Rural Life"' 
 in Canada , 
 
 BBBHBamBOJRIBiaW'': n.o .i!^llfiratl0(?IBa0S5J 
 
 John MacDotsgall
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 I
 
 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA
 
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 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 ITS TREND AND TASKS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MacDOUGALL 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 James W. Robertson, C.M.G., D.Sc, LL.D. 
 
 Cbairman of the Royal Oommiition on Industrial Training 
 
 and Technical Education. 
 
 For Thr Board of Social Service and Evangelism 
 The Prrsbvtrrian Church in Canada 
 
 Toronto 
 THE WESTMINSTER COMF'ANY. LIMITED 
 
 1913
 
 Copyright, Canada, by the Board of Social Service and 
 
 Evangelism of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. 
 
 Published May, 1913
 
 M 
 
 T- 
 
 TO 
 
 MY WIFE. 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 HER MOTHER AND MINE. 
 
 AND TO 
 
 ALL THE NOBLE ARMY OF WOMEN 
 
 IN THE RURAL HOMES 
 
 OF CANADA. 
 
 Send my little book afield 
 
 Frontinir praise or blame. 
 V^ith the shininK flag and shield 
 
 Of your name." 
 
 — Lampman. 
 
 A 'Ji»4 '»«>c 1
 
 Here's to the land of the rock and the pine, 
 Here's to the land of the raft and the river, 
 
 Here's to the land where the sunbeams shine, 
 
 And the night that is bright with the north-light's quiver! 
 
 Here's to the land with its blanket of snow — 
 To the hero and hunter the welcomest pillow; 
 
 Here's to the land where the storm-winds blow 
 
 Three days ere the mountains can talk to the billow! 
 
 Here's to the land of the axe and the plow, 
 
 Here's to the hearties that give them their glory, — 
 
 With stroke upon stroke and with blow upon blow 
 The might of the forest has passed into story! 
 
 Here's to her hills of the moose and the deer. 
 Here's to her forests, her fields and her flowers. 
 
 Here's to her homes of unchangeable cheer, 
 
 And the maid 'neath the shade of her own native bowers! 
 
 Here's to the buckwheats that smoke on her board. 
 Here's to the maple that sweetens their story, 
 
 Here's to the scythe that we swing like a sword. 
 And here's to the fields where we gather our glory! 
 
 — William Wye Smith. '"'"
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This volume is the outcome of a request from the 
 Hoard of Social Service of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Canada to the writer to prepare a short course of lec- 
 tures dealing with the ])roblem of the Country Church, 
 for the Summer School at Geneva Park, on Lake Cou- 
 chiching. 
 
 I nder the direction of the Board the lectures wore 
 again delivered in the Presbyterian College, Halifax, 
 and in Knox College, Toronto. The seventh chapter 
 represents an additional lecture to the students of these 
 colleges. 
 
 In compliance with the desire of the Board the lec- 
 tures, in somewhat enlarged form, are now brought be- 
 fore the public. The manner of its production accounts 
 for the use of the direct address and other features in 
 the form of the volume. 
 
 Although the incidental illustrations have been drawn 
 from a local field, and the situation in Ontario is most 
 in evidence, and although one particular branch of the 
 ("hnrch is occasionally rclcrrcd to, the viewpoint of the 
 book is national. 
 
 The writer begs that the volume will be regarded by 
 no one as a treatise on its subject. It is put forth as 
 but a 8<*ries of individual impressions upon an inijior- 
 tant j>robIfni in national welfare. 
 
 SpENrEUvii.i.K, Ontahio^ 
 28th February, 1913.
 
 Where are the men of my heart's desire? 
 
 Of the British blood and the loyal names? 
 Some are north, at the home hearth-fire, 
 
 Where the hemlock glooms and the maple flames; 
 And some are tramping the old world round 
 For the pot of gold they have never found! 
 
 —Theodore Roberts.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 DKPI.KTION OK RTKAL POPULATION 19 
 
 The first, or physical dimension, numerical diminution 
 of population. The second dimension, social strain. 
 The third dimension, moral danger. Bearing of the 
 situation on the church. Relation of the church to 
 the problem. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Economic Causes of Depletion 57 
 
 Decay of village crafts. The modern industrial 
 system. Loss of village commerce. The revolution in 
 husbandry. Increased cost of living. Agricultural 
 base insufficient. Forestry and agriculture. The 
 crime of exploitation. Conservation of soil fertility 
 neglected. Unscientific husbandry. Lack of modern 
 business methods. Economic burdens. Lack of credit. 
 Uneconomic taxation. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Economic Solutions of tue Pboblem 95 
 
 Relative standing of the art of agriculture. All lands 
 to be put to their best use. Forestry. Orcharding. 
 The moral implicate. Conservation of fertility. The 
 ethical prerequisite. Adaptation of farm practice to 
 scientific methods of agriculture. The underlying per- 
 sonal problem. Adaptation of farm practice to methods 
 of modern business. Co-operation. Legislation requis- 
 ite. The moral difficulty underlying the economic one. 
 Rural credit systems. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Social Causes of Unbe.st 123 
 
 The problem fundamentally one of appreciation of life. 
 The conditions of labor unsatisfactory. The country 
 lacking In means of social life. Lacking In healthful 
 recreation. In means of education for country life. 
 Lack of appreciation of country values. In commun- 
 ity ideals. In the new(?r ethical Implications of reli- 
 gion
 
 10 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Page 
 The Function of the Chubch 151 
 
 Theology and sociology alike requisite. The establish- 
 ing of the Kingdom of God affords the requisite stand- 
 point. The course of the Providence of God and the 
 Spirit of God in the trend of the age bestows the 
 requisite insight wrhereby to discern her function. 
 Two factors in the founding of the Kingdom — the sal- 
 vation of souls and the redemption of society. Two 
 factors found in the trend of the age — social service 
 and preventive work. The church, how far institu- 
 tional? 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Country Church Programme 167 
 
 Executive oversight. The rural survey. Church union 
 or federation. Special preparation for the ministry. 
 Direct ministry of teaching. Utilization of established 
 agencies. Of new agencies. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 Students fob the Ministry and the Rural Problem - 203 
 
 Students to-day possessed of the spirit of social ser- 
 vice. Social science not sufSciently taught. An im- 
 perative call for such teaching. Equality in status in 
 rural ministry and urban. The country ministry a 
 call to strong men. The permanent rural pastorate. 
 Training for the country ministry. 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 Rural Uplift Elsewhere 227 
 
 The labors of John Frederick Oberlin. Rural recon- 
 struction in Denmark. Advance in Ireland through 
 co-operation. The rural life movement in the United 
 States. The challenge to the Christian Church.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Sheep Husbandry in British Columbia - - Frontispiece 
 Hastings County, Ontario, Losing 3,138 in Rural Popu- 
 lation in a Decade 17 
 
 In Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Losing 26.5 per cent, in 
 
 a Decade 27 
 
 In Prince Edward Island, a Township Losing 37 per cent. 
 
 in a Decade 37 
 
 Presbyterian Church, Spencerville 60 
 
 Church at Shanly, Ontario 61 
 
 Finest of Forest Land, Unfit for Husbandry - - - 73 
 
 Pasture on an Unoccupied Farm 81 
 
 Prize Field of Oats, 87 Bushels to the Acre. World's 
 
 Average, 28 97 
 
 Fruit Lands, Grimsby, Ontario 105 
 
 Loads of Grain from Equal Plots, with Clover and 
 
 Without 113 
 
 Hayfield on the Klondyke, Sub-Arctic .... 125 
 
 The Hired Man in the Home 130 
 
 Unnecessary Toil — Water from the Well - - - 130 
 
 The Country Child with Few Playmates, Few Games - 135 
 
 Schoolhouse in Edwardsburg, Ontario .... 139 
 
 A Flower-Loving Farmer, Indian Head .... 142 
 
 Homestead Garden, Indian Head, Sask. . . . . 142 
 
 Public School, Vineland, Lincoln County, Ontario - - 153 
 
 Macdonald Consolidated School, Guelph, Ontario - - 163 
 
 "Look Here, Upon this Picture, and on This " - - 178 
 
 The Country Needs a Vision of its Own Felicity - - 178 
 
 Rittenhouse School Gardens, Lincoln County. Ontario - 189 
 
 Rlttenhou.se School. Lincoln County, Ontario - - - 193 
 
 Macdougall Hall and St. Paul'H Church, Ormstown. Que. 195 
 
 Mormon School, Taylor Slake, Raymond, Alberta - - 199 
 
 Danlsti HomcBtead 232 
 
 DanlHti Farmyard 232
 
 O London holds the hearts of men, 
 
 And London's paved with gold; 
 But ah, to hear the lark again. 
 
 And see the buds unfold! 
 
 London stole my youth away 
 The while she gave me bread; 
 
 She killed my soul from day to day, 
 And gave me gold instead. 
 
 But in the twilight cold and gray. 
 Above the city's voice 
 
 1 hear the mowers mow the hay, 
 I hear the birds rejoice. 
 
 A. Middleton, "Exile. 
 
 i
 
 LNTRODUCTION 
 
 We are just begiuuiug to realize that our vast areas 
 of good lauds could aud should carry happy homes 
 for millions more people and not have them huddled 
 into big towns where the children cannot play. How 
 stupid the people are who are rich and strong and do 
 not give the children a chance ! Inexpressibly stupid, 
 no matter how they may pride themselves on motor 
 cars and big ships and fine buildings, if the chil- 
 dren of the poor as well as the rich have no chance to 
 play on the grass and pick flowers and drink in the 
 enriching vigor of good air. Such people do not match 
 our land. 'Flicv are like a degenerate, of an old ances- 
 tral stock, that was once strong before luxury and 
 self-indulgence and all kinds of libertine behavior made 
 him a despicable thing. As I have gone over this con- 
 tinent I have wondered when the man shall arise who 
 will say. " The J^ord expects that these plains and moun- 
 tains and forests and orchards will be occupied by 
 pcf)ple to reflect His image and match the setting of 
 their homes." 
 
 Let us consider the con.servation of the resources of 
 the land ; not only to grow big crops, to increase the 
 exports and make the balances of trade stand out with 
 startling figures, but to have a better boy, to have a 
 more U-autifiil girl, that the next generation for whom 
 we an- trustees should still more reflect back the 
 grandeur of human life and have a fair chance to give 
 
 l.i
 
 14 INTKODUCTION 
 
 expression to it through the wise use of our natural 
 resources. Farming is gathering sunshine, forging 
 wealth out of chaos, — gathering and humanizing into 
 wealth for the service of the race the great unused 
 powers of nature. It is one of the great fundamental 
 occupations, and therefore the interests of the men who 
 follow it are worth conserving. We have laid out our 
 school system — that is, our rural public schools that we 
 boast so much about — to train a boy to read and write 
 and figure as the essential means of conserving and 
 training for use his God-given powers and obligations 
 to gather sunshine. Maybe the preparation does not 
 qualify for the job, and the boy goes to town where he 
 will find some job to suit his training. 
 
 Why has the Young Men's Christian Association gone 
 on faster and more widely than some other organiza- 
 tions ? It is not attempting to save men's souls apart 
 from their bodies; it is not attempting to help men by 
 appealing to their intellect only. By inclusion of the 
 body, mind and spirit, with training for his occupation, 
 the whole man may be saved into faith in a Christ who, 
 as the perfect example, was Himself trained that way. 
 
 And when we men who are responsible have done 
 these things then we shall still be unprofitable servants ; 
 because no man can achieve more than a fraction of the 
 service that will pay for what he came into, all unearned 
 by his own labor or life. I wish the churches out in 
 the rural districts ever-abounding success in making 
 these things known to the youth — God's partner in 
 the new earth ; that it is worth while to be consciously 
 a partner in the oare of old Mother Earth, as a home 
 for the race, bearing fine crops, with weeds suppressed, 
 diseases and vile things under the restraining control
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 of intelligent, educated man. and Earth herself becoming 
 more beautiful and fertile ; that, when he is far enough 
 on to see and hope for the new heaven and the new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, he has no real 
 gain from the vision unless he takes his part in making 
 the earth new and righteous where he lives; and that 
 he best gives expression to his life, as one of the part- 
 ners, who helps to reveal and reflect God through his 
 labor and his love. 
 
 James W. Robertson.
 
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 DEPLETION OF RURAL 
 POPULATION
 
 How tame now seems to me this herdsman life, 
 
 Unprofitable too; naught do I here, — 
 
 Naught that can serve good purpose. Why then stay? 
 
 Others could tend these herds as well as I, 
 
 And haply better, for my thoughts are far 
 
 From meads and kine and all the servile round 
 
 Of household duties, the same from year to year, 
 
 Far from the rural dull routine. . 
 
 — Charles Heavysege, " Saul."
 
 Rural Life in Canada 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Depletion of Rural Population. 
 
 '' The Poetic Genius of ray country found me — as 
 the prophetic bard Elijah did Elisha — at the plough, 
 and threw her inspiring mantle over me. She bade 
 me sing the loves, the joys, the rural scenes and plea- 
 sures of my native soil in my native ton£:ue: I tuned 
 my wild artless notes as she inspired." So wrote 
 Robert Burns. That he was bred to the plow gave 
 Burns his knowledge of rural life; his genius gave 
 him insight into its significance. And thus in the 
 poem which made the Plowman's fame, and in its most 
 impassioned part, the patriot-poet prays: 
 
 O Scotia, my dear, my native soil! 
 
 For whom my warmest wish to Heaven Is sent, 
 
 Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil 
 
 Be blest with health and peace and sweet content. 
 
 And oh! may Heaven their simple lives prevent 
 
 From luxury's contagion, weak and vile. 
 
 Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, 
 
 A virtuous populace may rise the while. 
 
 And stand, a wall of fire, around their much-loved Isle! 
 
 The welfare of this " wall <»f fire " is fjindainciital in 
 national well-being. 
 
 " Agriculture," says that keen-visioned watchman on 
 
 10
 
 20 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 the towers, Dr. James W. Robertson, in a masterly plea 
 for the conservation of our agricultural resources, " is 
 not only an occupation which some individuals follow 
 for profit: it is a great national interest determining 
 in a dominant way the fortunes of this nation and the 
 opportunities and the character of the population. So, 
 while the improving of Canadian agriculture primarily 
 concerns the farmer and his family, it affects the status 
 of Canada, its outlook and its destiny."* Any wide- 
 spread movement or persistent tendency which affects 
 the status of the rural population is therefore a matter 
 of concern to all, whether dwelling in city or in 
 country, who have at heart the national welfare, 
 and consequently sets a task for the Home, the School, 
 the State, and the Church. Such a problem is given 
 by the changing relations of city and country life. The 
 rapid growth of urban population in comparison with 
 rural is a phenomenon so pronounced, so widespread, 
 and so persistent as to arrest universal attention. 
 
 The report of the Board of Social Service presented 
 to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Canada in 1911 called that church's attention with 
 emphatic force to the problem of the city. That report 
 was an outcome of a two years' study of the situation — 
 a study not only of the down-town problem, but of the 
 up-town problem as well; not only of the congested 
 centre, but also of the suburb. It stated in terse terms 
 that the problem exists ; asserted that in Canada it is 
 just emerging as one of the most urgent of national 
 questions; and claimed that it is the problem of the 
 twentieth century. A fuller study of the situation 
 
 * Commission of Conservation, Canada, III, p. 89.
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 21 
 
 reveals that we have as vital and as urgent, a problem 
 of the country as of the city. It is the counterpart and 
 correlative of the city problem. And though its moral 
 outcrop is not so immediately obvious as in the case of 
 the city, it is in its ultimate issues the more funda- 
 mental of the two. 
 
 We shall consider in our first chapter the depletion 
 of rural life in three of its dimensions, physical, social, 
 and moral, as seen in the numerical decline in popula- 
 tion, the social strain upon the home and all the insti- 
 tutions of society, and the moral dangers incident to the 
 situation. 
 
 The first or physical dimension, numerical decrease, 
 is found throughout large districts of country. Let us 
 glance first at some local illustrations. 
 
 Within a recent seven-year period seventy-six young 
 persons left my pastoral charge for the cities or the 
 West. A good proportion were from among our best 
 church workers. They were not lost to the cause. 
 One, for instance, trained in Christian work in the 
 Young People's Guild at Spencerville, was the means 
 of founding two congregations at Francis and its vicin- 
 ity, in Saskatchewan. They were not lost to the cause, 
 but what did their removal not mean to the church in 
 Spencerville ? 
 
 Some few years ago a young Spencerville farmer said 
 to me, '' When my father bought out the land we are 
 now working he displaced thirty-<Mght jx-rsons. We are 
 four, with four constant hired help." The change has 
 meant no economic loss. Whih; wo were conversing 
 he was on his way to ^fontreal in charge of two carloads 
 of stall-fed cattle for the British nuirket, all from his 
 father's barns. Farming had improved under con- 
 
 7 
 
 y
 
 22 EUKAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 solidation, but what of the social loss where eight per- 
 sons replaced thirty-eight? 
 
 There is one school district within the bounds of my 
 congregation where for four years past there have been 
 but three children on the roll, and for three months of 
 the last school year but one pupil was in attendance. 
 Yet the school registers of forty years ago show an 
 average attendance of forty-five pupils. What is the 
 social significance of this fact? 
 
 Spencerville, a hamlet of two hundred inhabitants, 
 is situated on the ISTation River between two con- 
 cession roads. On the nearer of these concessions, 
 right over against the village, are seven consecu- 
 tive farms, once occupied, now without an occupant. 
 What is the sociological bearing of this circumstance? 
 
 These incidents of the situation — these indications 
 of a process of change — might be duplicated with varia- 
 tion in form or degree from the experience of every 
 observer. They are evidences of a universal tendency, 
 a world-movement. Population the world over is mass- 
 ing itself in cities. Cities are becoming congested, the 
 country depleted. 
 
 Canada during the last decennial census period 
 increased in population by 1,833,523, yet her rural 
 growth was only 574,878, while her urban expansion 
 was 1,258,645. She added 34.13 per cent, to her total 
 population during the decade, but only 17.16 to her 
 people in the country, though 62.25 to those in town 
 and city. We are apt to think of the prairies as purely 
 agricultural regions, yet Saskatchewan, adding 389 per 
 cent, to her rural population, added 648 per cent, to her 
 urban population ; and Alberta, increasing by 344 per 
 cent, in rural growth, increased by 588 per cent, in 
 urban growth.
 
 EURAL DEPLETION 23 
 
 British Columbia gained 100,318 in rural, but 113,505 
 in urban, population in the decade. Manitoba, rich in 
 still unoccupied land, won 70,511 for her farms and 
 hamlets, but 129,892 for her villages, towns and cities. 
 Quebec, although so largely agricultural, gained 39,951 
 in country population while advancing by 313,863 in 
 city growth. 
 
 Our country people formed, when the previous census 
 was taken in 1901, 62.4 per cent, of the total popula- 
 tion; when the recent one was taken in 1911 thev had 
 fallen to 54.4 per cent. Our city population, 37.6 in 
 1901, had grown to 45.6 in 1911. 
 
 The proportion of rural to total population has fallen 
 in every Province during the decade ; in Prince Edward 
 Island from 85 per cent, to 84 ; in Saskatchewan from 
 80 to 73 per cent. ; in New Brunswick from 76 per 
 cent, to 71 ; in ^Manitoba from 72 to 56 per cent. ; from 
 71 per cent, to 62 in Nova Scotia and in Alberta; from 
 60 to 51 per cent, in Quebec; in Ontario from 57 per 
 cent, to 47; and in British Columbia from 49 to 48 
 per cent. 
 
 But it is not from relative increase merely, of city 
 as compared with country, that the grave niial situa; 
 tion arises. Our addition of 34 per cent, in a decade 
 does indeed present serious problems of several kinds, 
 in evangelization, in assimilation, and even in trans- 
 portation. But it does not give rise to the rural prob- 
 lem. Nor does the fact that we added 62 per cent, to 
 the city and but 17 to the country population reveal the 
 real heart of the problem. The country's loss is not 
 relative merely, but absolute. Tlu* question is not one 
 of slackened growth, but of waste; begun. Tlu; country 
 is not simply falling bc^jiin.l in llic u[)\var(l race; she
 
 24 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 is not even standing still ; she is slipping downhill again 
 and knows not how to stay her course. 
 
 We did not complete our survey of the Provinces a 
 moment ago. We ceased with Quebec, whose gain as 
 there given in figures we now notice was equal to 4 per 
 cent, in her rural parishes, but 48 per cent, in her indus- 
 trial centres. We have yet to consider that while New 
 Brunswick had an accession of 22,262 to the inhabi- 
 tants of her cities she suffered a diminution of 1,493 in 
 her residents in the country; while Prince Edward 
 Island towns simply maintained their ground, her 
 townships fell back by some 9,546 ; while Nova Scotia's 
 cities gained to the extent of 56,745 her farming dis- 
 tricts lost by some 23,981 ; and that Ontario, adding 
 392,511 inhabitants to her cities and towns, parted with 
 52,184 from her rural homes. 
 
 Let us look more particularly at Ontario's loss. 
 Grenville, the county in which Spencerville is situated, 
 had 21,021 people in 1901; now it has 17,545. Stor- 
 mont numbered 27,042 a decade ago, but to-day 24,775. 
 North Lanark by the previous census was credited with 
 17,236, by the recent one with 14,624. Frontenac, 
 having then 24,746, now numbers 21,944. Lennox and 
 Addington eleven years ago were given 23,346, one year 
 ago 20,386. East Hastings, from 27,943 had fallen 
 off to 24,978. Lambton East from 26,219 had dwin- 
 dled to 22,223 ; North Bruce from 27,424 had dimin- 
 ished to 23,783. 
 
 Looking at other counties from another angle, we find 
 that North Wellington lost 14.6 per cent, in the decade ; 
 East Huron decreased 15.2 per cent, during the ten 
 years; Dufferin's population diminished by 15.6 in the 
 same period; North Middlesex fell away by 16.3;
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 25 
 
 Grenville partod with 16.6 per cent, of her people, but 
 was outclassed by South Bruce with a loss of 16.9 per 
 cent. These three last-named counties saw just one- 
 sixth of their population leave their bounds within the 
 ten-year period. 
 
 But the loss is heavier still. These figures are for 
 counties. The statistics for the counties include those 
 for the towns. Xow, with some few exceptions, such 
 as Deseronto, with a loss of 42.9 per cent., Graven- 
 hurst, of 24.3, or Almonte, of 18.9, the towns are holding 
 their own. Consequently the percentage of loss is still 
 higher for the townships than for the counties. Let us 
 look at a few illustrative examples. Grenville lost 16.6 
 per cent., but her rural loss was 18.6 per cent., and the 
 township of Edwardsburg, of which Spencerville is the 
 centre, lost 21 per cent. The apparent loss in South 
 Bruce is 16.9 per cent. ; the real rural loss 19.3 per 
 cent., and the actual loss in Kinloss township 23 per 
 cent. The census informs us that Dufferin was a loser 
 by 15.6 pr-r cent. ; the rural exodus was 18.5 ; but Gara- 
 fraxa decreased 24 per cent. In North Bruce the rural 
 loss was 18.2 per cent.; in East Grey and in East 
 Lambton 18.9 per cent; in South Grey 20.4 per cent., 
 and in West Elgin 21.6 per cent. But what shall we 
 say of such a case as that of North Grey, whose rural 
 loss was 21.9 per cent, while her total gain was 7.8 per 
 cent. ; whose townships of Kcppel and Sarawak decreased 
 by 34.3 and 48 per cent., while her urban population, in 
 the towns of Owen Sound and ^feaford and the village 
 of Shallow Lake, increased by 48.5 per cent. < Or of 
 Peterborough West, adding 20 per cent to the total 
 popiilation, and 29 per cent, to her city of Peterborough, 
 but losing 51.5 per cent, from her township of Galway '(
 
 26 EUKAL LIFE IN CAl^ADA 
 
 When the situation in Ontario is thoroughly can- 
 vassed we find that of the 526 townships in Ontario, 
 exclusive of the immigration area — Algoma, IS'ipissing, 
 Thunder Bay, and Kainy River — ^there has been a 
 decrease of population in 423; and that of the 75 
 census districts containing rural as well as urban popu- 
 lation, 60 suffered decrease in their rural population. 
 If, again, we except the five districts in the New North, 
 we find that in ten districts only is there growth of 
 rural population. 
 
 We may perhaps realize the contrast more vividly 
 still by placing rural loss over against urban gain in 
 certain counties. Carlton lost 2,561 in rural population 
 and gained 6,587 in urban; in Elgin the respective loss 
 and gain were 3,302 and 4,128 ; in Grey, 10,782 and 
 7,083 ; in Haldimand 1,139 and 1,468 ; in West Hast- 
 ings, 1,586 and 1,063 ; in Kent, 2,701 and 1,502. West 
 Lambton's rural loss of 2,594 stands over against an 
 urban gain of 1,980; South Lanark's loss of 1,460 over 
 against a gain of 1,215. Leeds suffered a rural loss of 
 2,150, but with an offset in urban gain of 1,118 ; On- 
 tario — the county of that name — met with a rural loss 
 of 2,091, but had an urban increase of 2,689 ; in Parry 
 Sound the respective loss and gain were 1,970 and 
 3,581; in Perth, 3,792 and 3,013; in Renfrew, 2,724 
 and 1,961. Russell lost 1,204 in rural population ; Wel- 
 lington, 4,189 ; and Simcoe, 5,431 while gaining respec- 
 tively 5,472, 3,035, and 5,472 in urban growth. 
 
 The census summary informs us that the rural 
 decrease in Ontario is 52,184. This is 4.19 per cent. 
 But the rural gain in the five new districts is 44,940. 
 Therefore the rural loss in Old Ontario was 97,124, or 
 8.36 per cent. And the rural gain in the ten growing
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 27 
 
 districts was 12,545. Therefore the rural loss in the 
 sixty waning census districts is 109,669, or 10.82 per 
 cent 
 
 Yet Ontario, with a net increase of 1.5 per cent, 
 per annum through the excess of births over deaths, 
 would have gained 200,183 in rural population in the 
 decade. Moreover, fully 40-4,000 immigrants gave, at 
 the ports of entry, Ontario as their destination, and of 
 these fully 30 per cent, gave farming as their occupa- 
 tion. From this additional source the Province received 
 an increase of rural population amounting to 121,200, 
 without considering natural increase. The migration 
 from her farms therefore amounts not to 52,184, but 
 373,567. 
 
 Xova Scotia's loss of 23,981 amounts to 7 per cent; 
 and the decrease is found in every district except two ; 
 in these the rural growth amounts to only seven-tenths 
 of one per cent. In several counties the decline is 
 severe; Colchester, 10.5 per cent; Inverness, 11.9; 
 Shelburne and Queen's, 14.8 ; North Cape Breton and 
 Victoria, 15.8; Pictou, 26.6. The urban growth in 
 Pictou, on the other hand, is 72 per cent Severe as 
 is this loss sustained by the counties, the townships in 
 this case again alone reveal the real facts. The coun- 
 ties might be taken in almost unbroken succession to 
 exhibit cases of severe declension in special townships. 
 Advocate in Cumborhuid, for instance, loses 40 per 
 cent 
 
 In Prince Edward Island the diminution amounts to 
 10.8 per cent, and is general throughout the Island. In 
 parts it is 8*,*vere. In King's County, for instance, 
 Township No. 40 loses 36 per cent. ; in Queen's County, 
 Township No. 20 loses 37 per cent.
 
 28 KUKAL LIFE IN CAI^ADA 
 
 In New Brunswick, because of expansion into new 
 areas the loss is slighter, yet even here there is a loss 
 in more than half the counties. In Westmoreland the 
 falling off is 13 per cent. ; in Charlotte, 13 ; in King's 
 and Albert, 17. The loss in townships is startling. 
 Hampton, in King's, loses 40 per cent. ; Hillsborough, 
 in Albert, 41 ; Sussex, in King's, 45 ; Madawaska and 
 St. Francis, in Victoria, 47 and 53 respectively. 
 
 In Quebec, though there is a rural gain amounting 
 over the whole Province to 4 per cent., yet there is a 
 shrinkage in twenty-seven counties; in some severe: 
 Montmorency, for instance, meets with a loss of 11.7 
 per cent ; Chambly and Vercheres, 11.9 ; Yamaska, 
 12 ; Richelieu, 20.2 ; and Laval, 23.7 per cent. 
 
 The contrast between rural loss and urban gain in 
 certain counties is as vivid in other Provinces as in the 
 case of Ontario. King's County, Prince Edward Island, 
 lost 3,178 in rural population while gaining 1,089 in 
 urban. In Nova Scotia the respective loss and gain 
 were: in Cape Breton, South, 1,173 and 19,438; in 
 Cumberland, 1,713 and 6,088; in Inverness 2,630 and 
 3,848; in Pictou, 5,885 and 8,284; in Shelburne and 
 Queen's, 3,329 and 3,112 ; and in Yarmouth, 1,211 and 
 1,562. Charlotte, in New Brunswick, lost 2,999 in 
 rural population and gained 1,713 in urban, while in 
 King's and Albert the loss and gain were 5,666 and 
 3,371, and in Westmoreland, 4,319 and 6,880. 
 
 In Manitoba the receding of the tide has just set 
 in. Lisgar records a loss of 7.5 per cent. ; a score of 
 districts show recession. Were it not for expansion 
 over new territory towards the north, the whole Pro- 
 vince would show decline in rural population.
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 29 
 
 Assuming that the natural increase of population is 
 1.5 per cent, per annum, the rural population of the 
 Dominion in 1901, 3,349,516, should have increased 
 by 547.878 before the census was taken in 1911. Of 
 the 1,715,326 immigrants who came to Canada during 
 the decade, approximately one-third at the ports of 
 entry gave farming as their occupation. These, with 
 the same annual rate of increase, give a further aug- 
 ment of 670.258. The rural population thus received 
 an accretion of 1,218,136. The actual growth was 
 574,878. Therefore 643,258 persons left our country 
 districts during the decade. That all of these are not 
 found in our Canadian cities does not alter the facts 
 of the case. 
 
 On soft Pacific slopes, — beside 
 
 Strange floods that northward rave and fall — 
 Where chafes Acadia's chainless tide, 
 
 Thy sons await thy call. 
 They wait; but some In exile — some 
 With strangers housed, in stranger lands * 
 
 Winnipeg is not the third Canadian city, if we count » 
 by Canadian-born population ; Boston is ; 200,000 of ^ 
 her people are Canadian. There are several New Eng- 
 land cities with a majority of their population Cana- 
 dian born. When the figures of the Census Bureau 
 were published a year ago, men asked in perplexity, 
 "Where is the other million?" The Canadian nurses 
 serving in American hospitals might be given as the 
 first count in the answer. Canada sd about making 
 of herself a good place for manufacturers, and suc- 
 ceeded, bnt at the cost of becoming a less desirable 
 
 •Charles G. D. Roberts, " In Divers Tonos."
 
 30 RUKAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 place for farmers. Her manufacturers would in due 
 time have arisen, because of her advantages, and v^ould 
 have been in an immensely stronger position eventuall;;^ 
 with a broader agricultural base. 
 
 Such is the record for a single decade. We must 
 not, because of space, go into similar detail in regard to 
 earlier periods. We should expect to find that in each 
 decade the proportion of rural population grew less, 
 and such is the case. We note the preceding one only. 
 Between 1891 and 1901 the rural population of Prince 
 Edward Island fell from 8Y per cent, to 85 ; of l^ew 
 Brunswick, from 84 to 76 ; of JSTova Scotia, from 82 to 
 71 ; of Manitoba, from 73 to 72 ; of Quebec, from 66 to 
 60; of Ontario, from 61 to 57, and of British Columbia, 
 from 62 to 49 ; while throughout the Dominion the fall 
 was from 72.3 per cent, to 62.4. 
 
 But the comparative rate of growth of the two sec- 
 tions of the population for the decade 1891-1901 is a 
 fresh surprise. In Manitoba the tendency is least ad- 
 vanced ; the rural gain was 65 per cent., while the urban 
 was 71 ; in British Columbia it is much more marked, 
 rural gain being 37 per cent, and urban 142 ; while in 
 Quebec the rural gain was 0.39 per cent, and the urban 
 31. In Prince Edward Island a rural loss of 5.8 per 
 cent, stands beside an urban gain of 4.7 ; in 'New Bruns- 
 wick, a loss of 6.7 beside a gain of 36.7 ; in !N^ova Scotia, 
 a loss of 11 per cent, beside a gain of 40 ; and in Ontario, 
 a rural loss of 3.73 beside an urban gain of 12.49 ; while 
 through all Canada a rural increase of 53,375 is offset 
 by an urban increase of 484,701, or a gain of 1.01 per 
 cent, in rural by a gain of 31.53 in urban population. 
 But even yet we are scarcely prepared to find that in 
 New Brunswick there was an actual decline in rural
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 31 
 
 population in 84 per cent of the census districts; in 
 Nova Scotia of 95 per cent. ; in Ontario, exclusive of 
 the immigration areas in newly opened territory in 
 Algoma, Muskoka and Nipissiug, of 98 per cent., and 
 in Prince Edward Island of 100 per cent. Let us pre- 
 sent a few outstanding examples of retrogi-ession cover- 
 ing longer periods, such as Durham East, with a total 
 population, including the town of Port Hope, of 19,064 
 in 1871, of 18,710 in 1881, of 17,053 in 1891, of 
 14,464 in 1901, and of 14,301 in 1911 ; Durham West, 
 including such a town as Bowmanville, with a total 
 population for those decades respectively of 18,316, 
 17,555, 15,374, 13,106, and 12,112; of Frontenac, as 
 formerly constituted — in all these comparative state- 
 ments we are careful to include strictly the same terri- 
 tory—with 16,310, 14,993, 13,445, 12,008, and 11,044 ; 
 or Lanark Xorth, though such a town as Almonte is 
 included, with 19,899, 19,855, 19,260, 18,180, and 
 15,456; or Lennox, 16,396, 16,314, 14,900, 13,421, and 
 12,023; Northumberland West, 17,328, 16,948, 14,947, 
 13,055, and 12,965; or finally, Perth South, with 
 22,715, 21,608, 19,400, 17,861, and 16,038. Did con- 
 siderations of space not forbid we should wish to add 
 detailed examples of retrogression in the case of town- 
 ships covering the same period, inasmuch as the per- 
 centage of loss would be much more striking; for ex- 
 ample, the township of Chinguacousy in the county of 
 Peel has this record — we go back ten years further — 
 in 1861, 6,897; 1871, 6,129; 1881, 5,467; 1891, 4,794; 
 1901, 4,177; and 1911, 3,913; a loss of 46 per cent, in 
 fifty years. An impressive array of similar histories 
 might be given. We close with one additional presenta- 
 tion of these momentous facts. The rural population
 
 32 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 of Ontario in 1871 was 1,306,405. It is now 1,194,Y85. 
 There has been a loss in forty years of 111,620. Her 
 urban population was then 313,446. It is now 
 1,328,489. There has been a gain of 1,015,043. In all 
 eastern Canada there was in 1871 a rural population of 
 2,898,486. There is now 2,864,713, a loss in 40 years 
 of 23,773. There was then in all eastern Canada an 
 urban population of 680,296. There is now 2,599,228. 
 There has been an urban growth in forty years of 
 1,918,932. 
 
 In Quebec the problem assumes a special form. All of 
 the forces at work elsewhere are at work there also, with 
 ^^^ an added one — racial dispossession. Originally all 
 of that great triangle of territory between the 
 United States border and the St. Lawrence River as 
 far down as Quebec was, save for a fringe of counties 
 along the St. Lawrence and of parishes along the 
 Richelieu, settled by English-speaking people. To-day, 
 through the action of a movement displacing and replac- 
 ing one people by another, this great region, containing 
 fifteen counties — one of the finest in all Canada — is 
 overwhelmingly French-speaking. 
 
 This is not the first time in history that civilization 
 has been confronted with a problem arising out of the 
 displacement of one people by another. In ancient 
 Britain it arose at the close of the first half of the fifth 
 century. For a century and a half the problem pressed. 
 Then it passed. It was not solved. It ceased. A race 
 was extinguished. When Hengist landed on Thanet 
 in 449 Roman culture stretched across Britain and 
 reached the farthest shores of Ireland. It was the vigor- 
 ous civilization which later made Ireland the chosen 
 home of letters and arts. When Llywarch sang the
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 33 
 
 death-song of C^Tidyllaii he sang the dirge of a passing 
 people. 
 
 In one respect — that of race — we wish to draw a 
 parallel between this movement and that now going on 
 in Canada. The Saxon conquest was sheer disposses- 
 sion. The historian Green tells ns that " not a Briton 
 remained as subject or slave on English ground." There 
 was no massacre. But " field by field, forest by forest, 
 the land was won. As each bit of ground was torn 
 away by the stranger, the Briton sullenly withdrew, 
 only to turn and fight doggedly for the next." Else- 
 where, in Spain and Gaul, though these lands were also 
 conquered by Germanic peoples, there was no dispos- 
 session. Religion, social life, administrative order, re- 
 mained Roman. But in Britain the laws, the manners 
 and the faith which the Roman people had left behind 
 vanished before the Saxon. Just such a race movement 
 is going on in Canada in our time. Robert Sellar, in 
 his valuable monograph, " The Tragedy of Quebec," 
 tells us that when he first went to Huntingdon, the 
 county, save for one municipality, was as solidly Eng- 
 lish-speaking in population as any county in Ontario, 
 but that he has witnessed the decline of the original peo- 
 ple to the point of being in a minority. The same change, 
 only in a more marked degree, has taken place in all the 
 counties east of the Richelieu. !Missisquoi, founded by 
 U. E. Loyalists, has ceased to be English-speaking. 
 Drummond, Wolfe. Shefford, may ])e said to be French- 
 speaking. The transformation has been going on with 
 startling rapidity during the past fifteen years. In 1891 
 there were eleven English-speaking counties in tlio Pro- 
 vince of Quebec. Now English-speaking people are in a 
 minority in every one. The writer is on familiar ground 
 3
 
 34 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 in discussing this problem. In his boyhood there were 
 only two French-speaking families in the village of 
 Ormstown. A few years ago he attended a political 
 meeting there. Chairman and speakers were French. 
 A fragment of the time was given to an address in 
 English. 
 
 It is unfortunate that this matter has to be referred 
 to in terms of race, inasmuch as it is not racial in 
 essential character. There is absolutely no racial 
 barrier to prevent our French and English-speak- 
 ing peoples commingling. In the writer's mind one 
 French-Canadian, who was throughout his boyhood and 
 youth employed on his father's farm, stands as a type 
 of a splendid race. He had the physical hardihood that 
 enabled him to handle a logging-chain bare-handed in 
 the woods in winter, the mechanical aptitude which 
 made all his work artistic in finish, the bonhomie of 
 spirit which kept him ever genial and sprightly, and the 
 faithfulness of character which made every task, how- 
 ever remote from oversight, not eye-service, but good- 
 will. The respect and the affection with which the 
 French-Canadian is regarded by the British-Canadian 
 where he is intimately known is returned with recip- 
 rocal affection and respect. Witness Sir Wilfrid 
 Laurier's tribute to Mr. Murray, his host in school days 
 while he gained his rare mastery of the English tongue. 
 Yet we have a race-movement in Canada planned with 
 consummate skill and carried out with tenacity of pur- 
 pose, affecting the population of wide extents of terri- 
 tory. 
 
 The problem given us by this race-movement is not 
 simply one of ministering to the weakened remnant; 
 not, for example, how to care for the 12,000 children
 
 KUKAL DEPLETION 35 
 
 of scattered English-speaking parents attending the 
 French schools. It is rather how to stem the move- 
 ment itself and hold our two races as one associated 
 people. Quebec, apart from any question of popula- 
 tion, holds the future of the Dominion in her hands. 
 Bj the incorporation of Ungava she is rendered per- 
 manently our premier Province in extent. She is our 
 greatest in resources. That province is the coming in- 
 dustrial centre of this continent. Of Canada's water- 
 power, estimated at twenty-six million horse-power, 
 Quebec is reported to possess seventeen million.* A 
 mutual understanding and collaboration is needed for 
 the efficient development of material resources of such 
 magnitude, as well as for the political and social well- 
 being of our common country. 
 
 Shall we not all be oxe race, shaping and wielding the nation? 
 la not our country too broad for the schisms which shake 
 petty lands? 
 Yea, we shall join in our might, and keep sacred our firm fed- 
 eration, 
 Shoulder to shoulder arrayed, hearts open to hearts, hands 
 to hands! t 
 
 Nor is the problem confined to Quebec. In old Glen- 
 garry, known to fame, the majority of the population is 
 French-speaking. Father Ix' Pel, speaking at the Parle 
 FranQais Congress in Quebec in Jime last, is reported 
 in the press as having stated that there are now 250,000 
 French-sj)f'akiii£r p<'ople in Ontario, and that there are 
 
 • .Mr. R. K. Younx, Suporintcndtnt of Dominion Ruilway 
 Lands, In tf;rHtimoiiy before the Forests, Waterways and Water- 
 powers CommlsHion. Press report. 
 
 t Barry Stratlon. " 85."
 
 >l, 
 
 36 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 > 
 
 over 50;,000 children taught in French in the bilingual 
 and the purely French schools of the Province. Mr. 
 Frank Yeigh, the well-known publicist, informs us in 
 " Facts about Canada " that they have the preponderant 
 vote in fifteen counties; Father Le Bel claims that in 
 twenty-two their vote is the decisive factor. Mr Yeigh 
 estimates that by the end of this century they will num- 
 ber six millions in Ontario. Here in these beautiful 
 Muskoka groves — if the present tendencies remain un- 
 checked — before two generations shall have passed, 
 French, save on the lips of tourists, will be the only 
 language heard. In ISTew Brunswick the French popu- 
 lation now numbers 90,000, or more than one-fourth of 
 the po'pulation. In Prince Edward Island, while the 
 total popvilation decreased by nine and a half thousand, 
 the French people increased by over four thousand. 
 This problem, then, is not a Quebec problem, but Cana- 
 dian. It is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, be- 
 fore any English-speaking nation to-day. 
 
 The first and fundamental dimension of the problem 
 is physical — the numerical diminution of the popula- 
 lon. But the rural loss is not only quantitative ; it is 
 qualitative as well. The second dimension is social, 
 and is measured by the strain on all social institutions 
 and relations. \ Farm homes in Canada are farther apart 
 than anywhere' else in the worl;g[. Leaving out of consi- 
 deration such districts as Algoma West, with 1.29 to the 
 square mile, and Algoma East, with 0.91, we have in 
 Ontario counties such as Lennox and Addington, 14.4 ; 
 South Renfrew, 14.1; ISTorth Lanark, 13.9; Frontenac, 
 13.1; Peterborough, 13.2; Victoria, 9.22. In all these 
 cases the towns are included. The rural population of 
 the United States is 15 to the square mile, and even
 
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 RUEAL DEPLETION 37 
 
 Russia, whose people, moreover, live iu hamlets rather 
 than on farmsteads, has 10. Yet in Nova Scotia, Anna- 
 polis, including the towns has only 14.04 ; Shelburne 
 and Queen's, 11.97; and Guysborough, 10.29; and New 
 Brunswick as a Province, including her cities, has but 
 12.61 to the square mile. 
 
