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Groves + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rural Problems of Today + +Author: Ernest R. Groves + +Release Date: March 20, 2009 [EBook #28365] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Barbara Kosker and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h1>RURAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>RURAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>ERNEST R. GROVES</h2> + +<h4><i>Author of "Moral Sanitation," "Using the Resources of the Country +Church," etc.</i></h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>ASSOCIATION PRESS<br /> +<span class="smcap">New York: 124 East 28th Street</span><br /> +1918</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1918, by<br /> +The International Committee of<br /> +The Young Men's Christian Associations</span></h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4><span class="smcap">To</span></h4> + +<h3>GLADYS HOAGLAND</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Whose Unselfish and Intelligent Care of<br /> +Catherine and Ernestine<br /> +Has Justified the Absolute Confidence<br /> +of Their Mother</span></h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> +<br /> + +<p>This book is written for the men and women who love the country and are +interested in its social welfare. Fortunately there are many such, and +each year their number is increasing.</p> + +<p>Rural life has as many sides as there are human interests. This book +looks out upon country-life conditions from a viewpoint comparatively +neglected. It attempts to approach rural social life from the +psychological angle. The purpose of the book forces it from the +well-beaten pathways, but this effort to give emphasis to the mental +side of rural problems is not an attempt to discount the other +significant aspects of the rural environment. The field of rural service +is large enough to contain all who desire by serious study to advance at +some point the happiness, prosperity, and wholesomeness that belong by +social right to those who live and work in the country.</p> + +<p>The author desires to thank the following for the privilege of using<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> +material previously published: American Sociological Society, <i>American +Journal of Sociology</i>, National Conference of Social Work, Association +Press, and <i>Rural Manhood</i>.</p> + +<p class="right">E. R. G.</p> +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 1em;">Durham, N. H.<br /> +April 1, 1918.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="2"> </td> + <td class="tdr"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp" width="10%"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></td> + <td class="tdl" width="80%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="10%"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">I.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Rural Worker and the Country Home</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">II.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Family in Our Country Life</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">III.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Rural Worker and the Country Schools</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Country Church and the Rural Worker</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">V.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Mental Hygiene in Rural Districts</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VI.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Social Value of Rural Experience</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VII.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rural vs. Urban Environment</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">VII.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Mind of the Farmer</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">IX.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Psychic Causes of Rural Migration</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">X.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rural Socializing Agencies</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp">XI.</td> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The World-War and Rural Life</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2><a name="THE_RURAL_WORKER_AND_THE_COUNTRY_HOME" id="THE_RURAL_WORKER_AND_THE_COUNTRY_HOME"></a>THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY HOME</h2> + +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /> +<h2>I</h2> + +<h2>THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY HOME</h2> +<br /> + +<p>With reference to the care of children, faulty homes may be divided into +two classes. There are homes that give the children too little care and +there are homes that give them too much. The failure of the first type +of home is obvious. Children need a great deal of wise, patient, and +kindly care. Even the lower animals require, when domesticated, +considerable care from their owners, if they are to be successfully +brought from infancy to maturity. Of course children need greater care. +No one doubts this. And yet it is certainly true that there are, even in +these days of widespread intelligence, many homes where the children +obtain too little care and in one way or another are seriously +neglected.</p> + +<p>The harmfulness of the homes that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>give their children too much care is +not so generally realized as is the danger of the careless and selfish +home, although, in a general way, everyone acknowledges that children +may be given too much attention. The difficulty is to determine when a +particular child is being given too much adult supervision and too +little freedom. No one would question the fact that a child can become +an adult only by a decrease of adult control and an increase of personal +responsibility. Nevertheless, in spite of a general belief that a child +needs an opportunity to win self-government, there are parents not a few +who, from love and anxiety, run into the danger of protecting and +controlling their children too much. The father or mother spends too +much time with the children. The children are pampered. Too many +indulgences are permitted them. Children in these over-careful homes are +likely to grow up neurotic, conceited, timid, babyish, daydreaming men +and women, who are of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>little use in the world and are often a serious +problem for normal people. Probably this second type of a deficient home +is more dangerous than the first, for children without sufficient home +care often discover a substitute for their loss, but the over-protected +children can obtain no antidote for their misfortune.</p> + +<p>Everyone knows that attacks are increasingly being made upon the home in +its present form by people who regard it as inefficient or as an +anachronism. It is usually thought, however, that these attacks come +mostly from agitators who set themselves more or less in opposition to +all the institutions established by the present social order. Perhaps +for this reason many do not believe that the family is receiving any +serious criticism and its satisfactory functioning is therefore taken +for granted. Such an easy-going optimism is not justified, for criticism +of the home is coming from science as well as from the agitators. For +example read "The Deforming Influences of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>the Home," by Dr. Helen W. +Brown, which appeared in the <i>Journal of Abnormal Psychology</i> for April, +1917. She writes in one place as follows:</p> + +<p>"Small wonder, then, if we begin to see that many of the mental ills +that afflict men are not due, as has been commonly supposed, to lack of +home training and the deteriorating influence of the world, but to too +much home, to a narrow environment which has often deformed his mind at +the start and given him a bias that can only be overcome through painful +adjustments and bitter experience."</p> + +<p>The psychoanalysts and the clinic psychologists are gathering material +all the time that illustrates the bad results of home influences, and +soon the agitator will be using this as proof of the harmfulness of the +home as an institution. Some of us believe that no skepticism can be +more dangerous socially than that relating to the value of the home. The +best protection of the home must come from its moral efficiency and this +cannot <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>be obtained if people are unwilling to face reasonable and +constructive criticism of the present working of the home. It is natural +for the adult looking backward to his childhood to assume too much for +the home, and then to transfer his emotion and his sense of the value of +his home experience to the present family as an institution. With this +enormous prejudice he refuses to see how often the family influence is +morally and socially bad. It would surprise such a person at least to +read an article like Emerson's "The Psychopathology of the Family" which +recently appeared in <i>The Journal of Abnormal Psychology</i>. Material +showing the unhappy results of inefficient family influences may be +found in nearly any number of the <i>Psychoanalytic Review</i>.</p> + +<p>There appear to be three causes of the unwholesomeness of home +influences: lack of competition between homes, insufficient science +regarding the home problems, and the pleasure basis of family +organization.</p> + +<p>First: There is no competition between <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>homes. This is a most strikingly +peculiar situation. The home is competed against by other institutions, +such as the saloon, the moving picture, and the like, but as between +homes there is no competition whatever. Home life is a private affair. +Public opinion rules that it remain private. Nothing is sooner or more +seriously resented than interference with or criticism of the home life +of the individual. Professional men, such as doctors, lawyers, and +ministers, and business men compete with one another, and from this +competition comes constant, sane change and progress. But in the home, +there being no competition, methods of home management, however bad, go +on without change. Parents never realize their habitual carelessness in +home life. The scientists are seeking to bring some sort of competition +into home life, but they are under a very heavy handicap. In fact this +handicap is greater now than formerly, for our forefathers made long +visits with each other, sometimes staying for weeks in one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>home, thus +giving ample opportunity for valuable criticisms and suggestions from +guest to host.</p> + +<p>Second: Bringing up children is really a scientific task and requires +scientific information. But to obtain scientific information of +practical value relating to the home is a baffling proposition. Human +instincts and child development have been studied very little. We have +theorized a great deal about such problems, but we have a remarkably +small fund of actual accurate information. Such knowledge as we have +recorded has been mostly obtained by parents, who have, of course, been +prejudiced. In such cases we seldom know the later history of the child +or the character of the home management and the actual contribution that +the home made as compared with other influences. Men who have had to +consider the entire history of an individual, who comes to the mind +specialist for treatment because of some abnormality of mental or moral +character, are gathering a great deal of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>valuable material regarding +family influences, but much of this is in regard to men and women who in +one way or another have been social failures. We have no material at +present of equal value in regard to the persons who in a popular sense +are "normal individuals." Such valuable information as we already have, +we are not very seriously trying to distribute. Yet, fortunately, a +beginning has been made and the entire problem is receiving an attention +that it has never before had.</p> + +<p>Third: People are finding it difficult to accept the responsibilities +that belong to family life. Modern men and women more and more are +basing the home upon pleasure and comfort and personal advantages in a +narrow and thoughtless sense. When the crucial tests of family fitness +come with the children, the parents fail. They have had little specific +training for their greatest obligation and under such circumstances it +is strange only that so often they do not greatly fail. Children <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>are +often unwelcome when they come into the home. Their coming disturbs the +easy-going pleasure regime of the household and as they become somewhat +of a burden to the father and mother, their interests are compromised, +that their parents may continue to have some of the freedom which they +enjoyed before the children came. Imagination cannot prepare for +experience in such a degree as to make it possible for those who marry +to realize the possible responsibilities of their choice. Because of +this they often are found to have undertaken tasks against which in +their heart of hearts they protest. It is natural for them, with such an +internal dissatisfaction, not to commit themselves fully or sufficiently +to the needs of their children.</p> + +<p>Of one fact there is no doubt. Modern science is all the time +illustrating that early childhood, the period when the influence of +parents counts most, is the most significant of all the life of the +individual. Diseases and weaknesses of a physical character that +originate in early <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>life bring about physical results that show in later +life. The same fact is true, but not so easily seen, with reference to +mental, moral, and social characteristics. The influence of the parents +upon the thinking of the child is particularly important. A child must +be trained to think rightly early in life. He should be saved from a +fanciful, dreamy life. He should be made to face real conditions, for +only as he tussles with reality is he prepared to enter the +relationships later demanded of mature adults. In all this he is much +influenced by his parents. At times real ability in the child to meet +his tasks with childish heroism is crushed by his parents and his entire +life spoiled.</p> + +<p>The county worker, the minister, and the social leader in the country +must in their work consider seriously the needs of the home. The great +war will surely put a new strain upon the family. One result is likely +to be a freer relation between the sexes. Women now in new occupations, +because of the demands for labor due to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>war conditions, are likely to +remain in considerable numbers. This will influence the home status. +Schools are becoming more and more efficient and are taking over more of +the home functions. Good social service in the country will encourage +the home to use more fully its opportunities, to accept all its possible +functions. It is well not to be in a hurry to take as our work that +which the home fails to accomplish. The bad families, on the other hand, +should be stripped of all functions possible. Such homes cannot be +"eaten up" too soon.</p> + +<p>Training should be provided for parents in the country. Some of this +type of social service is already being carried on in the cities. It is +equally needed in the country. Put on work for parents and get them to +come. Bring in men who have practical messages of real value to parents. +Don't seek to get a crowd. Lead country idealism to concrete problems. +For example, attempt to lower the death rate by making information +regarding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>health more popular. Drive the patent medicines from their +stronghold. Introduce the more thoughtful people to the work of the Life +Extension Institute.</p> + +<p>Do not forget the human need of inspiration. People know more now than +they use. Get speakers who can inspire parents to activity. Only keep +the inspiration from being dissipated. Connect with actual problems the +interest awakened by good speakers. Insist upon enriching and +encouraging the home through the contributions of earnest talks upon +home problems. Don't expect cold science to accomplish with country +people what it is unable to do in the city. Inspiration and instruction +are both required.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +<h2>THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>II</h2> + +<h2>THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> +<br /> + +<p>There is in our modern life nothing more significant than the increasing +social discontent regarding the present status of the home. Criticism of +our family conditions comes both from the enemies and from the friends +of the home. A radical and vigorous school of thought finds in the +family of today a mere social and moral anachronism, to be pushed aside +as quickly as possible. Another group of thinkers, on the other hand, +sees in the changes that are already taking place in the conditions of +family life, a hopeless deterioration. In such a turmoil of social +controversy there is at least unmistakable evidence that the home is +passing through a period of readjustment. This much is clear: changes in +our manner of life <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>have placed a strain upon the family that it cannot +successfully withstand without greater efficiency.</p> + +<p>Any effort to determine the value and obligations of the family, whether +urban or rural, requires first of all a clear statement of the +significant places of irritation, where at present the family is meeting +strain that makes readjustment necessary. These may be classified as +difficulties created by changes in:</p> + +<p>1. The equipment or environment of the family.</p> + +<p>2. The function of the family.</p> + +<p>3. The internal adjustment of the family.</p> + +<p>Regarding the family equipment, the situation in the city is certainly +radically different from what it was. The usual dwelling place of the +home was, in former times, a house which the family occupied +exclusively. It made home seclusion and family fellowship easy and gave +the family group a sense of responsibility for its place of living. For +an increasing number of people, this type of dwelling place no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>longer +exists. In its place we have the flat, the hotel, and the apartment +house. The new conditions do not provide the present family with a +favorable equipment. The seclusion of the family is largely removed. The +fellowship within the family circle is greatly decreased because of the +limitations of the place of abode, and the increased attraction of +places of amusement outside, made necessary because of the failure of +the home to give satisfactory recreation. Of course, the sense of +personal responsibility for the place of habitation is almost entirely +destroyed. Such is the equipment furnished the family by modern city +life. In the country, however, the family has had little significant +change in its equipment.</p> + +<p>The largest function of the family is its moral training. It is this +service which has made the family the most important element in our past +civilization. Were the family of the future to fail morally, it would be +hard to imagine how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>its existence could be justified. Without doubt +this moral function of the family has centered about the children. The +conditions of modern urban life, however, tend to make the moral +training of the child by the home increasingly difficult. The city +dwelling does not offer the child a normal opportunity for his play. The +school and other institutions have to take over service formerly +rendered the child in the home. In a large number of cases the urban +home regards the child as merely a burden and therefore in such homes +every effort is made to have no children born. This prevents the home +from attempting the moral service for which it exists. Instead, the +futile attempt is made to build up an enduring, satisfying home life +upon the basis of the mere personal pleasure of husband and wife. In the +country we find the home, for the most part, attempting to carry out its +former function as an educational and moral institution.</p> + +<p>The most serious difficulty in our present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>family appears to be +internal. Economic changes have brought women, to a very great degree, +into industry as wage earners. Women are at present earning a livelihood +in almost every form of occupation. New ethical and political ideas, in +addition to this great economic change in woman's life, have influenced +her status. She no longer has to marry in order to obtain the +necessities of life. She can become a wage earner. If she marries, she +brings into her new state of living the sense of independence that has +come to her from her experiences as a wage earner. In many cases, after +marriage she continues to work away from the home for wages. Marriage, +as it used to be, made no provision for the new status of woman. It +assumed a dependence, a subordination, and a limitation to which in +these days many women refuse to assent. This internal change in the +conditions of home life brings about a host of difficulties that require +satisfactory adjustment if the living together of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>the husband and wife +is to be a happy one.</p> + +<p>In the country the demand for this new adjustment is less serious, for +there, to a greater degree than in the city, there are women who have +not claimed their new status.</p> + +<p>The rural home with reference to its equipment, function, and internal +adjustment appears superior to the city home. When this conclusion is +reached, many students of rural problems are content to drop the +discussion of the rural family. Such an attitude of satisfaction +concerning the country home is neither logical nor safe. It may well be +that the country family will meet the strain due to modern changes later +than the urban family, but sooner or later it will have to face the need +of new adjustment. Only time itself can disclose whether the country +home will find serious difficulties in the way of its final adjustment +to the significant changes of modern life. There is certainly little +security in the fact that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>numerous country families have as yet been +insensible to the matrimonial unrest so characteristic of urban people. +What has come first to the urban centers must, sooner or later, to a +greater or less degree, enter country life. Indeed, it is impossible to +doubt that family discontent is growing in the country.</p> + +<p>The important question, however, to the moral and social worker is +whether the country is obtaining all that it should from its superior +family opportunity. Assuming that it is healthier than the city, with +reference to the equipment, function, and adjustment of the family, it +is reasonable to ask, "What are the obstacles that keep the country home +from making its largest moral contribution to society?"</p> + +<p>One fault with some country homes stands out on the surface. The wife is +too much a drudge. Her life is too narrow and too hard. This type of +home is passing, no doubt, but it has by no means passed. This kind of +woman may be little influenced by new thought, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>may think her +situation as natural for her as it was for her mother. Whatever her +personal attitude, however, from the very nature of things she is unable +to make a significant moral contribution through her family duties. +There will be striking exceptions, of course, but the general rule will +stand—in modern life the woman drudge makes a poor mother. The fact +that she is less likely to rebel against her hard condition than her +urban sister, does not remove the dangers of her situation. And it is +well for the lover of country welfare to remember that even when the +wife accepts with no complaint the hardness of her lot, she often blames +her husband's occupation, farming, for her misfortune, and becomes a +rural pessimist, urging her children neither to farm nor to marry +farmers. Her deep, instinctive protest appears through suggestion in the +cravings of her children for urban life and urban occupation.</p> + +<p>The housekeeping problem is for the woman on the farm seldom an easy +one, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>but, nevertheless, conditions that make of the farmer's wife an +overworked house slave are in these days of labor-saving devices without +excuse. In any case, such a family situation in the country, whatever +its cause, must be regarded as pathological.</p> + +<p>Sex has too large a place in the construction of the rural family. One +of the advantages of the country family of which we hear much is the +general tendency toward earlier marriages than in the city. Without +doubt marriages, as a rule, do occur earlier among country people. This +fact is significant in more ways than most writers recognize. A very +thoughtful student of the American family, Mrs. Parsons, has called +attention to the social importance of the fact that after maturity +mental and moral traits are more likely to influence the choice than +merely physical traits. In other words, the earlier marriages are more +likely to be influenced by sex interests—using the term in a narrow +sense—than are the later <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>marriages. This brings no social problem to +the minds of those who see in marriage, for the most part, merely +physical attraction and relations. The movement of human experience +seems, however, on the whole, to be away from such a conception of +marriage. Although the postponement of marriage requires for social +welfare a greater moral self-control, we have every reason to suppose +that we must gain social health by a higher moral idealism rather than +by a return to the earlier marriage of former generations. In that case, +to a considerable degree, the earlier marrying of the country people +discloses that they have not as yet felt the full force of the modern +causes that make for later marriages. Earlier marriages may be indeed +happier, but they are often narrower.</p> + +<p>A recent writer tells us that the vices of the country are the vices of +isolation. Sex difficulties arise spontaneously and require no +commercial exploitation when young people live a barren and narrow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>life +without ideals. This emphasis of sex is expressed not merely in +immorality and illegitimacy, but also in a precocious interest in sex +and in a precocious courtship. Early marriage, therefore, often +represents the reaction from an uninteresting and empty environment and, +however fortunate in itself, certainly does not demonstrate a socially +wholesome situation.</p> + +<p>To contrast the divorce situation in the country with that in the city +also fails to give the basis for social optimism that the facts are +often used to prove. Public opinion has more to do with actions than +law, and at present the general attitude toward the granting of divorce +is more conservative in the country than in the city. The reason for +this difference is, in large measure, the fact that once again the +country shows itself less sensitive to the changes that are taking place +with reference to the conditions of marriage. It certainly is not safe +to assume that the unhappy marriages in the country are in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>proportion +to the number of divorces. It is more likely that unless the urban +attitude changes, in time the country will come to feel toward divorces +much as city people do at present.</p> + +<p>It is important to notice that, although legal divorce is frowned upon, +there is often a considerable social indifference to the loose living +together of men and women. Two clergymen at work in a rural community of +about a thousand people recently stated that there were in the community +at least forty unmarried people living together as husband and wife. +Later, I was informed by another resident of the town that the clergymen +had not exaggerated the situation. And yet I doubt not that the +community had a rather low divorce record. It is very interesting how +the moral code of a community may be strict at one point, while lenient +at another. In some rural communities, at least, one may find an +inconsistent public opinion that expresses very rigid hostility to +divorce and little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>practical opposition to lax sex relations. The low +attitude toward the sex element in marriage and the coarse viewpoint +disclosed by conversation often surprise the country visitor who is not +acquainted with the occasional inconsistency of rural ethics. Judging +the standing of married life by infrequent divorces and rather early +marriage, he is painfully disconcerted to discover that the marriage +ideal is nevertheless mean and lacking in social inspiration.</p> + +<p>A third criticism is deserved by the rural family, namely, its failure +to make use of its social opportunity. It is easy to demonstrate the +greater normality of the rural family as compared with the urban family, +with respect to the family conditions that make possible an efficient +home life. It is not always true, however, that these superior family +opportunities are of social value. It is true that children are +generally valued in the rural home. This is, at times, for the supposed +economic help the children are expected to be to the parents, rather +than because <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>of an unselfish regard for the children, as a moral +opportunity. It is true that the home generally counts for more in the +life of the country child than in that of the city child. This by no +means proves that the greater home influence is always a social asset. +The home may penetrate the child's life deeply and yet affect it badly. +If the home means more, the character of the home comes to have a larger +meaning; what the significance of the home influence may be, is +determined by the type of the home. A greater opportunity for family +fellowship is naturally offered by the rural home, but this fellowship +opportunity works both ways. The closer contact of all the members of +the family often results in bringing all of them down to a low level of +culture. The base attitude of one or of both parents toward life may +poison each child's aspiration as he advances into maturity. The +neighborhood relation, which brings several families into close contact, +often permits a vicious child of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>one family to initiate many children +from various homes into sex experiences in such an unwholesome way that +purity of mind becomes very difficult later on, whether the illicit +intercourse comes to an end or not.</p> + +<p>Rural people are too likely to be content with their superior family +conditions. There is real need for an emphasis upon the proper use of +these opportunities. The conscientious urban parent is stimulated to his +best by the rivalry of other attractions that attempt to exploit his +child. The rural parent has no security in the greater natural +advantages of the country home. Everything depends upon the way the +rural home makes use of its opportunity. The rural church, especially, +should take to heart this remarkably significant fact.</p> + +<p>No institution in the country has the importance of the family. Good +moral strategy requires, therefore, that effort be made to make the +rural home happy and wholesome. The needs of rural people <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>are indeed +many, but there is no need greater than the fullest development of the +opportunities for moral progress provided by the conditions of family +life in the country. It would seem as if one principle should always be +observed—no effort is wholly good that looks toward a substitution for +family responsibility. It is also true that the family will not again +have the moral monopoly of the child. Necessary as it may be, in certain +cases, to allow the family to farm out its important functions to some +other institution, this condition ought always to be recognized as +unfortunate. The better way of making permanent progress is effort that +encourages the family to make better use of its neglected opportunities.</p> + +<p>First of all, the rural home needs to be spiritualized. Of course, there +is equal need of spiritualizing the urban home, but that problem does +not concern us now. Objections are sure to be raised against any rural +program that bases itself upon an attempt to emphasize idealism and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>a +spiritual interpretation of experiences. There is, however, no other +way. Material progress will neither content nor elevate country life. +Contact with nature is so close and constant that when spiritual insight +is lacking there is bound to be a fatalistic and brutalizing tendency. +Religion that does not enter intimately into everyday life and enrich +the baffling experiences of daily labor with great spiritual +interpretations, gives little of value to country people. The rural home +awakens to its opportunities only when it is invigorated by vital +spiritual inspiration. A materialistic philosophy of life will eat the +heart out of the country and leave it in despair. Country people seldom +have wide choice; they must either penetrate common experience with the +eye of confident idealism, or they must dig the earth, bent down with +the oppressing burden of dissatisfied toil. Whatever the philosophy of +life, it will command the spirit of the home.</p> + +<p>Parents also need training if they are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>to make successful use of the +opportunities placed in their hands. This training needs especially to +give the parents a right point of view respecting sex and +sex-instruction. At present there is a powerful taboo in most country +places regarding any constructive attempt to give helpful sex +information, although, as a matter of practice, conversation often +gravitates toward sex in a most unwholesome fashion. The taboo is fixed +for the most part upon any public recognition of sex, while privately, +interest in matters of sex is taken for granted. We have gossip and +scandal, but little right-minded attention to sexual knowledge. This +condition must change before many families will be fit to win the full +confidence of the children and to influence them toward a high-minded +outlook upon life.</p> + +<p>We must appreciate the very valuable efforts that are already being put +forth to make the rural homes more efficient with reference to +sanitation, hygiene, and proper food. This instruction promises to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>decrease much human suffering, discontent, and poverty. In some +respects such constructive service is more needed in the country than in +the city. Certainly, good results are already appearing as a result of +the efforts that institutions and people interested in the country have +put forth.</p> + +<p>The rural family must be made to realize the consequential character of +childhood experience. The alienist especially has demonstrated the +significant influence of childhood upon adult motives and conduct. +Recent studies of human conduct have greatly magnified the importance of +early experience and have disclosed how often it is the first cause of +morbid thinking and anti-social actions. The conclusion is not to be +doubted—a still greater effort must be made to conserve human character +by a wiser control of the influences of childhood. One may discover for +himself how interested conscientious parents are in detailed +illustrations of childhood influence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>upon adult life and how impressed +they are with the seriousness of such facts. Rural families must be +taught more generally this impressive contribution of modern science.</p> + +<p>A much greater effort must be made in many localities to lift from the +rural family the burden of the feeble-minded. The possible harm that may +be caused by a high-grade feeble-minded boy or girl in the country can +be appreciated only by one who has come in contact with such a problem. +The close contact, free association, and common interests of rural folk, +with the added difficulty of segregating one's child, even when the +menace of a feeble-minded associate is fully recognized, make the +presence of feeble-minded boys and girls in the country a more difficult +and more serious matter than is the case at present in the city. The +school and the state, that is, the state by means of the opportunity +provided by the schools, must take more effective measures to handle +this problem. Until <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>this has been brought about by public education and +agitation, many rural families will be required to encounter serious +moral dangers and problems for which society is itself responsible.</p> + +<p>The rural family needs to be taught to be more just and more generous in +regard to other families. The clannish spirit ought to pass, for it is +without excuse in these days. The family interests a generation ago were +altogether too narrowly conceived to make a wholesome social life +possible. Greater cooperation is necessary if rural people are to make +progress, and this cooperation is impossible when families are jealous +and suspicious. This obstacle in the way of wholesome rural culture, +made by selfish and petty family motives, it is useless to ignore. +Unless the obstacle can be pushed aside, other efforts to inspire +country people to a realization of their social opportunities must +surely fail. Family life in the country can be saved from its besetting +sin when rural <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>leadership undertakes this task with the seriousness its +importance justifies.</p> + +<p>The rural family must be led to adopt a positive morality. This is +imperative. The age of prohibition as an expression of ideals has +passed. Emphasis must be placed upon what we should do, and must be +removed from a trivial and legalized code of "Don'ts." Here and there in +the country we find a firmly entrenched negative interpretation of moral +obligation. Nothing is so dangerous morally as this. Nothing can so +certainly drive out of the community the broad-minded, fine-spirited +youth. The family must interpret morality with good sense and with a +full regard for the proportions of things. The parents must teach a +better moral standard than they themselves were taught. The home +morality must have the flavor of kindliness and sweet reasonableness. +Morality, to be true to its essence, does not require that it be made +disagreeable. Goodness is beauty expressed in human conduct and, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>therefore, deserves freedom to disclose its winsome charm as well as +its stern pre-eminence.