Balancing (ouNt* UC-NRLF $B 160 4lt. Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive in 2007 witin funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.archive.org/details/balancingcountryOOyounricli BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE PROGRAM OF THE Country Life Conference NORTH CENTRAL DIVISION OF THE UNITED STATES Hotel LaSalle CHICACO Orto!„r 25. 1916 nf Country Life Pro^reas" D. Hunlrr McAIpi.. M. D.. C»..V-,.n COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERNATIONA!. COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. Pt€i.Jui« Some J^otes for the Conference Dele(fate9 participating in general discusatoo "will be limitea to tkrec minutes each. LeaJera wko have been aaaigaeJ topica to open Jucuaaion will be ^iven five minutea Will Jelegatca please atate name and official poaitions as they rise to speak, and to aaaiat the atenograpbera, apeak distinctly. Delegates are requeated to register on cards fumiabed. Also indicate wbetber a copy of the proceedings it deaired » bicb »-.ll be published by Aaaociation Press. 124 East 28th Street. New York City. The publications of the Country Life Bookshelf will be on display revealing a eplendid array of Country Life Literature. The Conference ia eelf entertaining. Rooina can be secured at the Hotel LaSalle from $1.50 a day and upwards. Lunch.-on at noon will be .erved for the entire Conference .t one dollar per plate. The Conference Dinner m the evening which will prove the climax of the day will be served at 6:30 o'clock at one doUar and a half The great Y. M, C. A. Hotel on Wabaah Ave., □ear Eigntk Street, at 'wbick every nigKt ceveral KunJred country hoy$ spend ttteir firrt nigtt in the city, will be a place or lotcreat to vtsit. 'PROGRAM Mominj Session A. M. 10:00 Hymn. 10:05 Prayer. 10:10 Introductory Remarkj and Announcementa. 10:30-10:50 The Home of the Country Side." by Miaa Leonard* Com, Editor .( Tlx Fanur'. Wil.. St. P.uL M.uuM. 10:50-11:10 Queationa and Di«:u..ion. "PROGRAM Aft, remoon Oeasion 11:10-11.30 "The School of th. Country Side." by Dr. Eraeat Bumham, Dinnof. D».nii><.i o< Rur>l Scliocla. W«.r. Sut< Nor»J Sck«J. 11.30-12:00 Question, and Di 12:30 Luncheon. R M. 1:30 Hymn. 1:35 Prayer. 1:40-2:00 "The Church of th. Country-Side." by Dr. Oiora S. Davia. 2:00-2:30 Question, and Diacuaaion. 2:30-3:00 "The Community of the Counfry-Side." by Dr. R. E. Hieronymu.. , U.i..r.i., o( lUi..,.. Urk.... lUi™. 3:00-3:30 Queationa and Diacuaaion. 3:30-4:00 Summary. Reaolution. and Buaineaa. by . Commiaaion of the Conference. 4:00 Adiourmnent. 6:30 Dinner. Balancing Country Life Edited b\) THE COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS ^sissociatton l^xt^n 124 East 28th J^treeTj New York 1917 S/^ ^L<^.~.^it^ Pm^J^ Copyright, 1917, by THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS EPT. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS PAGE AN INTRODUCTORY WORD— Albert E. Roberts. Senior Secretary County Work Department, International Com- mittee of Yowng Men's Christian Associations xi THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME— Miss Leonarda Goss, Editor "The Farmer's Wife," St. Paul, Minn 3 Respectability of the Country Depends upon Its Women — D. Hunter McAlpin, M.D., Chairman County Work De- partment Sub-Committee, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, New York, Parable of Kaleidoscope Applied — Bert Ball, Secretary Crop Improve- ment Committee, Council of Grain Exchanges, Chicago. A Major Premise, the Home an Industrial Organization — Hon. George Mac Kay, Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, Canton, III. Importance of Country Girl — Miss Jessie Field, Secretary Town and Country Committee, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations, New York. Survey Necessary to Better Homes — Dr. Ernest Irving Antrim, County Committee, Van Wert, Ohio. II THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOI^Dr. Ernest Bumham, Director Department of Rural Schools, Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo. Mich 25 Volunteers Needed to Direct Country Life from Within — Dr. Allan Hoben, Professor of Practical Theology, The Uni- versity of Chicago. A Teacher Leader — T. B. Lanham, Secretary Ohio State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Columbus. Rural Minded Community Build- ers Essential — Dr. A. W. Fortune, Transylvania College, Lexington, Ky. Economic Improvement Before Any Cultural Advance — Hon. John C. Ketcham, Master Michigan State Grange, Hastings. The "Trenton Idea" Tried Out — Hon. George MacKay, Young Men's Christian Association, Canton, III. Ill THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH— Rev. Ozora S. Davis, D.D., President Chicago Theological Seminary 41 Community-Wide Church a Modern Need — Rev. J. G. K. McClure, D.D., McCormick Theological Seminary, Chi- cago. A Solution for Over-churching — Dr. E. I. Antrim, County Committee, Van Wert, Ohio. 415500 vi CONTENTS IV PAGE THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY— Dr. R. E. Hieronymus, Community Adviser, University of Illinois S9 A Lack of Community Team Work — Bert Ball, Secretary Crop Improvement Committee, Council of Grain Exchanges, Chicago. Association Cooperation with Other County Agencies — C. H. Pipher, Slate Secretary for County Work in Iowa, Des Moines. The Massachusetts Federation for Rural Workers — Professor W. J. Campbell, International Young Men's Christian Association College, Springfield, Mass. For Better Rural Schools— J. Weller Long, The Farmers' Union, Chicago. Improved Highways Necessary — Hon. George MacKay, Young Men's Christian Association, Canton, III. Cooperation in Rock County, Wisconsin. Min- isterial Cooperation — L. A. Markham, Secretary County Young Men's Christian Association, Janesville, Wis. Big- gest Problem is "Folks" — Miss Jessie Field. A Note of Hope — Dr. J. P. Landis, President Bonebrake Theological Seminary, Dayton, O. THE LUNCHEON 85 Speakers: John E. Wilder, Chairman of Illinois State Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations; Hon. B. F. Harris, Ex-Chairman Agricultural Commission, American Bankers' Association; C. L. Rowe, State Secretary for County Work in Michigan; Howard Hubbell, State Secretary for County Work in Wisconsin; T. B. Lanham, State Secretary for County Work in Ohio; L. Wilbur Messer, General Secretary, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association. VI THE EVENING BANQUET 105 Speakers: Albert J. Nason, Member of County Work Depart- ment Sub-Committee, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations; K. A. Shumaker, Secretary Illinois Stale Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations; Rev. Charles Melvin McConnell, Lakeville and Newkirk Circuit, Northern Ohio Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church; Albert E. Roberts, Senior Secretary, County Work Department, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associa- tions; D. Hunter McAlpin, M.D., Chairman County Work Department .Sub-Committee, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. Appendix I. Report of Findings Committee 119 A ppendix II. Contributions in Absentia 121 Appendix III. Echoes and Impressions of the Conference. 123 Appendix IV. Distribution of Delegates by States 129 Appendix V. List of Delegates 131 PREFACE To make contagious the spiritual motive in the Country Life Movement of North America is one of the tasks to which the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, through its International Com- mittee's County Work Department, addresses itself. The very nation-wide scope of its enter- prise reveals continually the need of the various agencies working toward one and the same end, of coming together out of their field of activities to gain a perspective of the whole national move- ment, and for leaders and workers to get a uni- versal viewpoint and contagious unity of purpose in such a pioneer undertaking as the Country Life Movement of the United States presents. It is for this reason that the County Work Department of the International Committee, in cooperation with the representatives from Theo- logical Seminaries, Agricultural Colleges, the Re- ligious and Agricultural Press, Federal Council of Churches, the Sunday Schools, the Young Women's Christian Association, National and State Boards of Agriculture and Bureaus of Edu- viii PREFACE cation, and all others which have to do essentially with the human factor of our countryside, under- takes to encourage and foster the conference idea. This Chicago Country Life Conference held at the La Salle Hotel, Chicago, 111., October, 25, 1916, was the first of its kind in the North Cen- tral Division of the United States. It is the plan of the Committee to continue these conferences as they have been conducted, for the New England and Middle Atlantic Divisions of the United States, for it is only by a sequence of such confer- ences held annually that real results are achieved toward "organized will and purpose" in the national country life consciousness. One of the important elements in a constructive program is a careful record of the proceedings and of the various papers presented. In the discussion of the topic "Balancing Country Life," the contributions under this cover will afford an excellent basis from which to work in the future conferences. Sincere appreciation is due to those who com- posed the personnel of the Conference, as well as to the various speakers for their painstaking care to conserve their material and to contribute it to this volume. PREFACE ix We commend the volume to all country life workers, with no idea that this is any conclusive discussion of this important topic, but rather to awaken study and further experimentation with the great host of others in the same field, and in the anticipation of further light which may be brought out in the records of subsequent con- ferences. AN INTRODUCTORY WORD Albert E. Roberts Senior Secretary County Work Department, Interna- tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations I was told the other day that there were two hundred and twenty agencies to make conditions better in the country, at work in the State of Illinois alone. I suppose the Young Men's Chris- tian Association would be classed as one of those agencies. But most of them are working solely along economic lines, and we must make condi- tions economically right in the country. In the past few years, however, the pared post, rural free delivery, telephones, automobiles, rural credits, etc., have done much toward this end, and it seems to some of us that the social and religious agencies must see that, along with these economic improvements, in which we rejoice, there must be a corresponding development of the interest in the Church. And so this Chicago Country Life Conference was called by the xii AN INTRODUCTORY WORD Association as an ally of the Church, if I may- use that expression. The Church itself was represented by theo- logical seminaries, by rural pastors, and others connected directly with the Church. The agri- cultural colleges, the religious press, the agricul- tural press, the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, the Sunday school, the Young Men's Christian Association, and other agencies were also represented. There was no cut and dried plan. We did not try to get through some special legislation, but in a most transparent way we discussed the vari- ous phases of country life, to see how we could merge our interests, avoid duplications, and pre- vent overlapping, and by counselling together take new ground in the promotion of better spiritual and social ideals in the country. We were encouraged to call this Chicago meet- ing by the success which had attended similar gatherings in the East. In New York for four consecutive years we have had conferences like this, and we have learned to trust each other. Some splendid fel- lowships and friendships have been established, and I believe there have been set in motion some AN INTRODUCTORY WORD xiii forces which are resulting very happily in a new concept of real rural progress, particularly in behalf of such agencies as I have mentioned. And so we hope that out of these various presentations, there may come a clearer light. If we all may somehow feel our joint responsi- bility in making country conditions what they ought to be, I am sure the Young Men's Chris- tian Association will be gratified and will feel well repaid for the effort that had to be put forth to make the Chicago Conference possible. We were particularly glad to have with us representatives of the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association. We recognize the splendid work that the Rural De- partment of the National Board is doing, a work paralleling that of the Young Men's Christian Association, and making it possible through these two agencies to approach the rural problem from the point of view of the family — through instructing the young women and girls as well as the young men and boys. I THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME Miss Leonarda Goss Editor The Farmer's Wife Until we, who are country life workers, shall relate every phase of our endeavors to the cen- tral unit of the Home, I believe we shall be building with utter futility in our efforts to help erect a worthy rural civilization. Until the country clergyman shall go the rounds in his second-hand Ford, six days of the week, on a many-pointed circuit that takes in every home in his parishes; until the country teacher makes herself a welcome neighbor in every kitchen and parlor of her school district; until in addition to the county agricultural agent, there shall be likewise a county home-demonstra- tion agent, who goes into the home where the farmer's wife carries on her business; until the leaders of State Agricultural Colleges and the Federal Department of Agriculture agree to 3 • « * r I t • » "c' •♦/«*•' • • 'r . . € t » ' r r . • f »" r » , ' . » , » I r * . • , » 4 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE spend fifty per cent of their thought, their en- deavor, and their patrimony upon the complex industries of that home; until the rural press, originally evolved to meet the urgent economic needs of the farmer, shall know that this new day demands for the farmer's wife more than a page of polyglot fashions, fancywork, and let- ters of distress from disgruntled persons; until the farmers' clubs, under whatever name or form they exist in various sections of our coun- try, shall become true cooperative neighborhood clubs by including the women and children of the home in an honorable part of their program- making and of their activities; in short, until there shall be an understanding among all these agents, pastors, teachers, county advisers, lead- ers of agricultural colleges and of the state and national departments of agriculture, editors, writers, local club leaders, and county secretaries of the Young Women's Christian Association and the Young Men's Christian Association — so that our multiple effort is but to quicken the life of the home — we shall labor without purpose, without objective, and, therefore, without avail. When, understandingly and with sure inten- tion, we see, as the goal of our every effort, the THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME 5 Home and the human life within it, then shall we be building in this nation such a rural civili- zation as the world has never known. We shall have found the stone which the builders, so far, have refused. We shall build a rural civilization that shall not be temporal, but shall have immor- tal Hfe. We are not, in the truest sense, working to- gether in our rural-life endeavors, for the simple reason that we have not defined our common cause. The nearest approach we have made to finding our center in rural life work has been in directing our labor toward the betterment of the neighborhood and the community. But I ask you to consider what we mean by either term. May they not become the sounding brass of mere words unless we think deeply of their connotation ? To get at the heart of the meaning, let us re- duce the term community to a mental graph. Picture to yourself a plane surface. On that surface draw a circumference. Let us say for the purposes of our graph, that the circle repre- sents a country community. Of what is it made up? Homes! They are dotted over its entire surface. But, again for the sake of our graph, 6 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE let us place a composite Home, representing all these homes, at the center of the circle. On the circumference, let us mark off at equal distances the other integers of the community. We shall thus dot off, sixty degrees apart, marks on the boundary line to represent six factors: (i) the country school, (2) the county agri- cultural agent, and the county demonstrator in home-making, if the county is fortunate enough to possess one, (3) the extension workers sent into the community, at times, by the