 How serious, therefore, is our situation when we find 
 that under the first count in the social strain — the aban- , 
 doaed home — in Ontario, Lennox and Addington have 
 366 fewer dwelling houses than ten years ago, a loss of 
 6.9 per cent. ; East Huron 310 less, a loss of 7.5 per 
 cent. ; North Lanark had 265 of its dwellings, or 7.7 
 per cent., go out of use in the decade; and Lambton 
 East 491, or 8.3 per cent. ; while in Grenville 352, or 
 9.17 per cent, became unoccupied — the largest loss, for 
 a county, in the Province. But here again the county 
 does not present the real facts; in towns the dwellings 
 are increasing in number. The townships form the 
 real test. Here are some of the outstanding instances. 
 The historic township of East Zorra in Oxford County 
 closed 13.0 per cent, of its homes; in Hastings, Madoc 
 lost 13.7; Ashfield, in Huron, allowed 15 per cent, to 
 fall into desuetude; in Grey, Egremont has 15.1 aban- 
 doned homes, and Glenelg, 16.2; Edwardsburg has 17 
 per cent.; Darling, in Lanark, 17.3; Cavan, in Dur- 
 ham, 18.8; Glenelg, also in Grey, 19.8 per cent. Were 
 there space we might specify as well Arran, Cnlross, 
 Huron, Wawanosh, Camden, Rochester, Greenock, Au- 
 gusta, Brant, Tuscarora, Kinloss, Bruce, Haldiniaiul, 
 and Abinger, with empty fannhouses ranging from 10 
 to 20 per cent. But all of these are quite outclassed by 
 Ijarric. in Frontenac, with 25.4 of its dwellings aban- 
 doned in the decade; Morris, in Huron, wilh 25.5;
 
 38 KURAL LIFE m CA:N"ADA 
 
 Keppel, in Grey, 27.1Y, and Sarawak, in Grey, 45.8 
 per cent. The loss is as widespread in the Maritime 
 Provinces as in Ontario. In New Brunswick, Hamp- 
 ton lost 36 per cent, of its homes, Hillsborough 39, 
 Sussex 46, St. Francis 49, and Madawaska 58 per cent. 
 ISTot poetic sentiment only but stern fact in fancy drest 
 is given us in the lines : 
 
 Memory gleams like a gem at night 
 
 Through the gloom of to-day to me, 
 Bringing dreams of a childhood bright 
 At Chateauguay. 
 
 Stands a house by the river side, 
 
 Weeds upspring where the hearth should be, 
 Only its tottering walls abide. 
 At Chateauguay.* 
 
 But the abandoned dwelling is a lesser social evil than 
 the weakened household. While engaged in pastoral 
 visiting lately, a parishioner spoke to me of the number 
 of houses in his neighborhood from which a multitude 
 once went with him to the house of God to keep holyday. 
 But the pathos of the situation was seen in this, that 
 he himself was living in his well-found house alone. 
 From Edwardsburg we lost in the decade one- 
 eleventh of our families, but one-fifth of our popu- 
 lation. The families which remain are depleted 
 households in the midst of a depleted countryside. 
 From the families which are still with us in Gren- 
 ville there have gone away 1,303 persons. This 
 does not mean that simply the redundant members 
 of the household leave. It means that in many 
 cases parents are left to carry on the farm alone. Let 
 
 * Arthur Weir, " Fleur de Lys."
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 39 
 
 Greuville stand as our single and sufficient illustration. 
 In 1901 the average number of persons per family in 
 city and country throughout Canada was 5.16. In 
 Gronville it was then 4.42. By 1911 the average for 
 Canada in city and country had fallen to 4.84. But in 
 Grenville it had fallen to 4.07. Family life that aver- 
 ages only four persons to a household throughout a com- 
 munity of over seventeen thousand persons can suffer 
 little further diminution and continue. 
 
 The third line of social strain is seen in the relative 
 numbers of the sexes in rural Canada. One of the most 
 startling surprises given by the recent census was found 
 in the lessened proportion of women in our country 
 homes. The girls are even more dissatisfied with farm 
 life than are the boys, and are leaving in larger num- 
 bers. 
 
 The general rule of population the world over is that 
 females outnumber males. The usual proportion is 
 about 105 to 100 at birth, and about 107 to 100 in adult 
 life. This rule holds good of our urban population. In 
 only 45 out of the 250 cities, towns and villages of older 
 Ontario do males exceed females. But in our rural 
 population this universal rule of human life is reversed, 
 and the reversal is so general as to be astounding. In 
 only 40 of the 920 townships and other rural divisions — 
 exclusive of Indian reserves — enumerated by the census 
 in all Ontario do females outnumber males. 
 
 lyct us take the county of Middlesex as an illustration. 
 In the North Riding there are six townships. In every 
 case males exceed females, and the total excess is 473. 
 The rifliner contains also one town, Parkhill, and two 
 villages, Ailsa (Jraig and Lucan. In all, women surpass 
 men in number, the whole surplus being 188. East
 
 40 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 Middlesex is purely rural, consisting of the four fine 
 townships of London, Dorchester, Missouri, and West- 
 minster. In each the male population predominates, 
 the aggregate predominance being 518. The west rid- 
 ing embraces five townships; in every one more men 
 than women are found, the plurality throughout the five 
 being 469. In its town and villages, Strathroy, Glen- 
 coe, Newbury and Wardsville, men are everywhere in 
 a minority, its total being 355. There is one city within 
 the bounds of the county, London, with an excess of 
 females over males of 2,498. In the townships of Mid- 
 dlesex there are 107 men to 100 women. In the city, 
 towns and villages of Middlesex there are 112 women 
 to 100 men. There is only one county in Ontario, this 
 one of Grenville, in which females exceed males in the 
 purely rural population. 
 
 " The excess of females over males in the urban popu- 
 lation of Ontario is 10,865. The excess of males over 
 / females in the rural population of Ontario is 85,940. 
 In the cities, towns and villages, taken by themselves, 
 there are 102 women to 100 men. In town and country 
 taken together there are 106 men to 100 women. In 
 the country alone there are 116 men to 100 women. 
 
 This anomaly holds true, not of Ontario only, but of 
 all rural Canada. In New Brunswick males outnumber 
 females in every census district except the city of St. 
 •John. There women outrank men by 2,013. In the 
 rest of the Province men outrank women by 7,845. In 
 Nova Scotia in every district outside of Halifax save 
 two there is an excess of females. The overplus for the 
 province is 9,700. 
 
 Have all of our women the vagrant heart ? We know
 
 KUEAL DEPLETION 41 
 
 that they have not. Then why so many fleeing from the 
 country ? 
 
 Ah, to be a woman! to be left to pique and pine, 
 
 When the winds are out and calling to this vagrant heart of 
 
 mine. 
 Whisht! it whistles at the windows, and how can I be Btill? 
 There! the last leaves of the beech-tree go dancing down the 
 
 hill. 
 All the boats at anchor they are plunging to be free — 
 Oh! to be a sailor, and away across the sea! 
 O bird that fights the heavens, and is blown beyond the shore. 
 Would you leave your flight and danger for a cage, to fight 
 
 no more? 
 No more the cold of winter, or the hunger of the snow. 
 Nor the winds that blow you backward from the path you 
 
 wish to go? 
 Would you leave your world of passion for a home that knows 
 
 no riot? 
 Would I change my vagrant longings for a heart more full of 
 
 quiet? 
 No — for all its dangers, there is joy in danger, too; 
 On, bird, and fight your tempests, and this nomad heart with 
 
 youl* 
 
 But where there is not the vagrant spirit, what impels 
 our girls to leave ? 
 
 A Xourth form of social strain ought perhaps to be 
 discussed. It is said that leaders are leaving the 
 country. Those who are drawn away include many of 
 the ablest and most progressive. There are, however, 
 higher qualities than ability and energy. I have known 
 of more than one case where young men, and of still 
 more cases where young women, remained on the farm 
 
 • Dora SiRtTHon Shorter. " A Vagrant Heart."
 
 42 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 througli a sense of duty to others. Efficient help is 
 given in the solution of more than one direct problem 
 bj actions such as this. Dutv is the source of energy. 
 The drain meanwhile is real. Our question is only 
 as to the validity of the principle. I visited recently a 
 farm home in the county of Dundas. My host, after 
 having — according to the farmer's manner — shown me 
 something of his barns, brought me to his office. It was 
 furnished with roll-top desk, desk telephone, safe, and 
 reference library. Everything about home and farm 
 was in keeping therewith. Yet the household consisted 
 of husband and wife, hired woman and hired man. But 
 there were three sons and two daughters in the city. The 
 eldest son is a graduate — with honors in mathematics — 
 of Toronto University, and has passed the examinations 
 of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain. The 
 other sons are graduates in Medicine and in Science of 
 McGill University. The eldest daughter is a graduate 
 of the Conservatory of Music at Toronto. The children 
 will not consent to the sale of the farm. It is still the 
 home of their pride, the scene of their happy vacations 
 and reunions. Such cases are not uncommon. But does 
 it follow that the country must deteriorate ? Can we 
 afford to obey the mandate: 
 
 Go, bind your sons to exile, 
 Send forth the best ye breed. 
 
 That depends solely on the spirit of those who remain. 
 If part go that they may achieve something worth while, 
 their very going proves a spur to all who take pride in 
 their success. For centuries the achievements of Scot- 
 land's sons abroad were the very pulse of life to her sons 
 at home. But when hopelessness or dissatisfaction is
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 43 
 
 the cause of the exodus, blight comes, not because of the 
 exodus, b\it of abiding conditions. The country can 
 obey the maxim, " Send forth the best ye breed," pro- 
 vided that she "' take up the White Man's burden '' ; 
 can " bind her sons to exile " if it be " to serve another's 
 need." That call '* comes now, to search your man- 
 hood," not to impair it. What is needed is intense life 
 — not labor, but life — upon the farm itself, so that the 
 country shall not become the b^nvay. The highway 
 must lie free for all through city and country alike. 
 
 This is the law of the highways, 
 
 This is their gospel made plain, 
 Let the laggards keep to the byways, 
 
 And the weak and the halt remain, 
 Where the hurrying tides shall heed not, 
 
 And the eyes of the world shall not see. 
 The weaklings of life that we need not. 
 
 In these paths where the strong must go free. 
 
 Age decrepit, and youth 
 
 Streaked with age ere its prime. 
 The crafty side-trackers of truth, 
 
 The thriftless consumers of time, 
 Mere shadow-shapes of man, 
 
 And woman worn to a shade, 
 These do the highways ban, 
 
 And with iron brows upbraid. 
 
 This Is the law of the highways. 
 
 This Is their gospel writ wide, 
 Let the souls that are formed for the byways 
 
 Keep clear of our strenuous tide. 
 For patience we have not. nor space, 
 
 For the weak, or the halt, or the blind, 
 For the aged that cannot keej) i)ace, 
 
 Nor the eyes that are looking behind.* 
 
 • J. C. M. Duncan, In Thr Witntaa, Montreal.
 
 44 EUKAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 This is the law of the country and has been. ]S"ot 
 hers " the thriftless consumers of time." The virile 
 country not only can " bind her sons to exile to serve 
 another's need " ; she " dare not stoop to less." And if 
 for the hour despondent, she is true at the heart to her 
 past. 
 
 The third count in our problem amounts to the ques- 
 tion : Is there a moral strain being placed upon rural life 
 by our present situation ? In this field it is more diffi- 
 cult to glean representative facts and present them 
 fairly. No statistics are available on this aspect of the 
 problem. Dr. W. L. Anderson, in his able volume deal- 
 ing with our problem, writes : " Our argument rests 
 upon the favorable showing of the country as a whole 
 compared with the city as a whole. As tested by the 
 symptoms of degeneracy, the country is in as healthful 
 a state as the city ; where the advantages and wholesome 
 influences of civilization are massed; where education 
 is at its best ; where eloquence finds its opportunity and 
 art gathers its treasures; where wealth gathers all re- 
 sources and taste has every gratification ; where churches 
 are powerful and every social institution co-operates in 
 the exaltation of human life. That the country is not 
 distanced by the city in social and moral development 
 almost exceeds belief ; or, to use the terms in which we 
 began, the line of averages is at a surprising height in 
 the country."* The question is, however, not one of 
 comparative values in city and country, but of what 
 tendencies are at work in the country. 
 
 Country life of late has made one marked advance. 
 It has socialized, and to a large extent solved, the drink 
 
 * W. L. Anderson, " The Country Town," p. 111.
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 45 
 
 problem. It has taken hold of this evil as a community 
 question and has therefore crowned its efforts with suc- 
 cess. It has not only socialized the reform, but to some 
 degree standardized it as well. The country newspaper 
 has to a very large extent barred out the liquor ad- 
 vertisement. And to this standard the urban press must 
 come. 
 
 I might add that the country has made marked ad- 
 vance in regard to general practice concerning the use 
 of tobacco. Last autumn seventeen farmers, chiefly 
 young men, gathered at the home of one of my church 
 managers on silo-filling day. Of the seventeen not one 
 used tobacco in any form. 
 
 Business integrity, in so far as tested by the older 
 ethical standards, is high in the country. But it is not 
 yet so in regard to the newer ethical imperatives. A 
 daughter of the manse and a daughter of the farm were 
 discussing some finer branch of cooking. " But wc use 
 cream, not milk," said the daughter of the farm. " Oh," 
 was the response, " do you keep the milk of a cow at 
 home just for that ?" " Pshaw, no," came the answer, 
 " we take a dipper or two from the factory can." This 
 is suggestive of much that is lacking bearing upon the 
 ethics of co-operation in the country. 
 
 In other fields having to do with graver moral evils 
 I offer no attempt at generalization. But let me give 
 single instances of actualities in several moral realms. 
 Xear a certain hainlot which shall be nameless a farmer 
 sent his wife int(» the field l<j drive the team with the 
 harrows. When, wearied. sh(* sat down to rest, he rent 
 a splinter from a fence rail and beat her. l>y night men 
 forced his door, dragged him from hiding, rode him 
 upon a fence rail, and informed him that if he beat his
 
 46 RUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 wife again treatment more drastic would be meted out 
 to him. Here two grave crimes meet : wife-beating and 
 lyncb-law. What is the bearing upon our problem ? A 
 farmer of Canadian stock had sold and left that farm ; 
 he had been replaced by an immigrant of a stock mor- 
 ally lower than our Canadian farmers, among whom 
 wife-beating is unknown. 
 
 In the home of another young man in that hamlet 
 two women were frequently left alone — his wife and 
 another. The public noticed with disapproval the occa- 
 sional coming of some men of leisure from a neighbor- 
 ing city, the nation's capital. One night, while one of 
 these was present, the men of the place turned out and 
 gave the house a " charivari," staining its walls with 
 broken eggs, and withdrew. Soon afterwards the prem- 
 ises were sold, and the household went away into obli- 
 vion. Again the bearing upon our problem is this : The 
 young husband, finding little occupation at his trade in 
 the neighborhood, sought employment away from home 
 in the town. ' 
 
 Again, the township of Edwardsburg has, like all 
 other Ontario townships, been almost unstained by the 
 crime of murder. Yet we had one sad case in recent 
 years. A man who had purchased a farm raised his 
 hand against the man from whom he had bought it. 
 The verdict of the jury, with the full assent of the 
 Attorney-General, was " Insanity " ; and, what is more, 
 the verdict of our people, a community of whom the 
 great majority would never condone crime even to save 
 one of their number from death, unanimously acquiesced 
 in the verdict. But who was he who was thus acquitted 
 of responsibility for his deed? The trend citywards 
 had called away a son from that home to the city, for
 
 EURAL DEPLETION 47 
 
 whose life he was unfitted ; and the father, to bring him 
 back from the city, made over to him the homestead, and 
 purchasing elsewhere for himself that he might begin 
 anew, had broken down under the strain. 
 
 For an illustration from another field of moral evil 
 we shall go bejond our own borders. Mr. P. V. Collins, 
 editor of the Northwestern Agriculturalist, of Minne- 
 apolis, advertised for a stenographer of the highest 
 ability. From among the applications received he 
 selected one from a young woman apparently of such 
 qualifications as he desired. But when she came to his 
 office he discovered that she had only a public school 
 education and a rudimentary knowledge of short- 
 hand. "When a.sked why she had copied out the 
 application she replied,''! did not write that; the 
 principal of the academy which gave me my diploma 
 sent it." Investigation brought out the facts that 
 there was a bogus college selling diplomas through- 
 out the country to anyone who had been for a term at a 
 business school ; and then sending coimtry girls to posi- 
 tions which they could not possibly fill, notifying those 
 in charge of the traffic in immorality of the stranding 
 of the girls in the city. This particular one met with a 
 phihmthropist and friend, but there are other cases. 
 The longing to escape from country to town is being 
 taken advantage of by designing men to lure girls to 
 their ruin. 
 
 liut the chief factor in the moral strain is not found 
 in the direct evil results or the moral pitfalls incident to 
 the situation, but in the fact that moral cnthusiasuis are" 
 lacking in the country owing to tlu- present trend. No 
 high incentive takes men away; im lofty passion abides 
 with those who remain. Where people are discontent
 
 48 KUKAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 with their lot and seek to escape it, with no fine aspira- 
 tion leading them to any other walk in life, there is an 
 absence of the moral incentives which made rural mor- 
 ality so splendid a thing in the past. 
 
 There is the best of testimony to the existence of the 
 moral strain. Professor Giddings writes : " Degenera- 
 tion manifests itself in the protean forms of suicide, in- 
 sanity, crime and vice which abound in the highest 
 civilization where the tension of life is extreme, and in 
 those places from which civilization has ebbed away, 
 leaving a discouraged remnant to struggle against de- 
 teriorating conditions. . . . Like insanity, crime 
 occurs most frequently in densely populated towns on 
 the one hand, and on the other in partly deserted rural 
 districts.""* Dr. H. B. MacCauley, Secretary of the 
 Eastern Division of the Federal Council of the Churches 
 of Christ in America, says : " In my district of thirteen 
 States I have an opportunity of seeing the condition of 
 things in the country in a way that is very broad ; and I 
 am prepared to say that if there is a place anywhere 
 that needs the remedy which Jesus Christ alone can 
 give, that place is in the country."f 
 
 In the connection that obtains between the church and 
 our problem there is a two-fold reference: the bearing 
 of the situation upon the church, and the relation of the 
 church to the problem. 
 
 The bearing of the situation upon the church is mani- 
 fest. The church is sensitively sympathetic to every 
 vital experience of the community. The immediate re- 
 sult of depopulation is the loss of numbers to the church. 
 This has not as yet been proportionate to the decline in 
 
 *F. H. Giddings, "Principles of Sociology," p. 348. 
 
 t " The Rural Church and Community Betterment," p. 38.
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 49 
 
 population. The church is holding her own better than 
 other institutions in the country. But a glance shows 
 the inevitable trend. That trend is common to all de- 
 nominations. Surveys of rural conditions made re- 
 cently in the United States show conclusively that the 
 increase or the decrease of the churches is a communal 
 experience. Where one suffers all suffer with it. In- 
 vestigation would doubtless show the same to be the case 
 in Canada. But let us look at representative facts as 
 found in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. 
 
 When we open the Blue-book the first congregation 
 found on the official list in the Statistical Tables is 
 Boularderie, in Svdnev Presbyrerv. Let us look over 
 its record for a decade. Its households numbered in 
 1902, 290; in 1903, 274; in 1904, 270; in 1905 the 
 pastorate was vacant and no returns are given ; in 1906, 
 250; 1907, 249; 1908, 246; 1909, 246; 1910, 231; 
 1911, 161. The severe loss in the last year is doubtless 
 due in some way to the extension of the plant of the 
 Steel and Coal Company at Sydney ; the steady decline 
 for the decade reflects general conditions. This con- 
 gregation was taken simply because it stood first upon 
 the list. Let us take a larger unit, a Presbytery, by 
 selection as a representative one. Lanark and Renfrew 
 may fairly be called such. It lies in a fertile and pro- 
 gressive district. It has an excellent record in church 
 activities. Its congregations are strong, the sclf-suj)- 
 porting ones averaging 130 households to the pastoral 
 diargf. The average stipend or salary of its rural min- 
 isters is above $1,000. It appears to incrcjisc. It <nii- 
 tained 3,362 households in UHiI and 3,763 in 1011. an 
 increase of 40] fttr the decade. Let us see Imw this in- 
 crease is accounted for. Six mission fields have been 
 4
 
 50 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 founded in new districts, with an aggregate of 188 fami- 
 lies. The increase of the Presbytery as it existed in 
 1901 is but 213 households. There were at that time — 
 including missions — 33 charges. Of these two now 
 number just what they did in 1901 ; 13 show an in- 
 crease — of these two only are purely rural; 18 show a 
 decrease. But the increase in the congregations in the 
 towns of Arnprior, Renfrew and Smith's Falls is 284 
 families. There is therefore a loss throughout the rest 
 of the Presbytery, including the towns of Almonte, 
 Carleton Place, Pembroke and Perth, of 71 households ; 
 while the falling off in the 18 congregations actually 
 losing amounts to 215. The facts underlying 
 the total figures when analyzed in this Presbytery 
 would be found typical elsewhere. But let us take a 
 wider unit still. The three central Synods increased in 
 each case steadily from 1901 to 1909 in the number of 
 families. Then there comes an ominous change in all 
 three cases. The Synod of Montreal and Ottawa had 
 in 1909, 21,720 households. In 1910 it had 21,276, a 
 decline of 444. Toronto and Kingston in the former 
 year had 42,507, in the latter 42,176, a decrease of 331. 
 Hamilton and London in 1909 numbered 28,243; in 
 1910, 28,037, a falling off of 206. The latter recovers 
 in 1911 to 28,784; Montreal and Ottawa recovers to 
 21,637, but is still short of the mark of two years be- 
 fore; Toronto and Kingston had still further fallen to 
 40,986, an added loss of 1,521 households. We ma^^ 
 perhaps realize the trend most vividly by noticing that 
 six Presbyteries suffered loss in the total number of 
 households in the decade, namely Kingston, Lindsay, 
 Barrie, Saugeen, Stratford, and Bruce, with an aggre- 
 gate decline of 963 families; while the Presbyteries of
 
 PRESHYTKIUAN CIIIK.H. SI 'KXCi;! : \ 1 1 .l.i:. 
 A vilUiKf- cuthediul. I.iilll in h.-ihr .lavs.
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 51 
 
 Hamilton, Montreal, and Toronto, though each, while 
 largely urban, includes a rural section, increased re- 
 spectively by 1,780, 2,086, and 4,768 households. In 
 each case the gain was considerably more than half of 
 the total gain in the whole corresponding synod for the 
 decade. 
 
 Rural churches are not and cannot be filled with 
 worshippers as they once were. The Presbyterian 
 Church in Spencerville, a village cathedral built in bet- 
 ter days, never puts its spacious gallery to use. The 
 most easterly church in the Presbytery of Glengarry, in 
 Ontario, and the most westerly one in the Presbytery of 
 Montreal, in Quebec, are examples of churches whose 
 auditoriums have been cut down in size since they were 
 first built. Churches here and there are closed. Within 
 six miles of Spencerville are two churches whose con- 
 gregations dwindled until they disappeared. No statis- 
 tics are available upon this aspect of the problem in 
 Canada. But in the United States, where the strain 
 upon the churches has proved much more severe than in 
 Canada, accurate surveys show the situation. The Ohio 
 Rural Life Survey of 1912, for instance, reveals 800 
 abandoned churches in that State. In no county in the 
 State are one-half of the congregations holding their 
 own. In several counties not 10 per cent, are growing. 
 In 10 counties, with a total of 394: congregations, not 
 one-twentieth of the number had resident ministers. 
 The ministers live in towns and go to the country to 
 preach. Ninety-six townships in these ten counties, 
 comprising nearly 4,000 square miles, are without a 
 re.sident minister in the cftuntry districts. 
 
 Other bearings of the situation upon the church in 
 addition to this fundamental one might be discussed;
 
 52 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 we confine ourselves to the falling off in students for the 
 ministry. This is forcibly presented for one branch of 
 the church by Professor Kilpatrick in his Introduction 
 to Mr. Mott's volume, " The Future Leadership of the 
 Church." " The Blue-book for 1908 presents facts 
 worthy of careful consideration. In 1875 the church 
 possessed 139 students ; in 1907 this number had risen 
 to 194, a gain of 55. In 1875 the church possessed 706 
 charges; in 1907 this number had risen to 1,984, a gain 
 of 1,278. If it required 139 students to supply the 
 needs of a church of 706 congregations, surely 194 are 
 far too few to supply the needs of a church of 1,984 con- 
 gregations. Again, compare 1907 with 1902. In 1902 
 the church possessed 230 students and 997 congrega- 
 tions. In 1907 the number of congregations had in- 
 creased by 987, while the number of students had de- 
 creased by 36." The cause of this decline is found in 
 the rural situation. Over 90 per cent, of our students 
 have been drawn from the country. The increasitng dis- 
 content and unrest, the lessening of optimism and altru- 
 ism, have affected adversely the country's richest pro- 
 duct, the heralds of the Cross. 
 
 Of more importance is the church's relation to the 
 problem. The church is a means, not an end. The 
 question is not one of maintaining her numbers and 
 recruiting her ranks. It is one of the efficacy of her 
 service to the country in its need. There was a time 
 when the chancelleries of Europe were hard pressed to 
 provide revenue for their governments. Then the 
 science of political economy had its birth. The chan- 
 celleries found that the best way to secure revenue was 
 by making their people prosperous. There was a period 
 when for ages the Christian Church thought the end of
 
 RURAL DEPLETION 53 
 
 her existence was the perfection of her own organism, 
 and the cathedrals of Europe form the magnificent 
 monument of the ideal and of its failure. The purpose 
 of our enquiry is not in the slightest degree, How can 
 the Church save herself amid the country's peril ^ Tt 
 is, How can she make rural life a happier and nobler 
 life, how she can meet the unmet needs of Canada, 
 until 
 
 From Nova Scotia's misty coast to far Columbia's shore 
 She wakes — a band of scattered homes and wilderness no more, 
 But a strong nation, with her life full-beating in her breast, 
 A noble future in her eyes — the Britain of the West. 
 
 Hers be the noble task to fill the yet untrodden plains 
 
 With fruitful, many-sided life that courses through her veins; 
 
 The earnest quest of noble ends, — the generous heart of 
 
 youth, — 
 The stamp of true nobility, high honor, stainless truth; 
 
 The love of country soaring far above dull party strife. 
 The love of learning, art, and song — the crowning grace of life; 
 The love of science searching far through nature's hidden 
 ways ; 
 
 The love and fear of nature's God — a nation's highest praise; 
 The English honor, nerve, and pluck, — the Scotsman's love of 
 
 right,— 
 The grace and courtesy of France, — the Irish fancy bright, — 
 The Saxon's faithful love of home and home's affections blest; 
 And, chief of all, our holy faith — of all our treasures best!* 
 
 • Agnes Maulc Machar, " Dominion Day."
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF 
 DEPLETION
 
 The City Enoch! Here were sown and grew 
 The seeds of Art when art and life were long; 
 Here Lamech turned his misery to song. 
 
 Here Jubal labored, seeking conquests new; 
 
 Here man's soft hand made brass and iron yield 
 To cunning shapes and uses, — ^wondrous skill! 
 Tearing earth's iron heart with iron will 
 
 To see what secrets in it lay concealed; 
 
 And here, O Music, like a dream of heaven 
 Thy subtle thrill did touch the wearied brain 
 With raptured, passionate longing to regain 
 
 The bliss of having nought to be forgiven! 
 
 Let me in fancy see thee rise again, 
 
 O City of the Wanderer, ever sought! 
 
 City of that wise Jubal who first taught 
 The harp and organ to the sons of men; 
 
 That I may learn the secret of his might, 
 Who, leaving earth unto his brother's care, 
 Did winning battle with the powers of air, 
 
 And made them his and mine by victor's right! 
 
 — John Reade.
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 Economic Causes of Depletion. 
 
 Our survey of the rural problem thus far lias been an 
 essay in social description. The science of Sociology 
 would bid us now proceed wdth social interpretation in 
 order to advance later to social construction. 
 
 The decrease in rural population is not due to the 
 departure from the country of farmers alone. The 
 decline of two other classes contribute to the general 
 result. First the village crafts decayed, and now village 
 commerce is waning. 
 
 A village forty years ago was industrially a better 
 place than now. Each hamlet had its corps of trained 
 and skilled workmen with sturdily independent homes, 
 making the rich contribution to community life that 
 skilled craftsmen bring. The essential industries were 
 everywhere represented. The village had a fairly self- 
 sufficing economic life. Spencerville fourteen years ago 
 supported two tailors. My acquaintance with the 
 locality is just sufficiently long-standing to have seen 
 this handicraft disappear. Other tradesmen have gone 
 since then, the shoemaker being the last to leave — 
 within the present year. The flour-mill also has re- 
 cently been dismantled of its machinery, and convertec^ 
 into a feed-supply depot for the produce of distant mill- 
 ing companies. My memory of the village where boy- 
 hood's years were spent, Ormstown, situated amidst the 
 
 57
 
 58 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 rich farm lands of the Chateauguay Valley in Quebec, 
 goes vividly back to the year 1869. A shy and visionary 
 boy, I watched the tradesmen at their work while other 
 schoolboys strove upon the playground. In that year 
 the ashery, unused for years, was dismantled — the 
 scene of an earlier, already vanished industry. In 
 the sawmill work was being urged with pressing haste. 
 Night shifts were often employed. At the grist mill 
 farmers contested for precedence as they brought great 
 loads of fine-hulled white oats to be kiln-dried and 
 ground into round Scotch oatmeal, with sleighloads of 
 which they then drove to distant Montreal to market. 
 This mill was a few years later enlarged to meet the in- 
 creasing local demand for its output of flour. Near the 
 centre of the village stood the tannery, one of our 
 largest buildings. All manipulations, from flesher to 
 currier, were by hand; and from the bark-mill in the 
 broad shed to the harness-shop in the upper storey the 
 establishment was a scene of busy industry. The portly 
 tanner who then initiated his boy follower into the 
 mysteries of bark-pit and ooze I learned in later years 
 to know as an excellent Shakespearean scholar. Near- 
 by was the principal cabinet-maker's shop. A sweep 
 horsepower in the basement drove the turning-lathe at 
 which bed-posts and spindles were fashioned. At the 
 side benches apprentice and journeymen worked, while 
 at the front bench the proprietor — a village philan- 
 thropist and the patriarch of the temperance forces of 
 the Province — wrought in walnut or bird's-eye maple 
 the bridal suites of furniture for the community. The 
 six wood-working shops of the village were each dis- 
 tinctive in character. At the oldest of the house-car-
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 59 
 
 penter shops the coffins for the dead of the coimtryside 
 were also made, each as sad occasion called. And into 
 the making of each went a loving sympathy unknown in 
 an age of machine-made products. As if it were yester- 
 day there comes back the sense of the mystery of death 
 and of fellow-feeling with bereavement which workman 
 and little boy by his side, permitted to hold and pass the 
 silvered nails, alike felt as the work went on in reverent 
 silence. Another of the local carpenters was then build- 
 ing the spacious village church, portrayed at page 195 
 of this volume, producing every panel and moulding on 
 the spot and by hand, save as a treadmill horse-power, 
 set up temporarily on the premises, lent its aid. From 
 the homes of each of these builders a youth afterwards 
 entered the ministry. Another of our carpenters special- 
 ized in the exact work of the millwright, and showed him- 
 self in various ways a self-taught mathematical genius. 
 In my university days I discovered that he, who had 
 never seen a copy of Euclid, had, Pascal-like, wrought 
 out at his bench many of the problems of Euclid. At 
 the wheelwright shops all vehicles for pleasure-driving 
 as well as for farm use were built. I can recall seeing 
 farmers drive in with loads of split hickory bolts for 
 spokes and rock-elm blocks for hubs, though already the 
 machine-made spoke and hub were competing for favor. 
 The ironwork on these vehicles was no assemblage of 
 machine-madf parts, but the product of genuine crafts- 
 manship, elaborate and ornate. All the smiths of the 
 neighlxjrhood were master craftsmen. One, at Dewitt- 
 ville near by, specialized in forging steel, and for this 
 service burned his own charcoal pits. As a lad of seven 
 or eight I took delight in watching the neat conical piles
 
 60 EURAL LIFE IN CA:N^ADA 
 
 of wood carefully laid, and seeing the strange gases ooze 
 through the covering of clay, while creosote condensed 
 and dripped from the inserted gun-barrel. How differ- 
 ent the amount of labor bestowed on such products then 
 and now ! As we detrained at Longford to come over 
 here to Geneva Park a day or two ago we passed one of 
 the Canada Chemical Company's extensive plants, 
 where by the carload wood is run, car and all, into the 
 retort, and the car comes out at length with a load of 
 charcoal upon it ready for shipment. Now, too, the dis- 
 tillates, formerly wasted, pay for both material and 
 process, and the once costly charcoal is a clear-gain by- 
 product. 
 
 In the open country on the other side of the village by 
 the Chateauguay another smith — master alike of his 
 trade and the situation — forged the long iron-frame 
 plow, so heavy to turn at the furrow's end, but so light 
 of draft upon the team because of true lines of design 
 and fine workmanship. With that same long plow the 
 plowmen of the days of my boyhood turned furrows so 
 true in line and so clean in comb that a rifle bullet might 
 be fired from end to end of the field on those level 
 meadows without once rising above the crest of the fur- 
 row, yet without staining itself with touch of the clay. 
 Presently there came to the village the machine-shop 
 also, for local service, and for well-nigh a generation 
 the threshing-machines for the locality were of home 
 manufacture. Space forbids my describing other busy 
 shops — those of the tailors, the shoemakers, the sad- 
 dlers, and many another. In that small village of eight 
 hundred people there were then over thirty-five such 
 shop industries.
 
 
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 ECOXOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 61 
 
 Tradesmen such as these have as a class ahnost dis- 
 appeared from our present-day industrial world. Their 
 going deprives the countryside of a variety of openings 
 in life for persons of different tastes, and confines the 
 choice of occupations to one, that of agriculture. ' It 
 has removed varied types of life from the comninnity, 
 reducing social groups to the monotony of a single class. 
 It has withdrawn an intelligent, capable, prosperous 
 and contented population from the country. 
 ■ This loss is reflected in our literature: 
 
 This river of azure with many a weed in 
 
 Its pools is as fair as those famous of old; 
 Its wash Is the same as made blossoms in Eden, 
 
 And still it remembers their crimson and gold; 
 As lovely this valley with forests around it, 
 
 As vivid the evergreens shading the hill; 
 But manhood has gone from the cottage that crowned It, 
 
 And alders are growing at Atkinson's Mill. 
 
 The stream Is the same with Its tinting of azure. 
 
 Yet the old bridge Is moved from Its mooring of stone. 
 Departed are those who once made It a pleasure 
 
 To sail here, or skate when the summer had flown. 
 This pathway through cedar Is trampled no longer 
 
 By feet that went dally to school 'gainst their will; 
 The fraerrance of hope In the springtime was stronger 
 
 And sweeter than summer by Atkinson's Mill.* 
 
 One of the chief steps in this process proved a serious 
 blow to the prosperity of the Maritime Provinces — the 
 cessation of the ship-building industry when the sailing 
 vessel with wooden hull was replaced by the steel-built 
 steamer. Before that time Canada bad become fifth in 
 rank among the mercantile maritime nations, Britain, 
 
 * Andrew Ramsay.
 
 62 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 apart from Canada, ranking first. Our poets then sang 
 with pride: 
 
 I see to every wind unfurled 
 The flag that bears the maple-wreath; 
 
 Thy swift keels furrow round the world, 
 Its blood-red folds beneath; 
 
 Thy swift keels cleave the farthest seas, 
 Thy white sails swell with alien gales ♦ 
 
 and the building of these vessels gave our sea-board 
 cities economic and social wealth. 
 
 The cause of this loss lies in the genius of the modern 
 industrial world. The processes which have wrought 
 out this modern system destroyed an industrial order 
 which had been in building since the destruction of the 
 ancient Roman civilization. The characteristic mark 
 of this vanished order was household industry engaged 
 in local production for local use. The modern indus- 
 trial world brought in the factory system and world- 
 wide transportation, each of which owes its rise to the 
 invention of machinery and the discovery of power, and 
 by means of these has developed its characteristic and 
 epitome, the modern city. 
 
 The year 1769, an even century before the date of our 
 description of village crafts, marks an epoch in the 
 world's history. In that year Arkwright patented his 
 spinning frame and set up his first mill equipped there- 
 with, driven as yet by horse-power, but marking the be- 
 ginning of the factory system. In that year Watt 
 patented his steam engine, which alone could have ren- 
 dered the factory system effective. In the same decade, 
 another genius, James Brindley, gave to the world the 
 
 * Charles G. D. Roberts, " In Divers Tones."
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 63 
 
 modem canal systom. The means of communication 
 thus begun, augmented by the advent of the steamboat 
 in 1807, and the railroad in 1830, rendered possible the 
 massing of factories in great cities. New York ranked 
 ninth of the cities of the United States in 1820, with 
 but 9,000 people to Albany's 90,000, and was being still 
 further o\itclassed. Her true growth began with the 
 opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, but her rapid ex- 
 pansion about 1839 with the advent of the modern 
 steamship. The Bessemer process, 1856, giving the 
 steel rail instead of the iron one, cut the cost of railway 
 haulage in half. Power transmission in 1891 rendered 
 possible a still greater concentration by placing fac- 
 tories, not at the place of the source of power, but at the 
 foci of transport and centres of trade. The average cost 
 of transport in 1800 was ten dollars per ton per hun- 
 dred miles. As I write a carload of mill-feed has just 
 come into Spcncerville from Brandon. The cost of 
 transport is four dollars per ton for one thousand five 
 hundred miles. For wheat and flour the cost was then 
 prohibitive at two hundred miles distance. Now they 
 can be profitably carried by rail and sea the semi-cir- 
 cumference of the earth. 
 
 Another concurrent change has had an equally great 
 effect in industrial organization. The incorporated 
 company was called into being by the need for larger 
 aggregations of capital ; the corpf)rat(i trust — of which 
 the Standard Oil Trust, originating in 1881, was tlic 
 prototype — was designed to eliminate the wastes of coin- 
 petition, but has been used to limit production, control 
 price.*?, and monopolize markets. Thus has arisen an 
 industrial economy which Bvndicates each form of pro-
 
 64 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 duction over the area of a continent and seeks to incor- 
 porate the world. 
 
 The direct result of these changes has been that 
 articles in all lines of production are made more cheaply 
 in large factories with power machines than in the small 
 shops by hand labor. The demand for the latter, except 
 in some lines of artistic production, has ceased. The 
 master workman dismissed his journeyman and appren- 
 tices, and eventually betook himself with his household 
 to the city, to become factory operatives. 
 
 The final outcome has been an almost inconceivably 
 great increase in material production, together with a 
 general advance in conditions of living, but with lament- 
 able failure to reap the full advantage in human welfare 
 of the new conditions. The strain of toil has been light- 
 ened, hours of labor have been shortened, scarcity of the 
 necessities of life has largely ceased ; men are housed 
 and clad and fed with such comfort and plenty as our 
 forefathers never knew. But at every step of the pro- 
 cess the persons displaced have suffered hardship. 
 Wealth has increased enormously, but an undue share 
 of the reward has gone into the hands of the few. New 
 realms are made subject to our command, but in the pro- 
 cess the human element has been too much disregarded. 
 A system which gives us the automobile, but which also 
 gives us the rubber atrocities in Congo and Peru for the 
 sake of our automobile tires — and wrongs more wide- 
 spread if not so deadly here at home — demands control 
 in some way by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Yet the modern industrial system is not the cause, 
 but merely the occasion of such failure. It has furn- 
 ished some with a greater engine of oppression than 
 any had ever before possessed, only because it has 
 
 i
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 65 
 
 afforded to all a greater means of service than any ever 
 before known. In the material framework of the indus- 
 trial world we have the structural lines supplied us 
 upon which the finest spiritual development man has 
 as yet conceived of shall presently take place. " One 
 music, as before, but vaster," shall yet arise from the 
 modern world. The new is better than the old. 
 
 ^loreover, the change is not only for the better, it 
 was also imperative. Malthus was entirely in the right 
 in asserting, from his standpoint amidst the economic 
 conditions of his time, that population was rapidly 
 pressing upon the limits of the means of subsistence. 
 Though the greater portion of the race was then engaged 
 in agriculture, food production was insufficient for 
 increa.se of population, whereas now greater abundance 
 for all is furnished by the moiety of the population 
 which still remains upon the land, and every prospect 
 ..promises greater abimdance for yet larger population 
 for indefinite periods in the future. 
 
 The opening up of new lands under the old economic 
 conditions would not have bettered matters, inasmuch 
 as agricultural regions such as Saskatchewan now is 
 could not have become the base of support for more 
 densely populated distant regions apart from modern 
 means of transportation ; nor. indeed, coidd agricul- 
 tural regions such as these have come into being, for 
 their needed manufactured products could not have 
 \>oon transported to thcin. All expansion must have 
 U'cn cx[)aiiHion of the limifs of tlie eomuiunity organized 
 as it then was. 
 
 Not only so, Imt to Malthus's position wo must add 
 this — that population was pressing upon the limits of 
 manufacture as well as of food supply, for man liad 
 6
 
 66 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 come to the limits of available power. It could, we are 
 persuaded, be shown from the records of the time that 
 the amount of power derived from the muscular energy 
 of the horse and the ox had begun to diminish in propor- 
 tionate quantity, and that derived from human muscles 
 to increase. And for this underlying cause, that the 
 power drawn from the labor of the horse and ox calls 
 for a greater extent of land surface for food supply 
 than does the same amount of power derived from the 
 muscles of men. This is the explanation of the use 
 of human labor in the heaviest tasks in China and 
 Japan. The tourist is shocked as he listens to the 
 forced respiration of the coolies while they haul carts 
 laden with builders' materials up the Bluff at Yoko- 
 hama; the philanthropist is stirred to indignation as 
 he sees the Chinaman carry, poised on the head cradle, 
 the heavy timbers of the Yunnan forests to their place 
 of use on the Great Plain. I have seen teams of a 
 thousand men, with intensest strain of the muscles, 
 spurred on by the crack of the lash, haul the heavy 
 hulls of junks up the inclined planes of mud which 
 form the locks of the Grand Canal of China. Such 
 human toil is due to the relative dearness of animal 
 labor amidst a dense population as its sole cause. This, 
 and not indifference to human suffering, this, and not 
 lack of inventiveness, lays such loads upon the coolies 
 of the Orient. 
 
 When the sedan chair was first used in England it 
 was a common remark that men were made to do the 
 work of beasts. The first letters patent for the keep 
 of sedan chairs for hire in London were granted in 
 order " to prevent the unnecessary use of coaches." As 
 England increased further in population she must have
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 67 
 
 called other men from her looms to become porters of 
 the webs woven ; she must have bidden her plowmen 
 become delvers of the soil. In China the mattock 
 replaces the plow, and the roller is drawn, not by horses 
 or oxen, but by men. To this pass Europe was coming, 
 was perilously near, when the power of steam came to 
 her rescue. The world had come to a pass where ad- 
 vance in civilization or regression towards savagery 
 were the only paths possible. There was no middle 
 way of stability. The new order came to relieve alike 
 the weaver at the loom and the husbandman at the 
 plow. 
 
 . The loss of village commerce is following that of the 
 village crafts. A quarter of a century ago the village 
 storekeeper was a prosperous man. He was not uncom- 
 monly the wealthiest man in the community. His 
 place of business served, in a way, as a social centre. 
 His family, and he himself, were helpers and leaders 
 in every social enterprise, including the church. Then 
 in 1876 John Wanamakcr organized the Departmental 
 Store and the ^lail Order System. He had earlier 
 become a disciple of Ruskin in holding that chaffering 
 had no legitimate place in trade, and that an absolutely 
 one-price system must prevail. Cheap and rapid tran- 
 sit made the mail-order system possible. The one-price 
 system and exact description in advertising, together 
 with large turnover and direct service, made it efficient. 
 Uetail trading has in consequence been revohitionized. 
 Wholesaling half a century ago was done over the 
 counter. The country trader travelled to the city to 
 place his orders. Then came the driimmer, the modem 
 " commercial man." As completely as wholesale trado 
 was thereby recast in new moulds, so fully is retailing
 
 68 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 now being made over. We are in the last hours of the 
 older day. Here, again, as in the case of the village 
 crafts, the outcome has been an ultimate economic bene- 
 fit, but an immediate social loss. Severe distress is felt 
 by the class displaced. And the community loses one 
 more of its progressive elements. 
 
