The Church on the Changing Frontier Part 5

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRUITS OF THE EARTH

The Community spirit expresses itself in friendly rivalry at Union County Fair.]

Largely through the influence of the Farm Bureau, two cooperative organizations were recently started in Union County, the Union County Farmers' Mutual Hail Insurance a.s.sociation and the Registered Live Stock and Pure Bred Poultry a.s.sociation. There is only one other active cooperative at present, a Telephone Company at Mount Dora, capitalized at $3,000. A state-wide marketing a.s.sociation has 280 Union County members who produced in 1920 one-third of all the products marketed through the organization. Besides the marketing a.s.sociations, Hughes has a cooperative Farmers' Lumber Company.

All these counties have cooperative stores. A cooperative store at Wisdom in Beaverhead County has fifty stockholders. Lima had a cooperative store in 1919-1920 which failed through poor management. Two Rochdale Cooperative stores were started three years ago in Ulm and Clearmont in Sheridan County. When the central organization took the surplus earnings of the branch stores to make up failures in other stores in the chain instead of declaring dividends, both the Sheridan County stores withdrew and organized cooperatives of their own in March, 1921. Sheridan City for the past eight years has had a cooperative store in which ranchers and farmers from nearby communities have most of the shares. There is also a Miners' Store in Sheridan City. Hughes County has one cooperative store with 150 stockholders.

Urban and Rural Rivalry

All the centers are service stations for the farmers. In some places the old, deep-seated antagonism between town and country is noticeable. There is the feeling that the merchants overcharge, that big business sets the prices, that capital is to be distrusted. Most of the merchants have been of the old individualistic type which places the dollar higher than the community, an idea which the Commercial Clubs are altering. This is especially noticeable in Union County, where the feeling between country and town has been very bitter. The farmers unfortunately are unfriendly to and distrustful of the merchants and business men. Each group is really interdependent, but 'such' a feeling r.e.t.a.r.ds progress and development. As one leading farmer put it, "The prejudice between the farmer and business man _must_ be overcome. There is no limit to the results if we can just get together."

The farmers feel that the average merchant in buying farm products has not discriminated between a good and a bad product so far as price goes. In short, the honest farmer does not want to sell bad eggs or sandy maize, but he doesn't like to get a poor price for a good product. Farmers feel that the merchants have overcharged them for goods and obtained high profits and they are undoubtedly right to some extent. The farmers believe that the fact of their charging goods on credit with the merchant gives the latter an unfair advantage over them, that the merchant thinks he can pay any price he wants when purchasing from the farmer.

Chambers of Commerce and Commercial Clubs are working toward a better understanding. Get-together meetings have been started. The first Union County meeting prepared the farmers by letters and visits, in order to suggest a more friendly and constructive meeting ground. In Sheridan and Pierre, the Commercial Clubs have been very ready to cooperate in any movements that would benefit the farmer. An example of happier relations between farmer and merchant is the rest room for farmers' wives maintained in Dillon by the Good Government Club.

[Ill.u.s.tration: UP-TO-DATE REAPING ON THE PLAINS

Answering the World's Prayer for Daily Bread.]

Hard Times

In the history of this Range area the last three years have been the most difficult for farmers and ranchers. They have suffered acutely from the sharp drop in prices of stock and farm products. Part of the Range section has had a severe drouth. Beaverhead has had several dry years. Last year (1921), thousands of dollars' worth of hay had to be shipped into the county as feed, and much livestock had to be sent out of the county to graze. In addition to drouth, gra.s.shoppers, fairly plentiful before, became a scourge in part of Sheridan the summer of 1921. The farmers, helped by the Farm Bureau, worked hard to exterminate them with poisoned oats. Simultaneously with the drouth and gra.s.shopper scourge in certain sections, the decrease in prices has led to hard times and much suffering. Whereas a rancher was "well off" a few years ago, he now considers himself lucky if he is "in the hole" for only a few thousand.

The farmers are bitter. They feel that something is wrong with the "system." One can hardly blame them when crops bring no profit, while taxes seem to be higher than ever. The hard times have made ranchers and farmers do more serious thinking about taxes, farm conditions, and the marketing of farm products than they have ever done before.

E. T. Devine, writing on "Montana Farmers" in _The Survey Magazine_, gives the farmers' position:

Montana farmers are much like other American producers, urban and rural, but they are even harder hit than most of their fellow countrymen, except, of course, unemployed town workers. They share in the general calamity of relatively low prices for agricultural products and they have also just pa.s.sed through several years of unprecedented drouth. Freight rates are high and burdensome, and the things the farmers have to buy are still high in proportion to the prices which they get for their grain and stock. These farmers are therefore in debt, and are borrowing more than they can. They are actually and not merely in a chronically distorted imagination, having difficulty in paying their interest and taxes; and if their equity is small they are losing it.... The farmers are not seeking fundamental or permanent solutions. What concerns them is to get immediate and appreciable relief from taxes.