</p> + +<p>This program for constructive social service in the country is largely +based upon the conservation of the moral and spiritual resources of the +country. The deepest need of the country can be satisfied by no smaller +propaganda. The instruments for such service we already have. The +country school, the country church, neighborhood fellowship, and the +Young Men's Christian Association provide the means for a moral and +spiritual renaissance in the country. There is no easier way to obtain a +healthy rural family life than by a skilful, serious, and large-hearted +use of our moral institutions in concrete, courageous, and modern +instruction, and in persuasive inspiration.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Published as a part of the report of the fifth Country Life +Conference by Association Press under the title, "The Home of The +Countryside."</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +<h2>THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>III</h2> + +<h2>THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS</h2> +<br /> + +<p>Of late the rural schools have been receiving much attention. Educators +and others interested in rural welfare have seriously studied the needs +and opportunities of our country schools and the good results of this +interest are already revealing themselves. It is true, of course, that +much of this contribution to the rapidly increasing literature devoted +to rural educational problems has come from men who live in urban +communities and who for the most part have expert knowledge concerning +the administration of urban schools.</p> + +<p>It is easy, without doubt, to give too much emphasis to the peculiar +needs of the rural schools and to forget that urban and rural schools +have much in common. Without forgetting that many of our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>school +problems are fundamental and present in all schools regardless of the +environment in which they attempt to function, it is reasonable to +regret that a larger part in the discussions relating to rural education +has not been taken by people living in the country and familiar with the +rural life of the present time. It is only just to add, however, that +both urban and rural education suffer because so little influence comes +into school theory and practice from those who stand outside the +profession of teaching. The teacher is not likely to know life so widely +or so accurately as do those men and women who have won success by +meeting actual situations that test practical judgment and sound +self-control. Every one subscribes to the statement that the business of +education is the preparation of pupils for life, every one knows that +the value of such a preparation can be made certain only by being +brought under the acid test of the actual conditions of social life, but +few there are that realize <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>that one of the ever-present problems of +educational efficiency is due to the fact that the thinking that +influences the purposes and methods of teachers mostly originates within +the profession itself. The significance of this would be apparent were +it true that all of one's education for life comes from the schools; +happily, this is not true, and most pupils obtain valuable experiences +from actual contact with problems of life that impress them more deeply +than the preparation which at the same time the school is trying to +give.</p> + +<p>The rural worker needs to feel a responsibility for the making of some +contribution to the rural school's social program. He cannot help having +some advantages, in judging the results of school training, over the +teacher who is busy with the process of instruction itself. Without +doubt the rural worker has felt incompetent to enter much into +educational discussion, thinking that such matters are sacred to those +who have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>pedagogic training, but a moment's thought convinces one that, +since the teacher has more to do with the preparation for life than the +living of life, it is socially unsafe for the teacher to have a complete +monopoly of educational discussion and to obtain no help from those who +test the product of his schools.</p> + +<p>The rural school has at present needs that stand out. First, it needs to +be socialized. This is true also of the urban school, but it is not +equally true. Urban schools have to some degree responded to the +pressure of modern life and have assumed in increasing measure a social +function. There has been no such pressure from rural communities. Often +the educational ideals for which country people have enthusiasm are +composed of experiences in a school-spirit less social than that usually +found in the rural school of the present time. This means that the +pressure of public opinion often pushes backward, while the urban school +is being forced forward.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>Neither country school nor city school can obtain much success in its +socializing program until it really ministers to the physical needs of +its pupils. Theory to the contrary, the school system still forgets that +the chief business of the child is the making of a body, and that for +the sake of future personal and social welfare the needs of the body +must have right of way. Until this fact of nature is given its full +worth and the mental side of the school work is subordinated, public +education can never be a complete success. So long as the body needs of +the growing child are exploited for the purpose of obtaining mental +results that appear to the adult outside of the teaching profession both +trivial and premature, there can be no hope that the school will +maintain a perfectly wholesome social program. This problem is certainly +as serious in the country school as in the city school. This matter is +no by-product. When the schools fail to conserve human possibilities by +ignoring the regulations <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>imposed by natural law upon the operation of +their educational processes, the schools are socially negligent. They +are faulty in the purpose for which they have been created.</p> + +<p>The second difficulty comes from the first. The rural school still needs +a larger program. When it seriously undertakes to assume its function as +the most effective of our social institutions, it will make radical +changes in its program. To affirm this one need not forget or undervalue +the changes already made. Additions have been made to the program. The +spirit of the program has not been radically changed. We still provide +an individualistic preparation—hopelessly inadequate though it +is—rather than the social training which can be the only safe +foundation for social progress. We still overvalue ancient knowledge and +former educational values. We still refuse to admit into our schools +occupations and interests that belong there because they are consistent +with the instincts of the child. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>country school has been stupidly +indifferent to the wealth of its resources and has forced upon its +pupils a meager and lifeless program. When a country high school, for +example, attempts to minister to the needs of its students with a +program of study that includes no science of any kind, the people of +that community ought to be told, as recently in one case they were, that +they are enforcing an educational policy that prophesies community +suicide.</p> + +<p>The third difficulty of the rural school system is its institutionalism. +No effective organization can be developed without creating in it the +danger of too great institutional concern. Those who are connected with +the schools very easily come to regard its problems from the point of +view of the welfare of the organization rather than that of the best +interests of the children. Of course this mistake is nearly always +unconscious and those who are really influenced by the professional +instinct to protect the immediate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>interests of the school as an +institution come to believe that they are also doing the best that can +be done for the people. It is, however, the clear teaching of human +history that effort to maintain the welfare of any social organization +is likely to decrease the attention given to its efficiency. The +attitude of institutional self-protection leads to uncritical methods, +easy-going content, and rigid, unprogressive habits of thought. In our +public school system the vital influences are always in conflict with +the constructive endeavor of those who, because of their desire for +professional repose, insist that the institution keep its attention upon +itself and continue as it happens to be. In the country this attitude is +likely to receive less criticism than in the city and for that reason +those who wish progress in the country must assume an unending struggle +against it.</p> + +<p>Whatever its faults, the rural school in its influence upon country +youth has only one possible rival—the home. At present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>the school is +obtaining more and more opportunity to influence young life; the home is +losing more and more of the opportunities it once had. It behooves, +therefore, any one who serves young life in the country, to appreciate +what a power for good or for evil, for progress or for regression, the +schools are. Every effort should be made to understand the schools. With +the teachers sympathetic relationships should be maintained, but without +even a tinge of subserviency. An unbiased judgment of the social value +of the schools, known only to himself, should be constructed by the +rural worker and then every effort should be made to cooperate with the +striving of the school for better results and to supplement with +generous spirit the necessary limitations of public school service. +Indirectly and quietly the rural worker may wisely try to invest as much +as possible of himself in the school's social service by working through +those who control the public education of the community. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>No rural +worker can expect a greater ally than an efficient, socially-minded +country school.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +<h2>THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND THE RURAL WORKER</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h2>THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND THE RURAL WORKER</h2> +<br /> + +<p>The difference between the urban and the rural church may easily be +exaggerated. There are differences, of course, and it is natural that +the rural worker and the student of country life should make too much of +what is characteristic of the church ministering to country people. At +bottom, however, the two types of churches share the same experiences. +Therefore, what may be said in regard to one will prove also to be +largely true of the other. For the purpose of giving emphasis to the +work of the rural church, nevertheless, we are justified in forgetting +for the moment how common to both forms of church life are the +fundamental needs, resources, and possibilities.</p> + +<p>Those who carry the burdens of church <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>administration are generous in +listening as they do to the criticism and counsels of those who stand +outside. Indeed, so much has been said and is still being said in regard +to the work of the country church, especially by those who are not +clergymen and not responsible for the directing of church activity, that +one may well hesitate to express another opinion. And yet the tolerance +of those who have in charge the policy of the country church is in +itself significant and invites additional suggestions regarding the +function of the Christian Church in country places. It is significant +because it discloses that the church leaders know that the rural +churches have serious problems. It invites suggestions because it +reveals that the leaders are in some measure perplexed as to what is +required in our day of the country church, and are therefore not hostile +to any contribution that has a constructive purpose.</p> + +<p>Institutions tend to be self-satisfied and self-protecting. A religious +institution <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>especially is in danger of becoming content and resentful +of criticism because, by its nature, it deals with matters that seem +beyond the investigation that man prescribes for ordinary things, and +therefore secure from the scrutiny and criticism given to common, +everyday interests. Of course the Church has no right to protect itself +from criticism with respect to its efficiency of service by asking that +it be treated as if it were itself religion.</p> + +<p>The fact that the leaders of the rural church are not taking this +attitude is of all things most helpful. It proves that their eyes are +directed outward toward their responsibilities and that the rural +churches are not in danger of the greatest evil that ever befalls a +religious institution—a blind leadership which cannot distinguish +between success and failure and is therefore well content when it ought +to be most dissatisfied.</p> + +<p>Whether rural church leadership is willing to consider radical changes +in methods of social and moral service is a question <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>time alone can +answer. The test has not yet been made; whether serious changes should +be considered can at present be only a matter of opinion. At present the +usual attitude seems to be that the rural church needs more skill—new +methods—in the doing of what it has always been doing. There appears as +yet to be little disposition to ask whether modern life requires of the +rural church that it change in large measure its form of service.</p> + +<p>With its history of past success by the use of present methods deep in +its consciousness, it is certainly difficult for the rural church to +consider without prejudice the possibility of its needing to change its +manner of functioning. It is, however, possible that life has been so +changed, so fundamentally changed, that the Church to meet its present +duties and to use its present resources must make profound changes in +its method of service. When the situation advances to the point where +such changes receive serious consideration, some of us believe that the +following <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>questions will be asked and finally answered on the basis of +experiment and experience:</p> + +<p>1. Must not the rural church give less attention to preaching? The +theological student is still taught by many of our Protestant +seminaries, just as he was a decade ago, that the minister's chief +function is preaching. There can be no doubt concerning the supreme +importance of preaching in the past. Is not, however, its effectiveness +decreasing? If the Church were starting its work at the present time, in +the light of the methods of other organizations, would we expect it to +put the stress upon preaching that it does at present? There are two +reasons why preaching ought not to have the emphasis it has had in the +past. Much of its former importance was due to influences that are now +exerted by the newspaper, the magazine, the library, the public lecture, +and even by the theater. The sermon no longer has the monopoly it once +had in the bringing of moral truth to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>attention of the people. Many +people are more deeply impressed by the methods of presenting truth +exercised by some of the Church's rivals for popular attention. It is +also true that, since religion has tried to function more in social life +and the Church has not so much tried to build up an experience of dogma +within the life of the individual, the sermon has, as a means of public +influence, suffered some handicap. It is largely because of this that +the Church has undertaken so much new work in addition to the preaching.</p> + +<p>There is, of course, a limit in the process of taking on new forms of +service and eliminating nothing. The minister is human and he simply can +not do so much as is asked of him. Charles M. Sheldon, in a very +interesting essay in regard to the work of the minister,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> says that +the man does not live who can produce two good, new sermons each week. +In the long run the rural church must decrease <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>the emphasis upon +preaching, if it is successfully to carry on the new work that from time +to time it is adding. And the new activities come with all the momentum +that belongs to service that seems to fulfil real needs.</p> + +<p>When the Church devotes less attention to preaching, it will certainly +give more consideration to its function as a leader of worship. +Protestantism has never exaggerated this part of the Church's activity; +it usually still undervalues the importance of the esthetic element in +religion. Worship tends to emphasize the common elements; preaching +necessarily brings out the differences between religious people. When +there is less importance given to preaching and more to worship, there +will be a decrease in sectarianism.</p> + +<p>Of course there are orators who preach and who enjoy the influence and +popularity that oratory always will have. These men, however, are +outstanding and their success illustrates the continuing power of +oratory, but it gives no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>argument for the effectiveness of preaching in +general. As a person having an instinctive bias for the spoken word, I +have slowly been driven to the opinion that a great multitude of people +feel differently and are more sincerely and more easily influenced by +other means of bringing truth home to the hearts of men and women.</p> + +<p>Less attention to preaching will permit the rural minister to undertake +the other work given in the following parts of the program here +presented.</p> + +<p>2. There is a second question that we may expect the rural church some +time to consider—must not the Church make more of modern science as a +means of developing social and individual character? This question is +likely to reveal different ideas as to what religion is. One who thinks +of the spiritual as the flower of complete living, who wishes every +possible wholesome condition provided for character-formation, will +naturally regard science as the friend of religion and the basis for +moral progress. There is no one who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>does not wish the Church in some +degree to take advantage of the means for its wider service provided by +discovery and invention. Must not the rural church undertake to +distribute to the community life the helpful information science has, +unless it is willing to give to some other institution a great moral +service that at present it can best perform? Until it assumes in a +greater degree and in a more conscious manner the distribution of +science in the small community life, can we expect any amount of +exhortation to make the community life what it should be? The people +need, to meet their problems, concrete information that furnishes +specific answers to their difficulties.</p> + +<p>At present the average minister realizes that his training has been +philosophic rather than scientific. His outlook upon life is from a +different viewpoint than that from which most men face experience. He +often builds his service for men upon a basis which no other +professional man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>except the lawyer—and he in a smaller and decreasing +degree—is attempting to use in practical effort. If the minister had +been given more science in his preparation for life, there is little +doubt that the Church would have accepted, especially in small towns and +villages, its opportunity to popularize science by bringing men and +women skilful in presenting useful information into the community and by +this time would have been regarded as socially the most valuable +instrument for the distribution of science.</p> + +<p>3. Another question the rural church must soon face. Must there not be +less emphasis given to individualism and more to social control? This is +a question the schools are already facing. A philosophic outlook +naturally tends toward an emphasis upon individual responsibility in a +way science does not justify. Science (medicine, abnormal psychology, +and the social sciences especially) is showing more and more why men act +as they do. One's very personality is social in origin. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>pressure of +early influences and of later public opinion is very great. Moral +results follow influences that belong to diseases, abnormal experiences, +unfortunate suggestions, defective inheritance, and a multitude of +causes understood by science. If religion is the supreme experience of a +wholesome, normal individual, there can be no doubt that increasingly we +must regard our moral problems as social more deeply than individual. +This will force the rural church to give up its present unreasonable +emphasis upon individual conduct and lead it to assume a much larger +social responsibility.</p> + +<p>4. Finally, do not the currents of modern thought and feeling appear to +lead to a greater emphasis upon Christianity as a service rather than as +a system of thought? Will not the rural church consider whether it must +not put more emphasis upon itself as a function and less upon itself as +an interpreter of doctrine? This is the big question. At present the +Church wishes to increase <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>its service, but it has only slight +inclination to reduce the attention it gives to doctrine. The essential +element in Christianity, service—largely as a result of the work of the +churches—has now widespread acceptance, but many are not captivated by +the doctrinal side of church activity. Such men must understand the +meaning of faith to Paul by the meaning of religion to Jesus. They +respond to the appeal of service; they do not take interest in matters +of doctrine. To such the Church is a function, not an interpreter of +dogma. What represents religious sanity in such a movement it is for +time to reveal, but the current now flows toward service and away from a +system of doctrine.</p> + +<p>Service brings religious people together; doctrine separates them. It is +therefore natural that with the present tendency toward making religion +an activity, there should go a profound movement toward religious +consolidation. The reaction from narrower and narrower division, smaller +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>and smaller groups, within Protestantism is very determined. What a +blessing this is proving for the rural people! The burden of +sectarianism is hardest for them to endure. Someone has said that every +argument for the consolidated school is equally strong for the +consolidated church. If activity proves a working basis for the +fellowship of Christian people, we may in time have the community church +attempting to serve all the people in every possible way, and in +association with other churches assuming the same function. At present +this appears very distant and we are satisfied when we find churches +federating, while still assuming the seriousness of doctrinal +differences.</p> + +<p>Our entire social life seems in a state of flux. It is commonplace +thought that changes are taking place. We are too closely related to the +movement to know just what is to be the outcome. A more stable condition +must some time come. It now appears that rural life is entering upon the +period of flux which heretofore <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>has been more characteristic of the +cities. It is folly to suppose that church life will not at all change +during such a social experience as that upon which we have entered. The +rural worker must in every way possible help the Church in the work it +is now doing. He has no right, however, to be content with merely doing +this. He also should seriously think over and over the problems of +possible changes in church activity, that new social demands may not be +ignored. Since he knows the work of many churches, he has a basis for +wide-minded thought. This will prepare him to serve those churches that +attempt new service. In other words, the best type of rural worker will +not merely assist the Church that now is; he will also have sympathy and +understanding for the Church that is coming to be. This second task is +more difficult than the first. It will require critical thought, vision, +patience, courage, and good judgment.</p> + +<p>Perhaps a sufficient criticism of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>program is contained in the +question, "Why doesn't the author try to put his program in practice?" +The force of this challenge has been felt, even by one who is imbedded +in a different occupation and who has peculiar obligations that would +seem to forbid entering a new field of service. This much is certain, +were I a minister in any degree successful, I would be unlikely to feel +the need of any radical change in the program of the rural church; were +I a failure, I would have no courage to suggest the change. As an +outsider I have come to think that some change of program is sure to +come, but not quickly. Meanwhile it is wisdom for us all to remember +that the mission of the Church is a larger matter than its methods.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> "Man or Superman," <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, January, 1917.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +<h2>MENTAL HYGIENE IN RURAL DISTRICTS</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h2>MENTAL HYGIENE IN RURAL DISTRICTS</h2> +<br /> + +<p>Nervous diseases, insanity, and feeble-mindedness are a grievous burden +for modern society. Every form of social ill roots itself in these mind +disorders. Since this great burden seems to be increasing as a result of +the conditions of present-day living, it is not strange that those most +familiar with the situation are seriously alarmed. This concern is +expressing itself in movements that attempt to educate the public to the +need of conserving the mind in every possible way. Interest is being +aroused in mental hygiene and this fact promises great social relief. It +is indeed fortunate that philanthropic effort has thus become welded +with science and is eager to get at one of the most serious sources of +poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, crime, and physical suffering. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>The +student of any of these great social problems knows that the roots of +the difficulty usually run down into human weaknesses such as the mental +hygiene movement is attempting to correct and prevent.</p> + +<p>The mental hygiene propaganda has been up to the present time largely +confined to the urban centers, but it is very important that our rural +districts receive the benefits that come from attention to the problems +of mental health. Not that rural people have greater need of mental +hygiene than have those who live in the cities. Many alienists, on the +contrary, believe the city more in need of mind-conserving activities, +and, although there is no satisfactory basis for comparison, it would +seem as a result of the data gathered by the last census<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> that their +conclusion is reasonable in light of the evidence we have at present +regarding conditions in this country. The country needs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>emphasis +because it can be more easily neglected than the city.</p> + +<p>People in the country are less likely to realize the needs of mental +hygiene. As a rule, rural conditions that should challenge the attention +of the leaders of the communities are not spectacular and appear in +isolation. In urban life, on the other hand, thoughtful social workers +are bound to see many individual cases that belong to the defective +group as a mass, and thereby to realize the seriousness of the problem. +If the rural leaders could put together the cases of social +maladjustment present in many different communities, there is no doubt +that the great need of mental hygiene in the country would be easily +recognized.</p> + +<p>It is also true that mental hygiene propaganda is somewhat more +difficult in the country, partly because of the temper of mind of rural +leadership and partly because of the lack of means for the reaching of +popular attention. People are not likely to be spontaneously interested +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>in the mental hygiene movement. They require the instruction and +inspiration that come through the personality of the alienist. +Fortunately our daily and weekly papers realize the seriousness of the +mental hygiene propaganda and they circulate both in the country and in +the city. This fact is making many of the leading people in the country +nearly as familiar with the problem of mental hygiene as are city +leaders.</p> + +<p>Even though we know less than we should like concerning the amount and +the significance of mental deficiency in the country, we already have +information that reveals the need of mental hygiene effort among rural +folk. The report of the New Hampshire Children's Commission made in 1915 +contains a significant conclusion in regard to the feeble-mindedness in +the rural section of that state. "One of the most significant studies +that can be made in the survey of these counties is the geographic +distribution of the feeble-minded and the proportion of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>entire +state population that falls within this defective class. Since there has +been a report from every town in the state, either by questionnaire or +personal canvass, this proportion may be considered fairly correct, even +though many cases have not been reported. One of the most significant +revelations of this table is the range of feeble-mindedness gradually +ascending from the smallest percentage, in the most populous county of +the state, to the largest percentages, in the two most remote and thinly +populated counties. It speaks volumes for the need of improving rural +conditions, of bringing the people in the remote farm and hill districts +into closer touch with the currents of healthy, active life in the great +centers. It shows that a campaign should begin at once—this very +month—for the improvement of rural living conditions, and especially +for the improvement of the rural schools, so that the children now +growing up may receive the education that is their birthright." We also +have two recent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>government reports that disclose the need of mental +hygiene among rural people.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>The first report, based upon a survey made in Newcastle County, +Delaware, contains among the conclusions these that are of special +interest to the student of rural life:</p> + +<p>"Five-tenths of 1 per cent of 3,793 rural school children examined in +New Castle County are definitely feeble-minded and in need of +institutional treatment.</p> + +<p>An additional 1.3 per cent of the total number were so retarded mentally +as to be considered probable mental defectives and in need of +institutional care.</p> + +<p>A number of mentally defective children were encountered who exhibited +symptoms similar to those which are observed in the adult insane.</p> + +<p>It is believed, as a result of this survey, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>that epilepsy is a more +prevalent disease than it has heretofore been thought to be."</p> + +<p>The other report gives the following information:</p> + +<p>"Of the 1,087 girls and 1,098 boys examined in the rural schools, 93 of +the former and 100 of the latter were below the average mentally, or 8.7 +per cent of the whole number.</p> + +<p>Of the total school population, 0.9 per cent were mental defectives.</p> + +<p>The undue number of one-room rural schools in the county which were of +faulty construction, with poor equipment, and with imperfect teaching +facilities, were largely responsible for the retardation found in the +county.</p> + +<p>The average loss of grade by 193 children, as recorded by teachers, was +1.28 years for girls and 1.5 years for boys, a total of 269 school +years.</p> + +<p>No special classes for the instruction of retarded children were found +in any of the rural schools of the county.</p> + +<p>In addition to the 214 children who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>were retarded and exceptionally +retarded, three epileptics and two constitutionally inferior children +were found among the school children of the county."</p> + +<p>These interesting investigations do not, of course, disclose the full +amount of mental defectiveness in the localities studied, because they +are based on a survey of the children at school and because they +especially take up the matter of retardation and feeble-mindedness. It +is no uncommon thing in the small rural community to find the more +troublesome feeble-minded child withdrawn from the school. The reports +suggest that a wider investigation would increase the number of +defective children, for the method chosen could hardly be expected to +discern all the seriously neurotic children. The information gathered +indicates that epilepsy and the neurotic predisposition to insanity need +to be investigated as well as amentia,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and that the epileptics and +neurotics, even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>among rural children, are more numerous than is usually +supposed. Of course an investigation of the adults would still more +increase the amount of mental abnormality.</p> + +<p>The sociologist is familiar with the social menace of the degenerate +family in the country. Most of the members of the families thus far +studied have lived in the country or small village. It is reasonable to +suppose that on the whole such families find it easier to survive in the +country than in the city. The country offers occupation for the high +grades during the busy season and yet does not require steady employment +all through the year. The social penalties of mental inferiority are not +likely to be so oppressive; certainly there is much less danger of +coming into collision with the law. Our institutions find from +experience that the feeble-minded take kindly to rough, out-door work +and from this it is natural to assume that a large number of the +feeble-minded, free to choose their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>environment, prefer the country to +the city. They are probably more often handicapped by the competition of +city life than by the conditions of life in the rural community.</p> + +<p>It is probably true also that the feeble-minded family is more likely to +renew its vitality by the mixing in of new, normal blood in the country +than in the city. Illegitimacy holds in the problem of rural +feeble-mindedness the same position that prostitution occupies in urban +amentia. The attractive feeble-minded girl—and of course many of these +girls are physically attractive to many men—does not find it difficult +in the country to have sex relations with mentally normal men. Indeed it +is often not realized that the girl is mentally abnormal, and all too +frequently we have a marriage in the country between a woman of unsound +mind and a man who is mentally sound. Illegitimacy is, however, the +larger problem in rural amentia. The same type of girl that in the +country becomes the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>mother of several children, often by different men, +in the city, unless protected, enters prostitution. The city prostitute, +because of the sterilizing effects of venereal diseases, is less likely +to become the mother of children, but, on the other hand, she scatters +about syphilis, which has so much to do with causing mental +abnormalities. It may be a matter of opinion which of the two social +evils, illegitimacy in the country or prostitution in the city, has the +larger influence upon the spread of mental abnormalities, but there can +be no doubt that the rural difficulty deserves the attention of all +interested in mental hygiene.</p> + +<p>It is unfortunate that rural people do not realize more often the +serious meaning of feeble-mindedness. The close contact between +neighbors and the familiarity of community life tend in the country to +develop an indifference to the variations from normal standard that the +high-grade ament expresses. People, as a rule, take the social failures +of the feeble-minded for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>granted and do not specially regard them as +evidences of mental inferiority. This condition makes the limited +segregation possible in the country very difficult indeed. The +thoughtful parent hardly knows how to keep his child from associating +with the deficient child of his neighbor when they live near together +and attend the same school.</p> + +<p>At school also the feeble-minded child is likely to have advantages over +his city brother, which keep him from exhibiting to the full his +inherent mental weakness. A conversation with almost any rural teacher +will impress upon one the fact that the teacher is loath to declare +feeble-minded a child whose records give unmistakable evidence of +amentia and that she generally regards the child as merely dull. +Fortunately this is likely not to be so true in the future, as a result +of the recent instruction that candidates for teaching are now receiving +in our normal schools.</p> + +<p>There is, however, the greatest need of clinic work being carried on in +our rural <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>schools. The problem cannot safely be left with local +authority. The demand is for some state-wide method of mental +examination of school children. This service, which in most states could +be given over to the superintendent of public instruction, ought to be +given wider scope than merely the mental measurement of school children. +The problem requires the service of the alienist. Only by this more +fundamental treatment of the problem can we expect to obtain the full +social relief that the preventive side of mental hygiene promises. As a +matter of fact, however, it is likely that the problem will be +considered first from the viewpoint of retardation in our rural schools. +It will be unwise to force the mental hygiene movement into our rural +school administration more rapidly than the need of it can be made clear +to our rural leadership.