 But the decrease in rural population is chiefly due to 
 the removal from the country community of farmers' 
 households. What is the explanation of their removal ? 
 
 One factor in Eastern Canada was the opening up to 
 settlement of the rich wheat lands of Manitoba by the 
 building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885. 
 The beginning of marked depletion of population in 
 Ontario occurs in the following year, 1886. But another 
 and more universal factor had been already at work 
 for a generation, and was, just at that juncture, attain- 
 ing full force. For the art of farming also was revolu- 
 tionized by the introduction of machinery and of power. 
 True, it was as early as 1834 that McCormick invented 
 the reaper. But it was not until the Crystal Palace 
 Exhibition in London in 1861 — that revealer of so 
 many tendencies — that the utility of the reaper was 
 demonstrated. The year 1835 gave us the most primi- 
 tive form of the thresher, but in 1864 the first steam 
 thresher was used. In 1874 the binder came, but not 
 until 1886 did its usefulness begin, when its fingers 
 learned to knot twine instead of, as before, twisting 
 wire. That year, in which the marked exodus of 
 farmers from the Maritime Provinces and Ontario to 
 Manitoba began, may fairly be said to begin a new 
 period in agriculture. The year which brought in the 
 twine-binder brought also the gang-plow and the use of 
 steam power in plowing. In that year came also the 
 
 i
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 69 
 
 somewhat rapid adoption of the silo. Just before that 
 date the tirst cream separator to be used on this side of 
 the Atlantic had been set up in the Province of Quebec. 
 About the same period also began the widespread adop- 
 tion of the modern barn, with its trolley unloader and 
 its installation of a water system. The introduction of 
 improved tield machinery, the hay-loader, the potato- 
 digger, the manure-spreader; the employment of the 
 traction engine and the gasoline motor, has kept pace 
 with the remodelling of the barn. The outcome of 
 these changes is that one man, with modern equipment, 
 can accomplish the results achieved by many in the days 
 of hand labor. The Census Bureau of the United 
 States, in a report dealing with the census of 1890, pub- 
 lished a comparative table covering the nine principal 
 farm products in 1850, and showing that whereas 
 570,000,000 days' labor— that of 1,900,000 persons for 
 300 days — were required to produce them, the same 
 amount of the same staples in 1890 were accounted for 
 by 400,000 persons or 120,000,000 days' labor, slightly 
 over one-fifth requisite forty years before. The ratio 
 of change during the ensuing twenty years has doubtless 
 been accelerated rather than slackened. We would 
 probably be not far wrong in supposing that the effi- 
 ciency of labor, in the major operations at any rate, is 
 not far from seven times what it was two generations 
 ago. 
 
 But with the increasing use of machinery on the 
 farm has come, with almost eqtial pace, an increasing 
 demand for farm produce due to increase of city popu- 
 lation and to the more lavish consumption accompany- 
 ing increased wealth. The setting free from farm 
 labor of a certain nuuilMtr fcjllows the introduction of
 
 70 EUKAL LIFE IN CAl^ADA 
 
 machinery as a matter of course. But why has there 
 not also come fuller satisfaction with farm conditions ? 
 Why have we not, while the city grows, at least a stable 
 farm population, with greatly enlarged production per 
 capita, with increasing rural wealth, together with 
 decreasing prices of farm produce, and with greatly 
 enhanced leisure for better living on the farm ? 
 
 The world's markets are not glutted with farm goods ; 
 the reverse is the case. Prices of farm products have 
 not decreased, but have risen greatly. The steady, gen- 
 eral upward trend of all prices is ultimately due to the 
 cheapening of the standard of value — gold. But the 
 proportionate increase in price of one great class of 
 products above another is due to subsidiary causes. The 
 incidence of higher prices upon those with fixed earn- 
 ings is so severe as to constitute the greatest economic 
 difficulty of our time. 
 
 Now, amidst all the increase in the cost of living, 
 that due to enhanced prices of commodities from the 
 farm stands easily first. In the year 1897, when the 
 cost of living was at the lowest point reached for a 
 generation, the index figure for all wholesale prices in 
 Canada stood at 92.2. But the average index figure 
 for all farm produce was still lower, namely, 86.7. 
 Two years later, when the average index figure for all 
 commodities throughout Canada stood almost exactly 
 at par, 100.1, the figure for all farm produce through- 
 out Canada had risen more rapidly and stood at 96.7. 
 In 1903 the general index figure for all products and 
 the index figure for all farm products had become 
 almost identical, 110.5 for the former, and 110.9 for 
 the latter. By 1907 the index figure for all commodi- 
 ties had mounted to 126.2, but that for agricultural com-
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 71 
 
 modities to 120,5. The suddeu drop in textiles in the 
 following year, from 126.1 in 1907 to 111.0 in 1908, 
 brought down the average index figure for all com- 
 modities for the year to 120.8, while the figure for 
 farm products had gone up to 131.1. In 1909, when 
 the general figure was 121.2, that for agricultural pro- 
 ductions had grown to 134.9. In 1910 the general 
 index number reached 124, but the farm index number 
 had soared to 136.9. In 1911 the figures had become 
 127.2 for all articles, and 139.4 for the farm's share. 
 But in the bulletin issued for the month of June, 1912, 
 when the cost of living throughout Canada, as indicated 
 by the index number for wholesale prices in general, 
 had reached the highest point since our records began 
 to be kept, the highest since our prices were driven 
 upward by the civil war in the United States, namely 
 136.9, the average index for all agricultural products 
 throughout Canada had soared to the incredible height 
 of 172.7. This is demonstrative evidence that the agri- 
 cultural base of modern life is with us in Canada insuf- 
 ficient. A greater production on the farm is iniporn- 
 tively demanded for the nation's sake. 
 
 Of equally absorbing interest is a detailed compari- 
 son of the factors in the cost of living due to the prices 
 of different classes of goods for the month named, June, 
 1912. The index figure for beef is an even 200; that 
 for poultry, 222; for all animals and meats, 178.9; 
 for all grains and fodders, 189.5; for all dairy pro- 
 duct.s — lowest among produce of the farm — 137.4; lor 
 all other foods, 185.3. l>ut the very highest of all 
 lines apart from farm products is just on :i Itvrl with 
 the lowest of these, the index figure for boots and shoes 
 being 137.9. That for all building materials comes
 
 72 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 next, 131.5; for all textiles, 120.7; for drugs and 
 chemicals, 114.4; for housefiirnishings of all kinds, 
 112.8; for all metals and implements, 112.7; for all 
 fuel and lighting, 106. 
 
 That the agricultural base of supply in Canada is 
 becoming insufficient, and that a more general produc- 
 tion upon the farm is imperatively needed, is shown 
 also by the falling off in the supply of several staple 
 farm products. Canada in 1903 exported to Britain 
 over 34,000,000 pounds of butter. During the last 
 nine months of 1912 this export trade had entirely 
 ceased ; not a pound of butter was shipped to Britain. 
 On the contrary, Canada now imports butter from New 
 Zealand. During 1912 we imported in all 5,714,405 
 pounds, in value amounting to $1,511,654. Of eggs 
 Canada imported during the year, chiefly from the 
 United States, 11,007,345 dozen, paying for them 
 $2,327,924, and paying upon them in customs duties 
 $330,219. Of stall-fed cattle over 45,000 head were 
 shipped from Montreal to Britain in 1911, but less than 
 6,000 head in 1912. In 1881 there were 3,048,678 
 sheep upon the farms of Canada; in 1901, 2,510,239; 
 in 1911, 2,106,010. Were we to examine other smaller 
 lines of farm produce we should find the same rule hold- 
 ing good. For instance, we exported in 1912 $6,541 
 worth of beans, and imported $210,145 worth. Were 
 we to examine the output of each Province we should 
 find the same record. Ontario, for instance, had in 
 1912 106,000 fewer dairy cattle upon her farms than 
 in 1911. The receipts of fat cattle at the Toronto 
 stock yards fell off from 317,000 head in 1910 to 
 273,000 head in 1911. Corresponding facts might be 
 cited from every Province and in many fields of out-
 
 ECOXOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 73 
 
 put. A fuller production upou the farm is needed and 
 would bring sure reward. 
 
 In the face of such a showing as this concerning rela- 
 tive prices and lowered production, one may well ask 
 in the interest of the general community, " Why is 
 there migration from the farm ?" and in the interest 
 of the farmer, " Why is there dissatisfaction with farm 
 life ?" The rephicing of hand labor by machinery can- 
 not be the sole explanation. Many of our townships 
 had reached their maximum of population before the 
 chief developments in machinery had taken place. 
 Many New England " towTis " were becoming depleted 
 as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
 I^t us endeavor to search out some of the main causes. 
 
 The invariable rule is found to be that depletion 
 shows itself first and works out most completely on the 
 less fertile soils. I have stated that along the nearest 
 concession road to Spencerville, right over against the 
 village, are found seven adjoining farms without a 
 resident farmer. That tract of land is high-lying, 
 stony, thin-soiled over rock, and arid, beyond any ad- 
 joining areas. Yet on that now arid territory stumps 
 of pine still remain as evidence of a heavy growth of 
 white pine whose trunks were two and even three feet 
 in diameter. 
 
 We thus reach the first of the economic causes of the 
 migration from the farm, due to an error in the field 
 of conservation of natural resources, namely the opening 
 up to settlement and denuding of thciir forests of lands 
 IcKH profitable for agriculttire than for forestry. Lands 
 that are very valuable for forestry may be quite value- 
 leHs for agrictilttin-. A light soil of limited depth which 
 when cleared washes witb the rain, leaving ex{)ose(l
 
 74 KUEAL LIFE IN CA]!^ADA 
 
 rock, but which is held by binding roots while under 
 forest, is one example. Gravel which parts readily 
 with its water in the open but remains moist when in 
 woods is another. Sand which drifts with the wind is 
 a third. " It is a known fact that in certain upland 
 parts of the Eastern United States the average level of 
 the ground-water has fallen from ten to forty feet . . . 
 while springs and wells have permanently failed."* In 
 their original condition forests throve on these lands. 
 Once cleared it was impossible to maintain conditions 
 under which profitable agriculture could be carried on. 
 Even re-afforesting has become difficult. This condi- 
 tion holds of a large part of the mountainous and hilly 
 districts of the world. Yet upon these districts the 
 waterflow of the streams, and consequently the humidity 
 of the climate, and ultimately the productiveness of all 
 lands depend. Yet the policy of our Governments long 
 fostered exploitation of the forests upon such lands. 
 
 A great economic wrong has been inflicted upon the 
 world by the exploitation of all natural resources, a 
 waste made possible by modern means of transportation 
 and manufacture employed under control of the purpose 
 of present gain alone, untempered by the thought of 
 service or of responsibility for the future ; a wrong of 
 such magnitude as to amount to actual spoliation of 
 coming generations, of such magnitude as to amount to 
 actual defiance of the God of Providence. 
 
 The world of to-day is in the position of an heir who 
 has come into possession of a great estate and is reck- 
 lessly squandering his patrimony : 
 
 Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine.t 
 
 * Commission of Conservation, Report I, p. 13. 
 t Oliver Goldsmith, " The Traveller."
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 75 
 
 Engineering science has made it possible for men to 
 draw rapidly upon all resources; transportation has 
 made it possible to seize the pristine wealth of all con- 
 tinents, and the foolish heir of the ages has not come 
 to his senses in regard to the use of his new domain. 
 
 Men are to-day becoming millionaires through seltish 
 exploitation of forest and stream and field and mine 
 and ocean, and of the toil of their fellow men until not 
 only the blood of the poor innocents, but also the dried- 
 up beds of the brooks, the bared rocks of the hillsides, 
 the weed-covered, scrub-covered fields of our fathers, the 
 shaft-and-tunnel trap-doors of forsaken mines, and the 
 extinct genera of sky and earth and sea cry aloud to 
 God who made all things very good, to the God who 
 " worketh even until now," that He might fashion this 
 earth as a fit habitation for all men of all generations. 
 
 I charge our farmers, who go to the West to exploit 
 the virgin fertility of the prairies and have no thought 
 of making a permanent home for themselves or their 
 children there, with a dastardly crime against society ; 
 — yet it is a crime in which they are but feeble imita- 
 tors of the objects of men's worship to-day, the million- 
 aire exploiters of the world's wealth. 
 
 Our fathers sinned, both in ignorance and wilfully, 
 and we their children are paying the penalty in depleted 
 communities, but even while paying the penalty we are 
 sinners beyond our fathers. 
 
 Yet again, we have other unoccupied farms where 
 substantial buildings, enclosed garden-plots and trim 
 fields, as well as local history, attest the exi8tenc<» of 
 profitable farming carried on in the recent past. Here 
 we reach another error in the realm of conservation — 
 unscientific farming that has depleted flic fertility of
 
 76 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 lands which should have grown in productive capacity 
 under tillage. 
 
 Among all recent movements one of the richest prom- 
 ise is that of the national conservation of natural 
 resources. Of these, looked at in their widest range, 
 human efficiency stands first ; but next to it, in power 
 for good or ill upon human welfare, undoubtedly ranks 
 fertility of the soil. The Committee on Lands of the 
 Dominion Commission of Conservation carried on in 
 1911 an investigation in the form of an Agricultural 
 Survey of 1,212 farms throughout the Dominion, 100 
 in each of the Maritime Provinces, 200 in Quebec, 300 
 in Ontario, and 412 in the four western Provinces, to 
 discover whether there was upon these farms conserva- 
 tion of fertility, of labor, and of health. The informa- 
 tion received was neither second-hand nor superficial. 
 The report of the chairman. Dr. J. W. Robertson, in- 
 forms us that " In most of the Provinces the farmers 
 are living upon the accumulated capital which nature 
 provided in the soil, leaving their lands poorer because 
 they had been on them."* Yet a fair number are not 
 only maintaining but increasing fertility, and in this 
 fact is found the ground of hope for the future. They 
 are of the type which survives upon the farm, the class 
 to which all shall yet belong. In Prince Edward Island 
 51 per cent, report larger yields than they had formerly, 
 the increase dating from 15 to 18 years ago. In Nova 
 Scotia 46 per cent, of the farms examined show an 
 increase ; in Quebec, 39 per cent. ; in New Brunswick 
 and in Ontario 24 per cent., the increase dating from 
 ten years ago, while in Manitoba not one farmer reports 
 
 * Commission of Conservation Report, III, p. 57.
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 77 
 
 an increase, and 40 per cent, acknowledge a marked 
 decrease. '' The decrease of yield per acre in that Pro- 
 vince," says Dr. Robertson, " must be concurrent with 
 exhaustion of fertility." 
 
 The broadest inductions we can reach show that this 
 loss is widespread. The area under cultivation in the 
 West — Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta — in- 
 creased 269 per cent, in the last decade ; the amount of 
 products increased only 185 per cent. In the United 
 States the wheat area increased 56 per cent, between 
 1S90 and 1900, the yield only 40 per cent.; the corn 
 area increased 31 per cent., but the yield only 25 per 
 cent. 
 
 Here again, as in the case of the exploitation of the 
 forest, the lure of the soil is addressed to the worst that 
 is in man, the appeal of the soil to his best. " The lure 
 t»f the Prairies is like unto the lure of the Yukon and 
 the lure of the Cobalt, — ' Come and take something, 
 ship it out, and make yourself rich.' " But the 
 appeal of the soil is that we treat the land with loving 
 care so aa to reap ever-increasing profits while preserv- 
 ing the crop-producing power of the soil for the benefit 
 of our descendants. And the reward is not material 
 only, whether present or prospective. " When man 
 exhausts the soil, what does he do? He helps to make 
 the j)oopl(' more careless and less competent; he leaves 
 them less [»o\ver and more poverty in every respect. On 
 the oth<'r hand, when he preserves and increases the fer- 
 tility of the soil, the p(K)ple therel)y becom(! increasingly 
 efficient and capable. Tliese two go together. Ft is 
 for us to see that \\u' fertility of our soil shall be main- 
 tained, an<l that there shall l)e continuously improving 
 conditions for the rural population." " Consider that
 
 78 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 report from a virgin Province with the accumulated 
 wealth of 50,000 years of the Creator's deposits in that 
 savings bank of soil ; that not one farmer in a hundred 
 has reported any increase over ten years ago, and that 
 46 per cent, of them have reported a decided decrease. 
 That gives us much food for thought. It brings out a 
 grave situation for consideration. It is to me, much 
 more imminent of blessing or disaster than any other 
 material question now before the West."* 
 
 O Demeter, abounding in fruit and ears of the harvest, 
 Well may this field be wrought and yield a crop beyond 
 measure.f 
 
 But we have not only tracts that are springing up 
 in scrub forest and other areas that afford pasturage for 
 the stock of adjoining farmers ; the major portion of the 
 land in the township of Edwardsburg is for sale. Not 
 that it is all so advertised, though much of it is. Lead- 
 ing Edwardsburg farmers assure me that three out of 
 four of the farmers in the township are ready to accept 
 any reasonable offer for their acres. Why should this 
 be the case ? 
 
 The Lands Committee of the Conservation Commis- 
 sion carried on in 1911 an investigation gleaning infor- 
 mation fairly representative of the actual conditions in 
 each Province in regard to the practice of well-planned 
 farming as shown by systematic rotation of crops, the 
 practice of sowing selected seed, and the application of 
 manures ; and also as to the inroads of weeds, insect 
 pests, and plant diseases. This inquiry into actual con- 
 
 * Report cited, p. 92. 
 t Theocritus, Idyll X.
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 79 
 
 • lit ions was made by competent men. It was scientific 
 ri'search, not in the laboratory, but in the rural com- 
 munity. The Report indicates that a comparativel;^ 
 small number of farms are run under good systems of 
 cropping and good methods of cultivation. A few of 
 the salient points brought out by the survey are : That 
 (Hit of the 800 farms under investigation in the Mari- 
 time Provinces, Quebec and Ontario, on only 25 per 
 wnt. is any systematic rotation of crops followed ; in 
 a representative Ontario county " a percentage of the 
 farmers hardly know what is meant by the term system- 
 atic rotation." Yet, Dr. Robertson states, wholly 
 apart from the effects obtained from fertilizers, and 
 simply by the use of a rotation which includes the bean 
 or clover crop, there has been in specified places an 
 increase of from 100 to 150 per cent, in amount, with 
 an increase of from 200 to 300 per cent, in profit. 
 
 Mr. Grisdale, Director of Dominion Experimental 
 Farms, stated in his evidence before the Select Standing 
 Committee of the Senate on Agriculture, in 1912, that 
 the average farmer spends $10 an acre in the cultivation 
 of his land, and, according to the census, receives 
 $15.50, making a clear profit of between five and six 
 dollars, but that at the Experimental Farm cultural 
 operations cost $11.77, and crop return is $45.47 per 
 afro, making a profit of $33.70. 
 
 As regards the use of selected seed the Report states 
 that by the majority of farmers nothing is done in the 
 way of seed selection more than to grade tlu^ grain 
 through a fanning mill. Yet Dr. Ivohertson assures us 
 tliat by seed wieetion alone the croits of (Canada can 
 Ik' doubled. " In Ontario, field crops last year were 
 worth $193,000,000, and if there were $193,000,000
 
 80 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 more of wealth coined into existence out of chaos, not 
 transferred out of one pocket into another, but called 
 into existence by intelligent labor out of otherwise chaos, 
 indifference, want of knowledge, want of ability, want 
 of application, waste of sun power, and failure to use 
 the seed power that is all about us, — ^what an enriching 
 gain to us it would be ! If the crops of the whole North- 
 west last year — Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta 
 — had been a complete failure, so that nothing grew, 
 what a depression would have come over Canada, what 
 a measure of dearth and starvation would have come 
 over that part of our inheritance. That hints at the 
 effect on our national life of $220,000,000 of value 
 from crops being here or not here. The doubling of the 
 crops of Ontario would be an addition to the value of 
 the crops of Canada almost as great as the addition of 
 the crops of these three great Provinces has been."* 
 
 Some years ago Dr. Robertson directed an experiment 
 carried on on 1,400 farms throughout Canada wherein 
 for three successive crops the finest heads were selected 
 from the most vigorous plants of wheat and oats. The 
 exact amount of increase was computed in percentages. 
 Dr. Robertson, recognized everywhere as one of the 
 world's trusted leaders in reliable experiment, applied 
 the percentage of increase thus obtained to the field 
 crops of Canada, finding that " if all fields had been 
 sown with similarly superior seed, not imported from 
 Kamschatka, but selected from the fields and farms of 
 Canada, we should have got from the same area enough 
 grain to fill 1,500 miles of railway cars ; enough increase 
 above what we harvested to fill 1,500 miles of railway 
 
 * Commission of Conservation, Report III, p. 91.
 
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 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 81 
 
 cars in one year. Surely that is a confirmation of the 
 statement that if the methods employed by the best 10 
 per cent, of the farmers prevailed all over Canada, we 
 would get this doubling of the value of our crops, 
 $565,000,000." 
 
 The loss from the prevalence of weeds, insects, and 
 plant diseases was found to be heavy. Taking the 
 farmers' own judgment as to the amount of loss — 
 always, when carefully given, an under-estimate because 
 of lack of trained habits of observation — this runs to 
 an average of $75 to $100 to each farm. There are 
 areas in the West actually abandoned through the pre- 
 valence of wild oats and stinkweed. In the county of 
 Brome, Quebec, orange hawkweed threatens to destroy 
 the pasture and has reduced its power for carrying stock. 
 In Lanark County, Ontario, the injury done by sow- 
 thistle is so alarming that it is predicted farms will be 
 abandoned. Dr. Robertson remarks, in reporting on 
 this matter: "I do not want to say anything dis- 
 paraging about Canada . . . but I have to go to 
 Scotland once in a while to get the delight, the refresh- 
 ing delight to one's eyes, of seeing farming that is clean, 
 and beautiful in its cleanness." 
 
 Vet Britain once suffered most severely from weeds. 
 The poet Crablx? gives us this vivid picture: — 
 
 Rank weeds that every art and care defy 
 Reljfn o'er the land and rob the blighted rye; 
 There thistles stretch their prickly arms afar 
 And to the ragged Infant threaten war; 
 Thf-re popples nodding mock the hope of toil; 
 Th're the blue biigloBB paints the sterile soil; 
 Hardy and high, above the slender sheaf 
 The Bllmy mallow waves her allky leaf; 
 6
 
 82 KUKAL LIFE IN CAl^ADA 
 
 O'er the young shoot the charlock throws a shade, 
 And clasping tares cling 'round the sickly blade; 
 With mingled tints the rocky coasts abound, 
 And a sad splendor vainly shines around.* 
 
 Loss throiigli inferior stock in dairying is heavy. 
 The average yearly yield of milk per cow in Ontario 
 is 4,540 lbs. But there are many cows in the Province 
 yielding 15,000 lbs., and some that reach 22,000 lbs. 
 At the Winnipeg meeting of the British Association in 
 1909 the Danish Live Stock Commissioner described 
 methods in use in Denmark which had raised the aver- 
 age yield of cows from 80 lbs. of butter in 1864 to 220 
 lbs. in 1908. 
 
 l^OT is this the limit of our loss. The township of 
 Edwardsburg, among other excellent products, yields 
 potatoes of superlative quality. Competent judges 
 affirm that at Spencerville Eair the samples of potatoes 
 annually exhibited grade upon the average higher in 
 excellence than those seen at the Provincial Exhibition 
 in Toronto. Yet this superlative crop has no recognized 
 place in the market. The chief reason appears to be 
 that a score or two of varieties are commonly grown, 
 and when shipped all of these varieties may be found 
 in one carload. 
 
 Thus we find that the economic problem is not only 
 one of technics — of utilizing to best advantage the 
 powers of nature in growing plants and animals for 
 human use, but also of economics in its strict sense as a 
 science — of utilizing agricultural production to best 
 advantage when it has taken place, through transporta- 
 tion and distribution, through development of consump- 
 
 • George Crabbe, " The Village as It Is."
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 83 
 
 tion, through business co-operation, through all the rela- 
 tions of agriculture to other industries and to legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 Dr. Georire H. Clark, Dominion Seed Commissioner, 
 emphasizes the condition we have just pointed out, as 
 one cause which accounts for the lack of market for 
 products intrinsically good : the absence of standards of 
 uniformity in shipment. " The Ontario potato crop 
 is a badly mixed crop. Were the commercial potatoes 
 that are marketed in Toronto offered in England, Lon- 
 don's poor would have an opportunity to buy cheap 
 potatoes. Any good cook will tell you that she gets 
 poor results if she boils long white, round white, and 
 rose types together."* The same condition and a simi- 
 lar failure are found to apply to the marketing of other 
 products. Successful millers must establish and main- 
 tain definite uniform brands of flour. Ontario millers 
 find that they can combine 60 per cent, of Ontario wheat 
 and 40 per cent, of Western wheat with the finest re- 
 sults, yet many of our largest milling concerns are not 
 in the market to buy Ontario wheat, because they find 
 it impossible to get two carloads that will give the same 
 result. Three years ago the Dominion Government 
 advanced 400,000 bushels of seed oats to farmers in the ' 
 West, owing to the failure of ripened seed in the previ- 
 ous autumn. Ontario had a largo supply of good com- 
 mercial oats to offer ; all were rejected by the Seed Com- 
 missioner because obtainable only in mixed varieties 
 and types. The whole amount was secured in Scotland 
 without difliculty, all true to the Abimdance type. i\Ir. 
 Clark asks the farmers of Canada to look at our wheat, 
 
 •O. TT. Clark. 12th Annual Hoport, Ontario Agricultural 
 Societies, p. 26.
 
 84 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 oats, barley and potato crop through the spectacles of 
 the miller and the consumer in general, assuring us that 
 if that be done it will raise the average value of these 
 crops by several per cent, simply by making the supply 
 already secured more uniform in quality. 
 
 Yet again, potatoes have been delivered on board cars 
 at vSpencerville at thirty cents a bushel, and report says 
 that the same potatoes have been sold at Toronto, still 
 on board cars, at a dollar a bushel. That more than 
 double the amount paid the farmer — whose labor is ex- 
 pended months in advance, whose capital is engaged 
 throughout the year — should be paid to the first middle- 
 man and the transportation company, whose capital is 
 engaged in this transaction for a few days only, is not 
 conducive to the satisfaction of the farmer. The cause 
 of what seems an excessive difference in price would 
 appear to be due to the fact that farmers are not organ- 
 ized for business purposes. Co-operation is absent. 
 
 Too small a proportion of the price paid by the 
 ultimate purchaser goes to the farmer. Part at 
 least of the excessive cost of agricultural products 
 is not due to anything that the farmer does or 
 leaves undone. According to the United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture it cost approximately 55 
 per cent, of what the consumer paid to take the farm 
 products of that country from the farmer to the con- 
 sumer. What the farmer sold for six billion dollars 
 consumers paid thirteen and one-third billions. A Com- 
 mission appointed by the State of New York reported 
 lately that the food of New York, as received from the 
 farmers, costs, laid down at the railway terminals, 
 $350,000,000 a year, but delivered to the homes 
 $500,000,000. This added charge of 43 per cent, the
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETION 85 
 
 Cominisaiou holds, is due in large part, uot to excessive 
 profit, but to sheer waste. 
 
 There is need of applying business methods to the 
 question of what shall be consumed on the farm and 
 what sent to market. Our exports of farm products 
 constitute a question of supreme national importance. 
 To every hundred dollars' worth of exports from Can- 
 ada the main industries contribute as follows: Fisheries, 
 $5; manufactories, $12; mining, $15; lumbering, $16; 
 and agriculture, $51. In that proportion do our in- 
 dustries pay our debts to the outside world. Now, some 
 of this agricultural export trade is bad business. " The 
 butter exported from Denmark to Great Britain in 
 1909 was 197,751,024 lbs., worth $49,802,400; and 
 that almost fifty million dollars' worth of butter carried 
 out of Denmark less of the elements of fertility than 
 did each thousand tons of hay shipped out of Quebec 
 to New England. There is a contrast indeed in the 
 national administration of agriculture ! Fifty million 
 dollars' worth of butter impoverishing the land less 
 than each thousand tons of hay, worth at most, 
 $14,000!"* 
 
 Finally, sufficient attention is not paid to sheer ex- 
 cellence of product. In every neighborhood there are 
 a few farmers whose products command a much higher 
 price than those of the majority. " The Danes take 
 from England enough more money than any other 
 nation obtains for an equal quantity of butter, bacon, 
 and eggs, because of their superior quality, to pay for 
 their whole educational work and to have a balance 
 over. For the superiority of their butter, bacon, and 
 
 • CoDBervatlon CX>mmlHHlon, III, p. 103.
 
 86 EUHAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 eggs, they get, as a premium, more than we spend on 
 our rural schools from the Atlantic to the Pacific."* 
 
 Moreover, the farmer bears economic wrongs as well 
 as suffers under economic failure. The report of the 
 Commission on Country Life transmitted by President 
 Eoosevelt to the Senate and House of Representatives 
 in 1909 lays the chief emphasis upon this feature of the 
 farm problem. In the view of the members of the Com- 
 mission the first of the main special deficiencies in coun- 
 try life is " disregard of the inherent rights of the land- 
 worker." The handicaps which they have specially in 
 mind are: the speculative holding of lands, the mon- 
 opolistic control of means of transportation and of 
 streams; wastage of forests, with consequent exposure 
 to floods and to disastrous soil erosion ; and restraint of 
 trade. They find that farm property bears an unjust 
 share in taxation. And among the remedies which 
 they recommend are " a thoroughgoing investigation by 
 experts . . . into the farmer's disadvantages in re- 
 gard to taxation, transportation rates . . . and 
 credit, . . . and careful attention to the farmer's 
 interests in legislation and the tariff."f 
 
 Speculative holding of lands has not as yet become a 
 handicap to farmers in Eastern Canada. But specula- 
 tive buying of farm lands is a menace of the near future. 
 Throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
 and Illinois farm lands have more than doubled in 
 price within a decade. So soon as there is any check 
 upon the freeness of land for settlement in our own 
 West, the conditions which prevail in these States will 
 be found in Canada as well. The rise is speculative in 
 
 * The same, p. 104. 
 
 t Country Life Commission, Report, p. 8.
 
 ECOXOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETIOls^ 87 
 
 character. There is certainly no legitimate justifica- 
 tion to be found for it in the relation between invest- 
 ment and return in farming as an industry at present. 
 The inflation in price would seem to be due to antici- 
 pation of a prospective demand for land in the near 
 future. Its immediate result is a deceptive prosperity, 
 and a change in the character of ownership. The 
 farmer is able to borrow increased amounts against in- 
 creased value, and mortgages are increasing; and many 
 farmers sell at the first slight rise to capitalist investors 
 who reap the profits of further rise in value, while 
 tenants replace agricultural owners. This phase of the 
 problem is one in regard to which the interest of the 
 Canadian farmer is expressed in the adage : Forewarned 
 is forearmed. 
 
 But in the West the speculative holding of lands 
 becomes nothing short of a blight upon progress. 
 Around railway towns lie concentric circles of vacant 
 sections. The townships everywhere are checkered 
 with unoccupied squares. The farmer is pressed far 
 out upon the prairie. The haulage to the elevator is 
 increased, and all the conveniences of life lie at a dis- 
 tance. The making of roads is retarded. Every mile 
 of long-distance travel is an economic loss. The schools 
 are under a handicap. The organization of the town- 
 ships is rendered less effective. 
 
 The whole subject of the relation of the great rail- 
 way systems of Canada to the farmer teems with 
 questions touching public welfare. The larger aspect 
 of several of the questions raised by the American 
 Country Life Commission are with us embraced under 
 this head. 'I'he policy followed in opening the West 
 waa controlled more largely by con.sideratious of rail-
 
 88 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 way traffic than of common welfare. Settlers were 
 soiiglit by a world-wide propaganda in order that when 
 placed on the land they might furnish railway freight- 
 age. Eventual national progress would have been 
 more fully secured by a less artificial development. 
 Agriculture in the West would have developed upon 
 more helpful lines. It is more than a question whether 
 agricultural prosperity in the East was not injured 
 by the forcing of Western grain-growing. The exodus 
 from Nova Scotia and Ontario was due not only to the 
 lure of free land in Manitoba, but also to economic 
 pressure in the East due to artificial development of the 
 West. And more recently we have seen considerations 
 of railway haulage become a factor in deciding an 
 issue of national importance to the disadvantage of the 
 farmer in the rejection of reciprocity in natural pro- 
 ducts with the United States. And an injury of great 
 magnitude has been inflicted upon the farmers of the 
 West by the exemption of the lands of the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway Company from taxation. The inten- 
 tion of Parliament was that these lands should be 
 exempt from taxation until the settlement of the local- 
 ity ; the interpretation placed upon the wording of the 
 act of gift is that they are exempt until the settlement 
 of the particular parcel of land. Municipal develop- 
 ment and all progress is thereby greatly hampered. 
 
 Our system of banking throws an undue burden upon 
 the farmer. Capital is withdrawn from the country 
 to be used in the city by means of facilities for making 
 loans to manufacturers which are denied to farmers. 
 I have heard farmers object to any proposal to furnish 
 them with facilities for credit on the ground that such 
 would be provision for sinking into debt. These indi-
 
 ECONOMIC CAUSES OF DEPLETIO:^' 89 
 
 viduals belong to the same economic school as did the 
 farmer who, when a horse of his was killed, said that 
 it didn't matter, for the horse had cost him nothing, 
 as he had paid for him in labor. Credit is one of the 
 strong factors of modern progress. The farmer needs 
 it for the utilizing of production in advance of sale. 
 Too much capital is idle in the hands of farmers. 
 When the manufacturer has a hundred plows in his 
 warehouse he can realize upon them at once by bor- 
 rowing upon them as security. When the farmer has 
 a thousand bushels of wheat in his granary he cannot 
 borrow upon it, although it is the best collateral security 
 in the world. Our banking laws expressly forbid the 
 banks to make such loans. The farmer must secure 
 current loans by personal note or by chattel mortgage. 
 In consequence, although the farmer is the safest of pri- 
 vate borrowers, he nevertheless pays the highest rate of 
 interest. Xot in all countries, however. France and 
 Germany, for instance, have provided adequate farm 
 credit. And thus, while strong national governments 
 obtain permanent loans at 2 per cent, interest; while 
 call loans in New York bear 2.4G, and the Bank of 
 England's discount rate in 1911 averaged 3.47; while 
 the best commercial paper in New York bears 4.10, 
 strong railroad l)onds 4.60, public utilities 5.00, the 
 best industrials, 5.50, and average industrials, 6.50; 
 while French farmers borrow at 4.30, German farmers 
 at 4.40, and even Arab farmers in Egj'pt at 8.00, the 
 American farmer borrows at an average of 8.50 per 
 cent. Fanners in the f'anndian West are charged 10 
 per cent, by the banks. 
 
 Our general system of taxation is an economi(r injus- 
 tice to the farmer. All taxation should fall upon value
 
 90 EUKAL LIFE IN CA]!^ADA 
 
 for production, not upon means of living. To treat 
 all wealth alike in this regard is to fail to see that each 
 generation owns in absolute fee its own production, but 
 has only a life interest in the sources of wealth. There 
 are four factors in production: "land," in its widest 
 economic sense; "labor," including ability as well as 
 toil ; capital ; and society. The contribution of society 
 is the so-called " unearned increment," which is found 
 not only in the price of land, but in the wages of labor 
 and in the interest of capital. This is the true " unpro- 
 ductive surplus " of political economy. This incre- 
 ment of the value of land, labor, and interest, earned 
 by society, should become, not the subject of taxation, 
 but in its own entirety the whole complement of taxes. 
 The function of taxation is not to lay a burden upon 
 land, labor, or capital, levying the burden according to 
 the patient willingness of the shoulder to bear it, but 
 to appraise the share of production due to society as a 
 partner with the other three and to hand over to her 
 her own. And had society wages as she has worth, 
 wealth would be hers for all her tasks, and her members 
 would be relieved from their burdens alike of poverty 
 and of riches. Under the failure of government to 
 accomplish this true function of taxation the farmer is 
 the chief sufferer. His is the most patient shoulder 
 beneath uneconomic taxation, and upon it in conse- 
 quence the heaviest load is placed. 
 
 Enough! the lie is ended. God only owns the land; 
 No parchment deed hath virtue unsigned by His own hand, 
 Out on the bold blasphemers who would eject the Lord, 
 And pauperize His children and trample on His word.
 
 ECOXOMTC CAUSES OF DEPLETIO:^^ 91 
 
 Behold this glorious temple with dome of starry eky, 
 And floor of greensward scented and trees for pillars high, 
 And song of birds for music, and bleat of lambs for prayer. 
 And incense of sweet vapors arising everywhere. 
 
 Behold His table bounteous spread over land and sea. 
 The sure reward of labor, to every mortal free; 
 But harki through Nature's anthem there rises the refrain, 
 God made the world, but giveth it unto the sons of men.* 
 
 • J. W. Bengough, " Verses Grave and Gay."
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS OF 
 THE PROBLEM
 
 My lord rides through his palace gate. 
 
 My lady sweeps along in state; 
 
 The sage thinks long on many a thing, 
 
 And the maiden muses on marrying; 
 
 The minstrel harpeth merrily, 
 
 The sailor ploughs the foaming sea. 
 
 But fall to each whate'er befall. 
 
 The farmer feedeth all. 
 
 Smith hammereth cherry-red the sword, 
 Priest preacheth pure the Holy Word; 
 Clerk Richard tales of love can tell. 
 Dame Alice worketh 'broidery well; 
 Great work is done, be it here or there. 
 And well man worketh everywhere; 
 
 But work or rest, whate'er befall. 
 
 The farmer feedeth all. 
 
 — Charles G. Leland. 
 
 God, make me worthy of Thy land 
 Which mine I call a little while. 
 This meadow where the sunset's smile 
 
 Falls like blessing from Thy hand. 
 And where the river singing runs 
 'Neath wintry skies and summer suns. 
 
 I would be nobler than to clutch 
 
 My little world with gloating grasp; 
 
 Now, while I live, my hands unclasp, 
 O let me hold it not so much 
 
 For my own joy as for the good 
 
 Of all the gentle brotherhood. 
 
 — R. W. Gilder.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Economic Solutions of the Problem. 
 
 Agriculture as a business is advancing. Its rewards 
 to-day are very much greater than ever before. And 
 the efficiency of its service to human need is even greater 
 than the rewards have been. 
 
 A comparison of the agriculture of England five hun- 
 dred years ago with that of the present is informing. 
 " In those days half the arable land lay in fallow. The 
 amount produced was — to take wheat as an example, 
 about eight bushels the acre in ordinary years — less 
 than a third of an average crop at the present time. 
 There were no artificial grasses. Clover was not known, 
 nor any of the familiar roots. As a consequence there 
 was little or no winter feed, except such coarse hay as 
 could be made and spared. Cattle were small, and 
 stunted by the privations and hard fare of winter. The 
 average weight of a good ox was under four hundred- 
 weights. iSheep, too, were small, poor, and came slowly 
 to maturity. The average weight of a fleece was not 
 more than two pounds. With ill-fed cattle there was 
 little or no strong manure. Iron was very dear, cost- 
 ing, to take wheat as a standard of relative value, nine 
 times as much as it does now. But the number of per- 
 sons engaged in agriculture was nearly as numerous 
 as it now is. It fnil)ra('od, to be sure, nearly the whole 
 population, though all their labor did not produce an 
 
 9.T
 
 96 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 eighth part of that which is gathered at present."* 
 But great as has been the progress of the art of farming 
 since the period when the yield was one-eighth of that 
 now obtained from equal areas of arable land, relatively 
 to the advance in world progress in general since the 
 advent of the modern industrial world, agriculture is 
 falling behind. There has not been the multiplying 
 of efficiency in this field that there has been in the pro- 
 duction of cotton or of steel. Marvellous as has been 
 the progress in the development of better varieties of 
 grain — for instance, our new Canadian barley, of 
 which a recent issue of World's Work editorially 
 says : " Twelve grains of barley have encircled the 
 earth — twelve grains of barley borrowed from Canada 
 by the University of Wisconsin have sent millions of 
 their progeny abroad over our land. Their fame has 
 made this new race sought even as far as Russia . . . 
 It has added many millions to the profit of the man on 
 the soil," — it has not kept pace with, for example, the 
 advance in the conquest of disease by modern medical 
 science. And this relative slackening of pace is much 
 greater among the main body of agriculturists than 
 among its leading exponents. The problem of the 
 farm, from the standpoint of agriculture as an art, is 
 simply this: how to apply all the elements of modern 
 efficiency as wrought out in the industrial world as a 
 whole through invention and organization to that art 
 throughout its whole extent. Where this is done suc- 
 cessfully, as in Denmark, the rural problem is not felt. 
 
 So great is this relative failure of farming as an occu- 
 pation that farm lands have slight value to the farmer 
 
 * Thorold Rogers, " Manual of Political Economy," p. 158.
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 97 
 
 as an investment. Thej give him little more than 
 opportnmity to earn a livelihood as a workman. That 
 is, he receives no " rent," as that term is used in politi- 
 cal economy, and little return for capital. The farmer 
 is at once landlord, capitalist and workman. As land- 
 lord he oAvns his land surface. As capitalist he owns 
 his buildings, his stock, his implements, and the tilth 
 in which he keeps his land — all that the farmer in 
 Britain provides, who pays rent for his land-area to 
 the landlord. As workman he fulfils a double func- 
 tion, he is manager of a business and manual laborer. 
 As landlord he is entitled to fair rent as trustee for his 
 land so far as rent does not include unearned special 
 privilege. As capitalist he has the right to the usual 
 reward of capital — and the reward of capital, when 
 its risks also are kept in view, should be fairly equal 
 in all lines of employment. As a workman he is 
 entitled to the wages of labor and of management. The 
 first charge to be paid out of any business is labor's 
 wage, then the wage of superintendence ; next comes 
 capital's portion with its two shares, the first for main- 
 tenance, the 8ecx)nd for interest; and last of all, the 
 portion for rent. Now, in many cases the whole income 
 of the farmer is sufficient only for wages of labor and 
 management, with nothing left as return for the invest- 
 ment of capitalist and landlord. Some fifteen years ago 
 Mr. Robert Sellar, the able editor of the Huntingdon 
 Gleaner, made a series of first-hand investigations into 
 the investment an'l income of farmers in the counties 
 of Chateaugiiay and Huntingdon, (Quebec, and showed 
 conclusively that many received no return, not only as 
 " economic rent," but even for capital invcstcrl in equip- 
 7
 
 98 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 ment. This was, indeed, at the period of greatest de- 
 pression, when farm prices were less than one-half what 
 thej are at present. But it was also, be it noted, in 
 one of our most fertile districts, the Chateauguay valley, 
 and among a people who rank as one of our progressive 
 farming communities. What was true of such a dis- 
 trict at that period must hold even at this time in less 
 fertile districts. The same facts are presented from 
 the obverse point of view by Dr. Warren H. Wilson: 
 " Near Ithica, New York, farmers prosper as they do 
 in few parts of the State, but by a survey made by the 
 College of Agriculture it was found that among 615 
 farmers the average labor income was only $423. That 
 is, after paying interest on their invested capital and 
 accounting for work done by others the farmer is able 
 to pay himself a wage of only about $1.20 per day."* 
 Nor is this to be considered a trifling item in our 
 national prosperity. A superficial observer might sup- 
 pose the capital investment of our farmers a bagatelle 
 compared with that in our great transportation, manu- 
 facturing and commercial interests. The truth lies 
 quite the other way. Over the Horticultural Build- 
 ing of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto 
 in 1912 a streamer was flying bearing the legend: 
 " Ontario's Farmers' Invested Capital One Billion Two 
 Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars." It is vital to 
 Ontario's welfare that that amount be not sunk in 
 unremunerative investment. Ontario's investment in 
 agriculture is greater than all Canada's investment in 
 industrial enterprises. These the Financial Times 
 estimates at $1,245,000,000. It is greater than all the 
 
 * " Men and Religion Messages," Vol. VI, p. 2.
 
