GIFT ^ The Rural Situation in the South and Its Needs ^vn »»^ w Published by the ExecutiTe Committee of the| CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH ** A. p. BOURLAND, Executive Secretary 508 McLACHLEN BUILDING WASHINGTON. D. C. <='6 ^ THE RURAL SITUATION AND ITS NEEDS THB GRAIN BELT. Country life in the South is cut up into distinct and conflicting divisions forming a disintegrating condi- tion. Two Divergent Races. — The following figures show a marked difference between the farming populations of the two great belts into which the States between the Potomac and the Mississippi are divided.^ How- ever, it is to be remembered that in portions of the grain area the negroes are numerous, while sections of the cotton States are largely white. THS GRAIN BELT. THK COTTON BELT. THE COTTON BELT. 503% OF THE FARMERS WHITE 49.7% BLACK Two Classes of Farmers. — In the Grain Belt the farmers who own and cultivate their lands are in the decided majority. The number of the tenants, how- ever, is large and constantly increasing. The negro farmers are almost entirely tenants ; hence the percent- age of owners in the Cotton Belt is small. (i) Data taken from an unpublished survey, including the States between the Potomac and the Mississippi Rivers (Florida excepted on account of divergent conditions), made in connection with the State Supervisors of Rural Schools in 1912. The Grain Belt: Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee. The Cotton Belt: South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- bama, Mississippi Two Classes of White Farmers. — Thirty oat of ererjr hundred white farmers in the Grain Belt, forty-four out of every hundred in the Cotton Belt are tenants A glance at the following figures suffices to show th» radical difference between the two bases for com- munity development : GRAIN BELT. COTTON BELT. "The white tenants of Georgia, with their families, make a population of 450,000, forty per cent of the total white rural population. In the South the white tenants, with their families, number two and a half million souls." — E. C. Branson. The white farmers who own and cultivate their lands are the main reliance for building up community institutions. In a community of 100 farmers we have approximately the following groups : Grain Belt. Cotton Belt. White owners 60 28 White tenants 25 22 Black farmers 15 50 TOO 100 GRAIN BfiLT. That there are marked contrasts between the differ- ent sections is shown in the following groupings in typical communities, the first being in the Alabama Cotton Belt, the second in the South Carolina Pied- mont section, the third in the Kentucky Blue Grass region. Cotton Belt. Piedmont. Blue Grass. White owners 8 36 68 White tenants 6 33 27 Black farmers 86 29 5 100 100 100 The relative divisions in these communities is seen in the following: COMMUNITY IN THE BlACK BELT, BuLLOCK CO., AlA. WHITE f COMMUNITY IN THE PlEDMONT SECTION, GrEENVILLB Co., S. C COTTON BELT. COMMUNITY IN THE WESTERN ValLEY ArSAS. THE TENANT A WEAKENING FACTOR He Wears the Soil Out. — Bound to one crop with a one-year lease, he cultivates for the biggest possible yield. He Wears Himself Out. — With one or two mules and inadequate implements, his farming is a ceaseless round of drudgery. After he pays the year's rent and his debts, there is nothing left over. So he is doomed to another and another roi;nd, until his native energy, together with that of his wife and children, is ex- hausted, all having drudged their lives out for scant subsistence. He Wears His Community Out. — In large areas 50 per cent of the white farmers are tenants. In places the number is larger. Something like 50 per cent of these tenants move every year. The shifting, shift- less, landless man fe?ls but a passing interest in his neighborhood ; he is not a real part of it, and so can be of but little help in its enterprises. The church gets only a slight hold on him; his children go to school only a few months in the year. Thus, unreached by cultural agencies, he and his family become weakening elements, wearing down the very basis of social life. Planning constructive undertakings, we must, on the average, subtract 36 from every group of 100 farmers, as the following table shows : Total Farms Per cent Farms Per cent No. of operated operated operated operated white by white by white by white by white farmers. owners. owners. tenants. tenants. Grain belt... 8-5,109 598,561 69.9 271,466 29.4 Cotton belt.. 510,207 280,795 55.6 226,071 43-7 1,385.316 879,356 62.8 497,537 36.6 THE FARM OWNER IS KEPT IN PRIMITIVE POWER The hope for community development is in the resi- dent white farmers who own their lands and homes. What means and inclination have they for the under- taking? Are conditions favorable? The Farmer Works Single-handed, getting no strength from joint action or combined effort and no support from community cultural agencies. He uses but little power. The average number of work ani- mals per farm in Georgia is 1.4. "In Iowa, where each farm worker produces $600.11 annually, exclusive of stock, nearly four horses per worker are used. In South Carolina, where each farm worker produces $144.46, one mule for two laborers is the average farm power." — Dr. S. A. Knapp, 1906. Low Productive Power. — Holding tenaciously