</p> + +<p>It is an unhappy fact that we are at present doing so little. The state +certainly must try in some way to provide, for the country children who +need it, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>special class instruction now given backward children in +the cities. This will give relief by providing a basis for the +separation of the curable and the incurable defective children. At +present the defective child who requires treatment and improves in the +special class suffers a great handicap by being in the country rather +than in the city.</p> + +<p>Without doubt epilepsy and psychopathic cases, as well as +feeble-mindedness, receive relatively less attention in the country than +in the city. This situation certainly hinders rural progress and adds to +the social burdens of rural communities. Any one familiar with the life +of a typical rural town will know of peculiarities of conduct and +strange attitudes of non-social persons which indicate mental +unsoundness. These abnormalities express themselves in various forms and +I happen to know of some New England communities that have been +hopelessly separated into two hostile parts as a result of the influence +of persons whose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>subsequent careers have proven that the originators of +the difficulties were socially irresponsible. One such case was a church +quarrel that finally had to receive a state-wide recognition because of +the serious situation that finally resulted. The later suicide of the +individual, who first started the dispute, a suicide that had little +objective explanation, seems to have demonstrated that the whole +difficulty originated because of the influence of a psychopathic +character. In this case had the community known a very little about +mental aberration the history of the difficulty would have been very +different. Even as it was, a very few of the more thoughtful people +believed the man insane.</p> + +<p>The chief reason, however, for mental hygiene propaganda in the country +is the influence it will have in preventing human suffering. The problem +of mind health is a humane one and this fact removes the distinction +between rural and urban need. Urban fields offer more inducements at +present for the worker, but the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>rural need is also great. The rural +districts are less conscious of their distress and perhaps respond less +readily to whatever instruction is given them, but they certainly must +be given the benefits of the mental hygiene movement by a patient and +persistent propaganda.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> "Insane and Feebleminded in Institutions," Washington, D. +C., 1914, pp. 50 and 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "Mental Status of Rural School Children," by E. H. Mullan, +Public Health Reports, Nov. 17, 1916, and "The Mental Status of Rural +School Children of Porter County, Indiana," by T. Clark and W. L. +Treadway, Public Health Bulletin No. 77.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Amentia is used as a technical term for +feeble-mindedness.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +<h2><a name="Page_VI" id="Page_VI"></a>THE SOCIAL VALUE OF RURAL EXPERIENCE</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h2>THE SOCIAL VALUE OF RURAL EXPERIENCE</h2> +<br /> + +<p>Our social ideas, the expression of what the psychologists define as the +social mind, are influenced too much by the thinking of urban people, +too little by that of people who live in the country and small villages. +There are many reasons for this undesirable social situation. One is the +outstanding fact that the city has the prestige that belongs to +political and commercial leadership. The urban leaders have for the most +part obtained their position by their possession of the means of control +of industries and of the channels of communication, or because of their +skill in winning public attention. They have become successful by +exercising capabilities that naturally give them social influence. They +are victors in contests <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>that are decided largely upon the basis of +superior ability in manipulating men. Their advance has meant an +increasing opportunity to influence the thought of their fellows. In +many cases they have deliberately studied the methods of influencing +public opinion and have worked to obtain control of the modern equipment +necessary to direct it. One of the great engines for moving the public +mind is the newspaper and this is always in the hands of urban +leadership and a share of its power can usually be had by those who have +the necessary "pull" or cash.</p> + +<p>Socially the successful farmer belongs to the opposite class. His +success has been obtained for the most part by his skill in handling +natural law. His struggle has been largely with the obstacles that arise +when one attempts to furnish a share of the food supply required by a +hungry world. The farmer's experience with the means of social influence +is limited and in his business there is no need of his impressing +himself upon his fellows. On <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>the other hand it is natural that he +should overvalue the thinking of those who, unlike himself, have +developed the art of making social and political impression. This +tendency to discount his own social contribution in practice—even +though in theory he may often insist upon his paramount social +function—makes the farmer a good follower and a poor leader.</p> + +<p>And yet in the nature of things there is nothing to demonstrate that +socially those who have the machinery that is required for the +influencing of public opinion or who have learned the art of impressing +themselves upon their fellows are the most fit to direct the social +mind. The struggle with Nature teaches as much that is of lasting value +for a philosophy of personal or national conduct as comes from +competition between people. Even if the population stimulus of urban +centers brings forth men of great ability who do large things, it by no +means follows that these men are wise merely because they are powerful. +And even if they were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>justified in claiming superiority at every point +over the successful men of the country, it would not be for the social +good that they be given a monopoly of social prestige.</p> + +<p>Contact with men who occupy high places in city commerce will often +convince any one of a neutral and discriminating mind that these men of +social power have suffered loss at some points in their developing +personality as a result of the struggle that has made possible their +success. The present serious discord between capital and labor is +fundamentally born of the belief of some that wealth is as socially +right in all important matters as it is socially powerful and the faith +of others that the social problems that vex men and women would pass +with the destruction of wealth's artificial social advantages. Each +group confines itself to the territory of experience where everything +has to do with matters of human relationship, and each group insists +that only one point in that territory can have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>value as a position for +the observing and estimating of what happens there.</p> + +<p>The extreme representatives of each group disclose that they have been +forced to a narrow view of human motives and interests by their +environmental experiences. They agree in their elevation of the power of +money to the supreme place socially—one defending the power as +belonging of right to wealth, the other regarding the social situation +as due to the unjust privileges of the few who prey upon the many.</p> + +<p>The typical farmer is both a capitalist and a laborer and has a saner +attitude toward the difficulty than one can have who belongs exclusively +to either group. He is likely to accumulate his capital by slow savings, +which represent in some degree real sacrifice, and he cannot have +sympathy with those who refuse to credit capital with legitimate social +function. He also earns his bread by the sweat of his brow and has +therefore a first-hand knowledge of the burden of human toil. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>This +gives him an understanding of the discontent of exploited labor, but +also a deep contempt for those who have no interest in the work they do. +His thinking in regard to the differences between capital and labor is +born of experiences that are elemental in the human struggle for life +and comfort and therefore cannot be safely turned aside. His sympathies +swing toward one or the other of the conflicting groups according to his +most recent economic experiences. If he has been robbed by some +commission merchant, he joins the protest against the unjust power of +capital; if he has had a hired man who has worked indifferently and with +no respect for his vocation, he understands what is meant by the +unreasonable and impossible demands of labor.</p> + +<p>The unchanging element in his thinking, however, comes from his personal +concern with reference to both capital and labor. In other words, he +lives closer to an earlier economic experience of man, when the present +great gulf between those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>who furnish capital and those who furnish +labor for industry had not been fixed. Neither the representatives of +the capital nor of the labor group, when they undertake what seem to him +extreme measures, can count upon his support.</p> + +<p>The abiding fact that denies to urban thinking the right to enjoy a +monopoly of social influence is this: men cannot safely build up their +social thinking from experiences gathered merely from the field of human +association. Nature also has lessons to teach and lessons that do not +always agree with the inferences that are naturally made when one thinks +only of the experiences of men in their associations. It is socially +foolish and socially unsafe to disregard, or at least to forget, the +value of thinking that functions, as the farmer's does, in the effort to +control Nature for a livelihood that directly contributes to human +welfare. If such thinking is often prosaic and rigid, it is also close +to reality and insistent upon practicality. Narrow it may be at times, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>as a result of lack of opportunity to have wide contact, but it is +substantial and born of knowledge of the necessary limitations that +Nature places upon the wishes of men and women. The farmer by his +vocation is taught to be suspicious of easy solutions. He stands aloof +from men who claim to have found the panacea and regards men of such +abounding enthusiasm as belonging to the same group of the pathetically +deluded as the believers in the machine of perpetual motion. The farmer +keeps the greatest distance from day dreaming and can never have charged +against him as a characteristic fault that menace of self-supporting +fancy which is so insidious in its attack upon the mental wholesomeness +of a multitude of people.</p> + +<p>It becomes, therefore, as a result of a constant and clear-minded +attention to the actual working of forces of Nature that seem at times +friendly and at times hostile to man's purposes, difficult for the +farmer to regard money, even with all its recognized power, as able to +do everything, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>or the one thing to be desired. This does not mean, of +course, that the farmer is indifferent to money. No one who knows him at +all would claim that he is unconcerned in regard to finances. He is +always interested in money, and, like other men, works to make it. For +want of money he is often troubled. He knows how much money will do in +the sphere of human association. His everyday philosophy reveals this in +ways that one cannot mistake. He also knows, however, that even money +has its limits and that these are seen in man's relations with Nature.</p> + +<p>How different it is in the experience of the city-dweller! He finds that +money will do nearly anything. With money he can have the fruits +gathered from the ends of the earth. Without money he is helpless. His +protection from disease, from vice, from countless forms of discomfort, +disrespect, and exploitation depends upon his ability to pay the +necessary rent for safe and pleasant surroundings. How much of +suffering, both physical and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>mental, the want of a "safe" income brings +to the urban-dweller one may discover by merely walking along the +crowded streets of any city. Without the necessary money he even fears +loss of a respectable funeral and burial place in case of death.</p> + +<p>The urban wealthy keep close to more and more wonderful forms of luxury +by money. The urban poor keep out of the breadline by money. The +middle-class know that with a little more money they may expect to join +the first class and with a little less they may be forced into the +second. Money seems the one thing of power. Newspapers, street +discussions, and public opinion, for the most part, encourage the belief +in the omnipotence of money. Only in rare instances, as for example when +there is a death in the family, does the city person from his own +experience discover that money, which has so much of power among men, +cannot fully usurp Nature's control over the desires of men. Having so +often seen great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>natural obstacles overcome by bridges, tunnels, and +immense buildings, the urban person's final mental assumption is that, +given enough money, anything can be done. It is hardly strange that the +political philosophy which is distinctively urban should be built upon +the supreme value of money and the problem of its distribution.</p> + +<p>With the present movement of the population toward urban centers, and +with the increasing ability of urban people through organization and +modern forms of communication to impress their ideas upon men and women +far and near, it is hardly strange that we should in our better moments +recoil from a materialism which seems to be creeping everywhere into +men's souls and producing interpretations of the purposes of life that +are false, dangerous, and sordid.</p> + +<p>The antidote is a larger contribution to national thought and policy +from rural people. Talkers and men skilful in manipulating other men +have been taken too <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>seriously. The doer, especially he who has +first-hand grapple with Nature in the contest she forever forces upon +men, has a word that should be spoken, a word of sanity. City people are +often too far distant from the realities of the primary struggle with +natural law to be entrusted with all the thinking. A visit a few months +ago to any city seed-store would have forced upon any critical observer +how ignorant city people are of the effort required to produce even +their most familiar foods.</p> + +<p>Healthy national ideals require a contribution from both urban and rural +experience. The first we have in quantity. It is the second we lack. It +is the business of those who conserve social welfare to respect the +conclusions of rural thinkers and to discover how rural experience may +make its largest contribution to national policy and social opinion.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +<h2>RURAL VS. URBAN ENVIRONMENT</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h2>RURAL VS. URBAN ENVIRONMENT</h2> +<br /> + +<p>We had just finished eating lunch at one of the more quiet hotels of our +greatest city. We lingered after the meal for a chat, this being one of +the privileges of the place, untroubled by the type of waiter, hungry +for tips, who so often at the metropolitan hotels conveys unmistakably +the idea that one's departure is expected to follow directly the +presentation of his bill. The host was a man of business, famed for his +success and his interest in public affairs, and especially generous in +giving of his money and time to further movements that attempt the +betterment of rural life. He had spent his youth in the open country and +had never lost any of the vividness of his first joys. It was this +mutual interest in rural problems that had brought host and guest +together for a quiet talk.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>"Will you give me your deepest impression of the city as you came into +it from the country?" asked the man of business of the student.</p> + +<p>"I hardly can claim one impression, there are so many."</p> + +<p>"But one must be deeper or at least more consciously so than the others. +It is that I want. I'll tell you in return my strongest impression when +recently I visited, for the first time in several years, the farm where +I was born."</p> + +<p>"I suppose the line of thought that captured my mind when I first came +into the city tonight is what you want."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I began to think not of your noise or your hurry, your poverty or your +crowds, but of your atmosphere of what I call popular materialism. Do +you understand what I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not."</p> + +<p>"I mean I sensed everywhere the emphasis upon the power of money. I +suppose it is an experience forced upon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>the consciousness of everyone +who comes into the life of this great city from a small community. It +seems as if the city was a monument to the idea that money can do +everything, that the getting of money is the only satisfactory purpose +of life."</p> + +<p>"You must not forget the miser of the small village or the considerable +number of city people who do not make business and money-making the +chief object of their lives."</p> + +<p>"Of course in justice I must remember what you say, for it is true. But +you wanted my vivid impression and I give it to you as the feeling that +in the city money seems all-powerful. With it you are able to get +everything, to do everything. You can command other men and they obey +you. You can reach over the ocean and draw luxuries of every kind to you +for your pleasure and your comfort. Wherever you go you are invited to +spend money. At least it is suggested to you how much you could have to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>satisfy your wildest dreams, had you only the necessary bank account.</p> + +<p>"On the other hand, without money you are like a lost soul in the midst +of Paradise. With a little money your life must be spent in miserable +tenements, in a dirty, noisy, unsanitary quarter of the city. Your +children, perchance, must become familiar with the neighboring +prostitute. Disease dogs your steps. Pleasures are few. More income +means not merely renting a better tenement, but also changing to a safer +and more pleasant neighborhood. And always facing you at every turn, +from every show window, even from the posters on the bill boards, are +suggestions of what money could do for you if only you had it."</p> + +<p>"I see your point, but not for many years have I felt the truth of what +you say. I imagine I felt strongly the power of money when I first came +to the city. Of late I have taken the matter for granted and thought +little of it. Yet you must admit that money is power."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>"Of course, but not to the degree the city deludes one into thinking. +Even in the city there is much money cannot do. In the smaller places, +especially in the country, one is impressed with the limitations of +money. In normal ways it is not possible to spend great sums of money in +the country. You do not find methods of getting rid of your money +attracting your attention at every turn. If great wealth is spent, a +plan must be worked out and some new enterprise undertaken—for example, +a magnificent residence or a fancy farm. In the city no forethought is +required to spend great wealth. The opportunity is ever at one's elbow. +The difficulty is not to accept the importunate invitations."</p> + +<p>"I assume you blame the cities for the widespread materialism which is +charged up against modern life?"</p> + +<p>"Not altogether. In the country, as you have suggested, we have lovers +of money and we have sordid poverty. But I do think that urban life +tends to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>emphasize money-getting and to keep it before the mind in a +way that is not natural in the small community. Because of this I regard +the cities as the natural strongholds of materialism and I see a danger +in the urbanizing movement of modern civilization. I think, therefore, +that men like yourself should do everything possible to keep in the +public consciousness the splendid idealism that is in the city. I mean +such kindly sacrifice as the settlement house. However, I have talked +enough. What is your vivid impression as a result of your visit to the +place of your boyhood?"</p> + +<p>"Well, before I give you that, let me remind you that men like myself +get our power to help what you call idealism largely because of our +money. I suppose you hold, therefore, that even in our disinterested +service we advertise the power of money?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I must confess that your influence is never divorced from your +standing as one who has made good in the ways of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>trade. But what of +your country impression?"</p> + +<p>"There is no place that still seems so beautiful to me as the place of +my childhood. I was born beside a splendid river; and not far from the +house, separated from it by stretches of meadowland, was a thick and +extensive forest. It seemed as if I had everything ideal for the play of +childhood.</p> + +<p>"Upon my recent visit I felt as never before the value of what I like to +call the freedom of the spirit. It seems as if country environment +generously provides what the healthy-minded child most needs—an +opportunity for the free play of the fancy. I call it a spiritual +preparation for life, but I assume that the scientist would describe it +as an experience of the imagination. Do I make myself clear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, as far as you have gone. I covet, however, a clearer understanding +of what you mean."</p> + +<p>"I mean what I used to find in Wordsworth's poetry and in the work of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>our own Whittier. I never read them now, but years ago I did a little. +You were country-born yourself, as I remember. Don't you recall how your +imagination made rich with meaning the simple pleasures and sports of +your early life? I can well remember hours of fishing at a dark curve in +the river where the water was black even at noon-day because of the +overhanging trees. I think I never caught a fish there, but there was +always something about the place that made me think that some day a +wonderful catch would be made there. It was a place that enlivened the +fancy and it illustrates what I mean. There were many other such +breeding-spots for fancy scattered along the miles of river and woodland +which I grew to know so well."</p> + +<p>"Don't you consider your play of fancy mentally dangerous?"</p> + +<p>"No, not when it comes into the mind with the incoming tide of +experience. There was plenty of reality. We had our discomforts and our +disappointments. We <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>were forced to take into account the causal order +of things. But the mind had a chance to add its part to the fact of +existence. And so it always needs to be. I have been successful as a man +of business in part because of my early use of the gift of imagination. +It is bad to have life all imagination, to carry into adult experiences +the make-believe of childhood, but it is a miserable and destitute +existence for any adult to bring to his work no imagination."</p> + +<p>"And you regard your earlier use of imagination as a preparation for +your later use?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do. I also regard it as the best basis for a reasonable +spiritual interpretation of life. In addition it furnished pleasures, +the memories of which are sweet and wholesome to this day."</p> + +<p>"Do city children have no similar opportunity for creating fancy?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they do, but their imagination is too quickly forced into the +hard forms of adult experience. They feel all too <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>soon the meaning of +wealth, the punishments of poverty. They dream of more of this or less +of that. They covet possession of the things they see from the store +windows or in the yards of more fortunate children. The shadow of the +money-magic of which you spoke falls too soon for their later good +across their path. With the country boy and girl this is not likely to +happen. Their experiences are more buoyant, more interpretive, more +exploring. Fancy creates and reveals; it does not largely furnish the +false pleasures of fictitious possession. This is to me the difference. +The city may be the richest environment for the adult. That is a matter +of opinion. But I cannot see how anyone can think of it as the best +place for the child. I cannot believe that I would have gotten nearly so +much of good from my early experiences if I had lived in the city. If I +am right, this is another element to add to the great urban problem. If +the experience of the city child suffers spiritual <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>privations from the +limitations of his environment, must this not show itself in social +tendencies? In any case I had a motive in what I have said. You are +interested in movements that attempt to enrich the experiences of +country boys and girls. That is good, but you must not occupy all of the +child's time or interest. Give him freedom to discover his own inner +resources, the spiritual union between his cravings and the richness of +nature. Don't exile him from nature's paradise by too much adult +supervision, organization, or influence. In my day we had too little +adult assistance in our games and recreation. I can imagine a condition +where the country childhood would suffer from too much."</p> + +<p>It was this suggestion that I carried away with me from our +conversation.</p> + +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +<h2>THE MIND OF THE FARMER</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h2>THE MIND OF THE FARMER</h2> +<br /> + +<p>In discussing the mind of the farmer, the difficulty is to find the +typical farmer's mind that north, south, east, and west will be accepted +as standard. In our science there is perhaps at present no place where +generalization needs to move with greater caution than in the statement +of the farmer's psychic characteristics. It is human to crave +simplicity, and we are never free from the danger of forcing concrete +facts into general statements that do violence to the opposing +obstacles.</p> + +<p>The mind of the farmer is as varied as the members of the agricultural +class are significantly different. And how great are these differences! +The wheat farmer of Washington state who receives for his year's crop +$106,000 has little understanding of the life outlook of the New +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>Englander who cultivates his small, rocky, hillside farm. The difference +is not merely that one does on a small scale what the other does in an +immense way. He who knows both men will hardly question that the +difference in quantity leads also to differences in quality, and in no +respect are the two men more certainly distinguishable than in their +mental characteristics.</p> + +<p>It appears useless, therefore, to attempt to procure for dissection a +typical farmer's mind. In this country at present there is no mind that +can be fairly said to represent a group so lacking in substantial unity +as the farming class, and any attempt to construct such a mind is bound +to fail. This is less true when the class is separated into sections, +for the differences between farmers are in no small measure +geographical. Indeed, is it not a happy fact that the American farmer is +not merely a farmer? Although it complicates a rural problem such as +ours, it is fortunate that the individual farmer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>shares the larger +social mind to such a degree as to diminish the intellectual influences +born of his occupation.</p> + +<p>The method of procedure that gives largest promise of substantial fact +is to attempt to uncover some of the fundamental influences that operate +upon the psychic life of the farmers of America and to notice, in so far +as opportunity permits, what social elements modify the complete working +of these influences.</p> + +<p>One influence that shows itself in the thinking of farmers as of +fundamental character is, of course, the occupation of farming itself. +In primitive life we not only see the importance of agricultural work +for social life but we discover also some of the mental elements +involved that make this form of industry socially significant. From the +first it called for an investment of self-control, a patience, that +Nature might be coaxed to yield from her resources a reasonable harvest. +We find therefore in primitive agriculture a hazardous undertaking +which, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>nevertheless, lacked any large amount of dramatic appeal.</p> + +<p>It is by no means otherwise today. The farmer has to be efficient in a +peculiar kind of self-control. He needs to invest labor and foresight in +an enterprise that affords to the usual person little of the opportunity +for quick returns, the sense of personal achievement, or the +satisfaction of the desire for competitive face-to-face association with +other men which is offered in the city. Men who cultivate on a very +large scale and men who enjoy unusual social insight as to the +significance of their occupation are exceptions to the general run of +farmers. In these days of accessible transportation we have a rapid and +highly successful selection which largely eliminates from the farming +class the type that does not naturally possess the power to be satisfied +with the slowly acquired property, impersonal success, and non-dramatic +activities of farming. This process which eliminates the more restless +and commercially ambitious from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>country has, of course, been at +work for generations. It has tended, therefore, to a uniformity of +mental characteristics, but it has by no means succeeded in procuring a +homogeneous rural mind. The movement has been somewhat modified by the +return of people to the country from the city and by the influence on +the country mind of the more restless and adventurous rural people who, +for one reason or another, have not migrated. In the far West +especially, attention has been given to the rural hostility to, or at +least the misunderstanding of, city movements which attempt ambitious +social advances. It is safe to assume that this attitude of rural people +is widespread and is noticeable far west merely because of a greater +frankness. The easterner hides his attitude because he has become +conscious that it opens him to criticism. This attitude of rural +hostility is rooted in the fundamental differences between the thinking +of country and of city people, due largely to the process of social +selection. This mental <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>difference gives constant opportunity for social +friction. If the individuals who live most happily in the city and in +the country are contrasted, there is reason to suppose that the mental +opposition expresses nervous differences. In one we have the more rapid, +more changeable, and more consuming thinker, while the thought of the +other is slower, more persistent, and less wasteful of nervous energy.</p> + +<p>The work of the average farmer brings him into limited association with +his fellows as compared with the city worker. This fact also operates +upon him mentally. He has less sense of social variations and less +realization of the need of group solidarity. This results in his having +less social passion than his city brother, except when he is caught in a +periodic outburst of economic discontent expressed in radical agitation, +and also in his having a more feeble class-consciousness and a weaker +basis for cooperation. This last limitation is one from which the farmer +seriously suffers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>The farmer's lack of contact with antagonistic groups, because his work +keeps him away from the centers where social discontent boils with +passion and because it prevents his appreciating class differences, +makes him a conservative element in our national life, but one always +big with the danger of a blind servitude to traditions and archaic +social judgments. The thinking of the farmer may be either substantial +from his sense of personal sufficiency or backward from his lack of +contact. The decision regarding his attitude is made by the influences +that enter his life, in addition to those born of his occupation.</p> + +<p>At this point, however, it would be serious to forget that some of the +larger farming enterprises are carried on so differently that the +manager and owner are more like the factory operator than the usual +farmer. To them the problem is labor-saving machinery, efficient +management, labor cost, marketing facilities, and competition. They are +not especially <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>influenced by the fact that they happen to handle land +products rather than manufactured articles.</p> + +<p>Much has been made of the farmer's hand-to-hand grapple with a +capricious and at times frustrating Nature. This emphasis is deserved, +for the farmer is out upon the frontier of human control of natural +forces. Even modern science, great as is its service, cannot protect him +from the unexpected and the disappointing. Insects and weather sport +with his purposes and give his efforts the atmosphere of chance. It is +not at all strange, therefore, that the farmer feels drawn to fatalistic +interpretations of experience which he carries over to lines of thought +other than those connected with his business.</p> + +<p>A second important influence that has helped to make the mind of the +farmer has been isolation. In times past, without doubt, this has been +powerful in its effect upon the mind of the farmer. It is less so now +because, as everyone knows, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>farmer is protected from isolation by +modern inventions. It is necessary to recall, however, that isolation is +in relation to one's needs and that we too often neglect the fact that +the very relief that has removed from country people the more apparent +isolation of physical distance has often intensified the craving for +closer and more frequent contact with persons than the country usually +permits. Whether isolation as a psychic experience has decreased for +many in the country is a matter of doubt. Certainly most minds need the +stimulus of human association for both happiness and healthiness, and +even yet the minds of farmers disclose the narrowness, suspiciousness, +and discontent of place that isolation brings. It makes a difference in +social attitude whether the telephone, automobile, and parcel post draw +the people nearer together in a common community life or whether they +bring the people under the magic of the city's quantitative life and in +this way cause rural discontent.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>The isolation from the great business centers which has kept farmers +from having personally a wide experience with modern business explains +in part the suspicious attitude rural people often take into their +commercial relations. This has been expressed in a way one can hardly +forget by Tolstoi in his "Resurrection," when his hero, from moral +sympathy with land reform, undertakes to give his tenants land under +conditions more to their advantage and, much to his surprise, finds them +hostile to the plan. They had been too often tricked in the past and +felt too little acquainted with business methods to have any confidence +in the new plan which claimed benevolent motives. It is only fair to +admit that the farmer differs from others of his social rank only in +degree, and that his experiences in the past appear to him to justify +his skeptical attitude. He has at times suffered exploitation; what he +does not realize is that this has been made possible by his lack of +knowledge of the ways of modern <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>business and by his failure to +organize. The farmer is beginning to appreciate the significance of +marketing. Unfortunately, he too often carries his suspiciousness, which +has resulted from business experiences, into many other lines of action +and thinking, and thus robs himself of enthusiasm and social confidence.</p> + +<p>A third important element in the making of the farmer's mind may be +broadly designated as suggestion. The farmer is like other men in that +his mental outlook is largely colored by the suggestions that enter his +life.</p> + +<p>It is this fact, perhaps, that explains why the farmer's mind does not +express more clearly vocational character, for no other source of +persistent suggestions has upon most men the influence of the newspaper, +and each day, almost everywhere, the daily paper comes to the farmer +with its appealing suggestions. Of course the paper represents the urban +point of view rather than the rural, but in the deepest sense it may be +said to look at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>life from the human outlook, the way the average man +sees things. The newspaper, therefore, feeds the farmer's mind with +suggestions and ideas that counteract the influences that specially +emphasize the rural environment. It keeps him in contact with thinking +and events that are world-wide, and unconsciously permeates his motives, +at times giving him urban cravings that keep him from utilizing to the +full his social resources in the country. Any attempt to understand +rural life that minimizes the common human fellowship which the +newspaper offers the farmer is certain to lead to unfortunate +misinterpretation. Mentally the farmer is far from being isolated in his +experiences, for he no longer is confined to the world of local ideas as +he once was. This constant daily stimulation from the world of business, +sports, and public affairs at times awakens his appetite for urban life +and makes him restless, or encourages his removal to the city, or makes +him demand as much as possible of the quantitative <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>pleasures and +recreations of city life. In a greater degree, however, the paper +contents his mental need for contact with life in a more universal way +than his particular community allows. The automobile and other modern +inventions also serve the farmer, as does the newspaper, by providing +mental suggestions from an extended environment.</p> + +<p>A very important source of suggestion, as abnormal psychology so clearly +demonstrates, at present, is the impressions of childhood. Rural life +tends on the whole to intensify the significant events of early life, +because of the limited amount of exciting experiences received as +compared with city life. Parental influence is more important because it +suffers less competition. This fact of the meaning of early suggestions +appears, without doubt, in various ways and forbids the scientist's +assuming that rural thinking is made uniform by universal and unvaried +suggestions.</p> + +<p>The discontent of rural parents with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>reference to their environment or +occupation, due to their natural urban tendencies, or to their failure +to succeed, or to the hard conditions of their farm life, has some +influence in sending rural youth to the city. Accidental or incidental +suggestion often repeated is especially penetrating in childhood, and no +one who knows rural people can fail to notice parents who are prone to +such suggestions expressing rural discontent. In the same way, +suspiciousness or jealousy with reference to particular neighbors or +associates leads, when it is often expressed before children, to general +suspiciousness or trivial sensitiveness. The emotional obstacles to the +get-together spirit—obstacles which vex the rural worker—in no small +degree have their origin in suggestion given in childhood.</p> + +<p>The country is concerned with another source of suggestion which has +more to do with the efficiency of the rural mind than its content, and +that is the matter of sex. Students of rural life apparently <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>give this +element less attention than it deserves. As Professor Ross has pointed +out in "South of Panama," for example, the precocious development of sex +tends to enfeeble the intellect and to prevent the largest kind of +mental capacity. It is unsafe at present to generalize regarding the +differences between country and city life in matters of sex, but it is +certainly true, when rural life is empty of commanding interests and +when it is coarsened by low traditions and the presence of defective +persons, that there is a precocious emphasis of sex. This is expressed +both by early marrying and by loose sex relations. It is doubtful +whether the commercializing of sex attraction in the city has equal +mental significance, for certainly science clearly shows that it is the +precocious expression of sex that has largest psychic dangers. In so far +as the environment of a rural community tends to bring the sexual life +to early expression, we have every reason to suppose that at this point +at least the influence of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>community is such as to tend toward a +comparative mental arrest or a limiting of mental ability, for which the +country later suffers socially. Each student of rural life must, from +experience and observation, evaluate for himself the significance of +this sex precociousness. When sex interests become epidemic and the +general tendency is toward precocious sex maturity, the country +community is producing for itself men and women of inferior resources as +compared with their natural possibilities. Even the supposed social +wholesomeness of earlier marrying in the country must be scrutinized +with the value of sex sublimation during the formative years clearly in +mind.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +<h2>PSYCHIC CAUSES OF RURAL MIGRATION</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h2>PSYCHIC CAUSES OF RURAL MIGRATION</h2> +<br /> + +<p>In modern civilization the increasing attractiveness of the city is one +of the apparent social facts.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Social psychology may reasonably be +expected to throw light upon the causes of this movement of population +from rural to urban conditions of life. Striking illustrations of +individual preference for city life, even in opposition to the person's +economic interests, suggest that this problem of social behavior so +characteristic of our time contains important mental factors.</p> + +<p>Since sensations give the mind its raw material,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> the mind may be said +to crave stimulation. "In the most general way of viewing the matter, +beings that seem to us to possess minds show in their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>physical life +what we may call a great and discriminating sensitiveness to what goes +on at any present time in their environment."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> This interest of the +mind in the receiving of stimulation for its own activity is an +essential element in any social problem. The individual reacts socially +"with a great and discriminating sensitiveness" to his environment, just +as he reacts physically to his stimuli to conserve pleasure and avoid +pain.</p> + +<p>The fundamental sources of stimuli are, of course, common to all forms +of social grouping, but one difference between rural and urban life +expresses itself in the greater difficulty of obtaining under rural +conditions certain definite stimulations from the environment. This fact +is assumed both by those who hold the popular belief that most great men +are country-born and by those who accept the thesis of Ward that +"fecundity in eminent persons seems then to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>intimately connected +with cities."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The city may be called an environment of greater +quantitative stimulations than the country. The city furnishes forceful, +varied, and artificial stimuli; the country affords an environment of +stimuli in comparison less strong and more uniform. Minds that crave +external, quantitative stimuli for pleasing experiences are naturally +attracted by the city and repelled by the monotony of the country. On +the other hand, those who find their supreme mental satisfactions in +their interpretation or appreciation of the significant expression of +the beauty and lawfulness of nature discover what may be called an +environment of qualitative stimulations. The city appeals, therefore, to +those who with passive attitude need quantitative, external experiences; +the country is a splendid opportunity for those who are fitted to create +their mental satisfactions from the active working over of stimuli <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>that +appear commonplace to the uninterpreting mind. If Coney Island, with its +noise and manufactured stimulations, is representative of the city, +White's "Natural History of Selborne" is a characteristic product of the +wealth of the country to the mind gifted with penetrating skill.</p> + +<p>Doubtless this difference between rural and urban is nothing new, and +from the beginning of civilization there have been the country-minded +and the city-minded. In our modern life, however, there is much that +increases the difference and much that stimulates the movement of the +city-minded from the country. Present-day life with its complexity and +its rapidity of change makes it difficult for one to get time to develop +the active mind that makes appreciation possible. Our children +precociously obtain adult experiences of quantitative character in an +age of the automobile and moving pictures, and an unnatural craving is +created for an environment of excitement, a life reveling in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>noise and +change. Business, eager for gain, exploits this demand for stimulation, +and social contagion spreads the restlessness of our population. The +urban possibilities for stimulation are advertised as never before in +the country by the press with its city point of view, by summer +visitors, and by the reports of the successes of the most fortunate of +those who have removed to the cities. In an age restless and mobile, +with family traditions less strong, and transportation exceedingly cheap +and inviting, it is hardly strange that so many of the young people are +eager to leave the country, which they pronounce dead—as it literally +is to them—for the lively town or city. It is by no means true that +this removal always means financial betterment or that such is its +motive. It is very significant to find so many farmers who have made +their wealth in the country, or who are living on their rents, moving to +town to enjoy life. May it not be that a new condition has come about in +our day by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>the possibility that there are more who exhaust their +environment in the country before habit with its conservative tendency +is able to hold them on the farm? One who knows the discontent of +urban-minded people who have continued to live in the country can hardly +doubt that habit has tended to conserve the rural population in a way +that it does not now. And one must not forget the pressure of the +discontent of these urban-minded country parents upon their children. +The faculty of any agricultural college is familiar with the farmer's +son who has been taught never to return to the farm after graduation +from college. That the city-minded preacher and teacher add their +contribution to rural restlessness is common thought.</p> + +<p>In the city the sharp contrast between labor and recreation increases +without doubt the appeal of the city to many. The factory system not +only satisfies the gregarious instinct, it also gives an absolute break +between the working time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>and the period of freedom. In so far as labor +represents monotony, it emphasizes the value of the hours free from +toil. This contrast is often in the city the difference between very +great monotony and excessive excitement after working hours. It has been +pointed out often that city recreation shows the demand for great +contrast between it and the fatigue of monotonous labor. So great a +contrast between work and play—monotony and freedom—is not possible in +the country environment. In the midst of country recreations there are +likely to be suggestions of the preceding work or the work that is to +follow. It is as if the city recreations were held in factories. Country +places of play are usually in close contact with fields of labor. Often +indeed the country town provides the worker with very little opportunity +for recreation in any form. In rural places recreation cannot be had at +stated periods. Weather or market conditions must have precedence over +the holiday. Recreation, therefore, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>cannot be shared as a common +experience to such an extent by country workers as is possible in the +city. Since the rural population is very largely interested in the same +farming problems, even conversation after the work of the day is less +free from business concerns than is usually that of city people.</p> + +<p>The difficulty of obtaining sharp contrast between work and play in the +country no doubt is one reason for the ever-present danger of recourse +to the sex instinct for stimulation. One source of excitement is always +present ready to give temporary relief to the barren life of young +people. Not only of the girl entering prostitution may it be said that +with her the sex instinct is less likely "to be reduced in comparative +urgency by the volume and abundance of other satisfactions."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The +barrenness of country life to the girl growing into womanhood, hungry +for amusement, is one large reason <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>why the country furnishes so large a +proportion of prostitutes to the city. "This civilizational factor of +prostitution, the influence of luxury and excitement and refinement in +attracting the girl of the people, as the flame attracts the moth, is +indicated by the fact that it is the country dwellers who chiefly +succumb to the fascination. The girls whose adolescent explosive and +orgiastic impulses, sometimes increased by a slight congenital lack of +nervous balance, have been latent in the dull monotony of country life +and heightened by the spectacle of luxury acting on the unrelieved +drudgery of town life, find at last their complete gratification in the +career of a prostitute."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>Consideration of the part played in the rural exodus by the nature of +the stimuli demanded by the individual for satisfaction or the hope of +satisfaction in life suggests that the school is the most efficient +instrument for rural betterment. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>The country environment contains +sources of inexhaustible satisfaction for those who have the power to +appreciate them. Farming cannot be monotonous to the trained +agriculturist. It is full of dramatic and stimulating interests. Toil is +colored by investigation and experiment. The by-products of labor are +constant and prized beyond measure by the student and lover of nature. +Even the struggle with opposing forces lends zest to the educated +farmer's work. This does not mean that such a farmer runs a poet's farm, +as did Burns, with its inevitable financial failure, but rather that the +farmer is a skilled workman with an understanding and interpreting mind. +If the farming industry, under proper conditions, could offer no +satisfaction to great human instincts, it would be strange indeed when +one remembers the long period that man has spent in the agricultural +stage of culture. City dwellers in their hunt for stimulation are likely +to face either the breakdown of physical vitality or the blunting of +their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>sensibilities. Country joys, on the other hand, cost less in the +nervous capital expended to obtain them. The urban worker, in thinking +of his hours of freedom in sharp contrast with the time spent at his +machine, forgets his constant temptation to use most of his surplus +income in the satisfying of an unnatural craving for stimulation created +by the conditions of his environment. This need not be true of the rural +laborer and usually is not.</p> + +<p>It is useless to deny the important and wholesome part that the urban +life and the city-minded man play in the great social complex which we +call modern civilization, but he who would advance country welfare may +wisely agitate for country schools fitted to adjust the majority of +country children to their environment, that they may as adults live in +the country successful and contented lives. We need never fear having +too few of the urban-minded or the able exploiters of talent who require +the city as their field of activity. The present tendency makes +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>necessary the development of country schools able to change the +apparent emptiness of rural environment and the excessive appeal of +urban excitement into a clear recognition on the part of a greater +number of country people of the satisfying joys of rural stimulations.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Gillette, "Constructive Rural Sociology," p. 42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Parmelee, "The Science of Human Behavior," p. 290.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Royce, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Ward, "Applied Sociology," pp. 169-98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Flexner, "Prostitution in Europe," p. 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Ellis, "Studies in the Psychology of Sex," VI, 293.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +<h2>RURAL SOCIALIZING AGENCIES</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>X</h2> + +<h2>RURAL SOCIALIZING AGENCIES</h2> +<br /> + +<p>The individualism of rural thinking has been universally recognized. It +is this attitude of mind that has produced much of the strength of rural +character and much of the weakness of rural society. That the closer +contact of town and country and the rapidly developing urban mind +require more social thinking upon the part of country people few can +doubt. There are some people, however, who fear this socializing +influence of urban thought in the country, because they believe that it +will antagonize rural individualism in such a way as to destroy the +fundamental distinction between rural and urban ethics.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, however, people in these days obtain their sense of +personal responsibility from their confidence in their social function, +and this confidence is not developed by an excessive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>individualism. The +farmer, like men in other occupations, needs to make realization of his +social service the corner stone of his moral life. This world war has +made every thinking person realize the unrivaled function that the +farmer performs socially, and it is fortunate for the future of rural +welfare that what has always been true is at last finding adequate +appreciation. It is the farmer himself who has most suffered in the +recent past from not realizing the value of his social contribution. The +widespread thoughtless indifference to his social service has, at least +in the oldest portions of the nation, given him an irritating social +skepticism and driven him into a dissatisfying industrial isolation. We +naturally antagonize what we do not share and the farmer when he has +thought himself little recognized as a social agent has had his doubts +about the justice and sanity of public opinion.</p> + +<p>It was doubly unfortunate that this situation developed at a time when +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>religion was called upon to make heroic changes in order to adapt +itself to the needs of modern life. Formerly religion gave rural +thinking a larger outlook than individual experience by providing an +outstretching theological environment. Rather lately this environment +has ceased to satisfy the needs of rural people. Religion has in the +city become social in a way of which our fathers did not dream, and in +the country it must find its vigor also by introducing the believer to +his social environment in such a way as to emphasize social function, as +much as personal inward obligations formerly were emphasized by +theology.</p> + +<p>We need, therefore, for the best interests of the country that the +native sense of personal importance characteristic of rural thinking +should be brought into contact with social need, so that it may function +socially. Out of this movement will issue most happily a great social +optimism in the country and individualism will lose nothing by being +adjusted to modern <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>social needs. The chief agencies that socialize +rural thinking are the church, the school, the press, secret societies +and clubs, and the industry of farming itself.</p> + +<p>The effective rural church as a socializing agency has a commanding +position. Even the inefficient church has more social influence than +appears on the surface. In a considerable part of the area of social +inspiration the Church has an absolute monopoly. The rural church, +however, has been until recently too well content with an individual +ethics that modern life has made obsolete. In our day healthy-minded +religion is forcing men and women to see their duties in social forms. +It is becoming clear that one cannot save his own soul in full degree if +attention is concentrated upon personal salvation. The country ministry +is beginning to feel the changing order of things and there is an +increasing attempt to build up a socializing institution in the Church. +Such a radical readjustment is not easily made, nor can we expect it to +be a complete <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>success. Ministers are puzzled how to work out the new +program; they even at times become discouraged as a result of +disappointments. Impatience may be made the cause of defeat in such a +reform. It is much to ask of our generation that it turn about face +morally. Yet the dangerous thing is sure to happen when no effort is +made to influence the Church to assume a moral social function in the +country. We think as a people in social terms and the church that +remains backward in assuming social duties is bound to be repudiated by +the program of vital Christianity. The church that is struggling to +maintain the old-time individualism is driven first to isolation and +later to social hostility and moral stagnation. The rural church will +move on more smoothly if it can obtain better-trained leadership. The +minister is not yet given an adequate social view in some of our +theological seminaries, great as have been the changes in theological +preparation during the last twenty years. It is natural enough that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>the +more socially minded of our preachers should rapidly drift cityward, for +in the urban centers they can obtain the sympathy and opportunities that +they crave.</p> + +<p>Sectarianism narrows the social viewpoint. It is true that it brings one +church into fellowship with outside churches of the same denomination, +but it makes for moral division rather than unity and magnifies +differences rather than similarities in the community life. Sectarianism +is very largely maintained by churches in small places. Where church +competition is severe, and especially when church support is dwindling, +the Church advertises its distinctiveness and enters upon a +life-and-death grapple with its neighbor institutions. Of course this +develops sectarianism and forbids the wide outlook in its teaching that +is required of a successful socializing agency.</p> + +<p>There is positive need of church federation if the rural church is to do +its social service properly. The resources of a country community cannot +be scattered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>if social enterprises are to be successfully carried on. +These undertakings are of necessity expensive in proportion to community +resources, both in equipment and leadership. Therefore, the religious +work must be hampered in its social contribution unless there shall be a +greater concentration of religious resources. This fact appears clearly +with reference to work carried on by the rural church by means of a +community-center or parish house. No form of service promises more for +country welfare, but seldom can it be continued successfully year after +year in a rural town or small village unless there is a concentration of +the religious resources of the community.</p> + +<p>Fortunately we have seen of late a vigorous effort to improve the rural +schools and to make them more modern. The endeavor has been made to +bring the schools more intimately into contact with their environment. +This movement naturally tends to increase the effectiveness of the +schools as a socializing agency <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>because the viewpoint that guides the +effort is one that brings into prominence the social relations of the +schools. This progress is hampered here and there by a considerable +inertia for which individualistic thinking is largely responsible. There +are also positive limitations imposed upon the expansion of the school's +social service due to the physical environment. Distance, the scattering +of homes, and the small populations restrict the work of the most +efficient consolidated school at some points where it tries to perform +the largest possible social service.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, however, the urban school is far less social than +it wishes to be. Under the spell of our own recent educational +experience it is difficult for us, who have to do with educating +institutions, to see the radical changes that modern life demands of the +schools and colleges. We add socializing efforts without removing the +individual viewpoint that has gotten into school studies and +professional habits. The failures of the city schools are less <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>apparent +because the atmosphere of urban life is itself socializing. The walk or +ride to the city school is likely to make some contribution of +socializing character even to the unobservant child. It is still true +that the education outside of the schools, the spontaneous instruction +provided by the children themselves in addition to the publicly +constructed school, impresses itself most upon the childish mind. The +urban school is greatly strengthened in its social function by this +by-product of school attendance. It is aided also by the fact that the +public is more critical respecting its service. In the country we find +the reverse. The by-products of education deepen character, but on the +whole tend toward individualism. The community also is not asking for a +large social contribution from the schools, and this loss of public +pressure toward social effort is in the country very serious.</p> + +<p>The consolidated school, modern in equipment and in spirit, adds greatly +to the effectiveness of rural education as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>socializing agency. In +spite of limitations inherent in rural environment, the consolidated +school is by instinct social, and its community service is therefore +being enriched by its successful experience. It will increasingly relate +its work to the needs of the community and to the demands of the home +and will add to its socializing function by assuming new lines of +service. Large as is its present contribution, in the near future it +will be much greater. The consolidated school has enabled rural +education to assume new undertakings and this is most fortunate, for the +old type of rural school has about reached the limit of its social +service.</p> + +<p>It is safe to assume that neither in the city nor country are we likely +to overestimate the influence of the press. The daily and weekly paper +have a wide circulation among rural people and furnish a source of +penetrating and persistent social influence all the more significant +because the readers are little conscious of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>what they receive from +their reading. Into the most remote places the paper goes and is +received with avidity. The appeal is to human interest and is based upon +the entire hierarchy of instincts. No agency more successfully +socializes. It affords a mental connection with distant places that is a +good antidote for the physical loneliness in the country, which many +living there experience. It prevents the stagnation that comes from +concentration upon the interests of the day and neighborhood, for it +draws the attention of the reader out into the world of business and +affairs. It keeps country people from a too great class character by +charging the rural mind with the effects of modern civilization and of +necessity brings rural and urban people into a more sympathetic +relation. If it invites some to the city—as it certainly does—it also +makes the country a more satisfying and safer environment for those who +remain. Fortunately the papers are themselves sensitive to modern +thought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>and therefore attempt propaganda of a constructive social +character. If the appeal to human interests causes these educational +efforts to err respecting scientific accuracy, it is nevertheless true +that in spite of this fault the articles have a beneficent effect in +protecting the country from the excessive conservatism that isolation +tends to bring. The newspaper is the great gregarious meeting place of +the minds of men and therefore it serves to develop mental association +in a most intense manner. The weekly paper also serves a large +constituency in the country and on the whole probably socializes in a +more profound degree than the daily. The weekly permits the rural reader +to associate with the leaders of popular thought and builds up that +enthusiastic conviction which leadership always obtains. The leaders of +the country districts in this manner come into fellowship with the +thinking of urban men of influence. The farm paper is not to be +overlooked in a survey of the influence of the press <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>upon country life. +Its little value as a professional journal because of its unscientific +character is in many instances a great handicap upon the progress of +agriculture, but even when these papers fail in having real worth for +the industry of farming they do extend professional fellowship by +encouraging harmony and enthusiasm. And as a whole the value of these +papers, aside from their socializing influence, is increasing as they +are more and more influenced by scientific investigation.</p> + +<p>Secret societies and benevolent orders have a large following among +rural and village people. They are popular because they perform a very +valuable social service. No institution carries on its social function +with greater success, and for this reason it is rather strange that +rural sociology has not studied these organizations more seriously. +Because they afford fellowship, recreation, and comradeship, their +appeal is very great indeed to those who feel the hardships of physical +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>isolation. These societies do not limit their usefulness to community +welfare in a narrow sense, for they tie their following to similar +organizations in other localities and make possible an exchange of +interests that socializes in a marked degree. It is true that each +serves a limited number of people in the community, but the cleavage is +along natural lines and does not provoke feuds or neighborhood +hostility.</p> + +<p>The one great danger that they create in some small places is the fact +that there are so many of them that they capture nearly every evening of +the week and make it difficult for any community-wide enterprise to +obtain a free evening to bring all the people together. It is also true +that some of them fail to take a serious interest in the community +welfare, being content merely to enjoy the fellowship that they make +possible.</p> + +<p>This latter criticism cannot be justly made respecting the rural society +strongest in the eastern section of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>country—the Patrons of +Husbandry. This society, popularly known as the Grange, affords contact +with outside organizations, but it also takes a very practical and sane +interest in its own community. No movement has done more to conserve the +best of country life; no organization has in the country maintained so +sincere a democracy. Unlike most secret societies, it has made a family +appeal and has interested husband, wife, and children. It has taken a +constructive attitude toward legislation of importance to farmers, and +rural life has certainly become greatly indebted to its efficient +socializing efforts.</p> + +<p>The enterprise most successfully socializing country life is the +business of farming itself. The farmer, who once maintained so large a +degree of economic independence, has of necessity become a man of +commerce, as seriously concerned and nearly as consciously interested in +business conditions as the city merchant. This situation is one of the +burdens of farming. The farmer must both produce and sell <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>his crop. +Lack of skill in either undertaking may mean failure.</p> + +<p>Economic pressure forces attention. The pain penalty, the product of bad +adjustment to the demands of the occasion, commands respect. The farmer +feels this pressure of economic conditions just as any other man of +business. He is not free to isolate himself and enjoy the economic +security of fifty years ago. Any indifference that he may assume toward +the business world is likely to bring him economic punishment which will +teach him his economic dependence as no argument could. It follows that +the farmer's attention is driven from family and neighborhood affairs +out into the modern world with all its complexities. He thinks in social +terms, because from experience he has learned his social dependence in +matters that concern the pocketbook. With painful evidences of his +economic interrelations in mind, he tends to become tolerant regarding +movements that attempt to socialize his community life. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>realizes +that the independence of his fathers has gone not to return and that his +happiness as well as his prosperity depend upon his opportunity to +become well established in social relations.</p> + +<p>No experience in the business of farming is so impressive as that of +membership in a cooperative enterprise. Whether the undertaking fails or +succeeds, it certainly teaches the member the meaning of social +interrelations. Often it fails because the mental and moral preparation +for successful working together is lacking. This is not strange, for +rural life in the past has done little to build up a social viewpoint +and the strain placed upon individual purposes in any cooperative effort +is necessarily great. Cooperation is never so easy as it sounds in +theory, but economic conditions are making it necessary in many rural +localities if farming is to continue a profitable industry. Under +pressure the farmers will develop the ability to cooperate. In this they +are like other people, for cooperation seldom comes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>until circumstances +press hard upon people who hopelessly try to meet individually +conditions that can be successfully coped with only by a cooperative +attack. We therefore must not pass hasty judgment upon the failures in +cooperative efforts among country people. All such experiences have some +part in the better socializing of rural thinking.</p> + +<p>Without opposition to those who are placing emphasis upon other lines of +rural advance, as social workers, we must keep ever before rural +leadership the enormous importance that social conditions have for the +prosperity, wholesomeness, sanity, and happiness of rural life. Every +agency that has social value for country life must realize to the +fullest degree possible its socializing functions if it covets for +itself fundamental social service.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +<h2>THE WORLD WAR AND RURAL LIFE</h2> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +<br /> +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>XI</h2> + +<h2>THE WORLD WAR AND RURAL LIFE</h2> +<br /> + +<p>What will be the influence of this world war upon rural life? This +question is constantly before the mind of thoughtful people who are +lovers of country life and interested in rural prosperity. Of course it +is much too soon to answer this question in detail or with certainty. It +is true, nevertheless, that already we can see evidences of the +influence the present war is having upon the conditions of country life. +It is also possible, perhaps, to discover the direction in which other +influences, born of the war, are likely to have significance for rural +welfare. It is certainly most unreasonable for anyone to suppose that +this terrible war of the nations will not greatly influence country +conditions and country people.</p> + +<p>One result is not a matter for argument. The great war has forced public +attention <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>upon the problems of food production, and, as a consequence, +the social importance of the work of country people has been finally +revealed, so that even the least thoughtful has some realization of the +indispensable industrial contribution rendered to society by those who +till the soil.</p> + +<p>Has this nation ever before had such a serious realization of the social +importance of the agricultural industry? The prosperity of agriculture +has become the nation's concern, because these war days are revealing +how certainly farming is the basic enterprise of industry. And our +experiences are those of the entire civilized world. It is not at all +strange, therefore, that thoughtful students and public administrators +the world over are earnestly studying how to foster the farming +interests, not only during the war but also after it is over.</p> + +<p>Before August, 1914, there were few people who realized that, under the +conditions of modern welfare, one question of greatest national +importance is how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>nearly the nation at conflict can produce the food +necessary for its existence. It is unlikely that the nations will soon +forget this lesson that they have been taught by the ordeals of this +world war. Agricultural dependence is for any nation a very serious +military weakness.</p> + +<p>Nations that cannot feed themselves must first of all use their military +power to make it possible to import the needed food. This, of course, is +a military handicap, for it removes military resources from the +strategic points for defence or attack, that lines of communication with +other nations that are furnishing food may be kept open. The more nearly +nations are able to obtain from their own cultivated land sufficient +food stuff, the more effectively they can use their army and navy in +strategic military service.</p> + +<p>It does not seem possible that this great lesson can be forgotten by our +generation. Perhaps this is the largest result that the war will yield +within the field of rural interests. National leaders <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>as never before +will consider every possible method by which farming can be made +profitable, satisfying, and socially appreciated. This policy will be +undertaken not merely for the sake of the farmer, but also as a means of +providing national safety.</p> + +<p>The war already has disclosed the tendency of national policy to regard +the uses made of farming land as a matter for social concern. In +England, France, and Germany especially we have had, as a result of war +conditions, public control exercised regarding the uses made of private +land. Certain crops have been outlawed. Others have been stimulated and +encouraged by the action of the government. It has proved wise to +establish this control over the uses made of productive land. Of course, +war has furnished the motive and made possible the success of this +practical public control of land resources. Indeed, before the war, no +one could have imagined that England, for example, could have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>led +to so great a public control of the uses of productive land as has +already resulted from the war.</p> + +<p>Already we find some people advocating that the government continue +after the war to exercise a degree of such control over the uses made of +private lands and it attempt to conserve national safety by stimulating +the production of staple crops. At least for a time it will be difficult +to win converts to the proposition that the public has no interest in +what people who own productive land may do with their property. By +education, if not by legislation, the wiser nations are likely to +attempt consciously to direct production for social welfare. Probably +some nations will not hesitate to subsidize the cultivation of certain +crops in order to keep agriculture in a condition of preparedness for +the trials of war.