 ECOXOMIC SOLUTIONS 99 
 
 savings of the people of Canada held as liquiil assets. 
 These, as deposited in the banks, amonnt to slig:htly 
 over one billion dollars. For every dollar Canada has 
 invested in manufacturing she has five dollars invested 
 in agi'icultnre. 
 
 Again, there is a fixed charge against the farm which 
 must be constantly met or farming cannot continue. It 
 is the subsistence wage for the family and cost of wear 
 and tear of the plant. Income from whatever source 
 must meet this of necessity, and more than this for 
 satisfactory living. Beyond it lies the " productive sur- 
 plus," which makes the business a progressive one, and 
 beyond this again the surplus proper, which constitutes 
 the prize for which progressive industry strives. Sup- 
 pose this fixed charge to be $750, suppose it $1,000 — 
 it varies with the standard of living — if income falls 
 Ixdow this amount the alternatives are: to abandon the 
 farm, to live on in grinding poverty, to seek some side 
 line of gain, or — to make farming pay better. The 
 two former alternatives are ruled out for us by our 
 very thesis. Which of the latter is the true alter- 
 native? 
 
 Some look for seasonal industries to be established in 
 the country. The demand for farm labor is to some 
 extent a seasonal one; help is needed at certain times; 
 there is leisure at others. Tt is thought that other 
 seasonal industries might be made to dovetail in with 
 this. The hat factories of Hrockville and those of iMat- 
 teawan, New York, call away certain Spencerville 
 peopN' for a time twi<'<' a y<*ar. Let ns, the suggestion 
 runs, have many such seasonal industries in the coun- 
 try itself. I fear the whole scheme is quite Utopian. 
 It miglit serve the other industries slightly; it could
 
 100 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 never widely serve the farm home. There is indeed 
 force in Dr. Kobertson's words before the Conservation 
 Commission : "A good system of rotation provides for 
 the spreading of the labor of the farmer over most of 
 the year. The other system means a rush of work and 
 very long hours for two months in spring and two in 
 harvest, and little satisfactory occupation during other 
 parts of the year. I have never known a healthy man 
 who, under sixty, could loaf for half the year and escape 
 the devil. I do not mean the devil hereafter, but the 
 devil here and now. A man has to be at something, 
 something with a definite purpose that calls out his 
 powers, or he will not be happy. "Where the practi- 
 cable system of farming does not provide satisfying, 
 profit-leaving work during the winter, let us have what 
 the Swiss have, what the Swedes have : the home indus- 
 tries — not for profits, but for the salvation of the boys 
 and young men, for the satisfaction of the women. 
 Labor, intelligent, skilful labor, labor with good will, is 
 a means of grace, whereby the race will be ever rising, 
 rising, rising."* Dr. Robertson advocates not seasonal 
 industries in factories, but home industries for moral 
 rather than for economic ends. A better way, economi- 
 cally, is the one he points out in his opening sentence. 
 A good system of rotation of crops is the fountain-head 
 of good cultivation, as well as a fountain-head of good 
 living. Of the four economic alternatives the fourth 
 and not the third is the true choice. 
 
 Sir Horace Plunkett, who has done so much for 
 Irish agriculture through promoting co-operation, has 
 uttered a famous dictum concerning the needs of 
 
 • Conservation Commission, III, p. 96.
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 101 
 
 American farmers : '' Better living, better farming, 
 better business." Now it is as often better business 
 as it is better farming that is necessary for the 
 better living that is sought. Just as the weakness, 
 economically, of the factory worker lies in this, that 
 the capitalist, who holds the stronger economic 
 position, controls the whole product, produced co-opera- 
 tively by capitalist and laborer, so the economic weak- 
 ness of the farmer lies in this, that he has no voice in 
 fixing the price for which he sells his products, no voice 
 in fixing the cost of transport for his products, and no 
 voice in fixing the price of the commodities required 
 in his occupation ; and also in that whereas his market 
 has become world-wide, and the unit of sale has become 
 the carload, he has no means whereby he can sell by 
 sample at a distance, or furnish products by the unit 
 of delivery. The farmer must enter the modern bro- 
 therhood. The repair of country life can only come 
 on modern lines. Nevermore can we have the inde- 
 p>endent household unit or the self-sufficient farmstead 
 any more than we can have the journeyman days of 
 industry restored. The efficiency of agriculture calls 
 for organization and specialization corresponding to 
 those which have made modern industry productive. 
 
 The rural problem is far from being solely, or even 
 chiefly, an economic one. But in so far as economic 
 in character it must have an economic remedy. Coun- 
 sels of patience avail naught here, and the rewards of 
 gracious growth under discipline are the incentives in 
 another realm of struggle than this. Yet the econ- 
 omic remedy is found to have, at every step of its ap{)li- 
 cation, a moral implicate without which it is unavail- 
 ing and unavailable. What is needed is a new rural
 
 102 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 organization whose formative processes themselves shall 
 prove to be at once the needed ethical disciplines v^hich 
 shall bring the new age into touch with God through 
 Christ and the social opportunities for the satisfaction 
 of aspirations now unrealized. 
 
 All lands must be put to their best use. In Edwards- 
 burg we have several thousands of acres of sand-bar- 
 rows. Once they had mould enough to yield large 
 crops of corn, rye and potatoes. Now they afford 
 scanty pasture. So soon as the mould is once broken 
 through they become drifting sand. There are already 
 many hundreds of small areas where the sand drifts 
 in wavelets with every wind. It is beautiful, but with 
 a beauty which is costly and is unappreciated. The 
 fertile intervales between the sand-barrows are threat- 
 ened. Herein lies a real community danger. 
 
 For years past I have urged, from every available 
 platform, the instant duty of reafforesting every acre 
 where drift may yet occur. Last year I was invited by 
 a farmer in the neighboring township of Augusta to 
 visit his farm and see a plantation of four thousand 
 thrifty young pine trees from one to four years old, 
 growing where drifting sand had been. The Govern- 
 ment of Ontario had supplied the seedlings free of 
 charge. It is the beginning of much that is yet to be. 
 Forestry, silviculture, shall yet rank with agriculture. 
 Its importance as an occupation, to say nothing of its 
 importance in conserving stream flow, rainfall, fertility, 
 and climate, or in supplying the world's timber needs, 
 is not realized. " For example, in our Province of 
 British Columbia the timbered land will have 10,000 
 to 40,000 feet of timber to the acre, say on an average 
 25,000 feet, which would furnish to our transportation
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 103 
 
 companies material for freight to the extent of 37^2 
 tons. If the land were used for agricultural purposes 
 it would take the crops for fifty years to equal this. 
 In marketing this crop of timber there would be spent 
 in wages only over five dollars per thousand feet, or 
 $125 per acre ; and the Government would receive fifty 
 cents per thousand feet, or $12.50 per acre as royalty. 
 How many years of cultivation for agricultural pur- 
 poses would it take to produce the same result r''^' *' To 
 cite another case of fiinancial result of forest manage- 
 ment, I may refer to waste-land planting in France, 
 which was carried on with State aid by municipalities 
 and private enterprise. Here, in the last sixty years, 
 2,300,000 acres of absolute waste land of various 
 descriptions were reclaimed by forest planting at a 
 total cost of $15,000,000. These areas are now esti- 
 mated to be worth $135,000,000, and furnish annual 
 crops valued at $10,000,000, or, in other words, yield 
 67 per cent, on the initial outlay."! When waste land 
 is allowed to return to forest without care the result is 
 scrub growth. The forest of silviculture is as different 
 from such woods as are the fields of the College at Ste. 
 Anne from those of the Syrian peasant. Let me cite 
 one other example of actual attainment, from Massa- 
 chusetts. Three-year-old plants of Norway spruce 
 were set out in 1878 on hillsides, in poor sandy soil, 
 unfit for cultivation, which was yielding less than fifty 
 cents per acre yearly as pasture. The land cost the 
 State five dollars per acre In 11)10 four average trees 
 were cut for wood-jjulp. 1 hey ran from 50.7 to 71.8 
 
 •John Hi.-ndry, CommlHslon of Conservation. 11, p. ;»:i. 
 t Dr. H. K. F«rnow. Tho Ham<', I, p. 32.
 
 104 RUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 feet in height and from 0.9 to 1.3 feet in diameter at 
 the base. The four trees gave 70.6 cubic feet of timber 
 for pulp, which yielded 1,225 lbs. of the dry product. 
 At the present price of pulp the total yield per acre, if 
 cut, would be $1,111. If to the value of the land an 
 equal sum be added for the planting, plus compound 
 interest and taxes, the total capital employed may be 
 estimated at $64.83 per acre, so that the total yield 
 for 32 years would be $1,046, or $32.70 per acre for 
 each year.* All hillsides and all rough lands in the 
 world should be in forest. 
 
 A few miles from Spencerville stands a shaft on the 
 spot where the first Macintosh apple tree grew. In 
 its native home. Eastern Ontario, this fine variety 
 attains an excellence which it reaches nowhere else; 
 and here it should be largely grown. The orchard 
 lands of British Columbia command a price of $1,000 
 an acre. Yet large areas in our Eastern Provinces — 
 those adapted to the growing of the Macintosh in East- 
 ern Ontario, for instance, the Fameuse near Montreal, 
 or the New Brunswicker in the St. John Valley — are 
 in the market for one-tenth to one-twentieth or even 
 one-fortieth of that price because now devoted to dairy- 
 ing and grain-growing, which under scientific orchard- 
 ing would yield as large returns as do the Okanagan 
 fruit lands. Not over one-tenth of the suitable land is 
 under orchard in the far-famed Annapolis Valley. 
 
 Putting the land to a more appropriate use has 
 proved, in specific cases, a real solution of the problem 
 of depopulation. Fruit-growing has saved the situa- 
 tion in several counties in Ontario. Wentworth County 
 
 * Publications of the International Agricultural Institute, 
 Rome, Vol. I, No. 6, p. 34.
 
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 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 105 
 
 is one of the ten Census Districts with a growing rural 
 population. Let us take Saltfleet, one of its townships, 
 as an illustration of our principle. This is a lakeside, 
 fruit-growing township. After a temporary decline in 
 population between 1881 and 1891, it has grown from 
 2,765 in 1891 to 3,029 in 1901, and 4,458 in 1911, 
 an increase of 61 per cent, in twenty years; while Bin- 
 brook, lying just behind it, w'ith ordinary agriculture, 
 declined from 1,674 in 1891 to 1,403 in 1901, and 
 1,245 in 1911, a decrease of 25 per cent, in the same 
 period. The County of Lincoln is another of the grow- 
 ing districts. North Grimsby is an example of its 
 fruit-growing townships, increasing in rural population 
 from 1,095 in 1891 to 1,321 in 1901, and 1,758 in 
 1911, a growth of 60 per cent, in a score of years; 
 while South Grimsby, immediately adjoining, declined, 
 with mixed farming, from 1,610 in 1891 to 1,379 in 
 1901, a loss of 14 per cent, in ten years, but which with 
 the adoption of orcharding has again begun to hold its 
 own. In each of the ten growing districts — in all of 
 which there had been a previous decline of population — 
 there has been adoption of some line of special agri- 
 culture. 
 
 Another point of exceeding interest is to be noted in 
 this connection. The class that is growing is always 
 the one which is rendering fullest service to the com- 
 munity, not the one which is taxing it most severely. 
 Such is the case with the fruit-growers of Canada in 
 comparison with her general farmers. In 1911, when 
 the average index figure for farm products in general 
 stood at 139.4, for all fresh native fruits it stood at 
 1 16.1, with a drop in the summer fruit season to 89.1. 
 The avoragf figure for the decade has been only 107.
 
 106 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 But forestry and orcharding touch merely the fringe 
 of the application of this principle of adapting the 
 system of farming to the nature of the land. An analy- 
 sis of the soil of the Eed Kiver Valley, made at Eotham- 
 sted, in England — where soils are known as nowhere 
 else — reveals that the plains of Manitoba, the objective 
 point of the migrations of the buffalo of old, are best 
 suited to grass. And grass, plain grass, is king; and 
 neither wheat nor corn nor cotton. Grass conserves, 
 protects, enriches the soil. Grass in abundance spells 
 good crops for years to come. Grass is the foremost 
 crop in extent, the greatest revenue producer of the 
 world. It, too, in turn, needs to be adapted to fittest 
 use. In Lanark County, Ontario, Drummond, with 
 level, rich soil and good roads, is best fitted for dairy- 
 ing; Dalhousie, with rolling hills and fertile valleys, 
 is the natural home of beef cattle, while Burgess, with 
 its large, rougher farms, is an ideal home for sheep. 
 
 Adaptation to soil, climate, and all conditions, must 
 become the fundamental condition of all husbandry. 
 An American authority puts the case well : " In a 
 rough way the American farmer has done precisely 
 this. The wheat belt, the corn belt, the cotton belt, the 
 sugar-beet belt, the fruit belts, are the result of this 
 adaptation. In the future, however, an approximate 
 or rough adaptation will not answer. It must be accu- 
 rate, scientific. The number of cultivated crops is sure 
 to increase rapidly. New varieties will demand special 
 environment. Competition between lands will force 
 the best use of every acre. Minute conditions of soil- 
 texture, slope, drainage, rainfall, frost-line, sunshine,
 
 ECOXOMIC SOLUTIONS 107 
 
 are already considerations in intensive farming, and 
 will dominate more and more widely."* 
 
 But how secure this ? Leading farmers everywhere 
 are already guided by it ; how shall all be led to follow ? 
 Such is the final question in all discussions of our 
 problem. The solution is not economic in nature, but 
 ethical — it depends not on knowledge, but character. 
 " The results of intellectual achievement of one race 
 or one man may be freely borrowed by the rest of the 
 world, provided the rest of the world have the moral 
 qualities which will enable them to profit by them; 
 whereas moral qualities cannot be borrowed by one race 
 from another. Japan, for example, could easily borrow 
 from* European nations the art of modern warfare, 
 together with its instruments of destruction ; but did 
 not lx>rrow, and could not borrow, that splendid courage 
 and discipline which enabled her to utilize so efficiently 
 the inventions which she borrowed. So one nation can 
 easily borrow farm machinery and modern methods of 
 agriculture, but it cannot borrow the qualities which 
 will enable it to profit by them. Saying nothing of 
 mental alertness and willingness to learn, ... it 
 could not borrow that patient spirit of toil, nor that 
 sturdy spirit of self-reliance, nor that forethought which 
 sacrifices present enjoyment to future profit, nor can it 
 borrow that spirit of mutual helj)fulness which is so 
 essential !"• any effective rural work, . . . nor can 
 it borrow a general spirit of enterprise which ventures 
 out upon plans and purposes which a{)prove themselves 
 to the reason. These things have to be developed on 
 
 • K. L. Buttorflold, " Country Church and Rural Problem." 
 p. 14.
 
 108 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 the soil, to be bred into the bone and fibre of the people ; 
 and they are the first requisite for good farming."* 
 These considerations apply to every successive requisite 
 for betterment, and make the problem fundamentally 
 a problem for the church. 
 
 Care, too, for the conservation of fertility, we must 
 have. Canada apparently ranks fairly well in produc- 
 tion per acre. Measured by yield of wheat, our 
 average per acre in 1911 was 19.5 bushels, whereas that 
 of Russia was 8, of the United States 12.6, of France 
 20.5 bushels. Yet our standing in productiveness is 
 only apparent. We seem to be doing fairly well 
 because we are bringing virgin land by the million 
 acres under crop, thus keeping average up. But how 
 does even that average compare with Britain's 32.6 or 
 Denmark's 44.8 bushels to the acre ? 
 
 Our fresh-turned prairie sod affords a yield above 
 Europe's best. What would it not mean to us if such 
 fertility were maintained ? And it could well be. The 
 pity of the present situation, with rapid depletion of 
 fertility, is that it is quite unnecessary. Not only so, 
 but fertility once lost can be restored. Two hundred 
 years ago the yield of wheat in England was eight 
 bushels to the acre. During the last fifty years it has 
 averaged from thirty to forty bushels. The possibili- 
 ties for Ontario, whose average in 1910 was 25.2 bushels 
 for fall wheat, and for spring wheat 20.19 bushels, 
 is shown by yields obtained at the Experimental Farm 
 at Guelph. Fourteen varieties of wheat which had 
 been under test for sixteen successive years gave in 1911 
 an average yield of 50.5 measured bushels of 62.2 lbs. 
 
 • Prof. T. N. Carver, " Rural Economy a Factor in the Suc- 
 cess of the Church," p. 15.
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 109 
 
 to the bushel and for the sixteen-jear period an average 
 of 46.7 bushels averaging 61.3 pounds per bushel. A 
 four years' rotation was employed. A light applica- 
 tion of barnyard manure was made once in each rota- 
 tion. No artificial fertilizers were used. 
 
 So great a physicist as Sir William Crookes feared 
 that there was danger that the nitrogen of the soil might 
 be too scant for producing permanently sufficient wheat 
 crops. But through the discoveries of later investi- 
 gators we have learned that by means of the life of bac- 
 teria on the roots of clover, alfalfa, and all legumes, 
 nitrogen is taken directly from the air and prepared for 
 the use of other plants. There are only three factors in 
 depletion of fertility — the loss of humus; the decrease 
 of either of three inorganic elements, nitrogen, potash, 
 and phosphorus ; and deficiency of bacteria. All three 
 factors are easily controlled ; the presence of any one 
 is most serious. On our prairies, humus, so abundant 
 in the virgin sod, is being lost so rapidly that the spring 
 winds blow away the soil, leaving the seed exposed. 
 The rotation of two crops and fallow must be replaced 
 by a rotation including grass or clover. " Experiments 
 in Minnesota have shown that out of 170 lbs. of nitro- 
 gen lost from virgin soil in a year only 27V2 were 
 absorbed by the crop and 132V^ were purely and simply 
 lost. The only means known whereby such loss can be 
 prevented is to alternate the raising of wheat with 
 crops of vegetables and of forage." Dr. Frank T. 
 Shutt, of the Doiiiiiiion Experimental Farm, by moans 
 of analyses which rank among the most thorough-going 
 ever made on this continent, has shown that there is 
 only nitrogen enough in the best soils of Canada for 
 150 crops of cereals, but over each acre floats in the air
 
 110 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 enough for a million crops, upon which we may draw 
 by means of clover. Potash is liberated through fer- 
 mentation by the use of manure. But Dr. Robertson's 
 words are to be well weighed when he tells us that 
 " phosphorus is somewhat deficient ; and there is great 
 danger for the future of farming in Canada unless we 
 conserve that and put it back upon the soil."* As to 
 the third factor in depletion, we know that " by cultiva- 
 tion and good management the farmer can increase the 
 population of his soils by many myriads of bacteria per 
 square inch in the course of a few years. "f Yet I have 
 seen in Ontario fields of loam where heavy crops of 
 rye had been recently grown, lying uncultivated and 
 in such shape that upon more than two-thirds of the 
 surface of the soil no weeds were to be seen. The 
 ground was bare. Bacteria there were almost none 
 in that soil. 
 
 In my judgment this is almost the chief economic 
 cause of the rural exodus. Few think of leaving the 
 farm whose crops are increasing. And here again the 
 implications of the problem are ethical. The brief his- 
 tory of the North Dakota Better Farming Association 
 brings this fact out clearly. Although that State, the 
 pristine richness of whose prairies was so great, was set- 
 tled only in 1880, the average yield of wheat from 1905 
 to 1910 was but 12 bushels to the acre. In 1911 it 
 fell to 9 bushels. Thereupon Mr. A. Rogers, the lum- 
 ber king of the State, sought out Mr. B. L. Howe, the 
 elevator king, and said, " This State is going back to 
 the badgers. We have not more than ten years' busi- 
 ness ahead of us." Together they called on Mr. J. J. 
 
 * Conservation Commission, III, p. 62. 
 t The same, p. 48.
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 111 
 
 Hill, who from his desk reached for a paper in a pigeon- 
 hole, saving, " Here is your plan for betterment, and 
 here is a subscription of $5,000 a year for three years 
 to put it through." The Soo lino of railway and the 
 Great Northern each duplicated his gift. The banks, 
 townships, and the counties contributed, until there was 
 in hand the sum of $43,000 a year for three years. 
 The Association sent to the Minnesota State Agricul- 
 tural College begging the loan of their best man for 
 three years as Director. Professor Thomas N. Cooper 
 was sent. By spring fourteen counties were organized 
 under a force of twenty-six men whose work was to give 
 practical demonstrations in the field, and teach rotation 
 of crops and farm accounting. At the close of the 
 first season's work, Professor Cooper tells the Better 
 Farming Association that what they must get after first 
 is not the betterment of North Dakota's wheat or flax 
 crop, but her ^fan crop. The problem is one of 
 ch^jaeter. 
 
 The churdi must teach that conservation is a moral 
 task ; must sound a clear note against exploitation of 
 the soil as essentially immoral. Farmers know fam- 
 iliarly the common practice of tenants whereby a course 
 of cropping is pursued that will take the utmost pos- 
 sible out of the land within the rental period. They 
 recognize that it is to the disadvantage of the owner, 
 but they look on him as helpless. The church must 
 stress the Old Testament truth, never to be superseded, 
 that the earth is Jehovah's. Ood is tliaf Owner whose 
 fields men are devastating, and He is not hcifjless in the 
 ease. Such preaching, listencil to. will bold men on 
 the land tbrongli llicir prosjicrity. :nnl tn llicir Mcsscd- 
 ness. 
 
 V
 
 112 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 There must be adaptation of farm practice, along all 
 lines, to scientific methods of production. What does 
 not the world owe to men such as Lord Townshend, to 
 whom is attributed the famous Norfolk four-year rota- 
 tion of crops; Robert Bakewell, who in England in 
 the eighteenth century adopted the methods by which 
 all breeds of live stock have since been improved; Sir 
 J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, who taught men to under- 
 stand the soil; and Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, 
 who has raised the development of vegetable life to a 
 new plane ! Similar work is being done most success- 
 fully in Canada. The technicists of the Dominion 
 Experimental Farms " have given the farmers of the 
 West control over the climate to the extent of escaping 
 frosts in great measure by means of varieties of wheat 
 which will ripen days earlier than was formerly the 
 case." The technicists of the Ontario Agricultural 
 College have given to the world a barley which yields 
 on the average some four bushels to the acre more than 
 any other variety before grown. At Macdonald Col- 
 lege at Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec — the Agricul- 
 tural Department of McGill University — experimental 
 and educational work is being carried on over a square 
 mile of farm land, which is the equal of any being done 
 in the world. From these sources and from many others, 
 through our Farmers' Institutes and other organizations, 
 we obtain every needed help for a great forward move- 
 ment. President Butterfield, of the Agricultural Col- 
 lege of Massachusetts, generously acknowledges our 
 standing : " Ontario presents a good illustration of how 
 a good agriculture can be created in a dozen years, by 
 co-operating methods of agricultural education. Her 
 provincial department of agriculture, her experimental
 
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 ECU.XOMIO SOLUTIONS 113 
 
 station, her agricultural college, her various forms of 
 extension work, and her various societies of agricul- 
 turists have all worked together with an unusual degree 
 of harmony for the deliberate purpose of inducing 
 Canadian agriculturists to produce the things that will 
 bring the most profit. The results have been most 
 astonishing and most gratifying/'* To read such 
 words may bring a glow of satisfaction. But let not 
 the satisfaction obscure for us the force of the wise 
 words. Agriculturists need to be induced to produce 
 the things that will bring most profit. Again we meet 
 with the ethical implication of the economic remedy. 
 Duty is laid upon the progressive man and unprogres- 
 sive alike. How shall we gain what Denmark has 
 found ? No farmer to-day in Denmark feels that he 
 has done his duty, if he has discovered a better method 
 of raising a crop or feeding a cow, until he gets all 
 others to adopt the same method. How shall others 
 realize that " agriculture is f^>r the gaining of crops, 
 and the gaining of the best crops from a constantly 
 improving soil depends upon the capacity and quality 
 of the men " ? Whence the " statesmanship in agri- 
 culture which shall ensure the perpetual well-being of 
 an intelligent prf»ple animated by goodwill and rooted 
 in land well tilled and beautiful '( That, I think, might 
 be to us a vision, as it should Ik' an incentive to help in 
 the making of the new earth wherein dwelleth rigliteous- 
 nes-s-''^ 
 
 And there inust come adaptation of farm maiiage- 
 nient tr) tbe most inipnived iriethods of modern bjisiness. 
 A Spencerville farmer was transformeij from :i routine 
 
 • K. L. Buttorfleld, " Chapters in Rural ProKross." p. 190. 
 t Dr. .1. W, RobftftBon, Commission of Conservation. I, p HO. 
 
 g
 
 114 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 worker into an alert business man by the introduction 
 of the Babcock test in dairying. Its use revealed to 
 him that he kept a few cows at good profit, and yet 
 more at no profit. He began to apply the same business 
 principle to other things — the feed value of different 
 fodders, for instance. Then accurate records of the 
 daily production of milk by each cow in the herd were 
 begun. Pedigreed stock of the finest strains was pur- 
 chased, and developed with unusual success. Some 
 time ago a stockman visited his barn, examined his 
 records, picked out a score of head, and asked, " What 
 is your figure for these ?" When, after computation, 
 the farmer named his figure, the stockman without a 
 word wrote out a cheque for the amount. The sum 
 was larger than all the stock of every kind upon the 
 farm, together with all the equipment of the farm, 
 together with a fair proportion of the price of the farm 
 itself, had amounted to fifteen years before. What had 
 business methods meant to that farmer ? He had 
 learned to make a livelihood ; but more, he had learned 
 to live. He and every member of his family had found 
 in farming a zest unknown before. It had become an 
 absorbing occupation, and thereby many of the interests 
 of life had been transformed. Those who begin to live 
 in this way do not leave the farm. There are many 
 particulars concerning which there is a clamant cry 
 for the application of better business to farm manage- 
 ment, but in no particular is the need more pressing 
 than in providing some more efficient means of distri- 
 bution of farm products. There exists a small co-opera- 
 tive association of farmers at Spencer ville who ship 
 their eggs under guarantee of freshness, uniformity of 
 size and color, and regularity of supply, and gain from
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 115 
 
 two to ten cents a dozen above the re^ilar price by doing 
 so. A farmer had a fairly good two-acre orchard from 
 which he received about $75,00 a year for his fruit. 
 A co-operative society was formed in the neighborhood 
 in 1906. He joined it for the purpose of setting an 
 example rather than for any particular good that he 
 thought he would receive at the hands of the Associa- 
 tion. But improving influences were at work, and 
 year by year this improvement was measured by his 
 returns. In 1911 the same man with the same orchard 
 and practically the same number of trees received 
 $432.00 for his apples. The co-operative packing, 
 under positive guarantee, of the apples of British 
 Columbia has gained for them a market and fame. The 
 St. Catharines Cold Storage and Forwarding Company 
 is an example of what can be done in the shipping of 
 produce. Their distributions have grown from a few 
 hundred dollars in the first year to $90,000 in 1911, 
 and upon this it is safe to say that there has been a sav- 
 ing of between $10,000 and $20,000 in the year to the 
 farmers. The company is co-operative. The Canadian 
 Seed-Growers' Association is a fine example of the im- 
 provement of the conditions of an industry possible 
 under co-operation. 
 
 Sir nr>race Plunkett, one of the ablest of the writers 
 who have discussed on its economic side the farm ques- 
 tion as it exists in the United States, regards this as the 
 first essential in meeting the problem: "The Country 
 Life movement deals with what is probably the most 
 important problem before the English-speaking peoples 
 at this time. Now the predominance of the towns, 
 which is df'prcssing the country, is based partly on a 
 fuller application of modern f)hysiral scienrc, partly on
 
 116 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 superior business organization, partly on facilities for 
 occupation and amusement ; and if the balance is to be 
 redressed the country must be improved in all three 
 ways. There must be better farming, better business, 
 and better living. These three are equally necessary, 
 but better business must come first. For farmers, the 
 way to secure better business is co-operation, and what 
 co-operation means is the chief thing that the American 
 farmer has to learn."* Such business co-operation the 
 farmers of Denmark have secured, and in securing it 
 have become strong. By means of it the farming of 
 Denmark is so specialized and so organized that it 
 resembles more the great modern industries than old- 
 time farming. Yet the land is still owned and worked 
 by small-acreage farmers. In no other country is farm 
 population holding its own as in Denmark. 
 
 The first requisite for such co-operation in Canada 
 is the securing of legislation authorizing the formation 
 of co-operative societies, defining their objects, powers 
 and responsibilities, and providing safeguards for their 
 operation and for central co-ordinating societies. There 
 is an essential difference between the organization 
 requisite for joint stock companies and co-operative 
 societies, a difference indicated by the very names of 
 the two classes of organizations. The one is a combina- 
 tion of capital, the other an association of persons. In 
 the control of the company the holding of shares con- 
 stitutes the voting power ; in the control of the society 
 membership does so. 
 
 Sir Horace Plunkett says: "The object of rural 
 associations is not to declare a dividend, but to improve 
 
 * Sir Horace Plunkett, " The Rural Life Problem in the 
 United States," p. 84.
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 117 
 
 the conditions of the industry for the members. In the 
 control of the manag:eraent the principle of * One Man 
 One Vote ' should be strictlv observed, an essential con- 
 dition of co-operative as distinguished from joint-stock 
 organization."* " This principle is so well established 
 by the experience of all countries that it is rather re- 
 markable that it has not yet affected Canadian legisla- 
 tion. Those who have read the history of co-operation 
 will have remarked that while there are individual 
 societies composed of men of exceptional ability and 
 public spirit that have succeeded with a joint-stock 
 organization, yet speaking generally co-operation has 
 been a dismal failure until suitable legislation was pro- 
 vided, or at least until antagonistic laws have been 
 repealed."f As our legislation now is, Canadian 
 farmers seeking formal organization are obliged to use 
 the methods of capitalism that enable those whose inter- 
 ests are not necessarily in the land or the industry to 
 control the organization and take what toll they please. 
 But more than legislation is required. Law is effec- 
 tive only as it embodies public will. In 1896 the Na- 
 tional Agricultural Union of Great Britain attempted 
 c<^)-operati()n on a large scale. The British Produce 
 Supply Association was formed. A quarter of a million 
 dollars was put in the scheme. Owing, however, to the 
 want of organization among the farmers it was found 
 that regular supplies could not be obtained. How shall 
 the (•o-op<'rative spirit be fostered ? H(!re as every- 
 where, we come finally to the moral difficulty under- 
 lying the economic one. Our farmers' l)oys do not 
 
 • Thr Outlook, December, 1911. 
 
 t A MacNell. Department of Agriculture, Canada, " Report, 
 Third Conference of the FrultKrowera of Canada," p. 19.
 
 / 
 
 118 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 learn team-play in their games at school, and the lack 
 follows them throughout life. A spirit of independence 
 is the strength but becomes the weakness of rural life. 
 Bishop Gruntvig's splendid Folk Schools scattered 
 broadcast the seeds of co-operation throughout Den- 
 mark. The Roman Catholic Church, under Leo XIII., 
 deliberately adopted similar methods in the Encyclical 
 " Rerum Novarum," and the fruit is being seen in the 
 " Catholic Workmen's Organizations " of Europe. Is 
 there not a lesson here for us ? 
 
 Co-operation in Canada has so far been found in two 
 classes of farm industry only, dairying and fruit-grow- 
 ing. It is equally applicable to stock-raising and to all 
 forms of farm production. It is the needed agency for 
 securing all the desiderata mentioned in our previous 
 discussions, — transportation, distribution, development 
 of markets, selling by sample, uniform grading of pro- 
 ducts, and excellence of output. 
 
 But co-operation has still another field of operation 
 in the farmer's relation to the financial world. We have 
 a fine example of what can be accomplished in this 
 direction in co-operative insurance in the Grenville 
 Patrons' Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Its office 
 is in the village of Spencerville ; the directors are 
 all farmers of the vicinity. It is now in its twenty-first 
 year of service. Its operations extend over five counties. 
 The policies in force number 4,957, their average 
 amount $1,600; the amount at risk $7,916,460. The 
 business has been carried on with unbroken and in- 
 creasing success from its inception. Such co-operative 
 financial concerns are an earnest of what our farmers 
 will yet accomplish. 
 
 At the beginning of the present session of Parliament 
 the Hon. C. W. White promised that the Bank Act
 
 ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 119 
 
 would undergo amendment during the session author- 
 izing banks to make loans on the products of the farm, 
 even including live stock. There are hints that oppo- 
 sition has arisen and that the hill will be withdrawn. 
 Such an outcome would constitute a call to our farmers 
 to form co-operative banking associations. There may 
 be other reasons for such action. Our banking system 
 is highly centralized. There are but five and twenty 
 banks in Canada. Two dozen bank managers control 
 the available liquid savings of the Dominion. It might 
 prove in the interest of national well-being that another 
 system of banking should arise to offset such centraliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Germany has a highly effective form of rural co- 
 operative banking. In 18-17 F. Raiffeisen, Burgo- 
 master of Flammersfeld, finding that the farmers of his 
 district could borrow only at usurious rates, formed co- 
 operative unions of the better-off citizens to loan to the 
 poorer. No profit was sought. The principle was dis- 
 interested love. After fifteen years, Raiffeisen con- 
 fessed failure; unions based on this principle had no 
 vitality. He then formed co-operative loan banks. 
 Farmers in a defined district syndicate their farm lands 
 under negotiable Ijonds which arc offered jointly as 
 security for the credit the society needs. The indi- 
 vidual farmer then borrows from this society. The 
 Central Co-operative Bank of Prussia co-ordinates the 
 societies. The source-book for information upon their 
 working is Volume I,, Monographs on Agricultural 
 Co-op(;ratioii, the International Institute of Agricul- 
 ture, Rome. TlnTe are over 1G,000 of the co-operative 
 societies, united in fifty-two federations, all united in 
 the Central Co-c)j)erative Bank. Their loans to farmers 
 in 10 10 amounted to $:i,800,00(),0()(). The average
 
 120 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 rate of interest paid bj farmers is 4.4 per cent. They 
 form the foundation on which the whole structure of 
 co-operation in Germany is built. Never, even during 
 the stress of the Franco-Prussian war or the later agri- 
 cultural depression, has there been the failure of a 
 single one. A Commission appointed by President 
 Taft recommends their adoption in the United States. 
 The Raiffeisen system has improved social conditions. 
 Our mortgage system lowers them. In Germany the 
 directors are the borrower's neighbors. To them he 
 must explain his need of money and his hope of repay- 
 ment. When an intemperate man is given a loan after 
 promising to leave drink alone it is to the interest of his 
 neighbors to keep him sober. German pastors affirm 
 that the Raiffeisen system is one of the strongest moral 
 influences in the community. 
 
 It is, finally, through the adoption of the co-operative 
 principle that we shall at length attain the political 
 unity and efficiency of rural communities so greatly 
 needed — not for class legislation, which is only evil con- 
 tinually — but for rendering forever impossible class 
 legislation hostile to the farmer, and for linking in one 
 upward movement of civilization the forces of reform 
 in city and country. 
 
 In building up our Northern Land to be 
 A vast Dominion stretched from sea to sea, 
 A land of labor but of sure reward, 
 A land of corn to feed the world withal, 
 A land of life's rich treasures, plenty, peace, 
 Content, and freedom both to speak and do, — 
 A land of men to rule with sober law 
 This part of Britain's empire, next the heart. 
 Loyal as were their fathers, and as free!* 
 
 ♦William Kirby, "Canadian Idylls," p. 136.
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST
 
 Would I, too, were a man like Philippe 
 
 To mount, and lover-like, in boots and spurs, 
 
 Rush into the great city's open arms! 
 
 The country is a dull old-fashioned maid. 
 
 Well enough, truly, for young wayward children, 
 
 As is a spinster aunt to care for them. 
 
 But when those children are grown men and women 
 
 They will be governed by the aunt no more! 
 
 I'm weary of these grave environing woods 
 
 'Midst which I dwell and watch e'en wandering clouds. 
 
 Until I yearn to wander after them. 
 
 — J. A. Middleton.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Social Causes of Unrest. 
 
 A better rural life must indeed be based on rural 
 economic prosperity. But the problem is not funda- 
 m.entally an economic one. Dr. Josiab Strong, " whose 
 inspiring and thorough social studies opened to men 
 this field of observation," has ever urged this. The 
 problem of production has been solved, he considers. 
 Let us suppose, he adds, the problem of distribution 
 (that is, the adjustment of wealth, not the transport of 
 products) also solved, so that there should be ample 
 provision assured for the physical wants of every human 
 being for all time to come. Would people, he then asks, 
 would people, delivered from the fear of poverty, be 
 more satisfied with life, more devoted to each other? 
 This question he answers by asking another: Has 
 this Ixiatific, altruistic change taken place in our 
 wealthy class who are freed from thought of reach of 
 want? James Russell Lowell in his last address to 
 college students bade them never forget the reason for 
 which colleges e.xist: " Not that you may get something 
 by which to earn your bread, but that every mouthful 
 of bread may be more sweet to your taste." The rural 
 problem is very largely one of such appreciation of life. 
 
 The problem of production is far from Ixnng solved. 
 In ("anada we have wheat in abundance, and therefore 
 bread, though bread alone, of our necessary food, keeps 
 low in price. But we have not the fruit nor flesh nor 
 
 123
 
 124. KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 fish nor fowl we need. The fear of famine for the 
 world is past, but the dawn only is breaking of that 
 bright morning when the earth shall yield her increase. 
 The whole wide earth shall yet become one great garden 
 of Grod, fertile and beautiful. 
 
 Reclamation shall yet take place by irrigation of 
 millions of acres now thought worthless, and of other 
 millions by drainage ; rich bottom lands shall be pro- 
 tected from river overflow by levees, and dykes reclaim 
 the fertile silt of lake and sea. 
 
 Conservation of soils from erosion, conservation of 
 the fertility of soils and of the means of enrichment of 
 soils, conservation of streams and forest and climate, 
 shall become universal; and the woods crowning all 
 the hillsides shall be peopled with plumaged birds and 
 fur-clad animals yielding regulated tribute to man. 
 
 The work of the wizards of agriculture in the de- 
 velopment of grains, grasses, roots and fruits, shall go 
 on until every vegetable prodvict shall exceed present 
 standards as far as the apples of Annapolis surpass the 
 wayside crab. 
 
 The work being done by national commissions in 
 searching all lands for every plant and shrub and vine 
 and tree suited to the climatic conditions of other coun- 
 tries shall become universally successful until each 
 country shall find itself, as John Reade has sung of 
 Canada: 
 
 Binding the charms of all lands that are rarest, 
 Like the bright cestus of Venus, in one.* 
 
 All that is best in each national system of agricul- 
 ture — the patient labor of China, where even now no 
 
 * John Reade, " The Prophecy of Merlin."
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 125 
 
 weed is ever seen — the universal proprietorsliip of 
 France, the technical research of Germany, the scien- 
 tific cultivation of Britain, the progressive management 
 of America, the thorough co-operation of Denmark, 
 shall become the heritage of all. 
 
 And then shall the earth yield her increase. The 
 Sahara shall become an unroofed greenhouse, arcaded 
 with palms, garlanded with vines, swarded with gourds; 
 every mile of the tropics shall be pruned into exuberant 
 largesse, and even the Arctics shall yield a richer tribute 
 than temperate zones once gave — for it is a scientific 
 fact that the moss-covered timdras of our Northland, 
 when once our herdsmen tend the reindeer there, are 
 fitted to give as rich an output of food for man as do 
 the grassy plains of Texas with their long-horned steers 
 to-day. 
 
 Let none despise the heritage of Our Lady of the 
 Snows! Why do the wild birds migrate to the north? 
 Not for longer hours of daylight, and not for solitude 
 for nesting, but for ampler food-supply. Lean of sinew, 
 they fly high above our ken as they go north, and the 
 pot-hunter scarce deigns to look for them as they pass. 
 Rotund of body, they fly low as they return, and are 
 everywhere slaughtered, for they have fed fat upon the 
 myriad swarms of inse<'t8 of the Arctic summer, and 
 their very flesh is stained jMirplc with the juices of the 
 V>errics «»f its autumn. Why arc our shoals of finest 
 food-fisliCK. wliy tbc whale, nature's masterpiece of phy- 
 sical grrtwtli, tlcuizenH of tli*- fold waters only? Be- 
 cause the «-o|(J waters, and they alon(!, :iie literally thick 
 with fftod, .\ii<l man shall yet, in some way, follow 
 nature's hints; and when he shall begin to ten<l bis 
 flo<;ks of Hf)lan geese and eider duck, he shall ask, but
 
 126 KURAL LIFE 11^ CAI^ADA 
 
 ask in vain, Why did not our fathers conserve for ns 
 the musk-ox, and all the wild one-time denizens of this 
 world of God's and ours ? 
 
 The problem of production, now being solved as re- 
 gards girders and rivets, shall then be solved as regards 
 bread for a fuller world. Shall it be a satisfactory and 
 a satisfied world ? That will be found to depend on 
 whether all that is best in every system of agriculture 
 in amplest development, and in every form of industry, 
 shall be crowned by the Christian ideal of service to 
 humanity — on the degree to which our struggling de- 
 mocracy shall be transformed into the likeness of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 The farmer has been dissatisfied with his returns. 
 But he is even more discontent with his situation. He 
 finds his conditions of labor unsatisfactory, his means 
 of education and recreation, his home, and even his 
 church. The country is lacking in the joy and pride 
 of labor; it is lacking in social life at present, though 
 it remembers wistfully the social pleasures of the 
 past ; lacking in a system of education adapted to 
 the farm, as our present school system is fitted to pre- 
 pare for the business office or the university; it is lack- 
 ing in healthful recreations, in appreciation of country 
 values ; lacking in community ideals, in altruism, in all 
 the newer ethical implications and applications of re- 
 ligion. And, inasmuch as man cannot live by bread 
 alone, even were there no economic problem, people 
 would still leave the country. 
 
