Community Civics and Rural Life Part 4

Dunn, Arthur W., The Community and the Citizen, Chapters i, v.

Tufts, James H., The Real Business of Living, Chapter x.x.xi (Problems of country life).

Earle, Alice Morse, Home Life in Colonial Days (Macmillan).

Finley, John H., "Paths of the Pioneers," in Long's American Patriotic Prose, pp. 1-4.

Pioneer stories from any available source, especially local history stories.

CHAPTER III

THE NEED FOR COOPERATION IN COMMUNITY LIFE

THE NEED FOR TEAMWORK

When people have common purposes and are dependent upon one another in accomplishing them, there must be COOPERATION, which is another name for "teamwork." A team of horses that does not pull together can not haul a heavy load. A baseball team, though composed of good players, will seldom win games unless its teamwork is good. A few soldiers may easily disperse a large mob because they have teamwork, while a mob usually does not. This principle of "pulling together," "teamwork," or "cooperation," is of the greatest importance in community life. There can be no real community life without it.

SIMPLE TYPES OF COOPERATION

In the early days there were "barn raisings," when neighbors came together to help one of their number to "raise" his barn; and all the men of a pioneer community contributed their labor in building the community church or schoolhouse. This was a simple form of cooperation. It may be seen now at threshing time, when neighboring farmers combine to thresh the grain of each, the same group of men and the same threshing machine doing the work for all. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that:

In a group of 14 farmers situated in a community in one of the best farming regions in the corn belt, ... it was found that 5 men out of the 14 failed to get all their corn planted by the last week in May. They had worked as hard and as steadily at that operation as had their neighbors, but they were delayed by one cause or another, such as lack of labor or teams, or were handling a larger acreage than their equipment would allow them to handle satisfactorily. In this same community were 3 men who completed all their planting operations before the 20th of May, and 5 others who completed their work by the 25th of May. ... If all these men had considered that corn planting was a national necessity and had pooled their efforts, all of the corn on all the farms could have been planted within the most favorable time. [Footnote: The Farm Labor Problem, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Circular No. 112, p. 5.]

Give other ill.u.s.trations of this sort of cooperation from the farm or community life of your neighborhood.

Give ill.u.s.trations of such teamwork among boys and girls.

Give ill.u.s.trations of the failure of enterprises in which you have been interested because of a lack of teamwork.

Why is it an advantage for the farmers to use one threshing machine for all the threshing of the neighborhood instead of each farmer having his own machine?

ORGANIZED COOPERATION AND LEADERSHIP

As communities grow and the people become more dependent upon one another, and especially when it becomes hard to see how one thing that happens may affect others, as shown in Chapter II, cooperation becomes more difficult, but it becomes even more necessary. It needs to be ORGANIZED, and it needs LEADERSHIP. The experience of fruit growers in California affords a good ill.u.s.tration of this. When they acted independently of one another, they often had difficulty in disposing of their product to advantage. Sometimes it rotted on the ground. As individuals they did not have the means of learning where the best markets were. They had to make their own terms separately with the railroads for transportation and since they shipped in small quant.i.ties, they paid high freight rates. They had no adequate means of storing fruit while it was awaiting shipment. They were dependent upon commission merchants in the cities for such prices as they could get, which were often practically nothing at all.

These and other difficulties that made fruit growing unprofitable were overcome by the organization of fruit growers' a.s.sociations, in which each grower may become a member by purchasing shares of stock. The members elect from their number a BOARD OF DIRECTORS, who in turn appoint a BUSINESS MANAGER who gives his entire attention to the a.s.sociation's business. The a.s.sociation has central offices and storage and packing houses.

The manager keeps in close touch with market conditions,--where the demand for fruit is greatest, the kinds of fruit wanted, the best prices paid. He contracts for the sale of fruit at fair prices. Shipping in large quant.i.ties, he gets the advantage of low rates on fast freight trains with refrigerator cars. Uniform methods of packing fruit are adopted, sometimes the fruit being packed at the central packing house. Information is distributed as to the best methods of growing fruit, the best varieties to grow, and so on. On the other hand, supplies and provisions are bought in large quant.i.ties, securing the best quality at the lowest prices.

VOLUNTARY COOPERATION IN CITIES

In cities there are almost innumerable organizations by which groups of people cooperate for one purpose or another. Men in the same line of business or in the same profession organize to promote their common interests. There are boards of trade, chambers of commerce, merchants' and manufacturers' a.s.sociations.

Lawyers have their bar a.s.sociations, physicians their medical a.s.sociations. There are a.s.sociations of teachers, and work men in the various trades have their unions. Besides such business and professional organizations, there are clubs and a.s.sociations of all sorts for men, for women, and even for children, some of them educational, some social or recreational, some philanthropic, some religious. Where there are so many people interested in the same thing, where it is easy for them to meet together, and where competent leadership is forthcoming, it is quite the usual thing to organize for united action.

COOPERATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

In agricultural communities cooperation has developed more slowly.

Farmers have been too isolated from one another to make organization easy, they have not fully realized its advantages, and they have lacked leadership. This has been an obstacle to the fullest development of community life. The most backward communities are those where there is the least cooperation. In such communities "the farmer works single-handed, getting no strength from joint action or combined effort."

But all this is changing. Organizations like the fruit growers'

a.s.sociations are becoming common and are proving their value. The map on page 36 shows the distribution of organizations among farmers in the United States for cooperation in business enterprises of various kinds, though it shows only about half as many as actually exist. They include cooperative grain elevators and warehouses, creameries and cheese factories, cooperative stores, fruit and grain growers' a.s.sociations, livestock a.s.sociations, cotton and tobacco a.s.sociations, and many others.

Study the map on page 36 and indicate the region or regions where you think cooperative grain elevators and warehouses would be most numerous; livestock a.s.sociations; dairies and creameries; fruit growers' a.s.sociations; cotton growers' a.s.sociations; tobacco growers' a.s.sociations.

Are there any organizations of farmers in your community similar to those in the list in the last paragraph above? Make a list of them. What are their purposes? What are their advantages? What obstacles have they encountered? Are all the farmers in the community members? If not, why? Describe their plans of organization--membership, officers, management, etc. (Discuss these questions at home and report results.)

Is there any organization of businessmen, or of workmen, in your town or neighboring town? If so, ascertain what advantages it seeks.

Show how an ordinary store, or a bank, or a grain elevator, is a means by which people cooperate.

Are there any boys' or girls' clubs in your community? Show how such clubs require and secure cooperation. How is leadership provided?

If there is a parents' a.s.sociation connected with your school, show how it brings about cooperation among its members in the interest of the school.

Make a list of all the organizations you can think of in your community (such as clubs, societies, a.s.sociations). Opposite the name of each write the chief purposes for which it exists.

Write the six great wants across the top of a page, as suggested in the fifth topic on page 6, and arrange the list of organizations suggested in the last question above in the proper columns according to the wants they provide for.

Discuss the importance of leadership in school activities. What are the qualities that make a good leader?

Who are some of the leaders in your community, both men and women?

THE FARM BUREAU

At the close of 1916 there were nearly three hundred "farm bureaus" in the northern and western states with a membership of nearly 100,000. A farm bureau is an organization to secure cooperation throughout an entire county for the promotion of agricultural interests. The members elect an executive committee to manage the affairs of the bureau. In each of the small communities of which the county is made up, there is a "community committee." The chairmen of the several community committees const.i.tute a county agricultural council. The chairmen and members of the various committees are chosen because of their interest in special lines of work and their fitness to direct such work.

Various other organizations in the county, such as the fair a.s.sociation, breeders' a.s.sociations, the Grange, the schools, and others, are represented in the committees of the bureau, the purpose being to secure teamwork among them, as well as among the different communities of the county and among the individual farmers. The bureau also cooperates with the state and national governments in employing a COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AGENT, who is the bureau's adviser, or leader. In short, the farm bureau represents the county working together in an organized way and under leadership for the improvement of community life.

In the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for the year 1915, the story is told of Christian County, Kentucky. [Footnote: "How the Whole County Demonstrated," 1915 Year Book, U.S.

Department of Agriculture, pp. 225-248.]

A CASE OF COUNTY COOPERATION

This county is almost wholly agricultural, but the county seat is a small city of 10,000. There had formerly been more or less jealousy between the city and county, as too frequently happens.

But a businessmen's a.s.sociation was organized in the city, which interested itself in bettering the agricultural conditions of the county, because the business of the city was very dependent upon the neighboring agriculture. A "crop improvement a.s.sociation" was formed, including farmers in its membership. A county agricultural agent was employed, and local community clubs were organized in different parts of the county, which held meetings attended by the farmers and their families, and by businessmen from the city. A good roads a.s.sociation was organized, and a "good roads day" was held on which businessmen turned out with the farmers, stores of the city were closed, and on one of the princ.i.p.al roads at least 90 per cent of the workmen were city men. Stone was contributed by contractors, concrete firms furnished men gratis to repair bridges, one company supplied outfits for tr.i.m.m.i.n.g trees, and a large amount of work was done by the county and town working side by side ... Such results could only be accomplished through unity of purpose and cooperation of all the people.

Among other things accomplished in this county, a fair a.s.sociation has been formed; medical instruction has been introduced into the schools; a public library and hospital have been built; the school system of the county has cooperated in all educational work; both town and county merchants have offered prizes to members of the boys' clubs; also for cooking in the schools, and have put women's restrooms in the stores for the use of the public.

There is now an active girls' canning club in every community in the county, attended by the girls and also by their mothers. There are 12 social clubs which meet regularly; 15 parent-teachers' and mothers' clubs; and there is not a school in the county which does not have some form of community meeting. The schoolhouses are generally used for the meetings of the community clubs. In some instances farmers have given sufficient ground for amus.e.m.e.nt purposes at the schoolhouses. Here may be found the ball diamond, tennis court, and basketball courts.

It is said of this county that it "stands as a demonstration of the effect of education and organization under the proper leadership. THE TOWN AND THE COUNTY ARE ONE. The result is better agriculture, better business, and better living." Write a brief theme on one of the following topics:

(a) The importance of the telephone as a means of cooperation in my community.