State Agri- cultural College and Federal Department of Agriculture, (4) the rural press, (5) the com- munity club, (6) the county secretaries of the religious organizations, such as the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association. Direct radii extend from each of these six intersections to the Home. In other words, in- terpreting our graph, the ultimate object of the school, the hierarchy of agricultural agencies, the press, the local club, and the religious organi- zations, is to connect themselves directly with the Home, to pour life and strength along the connecting radii into the folk within that Home, so enriching their powers that they in turn give THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME 7 back their united strength to make stronger the very institutions that develop them. We have thus a complete circuit. But whence comes the power that passes through this complete circuit ? It comes from above, and the prism through which that ray of power passes and breaks up into the several rays that go to the agencies I have enumerated, is the country church. So if you will forgive my geometric parallels, let us consider our graph to have become a cone, at the apex of which is the church, transmitting divine strength to the Home and to the various community agencies which in their turn pour that strength into the Home. . Please do not consider that because in my graph I have placed the country church at the apex of the cone, I would put, in reality, this life-giving church above and beyond community life. I would keep it very close to the soil. I believe that the country church should be a seven-day-a-week church ; it must be close to the heart of the country community. ■ When we have spiritualized our country life work by making the church the divine channel of power that energizes the community's central 8 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE unit, the Home, and every force is working for that Home, then shall we be sure that our every effort has an objective and that no force is scat- tered or wasted. As we think of the Home, let us think of it, not in terms of this composite dot I have placed at the center of our graph, but in terms of the warm, breathing, human and divine beings who live within it; specifically let us think in the terms of the woman, the farm wife and mother who is the focal unit of that Home. So we come to this point, that our labors must have as their objective, her and the family whom she holds together. We are working to intensify human values in country life. We are not striv- ing merely to increase the farmer's income nor to educate his children religiously and secularly; we are striving ultimately to deepen human and spiritual values; we are working not solely for the land's sake, nor for the crops' sake, nor for the stock's sake, but through and beyond these, we are working for life's sake. And when we work for life's sake, we dare not forget her who is the very center of life — that quiet, unobtrusive woman who holds to- gether the Home and its members. THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME 9 "A. E./' the Irish mystic, one of the Dublin group which is "making Ireland over," has been very closely associated with the Plunketts and especially with Sir Horace Plunkett in his co- operative labors in rural Ireland. Substituting "America" for "Ireland," one might read "A. E.'s" essay, "The Ideals of Rural Society," almost assured that one was reading the pro- phetic utterances of a writer who was dreaming of America's future. "A. E." declares: "We cannot build up a rural civilization in Ireland without the aid of the Irish women. . . . A great writer said, 'Woman is the last thing man will civilize.' If a woman had written on that subject, she would have said, 'Woman is the last thing man thinks about when he is building his empires.' . . . We should not want to see women separated from the activities and ideals and aspirations of men. We should want to see them working together in harmony. ... I be- lieve they will never get to the Delectable City if they journey apart from each other and do not share each other's burdens." In another place in this same essay, after com- menting upon the present school of Irish dra- matists who, in holding up the mirror to Irish 10 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE peasant nature, reflect nothing but decadence, ''A. E/'adds: "Well, it is good to be chastened in spirit, but it is a thousand times better to be invigorated in spirit. To be positive is always better than to be negative . . . The younger generation should hear nothing about failures. It should not be hypnotized into self-contempt." I would emphasize these two points: we here in America need the help of American women in building up our rural civilization; and we no longer need to be chastened in spirit by hearing the old, old woe of the unhappy farmer's wife. We have heard too much of the failures, too much of the negative; let us hear of the posi- tive. I admit to you frankly and fully that there is a shadow-side of human nature and that the shadow lurks in country homes as well as in city homes. I am not maintaining, to borrow a phrase from England, that all is "beer and skittles" for the country woman, but I am maintaining that among those country women are splendidly po- tential forces, now largely neglected by our work- ers. I challenge you to search out those women and enlist their leadership in every country com- munity; I challenge you to place your accent on THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME ii the positive, constructive strength of strong country women. It is not enough that only you and I should know and utilize the magnificent latent power of country women. There should be a nation-wide acknowledgment of her, to the end that in every country district she may be helped to make her full contribution to home and community life. There is needed a more complete understand- ing of this farm home and this farm woman. Miasmas that have long obscured our vision must be cleared away. A new generation of farm women exists today, far different from that of fifteen years ago. We must cease to think of the country woman as we knew her years ago, as we know her today in the one corner of the United States in which we live, as fiction repre- sents her, or as the lecturers who do or do not know her, declare her to be. We must know her at first hand in the farm homes of today. Nei- ther you nor I can get that complete knowledge. Somebody must gather it and declare the true status of the country home and country woman. If, as one outcome of our discussions here today, we can agree that the Country Home and the members of that Home, held together by the 12 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE mother, are the center toward which all our work is directed, and if we agree, therefore, to honor and enlist the active services of country wives and mothers, we shall have helped mightily to advance and to make stable our rural life. In the November issue of The Farmer's Wife, Dr. Thomas Nixon Carver says, "Several nar- row misconceptions have had to be or must still be removed. . . . One is that agriculture and farmers exist in order that other people may live in comfort in cities and towns. This must give way to the idea that 'the normal life is the life on the farm' and that on the farm is where peo- ple ought to live." Let our joint labors help to make the farm life so glad and happy and healthy that the normal life of its home will rarely be forsaken by its sons and daughters. Whether this shall be de- pends upon the success with which we enlist the farm wife and mother, the hitherto silent partner of the firm, to make her contribution to rural life. When we shall begin to cooperate with her, then in truth shall we be working, not merely to produce agriculturists, stock, and crops, but we shall be working for the Home, for life itself. DISCUSSION RESPECTABILITY OF THE COUNTRY DE- PENDS UPON ITS WOMEN It is a very well recognized fact, that "the respectability of a country depends more upon its women than upon its men." That fine type of woman — the mother — develops and trains the child in the country, whereas the father often looks upon the boy as a helpmate and something to get as much work out of as possible in return for his board. Therefore, the boy, when he be- comes independent, leaves. But the girl cannot leave. The mother takes care of the girl and develops and trains her in her own way. There is unfortunately too often a feeling of suspicion when we try to start something new in a com- munity, such as a sewing class for the girls. I have known mothers to come to the class with their infants in their arms, saying their older girls do not need to learn sewing, that they buy readymade everything they want. Yet over forty girls from one sewing class in our county, which began as described above, are going out and earning their own living from sewing taught in this class. — Dr. D. Hunter McAlpin. 15 i6 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE PARABLE OF KALEIDOSCOPE APPLIED I would introduce the parable of the kaleid- oscope. Everybody has had and enjoyed that toy. It is a paste-board cylinder containing three mirrors. One of these could be called "better business" ; one, "better farming" ; and the other, "better living" for all of the people who live in any given community. Let us take the colors of the bits of glass as the subject matter and the shapes and sizes of the glass for the people who are really interested in each subject. It is funda- mental that all of the people — men, women, and children — in a given community shall be consid- ered in their proper relation. We must have a communion of all of these people in each com- munity. We must undertake everything we do in relationship to the other things which are go- ing on. In every county, all of the things of interest in that county should be handled in the order of their importance to the people who live there. For instance, on one Sunday a community conference could be held, where all the preachers could get together on the same platform, bring- ing all their choirs and all their people, in order that everybody might become acquainted through THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME 17 singing and praying together and touching elbows, and thus learn to cooperate. On another day we could take up dairying; on another day, the schools; on another day, roads; on another day, crop improvement; and wind up on Satur- day with a Recreation Day. We have plenty of money, people, and energy everywhere, if we can only bring them into focus so that we can see the mosaic which the figure of the "kaleidoscope" represents. We must do it. While the problem is all the same, none see it quite alike and the problem appears different every time we ourselves study it. — Bert Ball. A MAJOR PREMISE, THE HOME AN INDUS- TRIAL ORGANIZATION The value of a conference of this kind is de- termined in a large measure by the point of view from which we approach the whole problem of country life. Miss Goss has suggested that we should think of country life in terms of home building; Mr. Ball has indicated that we should strive after an increase of farm products. We are living today in an industrial age. We are thinking in terms of industrial ethics. The i8 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE greatest industrial organization is Home Build- ing, and its product is Citizenship. I venture to think that it is in the light of this major premise that all the activities in life find their proper level and distribution. — George MacKay. IMPORTANCE OF COUNTRY GIRL My own personal conviction, growing out of my experience in working with country people, is that this matter of country homes and of coun- try women and girls is of tremendously funda- mental importance. My first experience in work- ing to build up country life was with country boys. But I soon began to see that we needed something more than good farming. We needed better living, and it was not possible to have better living without working with country girls too. We are facing today a great need for the right kind of leaders among women and girls. I be- lieve we must turn to the country to find these leaders. We have some seventy secretaries on the National Staff of our Young Women's Chris- tian Association. I have been interested to find that sixty- three out of this number are from the country or from towns of under three thousand. THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME 19 Though country girls undoubtedly have, po- tentially, the leadership that we are needing and will need more and more for our nation and for all the nations of the world, yet we are far from having given them the fullest chance for de- velopment. Is this not a challenge to us to do everything in our power to bring the best chance for growth and development to them every- where ? Any one who is interested in country men and boys has to be, because of the very truth of things, just as deeply interested in the country girl. It is well to turn our thoughts to the coun- try home, which is at the very center of all coun- try life development and is of equal concern to us all. — Miss Jessie Field. SURVEY NECESSARY TO BETTER HOMES It seems to me that one of the fundamental things in connection with rural life work is the sui-vey. If we expect to make better homes in the country, we must first know the country. With that idea in mind, I made a survey of my own rural county. In an address at a Township Sunday School Convention in my county, where I felt that the 20 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE time was ripe for a local application, I spoke on "The Country Church," and I concluded my talk by outlining the situation, as it exists in that par- ticular township. This township, one of twelve in my county, has one thousand inhabitants. There are 13,500 acres; the tax duplicate is $1,700,000; the tax rate is seven mills, and the income of the people is about $200,000. There are four churches in this little township of 1,000 population — two of them Methodist, one United Brethren, and one Christian Union. In these churches there are 400 members ; that is, 400 of the 1,000 inhabitants belong to four little churches; and, since the income of all the people of the community is $200,000, then of the 400 belonging to the churches it would be $80,000, providing the income of all is approximately the same. If these 400 members were tithers, they would give $8,000. How much do they give? Instead of $8,000 they give $2,200, or one thirty- fifth instead of one-tenth of their income. After I had given these facts, I told my audi- ence that it required a good deal of courage to say what I had to say with respect to the churches of their township. I said, I would recommend instead of four churches, not over THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS HOME 21 two, and one would be better. But, as it hap- pens, in the southern part of the township there is a very fine little church. So I told them I would make that the center and unite with it one church on one side, in the township, and another church on the other side, in an adjoining township, and thus form a federated church out of the three churches. I assured them they could make the new church a union church or a fed- erated church or any other kind of church which the individuals that w^ere to be its members saw fit to make it. In the northern part of the township there are also two little churches. These I would unite in a similar manner, I assured them, and thus there would be two churches instead of four for 1,000 persons, with a resident pastor for each church. I did not know how they would take my solution of their church problem, but after I had concluded my address a number of them said they agreed with me. It is quite essential, if we expect to improve country communities and their homes, that we combine many small churches and then make these the leaders in the redemption of the rural field. — Dr. Ernest Irving Antrim. II THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOL II THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOL Dr. Erkest Burnham Director Department of Rural Schools, Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo, Michigan The country school is gaining a wider range of attention and is enlisting the life service of a few capable and trained students of education. Scientific study is assembling and relating the actual facts. Perspective is emerging and a truly philosophical theory of rural education is being slowly evolved. It is now known that facts about the urban and the rural educational situations, which seem upon superficial study to be alike, have little or no positive correlation. Hence, the necessity of differentiating standards of judgment and the disqualification of specialists in either field for immediately trustworthy service in the other are obvious. 