</p> + +<p>Whenever the war ceases, one of the problems that will immediately face +all the warring nations will be how best to get great numbers of +soldiers and sailors <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>back into productive industry. The task will be +the largest of its kind in all human history. We find in Europe those +who advocate that the government should place many of the soldiers and +sailors back upon the land by making practicable a system of small +farms. To some this appears the wise way to help the partially disabled +soldiers and sailors. The problem of men suffering from nervous +instability deserves special attention. Many who have seen service will +return with slight nervous difficulties that will handicap them in +certain forms of urban industry. Their best protection from serious +disorders will be in many cases opportunity to engage in agriculture. At +this point the question of competition with experienced farmers who +suffer from no disability naturally arises. Experience may prove that +the government can wisely give financial assistance to those placed on +the land, by government aid in one form or another, to protect them in +their undertakings.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>It has been pointed out by European students that the small farm is not +likely to increase much the production of the staple crops, since in +Europe garden truck is more easily handled by those who cultivate small +farms. Because of this fact, the effort of the government to encourage +the growing of staple crops for purposes of national safety is likely to +be independent of the movement to place soldiers and sailors on the +land. In Europe the success of the small farms appears to be conditioned +largely by the ability of the land owners to cooperate. Stress will have +to be placed upon the development of the spirit of cooperation, and +this, fortunately, will have a social influence in addition to its +economic advantages. How much governments may do to encourage the +building up of efficient cooperative enterprises is more or less +problematical, but the experience of Denmark teaches that more can be +done than has been done by most governments.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>It is interesting to notice how the war has stimulated cooperation in +Europe. None of the countries illustrates this more than Russia. January +1, 1914, there were about 10,000,000 members of cooperative societies or +about 5.8 per cent of the total population. In 1916 this membership had +increased to 15,000,000. Counting in the families of the cooperators, it +is estimated that 67,500,000 people in Russia are interested in +cooperative enterprises, or about 39 per cent of the population. We find +that development of cooperation in consumption has been in Russia +directly related to the pressure for food due to war conditions. The +large majority of Russian cooperative societies are rural.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Other +countries, notably England and France, have also felt the influence of +the war in increasing the development of cooperation.</p> + +<p>In America we are still too distant from the bitter consequences of war +to feel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>the need of planning for the care of the crippled and nervously +injured soldiers. Imagination will not allow us to picture the returning +of the soldiers as a problem. Our remarkable success in getting the +soldiers back into industry after the Civil War gives us a strong sense +of security when we do consider the matter. Probably if the war +continues for several years our problem after this war will be more +serious than it was in 1865. In any case we shall have a considerable +number of those who, because of physical or nervous injuries, will +require public assistance of a constructive character. If such men can +be made fully or even partly self-supporting by being placed on land it +will help both them and the food productiveness of the nation. Of +course, this form of public aid, like every other method of giving +assistance, has its political and economic dangers. The prosperity of +other farmers must not be disturbed. So many interests are involved that +the entire problem demands time for serious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>discussion, so that we may +not be troubled by hasty, half-baked legislation.</p> + +<p>Anyone who has visited an army cantonment has felt the gregarious +atmosphere of army service. For a few men this is the most trying +experience connected with the service. Others find in it the supreme +satisfaction. Every soldier is influenced by it more or less. What will +it mean to the soldier who has come into the army from the small country +place? We know, as a result of what social workers among the soldiers +tell us, that the country boy is often very sensitive to this enormous +change from an isolated rural neighborhood to the closest contact +possible in a community which is literally a great city. By necessity +the recruits from the country are forced into the conditions of city +life, into an environment that is more gregarious than any normal urban +center experiences. What result is this likely to have upon the future +social needs of the men from rural districts? It is to be expected that +many of them will not be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>content again in the country. They will have +developed cravings that the country-life environment cannot satisfy. For +this reason it is not likely that the placing of former soldiers and +sailors on the land will have in any country all the success desired. +Much will depend upon who are selected to go into the country. On the +other hand, it is safe to predict that this war will add momentum to the +city-drift of our population and increase the number of those who form +the mobile class of rural laborers.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>International Review of Agricultural Economics</i>, August, +1917.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rural Problems of Today, by Ernest R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rural Problems of Today + +Author: Ernest R. Groves + +Release Date: March 20, 2009 [EBook #28365] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RURAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY *** + + + + +Produced by Tom Roch, Barbara Kosker and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images produced by Core Historical +Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) + + + + + + RURAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY + + + + + RURAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY + + + + + ERNEST R. GROVES + + _Author of "Moral Sanitation," "Using the Resources of + the Country Church," etc._ + + + + + ASSOCIATION PRESS + NEW YORK: 124 EAST 28TH STREET + 1918 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY + THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF + THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS + + + + + TO + + GLADYS HOAGLAND + + WHOSE UNSELFISH AND INTELLIGENT CARE OF + + CATHERINE AND ERNESTINE + + HAS JUSTIFIED THE ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE + + OF THEIR MOTHER + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book is written for the men and women who love the country and are +interested in its social welfare. Fortunately there are many such, and +each year their number is increasing. + +Rural life has as many sides as there are human interests. This book +looks out upon country-life conditions from a viewpoint comparatively +neglected. It attempts to approach rural social life from the +psychological angle. The purpose of the book forces it from the +well-beaten pathways, but this effort to give emphasis to the mental +side of rural problems is not an attempt to discount the other +significant aspects of the rural environment. The field of rural service +is large enough to contain all who desire by serious study to advance at +some point the happiness, prosperity, and wholesomeness that belong by +social right to those who live and work in the country. + +The author desires to thank the following for the privilege of using +material previously published: American Sociological Society, _American +Journal of Sociology_, National Conference of Social Work, Association +Press, and _Rural Manhood_. + + E. R. G. + + Durham, N. H. + April 1, 1918. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + PREFACE vii + + I. THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY HOME 1 + + II. THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 15 + + III. THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS 41 + + IV. THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND THE RURAL WORKER 53 + + V. MENTAL HYGIENE IN RURAL DISTRICTS 71 + + VI. THE SOCIAL VALUE OF RURAL EXPERIENCE 89 + + VII. RURAL VS. URBAN ENVIRONMENT 103 + + VIII. THE MIND OF THE FARMER 117 + + IX. PSYCHIC CAUSES OF RURAL MIGRATION 135 + + X. RURAL SOCIALIZING AGENCIES 149 + + XI. THE WORLD-WAR AND RURAL LIFE 169 + + + + +THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY HOME + + + + +I + +THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY HOME + + +With reference to the care of children, faulty homes may be divided into +two classes. There are homes that give the children too little care and +there are homes that give them too much. The failure of the first type +of home is obvious. Children need a great deal of wise, patient, and +kindly care. Even the lower animals require, when domesticated, +considerable care from their owners, if they are to be successfully +brought from infancy to maturity. Of course children need greater care. +No one doubts this. And yet it is certainly true that there are, even in +these days of widespread intelligence, many homes where the children +obtain too little care and in one way or another are seriously +neglected. + +The harmfulness of the homes that give their children too much care is +not so generally realized as is the danger of the careless and selfish +home, although, in a general way, everyone acknowledges that children +may be given too much attention. The difficulty is to determine when a +particular child is being given too much adult supervision and too +little freedom. No one would question the fact that a child can become +an adult only by a decrease of adult control and an increase of personal +responsibility. Nevertheless, in spite of a general belief that a child +needs an opportunity to win self-government, there are parents not a few +who, from love and anxiety, run into the danger of protecting and +controlling their children too much. The father or mother spends too +much time with the children. The children are pampered. Too many +indulgences are permitted them. Children in these over-careful homes are +likely to grow up neurotic, conceited, timid, babyish, daydreaming men +and women, who are of little use in the world and are often a serious +problem for normal people. Probably this second type of a deficient home +is more dangerous than the first, for children without sufficient home +care often discover a substitute for their loss, but the over-protected +children can obtain no antidote for their misfortune. + +Everyone knows that attacks are increasingly being made upon the home in +its present form by people who regard it as inefficient or as an +anachronism. It is usually thought, however, that these attacks come +mostly from agitators who set themselves more or less in opposition to +all the institutions established by the present social order. Perhaps +for this reason many do not believe that the family is receiving any +serious criticism and its satisfactory functioning is therefore taken +for granted. Such an easy-going optimism is not justified, for criticism +of the home is coming from science as well as from the agitators. For +example read "The Deforming Influences of the Home," by Dr. Helen W. +Brown, which appeared in the _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_ for April, +1917. She writes in one place as follows: + +"Small wonder, then, if we begin to see that many of the mental ills +that afflict men are not due, as has been commonly supposed, to lack of +home training and the deteriorating influence of the world, but to too +much home, to a narrow environment which has often deformed his mind at +the start and given him a bias that can only be overcome through painful +adjustments and bitter experience." + +The psychoanalysts and the clinic psychologists are gathering material +all the time that illustrates the bad results of home influences, and +soon the agitator will be using this as proof of the harmfulness of the +home as an institution. Some of us believe that no skepticism can be +more dangerous socially than that relating to the value of the home. The +best protection of the home must come from its moral efficiency and this +cannot be obtained if people are unwilling to face reasonable and +constructive criticism of the present working of the home. It is natural +for the adult looking backward to his childhood to assume too much for +the home, and then to transfer his emotion and his sense of the value of +his home experience to the present family as an institution. With this +enormous prejudice he refuses to see how often the family influence is +morally and socially bad. It would surprise such a person at least to +read an article like Emerson's "The Psychopathology of the Family" which +recently appeared in _The Journal of Abnormal Psychology_. Material +showing the unhappy results of inefficient family influences may be +found in nearly any number of the _Psychoanalytic Review_. + +There appear to be three causes of the unwholesomeness of home +influences: lack of competition between homes, insufficient science +regarding the home problems, and the pleasure basis of family +organization. + +First: There is no competition between homes. This is a most strikingly +peculiar situation. The home is competed against by other institutions, +such as the saloon, the moving picture, and the like, but as between +homes there is no competition whatever. Home life is a private affair. +Public opinion rules that it remain private. Nothing is sooner or more +seriously resented than interference with or criticism of the home life +of the individual. Professional men, such as doctors, lawyers, and +ministers, and business men compete with one another, and from this +competition comes constant, sane change and progress. But in the home, +there being no competition, methods of home management, however bad, go +on without change. Parents never realize their habitual carelessness in +home life. The scientists are seeking to bring some sort of competition +into home life, but they are under a very heavy handicap. In fact this +handicap is greater now than formerly, for our forefathers made long +visits with each other, sometimes staying for weeks in one home, thus +giving ample opportunity for valuable criticisms and suggestions from +guest to host. + +Second: Bringing up children is really a scientific task and requires +scientific information. But to obtain scientific information of +practical value relating to the home is a baffling proposition. Human +instincts and child development have been studied very little. We have +theorized a great deal about such problems, but we have a remarkably +small fund of actual accurate information. Such knowledge as we have +recorded has been mostly obtained by parents, who have, of course, been +prejudiced. In such cases we seldom know the later history of the child +or the character of the home management and the actual contribution that +the home made as compared with other influences. Men who have had to +consider the entire history of an individual, who comes to the mind +specialist for treatment because of some abnormality of mental or moral +character, are gathering a great deal of valuable material regarding +family influences, but much of this is in regard to men and women who in +one way or another have been social failures. We have no material at +present of equal value in regard to the persons who in a popular sense +are "normal individuals." Such valuable information as we already have, +we are not very seriously trying to distribute. Yet, fortunately, a +beginning has been made and the entire problem is receiving an attention +that it has never before had. + +Third: People are finding it difficult to accept the responsibilities +that belong to family life. Modern men and women more and more are +basing the home upon pleasure and comfort and personal advantages in a +narrow and thoughtless sense. When the crucial tests of family fitness +come with the children, the parents fail. They have had little specific +training for their greatest obligation and under such circumstances it +is strange only that so often they do not greatly fail. Children are +often unwelcome when they come into the home. Their coming disturbs the +easy-going pleasure regime of the household and as they become somewhat +of a burden to the father and mother, their interests are compromised, +that their parents may continue to have some of the freedom which they +enjoyed before the children came. Imagination cannot prepare for +experience in such a degree as to make it possible for those who marry +to realize the possible responsibilities of their choice. Because of +this they often are found to have undertaken tasks against which in +their heart of hearts they protest. It is natural for them, with such an +internal dissatisfaction, not to commit themselves fully or sufficiently +to the needs of their children. + +Of one fact there is no doubt. Modern science is all the time +illustrating that early childhood, the period when the influence of +parents counts most, is the most significant of all the life of the +individual. Diseases and weaknesses of a physical character that +originate in early life bring about physical results that show in later +life. The same fact is true, but not so easily seen, with reference to +mental, moral, and social characteristics. The influence of the parents +upon the thinking of the child is particularly important. A child must +be trained to think rightly early in life. He should be saved from a +fanciful, dreamy life. He should be made to face real conditions, for +only as he tussles with reality is he prepared to enter the +relationships later demanded of mature adults. In all this he is much +influenced by his parents. At times real ability in the child to meet +his tasks with childish heroism is crushed by his parents and his entire +life spoiled. + +The county worker, the minister, and the social leader in the country +must in their work consider seriously the needs of the home. The great +war will surely put a new strain upon the family. One result is likely +to be a freer relation between the sexes. Women now in new occupations, +because of the demands for labor due to war conditions, are likely to +remain in considerable numbers. This will influence the home status. +Schools are becoming more and more efficient and are taking over more of +the home functions. Good social service in the country will encourage +the home to use more fully its opportunities, to accept all its possible +functions. It is well not to be in a hurry to take as our work that +which the home fails to accomplish. The bad families, on the other hand, +should be stripped of all functions possible. Such homes cannot be +"eaten up" too soon. + +Training should be provided for parents in the country. Some of this +type of social service is already being carried on in the cities. It is +equally needed in the country. Put on work for parents and get them to +come. Bring in men who have practical messages of real value to parents. +Don't seek to get a crowd. Lead country idealism to concrete problems. +For example, attempt to lower the death rate by making information +regarding health more popular. Drive the patent medicines from their +stronghold. Introduce the more thoughtful people to the work of the Life +Extension Institute. + +Do not forget the human need of inspiration. People know more now than +they use. Get speakers who can inspire parents to activity. Only keep +the inspiration from being dissipated. Connect with actual problems the +interest awakened by good speakers. Insist upon enriching and +encouraging the home through the contributions of earnest talks upon +home problems. Don't expect cold science to accomplish with country +people what it is unable to do in the city. Inspiration and instruction +are both required. + + + + +THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE + + + + +II + +THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE[1] + + +There is in our modern life nothing more significant than the increasing +social discontent regarding the present status of the home. Criticism of +our family conditions comes both from the enemies and from the friends +of the home. A radical and vigorous school of thought finds in the +family of today a mere social and moral anachronism, to be pushed aside +as quickly as possible. Another group of thinkers, on the other hand, +sees in the changes that are already taking place in the conditions of +family life, a hopeless deterioration. In such a turmoil of social +controversy there is at least unmistakable evidence that the home is +passing through a period of readjustment. This much is clear: changes in +our manner of life have placed a strain upon the family that it cannot +successfully withstand without greater efficiency. + +Any effort to determine the value and obligations of the family, whether +urban or rural, requires first of all a clear statement of the +significant places of irritation, where at present the family is meeting +strain that makes readjustment necessary. These may be classified as +difficulties created by changes in: + +1. The equipment or environment of the family. + +2. The function of the family. + +3. The internal adjustment of the family. + +Regarding the family equipment, the situation in the city is certainly +radically different from what it was. The usual dwelling place of the +home was, in former times, a house which the family occupied +exclusively. It made home seclusion and family fellowship easy and gave +the family group a sense of responsibility for its place of living. For +an increasing number of people, this type of dwelling place no longer +exists. In its place we have the flat, the hotel, and the apartment +house. The new conditions do not provide the present family with a +favorable equipment. The seclusion of the family is largely removed. The +fellowship within the family circle is greatly decreased because of the +limitations of the place of abode, and the increased attraction of +places of amusement outside, made necessary because of the failure of +the home to give satisfactory recreation. Of course, the sense of +personal responsibility for the place of habitation is almost entirely +destroyed. Such is the equipment furnished the family by modern city +life. In the country, however, the family has had little significant +change in its equipment. + +The largest function of the family is its moral training. It is this +service which has made the family the most important element in our past +civilization. Were the family of the future to fail morally, it would be +hard to imagine how its existence could be justified. Without doubt +this moral function of the family has centered about the children. The +conditions of modern urban life, however, tend to make the moral +training of the child by the home increasingly difficult. The city +dwelling does not offer the child a normal opportunity for his play. The +school and other institutions have to take over service formerly +rendered the child in the home. In a large number of cases the urban +home regards the child as merely a burden and therefore in such homes +every effort is made to have no children born. This prevents the home +from attempting the moral service for which it exists. Instead, the +futile attempt is made to build up an enduring, satisfying home life +upon the basis of the mere personal pleasure of husband and wife. In the +country we find the home, for the most part, attempting to carry out its +former function as an educational and moral institution. + +The most serious difficulty in our present family appears to be +internal. Economic changes have brought women, to a very great degree, +into industry as wage earners. Women are at present earning a livelihood +in almost every form of occupation. New ethical and political ideas, in +addition to this great economic change in woman's life, have influenced +her status. She no longer has to marry in order to obtain the +necessities of life. She can become a wage earner. If she marries, she +brings into her new state of living the sense of independence that has +come to her from her experiences as a wage earner. In many cases, after +marriage she continues to work away from the home for wages. Marriage, +as it used to be, made no provision for the new status of woman. It +assumed a dependence, a subordination, and a limitation to which in +these days many women refuse to assent. This internal change in the +conditions of home life brings about a host of difficulties that require +satisfactory adjustment if the living together of the husband and wife +is to be a happy one. + +In the country the demand for this new adjustment is less serious, for +there, to a greater degree than in the city, there are women who have +not claimed their new status. + +The rural home with reference to its equipment, function, and internal +adjustment appears superior to the city home. When this conclusion is +reached, many students of rural problems are content to drop the +discussion of the rural family. Such an attitude of satisfaction +concerning the country home is neither logical nor safe. It may well be +that the country family will meet the strain due to modern changes later +than the urban family, but sooner or later it will have to face the need +of new adjustment. Only time itself can disclose whether the country +home will find serious difficulties in the way of its final adjustment +to the significant changes of modern life. There is certainly little +security in the fact that numerous country families have as yet been +insensible to the matrimonial unrest so characteristic of urban people. +What has come first to the urban centers must, sooner or later, to a +greater or less degree, enter country life. Indeed, it is impossible to +doubt that family discontent is growing in the country. + +The important question, however, to the moral and social worker is +whether the country is obtaining all that it should from its superior +family opportunity. Assuming that it is healthier than the city, with +reference to the equipment, function, and adjustment of the family, it +is reasonable to ask, "What are the obstacles that keep the country home +from making its largest moral contribution to society?" + +One fault with some country homes stands out on the surface. The wife is +too much a drudge. Her life is too narrow and too hard. This type of +home is passing, no doubt, but it has by no means passed. This kind of +woman may be little influenced by new thought, and may think her +situation as natural for her as it was for her mother. Whatever her +personal attitude, however, from the very nature of things she is unable +to make a significant moral contribution through her family duties. +There will be striking exceptions, of course, but the general rule will +stand--in modern life the woman drudge makes a poor mother. The fact +that she is less likely to rebel against her hard condition than her +urban sister, does not remove the dangers of her situation. And it is +well for the lover of country welfare to remember that even when the +wife accepts with no complaint the hardness of her lot, she often blames +her husband's occupation, farming, for her misfortune, and becomes a +rural pessimist, urging her children neither to farm nor to marry +farmers. Her deep, instinctive protest appears through suggestion in the +cravings of her children for urban life and urban occupation. + +The housekeeping problem is for the woman on the farm seldom an easy +one, but, nevertheless, conditions that make of the farmer's wife an +overworked house slave are in these days of labor-saving devices without +excuse. In any case, such a family situation in the country, whatever +its cause, must be regarded as pathological. + +Sex has too large a place in the construction of the rural family. One +of the advantages of the country family of which we hear much is the +general tendency toward earlier marriages than in the city. Without +doubt marriages, as a rule, do occur earlier among country people. This +fact is significant in more ways than most writers recognize. A very +thoughtful student of the American family, Mrs. Parsons, has called +attention to the social importance of the fact that after maturity +mental and moral traits are more likely to influence the choice than +merely physical traits. In other words, the earlier marriages are more +likely to be influenced by sex interests--using the term in a narrow +sense--than are the later marriages. This brings no social problem to +the minds of those who see in marriage, for the most part, merely +physical attraction and relations. The movement of human experience +seems, however, on the whole, to be away from such a conception of +marriage. Although the postponement of marriage requires for social +welfare a greater moral self-control, we have every reason to suppose +that we must gain social health by a higher moral idealism rather than +by a return to the earlier marriage of former generations. In that case, +to a considerable degree, the earlier marrying of the country people +discloses that they have not as yet felt the full force of the modern +causes that make for later marriages. Earlier marriages may be indeed +happier, but they are often narrower. + +A recent writer tells us that the vices of the country are the vices of +isolation. Sex difficulties arise spontaneously and require no +commercial exploitation when young people live a barren and narrow life +without ideals. This emphasis of sex is expressed not merely in +immorality and illegitimacy, but also in a precocious interest in sex +and in a precocious courtship. Early marriage, therefore, often +represents the reaction from an uninteresting and empty environment and, +however fortunate in itself, certainly does not demonstrate a socially +wholesome situation. + +To contrast the divorce situation in the country with that in the city +also fails to give the basis for social optimism that the facts are +often used to prove. Public opinion has more to do with actions than +law, and at present the general attitude toward the granting of divorce +is more conservative in the country than in the city. The reason for +this difference is, in large measure, the fact that once again the +country shows itself less sensitive to the changes that are taking place +with reference to the conditions of marriage. It certainly is not safe +to assume that the unhappy marriages in the country are in proportion +to the number of divorces. It is more likely that unless the urban +attitude changes, in time the country will come to feel toward divorces +much as city people do at present. + +It is important to notice that, although legal divorce is frowned upon, +there is often a considerable social indifference to the loose living +together of men and women. Two clergymen at work in a rural community of +about a thousand people recently stated that there were in the community +at least forty unmarried people living together as husband and wife. +Later, I was informed by another resident of the town that the clergymen +had not exaggerated the situation. And yet I doubt not that the +community had a rather low divorce record. It is very interesting how +the moral code of a community may be strict at one point, while lenient +at another. In some rural communities, at least, one may find an +inconsistent public opinion that expresses very rigid hostility to +divorce and little practical opposition to lax sex relations. The low +attitude toward the sex element in marriage and the coarse viewpoint +disclosed by conversation often surprise the country visitor who is not +acquainted with the occasional inconsistency of rural ethics. Judging +the standing of married life by infrequent divorces and rather early +marriage, he is painfully disconcerted to discover that the marriage +ideal is nevertheless mean and lacking in social inspiration. + +A third criticism is deserved by the rural family, namely, its failure +to make use of its social opportunity. It is easy to demonstrate the +greater normality of the rural family as compared with the urban family, +with respect to the family conditions that make possible an efficient +home life. It is not always true, however, that these superior family +opportunities are of social value. It is true that children are +generally valued in the rural home. This is, at times, for the supposed +economic help the children are expected to be to the parents, rather +than because of an unselfish regard for the children, as a moral +opportunity. It is true that the home generally counts for more in the +life of the country child than in that of the city child. This by no +means proves that the greater home influence is always a social asset. +The home may penetrate the child's life deeply and yet affect it badly. +If the home means more, the character of the home comes to have a larger +meaning; what the significance of the home influence may be, is +determined by the type of the home. A greater opportunity for family +fellowship is naturally offered by the rural home, but this fellowship +opportunity works both ways. The closer contact of all the members of +the family often results in bringing all of them down to a low level of +culture. The base attitude of one or of both parents toward life may +poison each child's aspiration as he advances into maturity. The +neighborhood relation, which brings several families into close contact, +often permits a vicious child of one family to initiate many children +from various homes into sex experiences in such an unwholesome way that +purity of mind becomes very difficult later on, whether the illicit +intercourse comes to an end or not. + +Rural people are too likely to be content with their superior family +conditions. There is real need for an emphasis upon the proper use of +these opportunities. The conscientious urban parent is stimulated to his +best by the rivalry of other attractions that attempt to exploit his +child. The rural parent has no security in the greater natural +advantages of the country home. Everything depends upon the way the +rural home makes use of its opportunity. The rural church, especially, +should take to heart this remarkably significant fact. + +No institution in the country has the importance of the family. Good +moral strategy requires, therefore, that effort be made to make the +rural home happy and wholesome. The needs of rural people are indeed +many, but there is no need greater than the fullest development of the +opportunities for moral progress provided by the conditions of family +life in the country. It would seem as if one principle should always be +observed--no effort is wholly good that looks toward a substitution for +family responsibility. It is also true that the family will not again +have the moral monopoly of the child. Necessary as it may be, in certain +cases, to allow the family to farm out its important functions to some +other institution, this condition ought always to be recognized as +unfortunate. The better way of making permanent progress is effort that +encourages the family to make better use of its neglected opportunities. + +First of all, the rural home needs to be spiritualized. Of course, there +is equal need of spiritualizing the urban home, but that problem does +not concern us now. Objections are sure to be raised against any rural +program that bases itself upon an attempt to emphasize idealism and a +spiritual interpretation of experiences. There is, however, no other +way. Material progress will neither content nor elevate country life. +Contact with nature is so close and constant that when spiritual insight +is lacking there is bound to be a fatalistic and brutalizing tendency. +Religion that does not enter intimately into everyday life and enrich +the baffling experiences of daily labor with great spiritual +interpretations, gives little of value to country people. The rural home +awakens to its opportunities only when it is invigorated by vital +spiritual inspiration. A materialistic philosophy of life will eat the +heart out of the country and leave it in despair. Country people seldom +have wide choice; they must either penetrate common experience with the +eye of confident idealism, or they must dig the earth, bent down with +the oppressing burden of dissatisfied toil. Whatever the philosophy of +life, it will command the spirit of the home. + +Parents also need training if they are to make successful use of the +opportunities placed in their hands. This training needs especially to +give the parents a right point of view respecting sex and +sex-instruction. At present there is a powerful taboo in most country +places regarding any constructive attempt to give helpful sex +information, although, as a matter of practice, conversation often +gravitates toward sex in a most unwholesome fashion. The taboo is fixed +for the most part upon any public recognition of sex, while privately, +interest in matters of sex is taken for granted. We have gossip and +scandal, but little right-minded attention to sexual knowledge. This +condition must change before many families will be fit to win the full +confidence of the children and to influence them toward a high-minded +outlook upon life. + +We must appreciate the very valuable efforts that are already being put +forth to make the rural homes more efficient with reference to +sanitation, hygiene, and proper food. This instruction promises to +decrease much human suffering, discontent, and poverty. In some +respects such constructive service is more needed in the country than in +the city. Certainly, good results are already appearing as a result of +the efforts that institutions and people interested in the country have +put forth. + +The rural family must be made to realize the consequential character of +childhood experience. The alienist especially has demonstrated the +significant influence of childhood upon adult motives and conduct. +Recent studies of human conduct have greatly magnified the importance of +early experience and have disclosed how often it is the first cause of +morbid thinking and anti-social actions. The conclusion is not to be +doubted--a still greater effort must be made to conserve human character +by a wiser control of the influences of childhood. One may discover for +himself how interested conscientious parents are in detailed +illustrations of childhood influence upon adult life and how impressed +they are with the seriousness of such facts. Rural families must be +taught more generally this impressive contribution of modern science. + +A much greater effort must be made in many localities to lift from the +rural family the burden of the feeble-minded. The possible harm that may +be caused by a high-grade feeble-minded boy or girl in the country can +be appreciated only by one who has come in contact with such a problem. +The close contact, free association, and common interests of rural folk, +with the added difficulty of segregating one's child, even when the +menace of a feeble-minded associate is fully recognized, make the +presence of feeble-minded boys and girls in the country a more difficult +and more serious matter than is the case at present in the city. The +school and the state, that is, the state by means of the opportunity +provided by the schools, must take more effective measures to handle +this problem. Until this has been brought about by public education and +agitation, many rural families will be required to encounter serious +moral dangers and problems for which society is itself responsible. + +The rural family needs to be taught to be more just and more generous in +regard to other families. The clannish spirit ought to pass, for it is +without excuse in these days. The family interests a generation ago were +altogether too narrowly conceived to make a wholesome social life +possible. Greater cooperation is necessary if rural people are to make +progress, and this cooperation is impossible when families are jealous +and suspicious. This obstacle in the way of wholesome rural culture, +made by selfish and petty family motives, it is useless to ignore. +Unless the obstacle can be pushed aside, other efforts to inspire +country people to a realization of their social opportunities must +surely fail. Family life in the country can be saved from its besetting +sin when rural leadership undertakes this task with the seriousness its +importance justifies. + +The rural family must be led to adopt a positive morality. This is +imperative. The age of prohibition as an expression of ideals has +passed. Emphasis must be placed upon what we should do, and must be +removed from a trivial and legalized code of "Don'ts." Here and there in +the country we find a firmly entrenched negative interpretation of moral +obligation. Nothing is so dangerous morally as this. Nothing can so +certainly drive out of the community the broad-minded, fine-spirited +youth. The family must interpret morality with good sense and with a +full regard for the proportions of things. The parents must teach a +better moral standard than they themselves were taught. The home +morality must have the flavor of kindliness and sweet reasonableness. +Morality, to be true to its essence, does not require that it be made +disagreeable. Goodness is beauty expressed in human conduct and, +therefore, deserves freedom to disclose its winsome charm as well as +its stern pre-eminence. + +This program for constructive social service in the country is largely +based upon the conservation of the moral and spiritual resources of the +country. The deepest need of the country can be satisfied by no smaller +propaganda. The instruments for such service we already have. The +country school, the country church, neighborhood fellowship, and the +Young Men's Christian Association provide the means for a moral and +spiritual renaissance in the country. There is no easier way to obtain a +healthy rural family life than by a skilful, serious, and large-hearted +use of our moral institutions in concrete, courageous, and modern +instruction, and in persuasive inspiration. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Published as a part of the report of the fifth Country Life +Conference by Association Press under the title, "The Home of The +Countryside." + + + + +THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS + + + + +III + +THE RURAL WORKER AND THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS + + +Of late the rural schools have been receiving much attention. Educators +and others interested in rural welfare have seriously studied the needs +and opportunities of our country schools and the good results of this +interest are already revealing themselves. It is true, of course, that +much of this contribution to the rapidly increasing literature devoted +to rural educational problems has come from men who live in urban +communities and who for the most part have expert knowledge concerning +the administration of urban schools. + +It is easy, without doubt, to give too much emphasis to the peculiar +needs of the rural schools and to forget that urban and rural schools +have much in common. Without forgetting that many of our school +problems are fundamental and present in all schools regardless of the +environment in which they attempt to function, it is reasonable to +regret that a larger part in the discussions relating to rural education +has not been taken by people living in the country and familiar with the +rural life of the present time. It is only just to add, however, that +both urban and rural education suffer because so little influence comes +into school theory and practice from those who stand outside the +profession of teaching. The teacher is not likely to know life so widely +or so accurately as do those men and women who have won success by +meeting actual situations that test practical judgment and sound +self-control. Every one subscribes to the statement that the business of +education is the preparation of pupils for life, every one knows that +the value of such a preparation can be made certain only by being +brought under the acid test of the actual conditions of social life, but +few there are that realize that one of the ever-present problems of +educational efficiency is due to the fact that the thinking that +influences the purposes and methods of teachers mostly originates within +the profession itself. The significance of this would be apparent were +it true that all of one's education for life comes from the schools; +happily, this is not true, and most pupils obtain valuable experiences +from actual contact with problems of life that impress them more deeply +than the preparation which at the same time the school is trying to +give. + +The rural worker needs to feel a responsibility for the making of some +contribution to the rural school's social program. He cannot help having +some advantages, in judging the results of school training, over the +teacher who is busy with the process of instruction itself. Without +doubt the rural worker has felt incompetent to enter much into +educational discussion, thinking that such matters are sacred to those +who have pedagogic training, but a moment's thought convinces one that, +since the teacher has more to do with the preparation for life than the +living of life, it is socially unsafe for the teacher to have a complete +monopoly of educational discussion and to obtain no help from those who +test the product of his schools. + +The rural school has at present needs that stand out. First, it needs to +be socialized. This is true also of the urban school, but it is not +equally true. Urban schools have to some degree responded to the +pressure of modern life and have assumed in increasing measure a social +function. There has been no such pressure from rural communities. Often +the educational ideals for which country people have enthusiasm are +composed of experiences in a school-spirit less social than that usually +found in the rural school of the present time. This means that the +pressure of public opinion often pushes backward, while the urban school +is being forced forward. + +Neither country school nor city school can obtain much success in its +socializing program until it really ministers to the physical needs of +its pupils. Theory to the contrary, the school system still forgets that +the chief business of the child is the making of a body, and that for +the sake of future personal and social welfare the needs of the body +must have right of way. Until this fact of nature is given its full +worth and the mental side of the school work is subordinated, public +education can never be a complete success. So long as the body needs of +the growing child are exploited for the purpose of obtaining mental +results that appear to the adult outside of the teaching profession both +trivial and premature, there can be no hope that the school will +maintain a perfectly wholesome social program. This problem is certainly +as serious in the country school as in the city school. This matter is +no by-product. When the schools fail to conserve human possibilities by +ignoring the regulations imposed by natural law upon the operation of +their educational processes, the schools are socially negligent. They +are faulty in the purpose for which they have been created. + +The second difficulty comes from the first. The rural school still needs +a larger program. When it seriously undertakes to assume its function as +the most effective of our social institutions, it will make radical +changes in its program. To affirm this one need not forget or undervalue +the changes already made. Additions have been made to the program. The +spirit of the program has not been radically changed. We still provide +an individualistic preparation--hopelessly inadequate though it +is--rather than the social training which can be the only safe +foundation for social progress. We still overvalue ancient knowledge and +former educational values. We still refuse to admit into our schools +occupations and interests that belong there because they are consistent +with the instincts of the child. The country school has been stupidly +indifferent to the wealth of its resources and has forced upon its +pupils a meager and lifeless program. When a country high school, for +example, attempts to minister to the needs of its students with a +program of study that includes no science of any kind, the people of +that community ought to be told, as recently in one case they were, that +they are enforcing an educational policy that prophesies community +suicide. + +The third difficulty of the rural school system is its institutionalism. +No effective organization can be developed without creating in it the +danger of too great institutional concern. Those who are connected with +the schools very easily come to regard its problems from the point of +view of the welfare of the organization rather than that of the best +interests of the children. Of course this mistake is nearly always +unconscious and those who are really influenced by the professional +instinct to protect the immediate interests of the school as an +institution come to believe that they are also doing the best that can +be done for the people. It is, however, the clear teaching of human +history that effort to maintain the welfare of any social organization +is likely to decrease the attention given to its efficiency. The +attitude of institutional self-protection leads to uncritical methods, +easy-going content, and rigid, unprogressive habits of thought. In our +public school system the vital influences are always in conflict with +the constructive endeavor of those who, because of their desire for +professional repose, insist that the institution keep its attention upon +itself and continue as it happens to be. In the country this attitude is +likely to receive less criticism than in the city and for that reason +those who wish progress in the country must assume an unending struggle +against it. + +Whatever its faults, the rural school in its influence upon country +youth has only one possible rival--the home. At present the school is +obtaining more and more opportunity to influence young life; the home is +losing more and more of the opportunities it once had. It behooves, +therefore, any one who serves young life in the country, to appreciate +what a power for good or for evil, for progress or for regression, the +schools are. Every effort should be made to understand the schools. With +the teachers sympathetic relationships should be maintained, but without +even a tinge of subserviency. An unbiased judgment of the social value +of the schools, known only to himself, should be constructed by the +rural worker and then every effort should be made to cooperate with the +striving of the school for better results and to supplement with +generous spirit the necessary limitations of public school service. +Indirectly and quietly the rural worker may wisely try to invest as much +as possible of himself in the school's social service by working through +those who control the public education of the community. No rural +worker can expect a greater ally than an efficient, socially-minded +country school. + + + + +THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND THE RURAL WORKER + + + + +IV + +THE COUNTRY CHURCH AND THE RURAL WORKER + + +The difference between the urban and the rural church may easily be +exaggerated. There are differences, of course, and it is natural that +the rural worker and the student of country life should make too much of +what is characteristic of the church ministering to country people. At +bottom, however, the two types of churches share the same experiences. +Therefore, what may be said in regard to one will prove also to be +largely true of the other. For the purpose of giving emphasis to the +work of the rural church, nevertheless, we are justified in forgetting +for the moment how common to both forms of church life are the +fundamental needs, resources, and possibilities. + +Those who carry the burdens of church administration are generous in +listening as they do to the criticism and counsels of those who stand +outside. Indeed, so much has been said and is still being said in regard +to the work of the country church, especially by those who are not +clergymen and not responsible for the directing of church activity, that +one may well hesitate to express another opinion. And yet the tolerance +of those who have in charge the policy of the country church is in +itself significant and invites additional suggestions regarding the +function of the Christian Church in country places. It is significant +because it discloses that the church leaders know that the rural +churches have serious problems. It invites suggestions because it +reveals that the leaders are in some measure perplexed as to what is +required in our day of the country church, and are therefore not hostile +to any contribution that has a constructive purpose. + +Institutions tend to be self-satisfied and self-protecting. A religious +institution especially is in danger of becoming content and resentful +of criticism because, by its nature, it deals with matters that seem +beyond the investigation that man prescribes for ordinary things, and +therefore secure from the scrutiny and criticism given to common, +everyday interests. Of course the Church has no right to protect itself +from criticism with respect to its efficiency of service by asking that +it be treated as if it were itself religion. + +The fact that the leaders of the rural church are not taking this +attitude is of all things most helpful. It proves that their eyes are +directed outward toward their responsibilities and that the rural +churches are not in danger of the greatest evil that ever befalls a +religious institution--a blind leadership which cannot distinguish +between success and failure and is therefore well content when it ought +to be most dissatisfied. + +Whether rural church leadership is willing to consider radical changes +in methods of social and moral service is a question time alone can +answer. The test has not yet been made; whether serious changes should +be considered can at present be only a matter of opinion. At present the +usual attitude seems to be that the rural church needs more skill--new +methods--in the doing of what it has always been doing. There appears as +yet to be little disposition to ask whether modern life requires of the +rural church that it change in large measure its form of service. + +With its history of past success by the use of present methods deep in +its consciousness, it is certainly difficult for the rural church to +consider without prejudice the possibility of its needing to change its +manner of functioning. It is, however, possible that life has been so +changed, so fundamentally changed, that the Church to meet its present +duties and to use its present resources must make profound changes in +its method of service. When the situation advances to the point where +such changes receive serious consideration, some of us believe that the +following questions will be asked and finally answered on the basis of +experiment and experience: + +1. Must not the rural church give less attention to preaching? The +theological student is still taught by many of our Protestant +seminaries, just as he was a decade ago, that the minister's chief +function is preaching. There can be no doubt concerning the supreme +importance of preaching in the past. Is not, however, its effectiveness +decreasing? If the Church were starting its work at the present time, in +the light of the methods of other organizations, would we expect it to +put the stress upon preaching that it does at present? There are two +reasons why preaching ought not to have the emphasis it has had in the +past. Much of its former importance was due to influences that are now +exerted by the newspaper, the magazine, the library, the public lecture, +and even by the theater. The sermon no longer has the monopoly it once +had in the bringing of moral truth to the attention of the people. Many +people are more deeply impressed by the methods of presenting truth +exercised by some of the Church's rivals for popular attention. It is +also true that, since religion has tried to function more in social life +and the Church has not so much tried to build up an experience of dogma +within the life of the individual, the sermon has, as a means of public +influence, suffered some handicap. It is largely because of this that +the Church has undertaken so much new work in addition to the preaching. + +There is, of course, a limit in the process of taking on new forms of +service and eliminating nothing. The minister is human and he simply can +not do so much as is asked of him. Charles M. Sheldon, in a very +interesting essay in regard to the work of the minister,[2] says that +the man does not live who can produce two good, new sermons each week. +In the long run the rural church must decrease the emphasis upon +preaching, if it is successfully to carry on the new work that from time +to time it is adding. And the new activities come with all the momentum +that belongs to service that seems to fulfil real needs. + +When the Church devotes less attention to preaching, it will certainly +give more consideration to its function as a leader of worship. +Protestantism has never exaggerated this part of the Church's activity; +it usually still undervalues the importance of the esthetic element in +religion. Worship tends to emphasize the common elements; preaching +necessarily brings out the differences between religious people. When +there is less importance given to preaching and more to worship, there +will be a decrease in sectarianism. + +Of course there are orators who preach and who enjoy the influence and +popularity that oratory always will have. These men, however, are +outstanding and their success illustrates the continuing power of +oratory, but it gives no argument for the effectiveness of preaching in +general. As a person having an instinctive bias for the spoken word, I +have slowly been driven to the opinion that a great multitude of people +feel differently and are more sincerely and more easily influenced by +other means of bringing truth home to the hearts of men and women. + +Less attention to preaching will permit the rural minister to undertake +the other work given in the following parts of the program here +presented. + +2. There is a second question that we may expect the rural church some +time to consider--must not the Church make more of modern science as a +means of developing social and individual character? This question is +likely to reveal different ideas as to what religion is. One who thinks +of the spiritual as the flower of complete living, who wishes every +possible wholesome condition provided for character-formation, will +naturally regard science as the friend of religion and the basis for +moral progress. There is no one who does not wish the Church in some +degree to take advantage of the means for its wider service provided by +discovery and invention. Must not the rural church undertake to +distribute to the community life the helpful information science has, +unless it is willing to give to some other institution a great moral +service that at present it can best perform? Until it assumes in a +greater degree and in a more conscious manner the distribution of +science in the small community life, can we expect any amount of +exhortation to make the community life what it should be? The people +need, to meet their problems, concrete information that furnishes +specific answers to their difficulties. + +At present the average minister realizes that his training has been +philosophic rather than scientific. His outlook upon life is from a +different viewpoint than that from which most men face experience. He +often builds his service for men upon a basis which no other +professional man except the lawyer--and he in a smaller and decreasing +degree--is attempting to use in practical effort. If the minister had +been given more science in his preparation for life, there is little +doubt that the Church would have accepted, especially in small towns and +villages, its opportunity to popularize science by bringing men and +women skilful in presenting useful information into the community and by +this time would have been regarded as socially the most valuable +instrument for the distribution of science. + +3. Another question the rural church must soon face. Must there not be +less emphasis given to individualism and more to social control? This is +a question the schools are already facing. A philosophic outlook +naturally tends toward an emphasis upon individual responsibility in a +way science does not justify. Science (medicine, abnormal psychology, +and the social sciences especially) is showing more and more why men act +as they do. One's very personality is social in origin. The pressure of +early influences and of later public opinion is very great. Moral +results follow influences that belong to diseases, abnormal experiences, +unfortunate suggestions, defective inheritance, and a multitude of +causes understood by science. If religion is the supreme experience of a +wholesome, normal individual, there can be no doubt that increasingly we +must regard our moral problems as social more deeply than individual. +This will force the rural church to give up its present unreasonable +emphasis upon individual conduct and lead it to assume a much larger +social responsibility. + +4. Finally, do not the currents of modern thought and feeling appear to +lead to a greater emphasis upon Christianity as a service rather than as +a system of thought? Will not the rural church consider whether it must +not put more emphasis upon itself as a function and less upon itself as +an interpreter of doctrine? This is the big question. At present the +Church wishes to increase its service, but it has only slight +inclination to reduce the attention it gives to doctrine. The essential +element in Christianity, service--largely as a result of the work of the +churches--has now widespread acceptance, but many are not captivated by +the doctrinal side of church activity. Such men must understand the +meaning of faith to Paul by the meaning of religion to Jesus. They +respond to the appeal of service; they do not take interest in matters +of doctrine. To such the Church is a function, not an interpreter of +dogma. What represents religious sanity in such a movement it is for +time to reveal, but the current now flows toward service and away from a +system of doctrine. + +Service brings religious people together; doctrine separates them. It is +therefore natural that with the present tendency toward making religion +an activity, there should go a profound movement toward religious +consolidation. The reaction from narrower and narrower division, smaller +and smaller groups, within Protestantism is very determined. What a +blessing this is proving for the rural people! The burden of +sectarianism is hardest for them to endure. Someone has said that every +argument for the consolidated school is equally strong for the +consolidated church. If activity proves a working basis for the +fellowship of Christian people, we may in time have the community church +attempting to serve all the people in every possible way, and in +association with other churches assuming the same function. At present +this appears very distant and we are satisfied when we find churches +federating, while still assuming the seriousness of doctrinal +differences. + +Our entire social life seems in a state of flux. It is commonplace +thought that changes are taking place. We are too closely related to the +movement to know just what is to be the outcome. A more stable condition +must some time come. It now appears that rural life is entering upon the +period of flux which heretofore has been more characteristic of the +cities. It is folly to suppose that church life will not at all change +during such a social experience as that upon which we have entered. The +rural worker must in every way possible help the Church in the work it +is now doing. He has no right, however, to be content with merely doing +this. He also should seriously think over and over the problems of +possible changes in church activity, that new social demands may not be +ignored. Since he knows the work of many churches, he has a basis for +wide-minded thought. This will prepare him to serve those churches that +attempt new service. In other words, the best type of rural worker will +not merely assist the Church that now is; he will also have sympathy and +understanding for the Church that is coming to be. This second task is +more difficult than the first. It will require critical thought, vision, +patience, courage, and good judgment. + +Perhaps a sufficient criticism of this program is contained in the +question, "Why doesn't the author try to put his program in practice?" +The force of this challenge has been felt, even by one who is imbedded +in a different occupation and who has peculiar obligations that would +seem to forbid entering a new field of service. This much is certain, +were I a minister in any degree successful, I would be unlikely to feel +the need of any radical change in the program of the rural church; were +I a failure, I would have no courage to suggest the change. As an +outsider I have come to think that some change of program is sure to +come, but not quickly. Meanwhile it is wisdom for us all to remember +that the mission of the Church is a larger matter than its methods. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] "Man or Superman," _Atlantic Monthly_, January, 1917. + + + + +MENTAL HYGIENE IN RURAL DISTRICTS + + + + +V + +MENTAL HYGIENE IN RURAL DISTRICTS + + +Nervous diseases, insanity, and feeble-mindedness are a grievous burden +for modern society. Every form of social ill roots itself in these mind +disorders. Since this great burden seems to be increasing as a result of +the conditions of present-day living, it is not strange that those most +familiar with the situation are seriously alarmed. This concern is +expressing itself in movements that attempt to educate the public to the +need of conserving the mind in every possible way. Interest is being +aroused in mental hygiene and this fact promises great social relief. It +is indeed fortunate that philanthropic effort has thus become welded +with science and is eager to get at one of the most serious sources of +poverty, alcoholism, prostitution, crime, and physical suffering. The +student of any of these great social problems knows that the roots of +the difficulty usually run down into human weaknesses such as the mental +hygiene movement is attempting to correct and prevent. + +The mental hygiene propaganda has been up to the present time largely +confined to the urban centers, but it is very important that our rural +districts receive the benefits that come from attention to the problems +of mental health. Not that rural people have greater need of mental +hygiene than have those who live in the cities. Many alienists, on the +contrary, believe the city more in need of mind-conserving activities, +and, although there is no satisfactory basis for comparison, it would +seem as a result of the data gathered by the last census[3] that their +conclusion is reasonable in light of the evidence we have at present +regarding conditions in this country. The country needs emphasis +because it can be more easily neglected than the city. + +People in the country are less likely to realize the needs of mental +hygiene. As a rule, rural conditions that should challenge the attention +of the leaders of the communities are not spectacular and appear in +isolation. In urban life, on the other hand, thoughtful social workers +are bound to see many individual cases that belong to the defective +group as a mass, and thereby to realize the seriousness of the problem. +If the rural leaders could put together the cases of social +maladjustment present in many different communities, there is no doubt +that the great need of mental hygiene in the country would be easily +recognized. + +It is also true that mental hygiene propaganda is somewhat more +difficult in the country, partly because of the temper of mind of rural +leadership and partly because of the lack of means for the reaching of +popular attention. People are not likely to be spontaneously interested +in the mental hygiene movement. They require the instruction and +inspiration that come through the personality of the alienist. +Fortunately our daily and weekly papers realize the seriousness of the +mental hygiene propaganda and they circulate both in the country and in +the city. This fact is making many of the leading people in the country +nearly as familiar with the problem of mental hygiene as are city +leaders. + +Even though we know less than we should like concerning the amount and +the significance of mental deficiency in the country, we already have +information that reveals the need of mental hygiene effort among rural +folk. The report of the New Hampshire Children's Commission made in 1915 +contains a significant conclusion in regard to the feeble-mindedness in +the rural section of that state. "One of the most significant studies +that can be made in the survey of these counties is the geographic +distribution of the feeble-minded and the proportion of the entire +state population that falls within this defective class. Since there has +been a report from every town in the state, either by questionnaire or +personal canvass, this proportion may be considered fairly correct, even +though many cases have not been reported. One of the most significant +revelations of this table is the range of feeble-mindedness gradually +ascending from the smallest percentage, in the most populous county of +the state, to the largest percentages, in the two most remote and thinly +populated counties. It speaks volumes for the need of improving rural +conditions, of bringing the people in the remote farm and hill districts +into closer touch with the currents of healthy, active life in the great +centers. It shows that a campaign should begin at once--this very +month--for the improvement of rural living conditions, and especially +for the improvement of the rural schools, so that the children now +growing up may receive the education that is their birthright." We also +have two recent government reports that disclose the need of mental +hygiene among rural people.[4] + +The first report, based upon a survey made in Newcastle County, +Delaware, contains among the conclusions these that are of special +interest to the student of rural life: + +"Five-tenths of 1 per cent of 3,793 rural school children examined in +New Castle County are definitely feeble-minded and in need of +institutional treatment. + +An additional 1.3 per cent of the total number were so retarded mentally +as to be considered probable mental defectives and in need of +institutional care. + +A number of mentally defective children were encountered who exhibited +symptoms similar to those which are observed in the adult insane. + +It is believed, as a result of this survey, that epilepsy is a more +prevalent disease than it has heretofore been thought to be." + +The other report gives the following information: + +"Of the 1,087 girls and 1,098 boys examined in the rural schools, 93 of +the former and 100 of the latter were below the average mentally, or 8.7 +per cent of the whole number. + +Of the total school population, 0.9 per cent were mental defectives. + +The undue number of one-room rural schools in the county which were of +faulty construction, with poor equipment, and with imperfect teaching +facilities, were largely responsible for the retardation found in the +county. + +The average loss of grade by 193 children, as recorded by teachers, was +1.28 years for girls and 1.5 years for boys, a total of 269 school +years. + +No special classes for the instruction of retarded children were found +in any of the rural schools of the county. + +In addition to the 214 children who were retarded and exceptionally +retarded, three epileptics and two constitutionally inferior children +were found among the school children of the county." + +These interesting investigations do not, of course, disclose the full +amount of mental defectiveness in the localities studied, because they +are based on a survey of the children at school and because they +especially take up the matter of retardation and feeble-mindedness. It +is no uncommon thing in the small rural community to find the more +troublesome feeble-minded child withdrawn from the school. The reports +suggest that a wider investigation would increase the number of +defective children, for the method chosen could hardly be expected to +discern all the seriously neurotic children. The information gathered +indicates that epilepsy and the neurotic predisposition to insanity need +to be investigated as well as amentia,[5] and that the epileptics and +neurotics, even among rural children, are more numerous than is usually +supposed. Of course an investigation of the adults would still more +increase the amount of mental abnormality. + +The sociologist is familiar with the social menace of the degenerate +family in the country. Most of the members of the families thus far +studied have lived in the country or small village. It is reasonable to +suppose that on the whole such families find it easier to survive in the +country than in the city. The country offers occupation for the high +grades during the busy season and yet does not require steady employment +all through the year. The social penalties of mental inferiority are not +likely to be so oppressive; certainly there is much less danger of +coming into collision with the law. Our institutions find from +experience that the feeble-minded take kindly to rough, out-door work +and from this it is natural to assume that a large number of the +feeble-minded, free to choose their environment, prefer the country to +the city. They are probably more often handicapped by the competition of +city life than by the conditions of life in the rural community. + +It is probably true also that the feeble-minded family is more likely to +renew its vitality by the mixing in of new, normal blood in the country +than in the city. Illegitimacy holds in the problem of rural +feeble-mindedness the same position that prostitution occupies in urban +amentia. The attractive feeble-minded girl--and of course many of these +girls are physically attractive to many men--does not find it difficult +in the country to have sex relations with mentally normal men. Indeed it +is often not realized that the girl is mentally abnormal, and all too +frequently we have a marriage in the country between a woman of unsound +mind and a man who is mentally sound. Illegitimacy is, however, the +larger problem in rural amentia. The same type of girl that in the +country becomes the mother of several children, often by different men, +in the city, unless protected, enters prostitution. The city prostitute, +because of the sterilizing effects of venereal diseases, is less likely +to become the mother of children, but, on the other hand, she scatters +about syphilis, which has so much to do with causing mental +abnormalities. It may be a matter of opinion which of the two social +evils, illegitimacy in the country or prostitution in the city, has the +larger influence upon the spread of mental abnormalities, but there can +be no doubt that the rural difficulty deserves the attention of all +interested in mental hygiene. + +It is unfortunate that rural people do not realize more often the +serious meaning of feeble-mindedness. The close contact between +neighbors and the familiarity of community life tend in the country to +develop an indifference to the variations from normal standard that the +high-grade ament expresses. People, as a rule, take the social failures +of the feeble-minded for granted and do not specially regard them as +evidences of mental inferiority. This condition makes the limited +segregation possible in the country very difficult indeed. The +thoughtful parent hardly knows how to keep his child from associating +with the deficient child of his neighbor when they live near together +and attend the same school. + +At school also the feeble-minded child is likely to have advantages over +his city brother, which keep him from exhibiting to the full his +inherent mental weakness. A conversation with almost any rural teacher +will impress upon one the fact that the teacher is loath to declare +feeble-minded a child whose records give unmistakable evidence of +amentia and that she generally regards the child as merely dull. +Fortunately this is likely not to be so true in the future, as a result +of the recent instruction that candidates for teaching are now receiving +in our normal schools. + +There is, however, the greatest need of clinic work being carried on in +our rural schools. The problem cannot safely be left with local +authority. The demand is for some state-wide method of mental +examination of school children. This service, which in most states could +be given over to the superintendent of public instruction, ought to be +given wider scope than merely the mental measurement of school children. +The problem requires the service of the alienist. Only by this more +fundamental treatment of the problem can we expect to obtain the full +social relief that the preventive side of mental hygiene promises. As a +matter of fact, however, it is likely that the problem will be +considered first from the viewpoint of retardation in our rural schools. +It will be unwise to force the mental hygiene movement into our rural +school administration more rapidly than the need of it can be made clear +to our rural leadership. + +It is an unhappy fact that we are at present doing so little. The state +certainly must try in some way to provide, for the country children who +need it, the special class instruction now given backward children in +the cities. This will give relief by providing a basis for the +separation of the curable and the incurable defective children. At +present the defective child who requires treatment and improves in the +special class suffers a great handicap by being in the country rather +than in the city. + +Without doubt epilepsy and psychopathic cases, as well as +feeble-mindedness, receive relatively less attention in the country than +in the city. This situation certainly hinders rural progress and adds to +the social burdens of rural communities. Any one familiar with the life +of a typical rural town will know of peculiarities of conduct and +strange attitudes of non-social persons which indicate mental +unsoundness. These abnormalities express themselves in various forms and +I happen to know of some New England communities that have been +hopelessly separated into two hostile parts as a result of the influence +of persons whose subsequent careers have proven that the originators of +the difficulties were socially irresponsible. One such case was a church +quarrel that finally had to receive a state-wide recognition because of +the serious situation that finally resulted. The later suicide of the +individual, who first started the dispute, a suicide that had little +objective explanation, seems to have demonstrated that the whole +difficulty originated because of the influence of a psychopathic +character. In this case had the community known a very little about +mental aberration the history of the difficulty would have been very +different. Even as it was, a very few of the more thoughtful people +believed the man insane. + +The chief reason, however, for mental hygiene propaganda in the country +is the influence it will have in preventing human suffering. The problem +of mind health is a humane one and this fact removes the distinction +between rural and urban need. Urban fields offer more inducements at +present for the worker, but the rural need is also great. The rural +districts are less conscious of their distress and perhaps respond less +readily to whatever instruction is given them, but they certainly must +be given the benefits of the mental hygiene movement by a patient and +persistent propaganda. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] "Insane and Feebleminded in Institutions," Washington, D. C., 1914, +pp. 50 and 54. + +[4] "Mental Status of Rural School Children," by E. H. Mullan, Public +Health Reports, Nov. 17, 1916, and "The Mental Status of Rural School +Children of Porter County, Indiana," by T. Clark and W. L. Treadway, +Public Health Bulletin No. 77. + +[5] Amentia is used as a technical term for feeble-mindedness. + + + + +THE SOCIAL VALUE OF RURAL EXPERIENCE + + + + +VI + +THE SOCIAL VALUE OF RURAL EXPERIENCE + + +Our social ideas, the expression of what the psychologists define as the +social mind, are influenced too much by the thinking of urban people, +too little by that of people who live in the country and small villages. +There are many reasons for this undesirable social situation. One is the +outstanding fact that the city has the prestige that belongs to +political and commercial leadership. The urban leaders have for the most +part obtained their position by their possession of the means of control +of industries and of the channels of communication, or because of their +skill in winning public attention. They have become successful by +exercising capabilities that naturally give them social influence. They +are victors in contests that are decided largely upon the basis of +superior ability in manipulating men. Their advance has meant an +increasing opportunity to influence the thought of their fellows. In +many cases they have deliberately studied the methods of influencing +public opinion and have worked to obtain control of the modern equipment +necessary to direct it. One of the great engines for moving the public +mind is the newspaper and this is always in the hands of urban +leadership and a share of its power can usually be had by those who have +the necessary "pull" or cash. + +Socially the successful farmer belongs to the opposite class. His +success has been obtained for the most part by his skill in handling +natural law. His struggle has been largely with the obstacles that arise +when one attempts to furnish a share of the food supply required by a +hungry world. The farmer's experience with the means of social influence +is limited and in his business there is no need of his impressing +himself upon his fellows. On the other hand it is natural that he +should overvalue the thinking of those who, unlike himself, have +developed the art of making social and political impression. This +tendency to discount his own social contribution in practice--even +though in theory he may often insist upon his paramount social +function--makes the farmer a good follower and a poor leader. + +And yet in the nature of things there is nothing to demonstrate that +socially those who have the machinery that is required for the +influencing of public opinion or who have learned the art of impressing +themselves upon their fellows are the most fit to direct the social +mind. The struggle with Nature teaches as much that is of lasting value +for a philosophy of personal or national conduct as comes from +competition between people. Even if the population stimulus of urban +centers brings forth men of great ability who do large things, it by no +means follows that these men are wise merely because they are powerful. +And even if they were justified in claiming superiority at every point +over the successful men of the country, it would not be for the social +good that they be given a monopoly of social prestige. + +Contact with men who occupy high places in city commerce will often +convince any one of a neutral and discriminating mind that these men of +social power have suffered loss at some points in their developing +personality as a result of the struggle that has made possible their +success. The present serious discord between capital and labor is +fundamentally born of the belief of some that wealth is as socially +right in all important matters as it is socially powerful and the faith +of others that the social problems that vex men and women would pass +with the destruction of wealth's artificial social advantages. Each +group confines itself to the territory of experience where everything +has to do with matters of human relationship, and each group insists +that only one point in that territory can have value as a position for +the observing and estimating of what happens there. + +The extreme representatives of each group disclose that they have been +forced to a narrow view of human motives and interests by their +environmental experiences. They agree in their elevation of the power of +money to the supreme place socially--one defending the power as +belonging of right to wealth, the other regarding the social situation +as due to the unjust privileges of the few who prey upon the many. + +The typical farmer is both a capitalist and a laborer and has a saner +attitude toward the difficulty than one can have who belongs exclusively +to either group. He is likely to accumulate his capital by slow savings, +which represent in some degree real sacrifice, and he cannot have +sympathy with those who refuse to credit capital with legitimate social +function. He also earns his bread by the sweat of his brow and has +therefore a first-hand knowledge of the burden of human toil. This +gives him an understanding of the discontent of exploited labor, but +also a deep contempt for those who have no interest in the work they do. +His thinking in regard to the differences between capital and labor is +born of experiences that are elemental in the human struggle for life +and comfort and therefore cannot be safely turned aside. His sympathies +swing toward one or the other of the conflicting groups according to his +most recent economic experiences. If he has been robbed by some +commission merchant, he joins the protest against the unjust power of +capital; if he has had a hired man who has worked indifferently and with +no respect for his vocation, he understands what is meant by the +unreasonable and impossible demands of labor. + +The unchanging element in his thinking, however, comes from his personal +concern with reference to both capital and labor. In other words, he +lives closer to an earlier economic experience of man, when the present +great gulf between those who furnish capital and those who furnish +labor for industry had not been fixed. Neither the representatives of +the capital nor of the labor group, when they undertake what seem to him +extreme measures, can count upon his support. + +The abiding fact that denies to urban thinking the right to enjoy a +monopoly of social influence is this: men cannot safely build up their +social thinking from experiences gathered merely from the field of human +association. Nature also has lessons to teach and lessons that do not +always agree with the inferences that are naturally made when one thinks +only of the experiences of men in their associations. It is socially +foolish and socially unsafe to disregard, or at least to forget, the +value of thinking that functions, as the farmer's does, in the effort to +control Nature for a livelihood that directly contributes to human +welfare. If such thinking is often prosaic and rigid, it is also close +to reality and insistent upon practicality. Narrow it may be at times, +as a result of lack of opportunity to have wide contact, but it is +substantial and born of knowledge of the necessary limitations that +Nature places upon the wishes of men and women. The farmer by his +vocation is taught to be suspicious of easy solutions. He stands aloof +from men who claim to have found the panacea and regards men of such +abounding enthusiasm as belonging to the same group of the pathetically +deluded as the believers in the machine of perpetual motion. The farmer +keeps the greatest distance from day dreaming and can never have charged +against him as a characteristic fault that menace of self-supporting +fancy which is so insidious in its attack upon the mental wholesomeness +of a multitude of people. + +It becomes, therefore, as a result of a constant and clear-minded +attention to the actual working of forces of Nature that seem at times +friendly and at times hostile to man's purposes, difficult for the +farmer to regard money, even with all its recognized power, as able to +do everything, or the one thing to be desired. This does not mean, of +course, that the farmer is indifferent to money. No one who knows him at +all would claim that he is unconcerned in regard to finances. He is +always interested in money, and, like other men, works to make it. For +want of money he is often troubled. He knows how much money will do in +the sphere of human association. His everyday philosophy reveals this in +ways that one cannot mistake. He also knows, however, that even money +has its limits and that these are seen in man's relations with Nature. + +How different it is in the experience of the city-dweller! He finds that +money will do nearly anything. With money he can have the fruits +gathered from the ends of the earth. Without money he is helpless. His +protection from disease, from vice, from countless forms of discomfort, +disrespect, and exploitation depends upon his ability to pay the +necessary rent for safe and pleasant surroundings. How much of +suffering, both physical and mental, the want of a "safe" income brings +to the urban-dweller one may discover by merely walking along the +crowded streets of any city. Without the necessary money he even fears +loss of a respectable funeral and burial place in case of death. + +The urban wealthy keep close to more and more wonderful forms of luxury +by money. The urban poor keep out of the breadline by money. The +middle-class know that with a little more money they may expect to join +the first class and with a little less they may be forced into the +second. Money seems the one thing of power. Newspapers, street +discussions, and public opinion, for the most part, encourage the belief +in the omnipotence of money. Only in rare instances, as for example when +there is a death in the family, does the city person from his own +experience discover that money, which has so much of power among men, +cannot fully usurp Nature's control over the desires of men. Having so +often seen great natural obstacles overcome by bridges, tunnels, and +immense buildings, the urban person's final mental assumption is that, +given enough money, anything can be done. It is hardly strange that the +political philosophy which is distinctively urban should be built upon +the supreme value of money and the problem of its distribution. + +With the present movement of the population toward urban centers, and +with the increasing ability of urban people through organization and +modern forms of communication to impress their ideas upon men and women +far and near, it is hardly strange that we should in our better moments +recoil from a materialism which seems to be creeping everywhere into +men's souls and producing interpretations of the purposes of life that +are false, dangerous, and sordid. + +The antidote is a larger contribution to national thought and policy +from rural people. Talkers and men skilful in manipulating other men +have been taken too seriously. The doer, especially he who has +first-hand grapple with Nature in the contest she forever forces upon +men, has a word that should be spoken, a word of sanity. City people are +often too far distant from the realities of the primary struggle with +natural law to be entrusted with all the thinking. A visit a few months +ago to any city seed-store would have forced upon any critical observer +how ignorant city people are of the effort required to produce even +their most familiar foods. + +Healthy national ideals require a contribution from both urban and rural +experience. The first we have in quantity. It is the second we lack. It +is the business of those who conserve social welfare to respect the +conclusions of rural thinkers and to discover how rural experience may +make its largest contribution to national policy and social opinion. + + + + +RURAL VS. URBAN ENVIRONMENT + + + + +VII + +RURAL VS. URBAN ENVIRONMENT + + +We had just finished eating lunch at one of the more quiet hotels of our +greatest city. We lingered after the meal for a chat, this being one of +the privileges of the place, untroubled by the type of waiter, hungry +for tips, who so often at the metropolitan hotels conveys unmistakably +the idea that one's departure is expected to follow directly the +presentation of his bill. The host was a man of business, famed for his +success and his interest in public affairs, and especially generous in +giving of his money and time to further movements that attempt the +betterment of rural life. He had spent his youth in the open country and +had never lost any of the vividness of his first joys. It was this +mutual interest in rural problems that had brought host and guest +together for a quiet talk. + +"Will you give me your deepest impression of the city as you came into +it from the country?" asked the man of business of the student. + +"I hardly can claim one impression, there are so many." + +"But one must be deeper or at least more consciously so than the others. +It is that I want. I'll tell you in return my strongest impression when +recently I visited, for the first time in several years, the farm where +I was born." + +"I suppose the line of thought that captured my mind when I first came +into the city tonight is what you want." + +"Yes." + +"I began to think not of your noise or your hurry, your poverty or your +crowds, but of your atmosphere of what I call popular materialism. Do +you understand what I mean?" + +"Perhaps not." + +"I mean I sensed everywhere the emphasis upon the power of money. I +suppose it is an experience forced upon the consciousness of everyone +who comes into the life of this great city from a small community. It +seems as if the city was a monument to the idea that money can do +everything, that the getting of money is the only satisfactory purpose +of life." + +"You must not forget the miser of the small village or the considerable +number of city people who do not make business and money-making the +chief object of their lives." + +"Of course in justice I must remember what you say, for it is true. But +you wanted my vivid impression and I give it to you as the feeling that +in the city money seems all-powerful. With it you are able to get +everything, to do everything. You can command other men and they obey +you. You can reach over the ocean and draw luxuries of every kind to you +for your pleasure and your comfort. Wherever you go you are invited to +spend money. At least it is suggested to you how much you could have to +satisfy your wildest dreams, had you only the necessary bank account. + +"On the other hand, without money you are like a lost soul in the midst +of Paradise. With a little money your life must be spent in miserable +tenements, in a dirty, noisy, unsanitary quarter of the city. Your +children, perchance, must become familiar with the neighboring +prostitute. Disease dogs your steps. Pleasures are few. More income +means not merely renting a better tenement, but also changing to a safer +and more pleasant neighborhood. And always facing you at every turn, +from every show window, even from the posters on the bill boards, are +suggestions of what money could do for you if only you had it." + +"I see your point, but not for many years have I felt the truth of what +you say. I imagine I felt strongly the power of money when I first came +to the city. Of late I have taken the matter for granted and thought +little of it. Yet you must admit that money is power." + +"Of course, but not to the degree the city deludes one into thinking. +Even in the city there is much money cannot do. In the smaller places, +especially in the country, one is impressed with the limitations of +money. In normal ways it is not possible to spend great sums of money in +the country. You do not find methods of getting rid of your money +attracting your attention at every turn. If great wealth is spent, a +plan must be worked out and some new enterprise undertaken--for example, +a magnificent residence or a fancy farm. In the city no forethought is +required to spend great wealth. The opportunity is ever at one's elbow. +The difficulty is not to accept the importunate invitations." + +"I assume you blame the cities for the widespread materialism which is +charged up against modern life?" + +"Not altogether. In the country, as you have suggested, we have lovers +of money and we have sordid poverty. But I do think that urban life +tends to emphasize money-getting and to keep it before the mind in a +way that is not natural in the small community. Because of this I regard +the cities as the natural strongholds of materialism and I see a danger +in the urbanizing movement of modern civilization. I think, therefore, +that men like yourself should do everything possible to keep in the +public consciousness the splendid idealism that is in the city. I mean +such kindly sacrifice as the settlement house. However, I have talked +enough. What is your vivid impression as a result of your visit to the +place of your boyhood?" + +"Well, before I give you that, let me remind you that men like myself +get our power to help what you call idealism largely because of our +money. I suppose you hold, therefore, that even in our disinterested +service we advertise the power of money?" + +"Yes, I must confess that your influence is never divorced from your +standing as one who has made good in the ways of trade. But what of +your country impression?" + +"There is no place that still seems so beautiful to me as the place of +my childhood. I was born beside a splendid river; and not far from the +house, separated from it by stretches of meadowland, was a thick and +extensive forest. It seemed as if I had everything ideal for the play of +childhood. + +"Upon my recent visit I felt as never before the value of what I like to +call the freedom of the spirit. It seems as if country environment +generously provides what the healthy-minded child most needs--an +opportunity for the free play of the fancy. I call it a spiritual +preparation for life, but I assume that the scientist would describe it +as an experience of the imagination. Do I make myself clear?" + +"Yes, as far as you have gone. I covet, however, a clearer understanding +of what you mean." + +"I mean what I used to find in Wordsworth's poetry and in the work of +our own Whittier. I never read them now, but years ago I did a little. +You were country-born yourself, as I remember. Don't you recall how your +imagination made rich with meaning the simple pleasures and sports of +your early life? I can well remember hours of fishing at a dark curve in +the river where the water was black even at noon-day because of the +overhanging trees. I think I never caught a fish there, but there was +always something about the place that made me think that some day a +wonderful catch would be made there. It was a place that enlivened the +fancy and it illustrates what I mean. There were many other such +breeding-spots for fancy scattered along the miles of river and woodland +which I grew to know so well." + +"Don't you consider your play of fancy mentally dangerous?" + +"No, not when it comes into the mind with the incoming tide of +experience. There was plenty of reality. We had our discomforts and our +disappointments. We were forced to take into account the causal order +of things. But the mind had a chance to add its part to the fact of +existence. And so it always needs to be. I have been successful as a man +of business in part because of my early use of the gift of imagination. +It is bad to have life all imagination, to carry into adult experiences +the make-believe of childhood, but it is a miserable and destitute +existence for any adult to bring to his work no imagination." + +"And you regard your earlier use of imagination as a preparation for +your later use?" + +"Indeed I do. I also regard it as the best basis for a reasonable +spiritual interpretation of life. In addition it furnished pleasures, +the memories of which are sweet and wholesome to this day." + +"Do city children have no similar opportunity for creating fancy?" + +"Perhaps they do, but their imagination is too quickly forced into the +hard forms of adult experience. They feel all too soon the meaning of +wealth, the punishments of poverty. They dream of more of this or less +of that. They covet possession of the things they see from the store +windows or in the yards of more fortunate children. The shadow of the +money-magic of which you spoke falls too soon for their later good +across their path. With the country boy and girl this is not likely to +happen. Their experiences are more buoyant, more interpretive, more +exploring. Fancy creates and reveals; it does not largely furnish the +false pleasures of fictitious possession. This is to me the difference. +The city may be the richest environment for the adult. That is a matter +of opinion. But I cannot see how anyone can think of it as the best +place for the child. I cannot believe that I would have gotten nearly so +much of good from my early experiences if I had lived in the city. If I +am right, this is another element to add to the great urban problem. If +the experience of the city child suffers spiritual privations from the +limitations of his environment, must this not show itself in social +tendencies? In any case I had a motive in what I have said. You are +interested in movements that attempt to enrich the experiences of +country boys and girls. That is good, but you must not occupy all of the +child's time or interest. Give him freedom to discover his own inner +resources, the spiritual union between his cravings and the richness of +nature. Don't exile him from nature's paradise by too much adult +supervision, organization, or influence. In my day we had too little +adult assistance in our games and recreation. I can imagine a condition +where the country childhood would suffer from too much." + +It was this suggestion that I carried away with me from our +conversation. + + + + +THE MIND OF THE FARMER + + + + +VIII + +THE MIND OF THE FARMER + + +In discussing the mind of the farmer, the difficulty is to find the +typical farmer's mind that north, south, east, and west will be accepted +as standard. In our science there is perhaps at present no place where +generalization needs to move with greater caution than in the statement +of the farmer's psychic characteristics. It is human to crave +simplicity, and we are never free from the danger of forcing concrete +facts into general statements that do violence to the opposing +obstacles. + +The mind of the farmer is as varied as the members of the agricultural +class are significantly different. And how great are these differences! +The wheat farmer of Washington state who receives for his year's crop +$106,000 has little understanding of the life outlook of the New +Englander who cultivates his small, rocky, hillside farm. The difference +is not merely that one does on a small scale what the other does in an +immense way. He who knows both men will hardly question that the +difference in quantity leads also to differences in quality, and in no +respect are the two men more certainly distinguishable than in their +mental characteristics. + +It appears useless, therefore, to attempt to procure for dissection a +typical farmer's mind. In this country at present there is no mind that +can be fairly said to represent a group so lacking in substantial unity +as the farming class, and any attempt to construct such a mind is bound +to fail. This is less true when the class is separated into sections, +for the differences between farmers are in no small measure +geographical. Indeed, is it not a happy fact that the American farmer is +not merely a farmer? Although it complicates a rural problem such as +ours, it is fortunate that the individual farmer shares the larger +social mind to such a degree as to diminish the intellectual influences +born of his occupation. + +The method of procedure that gives largest promise of substantial fact +is to attempt to uncover some of the fundamental influences that operate +upon the psychic life of the farmers of America and to notice, in so far +as opportunity permits, what social elements modify the complete working +of these influences. + +One influence that shows itself in the thinking of farmers as of +fundamental character is, of course, the occupation of farming itself. +In primitive life we not only see the importance of agricultural work +for social life but we discover also some of the mental elements +involved that make this form of industry socially significant. From the +first it called for an investment of self-control, a patience, that +Nature might be coaxed to yield from her resources a reasonable harvest. +We find therefore in primitive agriculture a hazardous undertaking +which, nevertheless, lacked any large amount of dramatic appeal. + +It is by no means otherwise today. The farmer has to be efficient in a +peculiar kind of self-control. He needs to invest labor and foresight in +an enterprise that affords to the usual person little of the opportunity +for quick returns, the sense of personal achievement, or the +satisfaction of the desire for competitive face-to-face association with +other men which is offered in the city. Men who cultivate on a very +large scale and men who enjoy unusual social insight as to the +significance of their occupation are exceptions to the general run of +farmers. In these days of accessible transportation we have a rapid and +highly successful selection which largely eliminates from the farming +class the type that does not naturally possess the power to be satisfied +with the slowly acquired property, impersonal success, and non-dramatic +activities of farming. This process which eliminates the more restless +and commercially ambitious from the country has, of course, been at +work for generations. It has tended, therefore, to a uniformity of +mental characteristics, but it has by no means succeeded in procuring a +homogeneous rural mind. The movement has been somewhat modified by the +return of people to the country from the city and by the influence on +the country mind of the more restless and adventurous rural people who, +for one reason or another, have not migrated. In the far West +especially, attention has been given to the rural hostility to, or at +least the misunderstanding of, city movements which attempt ambitious +social advances. It is safe to assume that this attitude of rural people +is widespread and is noticeable far west merely because of a greater +frankness. The easterner hides his attitude because he has become +conscious that it opens him to criticism. This attitude of rural +hostility is rooted in the fundamental differences between the thinking +of country and of city people, due largely to the process of social +selection. This mental difference gives constant opportunity for social +friction. If the individuals who live most happily in the city and in +the country are contrasted, there is reason to suppose that the mental +opposition expresses nervous differences. In one we have the more rapid, +more changeable, and more consuming thinker, while the thought of the +other is slower, more persistent, and less wasteful of nervous energy. + +The work of the average farmer brings him into limited association with +his fellows as compared with the city worker. This fact also operates +upon him mentally. He has less sense of social variations and less +realization of the need of group solidarity. This results in his having +less social passion than his city brother, except when he is caught in a +periodic outburst of economic discontent expressed in radical agitation, +and also in his having a more feeble class-consciousness and a weaker +basis for cooperation. This last limitation is one from which the farmer +seriously suffers. + +The farmer's lack of contact with antagonistic groups, because his work +keeps him away from the centers where social discontent boils with +passion and because it prevents his appreciating class differences, +makes him a conservative element in our national life, but one always +big with the danger of a blind servitude to traditions and archaic +social judgments. The thinking of the farmer may be either substantial +from his sense of personal sufficiency or backward from his lack of +contact. The decision regarding his attitude is made by the influences +that enter his life, in addition to those born of his occupation. + +At this point, however, it would be serious to forget that some of the +larger farming enterprises are carried on so differently that the +manager and owner are more like the factory operator than the usual +farmer. To them the problem is labor-saving machinery, efficient +management, labor cost, marketing facilities, and competition. They are +not especially influenced by the fact that they happen to handle land +products rather than manufactured articles. + +Much has been made of the farmer's hand-to-hand grapple with a +capricious and at times frustrating Nature. This emphasis is deserved, +for the farmer is out upon the frontier of human control of natural +forces. Even modern science, great as is its service, cannot protect him +from the unexpected and the disappointing. Insects and weather sport +with his purposes and give his efforts the atmosphere of chance. It is +not at all strange, therefore, that the farmer feels drawn to fatalistic +interpretations of experience which he carries over to lines of thought +other than those connected with his business. + +A second important influence that has helped to make the mind of the +farmer has been isolation. In times past, without doubt, this has been +powerful in its effect upon the mind of the farmer. It is less so now +because, as everyone knows, the farmer is protected from isolation by +modern inventions. It is necessary to recall, however, that isolation is +in relation to one's needs and that we too often neglect the fact that +the very relief that has removed from country people the more apparent +isolation of physical distance has often intensified the craving for +closer and more frequent contact with persons than the country usually +permits. Whether isolation as a psychic experience has decreased for +many in the country is a matter of doubt. Certainly most minds need the +stimulus of human association for both happiness and healthiness, and +even yet the minds of farmers disclose the narrowness, suspiciousness, +and discontent of place that isolation brings. It makes a difference in +social attitude whether the telephone, automobile, and parcel post draw +the people nearer together in a common community life or whether they +bring the people under the magic of the city's quantitative life and in +this way cause rural discontent. + +The isolation from the great business centers which has kept farmers +from having personally a wide experience with modern business explains +in part the suspicious attitude rural people often take into their +commercial relations. This has been expressed in a way one can hardly +forget by Tolstoi in his "Resurrection," when his hero, from moral +sympathy with land reform, undertakes to give his tenants land under +conditions more to their advantage and, much to his surprise, finds them +hostile to the plan. They had been too often tricked in the past and +felt too little acquainted with business methods to have any confidence +in the new plan which claimed benevolent motives. It is only fair to +admit that the farmer differs from others of his social rank only in +degree, and that his experiences in the past appear to him to justify +his skeptical attitude. He has at times suffered exploitation; what he +does not realize is that this has been made possible by his lack of +knowledge of the ways of modern business and by his failure to +organize. The farmer is beginning to appreciate the significance of +marketing. Unfortunately, he too often carries his suspiciousness, which +has resulted from business experiences, into many other lines of action +and thinking, and thus robs himself of enthusiasm and social confidence. + +A third important element in the making of the farmer's mind may be +broadly designated as suggestion. The farmer is like other men in that +his mental outlook is largely colored by the suggestions that enter his +life. + +It is this fact, perhaps, that explains why the farmer's mind does not +express more clearly vocational character, for no other source of +persistent suggestions has upon most men the influence of the newspaper, +and each day, almost everywhere, the daily paper comes to the farmer +with its appealing suggestions. Of course the paper represents the urban +point of view rather than the rural, but in the deepest sense it may be +said to look at life from the human outlook, the way the average man +sees things. The newspaper, therefore, feeds the farmer's mind with +suggestions and ideas that counteract the influences that specially +emphasize the rural environment. It keeps him in contact with thinking +and events that are world-wide, and unconsciously permeates his motives, +at times giving him urban cravings that keep him from utilizing to the +full his social resources in the country. Any attempt to understand +rural life that minimizes the common human fellowship which the +newspaper offers the farmer is certain to lead to unfortunate +misinterpretation. Mentally the farmer is far from being isolated in his +experiences, for he no longer is confined to the world of local ideas as +he once was. This constant daily stimulation from the world of business, +sports, and public affairs at times awakens his appetite for urban life +and makes him restless, or encourages his removal to the city, or makes +him demand as much as possible of the quantitative pleasures and +recreations of city life. In a greater degree, however, the paper +contents his mental need for contact with life in a more universal way +than his particular community allows. The automobile and other modern +inventions also serve the farmer, as does the newspaper, by providing +mental suggestions from an extended environment. + +A very important source of suggestion, as abnormal psychology so clearly +demonstrates, at present, is the impressions of childhood. Rural life +tends on the whole to intensify the significant events of early life, +because of the limited amount of exciting experiences received as +compared with city life. Parental influence is more important because it +suffers less competition. This fact of the meaning of early suggestions +appears, without doubt, in various ways and forbids the scientist's +assuming that rural thinking is made uniform by universal and unvaried +suggestions. + +The discontent of rural parents with reference to their environment or +occupation, due to their natural urban tendencies, or to their failure +to succeed, or to the hard conditions of their farm life, has some +influence in sending rural youth to the city. Accidental or incidental +suggestion often repeated is especially penetrating in childhood, and no +one who knows rural people can fail to notice parents who are prone to +such suggestions expressing rural discontent. In the same way, +suspiciousness or jealousy with reference to particular neighbors or +associates leads, when it is often expressed before children, to general +suspiciousness or trivial sensitiveness. The emotional obstacles to the +get-together spirit--obstacles which vex the rural worker--in no small +degree have their origin in suggestion given in childhood. + +The country is concerned with another source of suggestion which has +more to do with the efficiency of the rural mind than its content, and +that is the matter of sex. Students of rural life apparently give this +element less attention than it deserves. As Professor Ross has pointed +out in "South of Panama," for example, the precocious development of sex +tends to enfeeble the intellect and to prevent the largest kind of +mental capacity. It is unsafe at present to generalize regarding the +differences between country and city life in matters of sex, but it is +certainly true, when rural life is empty of commanding interests and +when it is coarsened by low traditions and the presence of defective +persons, that there is a precocious emphasis of sex. This is expressed +both by early marrying and by loose sex relations. It is doubtful +whether the commercializing of sex attraction in the city has equal +mental significance, for certainly science clearly shows that it is the +precocious expression of sex that has largest psychic dangers. In so far +as the environment of a rural community tends to bring the sexual life +to early expression, we have every reason to suppose that at this point +at least the influence of the community is such as to tend toward a +comparative mental arrest or a limiting of mental ability, for which the +country later suffers socially. Each student of rural life must, from +experience and observation, evaluate for himself the significance of +this sex precociousness. When sex interests become epidemic and the +general tendency is toward precocious sex maturity, the country +community is producing for itself men and women of inferior resources as +compared with their natural possibilities. Even the supposed social +wholesomeness of earlier marrying in the country must be scrutinized +with the value of sex sublimation during the formative years clearly in +mind. + + + + +PSYCHIC CAUSES OF RURAL MIGRATION + + + + +IX + +PSYCHIC CAUSES OF RURAL MIGRATION + + +In modern civilization the increasing attractiveness of the city is one +of the apparent social facts.[6] Social psychology may reasonably be +expected to throw light upon the causes of this movement of population +from rural to urban conditions of life. Striking illustrations of +individual preference for city life, even in opposition to the person's +economic interests, suggest that this problem of social behavior so +characteristic of our time contains important mental factors. + +Since sensations give the mind its raw material,[7] the mind may be said +to crave stimulation. "In the most general way of viewing the matter, +beings that seem to us to possess minds show in their physical life +what we may call a great and discriminating sensitiveness to what goes +on at any present time in their environment."[8] This interest of the +mind in the receiving of stimulation for its own activity is an +essential element in any social problem. The individual reacts socially +"with a great and discriminating sensitiveness" to his environment, just +as he reacts physically to his stimuli to conserve pleasure and avoid +pain. + +The fundamental sources of stimuli are, of course, common to all forms +of social grouping, but one difference between rural and urban life +expresses itself in the greater difficulty of obtaining under rural +conditions certain definite stimulations from the environment. This fact +is assumed both by those who hold the popular belief that most great men +are country-born and by those who accept the thesis of Ward that +"fecundity in eminent persons seems then to be intimately connected +with cities."[9] The city may be called an environment of greater +quantitative stimulations than the country. The city furnishes forceful, +varied, and artificial stimuli; the country affords an environment of +stimuli in comparison less strong and more uniform. Minds that crave +external, quantitative stimuli for pleasing experiences are naturally +attracted by the city and repelled by the monotony of the country. On +the other hand, those who find their supreme mental satisfactions in +their interpretation or appreciation of the significant expression of +the beauty and lawfulness of nature discover what may be called an +environment of qualitative stimulations. The city appeals, therefore, to +those who with passive attitude need quantitative, external experiences; +the country is a splendid opportunity for those who are fitted to create +their mental satisfactions from the active working over of stimuli that +appear commonplace to the uninterpreting mind. If Coney Island, with its +noise and manufactured stimulations, is representative of the city, +White's "Natural History of Selborne" is a characteristic product of the +wealth of the country to the mind gifted with penetrating skill. + +Doubtless this difference between rural and urban is nothing new, and +from the beginning of civilization there have been the country-minded +and the city-minded. In our modern life, however, there is much that +increases the difference and much that stimulates the movement of the +city-minded from the country. Present-day life with its complexity and +its rapidity of change makes it difficult for one to get time to develop +the active mind that makes appreciation possible. Our children +precociously obtain adult experiences of quantitative character in an +age of the automobile and moving pictures, and an unnatural craving is +created for an environment of excitement, a life reveling in noise and +change. Business, eager for gain, exploits this demand for stimulation, +and social contagion spreads the restlessness of our population. The +urban possibilities for stimulation are advertised as never before in +the country by the press with its city point of view, by summer +visitors, and by the reports of the successes of the most fortunate of +those who have removed to the cities. In an age restless and mobile, +with family traditions less strong, and transportation exceedingly cheap +and inviting, it is hardly strange that so many of the young people are +eager to leave the country, which they pronounce dead--as it literally +is to them--for the lively town or city. It is by no means true that +this removal always means financial betterment or that such is its +motive. It is very significant to find so many farmers who have made +their wealth in the country, or who are living on their rents, moving to +town to enjoy life. May it not be that a new condition has come about in +our day by the possibility that there are more who exhaust their +environment in the country before habit with its conservative tendency +is able to hold them on the farm? One who knows the discontent of +urban-minded people who have continued to live in the country can hardly +doubt that habit has tended to conserve the rural population in a way +that it does not now. And one must not forget the pressure of the +discontent of these urban-minded country parents upon their children. +The faculty of any agricultural college is familiar with the farmer's +son who has been taught never to return to the farm after graduation +from college. That the city-minded preacher and teacher add their +contribution to rural restlessness is common thought. + +In the city the sharp contrast between labor and recreation increases +without doubt the appeal of the city to many. The factory system not +only satisfies the gregarious instinct, it also gives an absolute break +between the working time and the period of freedom. In so far as labor +represents monotony, it emphasizes the value of the hours free from +toil. This contrast is often in the city the difference between very +great monotony and excessive excitement after working hours. It has been +pointed out often that city recreation shows the demand for great +contrast between it and the fatigue of monotonous labor. So great a +contrast between work and play--monotony and freedom--is not possible in +the country environment. In the midst of country recreations there are +likely to be suggestions of the preceding work or the work that is to +follow. It is as if the city recreations were held in factories. Country +places of play are usually in close contact with fields of labor. Often +indeed the country town provides the worker with very little opportunity +for recreation in any form. In rural places recreation cannot be had at +stated periods. Weather or market conditions must have precedence over +the holiday. Recreation, therefore, cannot be shared as a common +experience to such an extent by country workers as is possible in the +city. Since the rural population is very largely interested in the same +farming problems, even conversation after the work of the day is less +free from business concerns than is usually that of city people. + +The difficulty of obtaining sharp contrast between work and play in the +country no doubt is one reason for the ever-present danger of recourse +to the sex instinct for stimulation. One source of excitement is always +present ready to give temporary relief to the barren life of young +people. Not only of the girl entering prostitution may it be said that +with her the sex instinct is less likely "to be reduced in comparative +urgency by the volume and abundance of other satisfactions."[10] The +barrenness of country life to the girl growing into womanhood, hungry +for amusement, is one large reason why the country furnishes so large a +proportion of prostitutes to the city. "This civilizational factor of +prostitution, the influence of luxury and excitement and refinement in +attracting the girl of the people, as the flame attracts the moth, is +indicated by the fact that it is the country dwellers who chiefly +succumb to the fascination. The girls whose adolescent explosive and +orgiastic impulses, sometimes increased by a slight congenital lack of +nervous balance, have been latent in the dull monotony of country life +and heightened by the spectacle of luxury acting on the unrelieved +drudgery of town life, find at last their complete gratification in the +career of a prostitute."[11] + +Consideration of the part played in the rural exodus by the nature of +the stimuli demanded by the individual for satisfaction or the hope of +satisfaction in life suggests that the school is the most efficient +instrument for rural betterment. The country environment contains +sources of inexhaustible satisfaction for those who have the power to +appreciate them. Farming cannot be monotonous to the trained +agriculturist. It is full of dramatic and stimulating interests. Toil is +colored by investigation and experiment. The by-products of labor are +constant and prized beyond measure by the student and lover of nature. +Even the struggle with opposing forces lends zest to the educated +farmer's work. This does not mean that such a farmer runs a poet's farm, +as did Burns, with its inevitable financial failure, but rather that the +farmer is a skilled workman with an understanding and interpreting mind. +If the farming industry, under proper conditions, could offer no +satisfaction to great human instincts, it would be strange indeed when +one remembers the long period that man has spent in the agricultural +stage of culture. City dwellers in their hunt for stimulation are likely +to face either the breakdown of physical vitality or the blunting of +their sensibilities. Country joys, on the other hand, cost less in the +nervous capital expended to obtain them. The urban worker, in thinking +of his hours of freedom in sharp contrast with the time spent at his +machine, forgets his constant temptation to use most of his surplus +income in the satisfying of an unnatural craving for stimulation created +by the conditions of his environment. This need not be true of the rural +laborer and usually is not. + +It is useless to deny the important and wholesome part that the urban +life and the city-minded man play in the great social complex which we +call modern civilization, but he who would advance country welfare may +wisely agitate for country schools fitted to adjust the majority of +country children to their environment, that they may as adults live in +the country successful and contented lives. We need never fear having +too few of the urban-minded or the able exploiters of talent who require +the city as their field of activity. The present tendency makes +necessary the development of country schools able to change the +apparent emptiness of rural environment and the excessive appeal of +urban excitement into a clear recognition on the part of a greater +number of country people of the satisfying joys of rural stimulations. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] Gillette, "Constructive Rural Sociology," p. 42. + +[7] Parmelee, "The Science of Human Behavior," p. 290. + +[8] Royce, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 21. + +[9] Ward, "Applied Sociology," pp. 169-98. + +[10] Flexner, "Prostitution in Europe," p. 72. + +[11] Ellis, "Studies in the Psychology of Sex," VI, 293. + + + + +RURAL SOCIALIZING AGENCIES + + + + +X + +RURAL SOCIALIZING AGENCIES + + +The individualism of rural thinking has been universally recognized. It +is this attitude of mind that has produced much of the strength of rural +character and much of the weakness of rural society. That the closer +contact of town and country and the rapidly developing urban mind +require more social thinking upon the part of country people few can +doubt. There are some people, however, who fear this socializing +influence of urban thought in the country, because they believe that it +will antagonize rural individualism in such a way as to destroy the +fundamental distinction between rural and urban ethics. + +As a matter of fact, however, people in these days obtain their sense of +personal responsibility from their confidence in their social function, +and this confidence is not developed by an excessive individualism. The +farmer, like men in other occupations, needs to make realization of his +social service the corner stone of his moral life. This world war has +made every thinking person realize the unrivaled function that the +farmer performs socially, and it is fortunate for the future of rural +welfare that what has always been true is at last finding adequate +appreciation. It is the farmer himself who has most suffered in the +recent past from not realizing the value of his social contribution. The +widespread thoughtless indifference to his social service has, at least +in the oldest portions of the nation, given him an irritating social +skepticism and driven him into a dissatisfying industrial isolation. We +naturally antagonize what we do not share and the farmer when he has +thought himself little recognized as a social agent has had his doubts +about the justice and sanity of public opinion. + +It was doubly unfortunate that this situation developed at a time when +religion was called upon to make heroic changes in order to adapt +itself to the needs of modern life. Formerly religion gave rural +thinking a larger outlook than individual experience by providing an +outstretching theological environment. Rather lately this environment +has ceased to satisfy the needs of rural people. Religion has in the +city become social in a way of which our fathers did not dream, and in +the country it must find its vigor also by introducing the believer to +his social environment in such a way as to emphasize social function, as +much as personal inward obligations formerly were emphasized by +theology. + +We need, therefore, for the best interests of the country that the +native sense of personal importance characteristic of rural thinking +should be brought into contact with social need, so that it may function +socially. Out of this movement will issue most happily a great social +optimism in the country and individualism will lose nothing by being +adjusted to modern social needs. The chief agencies that socialize +rural thinking are the church, the school, the press, secret societies +and clubs, and the industry of farming itself. + +The effective rural church as a socializing agency has a commanding +position. Even the inefficient church has more social influence than +appears on the surface. In a considerable part of the area of social +inspiration the Church has an absolute monopoly. The rural church, +however, has been until recently too well content with an individual +ethics that modern life has made obsolete. In our day healthy-minded +religion is forcing men and women to see their duties in social forms. +It is becoming clear that one cannot save his own soul in full degree if +attention is concentrated upon personal salvation. The country ministry +is beginning to feel the changing order of things and there is an +increasing attempt to build up a socializing institution in the Church. +Such a radical readjustment is not easily made, nor can we expect it to +be a complete success. Ministers are puzzled how to work out the new +program; they even at times become discouraged as a result of +disappointments. Impatience may be made the cause of defeat in such a +reform. It is much to ask of our generation that it turn about face +morally. Yet the dangerous thing is sure to happen when no effort is +made to influence the Church to assume a moral social function in the +country. We think as a people in social terms and the church that +remains backward in assuming social duties is bound to be repudiated by +the program of vital Christianity. The church that is struggling to +maintain the old-time individualism is driven first to isolation and +later to social hostility and moral stagnation. The rural church will +move on more smoothly if it can obtain better-trained leadership. The +minister is not yet given an adequate social view in some of our +theological seminaries, great as have been the changes in theological +preparation during the last twenty years. It is natural enough that the +more socially minded of our preachers should rapidly drift cityward, for +in the urban centers they can obtain the sympathy and opportunities that +they crave. + +Sectarianism narrows the social viewpoint. It is true that it brings one +church into fellowship with outside churches of the same denomination, +but it makes for moral division rather than unity and magnifies +differences rather than similarities in the community life. Sectarianism +is very largely maintained by churches in small places. Where church +competition is severe, and especially when church support is dwindling, +the Church advertises its distinctiveness and enters upon a +life-and-death grapple with its neighbor institutions. Of course this +develops sectarianism and forbids the wide outlook in its teaching that +is required of a successful socializing agency. + +There is positive need of church federation if the rural church is to do +its social service properly. The resources of a country community cannot +be scattered if social enterprises are to be successfully carried on. +These undertakings are of necessity expensive in proportion to community +resources, both in equipment and leadership. Therefore, the religious +work must be hampered in its social contribution unless there shall be a +greater concentration of religious resources. This fact appears clearly +with reference to work carried on by the rural church by means of a +community-center or parish house. No form of service promises more for +country welfare, but seldom can it be continued successfully year after +year in a rural town or small village unless there is a concentration of +the religious resources of the community. + +Fortunately we have seen of late a vigorous effort to improve the rural +schools and to make them more modern. The endeavor has been made to +bring the schools more intimately into contact with their environment. +This movement naturally tends to increase the effectiveness of the +schools as a socializing agency because the viewpoint that guides the +effort is one that brings into prominence the social relations of the +schools. This progress is hampered here and there by a considerable +inertia for which individualistic thinking is largely responsible. There +are also positive limitations imposed upon the expansion of the school's +social service due to the physical environment. Distance, the scattering +of homes, and the small populations restrict the work of the most +efficient consolidated school at some points where it tries to perform +the largest possible social service. + +As a matter of fact, however, the urban school is far less social than +it wishes to be. Under the spell of our own recent educational +experience it is difficult for us, who have to do with educating +institutions, to see the radical changes that modern life demands of the +schools and colleges. We add socializing efforts without removing the +individual viewpoint that has gotten into school studies and +professional habits. The failures of the city schools are less apparent +because the atmosphere of urban life is itself socializing. The walk or +ride to the city school is likely to make some contribution of +socializing character even to the unobservant child. It is still true +that the education outside of the schools, the spontaneous instruction +provided by the children themselves in addition to the publicly +constructed school, impresses itself most upon the childish mind. The +urban school is greatly strengthened in its social function by this +by-product of school attendance. It is aided also by the fact that the +public is more critical respecting its service. In the country we find +the reverse. The by-products of education deepen character, but on the +whole tend toward individualism. The community also is not asking for a +large social contribution from the schools, and this loss of public +pressure toward social effort is in the country very serious. + +The consolidated school, modern in equipment and in spirit, adds greatly +to the effectiveness of rural education as a socializing agency. In +spite of limitations inherent in rural environment, the consolidated +school is by instinct social, and its community service is therefore +being enriched by its successful experience. It will increasingly relate +its work to the needs of the community and to the demands of the home +and will add to its socializing function by assuming new lines of +service. Large as is its present contribution, in the near future it +will be much greater. The consolidated school has enabled rural +education to assume new undertakings and this is most fortunate, for the +old type of rural school has about reached the limit of its social +service. + +It is safe to assume that neither in the city nor country are we likely +to overestimate the influence of the press. The daily and weekly paper +have a wide circulation among rural people and furnish a source of +penetrating and persistent social influence all the more significant +because the readers are little conscious of what they receive from +their reading. Into the most remote places the paper goes and is +received with avidity. The appeal is to human interest and is based upon +the entire hierarchy of instincts. No agency more successfully +socializes. It affords a mental connection with distant places that is a +good antidote for the physical loneliness in the country, which many +living there experience. It prevents the stagnation that comes from +concentration upon the interests of the day and neighborhood, for it +draws the attention of the reader out into the world of business and +affairs. It keeps country people from a too great class character by +charging the rural mind with the effects of modern civilization and of +necessity brings rural and urban people into a more sympathetic +relation. If it invites some to the city--as it certainly does--it also +makes the country a more satisfying and safer environment for those who +remain. Fortunately the papers are themselves sensitive to modern +thought and therefore attempt propaganda of a constructive social +character. If the appeal to human interests causes these educational +efforts to err respecting scientific accuracy, it is nevertheless true +that in spite of this fault the articles have a beneficent effect in +protecting the country from the excessive conservatism that isolation +tends to bring. The newspaper is the great gregarious meeting place of +the minds of men and therefore it serves to develop mental association +in a most intense manner. The weekly paper also serves a large +constituency in the country and on the whole probably socializes in a +more profound degree than the daily. The weekly permits the rural reader +to associate with the leaders of popular thought and builds up that +enthusiastic conviction which leadership always obtains. The leaders of +the country districts in this manner come into fellowship with the +thinking of urban men of influence. The farm paper is not to be +overlooked in a survey of the influence of the press upon country life. +Its little value as a professional journal because of its unscientific +character is in many instances a great handicap upon the progress of +agriculture, but even when these papers fail in having real worth for +the industry of farming they do extend professional fellowship by +encouraging harmony and enthusiasm. And as a whole the value of these +papers, aside from their socializing influence, is increasing as they +are more and more influenced by scientific investigation. + +Secret societies and benevolent orders have a large following among +rural and village people. They are popular because they perform a very +valuable social service. No institution carries on its social function +with greater success, and for this reason it is rather strange that +rural sociology has not studied these organizations more seriously. +Because they afford fellowship, recreation, and comradeship, their +appeal is very great indeed to those who feel the hardships of physical +isolation. These societies do not limit their usefulness to community +welfare in a narrow sense, for they tie their following to similar +organizations in other localities and make possible an exchange of +interests that socializes in a marked degree. It is true that each +serves a limited number of people in the community, but the cleavage is +along natural lines and does not provoke feuds or neighborhood +hostility. + +The one great danger that they create in some small places is the fact +that there are so many of them that they capture nearly every evening of +the week and make it difficult for any community-wide enterprise to +obtain a free evening to bring all the people together. It is also true +that some of them fail to take a serious interest in the community +welfare, being content merely to enjoy the fellowship that they make +possible. + +This latter criticism cannot be justly made respecting the rural society +strongest in the eastern section of the country--the Patrons of +Husbandry. This society, popularly known as the Grange, affords contact +with outside organizations, but it also takes a very practical and sane +interest in its own community. No movement has done more to conserve the +best of country life; no organization has in the country maintained so +sincere a democracy. Unlike most secret societies, it has made a family +appeal and has interested husband, wife, and children. It has taken a +constructive attitude toward legislation of importance to farmers, and +rural life has certainly become greatly indebted to its efficient +socializing efforts. + +The enterprise most successfully socializing country life is the +business of farming itself. The farmer, who once maintained so large a +degree of economic independence, has of necessity become a man of +commerce, as seriously concerned and nearly as consciously interested in +business conditions as the city merchant. This situation is one of the +burdens of farming. The farmer must both produce and sell his crop. +Lack of skill in either undertaking may mean failure. + +Economic pressure forces attention. The pain penalty, the product of bad +adjustment to the demands of the occasion, commands respect. The farmer +feels this pressure of economic conditions just as any other man of +business. He is not free to isolate himself and enjoy the economic +security of fifty years ago. Any indifference that he may assume toward +the business world is likely to bring him economic punishment which will +teach him his economic dependence as no argument could. It follows that +the farmer's attention is driven from family and neighborhood affairs +out into the modern world with all its complexities. He thinks in social +terms, because from experience he has learned his social dependence in +matters that concern the pocketbook. With painful evidences of his +economic interrelations in mind, he tends to become tolerant regarding +movements that attempt to socialize his community life. He realizes +that the independence of his fathers has gone not to return and that his +happiness as well as his prosperity depend upon his opportunity to +become well established in social relations. + +No experience in the business of farming is so impressive as that of +membership in a cooperative enterprise. Whether the undertaking fails or +succeeds, it certainly teaches the member the meaning of social +interrelations. Often it fails because the mental and moral preparation +for successful working together is lacking. This is not strange, for +rural life in the past has done little to build up a social viewpoint +and the strain placed upon individual purposes in any cooperative effort +is necessarily great. Cooperation is never so easy as it sounds in +theory, but economic conditions are making it necessary in many rural +localities if farming is to continue a profitable industry. Under +pressure the farmers will develop the ability to cooperate. In this they +are like other people, for cooperation seldom comes until circumstances +press hard upon people who hopelessly try to meet individually +conditions that can be successfully coped with only by a cooperative +attack. We therefore must not pass hasty judgment upon the failures in +cooperative efforts among country people. All such experiences have some +part in the better socializing of rural thinking. + +Without opposition to those who are placing emphasis upon other lines of +rural advance, as social workers, we must keep ever before rural +leadership the enormous importance that social conditions have for the +prosperity, wholesomeness, sanity, and happiness of rural life. Every +agency that has social value for country life must realize to the +fullest degree possible its socializing functions if it covets for +itself fundamental social service. + + + + +THE WORLD WAR AND RURAL LIFE + + + + +XI + +THE WORLD WAR AND RURAL LIFE + + +What will be the influence of this world war upon rural life? This +question is constantly before the mind of thoughtful people who are +lovers of country life and interested in rural prosperity. Of course it +is much too soon to answer this question in detail or with certainty. It +is true, nevertheless, that already we can see evidences of the +influence the present war is having upon the conditions of country life. +It is also possible, perhaps, to discover the direction in which other +influences, born of the war, are likely to have significance for rural +welfare. It is certainly most unreasonable for anyone to suppose that +this terrible war of the nations will not greatly influence country +conditions and country people. + +One result is not a matter for argument. The great war has forced public +attention upon the problems of food production, and, as a consequence, +the social importance of the work of country people has been finally +revealed, so that even the least thoughtful has some realization of the +indispensable industrial contribution rendered to society by those who +till the soil. + +Has this nation ever before had such a serious realization of the social +importance of the agricultural industry? The prosperity of agriculture +has become the nation's concern, because these war days are revealing +how certainly farming is the basic enterprise of industry. And our +experiences are those of the entire civilized world. It is not at all +strange, therefore, that thoughtful students and public administrators +the world over are earnestly studying how to foster the farming +interests, not only during the war but also after it is over. + +Before August, 1914, there were few people who realized that, under the +conditions of modern welfare, one question of greatest national +importance is how nearly the nation at conflict can produce the food +necessary for its existence. It is unlikely that the nations will soon +forget this lesson that they have been taught by the ordeals of this +world war. Agricultural dependence is for any nation a very serious +military weakness. + +Nations that cannot feed themselves must first of all use their military +power to make it possible to import the needed food. This, of course, is +a military handicap, for it removes military resources from the +strategic points for defence or attack, that lines of communication with +other nations that are furnishing food may be kept open. The more nearly +nations are able to obtain from their own cultivated land sufficient +food stuff, the more effectively they can use their army and navy in +strategic military service. + +It does not seem possible that this great lesson can be forgotten by our +generation. Perhaps this is the largest result that the war will yield +within the field of rural interests. National leaders as never before +will consider every possible method by which farming can be made +profitable, satisfying, and socially appreciated. This policy will be +undertaken not merely for the sake of the farmer, but also as a means of +providing national safety. + +The war already has disclosed the tendency of national policy to regard +the uses made of farming land as a matter for social concern. In +England, France, and Germany especially we have had, as a result of war +conditions, public control exercised regarding the uses made of private +land. Certain crops have been outlawed. Others have been stimulated and +encouraged by the action of the government. It has proved wise to +establish this control over the uses made of productive land. Of course, +war has furnished the motive and made possible the success of this +practical public control of land resources. Indeed, before the war, no +one could have imagined that England, for example, could have been led +to so great a public control of the uses of productive land as has +already resulted from the war. + +Already we find some people advocating that the government continue +after the war to exercise a degree of such control over the uses made of +private lands and it attempt to conserve national safety by stimulating +the production of staple crops. At least for a time it will be difficult +to win converts to the proposition that the public has no interest in +what people who own productive land may do with their property. By +education, if not by legislation, the wiser nations are likely to +attempt consciously to direct production for social welfare. Probably +some nations will not hesitate to subsidize the cultivation of certain +crops in order to keep agriculture in a condition of preparedness for +the trials of war. + +Whenever the war ceases, one of the problems that will immediately face +all the warring nations will be how best to get great numbers of +soldiers and sailors back into productive industry. The task will be +the largest of its kind in all human history. We find in Europe those +who advocate that the government should place many of the soldiers and +sailors back upon the land by making practicable a system of small +farms. To some this appears the wise way to help the partially disabled +soldiers and sailors. The problem of men suffering from nervous +instability deserves special attention. Many who have seen service will +return with slight nervous difficulties that will handicap them in +certain forms of urban industry. Their best protection from serious +disorders will be in many cases opportunity to engage in agriculture. At +this point the question of competition with experienced farmers who +suffer from no disability naturally arises. Experience may prove that +the government can wisely give financial assistance to those placed on +the land, by government aid in one form or another, to protect them in +their undertakings. + +It has been pointed out by European students that the small farm is not +likely to increase much the production of the staple crops, since in +Europe garden truck is more easily handled by those who cultivate small +farms. Because of this fact, the effort of the government to encourage +the growing of staple crops for purposes of national safety is likely to +be independent of the movement to place soldiers and sailors on the +land. In Europe the success of the small farms appears to be conditioned +largely by the ability of the land owners to cooperate. Stress will have +to be placed upon the development of the spirit of cooperation, and +this, fortunately, will have a social influence in addition to its +economic advantages. How much governments may do to encourage the +building up of efficient cooperative enterprises is more or less +problematical, but the experience of Denmark teaches that more can be +done than has been done by most governments. + +It is interesting to notice how the war has stimulated cooperation in +Europe. None of the countries illustrates this more than Russia. January +1, 1914, there were about 10,000,000 members of cooperative societies or +about 5.8 per cent of the total population. In 1916 this membership had +increased to 15,000,000. Counting in the families of the cooperators, it +is estimated that 67,500,000 people in Russia are interested in +cooperative enterprises, or about 39 per cent of the population. We find +that development of cooperation in consumption has been in Russia +directly related to the pressure for food due to war conditions. The +large majority of Russian cooperative societies are rural.[12] Other +countries, notably England and France, have also felt the influence of +the war in increasing the development of cooperation. + +In America we are still too distant from the bitter consequences of war +to feel the need of planning for the care of the crippled and nervously +injured soldiers. Imagination will not allow us to picture the returning +of the soldiers as a problem. Our remarkable success in getting the +soldiers back into industry after the Civil War gives us a strong sense +of security when we do consider the matter. Probably if the war +continues for several years our problem after this war will be more +serious than it was in 1865. In any case we shall have a considerable +number of those who, because of physical or nervous injuries, will +require public assistance of a constructive character. If such men can +be made fully or even partly self-supporting by being placed on land it +will help both them and the food productiveness of the nation. Of +course, this form of public aid, like every other method of giving +assistance, has its political and economic dangers. The prosperity of +other farmers must not be disturbed. So many interests are involved that +the entire problem demands time for serious discussion, so that we may +not be troubled by hasty, half-baked legislation. + +Anyone who has visited an army cantonment has felt the gregarious +atmosphere of army service. For a few men this is the most trying +experience connected with the service. Others find in it the supreme +satisfaction. Every soldier is influenced by it more or less. What will +it mean to the soldier who has come into the army from the small country +place? We know, as a result of what social workers among the soldiers +tell us, that the country boy is often very sensitive to this enormous +change from an isolated rural neighborhood to the closest contact +possible in a community which is literally a great city. By necessity +the recruits from the country are forced into the conditions of city +life, into an environment that is more gregarious than any normal urban +center experiences. What result is this likely to have upon the future +social needs of the men from rural districts? It is to be expected that +many of them will not be content again in the country. They will have +developed cravings that the country-life environment cannot satisfy. For +this reason it is not likely that the placing of former soldiers and +sailors on the land will have in any country all the success desired. +Much will depend upon who are selected to go into the country. On the +other hand, it is safe to predict that this war will add momentum to the +city-drift of our population and increase the number of those who form +the mobile class of rural laborers. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[12] _International Review of Agricultural Economics_, August, 1917. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rural Problems of Today, by Ernest R. 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