 The hours of labor are long upon the farm. A fort- 
 night ago I was a guest over night at a farm home. 
 Though I was downstairs at a quarter past six in the 
 morning breakfast was already over. My hostess apolo-
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 127 
 
 gized, explaining that the men must have breakfast be- 
 fore thej began their day's work. " But surely," I said, 
 " that compels you to be at work very early in preparing 
 their meal for them before their work begins.'' "' I am 
 up every morning at half-past four," was her reply. 
 Yet it had been almost eight in the evening when, the 
 day's work being over, we three had sat down to the 
 feast of reason, the flow of soul, and the joy of the 
 spirit. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ 
 in America has adopted a platform which has been 
 styled the social creed of the churches and hailed as the 
 magna charta of the worker's sacred rights. This 
 social creed asserts that the churches must stand 
 ** for the gradual and reasonable reduction of the hours 
 of labor to the lowest practicable point, and for that 
 degree of leisure for all which is a condition of the 
 highest human life." The Pittsburg Survey declared 
 not onlv the seven-days week of labor, but the twelve- 
 hours day in vogue among the steel-workers, a disgrace 
 to civilization. What of the sixteen-hours day of many 
 of our women on Canadian farms ( The hours are long 
 for others than women. The growing boy, the imma- 
 ture youth, should not be expected to plod along as 
 steadily as the mature man, even through the rightful 
 hours of well-regulated toil. Forgetfulness of this on 
 the part of the father is the cause of much dissatisfac- 
 tion among country boys. And worse even than forget- 
 fulness may be found. There are undoubtedly cases 
 upon the farm where parents exploit their children's 
 labor for the sake of the money return as really as do 
 employers of child labor in factory or sweatshop. And 
 even the men tlicmsclves sufTer through overlong hours 
 of toil, Tho\igh agriculture is not one of the most ex-
 
 128 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 hausting forms of labor, it is monotonous, save for the 
 turn of the seasons, and it is often solitary. Even its 
 advanced forms often confine the solitary workman to 
 the ceaseless round of tasks in the barn throughout the 
 day and the week. For in many cases the new equip- 
 ment and the specialized lines were adopted with regard 
 paid to the output alone, and not to the effect upon the 
 agent. 
 
 The conditions of toil are often unnecessarily hard. 
 Labor-saving devices in the home are sometimes scantily 
 provided, while those for barn and field are ample. 
 " Evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want 
 of heart." Let us glance at a single illustration — the 
 supply of water in the house. The Agricultural Survey 
 of 1910 found that in Prince Edward Island ninety- 
 seven per cent, of the farm houses obtain water from 
 wells outside the house. All carry the water by hand. 
 In Nova Scotia only two per cent, of the farm houses 
 have water piped to the house. In New Brunswick 
 ninety-five per cent, obtain water from wells and springs. 
 In English-speaking Quebec ninety-two per cent, carry 
 water by hand. These conditions are general. This 
 lack is due perhaps chiefly to the fact that the equip- 
 ment introduced so liberally out-of-doors is not re- 
 garded as labor-saving by the man who has no 
 dread of toil, but rather as a means of adding to the 
 efiiciency of his labor and thus multiplying his output. 
 But the wife suffers nevertheless, and the daughters 
 leave. The household science courses offered by the 
 agricultural colleges point the way to a solution. 
 With wider knowledge of the possibilities of achieve- 
 ment through fuller equipment the daughters of the 
 farm will vie with their brothers in advance. 
 
 Conditions of toil in the fields also are unnecessarily
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 129 
 
 hard. The modern crusade against occupational dis- 
 ease must deliver the farmer from rheumatism and 
 many another affliction by recalling him from the fields 
 in rain and giving him more mastery over all the cir- 
 cumstances of his toil. The modern world can easily 
 afford such relief through a fairer distribution of the 
 profits of labor. 
 
 The problem of the farm laborer is an unsolved one 
 in Canada as yet, nor will it be solved until greater 
 efficiency is demanded, higher wages paid, and a home 
 for the farm laborer and his household provided. A 
 somewhat common custom at present is to pay a certain 
 monthly wage — the average for eastern Canada is 
 $32.66 per month for a season of some seven or eight 
 months — together with board at the farmer's table and 
 a room in his house, and also stabling and keep for the 
 hired man's horse. I recently asked one of our leading 
 farmers regarding the effect upon the efficiency and 
 general character of the men of this custom of main- 
 taining a driving horse. " They are out driving until 
 midnight," was his reply ; " the effect upon both morals 
 and efficiency is bad. But," he added, '' you can secure 
 them upon no other terms." The cottage for a home 
 would benefit employer and employee alike. What 
 modern industry has discovered modern agriculture 
 must learn, namely, that the best paid and cared for 
 labor is the most profitable. 
 
 The boarding of the hind nwu is often a hardship 
 to the honsowife. The custom iiciy have national com- 
 pensations. When :i Miiiii (»l foreign nationality is 
 hired, nothing else so effectively shapes him iutn a 
 Canadian citizen. But it has personal penalties. If 
 several men an* crnployed the strain upon the homo life 
 is severe. I havr- already instanced in another connec- 
 9
 
 130 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 tion a young Spencerville farmer whose father by the 
 purchase of several farms had replaced thirty-eight per- 
 sons by eight. Recently this young man told me of the 
 decision to rent the farm, giving as the chief reason 
 that his mother and sister were practically attendants 
 upon the hired men. The home, which has everything 
 desirable that country life can afford, is maintained, 
 but the barns and fields are in the hands of renters ; 
 and the city claims another of that type which gives 
 us nation-builders. 
 
 The result of conditions of labor on the farm is that 
 there is little of that joy and pride in one's work which 
 is essential to all true living. Our people need not only 
 to sing with our poet Anderson of to-day: 
 
 There is no land like our land, 
 
 The sea calls to the sea; 
 The mother that hath home us 
 Hath a daughter fair as she. 
 
 this may love the kopje, 
 
 And that the blue-gum tree, 
 But this land is our land, 
 
 And Canada for me!* 
 
 but to sing in the spirit of our poet Sangster, writing 
 just before our modern day began: 
 
 A song, a song for the good old flail 
 That our fathers used before us; 
 A song for the flail, and the faces hale 
 Of the queenly dames that bore us! ^ 
 We are old Nature's peers, 
 His royal cavaliers; 
 Knights of the plough! For no Golden Fleece we sail; 
 We're princes in our own right,— our sceptre is the flail !t 
 
 * R. S. G. Anderson, in " The Westminster." 
 
 t Charles Sangster, Cantata, " The Happy Harvesters."
 
 Till-: IIIKKI) MAX IX Till-: IImMK 
 
 UNNKi'KSSAlCV TnW. UATi;iC I-|:«'.\l Till': WDLL 
 
 WoIIIUIi'm riVlr(JI«MH tUHkH.
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 131 
 
 The country is lackinsr in social life. This lack is 
 seen not merelv in what is often called society, but in 
 its very elements. The fewness of women in the coun- 
 try brings seyere social strain. Domestic help for farm 
 homes cannot be obtained. In times of illness a trained 
 nurse can be secured. During the recoyery of strength 
 neighlx)rs render what assistance they can, but not eyen 
 the services of a washerwoman can be had for hire. In 
 May last T conducted the funeral of a wife and mother. 
 The household consisted, in addition, of the husband and 
 two sons under twenty. For six months a trained nurse 
 had been in charge, but the husband and the sons had 
 perforce to l>ecome the housekeepers. Since the funeral 
 they have lived alone, bereaved indeed. They are well- 
 to-do. They are eminently respectable. Yet attempts 
 to secure a housekeeper have been in vain. 
 
 Tho financial relation between farmers ami thoir 
 children has caused many a tragedy. I could cit(> an 
 instance of a man of thirty-five, married, with happy 
 children, an elder in his church, serving upon a rich 
 farm, without a dollar t<t own (»r to control except with 
 the express consent of his father. The son, but not the 
 father, holds the respect and the afi"ection of the com- 
 munity. A form of trial which has made this one man 
 strong through discipline has made countless hundreds 
 fail. Scant appreciation, little relaxation, iiiid Inck of 
 financial provision annually drives nuuiy promising 
 youths from the (■<»untry to the city, Financial (-(piality 
 iK'hveen husband and wife; wise rewards to the ciuM 
 for mastering tasks, leading on to a deliiiile under- 
 standing over indep(;ndent responsibility, are called for. 
 
 Means of social life, in the ordinary accej)tance of 
 that term, are lacking in the country. .V (juestiounairc
 
 132 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 sent out to a number of mj acquaintances brings more 
 evidence of this than of any other lack. One woman 
 quotes, in passionate protest, the words of Cowper: 
 
 O Solitude, where are the charms 
 Which sages have seen in thy face? 
 I Better dwell in the midst of alarms 
 Than reign in this desolate place. 
 
 The hunger for comradeship drives many a migrant 
 from the country to the never-filled cities. This need 
 must itself be met, for though there are compensations 
 in the country, " to speak of them is scarcely more 
 effective than to reason with the avalanche concerning 
 the glory of the mountain after it has felt the joy of 
 yielding to the forces that have pulled at its heart since 
 the world began."* 
 
 The social life of pioneer days had two character- 
 istics absent from that of the present. The essential 
 operations of the farm brought people together. Log- 
 ging was perforce a common task. There was not capi- 
 tal in the hands of the pioneers to secure its perform- 
 ance by paid labor. The nature of the task did not per- 
 mit of its being done single-handed. And so it was with 
 many other operations as well. The " bee " — the word 
 does not arise from the social habits of the honey bee ; 
 word and institution alike came down from ancient 
 Saxon days, when an alarm of danger from a foe 
 brought all together for defence — the " bee " to which 
 men had recourse for mutual aid in labor availed for 
 social utility as well. And the other characteristic was 
 that the satisfaction of ends attained gave place for 
 
 * Wllbert L. Anderson, " The Country Town," p. 196.
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNEEST 133 
 
 social purposes. Men felt that they were gaining what 
 they lived for, and so when some weeks of comparative 
 leisure came at different seasons of the year, a house- 
 hold would go to spend the greater part of a happy day 
 with another household in social cnjojnuent. iS^either 
 of these sources of social activities is found with us at 
 present. The newer and bettor agriculture is richer by 
 far in potentialities of social satisfaction through col- 
 laboration than was the earlier primitive form. But 
 these potentialities are not yet being taken advantage 
 of as they might and should be. The use of machines 
 made it possible for men to labor more alone. The ad- 
 vance in modes of agriculture has opened men's eyes to 
 a vision of things to be achieved, but attainment has 
 not come, and every moment and every energy are de- 
 voted to the progress or the prosperity so ardently de- 
 sired, while the needs of the social life are forgotten in 
 eager pursuit of the material goal. 
 
 Yet there are instances everj'Avhore to be found fore- 
 shadowing the coming good. I have mentioned a gath- 
 ering of seventeen farmers on silo-filling day, none of 
 whom used tobacco. Yet the group to which they be- 
 long has maintained a Pipe-club, and jolly good times 
 have been enjoyed at its meetings. They are remodel- 
 ling their barns, r in ploying modern adaptations of 
 cement and improved water systems. For the installa- 
 tion of tlicse improvements co-operatively they formed 
 a Pipe-and-Wrench Club. An annual business meeting 
 was necessarv, and of the first a social fnnctiun as wtll 
 was made, with wives and dangbtcrs present, and after- 
 • liiiner toasts. The meetings of the club then became 
 monthly affairs, witli papers read, diseussionH, ami 
 niUHic. It is a]f)ng some .sncli lines as these lliaf a better
 
 134 KURAL LIFE IN CAE^ADA 
 
 social life on the farm must be built up. The new social 
 satisfactions must be linked with the new economic co- 
 operation. . 
 
 The rural telephone is having almost revolutionary 
 effects in answering social need. There is a local tele- 
 phone company for Augusta and Edwardsburg town- 
 ships, with central exchange in Spencerville, whose cap- 
 ital is provided solely by our farmers, and whose board 
 of directors is composed of farmers. It has already 
 placed telephones in over five hundred homes, and is 
 rapidly extending. And again this is to be noted: the 
 social benefit arises through an instrumentality intro- 
 duced not for our social but for business purposes. In 
 this it is typical of all real betterment. Rural mail de- 
 livery is also affording help, although upon intellectual 
 rather than upon social lines. From the village of 
 Spencerville five delivery routes radiate, serving ap- 
 proximately four hundred homes. Another local insti- 
 tution of a genuinely social character is the agricul- 
 tural fair. The township one held in Spencerville is 
 the year's chief visiting day for hundreds of households. 
 And again we notice that this instrumentality has been 
 maintained in social efficiency by remaining true to its 
 agricultural character. Those fairs in neighboring 
 towns which commercialized their attractions, depend- 
 ing upon hired entertainment for drawing power, are 
 dying or dead ; this and similar ones depending upon 
 interest in farm products and handicrafts are growing 
 in patronage. 
 
 'The country is lacking in healthful recreation. Play 
 is almost unattainable in country schools under present 
 conditions. We have many hundreds of schools with an 
 attendance too small to secure efficiency along any line.
 
 THE COUNTRY CHILD WITH FEW PLAYMATES, 
 
 FEW GAMES. 
 
 In a delightsome woild, companionless.
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST l.'if. 
 
 A Special Report of the Department of Education of 
 Manitoba shows that in that Province in 1910, there 
 were two schools operated with an average attendance 
 for the year of less than two ; seven with an average of 
 less than three ; twelve with an average of less than 
 four; twenty with less than live; thirty-six with less 
 than six ; fifty-two with less than seven ; two hundred 
 and eleven with less than ten, and two hundred and 
 sixty with less than twelve. Those enrolled vary in age 
 from five to fourteen years. What possibility is there 
 of the formation of play-groups in such schools ? Nor 
 is there usually any equipment for play. How diifer- 
 ent from the thronged, well-equipped, supervised play- 
 ground of a great city school ! Nor is the child better 
 off at home. The child of the city streets has so many 
 companions, but no place to play; the country child, 
 with all the world to play in, has so few companions 
 and few games. Even the games familiar to all school 
 children a generation ago — inherited from the folk- 
 games of earlier generations — are largely forgotten. 
 Still more true is this of the games of youth, so helpful 
 a feature of earlier English life: 
 
 AH the villugL' train, from labor free, 
 Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree, 
 While many a pastime circled in the shade, 
 The young contending as the old surveyed; 
 Many a gambol frolicked o'er the ground. 
 And slights of art and feats of strength went round. 
 And Btill as each repeated pleasure tired 
 Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired. 
 These were thy charms, sweet village! Sports ilkt- these 
 With Bwet't succession taught even toil to please; 
 These round thy bowers their cheerful Influence shed; 
 These were thy charms — but all thy charms are fled I* 
 
 • Oliver Goldsmith, " The Deserted Village."
 
 136 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 One of the causes of this loss is the coming of the com- 
 mercialized spectacle of sport. Our joung people from 
 the country flock to the nearest town or city to pay their 
 entrance fee and see a professional game. They have 
 given up play for what serves no true recreative pur- 
 pose. " Contrast the bleachers' benches and the field 
 at a baseball match. On the crowded seats is such an 
 abandonment of restraint as can hardly be paralleled 
 in civilization. Men release themselves from control. 
 They shout, they hoot, they yell, they scream. They 
 wave their hands, their hats, their handkerchiefs. On 
 the other hand how alert and controlled the athletes are. 
 They have won their places by being highly trained in 
 body and mind. They are cool, quick and resourceful. 
 Brain and body are at the highest tension. And the 
 players work together: every man is ready to make a 
 sacrifice hit if it will win a run for the team. Every 
 man knows his place, and every man does his best. It 
 is a wonderful exhibition of co-operative activity. It 
 is a lesson in self-control, self-reliance, self-denial. It 
 is all that the howling gallery of spectators is not."* 
 Once play was well-nigh universal. That condition 
 must be won back again. 
 
 Eor play, sport, recreation, is one of the great human 
 needs. There is involved not a question of athletics 
 alone, nor of amusement, but of the enriching of life 
 , throughout childhood and the refreshing of life in later 
 years. Scientific study of child-life has demonstrated 
 that a balanced manhood depends upon fullness of play- 
 experience in childhood. In adult life efiiciency de- 
 mands recreation. It is the finding of accurate ob- 
 
 * Dr. J. W. MacMillan, in " Social Service," p. 69.
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 137 
 
 servers that one reason why farmers co-operate so little 
 is that they have not learned team-work through play 
 in vouth. Phiv is one of the most ethical of all human 
 activities. In other activities we are largely controlled 
 from without. In play we are most free. Play is 
 spontaneous, and therefore self-expressive, and thus 
 ethical. But it has also another great meaning. It is 
 in play that the instinctive aversion of one individual 
 to another is most fully overcome, and the social spirit 
 is fostered. It is when individuals come together with 
 pleasure that they merge so as to become a society, a 
 community. 
 
 An unsolved problem is as to how the recreations of 
 country life may be so associated with its tasks that 
 boys and girls shall regard farm life as a desirable 
 vocation. The recreations of the country must become 
 native and significant; must have a true relation to 
 real life in the country — they cannot be exotic. The 
 farmer distrusts the city reformer's knowledge of rural 
 life, and humorously depicts it: 
 
 I would flee from the city's rule and law, 
 
 From its form and fashion cut loose, 
 And go where the strawberry stands on its straw. 
 
 And the gooseberry grows on its goose. 
 Oh, lot me drink from a moss-grown pump 
 
 That was hewn from a pumpkin tree; 
 Eat mush and milk from a rural stump — 
 
 (From form and fashion free); 
 — Now-gathcTf'd mush from the mushroom vine, 
 
 And milk from a milk -weed sweet. 
 With luscious pine-apple from the pine — 
 
 (Such food as the gods might eat), 
 — And then to the whitewashed dairy I'd turn. 
 
 Where the dairy m.-ild haHtonlng hliii.
 
 138 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 Her ruddy and golden butter to churn 
 
 From the milk of her butter-flies; 
 And I'll rise at morn with the early bird, 
 
 To the fragrant farm-yard pass. 
 As the farmer turns his beautiful herd 
 
 Of grasshoppers out to grass. 
 
 Yet he accepts his recreation from town. With much 
 better cause might he discount amusements of the Coney 
 Island type proffered him' from the city than flout its 
 well-meant social guidance. 
 
 The country is lacking in means of education adapted 
 to country life. Here we touch upon one of the most 
 direct and active causes of loss of rural population. 
 Those boys and girls who take fullest advantage of the 
 public school go on to the high school, business college 
 or university, and almost invariably enter teaching or 
 other of the professions or business life. A two-fold 
 injury is wrought by our present educational system. 
 Not only are some led directly from the farm. Others, 
 seeing no connection between their studies and life, lose 
 all interest in study, and take up the tasks of the farm 
 unprepared to appreciate what is best in farm life. 
 Every child is entitled to an education that is at once 
 cultural and vocational. A vocational course lays the 
 foundation for technical or professional skill and effi- 
 ciency; it should also show the pupil how to use his 
 vocation as a means of personal growth, intellectual 
 and moral, and how to make his vocation a means of ser- 
 vice to his fellow-men. There is a one-roomed public 
 school within my congregation, at Ventnor, where for 
 the past three years there has been a school garden with 
 experimental plots cultivated by the pupils. Last year 
 the chief kinds of fodder plants were the subject of ex-
 
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 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 139 
 
 periment. With what zest those plots were cared for! 
 The study was intended to be vocational, but there was 
 no subject taiij2:ht in that school more cultural ; ii(»t only 
 so, but every cultural subject benefited by the presence 
 of the one vocational one. Pupils, learning for real 
 life, became eager for all education. Again, when I 
 first knew Spencerville few of the school children could 
 name the wild flowers; some could not even recognize 
 the forest trees. The school principal had the boys be- 
 gin a collection of native woods. It aroused such in- 
 terest that a collection so excellent was secured that 
 when once the Governor-General visited the Brockville 
 schools to grace the opening of the Macdonald ^Manual 
 Training School, the loan of this collection was asked 
 for by the county superintendent as an exhibit. Now, 
 this study of native woods was taken up as cultural. It 
 gave some boys at least such a new interest in the 
 countr}- that it proved vocational as well, fitting them 
 for, and retaining them upon, the farm. 
 
 Not only is the chief trend of our present mode of , 
 education away from the farm, but as compared with 
 the same mode of education in the cities our coimtry 
 schools are inetficicijt. In the city teaching is made a 
 life vocation; in the country it is made a stepping-stone 
 to some other career. The average time spent by our 
 rural teachers in this profession is less than four years. 
 Of all city teachers professional tiaining is demanded; 
 in the country many are permitted to teach, imt only 
 without profcHsional training, but even without a certifi- 
 cate of general attainments. Moreover, even with ill- 
 qiialified teachers, country schools are more expensive 
 than city oiu-s, inasmuch as a<le(|uately j»aid teachers 
 for well filled classes cost less per pupil than the j)oorly
 
 140 
 
 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 X 
 
 paid teachers with one or two pupils to a class. In 
 Manitoba during the year 1910 there were 62 districts 
 operating schools with an enrolment of 10 or less, the 
 total enrolment being 321, averaging 5.1 per school. 
 These districts spent $35,707, which means that the edu- 
 cation, such as it was, cost $111 per child, based on the 
 average attendance. In marked contrast with these 
 figures are those of the city of Winnipeg, where the cost 
 per pupil was $34, and this included a full collegiate 
 course, together with manual training and domestic 
 science for children in the grades, and school buildings 
 as complete as any in Canada. The era of consolidated 
 schools must come. These will secure an abler, better 
 qualified teaching force ; equipment for carrying on 
 work of a vocational nature; the numbers of pupils 
 needed to carry on organized play, the grading of pupils, 
 and an adequate school programme ; and the housing 
 and other facilities requisite for the social, recreational 
 and cultural activities of an organized social centre. 
 
 There is a pitiful lack of appreciation of country 
 values. One of these is the beauty of nature ; the love 
 of animals is another ; the privacy and freedom of life 
 another ; environment essentially healthful and creative 
 another. But such values are countless, — wide as 
 human life itself and varied as its needs. Even in the 
 new industrial life farm values stand easily first. In 
 the factory the mechanic tends one operation of one 
 machine ; on the farm a man must master all opera- 
 tions of a score of machines. One becomes a machine- 
 tender ; the other an artisan and engineer. 
 
 But these values are unappreciated. Few of those 
 who are freeborn heirs of the country are awake to the 
 charm of the fields. A farmer may be grandly master
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 141 
 
 of his business and at the same time, with Lampman, 
 thrill with the joy of the earth: 
 
 The broad earth bids me forth. I rise 
 With lifted brow and upward eyes, 
 I bathe my spirit In blue skies, 
 
 And taste the springs of life. 
 I feel the tumult of new birth; 
 I waken with the wakening earth; 
 I match the bluebird In her mirth; 
 
 And wild with wind and sun, 
 A treasurer of immortal days, 
 I roam the glorious world with praise. 
 The hillsides and the wooded ways, 
 
 Till earth and I are one.* 
 
 Few know the birds, the common flowers, or even 
 the forest trees, and as for the native shrubs they are 
 quite nameless. This lack is general. An English 
 observer writes: "There is no help in visions of 
 Arcadia ; yet it is plain fact that in days gone by the 
 peasantry found life more than endurable. They had 
 their folk-songs, now utterly forgotten. They had 
 romances and fairy-lore, which their descendants could 
 no more appreciate than an idyll of Theocritus. If 
 your peasant love the fields* which give him bread, he 
 will not think it hard to labor in them . . . There 
 was a time when the old English nanics of all our 
 flowers were rornmon on rustic lips — by which, indeed, 
 they wcp" first uttered. Tin- fact that flowers and 
 birds arc well-nigh forgotten, togellier with the songs 
 ami the elves, shows how a<lvaneed is the process of 
 rural disintegration. "f 
 
 • Archibald Lampman, " Lyrics of Earth." 
 
 t " Th^' I'rlvaff Fapors of Honry Ryccroft." p. 202.
 
 142 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 It was my privilege to attend the first Students' Con- 
 vention at Northfield — that gathering of college men 
 at which the Student Volunteer Movement began. One 
 day a few of us were oft" for a tramp over the hills. 
 Coming across some huckleberry pickers we bought a 
 few berries. As we paid a woman for them I said, 
 " What a glorious view you have from these hills !" 
 With mild profanity but with strong feeling she 
 replied : " You wouldn't think so darn much of it if 
 you had to make a living here picking blueberries." 
 There were forces of feeling pent up within that 
 woman's nature, but resentment only at hard condi- 
 tions was felt. I have a friend, one of the largest- 
 natured and truest-hearted of all our ministers of the 
 Gospel, who in his youth was a gardener on one of 
 Scotland's great estates. Flowers in garden and green- 
 house were grown in utmost profusion. Seldom were 
 they seen except by the servants who tended them. 
 Thousands were cut daily and thrown aside. Hard 
 by was a great industrial city, yet none of its people, 
 destitute as they were of flowers and of all forms of 
 beauty, were ever permitted to see one blossom of the 
 boundless store near by. As a consequence, to one 
 true heart which until then had loved flowers they are 
 now a source of pain. So, with some who dwell in 
 the country, all nature is so intimately blent with asso- 
 ciations of toil that it cannot be looked on with plea- 
 sure. With yet more these sensibilities have never 
 been aroused. The latent power was there, and, as the 
 harpstring vibrates when a note is struck on a string 
 of similar pitch, might have awaked at the touch of 
 nature-love in another heart.
 
 A K1.<>\VKIM,< iVI Xi ; I'WK.M i:i:. IXMIAX iii:aii. 
 
 JlM.MKSrKAl* <i.\Ui>i:S. INKIA.N IIKAK, SASK. 
 A|>|>riM-latl<in of fiiunt ly v;ihi«M.
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 143 
 
 With beauty God covers the ground; no acre too poor to 
 
 befriend. 
 That thou and I and all men may perceive and comprehend.* 
 
 But in childhood neither did parent speak of love of 
 beauty at home, nor did teacher impart it in school, 
 nor were its fountains in literature discovered. And 
 as a consequence a great human need is unmet. The 
 unesthetic rural mind starves amid scenes " where the 
 spirit of beauty dwelleth," as though seamen should 
 perish of thirst as they sail in the mouth of the broad 
 Amazon. 
 
 There is truth in Edwin Alarkham's arraignment 
 of society in his greatest poem, " The Man with the 
 Hoe": 
 
 Bound by the weight of centuries, he leans 
 Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground; 
 The emptiness of ages in his face, 
 And on his back the burden of the world. 
 Who made him dead to rapture and despair? 
 A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, 
 Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox? 
 Who loosened and let down that brutal jaw? 
 Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? 
 Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? 
 What gulfs between him and the seraphim I 
 Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him 
 Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades? 
 What the long reaches of the peaks of song, 
 The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose? 
 
 One perhaps resents thr- aj)|)licati(>n of this strong f)or- 
 traiture of tlie peasant of Kuropc to any class of our 
 pcoj)Ic. One may go fnrtlicr iin<l say: This is what 
 the intuition of the p<»et saw in the gn-af painting; 
 * Bliss Carman.
 
 144 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 but what did the intuition of the artist see in the human 
 life there portrayed ? Was it not the deathlessness of 
 the home affections and the sensibilities of religion ? 
 True; jet poet and painter are alike right, and the 
 question for us in Canada is this: Though religion 
 and love be unquenchable, do we wish to retain these 
 sensibilities only? — to retain them on the terms of the 
 life Millet depicts and Markham censures ? Turn we 
 to another great French painting, Jules Breton's 
 "Song of the Lark," and ask: Why should we not 
 retain the rapture visible on this peasant girl's face as 
 she listens to the morning song of the lark while 
 trudging barefoot to her toil, without retaining the 
 narrowness of her peasant life ? We ask also : Though 
 there are many among our farmers who are far from 
 insensible to " the rift of dawn, the reddening of the 
 rose, and the long reaches of the peaks of song," aye, 
 and who " feel all the passion of eternity," yet why 
 should " time's tragedy " be in " their aching stoop " ? 
 Why should they so bear " upon their back the burden 
 of the world " that " through their bent shape humanity 
 cries protest " ? 
 
 Is this the thing the Lord God made, and gave 
 
 To have dominion over sea and land? 
 
 To trace the stars and search the heavens for power, 
 
 To feel the passion of eternity? 
 
 Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns 
 
 And pillared the blue firmament with light? 
 
 — Down all the stretch of hell to its last gulf 
 
 There is no shape more terrible than this, 
 
 More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed, 
 
 More filled with signs and portents for the soul. 
 
 More fraught with menace to the universe! 
 
 Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF UNREST 145 
 
 Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; 
 
 Through this dread shape, humanity — betrayed, 
 
 Plundered, profaned, and disinherited, — 
 
 Cries protest to the judges of the world, 
 
 A protest that is also prophecy. 
 
 O Masters, Lords and Rulers in all realms. 
 
 Is this the handiwork ye give to God? 
 
 This monstrous thing, distorted and soul-quenched? 
 
 How will ye ever straighten up this shape? 
 
 Give back the upward looking and the light; 
 
 Rebuild in it the music and the dream. 
 
 Touch it again with immortality. 
 
 Make right the immemorial infamies. 
 
 Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? 
 
 Who, one may again ask, arc the " Masters, Lords and 
 Rulers in all realms '' who are responsible ? Not only 
 those whose oppression brings about such woe, but also 
 all who might relieve that woe. Dr. Henry Sloane 
 Coflin, of !^^adison Avenue Presbyterian Church, in 
 his recent volume, " Social Aspects of the Cross," 
 writes thus of the viewpoint of Jesus : " Again, and 
 this is more surprising, Jesus numbered Himself with 
 the transgressors. There is not the slightest indica- 
 tion that He felt Himself a sinner. The keenest con- 
 science our world has known found nothing with which 
 to charge itself. There is no expression of penitence 
 and no prayer for forgiveness among the personal 
 prayers of Jesus. lint this does not mean that Tie 
 considered Himself withoiit responsibility for the 
 ignorance and folly and iniquity of the world in which 
 He lived. While fully aware of His uniqueness, 
 placing himself apart from and over against the rest 
 of humanity, Jchus realized His oneness with men in 
 
 all that they achieved or failed of, sutTcrcd. or enjoyed. 
 10
 
 146 
 
 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 If there was a Zacchaeus whose honesty and generosity 
 had given way under the bad system of revenue-col- 
 lecting them in vogue, Jesus felt Himself implicated 
 in his downfall. If there were sick folk, their diseases 
 were to Him, in part at least, due to inherited weak- 
 ness or wrong conditions of life which might frankly 
 be termed devilish, but for which He felt Himself 
 socially accountable." 
 
 And if we. His followers, do not try to better human 
 living, Markham's final question concerns us: 
 
 O Masters, Lords and Rulers in all lands, 
 How will the future reckon with this man? 
 How answer his brute question in that hour 
 When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world? 
 How will it be with kingdoms and with kings — 
 With those who shaped him to the thing he is — 
 When this dumb terror shall reply to God 
 After the silence of the centuries? 
 
 The country is lacking in community ideals. What 
 patriotism is to a nation such ideals are to a locality. 
 Solidarity is one of these high ideals, the oneness in 
 being and in interests of all. But in the country as it 
 now is there is no magnetism to touch its atoms with 
 the power of affinity and make them cohere. The rural 
 community is but ropes of sand where it should be 
 chains of steel. There are localities here and there 
 throughout the country where more of such solidarity 
 exists than is generally found. Roebuck, the neigh- 
 borhood in which is situated one of the three 
 congregations in my pastoral charge, has always, 
 through some kindly influence, retained something of 
 this. The two denominations chiefly represented in the 
 community, Methodist and Presbyterian, are singu-
 
 SOCIAL CAUSES OF U:NREST 147 
 
 larly free from sectarian feeling. Their Sunday-school 
 work has always been carried on as a union enterprise. 
 Two school districts more than a generation ago built 
 one school in common and have since had a large dis- 
 trict school carrying on public school work in two 
 grades, under two teachers. In other ways the people 
 of the locality act as if integrally one. May it not be 
 largely in consequence of this solidarity that there is 
 found there a larger farm population than can be found 
 elsewhere in the coiinty of Grenville ? 
 
 The church, too, is lacking in certain regards in the 
 
 country. This is d\ie not to absence of devoted service 
 
 on the part of pastors and church workers, but to need 
 
 of redirection. And lack here is more far-reaching in 
 
 effects than at any other point. The church is, of all 
 
 institutions, deepest in the affections of the greatest 
 
 number of persons. If there be an unsatisfied hunger 
 
 that she alone can meet, that want must touch rural 
 
 life at a more vital point than any other. Let us 
 
 notice such lack in two directions only. The farmer 
 
 is entering a new world-environment for which the 
 
 church is called upon to fit him. He no longer meets 
 
 face to face those with whom he deals. He sells by 
 
 sample for delivery at a distance, and must learn to 
 
 deliver goods up to sample. He is entering upon new 
 
 relations with his neighbors through co-operation. The 
 
 greatest ethical task of each generation is to provide 
 
 new forms of guidance for such new conditions as these. 
 
 The greatest ethical task for the church in the city is 
 
 to plare within the new corporate industrial and com- 
 
 mereial organizations the controlling motives of justice 
 
 and brotherhood. Th^ most fundamental honesty 
 
 tf>-day deals with unearned profits. So the greatest
 
 148 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 ethical task of the church in the country is to lead the 
 farmer to feel the new responsibilities arising out of 
 the new agriculture so that he shall enter upon them 
 with a new sense of personal worth and of service 
 rendered. 
 
 And the church is called on to render social service 
 in the country. By this we do not at all mean that she 
 is to become institutional. That may follow inciden- 
 tally. But she is to seek not simply the regeneration 
 and the spiritual culture of individuals, but also the 
 transformation of every relationship and every institu- 
 tion now conformed to the spirit of this world into the 
 blessedness of the kingdom of God. The church is now 
 valiantly fighting the liquor traffic; she must deliver 
 rural society in like manner from every adverse encum- 
 brance. And she must foster every organization and 
 agency that strives for the enrichment and enlargement 
 of life. An ancient philosopher defined the freeman 
 by no contrast with the slave, but as the man who lives 
 in a state where there is no slave. Even so there can 
 be no happy man until no one is unhappy. The church 
 is to serve until there is no preventable misery. 
 
 I will not cease from mental fight. 
 Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand 
 
 Till we have built Jerusalem 
 
 In England's green and pleasant land. 
 
 —William Blake, " Social Advance."
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE 
 CHURCH
 
 " They are all living monuments of a dead church," said 
 Frances Willard once in speaking to Dr. Josiah Strong, of the 
 Red Cross and similar movements. " Nay," was the reply, 
 " She is not dead, but sleepeth." 
 
 Wild, wild wind, wilt thou never cease thy sighing? 
 
 Dark, dark night, wilt thou never wear away? 
 Cold, cold Church, in thy death-sleep lying. 
 
 Thy Lent is past, thy Passion here, but not thine Easter-day! 
 
 Peace, faint heart, though the night be spent with sighing; 
 
 Rest, fair corse, where thy Lord Himself hath lain; 
 Weep, dear Lord, where Thy bride Is lying, 
 
 Thy tears shall wake her frozen limbs to life and health 
 again. 
 
 — Charles Kingaley. 
 
 I pray you look over the walls of your creed. 
 Heaven-centred and staunch as they seem, 
 
 At the manifold forms of human need 
 With which the ages teem. 
 
 — Arthur Wentworth Eaton.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Function of the Church. 
 
 The farmer is engaged in a struggle which is affecting 
 every situation in the country and every institution. It 
 is in this struggle that the farmer now needs religious 
 help. Shall the church give him in this crisis theo- 
 logical teaching only — pure, it may be, as to its source 
 in the Word of God. but still purely theological ? Or 
 shall she, not turning aside from this, busy herself also 
 with all his varied interests, social, educational, recrea- 
 tional, and even economic '. What, in meeting such a 
 situation, is the function of the church \ 
 
 In New England there has been a clashing of policy 
 as well as of viewpoint upon this problem, between the 
 Evangelicals and the Liberal Christians. The Liberal 
 Movement stressed humanitarian types of uplift to such 
 a degree as to become a sociological rather than a reli- 
 gious movement for betterment. The Evangelicals 
 stressed the teaching of the Christian pulpit, depending 
 upon its fruits in personal character; claiming that 
 New England, cradled in theology, had produced her 
 superb manhood in the past, with its outcome in civiliza- 
 tion, by means of her orthodoxy. Each side had its 
 limitation of view. Those who advocate reliance upon 
 pure theolf)gy overlook the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers 
 came to New England purposely to seek a new social 
 environment, and that this new environincut gave an 
 
 151
 
 152 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 open field for the beneficent influence of theology. 
 They overlook also the fact that in the New England of 
 the past century, where preaching became most indi- 
 vidualistic and unpractical, the rural exodus became 
 most exhausting. Dr. Warren H. Wilson says : " The 
 only areas of country life known to me in which people 
 do not go to church at all are in New England and 
 among colonies of New England people. ... I think 
 the preachers of New England who taught individual- 
 ism instead of social efficiency had a hand in this."* 
 
 Those who place the stress upon pulpit teaching in 
 its best form of strong and sane evangelism, but still 
 with neglect of social efficiency, overlook the fact that 
 New England was the cradle of the strongest evangelism 
 of the past generation under Dwight L. Moody. Those 
 who place reliance upon humanitarian efforts overlook 
 the fact that New England has been even more markedly 
 the home of unsuccessful social experiment than of 
 unsuccessful religious individualism ; and also that the 
 only communities in the United States of America 
 where the present rural problem has not arisen — the 
 Dunkards, Mennonites, and other Dutch and German 
 communions, and to a considerable degree the Scotch 
 and Scotch-Irish communities — there has been found 
 not only greater social efficiency, but also clearly defined 
 theological discipline ; while both schools alike overlook 
 the fact that in the few but great examples of downward 
 rural tendencies being checked and replaced by uplift 
 of the finest character — such as, on the local scale, in the 
 Steinthal under Oberlin, and on the national scale in 
 Denmark under Gruntvig — are examples of the welding 
 
 * " Men and Religion Messages," Vol. VI, p. 261.
 
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 THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH 153 
 
 into one of spiritual culture and social service. No 
 controversy is ever settled save by the logic of facts, and 
 the logic of facts, through the verdict of the historical 
 outcome, is putting an end to this controversy in New 
 England. " What we are now getting,'' says Dr. 
 George F. Wells, " in the evangelical and missionary 
 movements of the present day, is a theology socialized — 
 the things of faith humanly lived and taught . . . 
 while the danger, if not the guilt, of the liberal move- 
 ment, because of a too persistent emphasis, is that of 
 not becoming a part of the socialized church she has 
 helped to nurture, and thus of becoming ineffective as a 
 mere sociology."* 
 
 The liberal movement claims to have taught the 
 church that she has a social task, and the claim is ad- 
 mitted by many. But there was another and earlier 
 teacher. The tasks undertaken by Christian mission- 
 aries abroad formed the iirst leaven; and the Salvation 
 Army — whose revered leader, knighted long since by 
 the sword of the Spirit in Immanuel's hand, has just 
 l>een called to the presence of his great Conunanderf — 
 was the effective pioneer. And without being cognizant 
 of the details one may safely assume that through what- 
 ever group the impulse in New England came, it was 
 neither the blind passion of outraged humanity nor the 
 patient insistence of the scientific spirit, but the power 
 of the Holy Spirit of God working by love in hearts 
 renewed by faith in Christ which there as elsewhere 
 called the church's attention t<» the need of fuller, wi(l<'r 
 social service. 
 
 • " An AnBwer to the New England Church Qu(«tlon." p. 8. 
 
 t 0«-n»'ral Hooth's dfuth had b<'i-n announced In the press the 
 day before the flrst delivery of thlB lecture.
 
 154 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 We need not therefore ask, Is the function of the 
 church primarily theological or primarily sociological ? 
 It is neither. Her function is religious. Now, reli- 
 gion is not a science, but a department of life, whereas 
 theology and sociology are sciences. And religion, as 
 life, has need of both sciences as her handmaids. 
 
 The devotees of sociology are fain, meanwhile, to 
 inform us that theology fails even to define the church 
 as a social institution ; theologians are but too apt to 
 retort that sociology is incompetent to define the church, 
 because it has no language whereby to describe the 
 redemptional aspect of the facts for which the church 
 stands. Both criticisms have elements of truth, but 
 only as each science is defective. Were sociology a truly 
 inductive science, comprehensive in its inductions, it 
 would find the facts of redemption in human society as 
 clearly as any other series of facts ; and were theology 
 a truly progressive science it would find in the increas- 
 ing complexity of social relations, in the new problems 
 of social ethics, and in the development of the social 
 conscience, a realm of Godward relations the key to 
 which is found in the scriptural conception of the 
 church as the social institute of the kingdom of God. 
 
 We obtain the right standpoint from which to discern 
 the function of the church when we regard it as an 
 institute — an established organization or society pledged 
 to some special purpose and work — whose object is the 
 establishment of the kingdom of God in human society. 
 
 And we obtain the requisite insight wherewith to dis- 
 cern the function of the church when we follow the 
 course of the providence of God and the teaching of the 
 Spirit of God in the trend of the age.
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE CHUKCH 155 
 
 The coming of the kingdom of God involves a two-fold 
 redemption. There are two entities which Christ came 
 to save, the soul of man and — not, as Kauschenbusch 
 puts it, the " race of man," but — the whole creation. 
 The age and the rightful use of proof-texts is not past. 
 Here are the proofs : " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and thou shalt be saved " ; and " The creation itself 
 also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
 into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." 
 
 There are two methods by which the kingdom of 
 God enters our world : " Except a man be born from 
 above he cannot see the kingdom of God." " And I 
 saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of 
 heaven from God." 
 
 In order to set up the kingdom of God in the world 
 of men the church seeks the salvation of the souls of 
 men by means of a service so fundamental that it has 
 as yet no distinctive name ; and she seeks the redemp- 
 tion of society — of the whole creation — by means of 
 what we to-day describe as social service. The former 
 of these, service, namely, to the soul of man, demands 
 a specific name, even as " a host of economic terms 
 await translation into moral and spiritual speech."* 
 We have called it evangelistic service, but social service 
 also is of the essence of the gospel ; we have called it 
 spiritual service, religious service, but each of these 
 terms covers social service as well. We fully endorse 
 the opinion of Mrs. Browning: 
 
 What'B the beat thing In the world? 
 Something out of it, I think. 
 
 • Charles S. MacFarland, " Spiritual Culture and Social Ser- 
 Tlce," p. 18.
 
 156 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 But we hold that the Gospel comes not only to make 
 men fit for heaven, but to make earth fit for men. By 
 means of these two forms of religious service the church 
 seeks to answer in regard to every man the two primary 
 and perennial questions of G-od concerning man, 
 " Where art thou ?" and " Where is thy brother ?" The 
 first of these questions is answered in personal regenera- 
 tion, the second in social redemption. The latter is as 
 essential to the kingdom as the former. We must seek 
 to bring to pass a social order which shall embody the 
 teaching of Jesus. " His teaching about the kingdom 
 of God has its application to the society we now know 
 as the Christian church, but has also its application 
 beyond the Christian church to the family, the com- 
 munity, the state, the brotherhood of humanity, and to 
 whatever forms of associated life are found among 
 men."* 
 
 The denial of this dishonors God. There is an evident 
 parallelism between the occasion, famous in Scottish 
 ecclesiastical history, when Erskine made his plea for 
 foreign missions and was bidden by the Moderator to 
 refrain, with the words, "Young man, sit down. When 
 God wishes to save the heathen He can do it without 
 your aid or mine," and the occasion described by the 
 Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of 
 Christ in America : " Only a little while ago I heard 
 a strange plea from a minister whose parish is situated 
 in a great democratic manufacturing community. His 
 advice was that we must refrain from trying to adjust 
 the social order. He said we must leave things to God. 
 God would take care of it, and we must not interfere 
 
 * D. M. Ross, " The Teaching of Jesus," p. 144.
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH 157 
 
 with His desiffns."* Gentlemen, when such a stand is 
 taken it is time to crv with Erskine, '* ^loderator, rax 
 me that Bible," and, beginning with Christ's words i|i 
 the twenty-fifth of Matthew, read afresh the will of 
 God. 
 
 The church exists to secure for all their perfectjiC^ 
 human rights. She has therefore as her fundamental 
 task the evangelizing of all persons, and as her culmin- 
 ating task the glorification of life. But an essential 
 intermediate task emerges as the consequent of the first 
 and the antecedent of the second, namely, the training of 
 men for world-service. As the three dimensions of 
 length, breadth, height, exhaust space, so these three 
 forms of service — evangelism, spiritual culture, and 
 human service — securing spiritual life, nurture, and 
 vocation, complete the business of the church. 
 