25 26 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE To equalize rural and urban statistics, if they are to be given comparative study, and to involve in an intensive and permanent participation in rural education, theorists, who assume to be light givers in this field, are two fundamental needs of the country school. Slightly discernible progress may be found in these matters. The better qualification of country children and adults in executive facility, in industrial in- telligence, in social maturity, in aesthetic sensi- tiveness, and in dynamic moral stamina — this is the frontier and the constantly reechoing chal- lenge in rural education. Observational and speculative study has de- fined a need, which is subject to correction by education, in the social handicap of many coun- trybred people. The development to a maximum of the wholesome social contacts possible in country life is the proposed relief. Alacrity and poise in intellectual and executive attack is an- other generally recognized need for which edu- cation is largely responsible. Applied industrial intelligence is a legitimate standard by which to measure progress in educa- tion, and by this standard rural education cries out for redirection and invigoration. Federal THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOL 27 and state attacks upon this problem have been vigorously prosecuted with the investment of millions of revenue and thousands of specialists for half a century and wonderful progress has been made. But the whole movement is yet to come to its fullest fruition in the general locali- zation and use of the industrial intelligence available. ^Esthetic sensitiveness is to the soul what physi- cal health is to the body. The nation-wide at- tack upon the causes of physical degeneration and the rapid appearance of public facilities for health-giving and health-conserving recreation, together with the accelerating propaganda for understanding and cooperating with Nature in landscape, highways, and home grounds consti- tute a practical recognition of the advantages of the countryside. The outstanding qualification for leadership is dynamic moral stamina. The whole set of the situation, not only as regards the school itself, but also with the fullest inclusive- ness, the tone and spirit — the compulsion of the aggregate faith, purpose, and elemental sincerity in individuals and institutions making up the whole community life — must be invoked. The latest dependable knowledge in action 28 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE through school plant, course of study, teacher, supervisor, administrator, community material, and moral support; and all dominated and con- served by a state program in rural education, which an educational statesmanship of state and national caliber has thought through to the most economical and truthful application of funda- mental principles — these are the stage properties and participants in the national drama of prog- ress in rural education. Conservation of children, adults, leaders; clarification of ideals, so that they may be simpli- fied and reproduced in persons and in business and social corporations; perpetuation of democ- racy by the clearest demonstration, which is most convincingly typified in the small community; and the compulsion of progress in the whole solidarity of rural life by the domination of an adequate ideal; the scientific repioneering of this nation by an inspiring purpose ; conscious evolu- tion toward Christian democracy — in all these elemental necessities the school of the country- side is one of the Time Keepers of Progress. DISCUSSION VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO DIRECT COUNTRY LIFE FROM WITHIN It strikes me that our generalizations about country life are not very valuable. There are so many kinds of rural communities, so many dif- ferent sorts of farming, that our first need is that of accurate descriptive sociology. No one deduction holds valid for all situations, and I think we shall profit most if those who have undertaken welfare experiments will give us an account of conditions, with all the elements in- volved, their methods of approach and procedure, wherein they failed, and wherein they succeeded. I feel that we should magnify the idea of de- velopment from within. The patronizing uplifter from without hasn't much chance. I really feel sorry for anyone who falls into the hands of the expert, whether it be the resident of the slum, the patient in the hospital, or the worker on the land. While a great body of knowledge and goodwill has become available for the improve- ment of farm life and for the development of its higher possibilities, we need to be very mindful 31 32 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE of the vast resources of good sense, kindliness, and independence that make their home on the farm, and we cannot be too capable in moving these sometimes latent forces from within. Plans for improvement should be carried out at public rather than at private expense. The developmental principle and method should be imbedded in the community's organic life, and the expense of becoming better should be borne by the community itself. It would be a great thing if young men and young women were found dedicating themselves to the work of the country school in the same fashion that they volunteer for social service, or for foreign mis- sions. We want to put people of high ideals into the regular machinery of education and govern- ment, and so achieve gradual and sound improve- ment at public expense. If we could have the right kind of a school- master for every village and hamlet, the influence on the endless stream of children passing through these schools would soon tell for good. The trouble with many young persons who are moved with high resolve to do Christian service, is that they look to the abnormal and spectacular, to the exclusion of those great, steady opportunities THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOL 33 where one may help bring in the Kingdom of God by constructive work with those who are normal. — Dr. Allan Hoben. A TEACHER LEADER One of the officials of a Board of Education came to me as an Association Secretary and said, "We want a certain type of teacher for our school (this was a centralized school that was being tested out in the State of Ohio) ; we would like to have a man within our own county, if you can suggest such a man." We had the privilege of suggesting a man who has spent five years in that school and who has developed one of the best schools in the county today. That Board of Education has come to us time and time again, not because we are great experts, but because they feel that we know men. The man I have mentioned believes in the Young Men*s Christian Association. Not only is he doing a splendid work for his school, but in the new community in which he is living, he has been a leader in the Association, in the church, and in various other institutions of that community. — T. B. Lanham. 34 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE RURAL MINDED COMMUNITY BUILDERS ESSENTIAL My conviction is that the country problem must be solved by men and women who not only live in the country but intend to dedicate their lives to country service. I had no thought when I was on the farm that I was going to live there all my life. I had no thought when I was teach- ing country school that that was going to be my life work. I had no thought when I was preach- ing in the country church that I was to give my life to the country ministry. I was looking for- ward to the city, and the country school and the country church were used as stepping stones to something else. My attitude towards the coun- try has been the common attitude during the past. The country problem will never be solved by those who have this attitude. I am also convinced that the church and the school should cooperate in building up the coun- try community. I lived for several years in the Western Reserve in Ohio, where there are some of the best rural schools in the country, but the rural churches in these sections are rapidly de- clining. I am now living in Kentucky where there are splendid country churches, but where THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOL 35 the schools are inadequate. With centralized schools and centralized churches working to- gether at the task of community-building, the conditions in the country would rapidly be changed. Many of our brightest young men at the Col- lege of the Bible, Lexington, Kentucky, are look- ing forward to the rural community for their life work. Young men are volunteering for country service as they would for service on the foreign field. One of the greatest needs of the present time is leaders who have been trained for rural service. These leaders should not only be in sympathy with country life, but their lives should be dedicated to country service. They should not only have a broad general training, but they should understand the peculiar problems of the country. They should have broad sympathies, so that, instead of seeking some narrow purpose, they will serve the community. They should have no thought of making their service in the country a stepping-stone to something else, but should regard it as their opportunity to serve humanity and thus help to bring in the Kingdom of God. — Dr. A. W. Fortune. 36 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE ECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT BEFORE ANY CULTURAL ADVANCE In all our desires to build up other rural forces and other country life agencies, we must not lose sight of the economic side of agriculture. The majority of people have a much distorted view concerning the wonderful prosperity of the men and the women who live on the land. I want to challenge that statement emphatically, enthusiastically, and everlastingly. When you put upon the average farm today a keen business man, one of your managers of great corpora- tions, and direct him to charge up against the farm all the things that ought to be legitimately charged, and to take into account the board, labor, and long hours, and all that appears to be to the advantage of this farm, you will usually find, on an examination of the business, that it is running into debt instead of earning great divi- dends. A survey was made in one of the northern counties of Michigan in 1914, and out of the seventy-six farms surveyed, the average income of the seventy-six farms was seventy dollars a year. The illustration given by Dr. Antrim, $80,000 income for 400 members of a church, is THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS SCHOOL 37 in point. Figured out it amounts to but $200 per member. One of the very best counties in Michigan, an old established county having the most produc- tive and high priced farms, was surveyed, and the average labor income shown by that survey was but $323 a year. Before we can make any progress in other things, certainly we must im- prove the economic situation of the men and women who are upon the land. — Hon. John C Ketcham. THE "TRENTON IDEA" TRIED OUT In the redirection of country life, there arises the question as to whether we are more con- cerned directly with the open country alone, or with the relation of the open country to the town as a unit. The reason I venture to suggest this question is because there lurks in the back of my mind a plan that has been successfully operated at Trenton, Missouri, known as the 'Trenton Idea." Some excellent results along this line have been accomplished out in Missouri and in many cases the open country has been closely joined with the representative town in the county. 38 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE Through the medium of our local Chamber of Commerce, we tried out some of the plans that we borrowed from the Trenton Idea with rather satisfactory "results. We selected a group of men from our Commercial Club and we held meet- ings throughout the county. Most of these meet- ings were held at some country church. At one point we had music and speeches in connection with an ice cream social. No attempt was made to sell any goods. The purpose of these meet- ings was simply to reach out to a larger measure of fellowship. The enterprise was quite success- ful. — George MacKay. Ill THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH Ill THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH Rev. Ozora S. Davis, D.D., President Chicago Theological Seminary This discussion is based on these four proposi- tions which I have attempted to work out with great care: Proposition One: The Christian religion is the inevitable and crowning factor in the life of the countryside. It must be institutional in the church ; therefore, the church is permanently necessary for the countryside. "Is not religion a pervasive spirit, which does not demand cooperative institutional expression, but should inform all human actions?" This question is raised everywhere by men who dis- parage the church. They are saying that Jesus 41 42 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE Christ never attempted to create an institution; that he came to project his spirit into all the ac- tivities of the individual and of society ; and that what we need today is not maintenance of the institutions that embody this religion, but the pervasion of all human action by this religion as creative energy. I think we shall find that this is the fundamen- tal philosophy of many opponents of institution- alized religion. But Christianity depends upon institutional expression, that is, it is not a bodi- less spirit. It is intended indeed to spiritualize all human activities; but it is never completed until it is embodied in the institutions that it has created. As Bishop Brent put the matter, "A body without a spirit is a corpse ; a spirit without a body is a ghost." What we are thinking of is the living church, a body of believers informed by the spirit of Christ. This second question is also often raised: "Is there not a tendency on the part of the church to become an end in itself, and so to obscure rather than to express religion ?" In some cases this is true. Whenever a church makes its own aggrandizement or numerical in- crease an end in itself, rather than construes its THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH 43 mission as being an organism through which the love of Jesus Christ expresses itself, that church is false to its mission. The true church is the organism embodying the very will of God expressed in the person of the still living Christ. Is there any fixed ecclesiastical form which may be regarded as authoritative for the modern countryside ? Or must the institution be adapted to meet the local situation? I believe that there is no definite or authorita- tive ecclesiastical form which is able without modification to meet the modern situation, be- cause I believe the church is the organism of Christ. Therefore, it must change and adjust itself, according to the outer workings of its inner vitality, to the environment which it has been created to serve. Proposition Two: The church of the countryside must perform its distinctive functions as the institution of reli- gion and not assume those of other institutions. It always must remain a church. I have no interest in the church of the coun- tryside that seems to become the replica of an- 44 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE other institution, for example, to discharge merely the functions of social service or be- nevolence. If the church is the organism of Christ, it must discharge those functions which are necessary to the complete expression of the religion of Christ. These functions are: wor- ship, religious education, fellowship, social serv- ice, and evangelistic extension. Therefore, I raise these following five ques- tions : How can the church meet the needs of the countryside in the hours, forms, and conduct of public worship? The church is designed to discharge the func- tion of public worship, in which the preaching of the Gospel is the central item. American life everywhere needs supremely the restoration of reverence. It needs to stand before the great and ever near God with a humbled heart. We need to dredge out the springs of adoration which are running dry in American life today. And the church in the countryside, maintaining public social worship, has a large part in dis- charging this function. God will be found where he has been found from the beginning, in the united, uplifted, re- THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH 45 vering hearts of a worshipful congregation and nowhere else. Therefore, we must adapt our forms, our hours of worship to the needs of the countryside and never cease to discharge the function of worship. How can the church meet the needs of the countryside in religious education? Is religious instruction ever to be given in the public school