Hard times, as in Union County, usually strike our best a.s.sets. The county first had a County Agent in 1915, a Home Demonstration Agent in 1917, and a.s.sistant County Agent in 1918 and a Club Leader in 1918. Unfortunately, the hard times forced upon the country a program of retrenchment. In 1920 the a.s.sistant County Agent and, early in 1921, the Club Leader were removed. At present, there is a determined effort in some quarters to dispense with the other two workers.

Social Agencies

Country folk keep track of things. County papers as well as outside newspapers are read in all communities. These outside newspapers come from Denver, Kansas City, b.u.t.te or Omaha, depending upon location. Four newspapers are published in Beaverhead, two in the county seat, and one in each of the two villages. Rural Sheridan prints but one newspaper, _The Tongue River News_, at Ranchester. Two dailies are published in Sheridan City. Three communities in Union, and three in Hughes County, publish their own papers. The town of Clayton has the _Examiner_ and the _Tribune_, as well as a paper printed in Spanish. Grenville and Des Moines, two villages in Union, also have local papers. In Hughes County, Pierre has two papers, and Blunt and Harrold one each. The editors are almost all progressive and up-to-date, and vitally interested in the welfare of their communities.

More and better libraries are an urgent need of all these counties.

Sheridan, Pierre and Dillon all have splendid Carnegie libraries. The majority of the schools have small school libraries. But there is only one public library in Beaverhead County, besides that in Dillon, in the community house of Wisdom village. Sheridan has no other library in the whole county. The only libraries in Union County are a collection of books for public use in the office of a village lumber yard and a small travelling library. Hughes County has a town library and three circulating libraries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED

The Community House at Wisdom, Beaverhead County.]

Good leadership is always essential to progress. Every one of these counties is fortunate in having some splendid county-wide leaders who are devoting themselves to their county's progress. Wherever a county has a Farm Bureau, leadership is developed by that organization. But in rural sections where distances prevent people from coming together, leadership is wanting. Each ranch is a small isolated world and by the very nature of things there are few community undertakings. The development of local leadership, especially in remote sections, should become the concern of this country. As Hart says in his book, "Community Organization," "the destiny of civilization is wrapped up in the future of community life. If that life becomes intelligent, richly developed, democratically organized, socially controlled--the future of civilization is secure.... The determination is largely one of leadership."

Community Spirit

Red Cross work, during the war, did a great deal toward bringing about a unified spirit. The Farm Bureau is working in this direction. When real needs arise, a community spirit is born, and unsuspected qualities of loyalty, cooperation and leadership develop, as happened in one community in Sheridan County, when that community wanted the State highway: they canva.s.sed every load of wheat that went to Sheridan City from their community to show how much their road was used. Another splendid example of community spirit was the pageant staged by Armstead Community, in Beaverhead County, to celebrate the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Every one in the community, even the babies as Indian papooses, took part. About half of all the communities have a real community spirit, i.e., a willingness on the part of the people to work unselfishly, cooperatively, for the best interests of the community. This spirit, fostered by the Farm Bureau or by war work, has directed communities to concern themselves with their roads, schools, methods of farming and the creation and strengthening of all community bonds and interests.

The results of this spirit are shown in social and educative agencies like Lodges and the local branches of the Farm Bureau. Of the sixty-eight Lodges only seventeen are for women, and their total enrollment is about 7,000 members. While women have fewer Lodges their attendance is more enthusiastic and regular than in the case of the men. There are Commercial Clubs in the city and towns, and in a number of the villages. The American Legion has five branches in the four counties. Eight communities have Literary Societies meeting regularly. Then there are the many clubs and societies which are purely social. These include sewing clubs, card clubs, athletic clubs and similar organizations which are found in the city and towns, and in about one-third of the other communities. There are musical organizations in seven communities, and four communities have community singing. These organizations, together with the schools and churches, give the inspiration for most of the social life.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAMPING IN SHERIDAN COUNTY

The colored cook, at least, seems to delight in her surroundings.]

"Movies," Motors and the Dance

All the larger centers have moving-picture theatres. With the coming of the "movie," and the general ownership of cars, there is a growing tendency to go into the centers for amus.e.m.e.nt. Dancing is the most popular recreation. If an event is really a success, it ends with a dance. In many communities a dance is the only thing that will "go." One reason for this is the lack of leadership; a dance needs no planning to speak of, which is not the case with other forms of indoor recreation. Dances attract people from great distances and are generally held on Sat.u.r.day night, lasting until Sunday morning, with a feast at midnight. Perhaps the Farm Bureau has an exhibition during the day, and there is a community dance in the evening. It is held in the hall over the poolroom. An orchestra of three army veterans plays good lively jazz. The latest tunes and dances of the city are as familiar in these remote communities as are the latest modes and fashions. No country square dances here; nothing older than the very latest dancing, and the most modern of ear-capped coiffures! Whole families attend, and parents take the floor along with the young folks.