 From this standpoint, then, of the church as the 
 agency of Christ in establishing the kingdom through 
 the salvation of men and the redemption of society, we 
 seek to discover the function of the church in the pre- 
 sent crisis in rural life. 
 
 But vision as well as standpoint is needed. The 
 requisite insight can only be gained as God is seen at 
 work in the trend of the age. Wb.en the providence of 
 God was shattering the social fabric of the ancient 
 Roman wf»rld the Spirit of God led Christian men to 
 one form of service ; when the feudal system of 
 mediaeval Europe was taking form, and again when 
 that in turn was giving way to democracy, the sanu' 
 Spirit led on, throuph the trend of the age, to other 
 forms of sf-rvice. When men lived and labomd chiefly 
 
 • 8. C. .MarFarland, " Spiritual Culture and Social Service," 
 p. 50.
 
 158 KUEAL LIFE IN CA:N'ADA 
 
 as independent persons or households, the church was 
 called upon to stress faithfulness in personal relation- 
 ships. The need lay there; the way was open for 
 nothing else. But when the unit of industry and of 
 living becomes the group, when commerce takes form 
 under the chartered company and the trust, the form 
 of human need has changed, and the form of service 
 changes with it. And the form to which God is now 
 leading is Social Service, that is, that form of effort 
 for man's betterment which seeks to uplift and trans- 
 form his associated and communitv life. 
 
 Of the trend of the age Professor Law finely says in 
 the excellent Guild Hand-book on Social Service: 
 " The Christianity of our age has so far developed and 
 will still further develop a social conscience, which in 
 the breadth of its view of social duty and its sensitive- 
 ness to social responsibilities, marks a fresh stage in 
 the divine education of mankind, and in the moulding 
 of human life by the leaven of the kingdom of God." 
 If that be an excellent statement of the starting-point 
 of a modern discussion of the mission of the church, 
 the next step could not be given in a finer way than in 
 the later words of Professor Law : " There is perhaps 
 no more living conviction among us than that, if we 
 wish to help men effectively, we must act on them 
 through all the complex influences of social environ- 
 ment."* 
 
 But still another, a second insight into the church's 
 function is given us by the trend of the age. Pre- 
 ventive work is emphasized, rather than restorative. 
 The volume of the " Men and Religion Messages " deal- 
 ing with Social Service opens with this striking illustra- 
 
 •" Social Service," edited by R. W. Mcintosh, pp. 8, 10. -
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH 159 
 
 tion: " When the United States Government faced the 
 enterprise of digging the Panama Canal it had to set 
 about the task of creating a new Panama through which 
 to dig it. That region had been notoriously unhealthy, 
 80 that every tie of the Panama Kaihvay is said to 
 have been laid at the cost of a man's life. Before taking 
 its engineers and thousands of laborers thither, that 
 government had to establish adequate hospital facili- 
 ties and provide a competent staff of physicians and 
 nurses; but it was also necessary to attempt to clean 
 up the Isthmus, to drain the towns and to do away with 
 all standing pools where mosquitoes breed, to destroy 
 rats and make regulations at the ports so that no others 
 could get ashore from vessels, to erect sanitary vil- 
 lages in which the builders of the canal could be safely 
 kept. The result has been one of the miracles of 
 modern times, — the transformation of a pestilential 
 locality into a health resort; a place where no man 
 willingly lived, who could possibly get away from it. 
 into a place where large hotels arc successfully run 
 for steamer-loads of tourists who come seekinj; rest 
 and new vitality. 
 
 " Jesus came to create a new earth . . . "* 
 It has ever been the glory of the Christian Church 
 that she has acted the part of the Good Samaritan, 
 alleviating misery, providing charity; she has founded 
 hospitals, asylums; she has relieved, she has rescued 
 the victims of ignorance, poverty, wretchedness, jmd 
 crime. Put in her earlier days, indwelt by the Spirit 
 of her Lord, she went forth as a purifvin<;. recoiistriic- 
 tivo power, turning the world upside down. Xor hafl 
 she at any time wholly ahnndcjned tliiH health-giving 
 
 •"Men and Kfllglon M*>HsaKf;H," Vol, II, p. 1.
 
 160 EUEAL LIFE IN CAI^ADA 
 
 mission. But in these days she is coming more fully 
 into her own. 
 
 This is the trend of our age. More than ever before 
 men are seeking knowledge and control of the causes 
 of conditions and events. Such mastery is the whole 
 spirit and trend of modern science. Such is the 
 " dominant note of modern philanthropy. Organized 
 charity is now endeavoring to seek out and to strike 
 effectively at the causes of dependence, the organized 
 forces of evil, the intolerable living conditions, which 
 are beyond the control of the individuals whom they 
 injure and whom they too often destroy. Other tasks 
 for other ages ; this be the glory of ours, that the social 
 causes of dependence shall be destroyed."* Such, too, 
 is the modern note in the labors of the Christian 
 church. She is vitally concerned with the fundamental 
 questions of social righteousness and industrial equity. 
 It was her spirit that brought into being the Red 
 Cross Societies, but she is addressing herself to the 
 abolition of war. Never shall she cease to pour wine 
 and oil into wounds while one half-dead traveller is 
 found, but her truer office is not this, nor to police 
 the road, but to reform the system which produces 
 robbers. 
 
 A simple and concrete yet pertinent example which 
 exemplifies at once both principles, of social rather 
 than individual service, and of removing causes rather 
 than remedying results, is found in the two successive 
 stages of the work for temperance, as we still style it. 
 First came the attempt to reform the drunkard and to 
 conserve the boy by means of the pledge, and next the 
 
 * Edward T. Devine, " The Dominant Note of Modern Philan- 
 thropy."
 
 THE FUNCTION OF THE CHURCH 161 
 
 attempt to prevent the making of drunkards by means 
 of prohibition. The first method sought, bv personal 
 service to individuals man by man, to rescue fallen 
 men, or, as individually, to prevent men from falling. 
 The second method sought to defend a community, and 
 that by communal action, against the presence of temp- 
 tation. Preventive, rather than rescue work, is the 
 supreniL' social duty of the church. 
 
 Thus we gain the requisite insight wherewith to 
 discern the function of the church in dealing with the 
 rural problem. In her programme there must be no 
 social opportunism. She is not to use palliatives. She 
 is to deal not with symptoms but witli causes of dis- 
 turbance, and thus effect a radif^al euro. 
 
 These principles must guide in her attempts to solve 
 the city problem as well. Social settlements are im- 
 peratively called for by tho present situation, but they 
 will not solve the problem. They deal with proximate 
 but not with ultimate causes of distress. The agencies 
 called for to deal with these clearly lie elsewhere. To 
 point out what these agencies are is a light under- 
 taking; to utilize them, labor indeed. There are two 
 central sources of power which the church must domin- 
 ate for the kingdom in order to solve the city problem, 
 — the Directorates and the Unions. Out of these two 
 foci of potency stream the energies that make or mar the 
 city, and the church must claim Ixith of them for her 
 Master. At the annual meeting of one of the great 
 coffee-housf fonipanies of Txtndon a few days ago a 
 dividend of ihirty-sevcn per cent, was dt-flarcd. Amid 
 the congratulatory speechfs which followed the read- 
 ing of the report the question was asked by one of tho 
 shareholders: "What do we pay our waitresses?" 
 n
 
 162 RUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 When that question and kindred question are asked and 
 asked effectively in the name of Christ at all Boards 
 of Directors the first great step shall have been taken 
 for the solution of the citv problem. xA^nd the second 
 is like unto it in validity, urgency, and potency, 
 namely, that men should ask in the Labor Unions: 
 " What do we give our masters, eye-service or faith- 
 fulness ?" jSTot the minimum wage only but the high- 
 est wage industry can afford must be granted ; but 
 with that wage must go true-hearted service. 
 
 Across the personnel of the membership of the direc- 
 torates and the unions alike runs the line of universal 
 cleavage among men, that which separates men of the 
 world and the servants of Christ; and through these 
 latter the church must dominate the two nuclei of life ; 
 and then shall the city — the hope and the despair of 
 democracy, the glory and the shame of civilization, — 
 be won for the Kingdom. All other hostile forces must 
 soon capitulate when these protagonists become bond- 
 servants of Christ. 
 
 Another point remains to be considered. How far is 
 the function of the church, thus understood, institu- 
 tional ? The institutional church is substitutionary. 
 One of our Deaconesses in speaking during the "Insti- 
 tute Hour" at the Summer School at Geneva Park 
 touched the very heart of the matter with regard to all 
 institutional church work, when she said that the 
 Deaconesses had been given a beautiful descriptive 
 name, " Vicarious Mothers." Blessings on their 
 gracious, vicarious service ! But better that the real 
 mothers should also serve as mothers than that we 
 should have vicarious mothers ; better the service of
 
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 THE FUNCTIOX OF THE CHURCH 163 
 
 the mother in fact though it he imperfect, than the most 
 perfect service of a vicarious mother. 
 
 The institutional church performs for society func- 
 tions which under ideal conditions belong to other 
 social institutions. Because the homes of the slums 
 cannot perform their rightful functions the church 
 undertakes some of these in place of the home. There 
 are certain primary classes of institutions such as the 
 home, the club, the firm, the trust, the school, the 
 town, the nation, which among them share every duty 
 the institutional church can undertake. 
 
 The church's function is to be monitor and guide to 
 all these. She is conmiissioned to go into all the 
 world of human relationships, and disciple all nations, 
 all societies, all communities of men, teaching men so 
 institutionalized to observe all things whatsoever Christ 
 hath commanded. 
 
 Wo have read the Great Commission as though it 
 said "Go, disciple all persons." Its true force is that 
 the nation is to be discipled until as such it fulfils 
 Christ's will, and the nation here implies all forms of 
 community life, of which it is the chief and the t\7>e. 
 
 But, though such is her full social function under 
 ideal circumstances, nevertheless the church began her 
 course with institutionalism. Finding tlicn no agency 
 in society to which she could teacli II is hiw of charity, 
 as now she teaches the state, she app()intf'(l the seven 
 t<» y)f'rf(>rtn tbc diaconato, the social service, of an nl- 
 monary society. 
 
 Aforeover, ina.sniuch as her views upon many forma 
 of service are ever in advance «>f those of all other in- 
 stitutions, the church must o.vvr be, to that extent, in- 
 8titutif»nal. At every new stage of progress in huinnn
 
 164 RUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 uplift the Church of Christ must have her diaconate, 
 and maintain it until all ideals have risen to her plane. 
 
 And the conditions of the rural community to-day, 
 in failing to provide for so many human needs that 
 those whom God designed to dwell in the country are 
 fleeing thence, constitute an emphatic call to the church 
 to become institutional in regard to every unanswered 
 rural human need, until she heal country life. 
 
 "It goes without saying that much of what we call 
 social service ought not to be necessary. It may seem 
 a derogation from the spiritual mission of the church 
 to engage in the efforts to secure the justice, the effi- 
 ciency, the better conditions of life and work, the wide 
 opportunities for individual and social development 
 which it is the desire of voluntary social agencies to 
 bring about. But until actual provision is made by the 
 state or other agencies for the prevention of the evils 
 and the meeting of the needs which are helping to pro- 
 duce the social unrest of our day, the church must 
 stand by the work, just as in former ages she stood by 
 the almsgiving and the ministration to individuals 
 which have resulted in so many functions of our pre- 
 sent governments — hospitals, alms-houses, schools and 
 the like. When government or other agencies shall 
 have assumed the new obligations which new social and 
 economic conditions are forcing on us, then the church 
 may relinquish her share in the work and press on to 
 some other worthy task."* Then shall the Diaconate 
 be set free for the duties of the Apostolate, and a new 
 stage be reached in the spiritual life of man. 
 
 * " A Social Service Programme for the Parish." The Joint 
 Commission on Social Service of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church.
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
 PROGRAMME
 
 Sow the seed beside all waters 
 
 North and south and east and west; 
 That our toiling sons and daughters 
 
 In the harvest may be blest. 
 Tell the tidings of salvation 
 
 'Mid the storms of Labrador; 
 Speak the word of consolation 
 
 By the lone Pacific's shore. 
 Where the fisher plies his calling 
 
 'Mid the perils of the sea; 
 Where the forests old are falling, 
 Giving place to lawn and lea. 
 
 — Robert Murray, "Book of Praise.
 
 CHAPTER V[. 
 
 The Country Church Programme. 
 
 President Biitterfield, in his book " The Country 
 Church and the Rural Problem," says: '' T do not 
 happen to know of a rural church with a protjramrae of 
 work which constitutes a really live attack upon the 
 essential problems of rural civilization/' Daring as 
 aviator's flijrht and yet more full of risk may seem any 
 attempt even to sketch such a profjrammo. I^ut yet to 
 do so is simply to endeavor to translate into the terms 
 of the concrete case before us the general {)rogTaTnme of 
 Christianity, which is: 
 
 To proclaim good news to such as are in need; 
 To announce release to the prisoners of war, 
 And recovery of sight to those who do not see; 
 To set at liberty those whom tyranny has crushed; 
 To proclaim the year of grace with the Lord. 
 
 The first desideratum for such a programme is execu- 
 tive OVERSIGHT. This problem gives the Boards of Social 
 Service another field of operation. Our cfiicient Sec- 
 retaries, who have accomplished sd much in tlic way of 
 giiiding legislation on moral and social problems, so 
 much in promoting sane and strong evangcdism, so niurh 
 in fighting organized vice, and are mow taking up lines 
 of work wliieh will hcdp solve tlie city problem, must 
 also Ih'couh' our trained and s^-ientilic leaders in this 
 field of .srK'ial service for the njdiff of eountrv life. 
 
 107
 
 168 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 An extract from the " Report of Progress for 1911," 
 of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
 America, puts well the place of such executive over- 
 sight : "At the meeting of the Council in Philadelphia 
 in 1908 three notable reports were made which attracted 
 national and international attention, the reports, 
 namely, upon ' The Church and Industrial Relations,' 
 ' The Church and International Relations,' and ' The 
 Church and Home Missions.' Had the meeting in 
 Philadelphia been merely a Convention these notable 
 utterances would soon have lost their significance. But 
 placed in the hands of the churches with provision for 
 permanent executive oversight they have become the 
 source of activities of service which, it is no exaggera- 
 tion to say, are affecting the entire Christian and church 
 life of our country." 
 
 This utterance indicates clearly the weakness, not 
 only of conventions, but of much of the business of the 
 church. Conferences, Synods, and Assemblies adopt 
 recommendations and pass resolutions which express 
 with wisdom and force well-planned courses of action. 
 But because of no executive leadership to see to the 
 carrying out of such resolutions, much of their force is 
 lost. 
 
 It is but a few years since the churches began appoint- 
 ing their Boards and Commissions of Social Service. 
 It was then the conviction of many that the church 
 had entered upon a new field of achievement which 
 would yet be found to exercise as profound a change 
 upon society, and in its reflex action upon the church 
 itself, as even the great work of missions was doing. 
 That conviction is strengthened to-dav as we see new 
 vistas such as this opening before us.
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAMME 169 
 
 The services to be rendered by such an executive 
 would consist in the exploration of the field ; the plan- 
 ning of appropriate means of service; the holding of 
 conferences for the arousing and guiding of opinion ; 
 and the preparation of necessary helps for the task. 
 Yet must the church cease to look for the prophet of a 
 wonder-working movement that shall solve our prol)- 
 It-m, and gird herself for a serious task. The need 
 for both oversight and local endeavor is well 
 put in the opening words of a ^lanual issued 
 recently by the Joint Commission on Social Service 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
 States. '* This pamphlet is the first of a series on 
 various phases and methods of social service. It is 
 intended to follow this initial pamphlet with others on 
 such topics as ' The Agricultural Community and its 
 Problems.' . . . The success of social service depends 
 ultimately upon the efforts of the individual parish. 
 I'nless the minister of the individual church and 
 his workers, men and women, take a hand in actual 
 community service, the efforts of larger units, diocesan 
 or national social service organizations, must go largely 
 for naught. In fact a chief oltject of these larger bodies 
 should be to interest the individual parish and its 
 minister in the world-wide movement to improve con- 
 ditions of life and work for men, women ami ciiildren."* 
 Such initiative and oversight an efffH!tive programme 
 would lay iiixtn our Secretaries of the Board of Social 
 Service. 
 
 Tlie next desideratum for the programme is a Survey 
 of Rural Conditions under such guidance. In order 
 
 •"A Social Service .Manual for th»> Parlab."
 
 170 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 to effective service the church must first envisage her 
 task. The first duty of the physician is diagnosis. 
 Remedies are the means by which to reach his objective 
 — the restoration of health ; but remedies are the hazard 
 of the dice, with heavy odds against a cure, until diag- 
 nosis recognizes the disease and indicates its stage. 
 
 The church received the Survey as a means of 
 research in her field of service, from Charity Organiza- 
 tion. The great surveys so far, among many lesser 
 ones, have been Booth's monumental work, " The Life 
 and Labors of the People of London," and the " Pitts- 
 burg Survey." The Survey is an attempt to base the 
 church's policy upon all pertinent facts. The modern 
 world has been made the modern world by the use of 
 just such inductive methods. This method it was with 
 which the Dominion Conservation Commission began its 
 work, in a survey of agricultural conditions on a thou- 
 sand farms throughout Canada. It is at once the 
 scientific method of the use of objective material, and 
 the recognition of the organic character of social facts. 
 The recent report of the Federal Council deals with this 
 method under the striking caption " Standard Research 
 and Christian Progress." 
 
 The survey is necessary because facts are elusive and 
 illusive, hidden away until sought, and deceptive as they 
 thrust themselves upon impression. We do not know 
 accurately the needs of the rural community. And it 
 is necessary also because the kind and number of human 
 needs is not what they recently were. The values of 
 living have changed. There are new forms of waste of 
 human resources, and new standards of human effi- 
 ciency. And while the facts everywhere have a class 
 resemblance, they vary in detail from place to place.
 
 THE COUNTRY CHIKCH PROGRAMME 171 
 
 " Know your coinmunity '' must become the church's 
 watchword in social service in country as in city. If 
 it be profitable for husbandry to have experts testing 
 and suggestine: methods, may it not be more needfnl to 
 have efficiency studies of rural social and religious life? 
 The churches adopting this agency acknowledge in 
 doing so their past remissness. A recent typical 
 utterance runs : '' The Board of Home Missions 
 of the PresbN-terian Church in the United States of 
 America has been ministering to country parishes for 
 more than a century. It has sought farmers through 
 forests and across deserts. It has built innumerable 
 little white churches on the country crossroads for him 
 to worship in. It has baptized his childreu, taught 
 them, married them, and buried them. It has striven 
 to save his soul — striven earnestly and valiantly, some- 
 times heroically. But never until within this year has 
 it made a thorough, official and scientific study of the 
 country community it has attempted to serve. It has 
 done everything in its power to pave the farmer's road 
 to the celestial city, but it has paid little attention to 
 examining his road to the nearest village church. It 
 has given great sums to alleviate poverty, but given little 
 thought to the cau.ses that make for poverty — the 
 American system of farm tenantry, the robbing of soil 
 of it« fertility and stripping the hillside of its trees. 
 It has pictured the In-auty of the heavenly mansions 
 and taken no account of the buildings in which men and 
 women must spend their lives here an<l now. If has 
 \xH'n a faithful st<'ward in caring for the Klysiaii fields, 
 but it has allowed the riches of blue-grass and corn and 
 wheat-field to U' .xquandere*! with prodigal liiiinl. It 
 has made a glorious and imtiring fight to teach the chil-
 
 172 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 dren God's word in the Bible, but it has left God's 
 word in the rivers and hills, the grass and the trees, 
 without prophet, witness, or defender. Hereafter it is 
 going to know something about the communities it 
 attempts to serve — of what stuff they are made, what are 
 their needs and their aspirations. It will take an inter- 
 est in the everyday affairs of the farmer — his crops and 
 stock, his buildings and machinery, his roads and school, 
 his lodge and recreation. The spires of the little cross- 
 roads church will still point to the skies, but its f ootstone 
 will lie on the commonplace work of the day. It will 
 ' preach the worth of the native earth,' and it will 
 look upon American land as holy land to be guarded 
 as a sacred trust from the Almighty to His children."* 
 
 This method is coming largely into use, as an instru- 
 ment by the churches. During last year the Depart- 
 ment of Church and Country Life of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the United States carried on seven rural 
 surveys in as many communities and States. 
 The scope of the inquiry was as follows: " Beginning 
 with the locality, the economic conditions as expressed 
 in land-ownership, wages, labor conditions, and the 
 ' money-crops ' of the district, and proceeding through 
 an analysis of the population, of the social mind, means 
 of communication, class distinctions, social organiza- 
 tions, the investigator approached last of all the in- 
 quiries as to moral conditions and religious institutions, 
 and the final inquiry had to do with the social welfare, 
 conceived as a resultant of the various processes under 
 study, "t 
 
 In 1909 a survey was carried on jointly by the Fed- 
 
 * " A Rural Survey in Missouri," p. 3. 
 
 t " A Rural Survey in Pennsylvania," p. 3.
 
 THE COUNTRY rlirKCH PROGRAMME 173 
 
 • 
 
 eral Council and the Home Missions Council. Its pur- 
 pose was to discover the amount of '' overlapping " in 
 mission work. It revealed instead so great an amount 
 of " overlooking " of need that those who were supposed 
 to know most about conditions almost resented the find- 
 ings. But this survey has become the historic seed of 
 nation-wide activities. One of its fruits was the deci- 
 sion, in January of the present year, of the Home 
 Missions Council, consisting of representatives of the 
 boards of home missions of the twenty-four leading 
 denominations in the United States, to carry out, as a 
 common undertaking, a survey of every State from 
 Kansas to the coast, in order that " the endeavor to 
 Christianize a continent be based upon the widest pos- 
 sible basis of ascertainable facts."* 
 
 Material is abundant for use in the direction of such 
 a survey. George Frederick Wells has published an 
 excellent manual, " A Social Survey for Rural Com- 
 munities." The Commission on Social Service of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church has issued another, en- 
 titled " A Social Service Programme for the Parish " ; 
 the Young People's Missionary Movement, a third ; the 
 Rus.sell Sage Foundation a more comprehensive one for 
 general use in city or country. '' The method is cor- 
 rect, and it is the only corrective method." 
 
 One of the needs revealed by every survey yet made 
 gives us the next desideratum for the fhurcb's pro- 
 gramme, Chun-li Union, or, where organic union be not 
 feasible, Federation. The situation shows the absolute 
 necessity of co-ordinating our forces. Not the j)lnnting 
 (}{ the church in immigration areas alone, but the orien- 
 
 • " Conmjltatlon« upon Wcatftrn Neglected Flolda." Homo 
 MlMlon rounrll, p. 3.
 
 174 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 tation of the church to her task throughout the country, 
 calls for the setting free of efficiency unencumbered by 
 the brakes of denominational rivalry. In communities 
 where different denominations became established half 
 a century ago, where commodious church buildings 
 were erected forty years ago, designed to accommo- 
 date larger congregations than then existed, where 
 depletion of population commenced thirty years ago 
 and has already carried off one-third of the population 
 for which those churches were built, as imperative a 
 situation is found as any demanding co-operation in the 
 home mission field. 
 
 And the logic of the situation points to organic union. 
 There appears no practical reason why the Presbyterian 
 Church in Canada and the Presbyterian Church in the 
 United States should unite organically. Their duty 
 might be to federate for the solution of similar prob- 
 lems. But where several churches serve one community, 
 where their work interlaces, organic union, if possible, 
 is the rational course. As well divide our school work 
 sectarianly and hope to have it efficient ; as well have 
 three competing schools in each hamlet ; as well have 
 children in the open country pass by a school or two in 
 order to attend that of their grandfather's preference, 
 and expect a scholarly community, with education effi- 
 ciently applied to life, as hope for the best results reli- 
 giously in serving our farmers' homes by our divided 
 church life. 
 
 Some fear that the absence of competition would 
 lessen the church's activity. One of the most fruitful 
 of modern conceptions is that of the efficiency engineer. 
 He examines the expenditure of labor in a trade — that 
 of the bricklayer, for instance, and points out how by 
 different movements of the hand and trowel labor may
 
 THE COL'MKV CHURCH PROGRAMME 175 
 
 be halved and etiiciency doubled; he scrutinizes an 
 organized business and points out where leakages occur, 
 where poor co-ordination is found, wIuto efficiency 
 might be promoted. The Dominion Government has at 
 present an English expert investigating the working of 
 the Departments with a view to efficient reorganization. 
 The tests of the efficiency engineer applied to the 
 churches would show that their efficiency lies not in the 
 competitive spirit but in spiritual consecration. 
 
 But if organic union be not possible, co-operation as 
 frank, as full, as free, as if denominations were organi- 
 cally united is imperative. To serve our land in her 
 need every church must work, not for the church in 
 either its local or its connexional interests, but for the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 In the United States men have no hope of any speedy 
 organic union on a large scale. But forty denomina- 
 tions, forming practically almost the entire constitu- 
 ency of evangelical Christianity, have formed a Federal 
 Council which is Ix'coming the central agency in coun- 
 try community iK'tterment. The movement anticipates 
 union. Dr. Talhnadge Root, one of the Secretaries, 
 says: "Conditions demand co-operation everywhere 
 and consolidation somewhere. The (juestion to-<lay is 
 no longer lx'twe<'n isolation and co-operation. The only 
 alternative now is between t»iiij)ori»rv or permanent, 
 spasmodic or systematic, co-operation. Federation 
 means co-operation systematic and permanent. It is 
 indispennable, not only for present efficiency, but as the 
 first stop towards cliurch unify." As between the 
 denominations the phm is federate<i action. Iml as 
 regards the I(K'al sit nation the outcome in " one-minis- 
 ter feflcralions in c«tuntrv vilbiges " is practically nnion. 
 .■\ difliciilfv in tlu' aflniinisf r;if ion of tlicse lia-;. how-
 
 176 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 ever, arisen, through the custom of having these ad- 
 ministered bj the authorities of the different denomina- 
 tions in turn. George Frederick Wells, lately Research 
 Secretary of the Federal Council, a recognized authority 
 on the matter, says : '' Transitional Federations, where 
 churches for a time have to relate themselves to different 
 denominational organizations, suffer from too much 
 friction." We are fortunate in possessing in Canada 
 a more promising agency, in the Joint Union Com- 
 mittee with its new function of oversight and adminis- 
 tration, for such local union churches, awaiting the com- 
 ing of the organic union to which we look forward. 
 Meanwhile, here, as in the United States, " the para- 
 mount end is the establishment of efficient co-operation 
 among evangelical denominations so as to meet the 
 unmet spiritual needs of America and bring about the 
 establishment of the kingdom of heaven here." 
 ^■^ — -<fhe next requisite in the programme is Special 
 . Training for the Ministry. Not that there should be 
 - one class of ministers trained for the country and 
 another for the city. We desiderate one civilization 
 in city and country alike in which all shall be at home, 
 and therefore reprobate any further distinction of class. 
 But special training is called for in methods of dealing 
 with this problem on the part of all ministers, so that 
 those whose lot happens to fall in the city shall have 
 a sympathetic understanding of it, while those whose 
 choice is the country pastorate shall have efficient equip- 
 ment for their tasks. To some slight extent, perhaps, 
 elective courses of study may prove necessary, though 
 only in a limited field. But there is need of training 
 for all alike along new lines — of direct contact with 
 social problems under the teacher's eye, — that is, for
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH PR0(}RA:\[ME 177 
 
 the use of the case-system or cliuical method ; aud for the 
 adoption as a main subject of research, of the study of 
 the relation of the kingdom of God to the associative 
 life of man. 
 
 The next requisite in the procjrainnie is the direct 
 Ministry of Teachins; upon the problem. The church 
 must, from her throne of power, the pulpit, preach 
 a message for the times. The need of the hour is that 
 of a clearer understanding on the part of Christian men 
 and women of the present situation. 
 
 We even venture to suggest some topics of discourse, 
 not as exhaustive, but suggestive; ; and first the Problem 
 itself. We as pastors need to take up with our people 
 a serious study of the problem. Evidence accumulates 
 from many quarters that our people will welcome such 
 discussion. These needs are very real in the experience 
 of our people, though inarticulate. Their very expres- 
 sion is itself the first step towards setting at liberty 
 those who are crushed. 
 
 Again, we should speak upon the merits of life on the 
 farm. There is indeed an attraction in the city: 
 
 The sun's on the pavement 
 
 And the current comes and goes, 
 And the grey streets of London 
 
 They blossom like the roHo. 
 Thi' bluebells may bockon 
 
 The cuckoo call — and yet, 
 The grey streets of ImixAou 
 
 I never may forget. 
 And the gn-on country meadows 
 
 Are fresh and fine to see; 
 But the grey streets of London 
 
 They're ail the world to me.* 
 
 • Rosamund Watson. " A Song of London." 
 12
 
 I 
 
 178 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 A true life maj be lived anywhere : 
 
 O Love builds on the azure sea, 
 
 And Love builds on the golden sand, 
 
 And Love builds on the rose-winged cloud. 
 And sometimes Love builds on the land. 
 
 O if Love builds on sparkling sea. 
 And if Love builds on golden strand. 
 
 And if Love builds on rosy cloud. 
 To Love, these are the solid land. 
 
 O Love will build his lily walls. 
 And Love his pearly roof will rear. 
 
 On cloud or land, on mist or sea — 
 Love's solid land is everywhere!* 
 
 And yet — those expert judges in the things of the heart, 
 the Poets, being witness — the country is peculiarly the 
 home of the home. 
 
 Happy the man whose life's full round 
 
 Is passed within his farmstead's bound; 
 
 Who in his elder years may view 
 
 The self-same home that as a boy he knew. 
 
 Fortune upon him has no hold 
 
 With its alarms and tumults manifold; 
 
 He does not flit on fickle wings 
 
 Slaking his thirst at unfamiliar springs. 
 
 Active still and stout of thew 
 
 A hale old man, he lives three ages through. 
 
 Others may seek the changes travel gives: 
 
 They see more life, but he more truly lives.t 
 
 And even the ascetic life — ^when, under Bernard of 
 Clairvaux with his Rule of Charity, it abandoned cities 
 
 * Isabella V. Crawford, " Malcolm's Katie." 
 t Claudian. Translated by George S. Bryan, " Poems of 
 Country Life."
 
 •L<H»K iii:ki:. i'imn this I'lfrrKi:. am) <i.\ this.' 
 
 THK i;i«i'NTitv m;i;iis a vish»n <.i' its <»s\n 
 
 I'KhlcMTV.
 
 THE COUNTRY (^HURCH PROGRAMME 179 
 
 and the sciences tu render valuable service in the devel- 
 opment of agriculture — wrote over the portals of its 
 rural hostelries: 
 
 Here man more purely lives, less oft doth fall. 
 More promptly rises, •vs'alks with nicer heed. 
 More safely rests, dies happier.* 
 
 The worth of rural life is seen more clearly still by 
 contrast through the hare, bald recital of Frederic Har- 
 rison's tremendous indictment of modern industrial con- 
 ditions in British cities: " To me at least it would be 
 enough to condemn society as hardlv an advance upon 
 slavery or serfdom, if the permanent condition of indus- 
 try were to be that which we now behold — that ninety 
 per cent, of the actual producers of wealth have no 
 home that they can call their own beyond the end of 
 the week ; have no bit of soil or so much as a room that 
 belongs to them : have nothing of value of any kind 
 except as much furniture as will go in a cart; have the 
 precarious chance of weekly wages which barely suffice 
 to keep them in health ; are housed for the most part in 
 places that no man thinks fit for his horse ; are separ- 
 ated by 80 narrow a margin from destitution that a 
 month of bad trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings 
 them face to face with hunger and pauperism. This is 
 the normal state of the average workman. "f Thorold 
 Rogers, too, declares, " There is every reason to fear 
 that it is the case that there is collected a population 
 in our great towns that erpials in amount the whole of 
 those who lived in England six «'f'nturif's ago, whose 
 
 •WordHworth. "Sonnets." 
 
 t AddroHH b<-for" IndiHtrliil n<'miin<ratlon ronRreKH, quoted 
 In "Social Advanro." by Divld WaUion, p 01.
 
 180 KURAL LIFE IN CAl^ADA 
 
 condition is more destitute, whose homes are more 
 squalid, whose means are more uncertain, whose pros- 
 pects are more hopeless, than those of the peasant serfs 
 of the middle ages or the meanest drudges of the mediae- 
 val cities."* How different our Canadian rural life: 
 
 City clangors are far behind us. 
 
 Dusty streets and noisome air; 
 
 Rutliless toil can no longer bind us. 
 
 Liberty shatters the gyves of care. 
 
 Green are the hills which the clouds float over, 
 
 Mountains of pearl in a sapphire sea; 
 
 Zephyrs are laden with scent of clover 
 
 And rural melodies, blythe and free. 
 
 Herds of cattle in grassy meadows 
 
 Mottling the valleys, recline at ease — 
 
 Ruminate dreamily under the shadows 
 
 Cast by the graceful sheltering trees. 
 
 Orchards laden with apples and peaches, 
 
 Fields that are white with the waving grain. 
 
 Bounties of nature and industry teach us 
 
 Lessons that memory long shall retain. 
 
 Here and there by the trees half hidden 
 
 We catch a glimpse of a pleasant home; 
 
 And the thought springs up to the lips unbidden, 
 
 O why should Canada's children roam?t 
 
 And again, we should speak of the improvement pos- 
 sible in farm life. I am asked a question : Should the 
 church undertake to teach agriculture ? and a second 
 one: Should the church tell men how to raise better 
 cabbages ? It was my purpose Vather to emphasize the 
 better social life. But let us consider. Until the 
 present year this particular branch of the church main- 
 
 * Thorold Rogers, " Six Centuries of Work and Wages," 
 p. 47. 
 
 t Edward Hartley Dewart, " Songs of Life."
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM.ME 181 
 
 tained a university. She might as legitimately main- 
 tain an agricultural college if the nation should fail to 
 do so. The same branch of the church teaches the Bhils 
 in India how to farm. Under stress of circumstances 
 she might do so elsewhere. 
 
 There are no heathen oaks, no Gentile pines, 
 The soil whereon we stand is Christian soil. 
 
 Should she teach men here how to gi'ow better cabbages ? 
 She need not. But she should teach men everywhere 
 and always that it is their duty to grow bettor cabbages. 
 Each of (lur Provinces provides most helpful agencies 
 of agricultural improvement; it is for the church to 
 deal with the moral prerequisites of better husbandry, 
 and hold out the In'tter resultant life as an incentive. 
 
 If husbandry, anijjjitied l»y reclamation, perpetuated 
 by conservation, fostered bv science, raav become all 
 that vve have seen possible when the whole wide world 
 shall become a garden, what of the Edenic life obtain- 
 able there i " (Jod's partner in making the new earth " 
 is Dr. RoJK'rtson's definition of the young modern 
 farmer, and he gives thereby a glimpse into the inex- 
 haustible life attainable by country people, who despite 
 every wasting force are still the wellspring of national 
 strength. 
 
 We should remind our people that as the farmer ol" 
 tf>-day has risen far alM)ve the status of ihe past, so 
 further advance is thereby nuide still nnu-e jtossible; as 
 machinery has already lightened (oil, its further ser- 
 vices may Ix; yet more significant; as the t(lej)li(»ne, 
 mail-delivery and other agencies are now enriching riinil 
 life, other and finer facilities are practieabN'. W' 
 should speak of what education might do in a merely
 
 182 KUEAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 material way for the fanner. A recent social survey 
 near Ithica, ISTew York, covering a county, revealed the 
 fact that the annual labor income of farmers having a 
 high school education was $304 larger than those hav- 
 ing only a district school education. The high school 
 course vv^as for them equivalent to an endowment, at 6 
 per cent., of $5,066. The annual labor income of 
 farmers with some agricultural college training was 
 larger by $588. For these the high school and college 
 training was equivalent to an endowment of $9,800. 
 
 We might speak of what intellectual entertainment 
 has done at Hesperia, Michigan, to bring satisfaction 
 at home, renown abroad, and to bestow world leadership. 
 Twenty years ago an annual school convention began to 
 gather farmers and teachers to discuss their problems 
 and entertain one another. Orators of world-wide fame 
 now feel honored by being asked to speak at Hesperia. 
 The county is sending forth from her own sons educators, 
 statesmen, and authors to serve their generation and 
 bring fame to their birthplace. We should remind 
 men that the defects of country life are of a kind more 
 readily remedied than are the defects of city life ; that 
 the means of immediate betterment along some lines are 
 quite at their command ; and that to flee from environ- 
 ment instead of improving it is to confess failure, to 
 be swayed by circumstances instead of ruling fate. The 
 country needs a vision of its own felicity. 
 
 Again, we must preach that the very function of hus- 
 bandry, which is to furnish man's daily bread, lays 
 upon men a duty. It imposes an obligation similar 
 to that lying upon a soldier at his post. 'Not upon all 
 persons. Of the youths growing up in a rural com- 
 munity one may be markedly mechanical in his tastes.
 
 THE COUXTRY CHURCH PROGRAMME 183 
 
 maj understand mechanism at a glance, and by nature's 
 gift move fearlessly among machinery as its conscious 
 king. Another may be as eminently fitted for the 
 field of commerce ; he is at home amidst the forms and 
 calculations of business, and comprehending the laws 
 of trade is the very wine of life to him. Another may 
 be as markedly musical in his tastes, and still another 
 a hn-er of literature ; while to another, spiritually 
 minded, there comes the call of the Spirit to the service 
 of Christ in His ministry. For such the field of duty 
 lies elsewhere. But for the man who loves the soil, 
 whose delight is in the care of stock, the man who 
 though he may make his way in the city — for he is 
 country-born and therefore strong, country-bred and 
 therefore versatile — yet must ever look back with long- 
 ing to the farm, — for him the farm is the place of duty. 
 He is called to furnish men's daily bread. To live in 
 this spirit is to make husbandry a noble form of human 
 endeavor. Such an one need never ask the question of 
 the discouraged: 
 
 " What Is there left for me beneath the sun? 
 
 My labor seems so useless; all I try 
 
 I weary of before 'tis well begun; 
 
 I scorn to grovel, and I cannot fly." 
 
 " Hush! hush! repining heart! There's One whose eye 
 
 Esteems each honest thought and act and word 
 
 Noble as poet's song or patriot's sword. 
 
 Be true to Him: He will not pass thee by. 
 
 He may not ask thee mid Pits stars to shine 
 
 And yet He needeth thee, His work is thine."* 
 
 And llii-> JM l»ut to say that his duty i.s part uf a univer- 
 sal human duty — to serve. We must preach that the 
 
 •John Readf, " Thr I'rophrcy of Merlin."
 
 184 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 spirit of Christ brought into business life would give 
 all labor alike, on farm, in factory, or at the desk, the 
 dignity of service. Then each man, producer or trader, 
 would take out of the product or the turn-over, not a 
 fortune, but a livelihood, and let the rest form a contri- 
 bution to human well-being, in the form of zealous 
 labor, ample wages, or a good-value product. 
 
 The minister is expected to serve for a stipend, a 
 living. The physician, though he charges fees, is 
 expected to put service before remuneration ; the soldier 
 serves for a livelihood, and is expected to lay down his 
 life at need. And all the truly great in the field of 
 science have been too devoted to their profession to seek 
 wealth. Our Christian business men must learn to live 
 thus as well. We are not to ask for this service up to 
 the measure of Christ, but in His spirit. His rule is to 
 be ours : " I am among you as one that serveth " ; but 
 His measure : " The Son of man hath not where to lay 
 his head," is not asked of others. We must say to men : 
 " Take your living, generous as it may be, but make 
 your occupation service." Any man who lives by this 
 rule would remain in the country, at his beloved occu- 
 pation; for the incentives which now call men away 
 would be gone. This, and not <3onscription of the youth 
 of a nation for some years' service in subduing nature 
 to man — as proposed by Professor James — is the 
 " moral equivalent of war," in calling out the qualities 
 of manhood in a people. 
 
 Is this possible? Easily, where once the demand is 
 steadfastly made in Jesus' name. As great things have 
 been done through lesser motives. Honor has accom- 
 plished as much. We send and are sent as guests into 
 chambers with fittings of silver, and never a thought of
 
 THE COUXTRY ("HI RCH PROGRAMME 185 
 
 pilfering or of being pilfered crosses our minds. It 
 is not the power of the law that restrains, and. with 
 many, not of conscienoe. It is habit. And even the 
 heathen had developed a higher morality still. Until 
 the coniing of the whitt* man the trapper of the Xorth 
 cac-hed his provisions and his pelts, and the mark of the 
 cache was inviolate. If men can standardize honesty 
 thus, what prevents the elevating of business to the 
 standard of service ( If patriotism in time of war can 
 make service a stronger incentive than gain, than love of 
 of life, what cannot the potent force of Christian faith 
 accomplish ( As certainly as legislation now forbids 
 usury, 80 certainly will some form of wise restraint yet 
 prevent the taking of more than ample livelihood out 
 of labor's retiirn; biit should those who are free from 
 law in the freedom of Christ need aught to bind them to 
 such service ? Xow, this ideal, once present, would lead 
 men to seek that vocation where each could render the 
 fullest service. Were it once present there would be 
 no rural problem. 
 
 The next essential in the programme is the utilization 
 of the agencies already at hand for the church's use. "^ 
 
 Foremost among these is the JEEoig c. The home i«r 
 the greatest agency of human welfare. It is the place 
 where all that upbuilds does its initial, and all that 
 destroys its final, work. Education, industry, society, 
 and religion alike look to the home for their material. 
 One feature of the present situation is the disregard of 
 the home. There is a diverse characteristic of the emi- 
 gration from Britain which settled Kastern Canada and 
 that from Eastern Canada whieh helps fill up the West. 
 In the one rase men sought homes, in the other fortunes. 
 Another trait of the western migration is that many go
 
 186 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 not oblivious but regardless of the fact that thej take 
 their families from homes of comfort to live for an 
 indefinite period deprived of satisfactory home sur- 
 roundings. And a chief note of the movement from 
 the country is the making light of responsibility towards 
 the home, towards parents who are left to carry on the 
 farm alone. The church should lead her sons to say: 
 
 Oh, fame may heap its measure, 
 
 And hope its blossoms strew. 
 And proud ambition call us, 
 
 And honor urge us through; 
 But kinsfolk, kinsfolk. 
 
 My thought is all for you! 
 No strange and lovely countries 
 
 Men venture forth to view. 
 No power and gifts and glory 
 
 Are worth one heart-beat true; 
 And kinsfolk, kinsfolk. 
 
 My heart is all for you!* 
 
 But the church should do more than this. " Home " is 
 not a static conception. We have passed lately from 
 what we regarded as a static world into what we know to 
 be a dynamic world — from a world of assorted things 
 into a world of advancing processes. The tasks of the 
 home itself are changing. A book upon " The Chris- 
 tian Home/' by Dr. John Hall, popular twenty-five 
 years ago, does not meet the needs of to-day. Changes 
 have taken place in two directions; functions once de- 
 volving solely upon the home have been relegated to 
 other agencies, while the socializing of life has multi- 
 
 * " Northland Lyrics," by W. C. Roberts, Theodore Roberts, 
 and Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald.
 
 THE COUXTRY CHUKCH PROGRAMME 187 
 
 plied the relationships of the home. \\Tiile the advance 
 of the science of education takes both teaching and train- 
 ing of children more and more largely out of the hands 
 of parents ; while the home is no longer related only to 
 church and school and business, but to guild and club 
 and lodge and office, — the church must lead the home 
 to stress more than ever the primary and essential func- 
 tions which ever remain hers. Our advancing civiliza- 
 tion necessitates a more prolonged training than for- 
 merly for the full responsibilities of life. A chief fac- 
 tor in making country-born and bred men and women 
 the leaders in all lines of national progress has been 
 that family life which required each one from child- 
 hood's years to take his due share in the duties of the 
 homo. This home life is in danger. It must be con- 
 served and developed. The Lome must still provide in 
 childhood occupation embodying the child's tastes, the 
 environment's necessities, the parents' wisdom ; and 
 must also provide in youth some form of economic part- 
 nership Ijctween parent and child. This age of organ- 
 ization demands that our youth adjust themselves to a 
 sense of their place in organizations and possess a sense 
 of loyalty to institutions. My boy of seven comes from 
 his school saying, " I'm on the committee, I must see 
 to the programme for Friday afternoon's school con- 
 cert." This has the modern ring. No such training 
 found place in my childhood. The home also must 
 stress lovaltv to itself, and the child's sense of member- 
 ship should broaden out from the home relationships 
 to those of the neighborhood and to all the institutions 
 of society until tin? youth becomes a citizen (»f ti)e world 
 iu the home. Our intenser life demands more recrea- 
 tion, our ampler life more soeial provision. iIihii did
 
 188 EUKAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 the past. The means of recreation and of social plea- 
 sures ar© being commercialized as a consequence. The 
 church must lead the home to supply an ordered pro- 
 vision for social as for other needs — a provision to 
 include all its members, the tired mother as well as the 
 eager daughters. The chief responsibility for the social 
 life of youth rests not with the church or the school but 
 with the home, and the fundamental social duty of the 
 church is to maintain the social integrity and activity 
 of the home. And our age of world-wide interests 
 demands a fuller recognition of responsibility, of the 
 worth of character, of the supremacy of conscience and 
 the duty of service, than ever before. The home has 
 therefore a more emphatic call than ever to provide for 
 social religion and personal faith. In a word, all of 
 those deficiencies which make conservation, progressive 
 farming, co-operation, social satisfaction and commun- 
 ity service difficult of attainment must first be grappled 
 with in the home. What Oberlin achieved, what Grunt- 
 vig secured, is what our modern life demands and Christ 
 commands — the use of the home as the first agency in 
 upbuilding the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The church must avail herself of the next great 
 agency, the School. By this is not meant any formal 
 control of the one institution by the other, but that the 
 church should inspire the school to freely fulfil more 
 adequately its tasks, and inspire the people to respond 
 more fully to the advantages offered by the school. Our 
 standpoint is that of the Christian Conservation Con- 
 gress, which " postulated the church as the agency and 
 the force that is to do the work which the twentieth cen- 
 tury demands," and " that it is the business of the 
 church to face fearlessly all the new problems of our
 
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 THE COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM.\lE 189 
 
 complex day, and to grapple with them to a solution." 
 The whole social fabric must become a metaphrase of 
 the Christian life. What is needed is a body of 
 opinion within the church which shall understand the 
 school at its best, criticize it constructively, inspire it 
 with the leavening, uplifting, conserving influence of 
 religion ; and shall guide the public to accept from the 
 school, and to ask of it, not only the intellectualizing of 
 the children committed to its care, but that it shall voca- 
 tionalize, socialize, and moralize them as well. When, 
 for instance, wo find in a recent report issued by the 
 Ontario Government the statement that " neither the 
 pupils nor the parents seemed to have any desire to 
 have agriculture taught in the school," we are face to 
 face with a condition in which character and motive are 
 the chief factors — and the church is the agency to deal 
 wnth these. 
 
 In order to solve the rural problem there is need of 
 widely difl"usod education in agriculture. The Pro- 
 vincial agricultural colleges cannot give this to many, 
 though they give it thoroughly; the coming county 
 agricultural high schools will be its finest agency, but 
 cannot give it to all. The public schools must give a 
 training that shall Ik* in some degree vocational. Our 
 Provincial Departments of Education arc ofi^ering 
 through the public schools elementary teaching in for- 
 estry, agriculture, and horticulture; but in the^e efforts 
 meet with a widespread lack of moral support. To 
 secure this is the task of the church. 
 
 But the school must do more than vncationalize the 
 pupil ; it n)ust do its part in socializing and moralizing 
 him HH well. Heyond all other classes farmers find it 
 difficult to organize and to co-opr-rjite f(.r mutual good.
 
 190 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 Even when so organized Sir Horace Plunkett finds that 
 the local co-operative society will sell through the cen- 
 tral co-operative agency when prices are low, but 
 through other channels when prices are high, 
 
 Balking the end half won for an instant's dole. 
 
 Here again is a situation which the church both directly 
 and through the school must meet. The school must 
 adopt supervised play as a socializing agency. Wherever 
 introduced, rational, normal play has promoted physical 
 vigor; it has aroused mental alertness more generally 
 than the prospect of advantage through the possession of 
 knowledge had done ; but its especial results have been 
 in the realm of character. It has solved the problem of 
 discipline, it has taught self-confidence and respect for 
 the rights of others. It is one of the means that lies at 
 the basis of the solution of the rural problem. That 
 problem has two imderlying economic causes: insuffi- 
 cient production by the farmer and exploitation of the 
 farmer. Industrial efficiency on the farmer's part, to 
 be secured through vocational education, must meet the 
 first ; social efficiency on his part, to be secured by such 
 means as this, must meet the second. Should anyone 
 object that such training lays an added burden upon 
 the teacher, an enhanced cost upon the school, the reply 
 lies in the comparative amounts of the cost and of the 
 loss now sustained by the nation through rural deple- 
 tion. The efficiency of supervised play is recognized 
 by all educationists. What is still requisite is a sense 
 of the urgency of the situation upon their part, and an 
 acceptance of their view of its efficiency by the public. 
 To inspire educationists and public with this sense of 
 urgency and efficiency is the task of the church.
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAMME 191 
 
 The Consolidated School, that has proved such an 
 educational advance in Ohio and Indiana and is spread- 
 ing so rapidly throughout tlie United States, has been a 
 pedagogical success in Canada, but, so far as its wide 
 adoption is concerned, a practical failure. In Mani- 
 toba and in Xew Brunswick, however, the movement 
 is making good progress. People are getting for 
 their children, through more primitive methods, 
 as good an education as they desire for them. But the 
 principle of the consolidation of schools has undoubtedly 
 made good in meeting country needs. It is for tlic 
 church to help in securing the working of that principle. 
 
 If the church undertakes her part in inspiration and 
 moral support the outlook is bright indeed. Here is the 
 voice of the Province of Ontario in official utterance: 
 '' The country school of the future will be teaching agri- 
 culture. It will not be a new kind of sehotd simply be- 
 cause it has added a new subject to its list of studies. 
 But in the teaching of this new subject it will find a new 
 service? in the community and a new meaning for educa- 
 tion for country people. 
 
 '* It will be the local experimental farm in a simple, 
 but effective way; it will introduce new varieties of field 
 crops and test methods of cultivation through the child- 
 ren's school-farm; it will V>e the local beauty-spot, with 
 neat fences, well-kept buildings, lawns, and flower beds; 
 it will 1k' the local play-ground, not only for the child- 
 ren, but for the grown-ups ; it will be the local centre for 
 social gatherings; its library will serve everyone with 
 books, magazines, bulletins and reports that concern 
 themselves with the farm work in home and field as well 
 as with literary matters. 
 
 " In the school work it will not consider examinations
 
 192 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 as the be-all and end-all of its effort ; it will not cheat the 
 many for the sake of preparing a few for advanced work 
 in a higher school; it will remember that most of the 
 pupils will have only a short time at school and a long 
 time at work, and it will make its instruction fit the 
 needs of the worker no less than the future needs of the 
 scholar ; it will try to keep the boy who is not clever in 
 book-studies at school and to educate him through prac- 
 tical activities with tools and in the garden ; it will re- 
 member that children are educated for life through ac- 
 tivities in play, in work at home, in handling tools, in 
 experiences in Nature's Workshop, no less than by learn- 
 ing from books; it will bring the fathers and mothers 
 back to school again by using the daily home interests 
 as the means of education of their children. It will give 
 to our boys and girls in the country an education for 
 life."* 
 
 But better still, here again is the official voice of that 
 efficient Department in direct recognition of Grod as the 
 goal of its labors : 
 
 I teach 
 
 The earth and soil 
 To them that toil, 
 The hill and fen 
 To common men 
 
 That live just here; 
 
 The plants that grow. 
 The winds that blow. 
 The streams that run 
 In rain and sun 
 Throughout the year; 
 
 * Ontario Department of Education. Circular No. 3, 1912.
 
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 THE COUNTRY OHFROH PROGRAMME 193 
 
 And then I lead 
 Thro' wood and mead, 
 Thro' mould and sod 
 Out unto God; 
 
 With love and cheer 
 I teach!* 
 
 Education in the city owes much to the gifts of phil- 
 anthropy; in the country, as yet, little or nothing. To 
 ask from men of wealth recognition of rural needs is 
 not to pauperize the country ; to claim equality of treat- 
 ment with the city is no more than to demand simple 
 justice. Buildings, equipment, endowment, are lavished 
 upon the city by men who indeed made their fortunes 
 there, but made them bv means of sturdv country 
 strength, used, often, in controlling sources of affluence 
 whose origin is in the country. Such men owe the debts 
 of philanthropy to rural rather than to urban need. An 
 instance of a wise and generous gift for better education 
 in the country is found in the Rittenhouse School in 
 Lincoln County. Ontario. Mr. M, F. Rittenhouse hav- 
 ing won ample means in lumbering, acknowledged the 
 debt he owed to the old one-roomed stone schoolhouse at 
 Jordan Harbor, where he had received his education, by 
 giving to the neighborhood a well-equipped modern 
 school. Two school districts were united. The philan- 
 thropist in the case presented the enlarged district with 
 a graded school equipped for manual training and 
 domestic science, having a school garden and ample 
 grounds furnished with facilities for supervised recrea- 
 tion. The school grounds are four acres in extent. Not 
 yet satisfied with this provision for the neighborhood, 
 the ddiior went farther. Across the highway from the ^ 
 
 • L. H. Bailey, (luoted In circular cited. 
 13
 
 194 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 school was a finely-wooded knoll of five acres. As this 
 could not be secured separately he purchased the farm 
 of which it formed a part. In the grove he had built a 
 hall for community purposes, with large lecture room, 
 library, museum, and all facilities for a social centre. 
 The hall with its five acres of grounds he presented to 
 the school district; the remainder of the farm to the 
 Provincial Department of Agriculture for a demonstra- 
 tion farm for fruit-growing. The highway passing the 
 school he had rebuilt on the finest lines for some two 
 miles, having it boulevarded and provided with bridges 
 of artistic beauty. An impetus has been given to the 
 whole neighborhood. Land in the vicinity has trebled 
 in value. The adjoining school sections have been 
 stimulated to similar activities. Mr. Rittenhouse's 
 action is an example which should call to the front many 
 philanthropists. 
 
 The church should avail herself in the country of an 
 interdenominational agency which has been found of 
 great service in the city — the Young Men's Christian 
 Association. Had it not been for this institution social 
 need in the city — so far as the church's ministry thereto 
 is concerned — would have been as scantily supplied 
 as in the country. The average city church does noth- 
 ing more for those beyond its membership, and scarcely 
 more for those within, than does the country congre- 
 gation, in all that pertains to the physical and recrea- 
 tional, and the social life. The Association, however, 
 has done a magnificent work for young manhood 
 through its gymnasiums, its athletic clubs, its recrea- 
 tion-rooms, its social parlors, and its classrooms. It 
 has not only rendered direct service but has stimulated
 
 > 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 G 
 O 
 
 X _ 
 
 1 ■/ 
 
 X
 
 THE COrrN'TRY CHrRCH PROGRAMME 195 
 
 other agencies to gi'cater activity, and has leavened all 
 athletic and recreational life with a nobler spirit. All 
 that the citj has received through the Association the 
 country requires and deserves. We have already three 
 ( 'ounty Associations in Ontario — in Bruce, Huron and 
 Lanibton. Fourfold activities are carried on, physical, 
 social, educational, and religious. The finest achieve- 
 ment of the Association is in developing leadership. 
 The secretary is the pastor's strongest reinforcement. 
 The Young Women's Christian Association otfers itself 
 as a similar agency among girls and young women. 
 That organization lately approached the Federal Coun- 
 cil of the Churches in the United States with this re- 
 quest : " The Young Women's Christian Association, in 
 its newly developed rural work, has been grateful to 
 recognize its entire allegiance to the church, from which 
 it draws its inspiration, and whose work it constantly 
 seeks to advance. . . . We should be especially 
 glad, therefore, if the Federal Council could make it 
 plain to the churches that the Young Women's Christian 
 Association is an arm of the church, and that it stands 
 ready to do work for them whenever they need help in 
 specialized work for the women in a community." 
 
 A denominational and congregational agency to be 
 availed of is the Men's Brotherhood. Within the con- 
 gregation this organization is fitted to perform the ser- 
 vice which the Association renders for the county. The 
 Firotherhfxjd seems especially adaj)ted to meet the pres- 
 i-nt situation. It is an organization of men. Tt is at 
 «)nee intensely spiritual and thoroughly practical in aim. 
 The manliness of Christ is its inspiration; His s^nn- 
 pathy witli nicn its pattern. Fls av<t\ved first object
 
 196 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 is to lead men into fellowship with Christ and His 
 church; its second, to seek the welfare of men in their 
 relations with each other and with the world as a place 
 for all men to live ; and its third to give all men, especi- 
 ally in times of need, the help of Christian comrade- 
 ship. Other church agencies adapted to such services 
 are the Young People's Guild and the Christian En- 
 deavor Society. 
 
 The Young Men's and Women's Christian Associa- 
 tions are fitted to supply permanently the needs of the 
 marginal classes in the country as in the city along re- 
 creative and educational lines ; brotherhoods and guilds 
 to supply permanently within the congregation similar 
 needs. But a direct and immediate duty lies before the 
 church to fulfil another temporary social want institu- 
 tionally. She needs to avail herself, for the present 
 crisis, of a new agency, the social centre. In my native 
 village of Ormstown, Quebec, is a building bearing 
 my family name, MacDougall Hall, built as a memorial 
 to a beloved uncle, a farmer, by his brother, another 
 farmer, and presented to the Presbyterian Church in 
 Ormstown as a home for the social activities of the 
 church — the first of its kind in Canada. The donor was 
 in advance of his time in providing such a social centre. 
 Moreover, in his presentation of the hall to the church, 
 he expressed the wish that the trustees should hold the 
 building not for that congregation's use alone, but for 
 any social activities the sister denominations might wish 
 to engage in ; not only so, but that the building should 
 be open for any community gatherings also. Macdonald 
 College opened its recent Provincial campaign of " Tak- 
 ing the Agricultural College to the Farmer " in Mac- 
 Dougall Hall.
 
 THE COUICTRY CHURCH PROGRAMME 197 
 
 Other institutions, notably the school, are being called 
 on to provide centres for social life, and are doing so. 
 In many parts of the United States legislative sanction 
 has been given for the use of school grounds and build- 
 ings for such purposes when not required for class work. 
 The meetings so held are not solely nor chietly for socia- 
 bility, but for uutraminelpd discussion of community 
 problems and a purposeful programme of activities. 
 But so far as used for purely social gatherings they lay 
 an additional duty upon the church. Jt has been foimd 
 that where schools were thrown open without provision 
 for guidance in such social work, where it was supposed 
 that attractive social surroundings without supervision 
 would make for character-building, such gather- 
 ings became a blot on the community rather 
 than a help. Even more imperatively than does 
 recreation, social centres require supervision. This 
 would seem a task too delicate and too respon- 
 sible for our public school teachers, immature as they 
 so often are. The call is for leadershij) in numbers 
 sufficient and in strength adequate to supply a distinc- 
 tively character-building atm<isj)h('rc. in otlier words, 
 this widespread movement in regard to the schools is but 
 an additional call to the church to provide social centres. 
 
 In this form of service, as in others, material equip- 
 ment is no panacea, riie Spokane Chamber of Com- 
 merce in a recent utterance calls for a Country Life Hall 
 in every community in the State. Hut the real leaders 
 in the rural life movement are emphasizing leadership 
 as the prime necessity and manifest iliiiiiiiishing concern 
 over fullness of equipment. 
 
 Beyond that of adoi)ting new agencies of service an-
 
 198 EUEAL LIFE IN CAl^ADA 
 
 other dutj lies upon the church. The modification of 
 the primary occupations by modern industrial develop- 
 ment, which is the real cause of the present rural prob- 
 lem, demands study and action from many institutions. 
 Educational, industrial, recreative, fraternal, political 
 organizations have functions, responsibilities and duties 
 to undertake in regard to this problem. The church, 
 while she is to fill these organizations with spiritual men, 
 to inspire them with a spiritual character and a Chris- 
 tian ideal, must also recognize the supremacy of each in 
 its own domain, and the necessity of the contribution of 
 each to the solution of the problem. Thus, recognizing 
 the unity of the problem and the solidarity of the forces 
 which unitedly must solve it, she is called upon to assist 
 in the federation, " upon the level " of all forces of 
 progress. 
 
 Moreover, the Christian Church must awake to the 
 fact that she has a competitor for the suffrages and the 
 domain of the rural community in one of the most astute 
 of selfish agencies — Mormonism. While not disdaining 
 to dominate the city this system seeks first the sceptre of 
 the open country. Its dream is of world-conquest. It 
 behooves the church to match against the iron unity of 
 Mormon discipline the living unity of her faith, against 
 the inducement of a sensual life the incentive of a con- 
 secrated one, and now, before it be grown strong, to free 
 Canada from this incubus. 
 
 Such a programme calls for self-denial and devoted 
 service on the part of the church, but it leads to victory. 
 " Are we, the churchmen of this continent, prepared to 
 undertake any such programme as the regeneration of 
 society until all social institutions attain the measure
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAMME 199 
 
 of the stature of the fullness of Christ? Are we pre- 
 pared as families, as business firms, as labor 
 organizations, as cities, as a nation, to make the 
 venture of the Son of Man when He set His face stead- 
 fastly to go up to Jerusalem, and stake everything on 
 love i . . . Through many tribulations we must enter 
 into the kingdom of God, ' It became Him, for whom 
 are all things, and to whom are all things, in bringing 
 many sons to glory, to make the author of their salva- 
 tion perfect through sutfering.' The households, the 
 corporations, the unions, the municipalities, the nations 
 who would lead many of their brethren into the glory 
 of the kingdom of justice, kindness and faithfulness, 
 and be the author under God of their social salvation, 
 cannot expect a different perfecting of their Messianic 
 vocation. 
 
 " But the cross for Christians can never be more than 
 an incident. * Christ Jesus died, or rather is risen to 
 life again, who is also at the right hand of God.' We 
 cannot anticipate a destiny less exalted for any family, 
 or firm, or organization, or country, which dares to make 
 the experiment of incarnating in its life the spirit of 
 Calvary. And there is no other way of placing a home, 
 an industry, a settlement, a state, at the right hand of 
 God."* 
 
 From ocean unto ocean 
 
 Our land ahall own Thee Lord, 
 And filled with true devotion 
 
 Obey Thy sovereign word. 
 
 • " Mea and Religion MessageB," " Social Service." p. 117.
 
 200 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 Our prairies and our mountains. 
 
 Forest and fertile field. 
 Our rivers, lakes and fountains, 
 
 To Thee shall tribute yield. 
 Till all the tribes and races 
 
 That dwell in this fair land 
 Adorned with Christian graces 
 
 Within Thy courts shall stand. 
 
 — Robert Murray, "'Book of Praise."
 
 STUDENTS AND THE RURAL 
 PROBLEM
 
 From life's enchantments, 
 
 Desire of place. 
 From lust of getting. 
 
 Turn thou away and set thy face 
 Toward the wilderness. 
 
 With awful judgment, 
 
 The law, the rod. 
 With soft allurements 
 
 And comfortable words, will God 
 Pass o'er the wilderness. 
 
 The bitter waters 
 
 Are healed and sweet; 
 The ample heavens 
 
 Pour angels' bread about thy feet, 
 Throughout the wilderness. 
 
 The tents of Jacob 
 
 As valleys spread. 
 As goodly cedars 
 
 Or fair lign aloes, white and red, 
 Shall share thy wilderness. 
 
 And Carmel's glory 
 
 Thou thoughtest gone. 
 And Sharon's roses. 
 The excellency of Lebanon, 
 
 Delight thy wilderness! 
 
 — Anna Bunston,
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Students and the Rural Problem. 
 
 I count myself happy, — in coming, at the close of our 
 study of this problem, to an aspect of more personal in- 
 terest, — in that 1 address a company of students. '^ Tell 
 me what the young men of Oxford are thinking," some 
 one has said, " and you will tell me what all England 
 will be saying presently." This is said not by way of 
 flattery, but of help. I briug you not honey but a spur. 
 And of all students, one is happy, when speaking of 
 social service, in addressing students for the ministry. 
 You remember the famous picture, " The Lion's Cubs." 
 A group of boys from one of the great schools of Eng- 
 land stand before Xelson's monument in Westminster 
 Abbey. One can read the look of high resolve upon 
 their eager faces as they gaze at the figure of their hero. 
 He is England's lion ; they his cubs. Valor lives and 
 glows again in tlicm through his great life. Of the 
 young warriors of the ^Messianic King the Psalmist de- 
 clares: "Thy people offer themselves willingly in the 
 day of thy power: in the beauties of holiness, from the 
 womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth.'' 
 The gl(»w of c«jnsecration to service is upon the facos of 
 the Lion of Judah's whelps as they contcmplafo the life 
 of service of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 In considering the relation of students for the minis- 
 try to the problem of the country church, let us notice, 
 
 2o:{
 
 204 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 first, that students to-day have the spirit of social service. 
 I speak not yet of them as the college has moulded them, 
 but of the student class as they are to-day in themselves. 
 Back of the college lies the social preparation, un- 
 directed of human purpose, in the environment of the 
 boy life. This spirit may not as yet be articulate, 
 but it is apt to be there. For our students come from 
 homes in touch with the movements of to-day. If from 
 farm homes, as so many of them are, then from the 
 homes of those farmers who are farming well. Their 
 fathers and brothers in all probability have had some 
 contact with the forces that are making for scientific 
 farming, if not through attendance at the agricultural 
 college, at least through familiar use of its bulletins. 
 They are not from the homes of farmers who are fail- 
 ures, those growing antiquated, those becoming deca- 
 dent. If from the industrial ranks, then from homes 
 which are in touch with the forward movements of the 
 great labor world. It was ever so. But, someone may 
 say, Do not students often come from the homes of the 
 poor ? Granted ; but in what wise poor ? From the 
 homes of widows of fine extraction, from the homes of 
 the poor who aspire ; not from the sinking poor or the 
 degenerate. They are sons of the morning, men of the 
 coming day. 
 
 Environment as well as origin gives them the spirit 
 of the present, the social spirit. The youths growing 
 up in the homes of our Canadian churches are fed upon 
 the bread of social service. The church papers, East 
 and West, for example, and those of the other denom- 
 inations in equal measure, present it most attractively. 
 The pages of all Sabbath-school publications teem with 
 it. In our fine and strong religious fiction, such as
 
 STFDEXTS AND THE KURAL PROBLEM 205 
 
 Ralph Connor's and Marion Keith's works — though 
 even to mention these is injustice to those passed by — 
 social service is ever the background on which the plot 
 is laid. And when we touch the highest levels of litera- 
 ture of the past quarter-century, the '' long reaches of 
 the peaks of song," in poems such as " The White Man's 
 Burden " and "' The ^lan with the Hoe," social service 
 is ever their theme and inspiration, their burden and 
 their fire. And again it was ever so. Our English 
 literature begins with '* The Vision of Piers Plownnan," 
 — a vision of social good, one which anticipates in a 
 marvellous way our modern needs and methods — nor 
 has there ever been lacking in that literature, from the 
 day of Langland's hot invective to the day of Kingsley's 
 clarion note, the signature which Frederick Harrison in 
 his " Studies of Victorian Literature " finds at its very 
 heart : " Literature to-day has many characteristics, 
 but its central note is the influence of Sociology." 
 Lender such influence our students receive the ground- 
 work of the social spirit on which to build. Conscience, 
 with them, is apt to be awake to social responsibility. 
 
 Rut we turn aside to notice as to our second point 
 that the regulations under which our college courses 
 are plannc<l do not call for the teaching of social science 
 as fully as they might. The Rev. Charles Stelzle, 
 Secretary of the Department of Church and Labor of 
 the Presbyterian Church in the United States, last year 
 addressed a letter to each of the 184 theological semin- 
 aries in the L'nit<.'d States, asking these (juestions: 
 
 " Please state what practical social service experience 
 Htudeiits rec<'ive wliilc in tlic scniinarv. 
 
 '' Do yoM Iiavf! a c(»ur80 in social tt^aching^ 
 
 " Wliat is tlie totitl numbfr of hours devoted to nil
 
 206 RUEAL LIFE IN CAISTADA 
 
 lectures during the year, and how many of these hours 
 are given to the study of social problems ? 
 
 " Is any attempt made to acquaint the student at 
 first hand with social problems either in the city or in 
 the country? 
 
 " Would you introduce more sociological study if you 
 had the necessary money ? 
 
 " Have your students asked for additional courses in 
 sociological subjects in the seminary ? 
 
 " Is the student offered special inducements in the 
 form of scholarships, for example, in order that he may 
 take additional sociological work ? 
 
 " What is your general opinion of the value of socio- 
 logical training for the theological student ?" 
 
 Of the 184, replies were received from 80. l^ow, in 
 drawing an inference from this slight response we must 
 recognize that Mr. Stelzle is an outstanding man, a 
 recognized leader. He has the approval of the l^ational 
 Government of his country for services rendered as a 
 mediator in labor disputes. His questions in a field 
 which he has made his own should therefore have been 
 looked upon as of serious moment. They should not 
 have been looked on as an impertinence. And doubt- 
 less they were not. We can only infer that failure to 
 respond was confession of lack and of consciousness of 
 lack. In these 104 seminaries there is doubtless no 
 training whatever in social service. 
 
 Of the eighty from which replies were received about 
 two-thirds were offering some kind of sociological course. 
 But with most of them this meant only the stiidy of the 
 Mission Sunday School, the Rescue Mission, hospital 
 work, and similar philanthropic and religious enter- 
 prises. Should we apply a similar test to the medical
 
 STUDENTS AXD THE RURAL PROBLEM 207 
 
 colleges, asks Mr. Stcl/le, and find them limiting their 
 students to the study of medical agencies, and making 
 no provision for the courses in hygiene, diagnosis, or 
 clinical practice, what should be the verdict we would 
 give ? 
 
 Of these 80 seminaries, not more than one dozen had 
 anything like an adequate course in the matter of 
 sociolosrv'. Even of these Mr. Stelzle makes this criti- 
 cism : They handicap the study of social problems by 
 otfering incentives to follow other courses. Yet prac- 
 tically every seminary responding was convinced of the 
 value of sociological training for the theological student, 
 although there were some notable exceptions. 
 
 Thus we come to our third general head, that there is 
 an imperative call, based not upon such opinion, but 
 upon fact, which opinion follows slowly, for courses in 
 the teaching of sociology in our universities — in case 
 of their failure, in our colleges — and for courses of 
 training in social service in our colleges. For we live 
 in a recently made world. Down to the dawn of the 
 nineteenth century the work of the world was done by 
 muscular power. Each man was independent in his 
 u.se of this power. Then came steam with more effi- 
 cient power. But its efficiency varied with the scale 
 upon which it was utilized. Therefore men concen- 
 trated for its utilization. This brought interdepen- 
 dence instead of independence among men. ^Nfen are 
 massed and organized as never before. And that is 
 the new civilization. 
 
 But we live also in a still more recently made world 
 of service. In l!ilO the Russell Sage Foundation pub- 
 lished the results of ;in investigation of the s<jcial 
 movements organized i>ii ;i national senle in the Ignited
 
 208 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 States. Their number as tabulated is in the neighbor- 
 hood of seventy. The order of their appearance, and 
 especially their rapid increase with each decade, is 
 instructive. The six decades before 1880 gave rise to 
 13; the decade of the eighties to 4; of the nineties to 
 12 ; the opening decade of this century to 39. Earliest 
 among those named — the earlier associations for the 
 reform of the drunkard are not included — came an 
 association for the care of the insane, then one for the 
 prevention of illiteracy; the American Association for 
 the Instruction of the Blind followed after an interval ; 
 and then, rapidly, the American Prison Association, 
 the Public Health Association, the Women's Christian 
 Temperance Union, the Purity Alliance, the Associa- 
 tion for the Eeeble-Minded, and the National Confer- 
 ence on Charities and Correction. The eighties gave 
 rise to the Red Cross Association and the Chris- 
 tian Social Union. The nineties brought social 
 settlements, women's councils, the National Coun- 
 cil of Mothers, the Anti-Saloon League, and move- 
 ments for regulation of industries and of immigration. 
 After 1900 came a host of movements for the preven- 
 tion of child labor, of infant mortality, of blindness, 
 of tuberculosis ; for the education of backward chil- 
 dren, of negroes, the care of delinquents, of epileptics ; 
 for the suppression of the white slave traffic, and pre- 
 vention of infant mortality. The various denomina- 
 tions organize for social service — ^the Presbyterian 
 Church's Department of Church and Labor ; of Church 
 and Country Life ; the Methodist Federation for Social 
 Service ; the Industrial Committee of the National 
 Council of Congregational Churches, the Social Service 
 Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the
 
 STUDENTS AXn THK KrKAL PROBLEM 209 
 
 Commission in Social Service of the Federal Council 
 of the Churches of Christ in America. The social 
 movements in the American Republic thus tabulated 
 bj the Sage Foundation have their counterpart in every 
 line of helpfulness in all lands. Their emergence is 
 evidence of an organic world-movement. The Church 
 of Christ can no more resist the impulse to take part, 
 and the leading part, in this world-movement than can 
 the living tree in spring resist the impulse to put forth 
 leaves and bloom and set her fruit. In these facts of 
 the new civilization and the new impulse to service — 
 the work respectivelv of the Providence and of the 
 Spirit of God — lie the imperative call to the church, 
 not only to labor in social service, but to take her place 
 in teaching and in formulating the sciences which deal 
 with societarv forms and groups and with social pro- 
 cesses. 
 
 Now our subject at this hour is not Sociology and 
 Students for the ^finistrv, but The Rural Problem and 
 Students for the Ministry. Our excursus was neces- 
 sary, however, inasmuch as the right of way of sociology 
 in these halls gives our problem its standing ground. 
 
 And. returning, we note as our next point that while 
 our students have the groundwork of the modern social 
 spirit f)n which to build, our working assumption 
 regarding the status of the country ministry is not 
 favorable to generous service for the solution of the 
 rural problem. Our fheorv of the ministry is correct 
 enough, — we must recover its working reality, Tii 
 theory all are eqiial in standing; a Moderator is, by 
 definition, but the primus among parrs. In effect, we 
 grade men accordinfr to their charges. Men should 
 have weight according to persr»nal worth and <ervi<'e 
 14
 
 210 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 done, and not according to field of labor. There is one 
 department of our work in which this is the case — the 
 foreign field. We do not saj Japan is a more impor- 
 tant field than Korea, India than China, and group 
 men accordingly. Yet we do say city and suburban 
 congregations are important, the hamlet unimportant ; 
 and rate men's standing by such criteria. Even the 
 efficiency of the renowned pastor whose prosperous 
 cause scarce keeps pace with the suburb's growth may 
 conceivably be less than that of the unknown pastor 
 whose rural charge more than holds its relative place 
 among the institutions of the country community. But 
 let us disregard altogether this equation, and note only 
 that the solid achievements in world-service of country- 
 bred men constitute an historical vindication of the 
 worth of rural service which renders all other vindica- 
 tion superfluous. We make no special plea for the 
 country ministry ; we postulate equality in recognition 
 of worth in every field of service. Judged by present 
 standards Labrador would be rated an unimportant 
 field; service, and not parish, is the ground upon which 
 Wilfred Grrenfell is appraised among the King's 
 laborers. 
 
 Coming now nearer the heart of our subject, we 
 discover that the Christian ministry in the country con- 
 stitutes to-day a call to men of the best type. Even 
 were country life to become a by-product of civiliza- 
 tion, successful Christian service there, judged from the 
 modern standpoint of the value of by-products, would 
 be of prime importance. Its presence or its absence 
 would still be the decisive factor in determining the 
 worth of Christianity to the world. But country life 
 is no mere by-product. President Butterfield, of
 
 STUDENTS AND THE RURAL PROBLEM 211 
 
 Amherst College, recently said: "For the next 
 twenty years we may expect the country life move- 
 ment to have great influence on the course of 
 events. Politicians will use it as a means of riding 
 into power. Demagogues and fakirs will take advan- 
 tage of it for personal gain. Writers are even now 
 beginninor to sensationalize it. But there will also arise 
 country men with statesmanship in them — if not, we 
 cannot make the progress we need. The movement will 
 have its significant national aspect, and we may look 
 for Governors of States, and perhaps more than one 
 President of the LTnited States, to come out of it." 
 
 I almost feared to quote this passage, lest my pur- 
 pose should be misconstrued, lest you might suppose I 
 said : " Then you too may find position through this 
 crusade." My purpose is simply to point out that this 
 estimate of the movement by such a man as President 
 Butterfield implies that an important field of service 
 is found in the countrv church to-dav. The countrv 
 call is one to stir the blood, alike because of possibilities 
 of failure and of achievement tliat lie before the country 
 community. 
 
 Her risk of failure which may affect the world is 
 evident. Tn " Who's Who in Canada " for last year 
 85 per cent, are country-born. Xinety per cent of our 
 ministers of the gospel come from country homes. 
 Henry Wallace, of WnUarr's Farmer, Towa's leading 
 journalist, writes: '* It is from tho rural population 
 that the cities of this land, of all lands, in all ages, have 
 drawn tbf vigorous blood with which to replace the 
 enormous waste incident to city life. It may in fact 
 well be doubted whether cities of over 50,000 could 
 continue to prosper, to govern tbomselves. or ovnn ron-
 
 212 EURAL LIFE IN" CANADA 
 
 tiniie in existence worth while, without this stream of 
 fresh blood from the country, with its cool nerves, firm 
 muscles, and good habits."* The '' Law of the City," 
 as well as the " Law of the Yukon," is given by Robert 
 W. Service in the words : 
 
 This is the Law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain: 
 " Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and 
 
 your sane; 
 Strong for the red rage of battle; sane, for I harry them sore; 
 Send me men girt for the contest, men who are grit to the 
 
 core; 
 
 Send me the best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones; 
 Them will I take to my bosom; them will I call my sons; 
 Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my 
 
 meat; 
 But the others — the misfits, the failures — I trample under my 
 
 feet."t 
 
 That virile tribute is checked as soon as dissatisfaction 
 prevails in the country; it ceases when degeneracy 
 begins. In the unrest of the rural community lies the 
 chief cause of the recent falling off in candidates for 
 the ministry. 
 
 Gentlemen, Christ calls strong men to heathendom 
 through the prospect of uplifting a pagan people. Does 
 He not also call such men to the country through the 
 prospect of upholding a Christian one ? 
 
 But I should be utterly unscientific if I made my 
 chief plea the possibility of failure in supplying the 
 church with candidates for the ministry, .the city with 
 the red blood of leadership ; the failure to send forth 
 these would be only symptomatic of disease in the rural 
 
 * " Men and Religion Messages," Vol. VI, p. 119. 
 t Robert W. Service, " The Spell of the Yukon."
 
 STUDEXTS AXD THE RURAL PROBLEM 213 
 
 community itself. Here is a class larger in numbers 
 than any other, professional or mercantile or industrial, 
 larger than all other classes taken together; a class 
 engaged in the most necessary of all callings — that of 
 providing the people's daily bread ; a class more depend- 
 ent upon itself alone for all the possibilities of attain- 
 ment and satisfaction in life than is any other class. 
 This class is in danger of failing to provide itself with 
 leaders through whom to exert its influence in the con- 
 trol of national affairs, to say nothing of guidance in 
 local matters ; in danger of viewing its own calling with 
 disdain and fleeing from its environment in disgust. 
 The chief call, along this line of risk of failure, is a 
 call to uphold the finest Christian civilization in the 
 country fur the rural community's own sake. 
 
 Flowers of Thy heart, O God, are they.* 
 
 And shall they who stand, u wall of fire, around their 
 much-loved land fail, and you take not heed ^ Shall 
 they cease to march in the van in physical vigor, in 
 material advance, in intellectual power, in social pro- 
 gress, in moral strength, or in spiritual life, and no 
 clarion call be heard therein by the very strongest men 
 who enter the ministry ( 
 
 lint the call for the best comes still more definitely 
 through possibilities of achiovemont. In the city you 
 may iniiii.st<-r to a limited number of the leaders of 
 to-day. In the country you may call forth the empire- 
 builders and founders of the kintrdom of manv to-mor- 
 rows. And in the country itself great events are at 
 hand. The Country Life Movement itself .-alls for 
 you. 1 1 is evident that (jur agricultural colleges and 
 
 • Ebfnezer Klllotl, Hymn, "God Save the People."
 
 214 RUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 many other agencies have begun a crusade for a better 
 rural economy. Modern progress helps it forward 
 with the rural telephone and mail delivery ; the Domin- 
 ion and Provincial Governments are seeking means of 
 fostering it; the educational forces are contributing 
 richly; even the railway companies are sending out 
 their Better Farming Specials. The moments of the 
 movement are agricultural science, vocational education, 
 farmers' co-operation, supervised recreation, community 
 organization. That crusade needs the Christian Church 
 at its very heart if it is to be spared the blight of 
 materialism. Frederick Almy, Secretary of the Char- 
 ity Organization Society of America, says : " The social 
 gospel is being preached from every sort of pulpit, the 
 stage, the pages of the novel, the magazine ; until it is 
 a wonder that the public will stand so much of it. 
 There are signs of a reaction, and I fear for the future 
 unless social work becomes less utilitarian. It is 
 attacking those old enemies of mankind, ignorance and 
 disease, with such sledge-hammer blows that they are 
 weakening visibly. But its agencies are too material, 
 and social work needs unspeakably the inspiration and 
 the interpretation of its message which the church alone 
 can give. . . . Its success depends upon whether it 
 can get itself adopted by the church in every hamlet 
 and cross-roads. ... If through this alliance the 
 modern social movement with its gospel of adequate 
 opportunity sweeps the country, it will mean such an 
 uplift for neglected humanity as will go far toward 
 social reconstruction." 
 
 Gentlemen, there is in that a proffered alliance, a task 
 in leadership to stir the pulses of the best. And if the 
 movement beckons, still more does its outcome. That I
 
 STUDENTS AND TIIK RrUAL PROBLEM 215 
 
 shall not attempt to outline, but leave to your own 
 prophetic souls. Jt was worth while for strong men to 
 lay the foundations of Japan's, China's, India's uplift ; 
 it is worth strong men's while to enter this held to-day. 
 
 Do you consider that I am decrying the city pastorate 
 — making a plea which, if heeded, would close the way 
 for the most devoted and the ablest to enter there ? 
 Such is far from my intention. There is a call, and a 
 great one, which is directly to the city pastorate. But 
 if it be a love of ease or of gain or of fame which urges 
 any of you to cast eyes of longing toward the city, you 
 are debtors of your immortal souls to resist such a wish, 
 and to seek a held somewhere, anvAvhere where such 
 desires for fancied ease or gain or fame shall be cruci- 
 fied. Otherwise you shall win indeed your world, but 
 verily lose your life. 
 
 But if there be a passion within you of brotherliness 
 for the factory operative, and if there be reason for you 
 to think that you can help the men of the labor unions 
 to dominate those unions for Christ and His kingdom ; 
 or if you know yourself of the kindred of the men of 
 commerce and of capital — if you have in you that which 
 will make their life with its temptations and victories 
 an open book to you — if your passionate longing be to 
 guide these strong men to dominate the directorate 
 boards for Christ and His kingdom, even though pitiless 
 Mammon crush you as you succeed, then your call is 
 to the city's turmoil anrl the city's crown. 
 
 Our next point is that in order to e.xert any con- 
 tinuing influence upon the course of rural development 
 a man must become a real part of fjiat country life. 
 We need a permanent rural pastorate — not abiding in 
 our Hiarge, but in the country. In point of fact the
 
 216 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 country ministry is just at the pass where the country 
 community stands — eager to escape to the town. Be- 
 fore the ministry can correct this state of affairs in 
 general country life, the same tendencies must be cor- 
 rected in the ministry itself. 
 
 The Christian Conservation Congress held in New 
 York in April last went about its work in the same 
 effective way as the Edinburgh Missionary Conference 
 of a few years ago — by the appointment in advance of 
 commissions to study and report upon each phase of the 
 subject. One of these commissions dealt with the rural 
 church. Among its findings is the following: "We 
 need a permanent country pastorate. We can hardly 
 expect that every man who takes a country charge shall 
 remain there all his life. . . . Many strong men 
 who succeed in country parishes will inevitably be 
 called to city parishes. Nevertheless, there should be 
 developed a rural clergy as a professional group that 
 tends to specialize itself and that tends to induce other 
 men to make this their life work. The idea of the 
 country pastorate as a distinct vocation should be pro- 
 mulgated among young men. The need and feasibility 
 of such permanent service should become a part of 
 the common thinking and talking about the country 
 church."* 
 
 For we live in an age of specialization. Not only so, 
 but specialization is one of the chief of the forces which 
 have made this progressive, successful age. And there 
 is place for specialization in the ministry as in any other 
 profession. There are indeed deprivations involved in 
 country life, but they must be looked upon from the 
 
 * " Men and Religion Messages," Vol. VI, p. 77'.
 
 STUDEXTS AXD THE RURAL PROiiLEM 217 
 
 same viewpoint as those on the foreign mission field. 
 The work itself is the foremost consideration. 
 
 If you make such a life choice, gentlemen, you will 
 be but walking in the footsteps of noble exemplars. 
 Oberlin declined a chaplaincy in the proudest regiment 
 of France to become pastor of Ban de la Roche, nor 
 could even the request of the Academy of France induce 
 him to leave his country parsonage. Of George Her- 
 bert, who united in one person the saiutliest character, 
 the richest culture, the ripest scholarship, the finest 
 genius, and the noblest blood of the England of his 
 day, it was said, " He himself became a country minister 
 that he might show how that sphere could become a field 
 fit for intelligent, energetic, and stately living." Charles 
 Kingsley, a brilliant and versatile genius — he was 
 senior optime in mathematics and won first-rank honors 
 in classics at Cambridge — at the age of twenty-two 
 became curate of Eversley, a country parish where 
 scarcely one person could read or write, and, though 
 j)oet and novelist, popular lecturer and university pro- 
 fessor, canon of Westminster Abbey, and chaplain to 
 Queen Victoria, there he ministered throughout his 
 life. It was said in the hearing of an American bishop 
 that the time would come when it would be as great an 
 honor to be a successful country minister as to be a 
 city minister. He replied that the time was already 
 here, and had been since Charles Kingsley put Eversley 
 on the map of the world. There arc places wliose 
 names arc yet unknown to fame. 
 
 It follows, as our next point, that there should be 
 fuller attention given to preparation for the special 
 tasks of the fountry ministry. I have no slightest sug- 
 gestion to offer here as to how this C^ollege, which hau
 
 218 KURAL LIFE IN GANKDA 
 
 such a splendid record in preparing men for the min- 
 istry, should order its work. Nor do I suggest that you 
 should divide yourselves into two classes, burning the 
 bridges between, for city and country service. But 
 with those of you who look forward to the country 
 ministry, your chosen work should bear the same rela- 
 tion to your preparation that foreign mission work does 
 to the foreign mission volunteer. These men seek the 
 full advantage of the common training provided for all 
 who enter the ministry; their fellows participate with 
 them in acquiring a general familiarity with the prob- 
 lems of the mission field ; but in addition the mission 
 volunteers avail themselves of every means of special 
 knowledge and fitness. They study comparative reli- 
 gion with the zest not of curiosity but of need ; ethnic 
 psychology has to them not an academic but a practical 
 interest. Moreover they form their mission-bands, 
 their study-classes ; they hold conventions, they invite 
 addresses by specialists. All that concerns missions 
 they seek to make their own. They put enthusiasm 
 into their preparation. 
 
 For the best work in the country ministry to-day you 
 need to become as skilled as the schools can make you in 
 the principles of sociology, in knowledge of the indus- 
 trial order, in the agencies of social service, as well as 
 in the problems of the rural community. And these 
 should have for you the absorbing interest that mission- 
 ary principles and practice have for the foreign mission 
 volunteer. Even census tables might captivate you as 
 maps did William Carey. 
 
 Your work will call for knowledge of the sciences 
 that deal with rural well-being, especially agricultural 
 economics and rural sociology. It is not enough that
 
 STUDENTS AND THE RFKAL PROBLEM 21!) 
 
 your youth may have been spent in the country. One 
 does not know forestry because he roamed the woods 
 in childhood with delight. A knowledge of the rural 
 social status — of depletion, for example — is not instinc- 
 tively acquired. Residence in the country does not 
 nmke one an adept in the social psychology of rural 
 life, in isolation and its results, for example. '' How 
 can even rural teachers learn to appreciate the social 
 function of the rural school, except they be taught ?" 
 
 Your work calls for knowledije of the forces which 
 make or mar country life. You need to know the coun- 
 try's needs, to recognize the less patent as well as the 
 apparent ones. What, for instance, is lacking that so 
 many of our country boys take so little interest in school 
 studies ( What are the successive unmet needs indi- 
 cated in these verses: 
 
 Poor wee Sandy, he wanted to play, 
 But the bairns on the village green warned him away, 
 For Sandy was always more ragged than they — 
 Fearful wee, tearful wee Sandy! 
 
 Poor boy Sandy, alack and alas! 
 At school he was always the dunce of the class; 
 " That thick-hoad''d laddio no standard could pass " — 
 Cowering, glowering Sandy. 
 
 Poor lad Sandy, he never could learn 
 Any buslnf-Hs by which he a living might earn; 
 And the world with her weak ones is angry and stern — 
 Wondering, blundering Sandy. ♦ 
 
 What would play luivo done to briirhtcii, })rightnes8 to 
 educate, education to employ, unhelped Sandy? 
 
 And you (iced to know the country's wealth. Say 
 
 • Anonymous, In " Social Advance," by David Watson, p. 252.
 
 220 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 what one will, the country can never compete with the 
 city in the things of the city. The sparkling, flashing, 
 dazzling brilliance of her vivid, radiant streets by night 
 is all the city's own : 
 
 Give to me, Love, our London towB, 
 
 Now, when the hovering night comes down, 
 
 What if away there still be day. 
 Naked sky over silver reaches. 
 Bronze of bracken and gold of beeches? 
 
 Give me the woven shadows brown 
 
 Shot with the lights of London town! 
 
 Little of stars our London recks; 
 Night with her fiery garland decks 
 
 Light upon light as pearls strung white; 
 Fast through the shadows and moony blazes 
 Topaz and ruby whirl in blazes. 
 
 Flash in the sinister veil, the crown 
 
 Royal and fierce, of London town.* 
 
 And better things than those pulsing waves of throb- 
 bing light which have such attraction for many, are 
 hers. But it is for you who are to serve humanity in 
 the country to learn the country's wealth in the things 
 of the country — things that the city cannot have. If 
 the city is given a crown royal and fierce by her mechan- 
 ism of light, the country's dower is the sunrise and 
 sunset, dawn and day and the stars of night. If in 
 the city topaz and ruby whirl in blazes, in the country 
 is the light ineffable of all precious gems from the 
 crimson flame of the ruby in the simset up through the 
 orange of the jacinth in the tints of autumn and the 
 golden sheen of the topaz in the harvest, the livinjf 
 
 * Margaret L. Woods, " The Gondola of London."
 
 STUDENTS AND THE RUKAL PROBLEM 221 
 
 green of the emerald fields, the vivid aznre of the 
 sapphire heavens, to the royal purple and the ethereal 
 violet of the amethyst as they glow in the shadow of 
 the hills and gleam in the cloud. The whiteness of 
 pure light, too, is hers alone, milky iridiseence as of 
 the opal in the morning mist, '^ chalcedony's dim white- 
 ness, pure-serene " in fields flooded with moonlight, 
 lustre of pearl in the dew, the radiance of the diamond 
 lavished on the landscape of snow. Now, the country's 
 richness of aesthetic loveliness is but a type of Ikm- 
 wealth for human living which it is yours to lead all 
 men to see. 
 
 Out of the heart of the city, begotten 
 Of the labor of men and their manifold hands, 
 Where souls that were sprung from the earth in her morning, 
 No longer regard — nor remember — her warning. 
 
 Whose hearts in the furnace of care have forgotten 
 Forever the scent and the lure of her lands; 
 
 Out of the heart of the usurer's hold. 
 
 From the horrible crush of the strong man's feet, 
 Out of the shadow where pity Is dying. 
 Out of the clamor where beauty is lying 
 
 Dead in the depths of the struggle for gold; 
 Out of the din and the glare of the street; 
 
 Into thr' arms of our mother wc come. 
 Our broad, strong mother, the innocent earth. 
 Mother of all things beautiful, blameless, 
 .Mother of hopes that her strength makes tameless, 
 Whore the voices of grief and of battle are dumb. 
 
 And the wholo world laughs in the light of her mirth* 
 
 ;\ik1 you nr-ed to know the agencies that are making 
 for iK^ttermont. Let me mention in this connection one 
 
 • Arrhibald Lampman, " Fr»^dom."
 
 222 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 or two lines of preparation whicli you would do well 
 to follow in addition to your studies within these halls. 
 They will suggest others. First, acquaint yourself 
 fully and practically with the work of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, not only as carried on among 
 college men, but also in the range of its city activities. 
 All that the city owes to the Association the country 
 has a right to receive. Nor is this little. The athletic 
 clubs, the gymnasium, the recreation rooms, the class- 
 rooms, reading-rooms and parlors, for men and for boys, 
 of the " Y. M. C. A." have been the chief source of 
 supply — through the church's agency — of the needs 
 unmet in the country. Save as represented by the 
 City Association, the average town congregation has 
 had but little to distinguish her from her rural sister in 
 social equipment. Now, familiarity with its working 
 in the city is the prerequisite for your employment of 
 this agency in the country. 
 
 Secondly, familiarize yourselves with the working 
 of the agricultural college. Young men aspiring to 
 influence in journalism now regard a course in scien- 
 tific agriculture as one of the important vestibules to 
 their life work. Not a full course in such a college is 
 called for, for you need not be technically trained agri- 
 culturists — but first-hand acquaintance with the scope 
 of the work these schools are carrying on, and with the 
 spirit in which it is being done. I do not ask you to 
 accept my summing up of that work — it might appear 
 the vision of an enthusiast. Let me rather present a 
 sketch drawn by a practical Boer farmer on the veldt, 
 Mr. J. A. Neser, presiding at the Dry Farming Con- 
 gress of South Africa, held recently: "We have assem- 
 bled to discuss dry farming, but dry farming is merely
 
 STTDEXTS AND THE RURAL PROBLEM 223 
 
 part of a larger whole — the New Agriculture. AAHiat, 
 then, is this new Agriculture ? It deals with all those 
 things which affect the daily life of the farmer. It 
 brings the railway to his door; demands refrigerator 
 cars for his perishable products ; forms co-operative 
 societies for the purchase of seed, machinery, and 
 manures. It analyzes his soil, tests his milk, builds 
 butter and bacon factories ; gi'ades his crops, establishes 
 land-banks and parcel posts, and erects rural telephones. 
 It teaches him to control disease, and to gi'ow and har- 
 vest every crop. It sends his son to the agricultural 
 college and his daughter to the school of domestic 
 science." In the country ministry, gentlemen, you 
 need acquaintance with the technical side of such a 
 movement, and mastery of its social aspect. 
 
 What is the life for which vou are fitting vourselves? 
 There are certain needs of the city which the social 
 settlement is designed to serve. There are human 
 needs of other kinds belonging to a class of persons very 
 different in character in the country, to which the 
 manse might bo made to bear the same relation as the 
 settlement does to our foreigners in the city. What is 
 the conception embodied in the very word "parish"? 
 Is it not just this idea of a settlement? The parish is 
 the little world " around the dwelling," the world which 
 the minister and his home are there to serve. 
 
 Permit me to say, in closing, that such a niini-^try 
 would imply an intimate folktwing of Christ, and must 
 W'gin as His W'gan. Being in the f<»riii nf (Inij Ho 
 thought it not a thing to be clung to that He should 
 boon an equality with Oorl. [ need recount no further 
 step of His, if this first one yon take — counting nothing 
 that js rightfully yours of place (u* power a thing t<. be
 
 224 EUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 clung to. In willing consecration you are to enter on 
 your life work. 
 
 This, again, implies prayer. It was my privilege to 
 be at the Conference at ISTorthfield at which the Student 
 Movement for Missions had its origin. Men were first 
 deeply moved at a meeting addressed by ten young men, 
 some sons of missionaries, some natives, representing 
 ten missionary lands. At that historic meeting, when 
 D. L. Moody called for one speaker, Robert Wilder, to 
 speak for India, there was no response. ISTeither on 
 platform nor floor was he to be found. When sought 
 in the waiting-room behind the platform he was dis- 
 covered there upon his knees, oblivious of the passage 
 of time. The movement thus cradled in prayer evoked 
 a similar spirit of prayer for guidance from the 
 great body of students present. For the next fortnight 
 men were to be seen in groups in the rooms, and out 
 alone upon the hills, in prayer, until Mr. Moody said 
 he had witnessed nothing approaching it in power dur- 
 ing his life. In order that this problem of the country 
 church may be solved men must give themselves to the 
 ministry for the country in that same spirit of prayer. 
 
 But those who know best how to read aright the 
 signs of the times are clearly of opinion — the literature 
 of service that is springing strong and full from the 
 heart of the church to-day being their best evidence — 
 that the Church of Christ is ready to go forward, it may 
 be to her Gethsemane, but certainly to her glory. 
 
 I know of a land that is tinged with shame, 
 
 Of hearts that faint and tire; 
 And I know of a name, a name, a name 
 
 Can set that land on fire. 
 Its sound is a brand, its letters flame. 
 Yea, I know of a name, a name, a name, 
 
 Will set this land on fire.
 
 RURAL UPLIFT ELSEWHERE
 
 In Bome great day 
 
 The country church 
 
 Will find its voice 
 And it will say: 
 
 " I stand in the fields 
 Where the wide earth yields 
 
 Her bounties of fruit and of grain; 
 Where the furrows turn 
 Till the plowshares burn 
 
 As they circle again, again; 
 Where the workers pray 
 With their tools all day. 
 
 In sunshine and shadow and rain. 
 
 " And I bid them tell 
 Of the crops they sell. 
 
 And speak of the work they have done; 
 I speed every man 
 In his hope and plan. 
 
 And follow his day with the sun; 
 And grasses and trees, 
 The birds and the bees 
 
 I know and I feel every one. 
 
 " And out of it all 
 As the seasons fall 
 
 I build my great temple alway; 
 I point to the skies 
 But my footstone lies 
 
 In commonplace work of the day; 
 For I preach the worth 
 Of the native earth — 
 
 To love and to work is to pray." 
 
 — L. H. Bailey.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 KrRAi. Upi-ift Elsewhere. 
 
 One of the instructive historical instances of success- 
 ful grapplinij with the problem is found in the work of 
 John Frederick Oberlin in the Ban de la Roche, in 
 Alsace. 
 
 True, in this case the chief factor in the present situ- 
 ation, the farmer entering into the industrial world, was 
 lacking; yet the principles employed l\v Oberlin apply 
 to-day. A man of genius, with a thorough and compre- 
 hensive education, of good birth and standing, he was 
 led through deep religious consecration to accept the 
 pastorate of Walder.sbach in the Ban de la Roche, de- 
 clining a chaplaincy in a French regiment to do so. The 
 parish was a small one of about one hundred families ; 
 the people spoke a patois which could be the means of no 
 external information ; they were without means of edu- 
 cation, and were sunk in poverty. There were no 
 bridges whereby conmiunication could Ik? carried on 
 with the outside world, but stepping-stones only over the 
 rivers. Here Oberlin spent his life, <lying beloved by 
 his people, honored by his count rv and the world. He 
 saw that to Kuc<'ced in religious work he must build up 
 the commiinity in every way; and e(»mbining alTection- 
 ate diligence in the pastorate with spiritual preaching, 
 he added to tlu-se resolute and wise endeavor to promote 
 ediM-afion an<l prosperity, lie began with the school ami 
 followed up with economic betterment. Having been a 
 
 227
 
 228 RUEAL LIFE IN CA:^rADA 
 
 student of engineering he summoned his parishioners 
 to roadmaking. The land, poorly cultivated, yielded 
 less than was needed for food for its own inhabitants. 
 Oberlin taught better methods of agriculture, — the use 
 of compost, the rotation of crops ; he instituted an agri- 
 cultural society and a school of agriculture — one of the 
 first known — himself experimenting and teaching. He 
 founded infant schools — the first of which history 
 speaks — with '' conductrices " to bring children to and 
 from their homes — the Greek " pedagogue " revived. 
 He introduced scientific methods into the ordinary 
 schools, and instituted a higher school. The children 
 were taught to sew, plait, and knit from earliest years ; 
 weaving and dyeing with the plants of the country were 
 taught later. He took boys into Strasburg and had them 
 taught trades, of which they in turn became teachers in 
 the parish. Thus home industries were introduced into 
 every household. The population, 500 when Oberlin 
 began his ministry, had increased to 3,000 before his 
 death, and this growth in numbers was the least part of 
 the progress. The Royal Agricultural Society of Paris 
 sent a commission to study his methods of husbandry, 
 invited him to a more public sphere of labor, and con- 
 ferred on him a gold medal. This man of genius had 
 by his direct outlook upon life and its needs in the spirit 
 of Christ anticipated modern education, agriculture and 
 sociolog}^ He had given his people the most scientific 
 husbandry and the most advanced education known in 
 his age, and thus secured for them economic prosperity, 
 social welfare, and numerical growth. 
 
 In Denmark we have an example on the national scale 
 and at the present time of the uplift of an agricultural 
 people ; and here again the impulse is due to a Christian
 
 RliiAL IPIJFT ELSEWHERE 229 
 
 pastor, Bishop Gnintvig, — poet, historian, patriot, edu- 
 cator, statesman and phihinthropist. 
 
 Denmark was greatly weakened at the end of the 
 Napoleonic wars. She was financially bankrupt, and 
 economically prostrated bv her war with Prussia, end- 
 ing with the Treaty of Vienna in 1804. Gruntvig real- 
 ized that if his people were to be helped the impulse 
 must reach the mass of the people, nuist be linked with 
 their dailv life, and that its source must be in religion. 
 Gruntvigs sympathies were democratic to a radical de- 
 gree. A friend of the writer's was once a guest in a 
 home in Edinburgh. A disciple of Gruntvig — a lady 
 who had become known as a social worker in Denmark 
 — came to the same home as a guest. At once on being 
 presented to her hosts she asked permission to meet the 
 maids of the house and form their acquaintance. Such 
 is the democratic spirit of the movement inaugurated 
 by Bishop Grnntvig. Before 18G4 he had begun a 
 " Folk High School." He sought to extend this means 
 of education, under the Queen's patronage, as a means 
 of rural uplift. The schools, however, extended as pri- 
 vate enterprises. There are now over eighty of them in 
 the country. They are boarding-schools, owned pri- 
 vately though receiving grants from the nation. They 
 are permeated by a Christian atmosphere, but without 
 formal religious teaching, riicic is an intense spirit of 
 application in thcin, but examinations are unknown. 
 The object sought is mental and spiritual (piickcning. 
 Instruction is given by uieans of lectures, and is upon 
 historical, literary and scientific subjects. Music, sing- 
 ing, and gymnastics have a large place. The age of ad- 
 mission is eighteen. Vouiig men attend for a five 
 months' term. — Xoveiniier to .\]>ril ; vouiiti: women f<»r
 
 230 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 a three months' term, — May to August. Fully two- 
 thirds of Denmark's rural youth pass through them. 
 Many attend for but a single term. To observers it is 
 marvellous that so much could be accomplished by so 
 short a residence. The impulse, however, is vital. So 
 potent has been their influence that a majority of the 
 present Cabinet Ministers of Denmark have passed 
 through their course. The Premier has been a teacher 
 and director in them. There are also Government high 
 schools and agricultural schools thoroughly equipped 
 and manned, drawing their inspiration and ideal from 
 these Folk Schools. 
 
 Bishop Gruntvig used patriotism as one of his agen- 
 cies, writing upon national history, editing and teach- 
 ing the national songs and literature with such success 
 that a cult sprang up which in over-zeal tabooed all for- 
 eign books, imtil a reaction set in to avoid isolation from 
 the stream of world-literature. Meanwhile patriotism 
 was intensely aroused. Why should not we in Canada 
 make more of our literature ? 
 
 Sing me a song of the great Dominion, 
 
 Soul-felt words for a patriot's ear! 
 Ring out boldly the well-turned measure, 
 
 Voicing your notes that a world may hear! 
 Here is no starveling, heaven-forsaken. 
 
 Shrinking aside where the nations throng; 
 Proud as the proudest moves she among them, 
 
 Well is she worthy a noble song! 
 Sing me the joy of her fertile prairies 
 
 League upon league of the golden grain. 
 Comfort, housed in the smiling homestead, 
 
 Plenty, throned on the lumbering wain!* 
 
 * Robert Reid, in Rand's " Treasury of Canadian Verse."
 
 RURAL UPLIFT ELSEWIIKRE 281 
 
 The graduates of Gruntvig's Folk Schools originated 
 and promoted the many and varied co-operative societies^ 
 wliich cover practically everything connected with rural 
 Demnark's welfare. There are co-operative societies of 
 production, e.g., cattle breeders' associations, " control " 
 societies for the registration of milk-yield, butter-fat, 
 and relation of feeds to yield ; co-operative societies for 
 the manufacture of country products into finished 
 market commodities, — creameries, cheese-factories, 
 bacon-curing houses ; co-operative societies for the stor- 
 age and sale of the commodities, for the promotion of 
 saving, and for the upholding of credit. The outcome 
 of a passionate sense of common adversity into which 
 religion withycducation as her handmaid came with up- 
 lifting power, has been a devoted, successful community 
 service. 
 
 Co-operation began in 1882, in dairying first, then 
 in the bacon industry, then in egg-production. The 
 economic results soon became evident. In the next six 
 years the exports of eggs doubled, of cheese trebled, of 
 eggs quadrupled, and of bacon quintupled. The export 
 of butter is now over eight-fold what it was in 1881, of 
 eggs over twelve-fold, and of bacon fourteen-fold.* At 
 the meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science held in Winnipeg in 1009 a Danish 
 <"ommissi<inor described methods by which the average 
 yearly yicdd of butter from Danish cows had risen from 
 80 pounds in 1804 to 220 pounds in 1908. Tlie fertility 
 of her soil, naturally low, has increased remarkably, go 
 that fllje has now tlie largest yield <>f wheat per acre in 
 
 •Monographs of Int'-rnatloiial Itistltiifc of AKriciiK iivc, Vol. 
 I, p. Vo'J.
 
 232 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 the world, a yield which is moreover almost double the 
 world's average. In 1911 her average was 30 quintals 
 to the hectare, while Britain's was 21.9, Canada's 14, 
 that of the United States 8.4, and the average of the 
 22 wheat-producing countries on the five continents, 
 15.3 quintals to the hectare of land.* Denmark exports 
 to other countries nine dollars worth of farm products 
 for every acre under cultivation, although she supports 
 a population of 155 to the square mile. The average 
 net profit on her farms is $15 to the acre. 
 
 She has attained these results in a distinctively mod- 
 ern manner, by assimilating the management of agri- 
 culture to that of the great industries of the times. 
 Most of the products are so specialized as to demand 
 much labor, a large proportion of it highly skilled ; the 
 margin of net earnings is narrow ; competition requires 
 marketing to be of the most skilful kind. Co-operation 
 was the sole means by which such problems could be 
 solved. Moreover, in accomplishing these economic re- 
 sults, she has maintained and improved the social status. 
 Sixty per cent, of her population is rural. Nine out of 
 every ten of her farmers own the land they till. The 
 average 100-acre farm employs three hired men the year 
 round. Emigration, once large, has almost ceased — in 
 the three years from 1905 to 1908 it fell from 8,051 to 
 4,558. The home life of the people has improved in 
 every way. Sanitation, home conveniences, neatness 
 and beauty have been secured ; the love of gymnastics, 
 of song — the rural songs of field labor, of the woods, the 
 brooks, the birds, the love of literature, have become 
 prevalent. The church, formerly a State institution, 
 
 * Monographs on Agricultural Corporations, International 
 Institute of Agriculture.
 
 DANISM 111 i.\i i:sti:ai). 
 
 I>AM.SII I'AKMVAKD. 
 
 Dcnmnrk'M rural wcirarc has lu-in wmi li\ CliiiHtlaii 
 co-<j|)i'rall<»ii.
 
 RURAL I I'l.lFT ELSEWHERE 233 
 
 has become more free and strongly evangelicaL New 
 church buildings are being erected by Lutherans and 
 Gruntvigians jointly as community structures. Thus, 
 under the impulse of a true education for practical life 
 directed by an intense evangelical spirit and securing 
 co-operative organization on a national scale, Denmark 
 has been reconstructed as a nation, her depleted soil re- 
 plenished, her landscape made beautiful ; she has been 
 uplifted out of a great military defeat, out of debt, out 
 of social disintegration. She has almost closed her poor- 
 houses and abolished pauperism. I''rom being one of 
 the poorest of countries she has attained the largest per 
 capita wealth of Europe. She is a land of rural homes 
 and of altruism. 
 
 In Ireland a remarkable advance has been made 
 under co-operation. In 1889 Mr. Phinkett, now Sir 
 Horace Plunkctr. rciiirned to Ireland after ten years' 
 residence in the American West. Competition from 
 Denmark threatened the Irish dairy industry. Govern- 
 ment aid towards land purchase by small farmers offered 
 opportunity for a betterment movement. ^Ir. Plunkett 
 advocated co-operative societies. Fifty meetings were 
 held before the first one was formed ; over two additional 
 years' advocacy In'fore the seconcL Lciiislation was se- 
 cured — for all the United Kingdom — by the Industrial 
 and Provident Societies Act of 1893 and tlie I^'riendly 
 Societies Act of 189G. The Irish Agricultural Organ- 
 ization Society was established to proiuote the forujation 
 of societies; the Irish ('o-oj)erative Agency Society to 
 co-ordinate marketing of products. Demonstrators are 
 employed f<i teach scientific! agriculture on the farms. 
 The outcome is that " in a little more than twenty ^^'ar8, 
 against tretnendous <liffi<Milti('S, in an atmosphere
 
 234 EURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 charged with religious and political animosities, a peace- 
 making movement based on the principle of self-help by 
 mutual help has been built up. All creeds and parties 
 leave their religious and political difficulties outside, 
 and work together. More than 900 farmers' co-operative 
 societies, with almost 100,000 members, are doing a 
 business of about $15,000,000 a year."* Yet even in 
 this economic betterment the need of a deeper underly- 
 ing ethical uplift is felt. " There is a tendency for 
 societies to consign butter to the Agency when prices 
 are low and to market their butter independently when 
 offered good prices elsewhere, "f 
 
 In the United States a widespread movement for the 
 betterment of rural life is in progress. Attention was 
 first called to the problem from the purely material side. 
 The census of 1880 recorded a decrease of 5,000,000 
 acres under cultivation in the North Atlantic States, 
 every state sharing in the loss. The New England 
 Abandoned Farm discussion and movement followed. 
 State authorities became advertising agencies for for- 
 saken farms, seeking summer residents as purchasers. 
 The better lines since followed are thrown into relief by 
 the very names adopted by the organizations. What 
 was at first a Back-to-the-farm Movement has become a 
 Rural Life Movement. Men have turned from dealing 
 with results to dealing with causes, from palliative 
 measures to remedial ones. 
 
 The first helpful study of the subject, from the reli- 
 gious standpoint and in a constructive way, was made 
 by Dr. Washington Gladden, who in a small volume, 
 
 * Sir Horace Plunkett, in Youth's Companion, Boston. 
 
 t Monographs on Agricultural Corporations, International 
 institute of Agriculture.
 
 RURAL rPLIFT ELSEWHERE 235 
 
 '* The Christian Leagiie of Connecticut," published in 
 1883, gives an excellent discussion of essential princi- 
 ples. His larger volume. '* Parish Problems," 18S9, 
 and his later one. " The Christian Pastor and the Work- 
 ing Church," 1898, have each chapters upon rural con- 
 ditions and means of help. 
 
 The Evangelical Alliance took up the problem in 
 1889, when its secretary, Josiah Strong, officially " ex- 
 plored " five counties in the State of New York, and the 
 Rev. Henry Fairbanks forty-four towns in Vermont. 
 These studies included economic, moral and social con- 
 ditions, population, numbers of churches, church mem- 
 bership and attendance. At the next International Con- 
 ference called by the Alliance, in Chicago, in 1893, the 
 problem was given a foremost place, with papers by Pre- 
 sident W. De Witt Hyde, Dr. Samuel Dyke, and others. 
 Both of these leaders had previously written able articles 
 on the subject, Dr. Dyke upon ''The Religious Problems 
 of the Country Town," and Dr. Hyde upon "Impending 
 Paganism in New England." Dr. Strong's research work 
 led to the publication in 1893 of his volume " The New 
 Era," in which we have a clear presentation of both city 
 and criuntrv problems as they exist and are grappled 
 with to-day. It also led to Dr. Strong's making these 
 and kindred questions his life work. 
 
 The American Sunday School has taken uji the work 
 of betterment energetically in wisely adopting new 
 methods and in giving the work of the school a wider 
 scope than Ix^fore. The organized Hible (Mass has l)e- 
 eome a social uplift agency. Some excellent survey 
 work has Ixjen carried on by this orgauizaf ion. Three 
 years ago a prize of $1,000 was ofTered by the I'liioii for 
 the manuscript of the best essay on flu- problems of
 
 236 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 country communities. The prize was awarded to 
 Charles Roads, for his excellent volume, " Eural Chris- 
 tendom," a work of solid worth. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association, which had 
 already done so much for city life, began work for the 
 country in 1889, when Mr, Robert Weidensall origin- 
 ated the " County Work." Under this plan of organ- 
 ization the county town becomes the headquarters of a 
 secretary. The secretary seeks to reach every hamlet in 
 his county and to be in touch with every congregation. 
 The county secretary is usually an agricultural college 
 graduate. The departments are the same as those found 
 so necessary and successful in the city — educational, 
 physical, social, and religious. Adaptation is sought to 
 the needs and the opportunities of the situation. The 
 educational work, for example, embraces farm book- 
 keeping, house sanitation, crop rotation. The fine work 
 accomplished for the city along athletic and recreational 
 lines is being wisely adapted to rural needs. The Asso- 
 ciation publishes a monthly magazine. Rural Manhood, 
 dealing most helpfully with many of the problems of the 
 rural community, — a periodical fitted to render useful 
 service to every country minister. But the Association 
 seeks to do more than employ its own agencies. In 1910 
 a country church conference was called to meet in New 
 York by the Rural Section of the Y, M, C, A, for the 
 purpose of securing a consensus of opinion from church 
 leaders and other authorities on country life as to how 
 there could best be established a basis of co-operation 
 between the church and its supplementary agencies, A 
 most helpful volume, " The Rural Church and Com- 
 munity Betterment," embodies the discussions and
 
 RURAL rPLTFT ELSEWHERE , 237 
 
 results. A second conference was held in December, 
 1911. with a similar but more constructive programme, 
 the outcome of which is another volume, " The Country 
 Church and Rural Welfare." 
 
 The various denominations have organized for the 
 solution of the rural problem, and it has been found 
 that such organization has called forth the services of 
 some of the church's strongest men, and that the agencies 
 thus established have quickly come to the forefront in 
 the expressed interest of the church as well as in the 
 manifest fruitfulness of their service. The Presby- 
 terian Church, North, was in the van with her Depart- 
 ment of Church and Country Work, with Dr. Warren 
 H. Wilson as chairman. The Department has made 
 surveys of rural conditions in Pennsylvania, Missouri, 
 Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, ^laryland and Tennesee, 
 of the same general nature as the great Pittsburg survey 
 into city conditions. The results are published in most 
 interesting documents in pamphlet form. They cover 
 very comprehensively economic, educational, social, and 
 religious conditions, and constitute one of those richly 
 concrete life-studies which in this present time are lay- 
 ing the solid foundations of social and religious advance. 
 But they arc far from being simply studies of the situa- 
 tion. Each one is an efficiency-document as well, out- 
 lining a [)rogrammc of work rciidcrod obviously neces- 
 sary to the I<ic;il situation. The Department of Chiireli 
 anrj Count rv Lif*- has other lines of helpful work as 
 well. During the summer of 1912 four summer schools 
 for country ministers were carried on in widely sepiii- 
 ated territorv. Leaflets and other literature are wid(dy 
 used, and even the pietiire postcard, riiere lies Iw^fore
 
 238 KUEAL LIFE IIST CANADA 
 
 me a postcard stating that " The Department of Church 
 and Country Life advocates : 
 
 The Church as a centre for the building of the community. 
 
 The federation and co-operation of all the churches in the 
 community, in order to make the people one. 
 
 The consolidation of the Rural Schools for the education of 
 young men and women for life in the country. 
 
 The promotion of Scientific Agriculture, in order to con- 
 serve the soil for our children; to produce abundance for the 
 consumer; to keep the farmer's income abreast of rising 
 prices. 
 
 The leadership in Social Recreation for the moral develop- 
 ment of the youth and the workingmen of the community. 
 
 Better living conditions in the interests of the future; and the 
 cherishing of the history of the community in memory of past 
 days. 
 
 Such ministry to the community that pauperism shall be 
 excluded and the burden of poverty lifted. 
 
 The preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ all the time 
 and in every community. 
 
 Now this postcard is itself a photograph of a poster 
 upon a hoarding. The moral effect of such a proclama- 
 tion, when lived up to, must be of the finest character. 
 The Federation for Social Service of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church has a Commission on the Country 
 Church, with the Rev. G. Frederick Wells of New York 
 as chairman. The directness of method characteristic of 
 this strong denomination is shown in the action of the 
 General Conference in 1908 when the formation of the 
 Federation was approved. The Conference submitted 
 four questions to the Federation, asking that the find- 
 ings in reply be submitted to the next General Confer- 
 ence: (1) What principles and measures of Social Re- 
 form are so evidently righteous and Christian as to de-
 
 RURAl. rPl.IFT ELSEWHERE 239 
 
 mand the specitic approval of the church? (2) How 
 can the agencies of the ^lethodist Episcopal Church be 
 wisely used or altered with a view to promote the prin- 
 ciples and measures thus approved? (3) How can we 
 best co-operate in this behalf with other Christian de- 
 nominations ? (4) How can our courses of ministerial 
 study in seminaries and conferences be modified with a 
 view to the better preparation of our preachers for effi- 
 ciency in social reform ? 
 
 The Joint Commission on Social Service of the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church is rendering efficient service 
 with its sane and scientific work, for example, the 
 " social service programme for a parish in an agricul- 
 tural community." This church bids fair to be one of 
 the foremost leaders in the work. 
 
 The ^Moravian Church, which has a rapidly expand- 
 ing work in our own Northwest, recently appointed a 
 Country Church Commission, which began its work 
 with a thorough studv of the statistics of the rural con- 
 gregations for the last seven years — the first systematic 
 eflFort by any denomination to separate the statistics of 
 city and country work. fhe results are reported to be 
 " of a kind that challenges the attention and calls for 
 action." 
 
 The Roformecl Presbyterian ('hurcli, whose member- 
 ship is largely in the fount rv, has, through a strong 
 commission, of which l)r. Hcurv Wallace, one of 
 America's leading agricultural editors, is chairman, 
 attacked the problem with vigor. 
 
 Other denominations are engaged a«; well. IIw ro 
 port of \h(- Commission on the Church and Social Ser 
 vice to the Federal Council in I »i ccmber. 1012. informs 
 us that the l)e[)artment of Social Servic<* of the
 
 240 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 ISTorthern Baptist Convention has taken significant 
 action ; that other denominations — the Disciples of 
 Christ, the Society of Friends, the Christian Church, 
 the United Presbyterian Church — are partially organ- 
 ized, with steady volunteer service; and that half a 
 score of additional denominations are in process of or- 
 ganization in the interests of the country church and 
 rural life. 
 
 The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in 
 America is becoming the central directing agency of the 
 churches in the country life movement. This Council, 
 formed in 1908, represents the leading Protestant de- 
 nominations of the United States. It is a force to be 
 reckoned with in every outstanding moral and social 
 question. The Council has decided, after wide corres- 
 pondence, that there is a great call for interdenomina- 
 tional work in the rural movement, and has under con- 
 sideration far-reaching plans. Meanwhile the Council 
 has taken various steps in co-ordinating the work. A 
 directory of over two thousand of the organizations 
 working at the problem has been prepared. A practical 
 programme for the rural community has been drawn up. 
 Information is being gathered upon what the theological 
 seminaries, the inter-church federations, the various de- 
 nominations, the home mission boards, the country life 
 commissions, the agricultural colleges, and the philan- 
 thropic associations, are doing to promote the interests 
 of rural life. 
 
 All of the recent strong popular movements in the 
 churches are entering this field. The Young People's 
 Missionary Movement is actively engaged, and has pub- 
 lished an excellent handbook entitled " A Country Com- 
 munity Survey " as a guide in the investigation of con- 
 
 ^
 
 KURAL UPLIFT ELSEWHERE 241 
 
 ditions. The Missionary Education ^Nfovement has 
 issued one of its textbooks iipou this problem. " The 
 Church of the Open Country," by Dr. Warren H. 
 Wilson. The Men and Religion Movement emphasized 
 country work. One of the seven volumes which record 
 the great Conservation Congress deals with this subject. 
 Rook I of the volume deals with " The Rural Church of 
 the Twentieth Century," and Book II with " Social 
 Religion in the Country." The treatment is scientific, 
 comprehensive and masterly. 
 
 Outside of the church's organization but in closest 
 sympathy with it are found many promising movements. 
 The Hesperia Movement is a fine example. In 1886 a 
 public school teachers' association in Michigan sought 
 added strength for its work by having the farmers meet 
 with the teachers at their annual convention at Hes- 
 peria, a country village miles away from any railroad. 
 The Association meets yearly on a Thursday night and 
 continues its sessions until Saturday. An attendance of 
 twelve hundred is usual. The best speakers in America 
 address the Association, but its chief attractions are 
 found in the enthusiastic local talent it has evoked. It 
 is not simply educational in character, but literary, 
 musical, and social as well. A co-operative work for 
 rural-school uplift has given wholesome entertainment 
 to a wide district, created a taste for literature in school 
 and home, fostered the love of good music, and advanced 
 every ideal of citizenship. Rural lifo Ims becomo 
 sweeter, saner and satisfying. 
 
 But it is chiefly in such instrumentalities as the Am- 
 herst Movement that promise is found, inasmuch as this 
 movement is based upon botterment of the fundamental 
 charartoristics of farm life and reaches after every clo- 
 16
 
 242 KUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 
 
 ment in its crowning worth. Just as Eaiffeisen in Ger- 
 many discovered that co-operative societies formed upon 
 the principle of pure benevolence possessed no vitality, 
 but that when organized as essentially business concerns 
 upon a Christian and not a mercenary basis, they be- 
 come effective, so this movement is grounded upon scien- 
 tific agricultural education, while it confidently claims 
 the co-operation and leadership of the church in higher 
 tasks. The movement has its centre at the Massachu- 
 setts Agricultviral College at Amherst. Kenyon L. 
 Butterfield, President of the College, is its foremost ex- 
 ponent. But the Amherst Movement is but an illus- 
 trative instance of a nation-wide impulse embracing 
 every agency engaged in agricultural research, organiza- 
 tion, and education, from the federal Department of 
 Education down through the State departments and 
 State colleges to the county societies, from the Farmers' 
 National Congress to the local meeting of the Farmers' 
 Institute, and embracing the Grange and the agricul- 
 tural press, through all of whose extent two salient fea- 
 tures emerge — a call for co-operation of all agencies and 
 for the enlistment of the influence of the church. Dr. 
 Tallmadge Root of the Federal Council of the Churches 
 says in regard to the Amherst Movement, " It is a great 
 civic revival, deeply moral and religious in its essential 
 meaning, whose immediate field is the country com- 
 munity and whose natural leader is the church." 
 
 The public school is contributing its quota, and a 
 large one, to the solution of the recreative and social 
 need. Twelve States have enacted laws authorizing the 
 appointment of recreative commissions and authorizing 
 school boards to spend funds for social and recreative 
 purposes. In Kentucky a league of citizens raised funds
 
 RURAL UPLIFT ELSEWHERE 243 
 
 bj popular subscription for a model schoolbouse, 
 adapted to community use. One county in Texas bas 
 issued bonds lor balf a million dollars to build live 
 schools equipped as social centres. The United States 
 Bureau of Education becomes a clearing-bouse of in- 
 formation on the movement, issuing bulletins on social 
 and recreation work. It is proposed to add to the Fed- 
 eral Department of Education an expert on the activi- 
 ties in school buildings after school hours. The slogan 
 of the movement is : " We are going to have a new rural 
 life. The farm is not to have the life of a race of her- 
 mits." 
 
 And even Congress is found investigating the prob- 
 lem, proposing remedies, and making the same demand 
 for leadership upon the church. In 1908 President 
 Roosevelt appointed a Country Life Commission to re- 
 port upon the condition of country life, the means avail- 
 able for supplying the deficiencies which exist, and the 
 best methods of organized permanent effort along the 
 lines of betterment of rural conditions. The Commis- 
 sion points out the need of four great forces : " Know- 
 ledge — the underlying facts must be understood " ; 
 " Education — there must be a new kind of education 
 adapted to the real needs of the farming people " ; " Or- 
 ganization — there must be a vast enlargement of volun- 
 tary organized effort among farmers"; and "Spiritual 
 Forces — the forces and institutions that make for mor- 
 ality and spiritual ideals among rural people must be 
 energized. We miss the heart of the problem if wo 
 neglect to foster personal cliaracter and neighborhood 
 righteousness. The best way to preserve ideals for 
 private conduct and public life i.s to build up 
 the institutions of religion. The church has great
 
 244 RURAL LIFE 1^ CANADA 
 
 power of leadership. Tlie whole people should 
 understand that it is vitally important to stand 
 behind the rural church and to help it to become 
 a great power in developing concrete country life 
 ideals. It is especially important that the country 
 church recognize that it has a social responsibility to the 
 entire community as well as a religious responsibility 
 to its own group of people. . . . Any consideration 
 of the problem of rural life that leaves out of account the 
 function and the possibilities of the church, and of re- 
 lated institutions, would be grossly inadequate. This is 
 not only because in the last analysis the country life 
 problem is a moral problem, or that in the best develop- 
 ment of the individual the great motives and results are 
 religious and spiritual, but because from the pure socio- 
 logical point of view the church is fundamentally a 
 necessary institution in country life. . . . This gives 
 the rural church a position of peculiar difficulty, and 
 one of unequalled opportunity. The time has arrived 
 when the church must take a larger leadership, both as 
 an institution and through its pastors, in the social re- 
 organization of country life."* 
 
 It is manifest that there is a great movement in pro- 
 gress for rural betterment, and through movement and 
 need alike, a great call to the church. In Canada that 
 call is still more imperative. Our percentage of growth 
 in population is greater than that of the United States ; 
 theirs was 21 per cent, in the past decade ; ours 34. Our 
 percentage of immigration is greater; 31.9 against their 
 11.5 per cent. The urbanization of population is more 
 rapid with us ; their percentage of rural population has 
 
 * Report of the Country Life Commission, pp. 17, 60.
 
 RURAL UPLIFT ELSEWHERE 245 
 
 fallen 5.S per ceut. in ten years, ours 8 per cent; in 
 twenty years theirs has been lowered by 10.2, ours by 
 13.8. Instances of percentages of city growth with us 
 are almost unequalled any^vhere, Winnipeg, 221 per 
 cent, in ten years, Edmonton 848, Calgary 893, Regina 
 1,243, Swift Current, 1,430, and Saskatoon, 10,523 per 
 cent, in one decade. The development of corporation 
 control over production and sources of wealth is with us 
 perhaps the most riotously rapid the world has yet seen. 
 Seven years ago trust control had scarce begun in 
 Canada; already it dominates almost every one of the 
 more lucrative sources of wealth. On the other hand 
 the call is imperative because the church is as yet strong 
 in Canada in the rural districts, — to act efficiently she 
 must meet the situation before becoming weakened. 
 And yet again, her allies are with us of the strongest. 
 McGill University, through her faculty of agriculture 
 in Macdonald College at Ste. Anne's, leads the world in 
 university education for agriculture. Ontario alone em- 
 ploys over a hundred trained, skilled, competent agri- 
 culturists, teaching, and travelling over the Province 
 furnishing information and advice upon farm condi- 
 tions and possibilities. Dr. Robertson says: " In those 
 regards Canada is in the front rank among all the 
 nations of which I have any knowledge."* Such are the 
 factors in the call to the church in Canada. 
 
 Life has two sovereign moments: one when man settloB 
 
 down 
 To some life-worthy purpose; one, when he gains the 
 
 cTown.t 
 
 • Con8«rvat!on Commission 111, p. 90. 
 
 t Matthew Ulchcy Wright, In Hand'H " Treasury of Canadian 
 Verse."
 
 246 RURAL LIFE m CANADA 
 
 The second of these sovereign movements is exempli- 
 fied among us in the work of Dr. Grenfell, by which a 
 population not indeed agricultural, and yet distinctly 
 rural, has been uplifted economically and socially and 
 spiritually to a new plane of life ; the first opens before 
 rural Canada to-day. 
 
 An old farm-house with meadows wide 
 And sweet with clover on each side; 
 A bright-eyed boy, who looks from out 
 The door with woodbine wreathed about, 
 And wishes this one thought all day: 
 " Oh, if I could but fly away 
 
 From this dull spot, the world to see, 
 How happy, happy, happy. 
 
 How happy I should be!" 
 
 Amid the city's constant din 
 A man who round the world has been, 
 Who, 'mid the tumult and the throng, 
 Is thinking, thinking, all day long: 
 " Oh, could I only tread once more 
 The field-path to the farm-house door, 
 The old green meadow could I see. 
 How happy, happy, happy, 
 How happy I should be!" 
 
 — Annie Douglas Robinson.
 
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 Beard. A. F., D.D., " The Story of John Frederick Oberlin." 
 
 Pilgrim Press, 1909. $1.00. 
 Bayley, L. H., " The Country Life Movement." Macmillan Co., 
 
 1911. $1.25. 
 Butterfleld. K. L., " The Country Church and the Rural Prob- 
 lem." University of Chicago Press, 1911. $1.00. 
 Butterfield, L. H., " Chapters in Rural Progress." University 
 
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 248 EUEAL LIFE IN^ CANADA 
 
 strong, Josiah, D.D., "The New Era." The Baker & Taylor 
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 year.
 
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