with the cooperation of the church? We must adapt the church of the countryside to discharge its great function of religious education in the community. There is no doubt about that. But to change the church simply into an addition to the school, a place in which to give lectures on art and science, is not what I mean. I mean the religious education in which friendship and neighborliness can unite all the countryside in the search for truth and the culture of the soul. We must so adjust our program that neighbors and friends shall find their highest privilege of friendship within the circle of their church rela- tionships. It used to be so in the apostolic age. Members of the first little Christian communities were brethren in common life. And we must restore that form of a church to the countryside, in which young people through their church rela- 46 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE tionships will find a larger and finer opportunity to be good friends and to help one another in the highest possible ideals, through the church and in the church. And, finally, in what way may the church of the countryside extend or reproduce itself? What is real rural evangelism? Not simply the bringing in of the evangelist, who shall hold a series of meetings under high emotional tension and leave unsolved the greater problem of making actual connection between the needs of the community and the religious ideals of the "converts." There are communities in the coun- try today that have been burned over by recur- rent, annual emotional revivals, until today in these towns real evangelistic extension is almost impossible. Proposition Three: The program of the church of the countryside must be defined by the vital needs of its environ- ment, not by tradition or by any "a priori." We develop out of the past. We inherit from the past certain traditions about the church, what it should be and do, whether it should have a THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH 47 certain order of ministry, whether it should pre- serve certain liturgic or ritualistic elements — and these are all precious. But the church must not allow tradition or a priori judgment to decide what shall be done by the church in every given situation. The church of the countryside is constituted from the coun- tryside itself, and that which touches and saves the life of the community is therefore to be estab- lished and maintained by the church. If the traditional becomes ineffective, we must be cour- ageous enough to reject it. The question arises: "How does the country- side call for the wider use of the church build- ing?" One of the most wasteful items in our church program of today is the non-use of church edi- fices during busy week days. To invest $250,000 in a great structure and have its gates of iron closed except for a little while during the conse- crated hours of Sunday and at times for the week day meetings, is sheer nonsense, from the standpoint of efficiency in this modern age. The church of the countryside is also amenable to that criticism and we must throw open its doors and use its buildings more. 48 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE What is necessary in the nature of a rural sur- vey? When we are determining our church program in the countryside by the needs of the country- side we must necessarily survey those needs be- fore we make any programs. And so this raises the question as to the right kind of rural survey. Next, how must the church of the countryside be equipped with both salaried and volunteer workers ? Proposition Four: The church of the countryside must have lead- ers thoroughly trained for their task by general culture and vocational study. In general they should be graduates of colleges and seminaries. They should regard their country ministry as a life work and not as a service ad interim, until they can be called to the city. We shall never solve the problem of the church of the countryside while we send our theological students out to serve a country parish, in the eager hope that the years will be few until the church board in charge in Chicago sends a com- mittee to hunt them up and promote them to a city church after this discipline of the spirit. I THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH 49 claim that the church of the countryside must receive the finest theological-seminary-trained men who will give themselves to it and not serve there for a little ad interim discipline. This raises a series of questions : Can men of the right quality be found for this service? Yes, they can when they see that the church of the countryside means business, that there is some vision there, and that conferences are studying the question and determining a large enough program for the best that is in them. With this kind of a program, we can go to the State universities and small colleges and seminaries and get men there to give their lives to the church of the countryside. Will the countryside provide adequate reli- gious opportunity and economic support for such trained leaders? Yes, it will. If the leaders are there and the vision is among the people, it can be done. DISCUSSION COMMUNITY-WIDE CHURCH A MODERN NEED There is a sentence in the Book of Revelation descriptive of "the city that is to be," in which the writer says "And I saw no temple therein." Until we reach that city, there will always be the necessity of the "temple." The Church, wherever we may be on the face of the earth, is today an actual requirement. It is true that the water of life is what we desire, but all of us have to make use of aqueducts and even of pipes, wherewith to secure that water. Every country pastor ought to endeavor to make his influence as comprehensive of all the needs of the community as possible. Many sug- gestions made to a country pastor tend to limit the development of his own initiative. That must never be. Wherever the country pastor is, he must be on the alert, constantly endeavoring to find better means whereby he can meet every problem in the community. He has a special opportunity along educational lines, for he can bring the young men to his own study, where they can discuss under his leadership everything S3 54 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE that pertains to the welfare of the neighborhood schools. His work should be comprehensive, too, in matters of public benefit. If any one of our churches is to accomplish its full ends, it must fit itself into all possible oppor- tunities for service, and the church building it- self must be used for as many purposes as possi- ble. We make the building sacred by the spirit which we put into it — whatever the uses. The country church demands the best men that the ministry can produce. The pastor who becomes acquainted with every individual and home, and who endeavors to adapt his ministry to every individual and home, will find his field as large as can be desired. It may seem small to the casual observer, but it is as wide as hu- manity, as high as heaven, and as lasting as eternity. — Dr. James G. K. McClure. A SOLUTION FOR OVERCHURCHING It is generally agreed that in certain parts of the rural field, there are too many churches, and some of our best young pastors are not inclined to give their lives to the rural field in its present condition. There are two ways, I believe, of getting rid THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS CHURCH 55 of surplus rural churches. One is to allow the unfit to go to the wall. Another and a better way would be for the leaders of the great de- nominations to get together, especially the leaders of those denominations that are particularly strong in the rural field, to work out a plan that will provide both for a reduction of the number of churches, where there are too many, and for satisfactory combinations where combinations are possible, with one pastor for each church, and that pastor in every case a resident pastor. — Dr. E. I. Antrim. IV THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY IV THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY Dr. R. E. Hieronymus Community Adviser, University of Illinois The countryside has been held up before us from the triple point of view of the Home, the School, and the Church. It remains for us to view it, not in its parts, but as a whole. The "community" is the oft repeated word and the dominant thought running through all the fore- going. This is because when we get down to "brass tacks" or to "bed rock" the community is so elemental and fundamental in our thought and in our action. It is simply another way of saying that the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts. This word community is one of the best of the many words we have taken out almost bodily 59 6o BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE from other languages. It is not a new word. It was much used in the Middle English and Old French, and reaches back beyond the Latin. The Sanskrit root from which it has come signifies "to make fast," "to set up," "to build." Fortu- nately in recent years we are coming to restore its ancient meaning. It is the "building" and "setting up" of these various communities that is to "make them fast," "tie" them permanently. It is this work which gives unity to our efforts; this is the tie that binds us together. May I venture upon what the Unabridged or the Standard or the Century Dictionary has not yet worked out — a definition of "community" in the sense in which we are coming to use it? In the first place it is not a mere geographical boundary or political division; nor is it just a job lot of people miscellaneously jumbled to- gether. Many localities are not communities at all. A "community" consists rather of a group or company of people living fairly close together in a more or less compact, contiguous territory, who are coming to act together in the chief con- cerns of life. They must be so related that they can come together frequently and easily at some central point. Unless they are gradually coming THE COUNTRYSIDE—ITS COMMUNITY 6i to act in harmony on the chief concerns of life, they have not yet grown into a community, are not "built up," are not yet ready to be of service. There are a number of "units" of action in a democracy — district, township, city, county, state, etc. But the community is the most vital of them all. It is the natural, human unit. The development of a wholesome life in the com- munity in which we live is with every one of us a paramount duty. The single thing upon which all interests may be united is making a better community in which to live. In the use of the word "community," we all think of villages, towns, and small cities, as well as the open country. The Federal Census classi- fies all cities under 2,500 as rural. With the definition of a community just given clearly in our minds, glance in your mind's eye at almost any part of the Central West. None of the divi- sions pictured coincide with the community. We shall continue to use for political and legal and official purposes, these time-honored divisions, but thought is shaped and action is aroused by communities rather than by any map lines. Here and there are open country communities. But for the most part, outside a few large cities, 62 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE the population, strictly speaking, is neither rural nor urban, but ''rurban." The community of most countrysides finds its center in some village or town or city. With the coming of hard roads and automobiles and movies and consolidated schools and community libraries and redirected churches, the relationship between country and town is becoming more evident every day. Neither is sufficient unto itself. Each needs the other. The "two" old, properly related, make a new "one," and that one is best characterized by this new word which must very soon be ad- mitted into the dictionary itself — "rurban." The conviction is growing that in a democracy each community must solve its own problems. This is no less true of the countryside than of the crowded city. Nothing really "happens" in a community until the people get busy in their own, behalf. Genuine improvement is not laid on from without, is not inflicted from afar. Real social betterment, on the contrary, is evolved from within. The condition of a community is determined by the people who live in it. It is the folks that make it. Suggestions may be given from without and help may be extended, but these are effective only when the community is THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 63 ready to be helped and cooperates fully with the forces beyond its borders. With this in mind, may I summarize briefly? The school will not come fully into its own until it becomes community-wide and community-sup- ported. The marked progress in the growth of schools in the last dozen years in the Central West has been mainly in this direction, under names and conditions varying in the different States — such as Union Districts, Centralized Schools, Township High Schools, and Consoli- dated Schools. The Community School pure and simple is clearly the tendency of the time. When the interests of the whole community are back of the school — commercial, social, civic, religious, as well as educational — it will become what we really want it to be. Such a school is necessary for the education of all the children of all the people. A single concrete example of the Community School will serve better than extended glittering generalities. A twenty- four-acre tract of land in the open country, several miles from any town or post office, was given on condition that three school districts having one-room schools would unite and build a suitable building. It is a beauti- 64 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE fill blue grass campus with fine old shade trees and a stream of water flowing through it. The school building is a modern, three-story ivy- covered brick building, costing about $14,000, heated by steam, well lighted, and supplied with an abundance of pure water. There are manual training and domestic science rooms, well- equipped chemical and physical laboratories, a library of 1,000 carefully selected books, and in addition to the ample recitation rooms, an audi- torium in which practically the whole community meets frequently. All of the grade teachers are graduates of some one of the State Normal Schools and have had a successful experience before going there. The principal is a graduate of the University of Illinois, and a leader in country life work and thought. The High School is a fully accredited school. Any child in that community may go through the eight grades taught by superior teachers, complete the High School, and be admitted into any good Normal School, College, or University in the State. In addition to this building, there are stables for twenty-five or thirty horses, a teachers' cottage, extensive play grounds, flower and vegetable gardens, and an agricultural experiment station. THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 65 Two years ago, fifty-seven boys and girls had graduated from the school since it was orga- nized ; thirty-four of these had gone for one or more years to some higher institution of learn- ing. The tuition receipts from outside the dis- trict amount to about $1,000 per year. Such, in brief, is the John Swaney Consolidated School near McNabb, in Putnam County, in Central Illinois. Rollo, in De Kalb County, where seven districts united, has a larger building, with still other community features giving it added strength. Harlem, near Rockford, has a similar school. Other states number schools like these by the dozen and the score. A Community Church is as logical as a Com- munity School. It is as necessary for the fullest religious life of the community as the school is for its intellectual development. For an institu- tion whose field is the world, anything less than a community-wide vision is unworthy of the Church. A year or more ago the obligation was laid upon me of directing the community side of a State-wide School Survey in Illinois. This Sur- vey has touched in one way or another several hundred communities. It covers such vital rural 66 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE community interests as: (i) The Library; (2) Press; (3) Moving Picture Theaters, etc.; (4) Lectures, Lyceums, Chautauquas, Festivals, etc. ; (5) Clubs, Societies, etc.; (6) Schools (other than public), Classes, etc.; (7) Health; (8) Recreation; (9) Religion; (10) Special occa- sions. The survey might with equal profit be extended in many communities to include other common interests, such as Good Roads, Beauti- fying, Water Supply, Sewage Disposal, Housing, Local Government, Industrial Conditions, Pre- vention of Crime, Charities and Corrections, So- cial Settlements, Welfare Agencies, etc. Know- ing fully one's own community is a prime re- quisite for those who wish to work constructively