There is a great friendliness. The young men are well set-up, muscular and tanned, and some of them even wear spurs which clink together as they dance. Feminine noses are not as white as they might be, though powder puffs are here, very properly concealed. Most of these girls ride horseback as well as their brothers, and both young women and men, with their athletic supple figures, their innate sense of grace and rhythm, might put to shame our tired, anaemic city dancers. At midnight, there is a supper of fried chicken, sandwiches and real cake brought a few dozen miles more or less by team or car. Everything tastes good because it is made at home. Afterwards, the tireless feet continue the intricate, graceful measures. But outside the brightly lighted hall, and beyond the sound of laughter and music broods the silent, mysterious night of a s.p.a.cious country. How many city dancers know the homeward drive through a big country, the moon perhaps lighting the river, the contours of plain and b.u.t.te, and the sleeping hamlets?

The most popular forms of outdoor recreation are the community barbecues, frontier days and pow-wows. Only those who live this free, healthy life in the heart of nature have appet.i.tes worthy of a barbecue. At noon the delicious beef, roasted all night over a deep trough of coals, and basted with real b.u.t.ter, is a social meal that many of us envy. There are frontier field days with sports belonging to ranch life, such as horse racing and broncho busting. The day usually ends with a big dance. Even the "dude" ranches in Sheridan hold Frontier days, and great events they are, too, with many spectators. In sections of Sheridan and Union Counties, but especially in Beaverhead, there is the beauty of the country which furnishes recreation in itself. Nature has lavished upon them every gift of line and color. The mountains and the streams, the woods and the canyons, hold a hundred delightful possibilities that are within the reach of almost every one. It is a playground as varied as it is perfect. On Sat.u.r.days and Sundays in the summer, car after car, packed with camp equipment and home-made delicacies, head for the health-giving hills and mountains.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FRONTIER CELEBRATION

The Barbecue is an inst.i.tution typical of the Range Country and is attended by settlers from far and near.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP OF HUGHES COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA]

CHAPTER III

What of the Church?

What country landscape is complete without the church spires? In this s.p.a.cious western region, in the heart of awe-inspiring natural scenery, the church spires are guideposts to almost 50,000 people. This land is new. It has been the changing frontier. Tremendous developments have been in process. The country is in a transition stage between the stock-raising past and the agricultural future. Population has increased rapidly; population has been shifting. The whole background has been kaleidoscopic.

The Church has faced bewildering changes and growth. The burden of increasing its service and equipment has been heavy; it has not been able to "keep up" with the pace of civilization.

The story of early church growth in the cowboy country is one inspiring loyalty since it eloquently traces the faithfulness of a few in a country where G.o.d was easily forgotten. One of the first things to be read of rough-and-ready Bannock, among the earliest mining towns on the Range, is that church services were held there. The Church migrated with its congregations. Missionaries from the East came through with the fur trappers and preached the word of G.o.d. When the land began to be taken up by settlers, impromptu meetings were held, and Sunday schools were started in many places which had no ministers. Some of these points of worship gradually developed into organized religious bodies so that at present there are churches which have grown up with the country.

A Difficult Field

The Church in this frontier country has always faced great difficulties.

Chiefly, there is the vast area of it, with a scattered and transient population. Homesteaders are a restless, uncertain, human quant.i.ty. Some are engrossed in getting a start. Others move on as soon as they have "proved up" on their claims. All are poor; there is always an economic struggle going on. The old frontier spirit of "let have and let be"

survives from the cowboy days. This free and easy spirit says: "Boys drinking?--well, boys have to have their good times. Streets weedy?--well, they might be worse." The same spirit says: "No churches?--well, we're just as well off and our money is better in the bank than paying for a minister who never gets out and does an honest day's work."

"Good-bye, G.o.d, we're going to Wyoming," said a little Boston girl as the family was starting west. This typifies what happened as people from the East and Middle West moved out to the frontier. In the desperate struggle for existence homesteaders had little time for Christian enterprise.

Because of the great distances and scattered population, adequate church ministry has been difficult if not impossible. People had for so long lived without a church that indifference developed. The longer they stayed the less they took the church for granted. The older the section, one finds to-day, the less likely it is to want church ministry. Newer homesteaders, recently come from other parts of the country where the church was more available, are more eager for church and Sunday school.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS

The M. E. Church at Mosquero, Union County, N. M.]