happy birds that have winged their way from the Southland. This is the Miracle of Spring and from the beginning it has been an annual occurrence. Everyone has faith that God will ever continue to repeat the Miracle of Spring. If God's children have such implicit faith in nature's annual rebirth, is there any reason why they should fail to develop a robust faith in the affairs of life? Yet most people are of little faith. If the world is to take a forward step in the New Era there must be a re- surgence of faith. There are great tasks confronting the world today, and world tasks require a great faith. Moreover, everyone can have a part in performing these tasks if faith is exercised. Someone has said most truly : *' We have to struggle hard to persuade ourselves that in a given city in a given building on a given street, we as plain people can take any steps or do any bit of work that will substantially affect great world futures. And yet it is true that so closely inter- volved are all men and all things that the humblest transaction instantly relates itself to the whole world process." And this is truer today than it ever was before because of the con- tracting world of the twentieth century. Faith on fire has vision. Vision sees a goal. In the lexicon of the country leader the triumvirate of words that must dominate are : faith, vision, goal. St. Paul had a great faith, he beheld a wonderful vision, he reached a world goal. The ^ W. F. Osborne, " Faith of a Layman," p. 2. 119 FIFTY MILLION STRONG need of the nation today is men with faith strong enough to last a Hfe-time; with a vision clear enough to see ultimate victory; with strength great enough to enable them to reach the goal; with a determination, like St. Paul, to finish the course. The world is today in great need of Calebs and Joshuas. It is remembered that Caleb and Joshua were the only ones of the twelve spies sent to investigate the Promised Land who favored a " forward march." Ten spies showed little faith and the Children of Israel remained in the Wilder- ness, and everyone familiar with the story knows the infinite loss that resulted from the lack of faith. A nation can make great progress only when the aggregate faith of its people is great. What is the aggregate faith of Rural America? Under great leadership the sum of this faith can be increased. May the present generation witness this consummation ! An eighth essential of leadership is virility. The great undertaking in the country is to win the youth of Rural America, and the youth of Rural America are never won by the " ladylike and innocuous saint." They even prefer the " courageous sinner." " Youth can be won by setting free the virile and chivalrous spirit of youth " and that can be done only by the leader whose life is blessed with virility. Youth are hero worshipers and the heroes that command their high- est admiration are those that have achieved distinction in the physical realm. And this is natural, since during the first third of man's three score and ten years the activities of the body dominate the life. The animal is much in evidence, and the great aim of leadership is that the animal may develop into a highly civilized animal. The one incident that made " Quo Vadis " one of the most popular books of its generation was the wonderful scene in the arena, representing the Lygian giant catching by the horns the hugh German aurochs on whose back is bound his queen, and calling into service the almost superhuman strength of his wonderful body, breaking the neck of the animal. The experts of the baseball diamond and the stars of the gridiron have the youth of America at their feet. A study of leaders from Moses down to the present 120 RURAL LEADERSHIP time reveals the fact that the great leaders have been men of virility. A ninth essential of leadership is will power. No one can live either a satisfactory or a successful life that does not make his will regnant in his life. A will so dominant that it controls a life with the ease with which the steering wheel directs the flying seven-passenger automobile, causes the possessor to take pride in his enviable possession. How many, many persons make shipwreck of their lives simply because the passions or the appetites are in control instead of the volitional faculty. The reason why centuries elapsed after the fall of the Roman Empire before some semblance of order prevailed in the barbarian world, was because men were constantly giving vent to their passions and destroying all beginnings of orderly government as soon as evidences of stability began to appear. The result was, settled conditions were long delayed in central Europe. Some people go through life like the barbarians of the Dark Ages. Passions and appetites rule them, and their wills are ever subservient to the dictates of their lower natures. The progress of civiliza- tion means first and foremost the increasing dominancy of the will. The first step for the individual is getting complete control of self, since only self-controlled persons have success in the direction of others. Many a person has spoiled all his chances for successful leadership because of inability to master self. He who rules himself rules a multitude. But in ruling others one must not push his will into too great prominence. If those who are led see in the leader a tendency to rule them with an iron hand or to make his will law among them or to show intolerance of the opinions of others or even to give reluctant consideration to others' views, his effectiveness as a leader is much reduced. The ideal leader is the one who understands the art of self-abnegation. He who can bring out the ideas and plans of others, pave the way for the adop- tion of those that seem workable, push the co-laborer that has initiative and brains without giving offense to the fellow whose FIFTY MILLION STRONG only qualification is ability to follow someone else, assert himself when it is absolutely necessary to maintain a perfect equilibrium and retire to the background and bring others into prominence when that can be done for the good of all, .ever holding ambition in check and suppressing a desire for recognition — such a leader gets results. The leader who has perfect control of self can be the power behind the throne in the control of others. The boy or man who has no will of his own is not of very much value. But to get together a great many boys or men, all of whom have wills of their own, to be equal to every situation of will- clashing, to be able to merge all wills into a stream of power that moves steadily in one direction, is not an easy task. Much is heard nowadays about interlocking directorates. These directorates work together very well because profits are the prize of cooperation, and profits are the greatest known stimulus to cooperation. Every movement in Rural America represents an interlocking of wills. Here, too, the prize is profits. But not in every movement of Rural America are the profits of a material character. In fact, the profits, as a rule, have to do with intangible values. And the securing of such profits involves sacrifice, criticism, scant praise, little reward. So interlocking wills in the movements of Rural America require leadership of a high order, A tenth essential of leadership is prayer. Prayer is the greatest force in the world today. The two men who are considered the leading characters in American history are Washington and Lincoln. These two men were preeminently men of prayer, and Christian America believes that this nation passed safely through the two great crises of her his- tory chiefly because of the prayers of George Washington and Abraham. Lincoln. John R. Mott tells the following incident in his address on the '* Transcendent Importance of Prayer.'' " In 1883 a wave of rationalism and skepticism swept over the Doshisha, the leading Christian college in Japan, and it became very cold spiritually. Dr. Davis, one of the mission- aries there, recognized the power of intercession and wrote to 122 RURAL LEADERSHIP over twenty colleges and theological seminaries of America, asking the students to unite in prayer for the Doshisha. Many Christian students heeded the request. On the night of the Day of Prayer for Colleges, when the American stu- dents united in prayer, the Doshisha students in different rooms, without any direct human influence being brought to bear upon them, were led to fall into conversation on the subject of personal religion and gave themselves to prayer. A revival began that very night and spread through the col- lege. It resulted in the conversion of a large number of the students," ^ Somebody once asked Spurgeon the secret of his great success, and he directed the inquirer to the basement of the great London church, where during the services several of the members of the congregation remained in constant prayer, asking God that He might make the church a force for right- eousness in the establishment of the Kingdom. And God answered these prayers and the church of Spurgeon did a wonderful work during his ministry. But one need not go to Japan or England to learn that God answers prayers. God answers the fervent prayers of all His people. Everyone who knows how to pray has had blessed experiences that prove to him that God is ever ready to answer prayer. All that is necessary is that God's people come to fully understand that perfect cooperation and united effort in prayer will revolu- tionize conditions everywhere. The trouble is, the followers of Jesus Christ are too individualistic in their prayers. A few flying wedges in the prayer world will be much more effective than individual supplications in battering down the opposition and making goals. If every one of the eleven men on a champion football team were to change his tactics and play independently little could be accomplished against a well-organized team even of pygmies. Many years ago one of the capable men of the Methodist Church made himself a bishop through prayer. Before the Conference there was little thought among the delegates of 1 " The Challenge of Today," edited by Bishop W. F. Anderson, p. 80. 123 FIFTY MILLION STRONG electing him a bishop. But a prayer he uttered during the early days of the Conference so completely took hold of the whole body of delegates, that in almost every heart came the conviction that a man of such power in prayer ought to be a bishop of the church, and he was elected. An eleventh essential of leadership is sympathy. Of course the literal meaning of sympathy is, fellow-feeling. This presupposes a big heart, a heart like the heart of Christ Him- self, in whose life one sees sympathy in all its perfection. The ideal leader must be able so to adjust his life that it enjoys a beautiful harmony with the lives of those whom he would mold into symmetry. A hfe so attuned is keenly sensitive to the heart lives of those with which it is brought into inti- mate relations and shows such wonderful responsiveness that there is perfect rhythm in their fellowship. A sympathetic leader is a social stabilizer. The most recent invention to contribute to the safety of aerial navigation is the stabilizer, which enables the aviator to keep in balance in spite of vacuums, currents, counter currents, cross currents and any other uncertain factors with which the air machine has to contend in its flight. It is the sympathy of the leader that enables him to move happily and successfully among those whom he leads with little fear of the many uncertain factors of human nature. . There is another meaning of sympathy that possibly has equal significance in all successful leadership, and that is ability to enter into the lives of others so under standingly that each life may be started and kept going in the direction in which it is best fitted to move. No two persons are alike. Hence every person must be made the object of separate study. But the leader feels great pleasure in the intensive investiga- tions that precede his work of classifying those with whom he is afiiliated. He finds some who in the beginning give promise of development into strong characters under the stimulus of the right sort of life purpose, but in the end reveal weaknesses that doom them to almost hopeless medi- ocrity in life's activities. He finds others who in the beginning 124 RURAL LEADERSHIP exhibit few if any evidences of strength of character, but in the end grow strong and finally mature, under wise super- vision, into men of sturdiness and power. There are infinite gradations between these two classes. The pleasure that comes from arriving at an exact understanding of each case, and from opening the way to the highest achievement possible in each case, is a pleasure that gives infinite zest in spite of the many disappointments inevitable in dealing with youth. Many years ago a class of young people chose as their presi- dent one of their number who was sociable, agreeable, regular in attendance, faithful in the performance of stereotyped duties, but who possessed no initiative, had a pliant nature, and could not command the respect of a young man or woman with a strong character. The result was, he was a failure as a class president, which office his smile, handclasp and equable disposition had won him. A final essential of leadership is fairness. Anyone who has had much experience with children or young people realizes that they are gifted with intuitive keenness in passing judgment on the treatment they receive at the hands of elders. A teacher, for example, who shows partiality quickly impairs his usefulness and practically destroys his influence over his pupils. A little group of children or young people is filled with the same democratic spirit that pervades the whole national life, and their slogan is the square deal. So anyone who aspires to be a leader of youth must make up his mind that he will always be just; that, in fact, he will be so just as to treat with equal consideration the boy or girl for whom he cannot but have an antipathy and the boy or girl to whom he is naturally drawn. In listening to a group of young people discussing their teachers one often hears remarks such as these : " Mr. So and So certainly does give a fellow a square deal ; " " What makes me Hke Miss So and So is, she plays no favorites ; " and the like. As a grown-up person goes back in memory to the teachers of his tender years, he loves most to dwell on the experiences under teachers that showed absolute fairness 125 FIFTY MILLION STRONG in their treatment of all pupils. He does not cherish any unkindness for a teacher who punished him when he deserved punishment, and after the first resentment his anger soon disappeared because he knew that his punishment was de- served. But the little acts of injustice that some teachers perpetrated linger in one's memory all through the years and awaken a feeling of bitterness whenever memory pushes them across the threshold of consciousness. Especially is fairness a requisite on the athletic field. Here, when passion runs high and there is eagerness to win, the slightest wavering on the part of the judge or the umpire or the coach quickly has its effect. In a certain town, there was an umpire who in the course of years acquired a reputa- tion for being absolutely on the square. The result was, his decisions were never questioned. Once in a while, as any observing bystander could note, he made mistakes, but there was no objection, for the reason that all had such implicit confidence in him that they knew any error that he made was simply an error of judgment. Every leader is frequently put to most severe tests, since life is full of decisions, especially if he takes an active part in community activities. His feel- ings or prejudices or inclinations or ambitions, particularly if • the vital tide is running a little low and physically he is some- , what below par, often bring a tremendous pressure to bear on the judgment, and perfect justice finds it a little difficult to prevail. But it is tests such as these that fortify char- acter against any assaults that might be made upon it and that fit one for a successful work in his chosen field. i Of the many good things that may be laid at the door of inspired leadership only a few will be mentioned. Leadership appeals to that something within most persons that stimulates them to rise to higher levels. But even though the higher levels be not attained, good is accomplished, since, as Brown- ing says in his poem " Saul," " 'Tis not what man does that exalts him, but what man would do." So whether, like Boye- son's engineer, who went through life with an epic clamoring for expression in his soul, a man realizes or fails to realize 126 RURAL LEADERSHIP his aspirations, he has become an infinitely better man and has made his contribution, however modest it may be, to the sum of human progress. Leadership exerts its influence sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. Two illus- trations will be given. In a certain town there was once a talented girl who studied voice culture in a great conserva- tory and later became a very noted singer. This same town produced, during the next generation, one singer of inter- national reputation, two other singers quite well known in their own country, and several artists of lesser fame. Some years ago, in a town of two thousand, there rose into prom- inence a baseball player who became famous in one of the big leagues, both as player and manager. During the decade following this celebrity's triumphs, one young man developed into possibly an equally skilled player and achieved the dis- tinction of piloting a big league club to the championship one year. Several other players of league calibre were pro- duced, and the town has today the reputation of being one of the greatest baseball towns of its size in the country. Another good thing resulting from inspired leadership is the influence it exerts on philanthropy. If the truth were known, there are, for example, very few uplift institutions or bene- factions anywhere in the country that cannot trace their origin to a stimulus that emanated from inspired leadership. Some years ago there was a town that had for a long time felt the need of a Y. M. C. A. There was much agitation, and on several occasions abortive efforts were made to finance the institution. Finally, a campaign of education was launched with the purpose of thoroughly familiarizing the people with all phases of Y. M. C. A. work, in the hope that success would crown the next effort to secure an institution. In the midst of the campaign a certain elderly resident made his will and arranged for the disposal of a larger fortune than anyone thought he possessed. Not very long afterward the modest but philanthropically inclined man died, and it was found that he had made provision for an institution such as even the most optimistic had never dreamed the town would possess. 127 FIFTY MILLION STRONG This, with other cases that might be given, warrants the encouraging generalization that money comes when leader- ship SHOWS THE WAY. A third good that grows out of inspired leadership is, it paves the way for a crystallization of public opinion. Crys- tallized public opinion with a fulcrum sufficiently large can move the world, and it is beginning to move the world in many ways. Public opinion is fast crystallizing in regard to the uselessness and pernicious character of the liquor traffic, and the time is approaching when not only America but all the nations will eliminate the curse. Public opinion is fast crys- tallizing in regard to the evangelizing of the whole earth, and the time will surely come when all the peoples of earth will both have heard of Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their Savior. Many other similar movements might be mentioned concerning which, in this contracting world, public opinion is crystallizing. It is only about fifteen years ago that a certain aggressive minister fired the first shot at the strongly intrenched liquor forces of his community. There followed a trench warfare that lasted for years, but in the end the liquor forces were routed and for nearly a decade now the city has been without , saloons, and the dry sentiment is so pronounced that even ' the suggestion that the city would be better off if it were to discard prohibition is treated with the utmost contempt. But it was different in the early days. The good minister who fired the first shot was subjected to a thousand inconveniences and unpleasantnesses because of his bold stand and in the end lost his pulpit in that community. However, he started the crystallization of public opinion that today is fully crystallized, but he paid the price. And this thought of paying the price will be the concluding thought of this chapter. Christ, the greatest leader the world has produced, paid the price, and it was the greatest price man could pay. But He established a religion that is destined to bring under its banner all the peoples of earth. So all leadership must pay the price. There is no royal road to victory in the field 128 RURAL LEADERSHIP \ of leadership. Recently, Professor Charles R. Henderson, of Chicago University, died prematurely, and the diagnosis was, too great ardor in uplift activities for his strength. Browning's quatrain will fittingly close this chapter. That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it; This high man with a great thing to pursue Dies ere he knows it. 129 CHAPTER IV RURAL COOPERATION DR. EMIL HAHN, writing in the Mcdizinische Blaetter, states that a man weighing 150 pounds is worth $7.87. His fat has a value of $2.60, but there is scarcely enough iron to make a nail an inch long or lime to whitewash a good sized fowl-house. The phosphorus would put heads on 2,200 matches and the magnesium would provide a very pretty fire- works display. Of albumen there is sufficient for a hundred eggs, while of sugar one could secure only a teaspoonful and of salt a mere pinch. Yet in spite of the low value of the several elements that enter into man's body, the same is a marvelous combination, the elements representing one combination and myriads of cells another. The cells, for example, are so perfectly adjusted to one another that under normal conditions they fulfill in a very happy manner their functions. Nor is it an easy task to throw them out of adjustment, since if some cells refuse for a time to perform their proper functions other related cells come to their rescue, so that one never notes slight temporary discords in the activities of his cell system. How different with man-made mechanisms ! To illustrate, whenever, in an automobile, one spark plug fails to do its duty or some other part is out of commission the whole machine is handicapped and its progress is labored. Now, not only in man's body is there perfect cooperation, but there is between body and mind a higher cooperation, which represents the complete human life. Society is man multiplied. In society there are four dis- tinct classes : the producer, the manufacturer, the transporter K 130 I RURAL COOPERATION and the " social server." ^ But how imperfect the coopera- tion within each class and among the four classes ! Produc- tion is affected by individualism, the greatest enemy of co- operation. Manufacture is just beginning to wrestle with the problems that concern employer and employed. Transporta- tion has scarcely cast aside its swaddling clothes, and social service, on its practical side, has made comparatively little progress, and, on its philanthropic side, is just getting a good start. But one sees perfect cooperation in the individual. Man, the producer, gathers the food with which his body and mind are nourished. His digestive tract takes the physical food and by a process of manufacture prepares it to become a part of the body, and his mental faculties take the spiritual food and by a higher process of manufacture prepare it to become a part of the mind. The physical food, after having become a finished product, is transported by the blood to all parts of the body, and the mental food after it has become a finished product is borne by invisible means to the great storehouse of the mind. The social servers of the body are the senses and of the mind the higher faculties, and these working together supervise and direct the complete life. Just as there is perfect cooperation in the individual, so there will be in God's good time perfect cooperation among individuals, in society. In the preceding chapter the conclusion was drawn that fur- ther progress in Rural Society depended on leadership. In the present chapter the thought will be developed that the big task of leadership in Rural Society will be inaugurating a more perfect cooperation. The greatest obstacle in the path that leads to a higher rural civilization is individualism. Life in the country fosters individualism. No person on earth is more independent than the farmer. In the village or the city the resident is, to a greater or less extent, dependent upon the other residents, ^ " Social server " is used in a broad sense and by " social service " is meant all service not included in the other three classes: industrial, commercial, intellectual, spiritual, humanitarian. FIFTY MILLION STRONG and so he learns through force of necessity to subordinate his personal good to the general good. Close contact and interdependence develop a spirit of yielding to the aggregate will of the community and an inchnation to serve the wishes of the great majority. The farmer, on the other hand, lives the most self-sufficient life in the nation. During the " Age of Homespun " very little was used on the farm that was not produced there. But the age of coal and steam has taken away much of the work that formerly engaged the attention of the farmer folk, though even yet the farmer is not nearly so dependent on the outside world as the outside world is dependent on him. So, finding it unnecessary to adapt him- self to the outside world to any great extent, he gives his individualistic tendencies free play. In the second chapter many instances of cooperation were given and it was shown that the benefits accruing to the farmer from cooperation were great. But in spite of the fact that only good results flow from satisfactory cooperation, yet attempts at cooperation are all too rare and touch the lives of a very small percentage of the farm population. Of course one of the things that deter farmers from entering more freely into cooperative activities of a business character is the dismal record of failures attending these in Rural America. These failures, however, can be traced in almost every case to incompetent leadership; hence the contention in the last chapter that the first essential in the advancement of Rural Life to higher levels is leadership. Now, how can individualism be combated? By the farmer's getting a vision of his true place in the national life. The farmer is the chief producer of the nation. There are a few other producers, as the miner, the forester, the fisher and the hunter; but all these together sink into insignificance compared with the farmer, who feeds all other classes of society. Being the chief producer of the nation, his activities represent the basis of the whole business fabric of the nation, and upon his prosperity hinges the prosperity of all the people. Occasionally, Wall Street is shaken by a greater or 132 RURAL COOPERATION less panic; at intervals the industrial world experiences de- pression; frequently there are storm and stress periods in Urban America; but so long as the crops of the farmer are bountiful he is little affected by anything that may be taking place off the farm. But let there be a general crop failure throughout the country or a crop failure in one or more large sections of the nation, and in a very short time the w^hole nation suffers, and there is retrenchment all along the line. So if the farmer can get a clear vision of the important place he occupies in the nation, and can come to realize how greatly general progress is dependent on his individual progress, it may be that he will develop more of a cooperative spirit. In the progressive churches of Protestant America a new financial plan is being inaugurated. The new plan emphasizes three cardinal thoughts: (i) getting into touch with every member of the church, even down to the smallest child; (2) welding the membership into a dynamic unity; (3) set- ting free the energies of this great body in cooperative activities. Those who have adopted this plan have discovered that a church in which these three thoughts have been realized quickly develops into a great force for righteousness and greatly extends the scope of its work. If leadership is able to put this plan into operation, the farmer will get a vision of his true place in the nation and, under the stimulus of the vision, play a greater part in rural life, and thus give Rural America the place it ought to occupy in American civiliza- tion. But the farmer, while representing the larger class of the rural population, is not the sole resident of Rural America. Residents of small villages and towns must likewise be taken into consideration. Most of the villages and towns of the country are collections of individuals for the most part dependent on the residents of the contiguous rural territory for their support. It is largely the trade of the farming population that supports the villages and towns. Of course, some villages and towns come more or less into touch with the industrial side of the nation through small manufacturing 133 FIFTY MILLION STRONG plants or other institutions that reach beyond the immediate territory surrounding them. But the rule is that the activities of the villages and towns of the country have to do with their own people and the residents of adjacent territory. Now, while the great obstacle to the development of the spirit of cooperation on the farm is individualism, the obstacle that prevents a higher cooperation in the village and town is absence of community spirit. If one makes a study of villages and towns he finds in many of them only flickering sparks of the spirit essential to progress. The result is, hun- dreds of the villages and towns of the nation today are decadent. Of course, when one takes into consideration the several facts — good roads, better facilities for getting from place to place, loss of many little local industrial enterprises due to improved methods of manufacture, organized compe- tition of urban centers and growing cooperative activities for buying and selling among the farmers themselves — he realizes that the villages and towns have had a hard fight. Good roads stimulate travel and make possible trips of greater length. When mud roads were the rule, most of the year the farmer was obliged to trade at the nearest village. Travel is further stimulated by traction lines and automobiles. These place even the remote farmer and his family in close touch with the county-seat or the larger city. Centralized manufactur- ing plants have robbed villages and towns of their little industries, and, in the city, business combinations have been the rule, with the result that there are today many depart- ment stores and other commercial establishments whose customers instead of being limited to local residents are not even limited by state boundaries. And, because of the large patronage enjoyed, goods can be sold cheaply, and thus village and town competition is next to impossible. This sort of development is greatly aided by the parcel post, which makes possible the sending of almost all kinds of parcels and packages considerable distances at small expense. Finally, the tendency on the part of the farming population to organize for the purpose not only of buying cheaply but of selling to 134 RURAL COOPERATION better advantage also affects the village and town. These five facts are serious when considered with reference to the wel- fare of the villages and towns of the nation that are depend- ent largely on the residents of contiguous territory for their support. There is one redeeming circumstance, however : changes have not come about all at once, and villages and towns have been able gradually to adapt themselves to the new trend of things. In the olden days, life in the village and town was a comparatively sleepy life. Little effort had to be put forth by the business interests because they were sure of the trade of the contiguous territory. But in the course of the industrial awakening, villages and towns began to see the handwriting on the wall and adopted more progressive methods, with the result that in many parts of the country today there are vil- lages and towns that have magnificently risen to the demands of the new times and grown in spite of the five major handi- caps mentioned. The changed times have been the means of rousing them from their lethargy and of causing them to summon all their energies to the solution of the new prob- lems that confront them. Hence, many villages and towns have found the changed order of things a blessing in disguise. They are today active, alive to all their interests, hopeful, opti- mistic and keenly sensitive to the stimuli that contribute to community development. The Saturday Evening Post told, some months ago, of a store in a country town of i,ooo inhab- itants, that built up, as a result of advertising and progressive methods, an annual business of almost $400,000. Moreover, the town as a town showed enterprise in all directions. On the other hand, hundreds of villages and towns not possessed of sufficient tenacity, resourcefulness and unity have suc- cumbed to the handicaps imposed by the changed order of things and are today leading decadent lives. Two villages come to the writer's mind. Both are favorably located in good agricultural sections and are almost the same distance from larger towns and cities. Yet one is progressive and prosperous, and the other is conservative and backward. 13s FIFTY MILLION STRONG It is doubtful if the citizenship, individually speaking, of the former is better than that of the latter, and yet what a differ- ence in their village life! In the former the business and professional men are a unit in village activities. There is constantly something doing looking to the welfare of the com- munity. There are several churches all of which are fine new structures. The school is an excellent building and under the direction of a good corps of teachers. The business district has an up-to-date appearance and the homes of the people indicate contentment and happiness. One can not remain in the village an hour without realizing that village life is on a high plane in nearly all respects. The other village is not decadent; but one who studies it sees that it has not risen to its possibiHties. There are not so many evidences of tidiness and neatness in either the business or the residence district. The streets are not so well kept and the residents do not seem to possess that wide-awake spirit that characterizes the resi- dents of the other village. In village activities that should interest all the people there is not that unanimity of effort or enthusiasm that one finds in the other village. In grading the two villages from the standpoint of all the activities of village life, village number one would receive a far higher grade than village number two, not because the inhabitants of the former are in their individual capacity better, but because in cooperative activities they greatly excel the inhabitants of the latter. Villages are seldom compared in this way because of the great number of individuals included, but how frequently baseball nines and football elevens are thus com- pared ! And the thought that is emphasized is that of team- work. In 1914 the Boston National League team, after having for a number of seasons played a very minor role in its league of eight clubs, won not only the championship of its league but the world championship as well, defeating in the world series in four successive victories the team, the Athletics of Phil- adelphia, that during the three or four years preceding this series had been considered the greatest baseball aggregation that the country in all its history had produced. Individually 136 RURAL COOPERATION the Philadelphia team was in a class by itself, and yet the Boston club won four successive victories because of the most superb exhibition of team-work the game has known. So it is team-work, perfect cooperation, in the one village that has put it on the map. It is the lack of team-work, of cooperation, in the other village that has kept it farther down the scale and on a lower plane. One of the bugbears of the hundreds of villages in the Mississippi Valley is the Mail Order House. A recent report of a large Mail Order House showed sales for the year in excess oi one hundred million dollars. The following is a condensed statement of an article that appeared in The Banker-Farmer for September, 1914. Twenty-nine years ago, Hans Garbus of Iowa rented an 8o-acre farm. His possessions consisted of an old team, $50 in cash and a young wife. Being a man of integrity, he was able to furnish his home and equip his farm on credit. The first year was wet, resulting in a shortage of crops; so the merchants of the near-by village, where he made his purchases, were obliged to extend the time of his obligations. This they gladly did, and, moreover, they continued to accommodate him in his rise to affluence. In the course of time he had acquired title to 200 acres of the best land in the state. Nine years ago he concluded it would be good business to patronize city mail order houses, and this he and many of his neighbors began to do largely due to his influence, since he had become a very influential man in his neighborhood. Then the near- by village was quite progressive, having excellent schools, wide-awake churches, active merchants and a most praise- worthy community spirit. Then, too, Hans' farm would readily command $195 per acre. Nine years pass. The near-by village is a mere shadow of its former self. The change was largely caused by organized buying from mail order houses. The worst of it is, the present market value of Hans' farm is $167 per acre (a depreciation of $5,600) and all other farms near the little village have suffered a like depreciation. This is due to the decadence of the village, 137 FIFTY MILLION STRONG since there is little demand for farms at high prices far removed from the advantages of flourishing villages. Today Hans sees a light. He realizes that the town and the con- tiguous country rise and fall together. He realizes that the greatest prosperity, as well as the greatest benefits socially, intellectually and spiritually, results from town and country cooperating. Another big problem that concerns Rural America has to do with the unit of cooperation. The school district is the smallest unit; but the most important units, especially in the 2,500 rural counties of the nation, are the village or town, the township and the county. Each is an ideal cooperative unit for certain purposes. For some purposes the boundaries of these units must be disregarded and rather arbitrary lines must be drawn. One can lay down few hard and fast rules regarding cooperative units, since different sections of the country differ so greatly. But one can say this: in all cases where the larger unit can accomplish the greater results, the larger unit should prevail. However, the point to be espe- cially emphasized is, large units should cooperate with smaller units in every possible way. To illustrate, an institution or organization representing county cooperation should adapt itself to all smaller cooperative units, such as school districts, townships, villages, etc. Each should fulfill its particular mis- sion and none should trespass on the others. In the average agricultural county it is better to have one ' well-organized and properly conducted library with numerous branches than a number of small ill-organized and poorly man- aged libraries scattered through the country, since, with one library, funds are ample to employ competent librarians, to purchase sufficient and suitable books and to supply all parts of the county with library privileges. Thus, all the people coming in touch with skilled librarians and having access to sufficient well selected books, enjoy advantages that are not possible where small library units prevail. Of course the people must not be forced to come to the central library except when spe- cial help is wanted or special volumes or records are to be '^ 138 RURAL COOPERATION consulted. The library must be carried to the people, that the advantages accruing from its use may be enjoyed in the several communities of the county. This may also be said of a number of institutions such as the county Y. M. C. A., county Y. W. C. A., county hospital and some others. The head- quarters of each must be centrally located, but the aim of each should not be so much to draw persons, distantly located, to them, as to carry the advantages they have to persons dis- tantly located, with the idea all the time in mind of developing every community in the county. An interesting example of county-wide cooperation in the establishing of institutions and organizations for county work is to be found in Van Wert County, Ohio. Van Wert County many years ago led the way in the county-library field, and the great success the Brumback Library has achieved in giving to its 29,000 rural population access to the world's literature has made the library well known all over the country. At present in this county there are in course of construction an endowed county Y. M. C. A., an endowed county Y. W. C. A., and an endowed county hospital. It is believed that these four institutions through perfect coopera- tion will be able to accomplish a work that will prove to be a stimulus to scores of other rural centers. At any rate, the cooperative work of the four institutions during the next few years will be an interesting study. A striking case of township cooperation comes from the celebrated Illinois township which contains the three towns, La Salle, Peru and Oglesby. Five institutions have been welded into a unit for the benefit of all the people of the township : a Tri-City High School ; a Manual Training and Domestic Science Institution, with complete equipment in- cluding a large assembly hall; a Social Center Building, con- taining gymnasium, swimming pool and shower baths, game, class, club, music and art rooms, and a library; a Hygienic Institute, provided with a bacteriological laboratory, a special- ized library and a small staff of experts whose duty it is to keep the whole township on the highest plane of efficiency 139 FIFTY MILLION STRONG from the standpoint of health and sanitation; and an Infant Welfare Station. Attention has just been called to the several units that are to be found in Rural America, and emphasis has been placed on the fact that great results may be attained through their cooperation. Now a word might be said about the best method of cooperation. Here, again, no hard and fast rules can be given because conditions are so different in different sections of the country. But this rule might be said to have general application. Within each separate and distinct com- munity center there might be a clearing-house managed by the leaders representing all the activities and movements of a community character in the community. If, for example, a village were to establish a clearing-house, there would be every likelihood that the village would enjoy a symmetrical development, since all movements and activities would be given their true place in the life of the village and a vast amount of waste resulting through duplication of effort would be eliminated. Take the work of charity alone. There are, in every community, many organizations of a different character that engage in charitable work, with the result that some families receive too much, some receive too little, and a great deal of harm is done through indiscriminate giving. A clearing-house could take care of this work in a scientific manner and accomplish, at the same time, a great constructive work, which would in the end be the means of raising above the poverty level many who either temporarily or permanently have sunk below it, purely because of social conditions that might be eliminated. Then a clearing-house of clearing- houses would permit of much better work in the larger units. A clearing-house system worked out in a county would not only be the means of producing higher economic standards, but would result in the placing of the collective citizenship on higher levels intellectually and spiritually. Furthermore, a system of clearing-houses would be the best means in the world of taking advantage of the aid that from many sources is coming from the outside : the Federal Government, the ' |. state, great foundations and other organizations. RURAL COOPERATION The chief problem of the country is economic, and all other problems will yield to solution in proportion as this receives attention. " Prof. F. H. Giddings has said that if all the universities and all the pulpits and all the schools of this country should unite in one idea they wish the people to accept, it would not have the influence on them that the experience of getting their living has : in the last analysis the way we get our living shapes our characters and forms our beliefs. For this reason it is essential that, in studying the population, we should study first and with the greatest care the economic conditions that prevail." ^ The tendency of the past has been to consider the problems of the country separately, and one of the problems most neglected has been the economic problem. Unless each one is studied with special reference to the others, and particularly with special reference to those that are intimately related to it, little comparative progress can be made. Take the problem of education : A school district seldom advances more rapidly educationally than it does economically. The writer once made a study of two townships, one of which had a centrahzed school and the other of which did not have such an institution. In the former the standards of agri- culture were high, a majority of the farms presented a fine appearance, the roads were good, social life was above the average, the churches and Sunday-schools were well attended and in a flourishing condition and a get-together and work- together spirit seemed to characterize the fifteen hundred people of the township. Before the vote was taken to build the school, public sentiment favored a centralized school: the vote simply registered the wishes of the people. The same thing holds true with reference to the problem of the country church. A study of flourishing rural churches reveals the fact that one never finds such churches in back- ward districts. The best way to build up a flourishing church is to build up the country where the church is located. In 1 Anna B. Taft, " Community Study for Country Districts," p. 23. 141 FIFTY MILLION STRONG some cases results have been obtained in churches by getting together the people of the community and getting as much out of them as possible. But results of this kind are exceed- ingly transitory and a church that by this method is built up today may be down tomorrow. But a church that rises because the whole community has been placed on a higher plane agriculturally, socially, intellectually, spiritually, has made fundamental progress. So the leaders of the future in the country must be men broad enough to understand life in its entirety and to work primarily for the development of the community along all lines and secondarily fqr progress in the field that engages their special attention. The country wants no leaders that do not know something about all country work, and all about some country work, and are unable to correlate the activities of the ,country, giving every activity its proper place. A study of cooperative activities shows that much good comes from them. They tend to eliminate selfishness. If a man concerns himself solely with his own individual affairs, unconsciously selfishness gets such complete possession of him that he is almost incapable of unselfish effort. In mingling with men in all kinds of undertakings, some for profit and others for welfare purposes, he comes gradually to subordinate his own desires to the dictates of the majority. To the extent to which men in greater or lesser numbers can work together and achieve success through their united efforts, to that extent is the growth of selfishness in their natures retarded, since the highest achievements of cooperative effort presuppose the entire absence of selfishness. One of the finest evidences of the growth of civilization through the centuries is the fact of the gradual subsidence of selfishness in the individual and the gradual growth of the philanthropic spirit. During the mobilization of her army, just before her entrance into the great war, Italy found it necessary to ask many railroad men to work to the limit of human endurance, for which extra pay was promised; but, notwithstanding the 142 RURAL COOPERATION fact that the extra pay amounted to $600,000, not a cent was taken by the men, and their reason for not accepting the extra pay was expressed in these words : " We should feel ourselves humiliated if we were not willing to give our toil while others give their lives for their country." What a beautiful exhibition of unselfishness! And this unselfish- ness grew out of the cooperation of all Italians in making their nation ready for a part in the world war. Cooperation promotes patriotism. The trouble with many rural communities is that a majority of their residents lack rural loyalty. That this trouble can be corrected through entrance into cooperative activities for the benefit of the home community is evident from many instances. A case from Wright County, Iowa, will suffice. Several years ago the pupils of thirty-four schools in Wright County were asked what they wanted to do. One hundred and fifty- seven boys and one hundred and sixty-three girls said they wanted to leave the farm, and seven boys and eleven girls said they wanted to stay on the farm. Shortly afterwards, a number of movements were inaugurated with the purpose of interesting the young people in the things of the farm, and three years later, when a similar vote was taken in the same schools, only twelve boys and seventeen girls wanted to leave the farm and one hundred and sixty-two boys and one hundred and sixty-one girls wanted to stay on the farm.^ Love for the country can be developed in the country as easily as love for the city can be developed in the city, if the same opportunities are provided in Rural America for the development of rural loyalty as are found in Urban America for the development of urban loyalty. In this case the county superintendents gave the opportunities and the cooperative activities developed the patriotism. Whenever one finds a country community whose residents are filled with rural patriotism one finds a community that is on the highway of progress. 1 See Wallaces* Farmer. 143 FIFTY MILLION STRONG Cooperation stimulates fellowship. As congestion is one of the drawbacks of urban life, so isolation is one of the drawbacks of rural life. In one way isolation in the country has increased during the past few decades, since the older districts of Rural America show a gradual decrease in population because farms are growing larger and the improve- ments in farm machinery make it possible for fewer men to cultivate the farms of the nation. But coincidentally with the decrease in the population of many rural sections, numer- ous movements have come into existence that have resulted in a greater mingling of rural residents in all kinds of activities — business, social, intellectual, spiritual — than has been the case since the Golden Age of Homespun. This mingling means cooperation, and cooperation stimulates fel- lowship. How much finer this fellowship is, if it has a distinctly religious basis ! In Northern Michigan there is a church that is a bright and shining light in the rural field.^ The pastor of this church worked for sixteen years without realizing the wonderful opportunities for service that were right within his grasp. Finally, to use his own words, he got a vision, and since then he has greatly extended the boundaries of his parish and wonderfully increased the work of his church. The people of a large community area have been welded into a religious unit. What has resulted from the fact of the church having taken the initiative in the development of a more perfect cooperation? All movements of a community character have less of selfishness with which to contend than have similar movements in other rural sec- tions in which the church has either been unable or failed to assume the leadership. The most beautiful feature of this growing rural fellowship is that it has a place for all the people — adults, young people and children of both sexes. Thus, larger opportunity is given for the ripening of acquaintanceships into friendships and for the development of intimacies into love and marriage. 1 See H. S. Mills, " The Making of a Country Parish." 144 RURAL COOPERATION Cooperation discovers latent talent. The greatest resources of the nation are of a spiritual character. Rural America is rich beyond the dreams of avarice in talents of a high order, and let these talents be sought with the eagerness with which men seek gold, and let them under the direction of leader- ship be put through the refiner's fire, and they will emerge from the crucible pure gold. It was never meant that man should give the best strength of his life to the sordid activities of acquiring the valuable material things of earth, and yet all through the ages man has been sacrificing health and strength and honor and friendship and love, yea life itself, on the altar of temporal gain, while great stores of un- developed human riches, riches that are not temporal but eternal, are accessible to all. What a wonderful difference between the riches that have permanent significance and those that are temporal and perish with earth! The nugget of gold that the miner finds is almost as valuable as the gold eagle of the same weight. But the undeveloped talent is as naught compared with the same talent transformed into an efficient instrument, ready for service. Holden, the Corn King, loved everywhere in the Corn Belt and possibly as widely known today as any other living agriculturist, achieved his great reputation largely through his work in Iowa, where the corn yield of the state was increased several bushels per acre through his efforts in the matter of seed selection. Holden was a poor boy on a farm like thousands of other poor boys on farms, but his God-given talent was developed, and today not only Iowa but the whole nation is richer because of his developed talent. How tremendously more valuable is this developed talent that lay dormant in the mind of the barefoot boy on his father's farm a generation ago! " What the world needs is men who can do to agriculture and horticulture what Edison did to electricity, Carnegie to steel and Vanderbilt to transportation — develop its effi- ciency." ^ Today the talent to do these wonderful things lies ^ The Ohio Journal of Commerce. 145 FIFTY MILLION STRONG dormant, and the expectation of every optimist is that the cooperation of the next generation will discover some of this talent for the benefit of humanity. Cooperation develops symmetry. God gives to most persons at birth all the materials for the development of a symmetri- cal human being. The great trinity, body, mind and soul, is the inheritance of all. What do most people do with this ^reat inheritance? A study of human life reveals the fact of awful neglect and misuse. Only here and there does one see men and women who appreciate what God has given them and develop their threefold nature, thus showing the world what can be accomplished when the whole life is trained for efficiency. Most persons are one-sided. Here is a man with a magnificent physique, but with the mind and soul of an infant. Soon the body begins to show the marks of age and then the man is reduced to poverty, since the immortal part of him has been neglected. Here is another man with a marvelously developed intellect and a body that indicates that his whole life has been dedicated to the intellectual to the great detriment of the physical. The world admires intellect, but its admiration increases when intellect has not been built on the foundation of a weak body. Alexander Pope, the invalid, had a great intellect, but an " interrogation point " of a body. Sir Walter Scott had a great intellect and a strong body. Whom does the world admire the more? Again, a man may develop wonderfully his spiritual nature with little thought for a trained intellect and a well-kept body. No, it is the symmetrical man that the world admires most today, and it is the symmetrical man that is accomplish- ing the most in establishing the Kingdom here on earth. The earth's greatest asset is the child, and the one thing above everything else that appeals to the child is symmetry. It is the man or woman who is in perfect sympathy with the play life of childhood and who experiences with the child the wild joy of reveling in physical activity; the man or woman who can rise from the physical in easy man- ner to the mental and carry the child on the wings of 146 RURAL COOPERATION imagination to the uttermost parts of the earth, thus stimulat- ing the developing faculties of the child's intellect; the man or woman that can, by an appeal such as is possible only in natures of deep spirituality and perfect sincerity, get hold of the inner life of childhood and pave the way for a beau- tiful maturity of the higher powers — it is such a man or woman alone who can be the means of causing childhood to flower into the perfection of the symmetrical life. Cooperation increases respect for personality. The most sacred thing in all God's universe is human life, and yet how common is the custom of looking upon human beings simply as bundles of energy harnessed for profit, or as existences that contribute to physical or social gratification. Each per- son's life is sacred to himself, and just as he respects his own life, so should he respect the lives of others. This demands a literal application of the Golden Rule. Human intimacies that rise to the higher planes are a source of the supremest pleasure that life affords, but how bitter becomes the cup of joy if the lower voices prevail in social intercourse! There is an urgent need of greater respect for one another, and especially is a renaissance of respect of man for woman imperative. Civilization rises or falls with the regnancy or decline of this holy respect. All the civilizations that have perished, disintegrated because of the absence of respect on the part of man for woman. No civilization can rise higher than its respect for personalit}'. The following incident, related by Prof. J. A. Cramb, in his book, " England and Germany," is one of the most beautiful incidents of antiquity. " On the night before Alexander of Macedon started for the East on that career of conquest in which, like Achilles his great exemplar, he was to find his glory and an early death, he had a farewell interview with the man who had been his tutor, now the master of a rising school of thought in the shades of the Lyceum. And towards the end of the interview Aristotle said to the Macedonian: " ' You are about to start upon an enterprise which will bring you into many lands and amongst many nations, some 147 FIFTY MILLION STRONG already celebrated in arts and arms, some savage and unknown. But this last counsel I give you : Whithersoever your victories lead you, never forget that you are a Greek, and everywhere draw hard and fast the line that separates the Greek from the barbarian/ " * No,' answered the youthful conqueror — he was barely two-and-twenty — ' I will pursue another policy. I will make all men Hellenes. That shall be the purpose of my victories.' " Aristotle, the great philosopher, showed a supreme dis- regard for all peoples except the Greeks. Alexander, the world conqueror, cherished the ideal of raising all peoples to higher levels. Cooperation invites to service. In the field of cooperative activities many persons are found who dedicate a large por- tion of their time and all their strength to enterprises not established for profit but for welfare purposes. 'Examples of this sort are stimulating and arouse general emulation. Most people engage just as eagerly in a work that involves sacrifice of time, effort and money as they do in work whose one purpose is material gain. In fact, they do so with greater eagerness in all cases in which conditions are favorable, and the most favorable conditions are found where there are numerous examples of persons unselfishly giving the best there is in them for the benefit of all. A few years ago a certain rural church had a member whose name, because of his con- duct and lack of interest in all matters that pertained to the church, the pastor would have been justified in dropping from the rolls of the church. But the pastor felt there was some- thing in the fellow and believed he would yet make a strong working member of the church. And the belief of the pastor was justified, a complete transformation took place and the erring member became a tower of strength among the little group of workers. What contributed most to his change was the activities of the others with whom he came into constant contact. The psychologic effect of unselfish activity on the minds of the selfish often leads to great results. A good example of cooperation inviting to service is also found in the enlistment of millions of men for the Great War. 148 RURAL COOPERATION A study of world progress reveals the fact that cooperation is a COSMIC LAW, A DIVINE INJUNCTION. In the beginning there were electrons; these acting cooperatively produced atoms; these acting cooperatively produced molecules; these acting cooperatively produced protoplasts; these acting cooperatively produced, in the course of time, human beings. In human his- tory the cooperative bodies have been the family, the tribe, the clan and the nation. The next step will be a Federation of Nations. This is inevitable — it is the will of Omnipotence. Far back in the beginning, the individual toiled with his primitive hand tools in a dark and dusty corner. Those were the days of an almost infinite number of crude industrial units. Finally Genius produced a Machine. What was the result? A decrease in the number of industrial units and an increase in the number of individuals representing each unit. The beginning of the Age of Machinery marked the beginning of Cooperation in the Industrial World. From time to time the Machine was improved and with every improvement the industrial units decreased and the number of individuals in each unit increased. Finally, the larger units formed them- selves into Trusts. The first Trusts, which represented sim- ply a stage in Business Evolution, were selfish, and Humanity suffered. Today, however, it is recognized that Trusts are inevitable and that gradually they will prove to be infinitely better from the standpoint of human service than an innumer- able number of competing units. In due time there will be cooperating World Trusts to serve the billion and a half people of earth. 1 Jesus Christ came among men to give to the world the Ultimate Religion. From the time of Christ to the time of Luther and other great leaders, the Christian Church served the needs of the most civilized portion of humanity. But Luther, a world prophet, and his contemporaries, after a time realized that while humanity was advancing, the Christian Church was simply marking time. The result was a Great ^Several thoughts in the two preceding paragraphs taken from The Ohio Journal of commerce, January i, 191 6, p. 4. 149 FIFTY MILLION STRONG Reformation, which led to the establishment of a Church more in harmony with the spirit of human progress. But in the end the one Protestant Church was replaced by a great number of Protestant Churches, many of which differed simply in non-essentials. In the past generation, however, the many Protestant Churches have begun to disregard the things that separate them, which were given great emphasis years ago, and to direct their attention to the things on which they agree. This is a wonderful step in the direction of event- ual church union, which some of the prophets of the present day consider necessary before the evangelization of all the peoples and races of earth can be undertaken in deadly earnest. So in the religious world the next step will be church union, and the final step will be the whole world brought to the foot of the Cross. The New York Independent made the state- ment in a recent editorial that there is today a " world con- science." If this be true, then the future will see rapid prog- ress in the establishing of the K;ingdom among men. A study of world progress reveals the fact that cooperation is playing an increasingly important part in world develop- ment, and a study of world conditions warrants the con- clusion that America is likely to dominate world activities during the next generation. This fact and this conclusion being rather generally accepted, the future of humanity is in a measure dependent on the growth of the cooperative spirit in the United States. And since America can advance no more rapidly than the Rural Half of the nation progresses, the National Forward Movement, yea, the World Forward Move- ment rests with Rural America. This little book has sought to make clear that, in the preseni world crisis. Rural America will rise to the responsibility placed upon her and do her part toward making the next generation the greatest in all history. ISO INDEX Absentee landlordism, 60, 61 Alexander and Aristotle, 147 Ancestry, America's, 2 Anderson, Bishop W. F., ed., 123 Anderson, W. L., 45 Antrim, Saida B. & E. I., 33, 46 Aryan family, 2 Australia, land acts, 61 Banks, 57-59 Baseball, 127, 136 Blue sky laws, 64 Bonham, M. L., 113 Boy scouts, 27-28 Boys' and girls' club work, 56-57 Bruraback Library, 38, 139 Cabot, R. C, 19 Camp fire girls, 27-28 Candor, 11 5-1 16 Careers, rural, 105 Charlevoix, Michigan, 41 Chautauqua, rural, z'^ Cheese factories, Minnesota, 7o Church, rural, see Country cnurch Cities, 9-14 Clearing house, village, 140 Club work, boys' and girls', see boys' and girls' club work " Common things of earth," 102 Community centers, 31-32 Community spirit, 134-137 Condition, America's, 6 Cooperation, economic, 65-72; rural, 130-150; unit of, 138 Cooperative association, defined, 71 Country church, 75-82, 141 Country church conference, 19 15, TT, 80, 106 Country school, see Schools, Rural Country versus city, g-i8 County agricultural agent, 55-56 County fair, 30 County health agent, 83-86 County hospital, see Hospital, County; County libraries, 34-38, 138 County unit, 23-24, 138-139 Courage, 116-118 Cramb, J. A., 147 Creameries, Minnesota, 70 Credits, rural, see Rural credits Crosby, Ernest: ** So he died for his faith," 117 Delta, Colorado, 41 Demtonstration work, 56-57 Dietetics^ 92-93 Doughty, W. E., 4 " Drudgery divine," 10 1 Eaton County, Michigan, 41 Economic cooperation, see Cooper- ation, economic Economic problem, rural, 141 Edwards, Richard H., 19 Efficiency, in Rural America, 73-74 Eight week clubs, 44 Entertainment halls, rural, 29 Environment, America's, 3 Eugenics, in Rural America, 88-90 Extension work, 52-55 Fairness, 125-126 Faith, 1 18-120; America's, 7 Fello^yship, 144 Fertility, 14 Field, Jessie, 44, 112 Financial supremacy, 6 Fiske, G. W., 25, 90, no Foundations, to handle bequests, ^2 Germantown, Ohio, 42, 46 Germany, dietetics in Great War, Gray, R. L., 73 Greene County, Ohio, 41 Hamerton, Philip G., 19, 100 Health, 83-93; definition, 19; in the life of Christ, 21 Health agent, see County health agent Health days, 83-84 Hershey Chocolate Company, com- munity building, 32 Holden, the Corn King, 145 Home life, rural, 94-99 Home-owners, 17; Rural, 103-104 " Homespun age," 45, 132, 144 Hospital, County, 86-87, i39 Household service, 98-99 Humor, sense of, no- 112 Imagination, 11 2-1 13 Individualism, 131 Initiative and referendum, ^2 Iowa, County hospital law, 86 Ireland, land acts, 61 Isolation, in rural life, 144 Larcom, Lucy: " Common things of earth," 102 Leadership, rural, 108-129 Library, County, see County libraries Library, rural, 33-38; township, see Township libraries Life, America's, 4 Live stock shipping association, Minnesota, 71 Love, 94-99; definition, 19; ideal of Christtianity, 22 151 INDEX Machinery, Age of, 149 Mail-order house, 137 Marketing bureaus, 68-69 Marketing and farm credits, National Conference, 1915, 59, 60-62, 66-72 Marsh, George H., 87 Middle-man, 15 Mills, H. S-, 144 Minnesota, economic cooperation, 69-71 Monoma County, Iowa, 36 National Conference on Marketing and farm credits, see Marketing and farm credits. National Con- ference, 1915 Nations, eight great, 3 North Carolina, boys' work, 26; rural sanitation, 83-86 *' Nothing to do but work," iii Ohio, agricultural extension under Smith-Lever act, 54-55; pioneer in County library movement, 35; country churches, 80-82 Osborne, W. F., 119 Pearce, C. S., 19 Personality, 147 Philanthropy, 127 Play, in Rural America, 25-46; defi- nition, 19; in the life of Christ, 19 Play grounds, 26-27 Play parks, 29 Play picnics, 41 Politics, in Rural America, 72 Prayer, 122-123 Prohibition, 7; see also Temper- ance Public opinion, 128 Quick wit, 115 Race admixture, 11 Reading of country people, 46 Rest, definition, 19; in the life of Christ, 22; in Rural America, 100-102 Revivals, religious, 14 Roads, 64-65 Roberts, A, E., 45 Romance, in rural life, 106 Rural America, definition, 23; perils of, see Country versus city Rural church, see Country church Rural cooperation, see Cooperation, rural Rural counties, 24 Rural credits, 59-62 " Rural Juliet," 94 Rural life bureaus, 52 Rural sanitation, see Sanitation, rural Russell, G. W., 16 Sanitation, rural, 83-86 School buildings, 49 Schools, rural, 48-52 Schools, urban, 48-49 Self-control, 121-122 Service, 148 Sill, Juliet: "Drudgery divine," lOI Slogans, Missionary and Temper- ance, 7 Smith-Lever act^ 52-54 Social life, in Rural America, 45- 46 Spring Valley, Wisconsin, commu- nity building, 32 Stocks and bonds, 64 Stores, cooperative, Minnesota, 71 Sunday school picnics. County, 40 Surveys, 40 Symmetry, 146 Sympathy, 124-125 Tact, 113-114 Taft, Anna B., 45, 141 Tate, W. K., 50, 51, 52 Taxation, 62-64 Team work, 15, 136 Temperance, 91-92; see also Pr^ hibition Tenantry, 17 Teutonic nations, 2 Township cooperation, 139 Township libraries, 35-36 Training, America's, 5 Undeveloped regions, 3 Urban America, 10-14, 23 Urbanitis, 16 Van Wert County, Ohio, 139; pital, 87; Library, 38, 139 Villages, 135-138 Virility, 120 Wagner, Charles, 21 Wallace, Henry, 60 Will-power, 121-122 Windsor County, Vermont, 41 Winnebago County, Iowa, 31 .^j Winthrop Normal and Industrie College of South Carolina, 50 Work, definition, 19; in the life c Christ, 20; in Rural Americ; 47-74 Worship, definition, 19; in the Hi of Christ, 20; in Rural Americ; 75-82 Wright County, Iowa, 143 Young Men's Christian Associ; tion, 33, 127; rural, 38-4i County, 44, 139 Young Women's Christian Assoc ation, 33; rural, 38-44, 9' County, 44, 139 152 RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO— ► 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 : 3 4 5 ( b ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Rsnewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. 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