and to serve efficiently. Any such survey, however, is comparatively useless unless it leads to definite action. A study of conditions in any community, large or small, should be followed up by interesting the various forces in that community in the problems thus discovered. The single thing upon which all the really worth-while people and organizations in any given community can unite is making a bet- ter community in which to live. In Illinois, A Better Community (A. B. C.) THE COUNTRYSIDE-^ITS COMMUNITY 67 Movement is well under way. Every state-wide organization and association that holds an an- nual meeting, pays dues, maintains an office, has a policy, and is interested in improving condi- tions, is invited to appoint a representative on the General Committee of this A. B. C. Movement. This includes also state institutions and public agencies such as Normal Schools, the University, State Board of Health, Pure Food Commission, Commission on Charities and Corrections, etc. Between 100 and 200 such Associations have been formed, and nearly 100 of them have already appointed their representatives and as- sumed their responsibility in cooperation with the other agencies. Such a committee becomes a central clearing house and by the dissemination of needed information is serviceable to all co- operating communities. A state-wide campaign is planned. A com- munity score card is being worked out. The communities of the state are to be divided into five groups according to their size. It is pro- posed during the approaching state centennial year, 19 18, to take an inventory of stock, to add up, and to discover what the strong communities are, and in what their strength consists. Such a 68 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE movement we believe to be worthy of the united effort of the best men and women in all commu- nities. True service is helping to make a better community in which to live and thus to help life itself onward in its noblest aims. DISCUSSION A LACK OF COMMUNITY TEAM WORK There is a great lack of team work among all the various organizations which are operating in the country. Each different subject is trying to impress itself without any reference to any other idea. A rural Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation secretary in order to make his work per- manent, will have to cooperate with all of the other paid secretaries in the county. In one county I counted thirteen secretaries of different organizations, who knew each other but slightly and whose work was totally unrelated. There is a boundless opportunity for cooperation be- tween the four hundred county agricultural agents in the north and west and the large num- ber of Association workers. — Bert Ball. ASSOCIATION COOPERATION WITH OTHER COUNTY AGENCIES In Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where there were seven County Agents in the field as well as a local visiting nurse, and also a Farm Improvement Association, the heads of the dif- 71 72 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE ferent organizations met in conference for the purpose of avoiding duplications in the field, and the County Work was carried on successfully on the basis of team work because of these confer- ences. Also in Greene County, Iowa, the County Secretary and the Farm Improvement Agent consult frequently in their plans so as to avoid duplication. — C. H. Pipher. THE MASSACHUSETTS FEDERATION FOR RURAL WORKERS In Massachusetts there is an organization known as the Massachusetts Federation for Rural Workers. It is a get-together of some thirty state and sectional organizations, boards, and institutions, for the purpose of promoting the interest of agriculture and country life throughout the confines of the state, by secur- ing the cooperation and federation of the vari- ous national, state, county, and local organiza- tions and institutions which are working for rural progress in Massachusetts. It is not a militant body. It is merely a clearing house through which the various groups affiliated have for the past three years come to work together more closely through the exchange of plans, THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 7i projects, and purposes, and have thus been able to approach in a more or less uniform fashion some of the larger state- wide country life prob- lems. This would seem to me to be a most splendid idea and one well worthy of general adaptation. Already some most wholesome reactions have come through the efforts of this Federation. — Professor W. J. Campbell. FOR BETTER RURAL SCHOOLS It seems to me, after having lived in the coun- try many years, for twenty of which I taught country schools, that we are losing sight of the fundamentals, if we do not go down to the bot- tom, to the country schools, and correct the seri- ous blunder of sending over fifty per cent of our boys and girls out into the world to battle for a living before they finish the eighth grade, and ninety per cent before they finish the high school, half of whom after they do graduate, cannot pass an intelligent examination for a third grade teacher's certificate. Begin by educating those in a community to the necessity of efficiency in the schools of the country. Teach them to understand what "com- 74 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE munity" means, what "state" means, and what "nation" means, and the relationship of each to the other. It is the inefficiency of those who undertake this work that causes failure and no one is more to blame for the failure of schools than the State Superintendents, the State Nor- mal Schools, and the Universities, impractical and inefficient guides as far as the country schools are concerned. — J. Weller Long. IMPROVED HIGHWAYS NECESSARY The purpose of a survey is to secure accurate information by the process of sifting. It will appear that some things are of prime importance and some things of secondary importance. I do not know conditions outside of the State of Illinois, but with conditions in this state I am rather familiar, and as far as Illinois is con- cerned, the value of many of the plans that have been advanced are conditioned by transporta- tion. During the months of January, February, March, and part of April, the highways in this state are in a very bad condition, in some in- stances the roads are impassable. This, to my mind, raises the question of an improved system THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 75 of highways as one of the very first things to be taken into consideration. — George MacKay. COOPERATION IN ROCK COUNTY, WISCONSIN In Rock County, Wisconsin, the following or- ganizations have their records kept in, and their headquarters at, the office of the County Young Men's Christian Association Committee: Rock County Farm Improvement Association, Rock County Sunday School Association, and Rock County Community Building Committee, which is divided into a Grain Contest Committee, a Rural Recreation Committee, and a School Con- solidation Committee. As you will judge by their names, each organization has a special pro- gram to carry out ; but because they all work out of a central office, there is no overlapping of their work. The Farm Improvement Association is con- cerned most largely with the economic condi- tions of the country, and at present is conducting a Farm Management Campaign through which eighty-seven farmers have been induced to keep accurate records of their farm business, in order that the elements entering into making Rock County farms profitable may be known. 76 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE The Sunday School Association exists for the purpose of helping the Sunday schools of the county to do more efficient and effective work. There are forty-four Sunday schools in the county, and at present there are forty- four records in this central office showing exactly the work done by each of these forty-four schools. From these records this Association has deter- mined the needs of the respective schools and has helped to organize adult and teen age classes to meet these needs. The Community Building Committee, through its sub-committee, through Farmer Clubs, and through Association groups, has been very help- ful to the country. This past summer, this com- mittee arranged a Rock County picnic day for the children interested in agricultural contests and for their parents. There were 350 on the picnic trip taken in autos secured by the Com- mittee to a consolidated school in northern Illinois, where the Committee on School Con- solidation had arranged a program. I might say that this visual argument for a consolidated school is helping very materially in interesting our people in such schools. After the program on schools the Recreation Committee conducted THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 77 games that might be carried back and used in the several schools of the county. The County Young Men's Christian Associa- tion Secretary is either Chairman or Secretary of each of the aforementioned committees, and besides this has worked with the County Live- stock Breeders' Association in promoting calf- feeding and pig-raising contests. The good roads question has been raised in a preceding statement and the impression has been left that no winter meetings could be held in the country because of bad roads. I cannot believe this is true, because in our county practically all of our group meetings are held in the winter and some of the members who attend these meetings come for a distance of five miles. Nei- ther do I believe conditions can be as bad as pictured, at least in northern Illinois, for in the case of the consolidated school which our peo- ple visited in that section, we found that roads had been so improved that many of the families were taking their children to the school in autos the year around. However, because the roads are passable has not been a reason for our being satisfied. In fact, we have had a Road Improve- ment Committee, which has enlisted during the 78 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE past summer sixty boys, each of whom cared for a mile of road and through his work on this road is helping to develop a new and permanent interest in good roads. The reason that the County Young Men's Christian Association has been able to work with so many organizations is because it is interested unselfishly in the highest and best development of the economic, social, and educational sides of country life. It has for itself no political ax to grind, no money to make, but a vision of what a country community may be when all forces are united in building up Christ's Kingdom there. — L. A. Markham. MINISTERIAL COOPERATION It has been said that ministers will not co- operate. I am disappointed to hear that, for I do not believe that other counties differ largely from Rock County, Wisconsin. There are about forty-five ministers in Rock County. Recently twenty-five of these men met at the Young Men's Christian Association in the county seat, which has a City Association building, and from ten o'clock in the morning until three in the afternoon discussed the boy problem of their THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 79 communities. Since then committees have been formed in the respective communities of the county, v^ith which these ministers are working to help solve these problems. — Secretary L. A. Markham. BIGGEST PROBLEM IS "FOLKS" It seems to me that the biggest problem in the world is folks ; that the good roads question, and every other, has to have back of it people who believe in good roads and are willing to work for them. Down in the hearts of people there must be true unselfishness before better roads or improvements in business methods are possi- ble. Such selflessness of motive is at the begin- ning of all that is good and beautiful. It is un- selfish cooperation that makes community build- ing possible. In other words, it is through the inner lives of men and women that the Kingdom of God comes. So the growth of the world is limited by the extent to which the Spirit of the living Christ dwells in the lives of men. The Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association face the task of helping to generate this great dyna- 8o BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE mic. Their commission is to work for the kind of Christian character among country folks that is the foundation of all else. There is much yet to be done in the country. We need some great unifying force that will unselfishly serve to co- ordinate and release all the agencies at work. The Associations stand in a peculiarly strategic place for being such a unifying force. Such is the task they are facing and the message they are trying to bring. Not always have they done these things as well as they have longed to, but they hope to be able to give this great service more and more fully and unselfishly and ade- quately. — Miss Jessie Field. A NOTE OF HOPE My observation, unlike that of many, is that there is more honesty and more uprightness to- day in business to the square inch than there ever was before in the history of the nation. I look with great hope and cheer on this united movement for the uplifting of our country, which shall reflect credit upon the efficiency of the ministry, of our Sunday school workers, of these Association secretaries, and of the chairmen of THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 8i the different organizations throughout the coun- try. God forbid that any of us should lose interest in that fundamental citizenship which has given so many good men to every calling, from the humblest up to the Presidency of the United States. — Dr. J. P. Landis. THE LUNCHEON THE LUNCHEON Editor's Note: At this juncture the conference adjourned to the spacious banquet room of the Hotel La Salle, where the conference delegates who had come from afar were sup- plemented by a splendid contingent of Chicago business men. There was evident a fine spirit of getting ac- quainted as the delegates formed themselves into small "round table" informal luncheon groups. After a sea- son of refreshment, the conference discussions were continued then and there in perhaps a lighter vein and more freely than in the academic atmosphere of the formal morning session. Presiding: John E. Wilder Chairman of Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations It is said that if he had a lever long enough, with a proper fulcrum, one man could move the world. I think we are demonstrating in this Association work a tremendous leverage, mov- ing the vital things of this world, and to those of us who have been interested through the years in Illinois, there is no branch of the work 85 86 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE which has been more appealing than the rural work. We welcome you, therefore, to Chicago, be- cause we feel that in your deliberations you are going to devise that leverage which will take up the most practical, most helpful, most influential things, and will thus help to work out the tre- mendous country problem. Hon. B. F. Harris Ex-Chairman Agricultural Commission, American Bankers' Association A delegate from Illinois has emphasized the necessity of good roads from the social side, and another from Michigan has emphasized the ne- cessity of a better earning capacity, because a better earning capacity is the basis of a better social condition; both these features are on the human side. It has been my effort to try to arouse and to inspire a militant, aggressive citizenship on the part of all of our citizens, because if we have a real all-American citizenship that is as aggres- sive and progressive as American citizenship ought to be, it will solve all of our problems. THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 87 I have just one further thought to which I would give expression. It is a thought that actuates me in much of my work, namely, that whatsoever we do in life, we are doing it for ourselves. One of the foolish, old French kings had just completed a new prison. A very clever woman was making some comment on the prison and he asked her just what she thought of it. She said, "Sire, if I were you, I would build no dark cells, for you and your children may inhabit them." That is one of the things that we are asking bankers to look out for in their respective com- munities; to see that we have fewer of these dark cells, not alone in the country, but through- out the nation. This is what our militant citi- zenship would yield. I have been greatly interested in seeing the Young Men's Christian Association take up this splendid country life work. There is very much to be done and most of it has to do with the young folks — the boys and girls on the farm — with boys' and girls' clubs, with community clubs and community centers, and with making the country church a real and living seven-days- 88 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE a-week