to one crop, the average farmer cultivates this according to traditional methods, so that he has only a few bales of cotton or a few loads of grain or tobacco to sell at prices fixed without regard for his interests. After deducting the amounts spent for fertilizers and labor, the average income of the farming population of our States is $489.95. Taking out other farm and house- hold expenses, there is left but a meagre net profit In the cotton States the average owner, who cultivates 20 or 25 acres, gets 5 or 6 bales, which, with good prices, bring $200 to $300. Out of this he must pay from $150 to $200 for supplies used in growing the crop. He raises enough corn and meat to last about six months, so that in late winter he must again mort- gage his place and crop to get supplies for the coming year. In a study of the incomes of a group of Ohio farm- ers the Presbyterian Survey' shows that — One-fourth had a net loss. One-fourth had a net income of $100. One-fourth had a net income of $300. One-fourth had a net income of .$900. Low Per Capita Wealth. — "Upon the average the country dwellers of Georgia are worth $325 (white farmers, $426) apiece; in Wisconsin the average per capita wealth is $1,386; in the country at large, $994; in our States, $333.42. These figures do not represent cash, but farm properties of all sorts as they appear in the 1910 Census." — E. C. Branson. This means that the farmer and farm wife are drudging their lives out for scant subsistence, accumulating very little with which to build home, school, and church. The Farmer Personally Insulated. — His .whole life is a struggle against obstacles and adverse forces. The grass, the weeds, the insects, the burning Southern sun, the drought, and at times the rains are against him. The fight against these hardens tissues and brain cells, so that he toils unseeing amid the glories of field and sky. Forced to sell his hard-earned product at an impov- erishing price fixed by some far-off pitiless master, he feels the disappointment that comes from unrewarded toil and unfulfilled ambition. Brooding in his isolation, he becomes mistrustful, and falls into a defiant aloofness, emerging intensely and passionately personal. Without any bent toward cooperation, he works as an insulated unit in a neigh- borhood, unconscious of community possibilities. A COMMUNITY OF WHITE FARMERS AND ITS DETERMINING FACTORS In a typical Piedmont or upland community, where the farming population is largely white and land- owning, the influences that determine its character are separative in their tendencies. (i) Rural Life Surveys, Department of Church and Cotnrtry Life, Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Chureh, Warren H. Wilson, Director, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City, N. Y. . Social Groupings Separative. — Family interests, ilong with their animosities, often iS.2 477 54-5 28.6 Out of every 40 white children of scholastic age- (4) (3) (2) (I) 00000000000 00000000000 00000000000 00000000000 00000000000 0000000 00 O O 10 do not school. enter the 10 attend a part of the session. 20 attend the full term 00000000000 I °^ S 5 months. 00000000000 A number of County Supervisors estimate that only 23 per cent of the scholastic population of the com- munity attend the school for the full term, 44 per cent one-half the term, and 33 per cent one-fourth of the term. What Happens in the Average Neighborhood. — To the farmer the school is a house where he can send his children a few months each year to learn how to read, to write, and to cipher. The local trustees employ a young woman in her early twenties, without special training, who has taught two or three terms of 5.5 months, each year in a different place. Her salary is $42 per month. About 30 per cent of the pupils enter before Christmas. Then for two months the school is crowded. About 50 per cent of the children average out the entire term. With twenty to forty recitations a day, the teacher can give but about ten minutes to a class, so that each child will get from ten to twenty minutes' personal attention each day. The remainder of the time he is pinned to a torturing seat in the unsightly and un- wholesome room, killing time and soul in the struggle to memorize useless facts or to work out needless problems. What the School Actually Does. — Its aim is to force knowledge upon the mind. The child is required to call words mechanically, to learn rules by rote, to memorize facts in which he has no interest, and then to answer questions from a book, without any stimulus to real mental effort. "The native impulses, instincts, and interests are considered only to be suppressed." — ' L. C. Brogden. "This method inculcates the habit of accepting slo- gans and high-sounding phrases, instead of well-con- sidered principles. It makes the farmer easily the prey of the adroit demagogue." — W. K. Tate. With vacation extending from six to ten months, the children lose nearly all the ground they have gained, so that during their whole school life practically no in- tellectual progress impels them beyond the stage of the raw human. Possibly the only marked effect has been to make them dissatisfied with country life and unfit for its duties. "The schools, with their present course of study, have been our most efficient means for depopulating the rural districts." — T. S. Settle. The census data shows that this change is going on throughout the country. Those who stay on their places for periods varying from less than a year to four years are considered as migratory; those who remain five years or longer as permanent. Grain belt. . Cotton belt. Number of Migratory farmers. . 349.897 . 302,641 652,538 WHITE FARMERS. Number of Fermsnent farmers. 336,841 209,052 565,893 Percentage ot farmers migratory. 49.5% 59-1% 54-3% THE UNREST IN THE COUNTRY No Career in the Country. — The school expects the bright, successful student to seek a city life. It is al- ways a surprise when a college graduate "buries him- self in the country." There is no career there. Farm- ing holds no promise of fortune. Raw products, sold at imposed prices, can not create a surplus to finance industrial enterprises, to hold the profits of manufac- ture and distribution in the community. Then there are no growing cultural agencies, no ad- vancing moral and educational enterprises to enlist ambitious minds — no steps leading from the soil to distinction among men. Those who feel the stirrings for human power must turn to the city. No Holding Power in the Country. — The result is a deeply-moving unrest and dissatisfaction, especially among the young people on the farms, creating a changing, constantly unsettling condition. "Barely more than one-half of the farmers (in the country at large) occupy their farms as long as five years at a time. In the South, more than one-third of all our farmers move into and out of farm communities every year. . . . Some time ago we found a farm community in south Georgia in which three-fourths of the entire population were newcomers." — E. C. Bran- son. The following figure helps us to see what results from the unsettling of one-third of the farmers in a community every year : Out of every 100 Farmers 29 remain on same farm four years or more. 23 for two to four years. j8 for one year. less than a year. "The shifting populations account for the poor con- ditions of roads, bridges, and other public improve- ments, as well as for the lack of interest in schools, churches, and general community welfare." "Imagine the condition of the schools, the churches, and all other community affairs and institutions where transient populations swarm into and out of the com- munity year by year, like a plague of Kansas grass- hoppers. What abiding interest can these people have in the welfare or well-being of the community?" — E. C. Branson. Constantly Increasing Movement into the Towns. — The countryside is being depopulated slowly but surely. Between 1900 and 1910 the number of cities with 2,500 inhabitants and more increased from 227 to 293. In 1900 they contained 13.8 per cent of the total population. This increased to 18.3 per cent in 1910. The number of towns with less than 2,500 inhabit- ants increased from 1,875 to 2,526. In 1900 they con- tained 5.8 per cent of the total population. This in- creased to 8.6 per cent in 1910. Per cent of total population in rural territory. 1890. 1900. 1910. Per cent of increase between 1900 and 1910 Towns and Rural cities. territory. Grain belt. Cotton belt. . 80.8 77.7 71.7 84.4 81.0 74.8 40.0 9.3 43-3 10.5 The decreasing proportion of the people living in the country is seen in the following percentages : 8 83% RURAL 1890 Mi 73% RURAL 1910 B ^B PERCENT OF INCREASE WHAT MUST BE DONE? To open up a career in the country farming must be made a paying business, yielding opportunity for for- tune to satisfy the most ambitious. Farming must be made an interesting and educative calling, requiring experiment and investigation, mak- ing the farm both a laboratory and a productive plant. Farming must produce a vigorous race of men and women — a permanent rural citizenship for whom the country holds out opportunities to develop the human power to its utmost. HOW CAN FARMING BE MADE A PAYING BUSINESS? I. Modern Methods of Tillage and Management. — The first result must be an increased yield without in- crease of acreage or cost of production. This calls for an exact business system of farming, a program of diversification and rotation providing home-grown supplies amply and all the while building up the soil. Every year the Farm Demonstration Service shows how the earning power can be developed. Corn under demonstration methods : 1913. Average yield 35.9 bushels General average 20.2 bushels Cotton under demonstration methods : 1913. Average yield 1,004.9 pounds General average 546.0 pounds In 1906, Dr. S. A. Knapp estimated that there is a possible 800 per cent increase in the productive power of the farm laborers of the Southern States. II. Joint or Group Action : 1. To Improve Products. — The natural begin- ning is with small groups to specialize upon cer- tain products and bring these up to a high stand- ard. In a community one group can work with corn and grain, another with live stock, another with poultry, another with fruit, another with bee-keeping, another with trucking, and so on, covering the main agricultural possibilities of the region. Each will be a company of specialists: (i) To get all that is known regarding the culture of its product; (2) to make experiments, studies, and investigations. The productive body of a town is made up of classes of special workers: carpenters, brick- layers, plumbers, painters, and so on. So in the agricultural system we need corn-ers, wheat-ers, fruit-ers, peach-ers, truck-ers — men and women expert in particular production. 2. To Market Successfully. — Is it wise to in- crease production if the farmer can get only 45 cents of the dollar the consumer pays, and if the markets are even strongly influenced by men whose fortunes depend upon beating down prices? Is it not wise to bring about that co- operation between business men and farmers rec- ommended by the Louisville Conference to in- sure a fair return from products, so that the country community can accumulate the surplus necessary for its development? The thousands of successful marketing associations throughout the world prove that all this can be done through united effort. 3. To Develop Manufactures. — The mere growing and selling of raw products, however, cannot produce wealth ample for the full devel- opment of rural life. Wealth comes from turn- ing raw materials into commodities with high value. With skill the ten-cent pound of cotton can be turned into a dollar or more. All indus- trial progress is furthered by joint stock com- panies which bring capital together, employ skill, and amass fortunes. The co-operative creameries of the Northwest show that farmers can operate manufacturing plaats successfully. For the Southern farmer they are pointing the way to mills for making syrup and sugar, for knitting and weaving, and for industries to develop all our agricultural re- sources, creating an industrial temper along with skill, and thus opening up opportunities for a business career in the country. HOW CAN FARMING BE MADE AN INTEREST- ING AND EDUCATIVE CALLING? The average man in the cornfield is working merely to get something to eat. His real interests are in the little gratifications of the flesh. Joy in labor can come only when there is a great result ahead. Then the eyes open and the brain gets to work. 9 The most interesting thing in the world is a con- structive activity. A group working to improve the breed of corn, to increase its yield, has before it an in- viting end. As it goes along it gets insight into the processes of germination, nutrition, fertilization — the laws of plant development — and thus the workers feel the thrill that conies to the botanist from his investiga- tions. Such experiences give words a vital meaning to en- able the farmer to use bulletins and books effectively. As a rule it is difficult for him to get ideas from print and to make use of these in his work. Activity comes before thinking. When the farmer once feels the scientist's interest in soils, plants, and animals, and learns how to get at their secrets, tillage will be lifted from a drudgery to an educative calling. HOW CAN FARMING PRODUCE A VIGOROUS RACE OF MEN AND WOMEN— A PER- MANENT RURAL CITIZENSHIP? Vigor must be physical, mental, spiritual, and social. For these ends we have the home, the school, the church, and the community. THE FUNCTION OF THE HOME: The Home the Primal Nourishing Place. — It must therefore provide nutritious food and a sanitary en- vironment, along with the furnishings needed for the development of the vital physical functions. Labor- saving devices must be used to release the energies of the women on the farms. The Home Starts the Child upon its Cultural Career. — By awakening an interest in the plants, in- sects, birds, and animals around him, and by getting him to work out the relationship between these and his own life, then leading him through books to find his relationship with the world of humanity, the home, aided by the school, enables him to use the varying farm activities for the development of mental power throughout life. The Spiritual Life Quickened. — The air of comfort and neatness stimulating the sense of beauty; the in- fluence of music and literature, all made vital through the ideals of mother, father, and visitor, awaken the spirit and foster its growth. THE OFFICE OF THE SCHOOL: To Develop Intellectual Vigor. — The primary duty of the school is to train the sense-organs to get facts ; to develop the power to work these into conclusions. Clearly defined images are needed to give a basal con- tent to a large part of the vocabulary to enable the child to use books for its development. It thus brings the world's thought into his service. To Produce Human Efficiency. — Through ordered activities the school trains the child in investigation, maturing the skill needed for expression in wood work, in plant work, in painting, in music, and in thinking. To Work for Independence. — The farm has never thought. Others have done its thinking for it; hence it lies still in serfdom. Undeveloped intelligence means low production. We can never have a great State until we have a great farmer — one rooted in na- ture, growing up out of the eternal realities, thinking independently, and working out his own destiny. If we try to make the school do everything, it will do nothing. THE OFFICE OF THE CHURCH: To Develop Spiritual Power. — It is the special charge of the church to spiritualize the human with pure motives and impel him to righteous working. It fosters the virtues, bringing the spirit to its fruiting in love and truth. Its aim is integrity, the essential factor in every personality. To Perfect Human Relationships. — ^It is a primal duty of the church to give moral direction to all activi- ties and agencies in the community. It starts by re- vealing the miracle and meaning of life, making all feel its sanctity so mightily that each will reach out to perfect human relationships through loving kindness and co-operation. The apostle's injunction, "Bear ye one another's burdens," thus becomes the directing principle in the common life. Community Activities Imperative. — Traits and vir- tues are strengthened only through exercise. The church must therefore organize for community serv- ice, with definite aims and a definite program. Its ex- istence depends upon successful farming. Its inter- ests are furthered by good roads and other public utilities. Its own health is influenced by the sanitary conditions of the homes, by the recreations of the peo- ple, and by their general well-being. Furthering these activities, it trains its members in the redeeming human virtues and creates a life-giving atmosphere throughout its area. SCHOOL EDUCATIVE EXERCISES HOMEWORK ART&UTEWmia WOMANSCLUB EQUIPMENT HOUSEKEEPING PROGRAM CHURCH SOCMllNTERESrS RECREATIONS RIGHTEOUSNESS 10 The Service of the Community: In the actual sense at present a "community" does not exist. Our neighborhoods are made up of indi- viduals and families, without organic cohesion. Each is ,a social status wholly granular, and not fibrous. When once organized, however, it will be the funda- mental productive power. To Develop Organizing Ability. — Through its co- operative undertakings it will train the enterprising to combine men and means for the development of all the resources of the community. Through its cultural agencies it will train men and women in organizing for intellectual, artistic, and spiritual attainment. To Produce Social Power. — In his group activities the farmer naturally loses his aloofness, ceases to be a mere unit, and becomes a factor in community life. This prepares him for a worthy share in the affairs of the Commonwealth. The purpose of the community and its agencies : the farm, the home, the church, and the school center in the human. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT A CITIZEN'S TASK A Rural Social Unit. — The task of the age is to cre- ate a rural social unit, with industrial enterprises turn- ing raw products into finished forms, with cultural agencies and activities calling forth, developing intel- lectual and artistic capacities, producing a rural wealth, a rural thought, a rural art — a rural civiliza- tion. Increase of earning power is no gain unless the surplus can be converted into institutional life. A Citizen's Task. — The energies of a people can be united only through their own will. The effective ap- peal, therefore, must come from a source they respect. The starting point in every community is a strong man, or a group of strong men, who will get their neighbors together and enlist them for the common undertaking. "In our communities there are men and women who have thoughtful and serious ideas for the development of their neighborhoods, but who, by the inertia of their own habit and the drag of existing customs, are unable to initiate any effective enterprise for the good of the community." (Arkansas Survey, page 14.) Our first problem is how to break up this inertia and start the leaders upon their tasks. In communities throughout large areas the working basis is small, being confined to the 25 per cent of the white farmers who have a material surplus. Dividing lines, denominational and others, must be overcome, which calls for the most skillful leadership. Condi- tions similar to those expressed in the circle exist gen- erally. SECTAA}^ 'PR0F1T>-A^ The First Step.— The first thing to do is to get groups of farmers working together at different under- takings: One group to improve corn and increase its yield; another to develop the live-stock industry; an- other for poultry; others, possibly, for fruit, trucking, bee-keeping, and so on. The Small Group the Best Beginning. — As our peo- ple are accustomed to living and working in small social units — family, school, church — it is easier for them to become effective in small-group efforts than in large enterprises. Needs Must Be Felt. — Working seriously and sys- tematically at their problems, the group members come to feel the need of instruction, of a teacher, and of a school. Likewise, wrestling with problems of the home and the community, they come to the need for the church. The farmers must feel the need for cul- tural agencies, else they will have none. "We get what we want, but we must want it first," wrote a wise country woman to Mr. Brogden. The Outcome : A Community. — Out of the co-opera- tive undertakings an organized system will be grad- ually developed to take care of health, roads, home, school, church, and all other common interests. A. P. BOURLAND. Washington, D. C, October 16, 1914. II J RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO— ^^ 202 Mom Library LOAN OWOO 1 HOME USE 2 3 t 5 6 DUE AS STAMPED BROW MAJ 5G63I ) r^rf~'*^ ^^^A I^AO S m UMVBSITYOFCAiJKXMA. BBBCaEY FORM NO. D06. 60m, 12/80 BBBCELEY, CA 94720 OF