Chapters in Rural Progress Part 12

Means of Communication in Rural Districts

1. Importance and status of rural communication.

2. The new movements for better rural communication.

_a_) Highways.

_b_) Rural free mail delivery.

_c_) Rural telephone.

_d_) Interurban electric railways.

CHAPTER II

Farmers' Organizations

1. Value of.

2. Difficulties in organizing.

3. Forms that organizations may take.

4. History and work of farmers' organizations in the United States.

5. General deductions from study of farmers' organizations.

CHAPTER III

Rural Education

1. Distinction between rural and agricultural education.

2. The country school.

_a_) Its importance, organization, maintenance, instruction, and supervision.

_b_) The rural school as a social center.

_c_) The township unit, the consolidated school, the centralized school.

3. High-school privileges for rural pupils.

4. The rural library.

5. Other agencies for rural education.

CHAPTER IV

Means of Agricultural Education

1. Historical.

2. Research in agriculture.

3. Agricultural instruction to resident students.

_a_) Higher education in agriculture.

_b_) Secondary education in agriculture.

_c_) Primary education in agriculture.

4. Extension teaching in agriculture.

5. Miscellaneous agencies for agricultural education.

_a_) Farmers' societies.

_b_) The farm press.

_c_) The county paper.

_d_) Industrial departments of steam railways.

CHAPTER V

The Rural Church

1. Present status.

2. Difficulties in country church work.

3. The awakening in the rural church.

4. The inst.i.tutional rural church.

5. The Y. M. C. A. in the country.

6. The rural Sunday school.

7. The rural social settlement.

CHAPTER VI

The Social Ideal for Agriculture

1. The importance of social agencies.

2. The preservation of the "American farmer" essential.

3. Relation of this ideal to our American civilization.

4. The federation or co-operation of rural social agencies.

CHAPTER XVII

FEDERATION FOR RURAL PROGRESS

It is almost trite to a.s.sert the need of the "socialization"--to use a much-worked phrase--of the country. It is possible that this need is not greater than in the cities, but it is different. Among no cla.s.s of people is individualism so rampant as among farmers. For more than a century the American farmer led the freest possible social life. His independence was his glory. But, when the day of co-operation dawned, he found himself out of tune with the movement, was disinclined to join the ranks of organized effort, and he prefers even yet his personal and local independence to the truer freedom which can be secured only through co-operative endeavor. Moreover, the social aspect of the rural problem is important not merely because the farmer is slow to co-operate. The farm problem is to be met by the activities of social inst.i.tutions.

We may say (a.s.suming the home life, of course) that the church, the school, and the farmers' organization are the great rural social inst.i.tutions. They are the forces now most efficient, and the ones that promise to abide. This cla.s.sification may appear to be a mere truism, when we suggest that under the church should be placed all those movements that have a distinctively religious motive, under the school all those agencies that are primarily educational in design, and under farmers' organizations those a.s.sociations whose chief function is to settle questions which concern the farmer as a business man and a citizen. But the cla.s.sification answers fairly well. It includes practically every device that has been suggested for rural betterment.

There are two interesting facts about these rural inst.i.tutions: (1) None of them is doing a t.i.the of what it ought to be doing to help solve the farm problem. The church is apparently just about holding its own, though that is doubted by some observers. Rural schools are not, as a rule, keeping pace with the demands being made upon them; comparatively few students in the whole country are studying scientific agriculture.

Not one farmer in twenty belongs to a strong farmers' organization. (2) All these inst.i.tutions are awakening to the situation. Progress during the last decade has been especially gratifying. Co-operative efforts among farmers are more cautious, but more successful. The Grange has nearly doubled its membership since 1890; and it, as well as other farm organizations, has more real power than ever before. The rural-school question is one of the liveliest topics today among farmers as well as educators. Opportunities for agricultural education have had a marvelous development within a decade. Discussion about rural church federation, the rural inst.i.tutional church, rural social settlements, and even experiments in these lines are becoming noticeably frequent. The Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation has, its officers think, found the way to reach the country young man.

The inst.i.tutions which we have just discussed, together with the improvement that comes from such physical agencies as a.s.sist quicker communication (good wagon roads, telephones, rural mail delivery, electric roads), const.i.tute the social forces that are to be depended upon in rural betterment. None can be spared or ignored. The function of each must be understood and its importance recognized. To imagine that substantial progress can result from the emphasis of any one agency to the exclusion of any other is a mistake. To a.s.sert this is not to quarrel with the statement we frequently hear nowadays that "the _church_ should be the social and intellectual center of the neighborhood;" or that "the _school_ should be the social and intellectual center of the neighborhood;" or that "the _Grange_ should be the social and intellectual center of the neighborhood." It is fortunate that these statements have been made. They show an appreciation of a function of these agencies that has been neglected.

The first item in rural social progress is that the country preacher, the rural teacher, the country doctor, the country editor, the agricultural editor, the agricultural college professor, and especially the farmer himself, shall see the social need of the farm community. But to a.s.sert, for instance, that the church shall be _the_ social center of that community may lead to a partial and even to a fanatical view of things. I would not restrain in the slightest the enthusiasm of any pastor who wants to make his church occupy a central position in community life, nor of the teacher who wants to bring her school into relation with all the economic and social life of the farm, nor of the leader of the farmers' organization who sees the good that may be done through the social and intellectual training which his organization can give. But if there is danger that the preacher in the pursuit of this ideal, shall ignore the social function of the school and of the farmers' organization, or that the teacher, or the farmer, or anybody else who is interested, shall fail to see that there is a logical division of labor among rural social forces, and that it is only the intelligent and efficient and harmonious co-operation of all these forces that will insure the best progress, then to such I appeal with all the power at my command to recognize not only the breadth of the whole movement, but to appreciate the limitations of their own special interests. There are things that the church cannot do and should not attempt to do. There are things the school cannot do and should not attempt to do. Accepting our conventional division of social agencies, we may say that efficient rural progress stands upon a tripod of forces, and that balance can be maintained only when each is used in its proper measure.

We reach now the heart of the topic, which is how these various social forces may be brought into co-operation--a co-operation that is intelligent and real. I would suggest, first of all, the encouragement of all efforts along this line that are already under way. For instance, there are scattered all over this country individual pastors who are seeking to make their churches the social and intellectual beacon-lights of the community. There are other individuals who are endeavoring to apply the social-settlement idea to the needs of the country. There are a.s.sociations which attempt to bring together the teachers and the school patrons for mutual discussion of educational topics. In numerous instances the farmers' organizations include in their membership the country pastor, the district school teacher and perhaps the country doctor. In these and doubtless in other ways the idea we are dealing with is being promulgated, and up to a certain point this fact of promiscuous initiative is entirely satisfactory and desirable. So long as the work is done it makes little difference who does it. Every attempt to bring any of these agencies into closer touch with the farm community is to be welcomed most heartily. But beyond a certain limit this promiscuous work must be unsatisfactory. The efforts and interests of any one social agency are bound to be partial. Indeed the more effective such an agency is, the more partial it is likely to be. Intensity is gained at the expense of breadth. The need for federation exists in the desirability of securing both the intensity and the breadth.

The precise method of securing this federation of effort is not easy to foresee. It can be determined only by trial. It must be worked out in harmony with varying conditions. Some very general plans at once suggest themselves: (1) Let the agricultural college in each state take the lead in the movement, acting not so much as an organization as a clearing-house and a go-between. Let it direct conferences on the subject, and seek to bring all who are interested in rural affairs into touch and sympathy. (2) Have a "League for Rural Progress," made up of representatives from the churches, the agricultural colleges, the departments of public instruction, the farm press, various farmers'

organizations, etc. (3) Enlarge the "Hesperia movement," which now seeks to secure co-operation between school and farmers' organization, by including in it the church.

It may be of interest to note that this idea of a federation of rural social forces is getting a foothold and has indeed already crystallized into organization. A brief description of what has actually been done will therefore not be out of place.