proposition. Service is the watchword today and if real service is not rendered, no headway is made. Many country schools are failing to do their work just as much as are the country churches. The country leader who can talk in terms of the farm and soil can straighten out all these matters. It is one of the greatest and most fruitful works to be undertaken. It seems to me, in these very serious times, the most serious times in the history of this gener- ation or of any generation in this country, that we must lay the greatest stress upon the duties of citizenship ; and all of us should ask ourselves what this country, what our respective communi- ties would be, if all of its citizens were the type of citizen that we are. I think if we answer that question honestly, in many cases we will find that we have not qualified as constructive citizens. And so always in the work that I have tried to do with the bankers, I have borne down on this point and I feel that we have been making good headway along this line. We are getting the bankers interested in agriculture, because most of the bankers in this country are located at the cross roads and in agricultural sections. THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 89 We have enlisted them earnestly in the work for a better agriculture, and want them as well and favorably known out in front of their counters as they are behind them. It seems to me that more men are thinking less of material things nowadays and are realizing more than ever that we need something besides the dollar to save us from failure. In the days that are to come it will matter little whether we amass a big fortune or reach some conspicuous position in life. But it will make a very lasting and vital difference how much each of us stands for an honest life, for all the things that go to make life worth while, and for the ideal that the man or woman who does the best he or she can in these directions is successful, even though he or she die without a dollar. C. L. RowE State Secretary for County Work in Michigan I will not dwell on the familiar fact that Michigan has a splendid body of people, who are responsive to the best methods and plans of the different organizations dealing with the rural 90 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE field and the part each should play in bringing in a better rural life. The reason this County Association has had marked success in our state is due to the method of organization, which combines the resources of a county in men and funds under the direc- tion of a committee of business men selected from the county. This makes possible the em- ployment of a trained executive to carry out the work for the entire field, and gives to the moral forces of a county what good roads give to the economic forces, a means of communication whereby we can carry to any community in that field the best things along the line of religious, social, educational, and recreational activities. This plan also makes available to any com- munity the expert knowledge and help of or- ganizations dealing with the various phases of community life. Another vital factor in the success of this work is the splendid men and women who are in every community and are anxious to render service on the volunteer basis for the young peo- ple. Our county organization gives us the opportunity to bring to those people not only the sixty years' experience of the Young Men's THE COUNTRYSIDE^ITS COMMUNITY 91 Christian Associations in specialized effort for men and boys, but also the best experience of other organizations along this line. In this way unwise attempts at the work are avoided, while the best methods gathered from the ends of the earth are available for the leader. Another element of strength is the natural grouping of the boys of these communities, which gives us the opportunity, through the leader, of supplementing the work of the home, school, and church. The fundamental principles of life are translated into character as these boys work and play together in their groups. This plan is operating ,in nineteen of Michi- gan's counties at the present time, supervised by 540 business men serving in the capacity of county committeemen with twenty-two executive and supervising secretaries, enrolling 4,750 boys and young men in service-rendering activities. The Department of Agriculture is conducting agri- cultural project work with hundreds of boys and girls in our groups. The success of the County Young Men's Chris- tian Association in these organized fields is sub- jecting the State Committee to constant pressure for the work in unorganized counties. 92 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE Howard Hubbell State Secretary for County Work in Wisconsin No intelligent group of people could discuss rural problems at length without recognizing that running through all the plans presented, there is needed, in order to make these effective, a vital element. Whether we consider the coun- try school, the country home, the country church, or the country community, there must be that unselfish human element which seeks to render service, if these institutions would make prog- ress in meeting the conditions that must be en- countered and overcome. That element is defi- nite and distinct volunteer leadership. The school may have its teachers, but there must be a response and a responsibility on the part of older pupils and of parents in the leader- ship of certain tasks in the life of the school; the church has its paid ministers, but the minis- try of unpaid service on the part of individuals will alone make the church successful; the home has its parents to direct it, but there must be those other members of the family who bear re- sponsibility. The community has its officials and laws, but of what use are these, if there are no THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 93 volunteers in the society of the community who will give leadership to certain needed reforms and movements ? The County Work of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, in seeking to make its contribu- tion to country life as a whole, sets for itself the objective of helping to discover and train these volunteer leaders. Recognizing that these other institutions must have first place in any com- munity, the Association would seek only to find these natural leaders and set them at work, each in his own place of service. It is in the person- ality of those individual boys and young men, who make up the community in which their home is, that leadership is found. Every such individual has an influence in his own little circle or group. The County Secretary of the Association finds this natural group, puts in charge thereof the natural leader, arranges for their weekly meetings and their program, and sets for each such group a specific task within the community, the doing of which task will spell progress. The standard program of the Asso- ciation is at least four-fold in its plan. It recog- nizes the supplementary educational needs, and provides debates and practical talks; it believes 94 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE in the spiritual needs and has Bible study at every meeting; it takes part in the physical life and has plenty of athletics ; it also recognizes the social desires, and puts all these four elements into the word ''program." These groups hold meetings around the dining room table of the country home, in the country school house, or in the country church, the town hall, the doctor's office, or in the bank directors' rooms. Wher- ever they meet, the important thing is creating in this group the spirit of the "other fellow first." A man, a leader with a direct responsi- bility to this group, with the training the Secre- tary gives him, develops volunteer leadership in all members of the group, so that they learn the lessons of responsibility for the living of the kind of life in the community that ought to be lived, for making the community what it ought to be, for creating the moral atmosphere among high school pupils that ought to exist, for giving the country church the help it ought to have, and for making the village the kind of a place it ought to be. In nine Wisconsin counties we have county secretaries located. They are working in seventy communities, with ninety local groups, each THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 95 group with its leader, but all members develop- ing leadership, among a membership of fifteen hundred. However, not in the group life alone does the County Work find its field. There are county-wide and community events, boys* camps, conferences, athletic meets, and agricultural contests. Through this last form of activity, the economic element is stressed, and it is well not to forget the place of the economic in country life, for the very elements of the educational, social, and religious life conditions find a basis in the economic conditions of the country. In two Wisconsin counties contests in dragging the dirt roads are being held with nearly one hun- dred boys engaged. Small prizes are offered, and county secretaries are giving supervision. The roads will be bettered, no doubt, but more important is the making of better character in the boys who drag them, because they have had a part to play in that country community, and are learning the lesson of leadership and co- operation. As regards the school problem, or the country church problem, or the country life problem, the thing we need to do is to realize the task that must be done, find the field in which to 96 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE work, organize ils elements, find those natural leaders who belong to the soil and, with a new angle of approach to some of the problems, make of each leader the factor he ought to be in creat- ing the new country civilization. And so this element of leadership amongst the boys of these country towns must be set at work, not in any general or overhead way, but in the simple every day manner they can understand in connection with school, home, and community tasks to which they are accustomed, and which develop in them that wonderful element of responsibility or leadership. This statement about the County Work of the Young Men's Christian Associations would not be complete if I did not include this last point, that in the doing of this work in each county there must stand back of each county secretary a group of Christian business men, to see that the county movement is financed and to employ a secretary for each field. For the Wisconsin state movement, we have a group of twelve men who raise the money to extend the work from county to county. Without the aid of these business and agricultural leaders, the plan would not be in operation. Without these men THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 97 and the secretaries employed in the fields, multi- plying their lives into the lives of other men and boys, this work would not be done, this leader- ship would not be developed. T. B. Lanham State Secretary for County Work in Ohio Almost every magazine one picks up, and almost every one you meet is discussing rural life. I just wonder after all how many of us really know the solution of the problem. I wel- come all the help we can get from our friends in the cities, and I grant that they can help us tremendously, but some of the city folks' ideas of country life remind me of the following which I ran across some time ago: "I would flee from the city's rule and law — from its fashions and forms cut loose — and go where the strawberry grows on its straw and the gooseberry grows on its goose ; where the catnip tree is climbed by the cat as it clutches for its prey — the guileless and unsuspecting rat on the rattan bush at play; I will catch with ease the saffron cow and the cowlets in their glee, as they leap in joy from bough to bough on the top of the cow-slip tree; and list while the partridge 98 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE drums his drum and the woodchuck chucks his wood, and the dog devours the dog wood plum in the primitive solitude. O let me drink from the moss-grown pump, that was hewn from the pumpkin tree, eat mush and milk from the rural stump from folly and fashion free — new gath- ered mush from the mushroom vine, and milk from the milk weed sweet — with pine apples from the pine. And then to the whitewashed dairy I'll turn, where the maid there hastening hies, her ruddy and golden-red butter to churn from the milk of her butterflies; and I'll rise at morn with the earliest bird, to the fragrant farmyard pass, and watch while the farmer turns his herd of grasshoppers out to grass." To establish County Work — after the State County Work Secretary is secured, he should get a knowledge of his field, and select a county in which to demonstrate the work. This should be done as rapidly as a county secretary can be secured and committeemen pledged to stand by him. There are three distinct things to be under- taken in a county. First: To develop the group work in the dif- ferent centers of that county, organizing an THE COUNTRYSIDE^ITS COMMUNITY 99 Association, just as soon as leadership is found. This Association undertakes the four-fold work — social, educational, physical, and ^religious. Second: To promote county-wide activities throughout the county, such as county-wide athletic meets, agricultural contests, boys' con- ferences, and educational trips. Third : To cooperate with the agencies already existing in that county such as home, school, church, Sunday school, agricultural agencies, Grange, farmers' institutes, etc. In fact, the county secretary can become the man in that county who will be the best informed on the county's interests. The pastor looks at it from his church standpoint; the agricultural agencies look at the matter from their standpoint; the school man from his viewpoint, but the County Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation is studying it from all viewpoints, so that his office can become the clearing house for every agency in the county. L. Wilbur Messer General Secretary, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association I would call to mind the self-evident fact that 100 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE men who make good in the city, as a rule, have been born in the country and that the impact of the best influences of rural life has been the most important factor in their success in city life. This has been my own experience. If to any degree I have been useful for the past twenty-eight years in Chicago, it is due to the fact that my early life was spent in a small New England country town, where I received the benefit of the constructive forces of such a com- munity. I appreciate the significance, therefore, of all that this movement represents in the betterment of rural life and realize the necessity of the splendid activities which are being introduced and developed for the betterment of young men and boys. I am grateful that through this move- ment we are able to serve the boy from the town or country as he goes to college or to the larger city where he may enter commercial or indus- trial life, by introducing him to the companion- ship of earnest Christian men, and to the fellow- ship of organizations which will assist him in his highest development for economic, social, and civic life. It is my judgment that the city Young Men's THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY loi Christian Associations increasingly realize their responsibility to the country boy, and that their plans and methods are now adjusted to serve such boys as they enter upon their city experi- ences. The corresponding members in small towns and villages, who send the names of such young men to the city Associations, make possi- ble an immediate welcome to these strangers in a strange city. The Young Men's Christian Association Hotel recently opened in Chicago, with its 1,823 single rooms, rented at as low charges as thirty, forty, and fifty cents a night, is one of the latest forces for safeguarding the life of the country boy. The business men of Chicago have realized that such a hotel, with attractive lobbies and daily enter- tainments, lectures and religious services, all in the midst of a Christian environment, where no membership fee is charged, is a necessary clear- ing house for transient young men. During the first four months in the operation of the hotel more than 35,000 men and boys were registered as guests. Association leaders in Illinois, realizing the growing strength and effi- ciency of the city and college Associations and the increasingly effective service for the indus- 102 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE trial classes, now feel their obligation to give special attention to the development of Associa- tion service in the rural districts of our state. We hope that business men will be given a new vision and that funds will be forthcoming, whereby an adequate number of men may be employed to demonstrate this County Work with the same efficiency which has characterized the other departments of the Association in the state of Illinois. There is no department of Association work which appeals to me more strongly than the County Work Department. I know what it meant to me at a critical time in my life to have a young man put his life alongside of my own and lead me into a definite Christian experience. In some way or other we must be able to do this kind of service for the young men of the coun- try. I believe that this County Work Depart- ment of the Young Men's Christian Association is destined to become the most significant phase of Association service yet introduced by our world-wide Brotherhood. THE EVENING BANQUET THE EVENING BANQUET Editor's Note: Intent on making a full day of it, and with no signs of any decline in the interest or spirit of the conference, the delegates met at the more formal dinner in the evening, for what may well be considered the climax of the conference. The more scientific and academic dis- cussions gave way to messages that were dynamic and challenging. It was the period when personality stood out against a background of strong group consciousness and singleness of purpose. Presiding: Albert J. Nason Member of County Work Department Sub-Committee, International Committee of Youngj Men's Christian Associations This is the first conference of this character that has been held in the West, although several have been held under the auspices of the County Work Department of the International Commit- tee in New York. I am sure that if we could remain about two days longer and discuss and digest the subjects presented, it would be well worth while. 105 io6 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE K. A. Shumaker Secretary Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations I am especially interested in the contribution which the Young Men's Christian Association through its County Work Department is to make to country life. A beginning has been made, in many of the states, in the matter of surveys of the field and the shaping of the work of the or- ganization to meet the specific needs of the coun- try young men and boys. A special type of leadership has been found and County Young Men's Christian Association work in a consider- able number of states is an established fact. While Illinois has led in much of the pioneer work of the Association, we find ourselves at the present time in the somewhat embarrassed posi- tion of trailing the procession. Through the ac- tion of our State Committee and through the sympathetic attitude of the Associations of our state, this will not long be the case. We antici- pate putting a state rural worker on the force of our State Committee and a year hence we ex- pect to be in position to report some unusual progress. THE COUNTRYSIDE^ITS COMMUNITY 107 Rev. Charles Melvin McConnell Lakeville and Newkirk Circuit, Northern Ohio Con- ference, Methodist Episcopal Church A body of responsible men and women, as- sembled in conference to plan for a balanced rural life progress, can do much toward the solu- tion of rural life problems. I am not one who would minimize the splendid part that such gatherings are to play in the rural life program, nor, on the other hand, am I forgetful of the fact that the final trench that is to be taken is back home. We may sit in conference and study and outline a plan that will touch every phase of rural life. But in the mud and dust and heat and cold, in every rural community and village, we must meet the final test and work the plan if we are to be sure of its value. In the last analysis we must have men and women who will plan wisely with the facts well in mind, and men and women who will under- take to put these plans into operation. Unless we have wise planning, the workers in the field will fail in the largest results, and without work- ers in the field the wisest planning will be of no avail. io8 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE May I indicate briefly what we are trying to accomplish in our rural parish? For our com- munity we desire the best. We want thorough- bred stock and productive farms. Good roads and fair markets for our produce are necessary. We must have schools that are equal to the task of educating our youth and preparing them for life either in city or country. It is our aim to provide a wholesome and uplifting type of recre- ation and social life for both young and old. In all our activities we are not unmindful of the fact that the community has a soul. If we lose sight of this fact, we will surely fail even in our lesser aims. The church faces the supreme chal- lenge and mighty task of Christianizing both the individual and the community. In all the ex- acting demands made upon her, the rural church must find her place in rural life and set herself to her task. We are trying to build up and strengthen the church. If new methods are nec- essary, then we shall use them. In this effort to strengthen the church we have in mind the needs of the community and are seeking to save and to serve the community through the church. One phase of the work we select to use as an illustration. In our community we are trying THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 109 to provide wholesome recreation and social life for young and old alike. We believe that it is not enough to condemn the questionable and unwholesome forms of social life and recreation. We must substitute the good for the evil. Our church is open to young and old as a social cen- ter. Groups of young men and women meet regularly in the social rooms of the church for the enriching of their social and recreational life. Often we go outside the church and rent rooms for this purpose. Groups of men and boys meet in a room fitted up over a store and spend one evening a week in games, and in dis- cussion of community problems, or in some other wholesome manner. From time to time the community comes together and enjoys the day or evening thoroughly, and families return home feeling that it is good to live in this com- munity. The solution of the problem of rural life will come through the efforts of Christian people. After Christian leaders in every phase of rural activity have wisely planned. Christian men and women must work out the plan in the quiet coun- trysides and villages which comprise rural America. no BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE Albert E. Roberts Senior Secretary, County Work Department, Interna- tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations It has been widely emphasized that the success of any organization or institution in country life depends first, upon unselfish leadership, and second, on volunteer service. There are apparently no organizations better calculated to meet the needs of the country along the line of social and spiritual advancement than the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association. They have access to the towns and rural communities and the projects which they promote have a direct relation to better schools, better churches, and better homes. No appeal is made to the members of these organizations to join simply for what they can get out of them, but rather on the basis of what they can put into them in the way of unselfish service. There are no privi- leges except the privilege of hard work, and it is a joy to note the splendid response which edu- cated young men and women are giving to ap- peals for this sort of membership. THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY in The country will never come to its own until a fair number of educated young men and women recognize that there is not only a re- sponsibility and opportunity to serve in the coun- try districts, but that there is a compensating joy in such service comparable to that which any service in the city or the foreign field offers. Some have seen the vision of the possibility of service in the country church and are pouring their lives into the rebuilding of rural communi- ties with magnificent results. Such leadership becomes contagious and the hope of changing country conditions lies in enlisting, as rapidly as possible, men and women who not only see the vision of service, but who are willing to pay the price. Recently at a dinner in Michigan, the toast- master stated that he was a product of a quiet but very effective work which had been estab- lished by the Young Men's Christian Association in his county ten years before. The chairman of the County Committee was present that night, with five other prominent men. All gave testi- mony to the fact that the beginning of their vision of service was the County Work of the Young Men's Christian Association. 112 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE These Associations do not exist for them- selves, but rather that they may supplement and make effective the permanent organizations of the community. They furnish a common plat- form upon which the different elements of the community may unite for community enter- prises. They make possible the working to- gether of religious and educational forces which otherwise would be hopelessly divided. While these Associations are quietly working along lines in which the entire community may participate, the troublesome question of the get- ting together of homes, churches, and other in- stitutions solves itself. Their largest service, therefore, is the service of "suggestion. As a direct result of quiet work, churches have fed- erated in some communities where such a federation meant the elimination of superfluous organizations. As a result, the united efforts of the Christian people of the community have been brought to bear upon social and moral problems. Such service cannot fail to be of in- estimable value to any community. These organizations should be widely ex- tended, also, because of the pressing need for world leadership which is being brought about THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 113 as a result of the European War. One is re- minded in Canada of the price that all the war- ring nations are paying in the sacrifice of the very flower of their manhood. A recent visit to Canada brought me face to face with experi- ences difficult to describe. These countries have caught a spirit of sacrifice in service unknown in our own country. Surely we must have some part in the Providence of God in this most aw- ful tragedy through which the world is now passing, and it would seem that boys and girls of America will soon be called to places of leadership, the like of which their fathers and mothers have not faced. No field is so profitable in potentiality for this sort of leadership, involv- ing strength of will and Christian character, as is that of the country communities. But the institutions in the country are weak, leaders of the home, church, and school have been ruth- lessly drawn to the building up of big cities, until the time has come when in order to save the city, the nation, and the world, as well as the country community itself, life and energy must be poured back into the country. There remains, therefore, a great opportunity for the Young Men's Christian Association and 114 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE the Young Women's Christian Association, as allies of the church and home and school, to see to it that there is poured back into the reservoir of power consecrated young life, that shall insist that, along with the splendid economic improve- ments which are making conditions so much bet- ter in the country, there shall come a corre- sponding spiritual and social regeneration, and that young people shall see in the country a mine of magnificent leadership resources which, if properly worked, will produce the kind of men and women who shall make country life worth while and who shall be able to measure up to the world's call for a fellowship of reconcilia- tion and the reestablishment of peace on earth and good will to men. D. Hunter McAlpin, M.D. Chairman County Work Department Sub-Committee, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations It has been a great privilege to attend the Chi- cago Conference and to listen to the topics that have been discussed. I have been particularly impressed with the part which our sister organi- THE COUNTRYSIDE— ITS COMMUNITY 115 zation, the Young Women's Christian Associa- tion, is playing in country life and the fine enthu- siasm and practical effort which the womanhood of the land is demonstrating all along the line. It is significant that we can work together for the accomplishment of a great purpose. The univer- sal interest in the Conference, the lively discus- sions on country life in the community, the reso- lutions presented and adopted, emphasizing service as the foundation on which any organi- zation can build, certainly guarantee the success of the work in a community. It is a great pleasure to come out of one's every-day business life and to meet the men and women of this great country-life movement. One feels a bit selfish staying at home and grop- ing around in a small circle, after catching the spirit of the folks out on the broad acres and bountiful farms of our West. I want to con- gratulate you on this conference. Here the best men and women of the country-life movement have met not only for a better understanding of what lies in the background of the mind, but to catch the spirit of pioneer souls and of heart power. As we go out to the wide fields of serv- ice and meet the youth, particularly, there is no ii6 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE telling what the vast possibilities will be. We all can sow and as we sow so will the harvest of truth and spirit be. I look for a great genera- tion in the future, born of new ideals for our countryside and resulting from these new de- partures of interstate efforts among all of you. APPENDICES APPENDICES APPENDIX I Editor's Note: A Findings Committee, appointed at the morning session of the conference, presented the following report, which was unanimously adopted. REPORT OF FINDINGS COMMITTEE Whereas, this Conference is concerned with the principles and facts having to do with the balanced rural life; Therefore, be it Resolved: That the goal of rural life is a Christian community in which individuals and institutions accept and practice the principles of each for all and all 'for each; Be it further Resolved: That the goal of rural life can be achieved only by workers and agencies who are inspired with the ideal of Christian service and sacri- fice; Be it further Resolved: That this ideal can be con- summated only under the leadership of men and women, volunteer or paid, who dedicate their lives through the various agencies and institutions to the country as a field of life investment; Be it further Resolved: That the above program can be realized in the community only through a sympa- 119 120 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE thetic and mutual cooperation of all the agencies func- tioning in the rural field; Be it further Resolved: That this conference, recog- nizing the interdependence of country and city, desires to emphasize the need of a more sympathetic under- standing and cooperation between the two in the solv- ing of social and religious, as well as economic prob- lems; Be it further Resolved : That, recognizing the value of this conference, we recommend a continuance of such gatherings from year to year. J. M. Artman, C. M. McConnell, E. I. Antrim, C. L. Rowe, H. R. Earle. APPENDIX II CONTRIBUTIONS IN ABSENTIA A Letter "I am pastor here of one of the two Federated Churches in . We had three English-speaking churches here, but this place is not large enough to support three English and two German churches — a town of 500 people. "The M. E., Congregational, and Baptist congrega- tions united and formed the Federated Church and called a United Presbyterian minister. As the Fed- erated representative I would like to have gone to the coming convention very much. However, I am in per- fect sympathy with the meeting and will say this con- cerning the subjects assigned. "They are of vital importance. Oh, that people could see the need of spiritual life in all those four depart- ments! Many came here expecting to obtain large and quick returns from their money investments. Many were bitten by speculators. But as they could not sell for anything like what they gave, they had to stay. As their money gave out, they could not dress as well as formerly, etc., consequently they began staying at home, thus neglecting church, and they have become hardened against mankind. Neglecting the means of grace, away from school privileges, etc., the home life lost spirit- 121 122 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE uality and refinement; consequently the community life did not tell for righteousness. "It is a very difficult task to reach such people today with the Gospel. It takes much labor, patience, prayer, and perseverance. "The financial situation today is very much improved here compared to what it was ten years ago. We have a splendid irrigation system, people are making money, and the country is improving. But spiritually the im- provement is very slow! We may truly say, There is no excellence without great labor/ Very respectfully, A Country Pastor." A Telegram "Extend to conference deepest regret because my work will not permit me to attend. It is my conviction that the turning point in country life affairs will come during the life time of the present generation of school children. A proper distribution of function for all rural institutions is a necessary step for the immediate future. No one on the firing line can doubt the impor- tance of backing the entire program with the highest type of Christian motive ; without that it will be sound- ing brass and will all have to be done over. May your conference be constructive in its tone. (Signed) E. C. Lindemann State Club Leader for Michigan." APPENDIX III ECHOES AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE CON- FERENCE My impressions of the recent Country Life Confer- ence were about as follows: First, that the preparatory work in guaranteeing a good attendance must have been rather thoroughly done. Second, that the scattering and inconclusive nature of the papers and remarks was probably necessary in an initial attempt, and also in order to cover the wide range of interest represented in so diverse a gathering. Third, that the total effect of the conference would be to correct the error that any special worker might cherish that the solution of the country problem lay wholly in his own field and that he had the exclusive key to the problem. Fourth, that it paved the way for a more strictly limited and tl^erefore more specialized treatment of certain phases of the problem, which might be taken up in subsequent conferences. Fifth, that the conference was free from cant and from the tendency to think patronizingly of the coun- try. Dr. Allen Hoben, Department of Practical Theology, The University of Chicago. 123 124 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE "I was particularly impressed with the ability and practical ideas, as well as the zeal, of the many county and district representatives of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association Rural Work. The things already accomplished and the program mapped out, it seems to me, are the biggest things, with the widest scope and possibilities of service of any of your undertakings." B. F. Harris, Representing American Bankers' Association, Urbana, Illinois. "The conference demonstrated that rural communi- ties may develop to the maximum an educational, eco- nomic, and Christian service program if fostered by the Christian Church and unified by unpretentious effi- cient Association leadership, operated wherever needed. This program will intensify the morals, the democracy, and the financial security of the whole nation." H. D. Dickson, General Secretary, Young Men's Christian Association, Dayton, Ohio. "The Chicago Rural Life Conference was of great value to me as a country pastor. I returned to my work with broadened vision, new inspiration, and deeper appreciation of the efforts of the leaders in the rural life movement. Such conferences are of supreme value to the work of rural uplift." Rev. C. M. McConnell, Lakeville, Ohio. APPENDIX 125 "The Chicago Conference on balanced country life progress was in program true to its title. Fundamental agencies in action for rural progress were proportion- ally emphasized. Individual and institutional independ- ence were analytically revealed. Consciousness of the essential solidarity in rural community life was clari- fied." Professor Ernest Burnham, Western State Normal School, Kalamazoo, Michigan. "The conference was right in placing a big emphasis upon the tremendous need for rural church leaders. There is no work more important to the welfare of the nation and the world than that of the pastor in the rural community. The opportunity is so large that it may well command every energy of the mind and heart. It provides a sphere for the exertion of every influence — moral, educational, social, economic, religious — of which the most refined and most intellectual and most spiritually-minded man is capable." Rev. J. G. K. McClure, D.D„ President McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago. "The Chicago Rural Life Conference was the most helpful thing that could possibly come to the Illinois County Work at this time. The awakening of public interest has been the main difficulty that we have en- countered in the past. The conference crystallized the need of an increased effort on the part of the Illinois 126 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE Young Men's Christian Associations to serve the coun- try communities." J. E. Wilder, Chairman, Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Chicago. "It will be a fine thing for the metropolitan Asso- ciations to have these rural organizations throughout the country so that such boys as come to Chicago will be more readily related to the Association work. I believe you are on the right track in organizing in the country. The country boys need the things that the Association stands for just as much as the city boys." W. F. Hypes, President, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association. "The Chicago Country Life Conference re-empha- sized the fact that the need of rural life is one of the vital things and demands the most earnest attention of all thinking men in business and in labor. It re- quires the broadest kind of thought, because of the many interrelated problems. It is the most interesting forward movement of the day." R. L. Crampton, Illinois Bankers' Association, Chicago. "The Rural Life Conference was a timely move. Bet- ter farms and better farming are good. Better citizens who have visions for the community in which they live are needed. The individualistic stage of agriculture is APPENDIX 127 passing. The next development calls for organization of our forces and a proper balance in country life progresses, working for a common end." Fred H. Rankin, Illinois Agricultural College, Champaign, Illinois. "The Chicago Rural Life Conference held under the auspices of the Association recently must have been ex- ceedingly gratifying to its promoters. The papers and discussions had meaning and point, and it is very cer- tain that no one could have been present who did not carry away with him a new sense of the importance and urgency of the rural opportunities." C. M. Stuart, President Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. APPENDIX IV DISTRIBUTION OF DELEGATES BY STATES Colorado 2 Illinois 20 Chicago 52 Indiana 2 Iowa Kansas Kentucky Massachusetts Michigan 15 Minnesota Nebraska New York North Dakota South Dakota Ohio II Pennsylvania Wisconsin 8 Students 117 Total 246 129 APPENDIX V LIST OF DELEGATES TO THE COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE HELD UNDER THE AUS- PICES OF THE COUNTY WORK DEPARTMENT SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATONS, IN CHICAGO, OCTOBER 25, 1916. Colorado reacher KS, Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Denver REV. J. J. CACE, Pioneer Preacher C. J. Hic: Illinois REV. C. J. BENGSTON, Editor The Lutheran Companion, Rock Island PROP. S. C. BRONSON, Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston W. STERRY BROWN, Editor School and Home Education. Bloom- ington MRS. W. S. BROWN, Bloomington H. GERBERDING. Lutheran Theological Seminary, Maywood HON. B. P. HAPvRIS, President of the First National Bank of Cham- paign, 111., and formerly Chairman of the Agricultural Commis- sion of the American Bankers' Association and Editor of The Banker-Farmer MRS. C. C. HATFIELD, Guest, River Forest DR. R. E. HIERONYMUS, Community Adviser, University of Illinois THOMAS COLGATE, Evanston, Member Illinois State Committee, Young Men's Christian Associations C. W. HUDSON, Waukegan H. W. KNIHOFF. Franklin Park MRS. W. H. LICHTY, Guest, Zion City PROP. F. A. LUNDBERG, Swedish Seminary, Evanston HON. GEORGE MACKAY, Young Men's Christian Association, Canton RALPH McKEE, Student Department, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Kankakee 131 132 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE PROP. FRED H. RANKIN. College of Agriculture, University of Illinois MRS. MARY SEARCY, Secretary Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, Highland Park PROF. C. M. STUART, Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston PROF. C. G. WALLENIUS. Swedish Theological Seminary, Evanston A. C. WIEAND, Oak Park Chicago PROF, J. M. ARTMAN, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College BERT BALL, Secretary Crop Improvement Committee, Council of Grain Exchanges M. H. BICKHAM, Secretary Young Men's Christian Association, University of Chicago E. M. BOWMAN, Member Illinois State Comniittee of Young Men's Christian Associations PROF. I. E. BROWN, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College PRESIDENT FRANK H. BURT, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College R. L. CRAMPTON, Illinois Bankers' Association F. A. CROSBY PROF. C. D. CRAWFORD, Beloit College. Wis. REV. OZORA S. DAVIS, D.D., President Chicago Theological Sem- inary F. K. DEERHAKE, Secretary Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations S. B. DENISON, Court Reporter B. W. DICKSON. Member Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations PROF. CHAS. M. ELDER, Chicago Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation College PROF. E. E. EUBANK, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College PROF. E. FLORY. Bethany Bible School OMAR FLU GUM. Chicago Theological Seminary PROF. M. I. FOSS, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College PROF. O. D. FOSTER, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College MRS. E. J. GOODSPEED, Member County Department, Central Field Committee. Young Women's Christian Associations MRS. CHARLES GRAY, Farm Engineering C. V. GREGORY, The Prairie Farmer W. P. HARMS, South Chicago Young Men's Christian Association H. B. HASTINGS, Young Women's Christian Association of Mower County. Minn. C. C. HATFIELD, Secretary County Work Departmeiit, Interna- tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations APPENDIX 133 DR. ALLAN HOBEN, Professor of Practical Theology, The Univer- sity of Chicago PROF. J. G. HOFFER, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College ^ . . J. S. HOtTON. Business Manager Chicago Young Men s Christian Association College W. F. HYPES, Presidfent Chicago Young Men's Christian Association PROF. H. F. KALLENBERG, Chicago Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation College T. A. LAMOND. Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company J. WELLER LONG, The Farmers' Union A. J. LOEPPERT REV. J. G. K. McCLURE, D.D., President McCormick Theological Seminary L. WILBUR MESSER, Secretary Chicago Young Men's Christian Association WARD R. MILES, The University of Chicago REV. W. W. MILLER, Englewood Gospel Chapel PROF. R. H. NICODEMUS, Bethany Bible School E. H. PRATT, Guest A. W. SALAVELT, The University of Chicago N. C. SCHLICHTER, Secretary Industrial Department, Interna- tional Committee, Young Men's Christian Associations H. H. SCHUELER, Reporter R. L. SCOTT, Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company K. A. SHU MAKER, Secretary Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations H. H. SMITH, The Continent MISS MAUD TREGO, Secretary County Department, Central Field Committee of the National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations THEODORE G. SOARES, The University of Chicago A. W. SOLAN DT, Divinity School, The University of Chicago HON. R. S. VESSEY, Ex-Governor of South Dakota DR. ROBERT WEIDENSALL, Honorary Secretary County Work. Department of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations JOHN E. WILDER, Chairman Illinois State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations H. T. WILLIAMS, Secretary Chicago Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation A. STAMFORD WHITE, Member Board of Directors, Chicago Young Men's Christian Association PROF. C. A. YOUNG, Chicago Christian Institute 117 Students from Chicago Young Men's Christian Association College Indiana PROF. O. P. HALL, Purdue University E. L. HOLLINGSWORTH, Rensselaer 134 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE Iowa FRED M. HANSEN, Secretary Young Men's Christian Association, Iowa State College, Ames C. H. PIPHER, State Secretary for County Work in Iowa, Des Moines Kansas P. D. PIERCE, Secretary Kansas State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Topeka Kentucky PROP. A. W. FORTUNE, College of the Bible of Transylvania Col- lege, Lexington Massachusetts PROP. W. J. CAMPBELL, International Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation College, Springjfield Michigan E. J. ARNOT, Secretary Lenawee County Young Men's Christian Association, Adrian L. E. BUELL, Secretary State Committee Young Men's Christian Associations, Detroit PROF. ERNEST BURNHAM, Western State Normal School, Kala- mazoo C. A. CASTER, Secretary Hillsdale County Yotmg Men's Christian Association, Hillsdale H. R. EARLE, Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Association, Detroit WALTER GOSPILL, Secretary St. Clair County Young Men's Chris- tian Association, Marion City W. M. HAZEN, County Committeeman, Three Rivers D. C. HEPFLEY, Secretary Young Men's Christian Association, Michigan Agricultural College E. E. HORNER, Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Eaton Rapids J. C. KETCHAM, Master Michigan SUate Grange, Hastings O. C. KIMBALL, County Committeeman, Hillsdale P. P. KNAPP, Secretary Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations C. B. MITCHELL, Michigan Agricultural College, Lansing C. L. ROWE, Secretary Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations E. B, SURTZER, Calumet APPENDIX 135 Minnesota E. F. BYERS, North Central Field Committee. Young Women's Christian Association, Minneapolis R. C. COFFIN, Secretary Minnesota State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Minneapolis MISS LEONARDA GOBS, Editor The Farmer's Wife, St. Paul A. J. NASON, Member County Work Department Sub-Committee of International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associa- tions, St. Paul Nebraska F. H. CHICKERING, Member Nebraska State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations New York City WILLIAM J. COLBY, Association Press. New York MISS JESSIE FIELD, Secretary Town and Country Committee, National Board Young Women's Christian Associations, New York F. B. FREEMAN, Secretary County Work Department, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations HENRY ISRAEL, Secretary County Work Department, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations RICHARD C. MORSE, Consulting General Secretary International Committee of Young Men's Chnstian Associations C. A. B. PRATT, Member Cotmty Work Department Sub-Committee International Committee of Yoimg Men's Christian Associations ALBERT E. ROBERTS, Senior Secretary County Work Department International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations North Dakota A. B. DALE, Secretary North Dakota State Committee, Young Men's Christian Associations, Fargo Ohio E. I. ANTRIM, Ph.D., County Committee, Van Wert H. D, DICKSON, Secretary Young Men's Christian Association, Dayton J. J. HILLSE, Covmty Committee, Upper Sandusky DR. J. P. LANDIS, President Bonebrake Theological Seminary, Dairton J. H. LANGENWALTER, BlufiEton College, Blufifton T. B. LANHAM, Secretary Ohio State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Coltunbus A. H. LICHTY, Secretary Ohio State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Columbus 136 BALANCING COUNTRY LIFE REV. C. M. McCONNELL, Country Pastor, Lakeville CLIVE McGUIRE, Secretary County Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, Oberlin H. M. SHIPPS. Cleveland E. L. SHUEY, JR„ County Committeeman, Dayton Wisconsin MISS RUTH DAVIS, County Young Women's Christian Associa- tion, Beaver Dam HOWARD HUBBELL, Secretary Wisconsin State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Milwaukee S. PAUL JONES. Secretary County Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, Waukesha L. A. MARKHAM, Secretary County Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, Janesville MRS. F. W. SAWTELLE, County Young Women's Christian Associa- tion, Horicon H. P. TORMOHLEN, Secretary County Young Men's Christian Association, Delavan J. W. WATERBURY, County Committeeman. Prairie du Sac MRS. J. W. WATERBURY, County Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, Prairie du Sac J. M. SPRINGER, Methodist Episcopal Church, EUsabethville, Bel- gian Congo / 415500 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY