Cornell University Library HT 421.Y7l6hc The home of the country side. 3 1924 014 001 642 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014001642 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRY- SIDE S V o c ^ ° 3 Q •s 's-- E o o 2 S> S 1 2 tj ^ g 4? J S" s ■^ e .i s ^ .9 1 o i c 5 c '1 1 1 s 2 'f 2 c ^ o d o II Jl i D -0 i3i 1^ oj >^ 1 (u ** E Q -a ^! J Oh o 1 c f 1 E a n J u1 S 1 1 3 3 01 UJ i 6 a J 1 U-) IT) to ID ^n o O in c^ m TT O S l-J^ cM CN "^ rH f^ ■^ o u-1 o iTi in in in >n ci o rTi rO TT ^ (^ in T o cC £1 c < u i CN .2 CN I g -1 £■ =1 ^ S 2 -S !^ I Z rn ■^ o I d f 1 i 12" I" 2 .S 'I J22 c -D i i 1 1 1 -s id sfi ■^ 4 "1 if r s f Q s Q u a 1 J 1 1 c E I u 1 c 3 o o o in in ■—I in o T^ ^ r-i "—I 1—1 1— 1 s o \D O o

\3QS0 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS PAGE WELCOME — Miss Jessie Field, Secretary Town and Country Committee, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations , ix REPLY— Dr. D. H. McAlpin, Chairman County Work Depart- ment Sub-Committee, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations ix AN INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY LIFE OUTLOOK— Dr. John R. Mott, General Secretary of the International Com- 'mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations 3 II THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE— Professor E. R. Groves, Department of Sociology, New Hampshire State College 9 Where There Is No Connection Between Church and Community Families — Its Results — Miss Lord. Evil Not a Matter op Location but of Christlessness — Mrs. M. L. Cochley, President Medford Young Women's Club, Medford, N. J. Moral Tone of Country Higher Than That of City — Rev. J. Madison Hare, New Jersey Baptist Convention, Scotch Plains, N. J. "Parenthood is a Partnershii" With God" — Rev. Irene Earl, Delaware So- ciety for Social Hygiene, Henry Clay, Del. In Review — Pro- fessor Groves. Ill THE SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF THE FARM HOME— A— Mrs. O. S. Morgan, New York , 39 THE SPIRIT AND NEEDS OP THE FARM HOME— B— Miss Martha Van Rensselaer, Department of Home Economics, New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. . 49 Yale's Work for the Country — Alvin B. Gurley, Yale University. Should Keep Closer to Psychology of Country People — Rev. W. B. Sheddan, D.D., Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. The Products of A Home Partnership — Rev. Edmund de S. Brunner, Ph.D., Secretary Moravian Country Church Commission, Easton, Pa. CONTENTS IV PAGE THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE— A. C. Mon- ahan, Expert in Rural Education, United Stales Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C 69 From the City to the Farm — A. A. Johnson, New York State School oj Agriculture, Farmingdale, N. Y. Back to THE Home Education — E. K. Thomas, Stale Club Leader, Kingston, R. I. County Work Furnishes Channel FOR Other Organizations — C. L. Rowe, State Secretary for County Work in Michigan. The Work of the Chris- tian Associations — Prof. E. L. Earp, Ph.D., Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J. About the Southern High- landers — ^John C. Campbell, Russell Sage Foundation, Asheville, N. C, Make Christian Education First — Rev. William Du Hamel. "Bethlehem Churchman," Douglasville, Pa, Rural Problems Must Be Solved from the Inside — Rev. O. F. Gardner, Farmers' Congress of Colorado, and Philadel- phian Society, Princeton, N, J, THE HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION— Rev. Arthur W. Hewitt, Member of Vermont State Board of Education and Pastor of the M. E. Church at Plainfield, Vt 95 VI THE HOME AS A FACTOR IN THE COMMUNITY— War- ren H. Wilson, Ph.D., Secretary Department of Church and Country Life, Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church. . lis A Plea for the Family Institution — Dean J. W. A. Stewart, D.D., LL.D., Rochester Theological Seminary. The Home AND "Community Acouaintanceship" — Professor E. L. Earp, Ph.D., Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J. VII FROM THE CHICAGO COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE.. 133 Herbert R. Earle, Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations; Edward E. Homer, Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Chris- tian Associations; C. L. Rowe, State Secretary for County Work in Michigan. Appendix 1. List of Delegates 141 Appendix II. Distribution of Delegates by States 149 PREFACE Four successful Country Life Conferences, held in New York City, beginning in December, 1910, and covering all the agencies that are vitally related to the human factor of the countryside of New England and the Middle Atlantic States, warranted this fifth conference on the topic, "The Home of the Countryside." It has been the constant aim of the County Work Department of the International Commit- tee, to make contagious the spiritual motive in the country life movement of North America. This fifth conference, of which this volume is the record, proved conclusively how much need there js that the various agencies should come together and clarify their vision, as well as evolve a con- tagious unity of purpose. There has come a better understanding as the conferences have passed by, and it is safe to say that any topic which might be brought before this New York Conference concerning the country life move- ment, from a spiritual point of view, would be considered with that consciousness of solidarity that was altogether lacking in earlier conferences. This conference, which convened November 9, viii PREFACE 1916, at the building of the National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations, New York City, was marked by constructive contribu- tions that were made to help lift the home of the countryside into an exalted and forceful position of influence as a powerful factor in the redirec- tion of our rural civilization in this New England and Middle Atlantic Division of our nation. Sincere appreciation is due to those who pre- sented papers in the Conference, and to those who took part in the discussion, for the painstaking efforts that were made to conserve the material to make possible this volume. We commend this volume to all country life students and workers, for the ground work which was done in the Conference, and which herein is recorded, will afford a basis for the wider expan- sion of the interpretation and application of the invaluable function which the "Household and the Home of the Countryside" is to perform. WELCOME There has never been a gathering which the National Board of the Young Women's Chris- tian Associations has been so glad to welcome to its building as the New York Country Life Conference, a conference so fundamental in its outlook and up-reach. It seems to me peculiarly fitting that this Conference, the first one to be held in the National Board building, and the first one in which the Young Women's Christian Association has had the privilege of having an official part, should have as its subject, "The Home of the Countryside," for the home is the place and the part of the Country Life Move- ment which concerns all equally and which is at the very root of all that we would have come true in our dreams of what the country will be some time everywhere. — Miss Jessie Field. REPLY The Young Men's Christian Association appre- ciate very much their hearty welcome to the National Board building. X REPLY We have already held four country life confer- ences in New York. The first dealt with "The Christian Community, the Rural Church and Community Betterment." The second confer- ence dealt with "The Country Church and Rural Welfare." The third dealt with *'The Country Church and Community Cooperation." The next conference was on "Unifying Rural Community Interests." This present conference is to discuss the topic, "The Home of the Countryside." I recently reviewed a copy of the program of the first Country Life Conference which was held in December, 1910, in this city, and, as I recalled that little room in the International Association Building, and then compared it with the beautiful conference room in the magnificent building of the National Board, I thought that the contribution to the work which would emanate from this last conference where we joined with the women, would be just as much greater than the contribution of that first conference, as the character and adornment of the National Board building and conference room were greater than the character and adornment of the building and room where we first met. — Dr. D. H. McAlpin. I AN INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY LIFE OUTLOOK AN INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY LIFE OUTLOOK Dr. John R. Mott, General Secretary of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations. This series of conferences on country life con- ducted by the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion has been notable. Anyone who has traveled widely through this country does not need to be told this. I question whether there has been a series of gatherings centered about the idea of improving country life conditions which has struck more directly, quickly, and helpfully at the heart of the real problem. It has gone beneath the surface; it has been discontented with ex- ternals ; it has been directing itself to the sources, to the springs which make possible permanent changes. Significant as is the country life movement here in the United States of America, what shall 4 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE we not say of the meaning of this series of gather- ings, and of the program set before us, to the other nations of the world? I have had to spend fully one-third of my time each year, for nearly thirty years, in other na- tions. These journeys have taken me over the world again and again. Nothing has impressed me more in recent journeys than the way in which discerning Christian leaders are addressing themselves to what we call the country problem. It would be a truism for me to say that the Chris- tianization of the African continent is essen- tially, almost exclusively, a country problem. It would likewise be trite for me to say in the pres- ence of anyone who has been in India, that there is nothing so important as the movement which has to do with the over seven hundred thousand villages of that country. While cities are import- ant, it is an idle dream to talk of spreading the network of Christianity over that land of reli- gions, and of disintegrating the citadels of ignor- ance, superstition, and shame, apart from better directed efiforts to reach the great masses in the villages of Hindustan. To a larger degree than most people have thought, in other parts of Asia, such as the Japanese Islands, and the Near East, AN INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK 5 and even in China, this problem is looming larger and larger. Moreover, we have fallen upon this alarming time of world war which is making possible stupendous changes in Europe, changes that five years ago would have been regarded as absolutely impossible. The British Isles are look- ing particularly to this very movement to give them guidance in the re-studying and re-stating of their rural problem from the point of view of the Church, and they are expecting much help from us. I have come recently from Russia. I had been impressed on previous visitation to Russia with its possibilities, but I am free to say that this last touch with that land overwhelmed me with the large meaning of Christian work on its behalf. I was talking there with the representative of the Ford Motor Car Company. He said he had been so much impressed with the opportunity in Russia and the possibilities of the country, that he was recommending to his company that they at once establish one of their largest plants in Russia. He ventured the prediction that in the next ten years that company will sell as many cars in the rural districts of Russia as it has in the last ten years in the United States. I present 6 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE this to show the way in which this sagacious busi- ness leader regards the country life of Russia. How much more ought we to see in it if we but have the gift of imagination! Anyone who has traveled over the plains of Russia, over Old Russia, over Holy Russia, or even out into Siberia, should have this vision. The work of this New York Country Life Conference will have a larger meaning than at first appears. We are not only getting into close touch with that which involves the best welfare of our own nation, but we are also helping to lead the way in those plastic countries of the Old World, whether in Europe or Asia or Africa. II THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE II THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE Professor E. R. Groves Department of Sociology, New Hampshire State College There is in our modern life nothing more sig- nificant than the increasing social discontent re- garding 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 contro- versy there is at least unmistakable evidence that the home is passing through a period of readjust- ment. This much is clear ; changes in our manner of life have placed strain upon the family that it 9 10 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE cannot successfully withstand without greater efficiency. Any effort to determine the value and obliga- tions of the family, whether urban or rural, re- quires first of all a clear statement of the signi- ficant places of irritation, where at present the family is meeting strain that makes readjust- ment necessary. These may be classified as difficulties created by changes in the : (a) Equipment or environment of the family (b) Function of the family (c) 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 se- clusion 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 THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE ii 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 satis- factory recreation. Of course, the sense of per- sonal responsibility for the place of habitation is almost entirely destroyed. Such is the equip- ment 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 12 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE as merely a burden and therefore in such homes every efifort 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 mere per- sonal pleasures of husband and wife. In the country we find the home, for the most part, at- tempting to carry out its former function as an educational and moral institution. The most serious difificulty 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 occu- pation. New ethical and political ideas, in addi- tion 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 THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 13 woman. It assumed a dependence, a subordina- tion, 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 adjust- ment 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 equip- ment, 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 seri- ous difficulties in the way of its final adjustment to the significant changes of modern life. There is certainly little security in the fact that numer 14 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE ous 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 impos- sible 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 ob- taining all that it should from its superior family opportunity. Assuming that it is healthier than the city, with reference to the equipment, func- tion, and adjustment of the family, it is reason- able to ask, "What are the obstacles that keep the country home from making its largest moral con- tribution 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, how- ever, from the very nature of things she is unable to make a significant moral contribution through THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE is her family duties. There will be striking excep- tions, 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 chil- dren 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 over-worked 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 earHer marriages than i6 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 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 at- tention 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 rela- tions. 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 than is today generally practiced, at least by men, we have every reason to suppose that we must gain social health by a higher moral ideaHsm 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 THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 17 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 illegi- timacy, 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, how- ever fortunate in itself, certainly does not demon- strate 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 atti- tude toward the granting of divorce is more con- servative 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 i8 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 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 consid- erable social indifference to the loose living to- gether of men and women. Two clergymen at work in a rural community of about a thousand people recently stated that there were in the com- munity 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 interest- ing 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 prac- tical opposition to lax sex irelations. The low attitude toward the sex element in marriage and the coarse view-point disclosed by conver- THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 19 sation often surprise the country visitor who is not acquainted with the occasional inconsist- ency of rural ethics. Judging the standard 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 com- pared with the urban family, with respect to the family conditions that make possible an efficient home life. It is not always true, howeverj 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 be- cause 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 influ- ence is always a social asset. The home may penetrate the child's life deeply and yet affect it 20 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 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 aspi- ration as he advances into maturity. The neigh- borhood 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 unwhole- some way that purity of mind becomes very diffi- cult 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 THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 21 natural advantages of the country home. Every- thing depends upon the way the rural home makes use of its opportunity. The rural church, espe- cially, should take to heart this remarkably sig- nificant fact. No institution in this country has the import- ance of the family. Good moral strategy re- quires, 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 oppor- tunities for moral progress provided by the con- ditions of family life in the country. It would seem as if one principle should always be ob- served — 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 encour- ages the family to make better use of its neglected opportunities. First of all, the rural home needs to be spirit- 22 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE ualized. Of course, there is equal need of spirit- ualizing 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 awak- ens 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 pene- trate common experience with the eye of confi- dent 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 THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 23 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 con- structive attempt to give helpful sex information, although, as a matter of practice, conversation often gravitates toward sex in a most unwhole- some 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 chil- dren 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 efiScient with reference to sanita- tion, hygiene, and proper food. This instruction promises to decrease much human suffering, dis- content, and poverty. In some respects such con- structive service is more needed in the country than in the city. Certainly, good results are al- ready appearing as a result of the efforts that 24 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 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 sig- nificant 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 influ- ences of childhood. One may discover for him- self 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 contri- bution 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 FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 25 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 seri- ous 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 fam- ilies. The clannish spirit ought to pass, for it is without excuse in these days. The family inter- ests a generation ago were altogether too nar- rowly conceived to make a wholesome social life possible. Greater cooperation is necessary if rural people are to make progress, and this co- operation is impossible when families are jeal- ous and suspicious. This obstacle in the way of wholesome rural culture, made by selfish and 26 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE petty family motives, it is useless to ignore. Un- less 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 posi- tive morality. This is imperative. The age of prohibitions as expressions of ideals has passed. Emphasis must be placed upon what we should do, and must be removed from a trivial and legahzed 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 par- ents must teach a better moral standard than they themselves were taught. The home morality must have the flavor of kindliness and sweet reason- ableness. Morality, to be true to its essence, does not require that it be made disagreeable. Good- ness is beauty expressed in human conduct and. THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 2y therefore, deserves freedom to disclose its win- some charm as well as its stern preeminence. This program for constructive social service in the country is largely based upon the conserva- tion of the moral and spiritual resources of the country. The deepest need of the country can be satisfied by no smaller propaganda. The in- struments for such service we already have. The country school, the country church, neighborhood fellowship, and the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation provide the means for a moral and spirit- ual 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, courage- ous, and modern instruction, and in persuasive inspiration. DISCUSSION WHERE THERE IS NO CONNECTION BE- TWEEN CHURCH AND COMMUNITY FAMILIES— ITS RESULTS In the part of the country where I spend the summer, there seems to be practically no connec- tion between the three churches and the com- munity life. One of the ministers remarked to me that what the people need is more Christianity and fewer churches. The churches do not seem to reach the people at all. Certain plans have been tried ; and sometimes, if a meeting is held, there are certain people who will not speak to the others. The churches themselves are all divided. There are bitter factions, and members of the same church sometimes refuse to converse with each other. As regards the family life, many of the hus- bands and wives are living apart. There seems to be very little control of the children by the parents. Many of the children grow up with no sense of responsibility at all and simply do as they wish to do without regard to morals. 31 32 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE Further the effect of the churches seems to be to multiply class feeling in the community. One of the ministers has expressed himself as being utterly contemptuous of the country people with whom he has to do; he preferred to associate with the city people and seemed to be entirely lacking in the spiritual realization of his oppor- tunity. — Miss Lord. EVIL NOT A MATTER OF LOCATION BUT OF CHRISTLESSNESS Having lived in both city and country, I know that evil is not a matter of location, but a matter of wrong thoughts in the hearts of the people. Their outward actions are only the effects of hidden desires. The greatest problem with which I have to contend, is to be able to teach the "Christ-Prin- ciple" to them. If Christ reigns supreme in their hearts, they are safe in any environment. — Mrs. M. L. Cochley. MORAL TONE OF COUNTRY HIGHER THAN THAT OF CITY It has been my privilege, as a minister, to divide my pastorate about equally between the THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 33 city and the country. The moral tone of the country I have found again and again to be of a higher class, and to be more responsible than that of our cities, especially the congested districts of the city. The city has made its marvellous strides, to be sure, and partly as a result, the attitude of the city towards the country has been largely that of patronage. Men have gone from our country communities and have made great successes in the cities, but they have not returned in kind to the country. This has had an important effect. In many communities the strong intellectual forces and the stable moral forces have moved away, and our churches and our communities have suffered very largely because their strength has been transferred to suburban communities and to the cities. The only solution for that is that men who have come from the country into the cities and have accumulated wealth, and who owe a debt to these country communities, should pay by aiding those who are the leaders of the educational and moral forces of the country com- munities. With reference to our churches, I agree heartily that there must come a time when they will be- 34 THE HOME OP THE COUNTRYSIDE come community churches and not be denomina- tional centers, and it is up to the leaders of our denominational life to bring this about. The dif- ferent pastors who are fighting for their com- munities' lives are trying to muzzle some of our denominational newspapers which label them "heretics." These men are willing to give their life blood to the advancement of the community rather than to the keeping alive of denominational tenets that ought to have died a good many cen- turies ago. — Rev. J. Madison Hare. "PARENTHOOD IS A PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD" We do need to idealize the sex side of life. Parenthood is a partnership with God. The power to bring a new life into the world is the fundamental thing in the family and in society. We have no right to consider this function as given for individual gratification. It is a racial instinct, not an individual one. We should so teach young people, that they will regard this power as a sacred trust. We should begin with our boys, especially when they are very young, and teach them the sacredness of life and of the trust that God has imposed upon them. In Dela- THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY LIFE 35 ware work along this line has just been begun through the Delaware Society for Social Hygiene. — Miss Irene Earll IN REVIEW It is by no means so sure, as most of us believe, that the family life of the future is to be the rural family life, rather than that of the city. The problem is not settled yet. I am trying to say to men and women in the country that they should not be so content with life as it now is in the country, but should rather ask the question, "What is being done with the opportunities that we have?" And sometimes, if they are honest, they will find that things are not just as they seem regarding the family. I am not sure what the future of the family is going to be, but as a scien- tist I can see that there is coming a most terrific onslaught on the family life, and it is coming soon if I read science aright. The only thing that will save the family life in its present form is to make it morally efficient. — Professor E. R. Groves. Ill THE SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF THE FARM HOME— A Ill THE SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF THE FARM HOME— A Mrs. O. S. Morgan New York City There are things for which all of us care much as we journey by the home of the open country, and as we think of the well-being of the people living therein. "Is that home a happy home? Is it in line for certain development? Will that development mean more abundant life?" The answer to such questions has to do with that blessed, saving dignifier of country home values — individual and family home-consciousness. As we consider music, which is so closely re- lated to "The Spirit and Needs of the Farm Home," we must remember that sincere song- consciousness has much to do with defining and establishing the spirit of the home. I have per- sonal convictions as to this point, in the forma- tion of home-consciousness, that arise directly 39 40 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE from what I sometimes relate as the "old song story of my old. home in Wisconsin." The telling of this story, as occasion has arisen during the last five years, has brought response from thou- sands of men and women with similar convictions as to the value of the good song in the home, the song that lives. More than nineteen hundred years ago Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians. He was then an old man. Out of the ripeness of his years, out of his clear vision of the Master he wrote words of encouragement and inspiration to those early Christians. Christian character was his theme — "be filled with the Spirit" — "speaking to your- selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in yciur heart to the Lord." — Ephesians 5 :i8, 19. "Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs !" And men and the children of men through all the ages that have followed have been learning the blessed- ness of song and testifying to its influence for good. "The righteous sing and rejoice," is a proverb found in the old "Book of Wisdom," and its commanding truth is the testimony of men's hearts unto the present hour. The "spirit and the understanding" are ever working together to SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 41 the end that song and singing may live in the hearts of men to humanize and to harmonize experience. Every life should begin in Eden — should have its best traditions to return to, its holy places and things on which an eternal consecration rests. The poorest of earth is he to whom memory makes nothing sacred. The riches of life are securely held in the chains which memory forges from life's elemental principles — love being chief- est. Out of love the world's greatest songs are made and it is love that sings them. The Father- hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man are told in a thousand ways by as many songs and singers. But, however covered, the constant theme is love — the language of the universal heart, singing the world's kinship in an expres- sion of common joy and pain, common fear and faith, common defeat and victory. "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men!" sang the angels to the Bethlehem shepherds and today's world hears. "We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord!" sang Ambrose of Milan on Easter Sun- day, four centuries later, and the song is Hfted and carried forth to die no more. "A mighty 42 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE fortress is our God," sang Luther, after twelve more centuries, and as they hear this song swell out, men are today safe-guarded and inspired by a quickened faith. "Nearer, My God, to Thee," sounds forth and the whole world is in prayer. Carlyle wrote, "The meaning of song goes deep," and as though pondering the thought, Longfellow mused: "And, loving still those quaint old themes, Even in the city's throng I feel the freshness of the streams, That, crossed by shades and sunny gleams, Water the green land of dreams, The holy land of song." We have said that every life should begin in Eden. Memory, reaching back to that Eden, gathers with its mastering chains the eternal verities of childhood experiences — mother, father, home — and links them with Hope's heaven. The voice of memory speaks and the old song is heard — simple, quaint, sweet, true — immortal in its truth : "Songs that breathe of scents and flowers, Songs that like deep rivers flow, Songs that bring back scenes and hours That we loved — ah, long ago!" SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 43 Whittier, that loved poet of the home, hearing this sweetest of all memory's voices, sang with it : "I hear the blackbird in the corn, The locust in the haying; And, like the fabled hunter's horn, Old tunes my heart is playing. The winds so sweet with birch and fern A sweeter memory flow ; And there in spring the veeries sing The songs of long ago." True song is the child of the spirit. Its life persists in its influence. It is at once the cry and the answer of the human heart, and its intrinsic worth to that heart is tried, proved, and triumph- antly recorded in the Book of Life by Time's own hand. "Time wrecks the proudest piles we raise; The towers, the domes, the temples fall. The fortress trembles and decays; One breath of song outlasts them all." — Oliver Wendell Holmes. The child who, grown old, finds himself in possession of the blessed traditions and memories of the places and things of his childhood, enjoys a legacy whose worth increases with the years, whose meaning unfolds with life. Probably there 44 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE is no form of early home influence more endur- ing than the home song, and its power is continu- ous in proportion to the place it occupied in that early home influence. The home song, therefore, should be fundamentally a thing of truth. It should not be the woven tinsel of fancy and senti- mentality, but it should be composed of words and melody that are coined from the heart's pure gold. Such a song lives. There are few homes where a good song, if once established, would not be appreciated, and there is not a home that would wilfully cancel or lose the power of that song as a memory-maker and as a character- builder. Unworthy songs have crept in, not because our home-making hearts are wrong, but because our home-making heads and hands are so full of the work of the insistent present and of the foreshadowing future, that we do not often stop to weigh the values in songs as in other things. We believe the song to be a character-making force. We beheve that there are better songs for the country school, the grange, the occasional country-life program, than are ordinarily used in them. We believe that there are better hymns for the country church and Sunday school serv- SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 45 ices. But we believe that the home is the natural center of that power for good which we rest in song and that there are better songs for it than are provided in the average home of today. Already work has begun to rheet the song prob- lem in the home, which our weighing of values has revealed to us. The conclusion that the country home should, and can, and will make a radical change in the character of its songs is being reached by the. consent and cooperation of fathers, mothers, teachers, preachers, and others who are vitally interested. These men and wo- men are working to the end that the country home shall be clean of the "praise that cannot purify," of the passing lilt wherein life's sacred relations are made a joke, of the song that cannot possibly bring a sweet home memory in the after years to the children who have gone forth. Because of the comparative isolation of the country home, many desirable features of good home-making must come to it slowly. But its very isolation and independence make it the natural friend and advocate of the good song. Its open windows do not let in, perforce, the con- taminating street song. Its doors can remain closed to the rap of a blighting "best seller," 46 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE until the family within have taken time to pass upon the merits of that song, to discover whether or not it is in harmony with the family's aspira- tion to secure good things for itself, and whether it voices the family's spirit of independence in the obtaining of these things. Heretofore, the people of rural communities have hardly consid- ered their responsibility in the setting of "stand- ards for good home and community songs. Now that the whole American people are waking — slowly, it is true — to the question of good and bad songs for their homes, is it not reasonable that the country people should assume a strong leadership in the matter ? Should they not be the ones to say what shall and what shall not consti- tute their home and community songs ? There is no life so well favored that it has no need of a heritage of home song. Few there be of that great family of persons whose childhood lies well in the past, who do not consciously real- ize the value of such an inheritance. A very few songs may constitute their riches and these be of little intrinsic merit — a mother's bedtime croon, a father's simple old hymn, a family chorus or glee, some favorite from old days that association has kept — yet no price could buy this heritage. Ill THE SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF THE FARM HOME— B Ill THE SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF THE FARM HOME— B Miss Martha Van Rensselaer Department of Home Economics, New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University For some time I have thought that one diffi- culty in the farm home was the closing of the front room and the shutting out of recreation, and perhaps sometimes I have ridiculed the atti- tude of curiosity in life and the shallowness of the horizon of country people. But there is nothing like experience to change one's point of view. With a friend I secured a farm house in New England in which to make a home for two or three months. We began by opening up the whole house. The front parlor was supposed to be particularly the center of family life. We should use the dining room, and not the kitchen, for eating. We should have all the comforts pos- sible in this country place. We proposed to get 49 so THE HOME OP THE COUNTRYSIDE away from the humdrum and monotony which country life is supposed to offer. We should not display unreasonable curiosity if some other call came over the telephone line than our own. Nor should we look out of the window unduly if people passed. Our fires were fed with wood. Water came into the kitchen through a pipe to a barrel. The kitchen was dark blue in paint, but we tried to keep a cheerful aspect under this condition and not let it seem that physical surroundings need make any difference in our attitude toward life. And then began our life of example in this New Hampshire place, far away from macadam, far away from the railway station and the post-office. It became very difScult to enjoy the vacation and keep up the fire in what might be called the parlor. So we closed up this front room and lived in the dining room and kitchen. As the neighbors came to see us, they just naturally found their way around to the kitchen door and we received all of the people through the kitchen. Cold weather came and it was very difficult to keep the dining room warm, so we closed the dining room, and used the kitchen table at meal time. We en- joyed meals by that kitchen fire as perhaps we SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 51 had never enjoyed meals before. We insisted we should always have a clean white table cloth, and not resort to a red table cloth, nor use linoleum on the table. It was difficult, however, to get laundry work done, and much of the washing was done without ironing. The telephone bell rang. It was not our ring — and here I should like not to tell our experience, but to tell the experience of our nearest neighbor who approached us one day with the idea that we were to leave in the afternoon for a little visit down the road. We said, "How do you know it?" And then it occurred to us that her tele- phone had rung also and that she knew what was being said over the party line. We heard people coming and at first we just glanced out of the window. Biit it was not many days before we rushed away from the dining table, went to the front windows and from around the corner we peered out to see who was going by — not for a moment wanting them to see us. There was something which needed satisfying within our souls, for we were far away from people. There was something, a sort of curiosity, which needed satisfying, and if we had had that curiosity frowned upon as unbecoming, we should soon 52 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE have drawn into our shells and have had no further interest in the life about us. As I see the needs of the farm home, they are being cared for by the County Young Men's Christian Association and other organizations, not so much in giving instruction regarding mate- rial things, as in placing something within the souls of the people who are living in the country. It will be an inspiration which will lead the people out of themselves; it will lead to self-ex- pression and that is, as I understand it, the reason why we should have music as one means of self- expression. Rest, recreation, and remunerative labor are very necessary things in the Uves of people who live upon the farm, in order to make the home what it should be. These things are largely the needs of the young people. We some- times hear people say that it is too late to do anything for those who have grown up on the farm, but that if we can do anything for the young people, it perhaps will be worth while. Back of the young people on these farms are those who have lived there for many years. They are the ones who have a right to give the stand- ards to that home — they, who have created the desire to stay or to leave the farm; they, who SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 53 have stimulated ambition for happiness, for health, and for influence as long as life exists ; they, who have given direction to those who are going out into the world. It is not too late to do something for those persons who still live upon the farm. We may say that the spirit of fatalism, which exists among those who have been shut away from others, would be common to all of us under similar conditions and that it is not pecu- liar to country folks. This spirit does not result from the work upon the farm; it is a result of isolation and lack of wholesome recreation. Just as surely as we allow discouraging conditions to continue in rural communities, and just as surely as we do not supplant such conditions with recreation, proper rest, and some other interest in life, fatalism will result. We may expect that the young people still living there will lead a discouraged and uninteresting life, or, if they have acquired this fatalism, that it will lead them to leave the farm, to become a problem for social workers in the city. In advocating rest, I mean the kind of rest which is taken, not when the senses are entirely sodden, and not when people are too weary to rest. I mean that rest which makes one a philos- 54 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE opher in regard to his work ; which grows within one, as stored power for emergencies, because it has taken possession of a person until he has the habit of rest. You can hardly fancy a farm woman stopping just before twenty men come to dinner, simply dropping everything, and relax- ing, and saying, "Well, everything will be all right." We know how it is with this busy farm woman. She has had the screws of her existence turned tighter and tighter until it is out of the question for her to take rest which is really valu- able. It is desirable capital for a farm woman or a farm man to walk into the fields, to study the scenery, to study the stars, and to woo the soul. Is it impossible for us to hope that these very busy people who are carrying on the work of the world, may take time to feed their souls as well as their bodies? Yet this recreation, so akin to rest, is quite unknown to many people. A man who was trying to organize a Sunday school baseball team in a rural community found that there were two boys in one family who did not respond to the invitation. He went to the mother of the family and said he wished that this baseball team could have the help of her boys. Tears came into the woman's eyes as she said, "I SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME S5 doubt if we could spare the boys on Saturday afternoon. You know recreation has never been a part of our program." It is not a part of the program of very many busy people. Recreation in country life needs to be very different from recreation in city life. We think country people have all the fields there are in which to play tennis or in which to play golf, but you rarely see golf links in the country, unless they belong to the country club composed of city members. We need organized play, which will give to men and to women and to young people growing up in the country the recreation neces- sary for balance. I may add from the standpoint of remunera- tive work, that it seems necessary to place men and women equally upon a good economic basis. As we see it, the woman has a large business in- keeping up the home. The man has a large busi- ness in keeping up his farm. We have seep the man seeking education, in order that he might make his farm scientific. In that way the mind of that man secures an interest which makes him think farm life is the best Hf e there is. We have made his work professional. We have given the man a college education or special training in 56 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE order that he may be a good farmer, but we have not given the farm woman these opportunities and she likewise needs scientific training with which to carry on her share of the work. It is perfectly true she has married a steady job, and has her board and clothes, which count for a good deal, to be sure, but that alone lacks inspira- tion. There is a great difference in doing a piece of work when we have back of it some interest which comes from knowledge. But here is the woman who has nothing to do except to get three meals a day in order that someone may come in and eat them. We have been inclined to think that that was enough for the woman. But I doubt it. To get three meals with the idea that she, in getting these three meals, is helping to create the efficiency of the world by good judgment, by skill, by knowledge of nutrition, is a very different proposition, and with this in mind the woman likes her piece of work. Here is a man who has taken his college course. He decides to live on a farm and run it on scien- tific principles. He cannot make it a success un- less he marries, or unless he has a mother or sister to run the house. He looks for a wife who will take care of her side of the business just as he SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 57 takes care of his. Otherwise it will not be a suc- cess. If he is to have some one really to meet the situation he must look for one who has scientific interest in his farm and in farm home-makifig. Besides, he must find someone who has standards such as have been created in him during his col- lege life. It means an education for the woman for her home-making just as scientific as the edu- cation for the man who is to run the farm. Either one without the other would be a failure. Here are some things the farm woman her- self says of her social needs: "The hardest part of country life is the mo- notony." "All we see is the hills." "We need to be partners and not subordinates." That last means that the farm woman needs a pocket and she needs something in it. She needs to spend it herself. She needs to know the value of money because she has earned it. As soon as we place a woman directly in business for her- self, or indirectly for herself, as a partner of her husband; as soon as we place her in a position of controlling her share and of feeling an inter- est that comes from control and knowledge, we shall enable her to spend wisely and will add S8 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE greatly to her happiness on the farm. The boy is brought up on the farm with the idea of sharing in the business. What is there on the farm for the girl who helps in the housework, unless she shares in the business ? You may say that that is a very sordid attitude to take, but it is simply human nature. Woman's nature is quite hke that of man. If there is one boy growing up in a family sharing in the business, having his propor- tion of the proceeds, spending it as he likes; and if there is another boy who is set to do the same work, to whom it has been said that he shall have only his board and clothing, it is easily apparent that these boys will not be equally strong. In the one there will have been developed a sense of responsibility, and in the other a feeling of sub- ordination. I may have pictured this in rather a dark way. Frankly I think we are changing very fast. The farm is not as dark as it is sometimes painted. I have never met, in quite a long experience, any woman living on the farm who said that she wanted to change places with a city woman and that she regretted that she was a farmer's wife. I consider the farm an opportunity for growth, for recreation, for happiness, for opportunity in life. SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 59 such as does not exist by any means in the village or in the city. Many cities are made up very largely of men and women who have come from farm life, and who have received their aspirations in life from the farm. There are self-sufficient men from the country, who are giving direction to the commercial and social interests of the city, and in addition to these, there are many young men and young women, who are coming into the city to make a great burden of responsibility for those who would see that they have life as it should be. I am glad that different organizations of great strength are becoming more and more willing to work in the country at the very source of the difificulty and at the source of opportunity, for all the work that is done in rural life by these organizations will lessen materially the work which later on will necessarily have to be done in the city. DISCUSSION YALE'S WORK FOR THE COUNTRY At Yale University a plan is in operation to send out quartets to give concerts on Saturday evenings. These deputations work with the boys and young men through athletic games in the afternoon. The object is to establish a point of contact, socially. In a brief address on Saturday evening the young men and boys are invited to the church on Sunday. At the church Christ is held up as the basis from which they can think and decide their problems. At Yale there is great enthusiasm concerning the possibilities . of this work as an outlet for the Christian forces of a big university into the community centers and into rural life. Four essentials to success seem to be: clarity, the ability to make God's message clear ; definite- ness, that the personal applications of the Chris- tian message may be understood ; joy creating in the hearts of the people a desire to become Chris- tians and to live the Christ life ; and permanence, to make the work last. If it is to last, it must "bear the marks of the Lord Jesus." 63 64 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE A recent prominent Yale graduate writes, "I feel very strongly that there are perhaps more opportunities for real Christian service, not only for the communities but for the members of the deputation teams as well, in the rural work than in any of the other phases of college Young Men's Christian Association activity." — Alvin B. Gurley. SHOULD KEEP CLOSER TO PSYCHOLOGY OF COUNTRY PEOPLE Rev. Mr. Pardee of Bolton, one of the pioneers in Country Church Work, remarked to me last year that most of the specialists in all lines of country work fail because they do not keep close to the psychology of the country people. In one of the latest books, "The Lutheran Church in the Country," by Dr. Gerberding, there is a chapter on "The Psychological Conditions in the Coun- try." I have lived nearly all my life in the country, and I think we over-emphasize the matter of isolation. I never knew there were any great hardships in being alone in the country — and we had no telephones either — until after I came into town and some city people told me how miserable life in the country was. I do not SPIRIT AND NEEDS OF FARM HOME 6$ believe that country people as ar rule are so much burdened by the isolation as the city specialists say they are. Then a word as to recreation. We do not want golf links. We do not need them. We would not know what to do with them any more than a cow would know what to do with two tails. Our rural recreation needs to be of a different char- acter. I have lived in Princeton sixteen years: I have never attended a football or baseball game there. They do not appeal to me. I never saw a baseball game until I was nearly twenty years old. I did not go to many games when I was in college. Amateur photography will keep me up all night. And I understand what "the stirring of family consciousness by song" means. There is great need to put emphasis upon the artistic side of life, and it seems to me that many at- tempts to organize rural recreation miss the mark, in that they deal too much with the phys- ical and the material. — Rev. W. B. Sheddan, D.D. THE PRODUCTS OF A HOME PARTNERSHIP Three girls from a little country community with which I am rather familiar, are going to remain if not on the farm, at least in rural work 66 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE — the only three girls of about fifteen, who grew up and went to the same country school together and got their seventh grade diplomas at the same time. These three girls came from a home in which there were no brothers. The father had to hire farm help all the way through. The girls were not permitted to do any farm work except sorting peaches in the rush season. In the home, when they helped wash they were paid for it, and when they helped in housecleaning during the semi-annual epidemic of that disease, they were paid for it. One of these girls has married a scientific farmer, now a County Young Men's Christian Association Secretary. Another one has gone to college and plans to enter the rural service of the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation. The third one is a teacher of household economics and domestic science, because she real- izes that proper home management and scientific nutrition must play a large part in our rural advance. The root of it all lies in the fact that the father was wise enough to make these three girls partners in the home. — Rev. Edmund de S. Brunner, Ph.D. IV THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE IV THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE - A. C. MONAHAN Expert in Rural Education, United States Bureau of Education "Home and Community Culture" is largely a question of education, so that home education is largely the essence of this topic. We are criticizing the home very severely to- day all over the country and saying that it is not performing its share of the burden of education. This charge is in part true. It is undoubtedly true that the home of today does not bear the same proportionate part of the burden that the home of the past did, but we must not put too much of the blame on the home. We must recog- nize that the home itself has changed. We must recognize that it has been changed by conditions over which it had no control, by the economic and social transformations that have taken place in the lives of the people, due to the changing 69 70 THE HOME OP THE COUNTRYSIDE methods by which they have earned and are earning their livehhoods. Severe criticism is therefore unjust. The other educational agencies are the ones that must be adjusted to supplement the changed conditions in the home. When we tell about the old home that did so much in the education of the child, we are think- ing undoubtedly of the home that existed before the age of machinery, before the rapid develop- ment of cities, when the majority of homes were at least semi-rural if not rural, and in them were practiced many arts and industries which have now become factory industries. Before the age of machinery the typical home was a rural home, an individual house and sur- rounding land. In a large measure, it was self- sufficing; the land produced the means of sub- sistence for the home; the home manufactured most of the things that it consumed as food or clothing, and the implements that it used in cul- tivating the land. The home depended upon other homes for but very few essentials in life. Certain articles of manufacture were made in the home for sale in other homes; these constituted the products of the original home industries. The children in the home worked with their THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 71 parents and learned from them all the various arts and industries practiced on the farm or in the home. The instruction received from the parent, the learning of these arts and industries — these constituted the child's vocational education. Constant association with father and mother, sharing with them their pleasures and sorrows, their religious life and their problems of main- taining a livelihood, constituted the moral educa- tion of the children, and the two together consti- tuted the best part of their general education. It was supplemented by a school which taught them to read and to write and to figure, furnish- ing them with the tools by means of which they could acquire whatever knowledge had been stored up in books. The product of such an education was a well-developed man, educated in head and heart and haiid. The introduction of machinery required the gathering together of industries into the factories, for machinery needs power. Men gave up their farms and their home industries to work in the factory. Better machines, requiring less strength to handle, were suited to women operators. Wo- men gave up their work in the farm homes for work in the factories. Because the factories re- 72 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE quired the full time of the men and women, they were no longer able to take care of land and they gave up their land, moving their place of residence close to the factory. The town or city developed, with the tenement house taking the place of the country home, and with this de- velopment came numberless problems, both social and economic, undreamed of before. In the city, the father spends his day in the mill or in the office; the mother spends hers, sometimes at home or sometimes at work. The majority of children have the care and protection of the mother, but few come in contact with the father. The boy does not associate with the father dur- ing worlcing hours as under the old system. He has no opportunity to learn from his father the arts and, industries taught to the farmer boy. He has no sympathy with his father's work, for he has no knowledge of it. H!e does not receive the constant teaching which comes from association with his father, and he is deprived of the oppor- tunity for educative work and educative play. In the poorer homes both father and mother work in the factories, the children being left to care for themselves. Their home education is entirely neglected. THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 73 Even for the country child have come eco- nomic changes, making his work on the farm of less value as an educative process. The present farm is not self-sufficing, it is a highly special- ized commercial business. Many of the different arts and industries formerly practiced on the farm, which every farmer boy was required to know, have been removed from the farm. Black- smithing, dairying, etc., were once farm opera- tions, but are now separate industries by them- selves. The age of machinery reached the farm very soon after reaching the factory. Many of the farm operations are now machine operations. The farm boy has become a machine operator; he now spends his day in the corn field with a team and machine, where he formerly spent it with a hand hoe, but in the company of his father and perhaps of other men. This constant associ- ation with his father, the conversation of the day, and the instruction given incidentally by the father to the boy during the long hours of labor, constituted the most important part of the boy's education. His position is not as serious in this respect as that of the city boy, but it is serious enough to indicate that a new type of method is needed in rural as well as in city schools. 74 THE HOME OP THE COUNTRYSIDE Attempts are being made today all over the country to meet the conditions that have arisen by reason of these changes in economic condi- tions, and to make it possible for the home to assist to greater advantage the work of the school, and to assist to a greater extent in the complete work of the education of the boys and girls. We may expect that these attempts are to assist the home to do the parts of the educational work which it did under the old system, largely industrial and moral, rather than academic. In many places in the United States, but par- ticularly in Oregon and Missouri, school children are given credit for home work, that is, for the regular farm and home chores which the ordi- nary boy and girl are required to perform. They report to the school the time devoted to the work and are given credit on the time basis. The plan is crude, but it is an honest attempt to show children that the school is interested in the vari- ous things that they have to do at home, and also to impress upon the children that the ordinary home duties are worth while. This plan is crude because it does not take into consideration in any way the educative value of the thing the boys and girls are doing, nor does it attempt to make THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 75 their work of educative value. This it might easily do. For example, in a certain school boys are given credit for, their regular morning and evening work of milking. Milking is educa- tive while the boy is learning; it then becomes automatic, requires no thinking, and no longer contributes to the educational process. This particular chore may be made of educative value if the boy is required to keep for the school a daily record of the yield of milk for each cow. Let me point out another place where similar work is being done on the right basis. In Cook County, 111., every boy or girl, ten years of age or over, in the schools, under the supervision of the county superintendent, is required each year to take what is called a "school home-project." It may be gardening, poultry work, cow testing, sewing, music, or some other thing in which the child is particularly interested. More of the chil- dren take gardening than anything else, because it is a market gardening section and many of the parents are expert market gardeners. Each father selects for his boy or girl a piece of land, the size depending upon the age of the child, and determines what crops shall be planted. The father plows the plot and puts it in condition for 76 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE planting. The planting and all further operations must be carried on by the child. The instruction in methods of planting and caring for the crop is left to the parent. It must be remembered that this is cooperative work, into which the school is attempting to bring the parent. The school sees that the boy does his home-project, that he keeps required records, and submits reports, and that the work is made of as great educational value as possible. The county employs five assistant superintendents who devote a considerable part of their time to the supervision of the home work. They devote their entire time to it during the summer vacation. There are engaged also as many of the public school teachers as possible who are able to give one day a week in the summer to visiting and supervising the home work of the pupils of their own school. Last summer about twenty teachers were employed in this way. This brings a body of teachers into direct touch with the home work, so that it may be used as far as possible as a basis for regular school work. The county school' system furnishes to each child a notebook in which he is required to make a record of his home-project. On one of the first THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 77 pages he draws a map of his plot, measuring the plot himself. This is checked up by one of the supervisors later. He then keeps a careful record of everything done to the land, the date of plowing, the amount of fertilizer used, when the seed was planted, when the land was culti- vated, and when the first of the harvest was ready. He keeps a careful expense account, showing the amount of money expended for rent of the land, for plowing, for seed, etc., also the amount due himself for labor at some rate, usu- ally eight to ten cents an hour. While the school does not attempt to teach gardening under this plan, incidentally many children do learn better methods from other pupils in the schools as they discuss together, in their language work, what they are doing in their home-project work. For instance, in one of the Cook County schools a twelve-year old Italian girl was discussing in my presence the receipts from her summer gardening. Her records showed that she had been receiving fifty cents a basket for tomatoes up until a certain date in September, when the price jumped to a dollar, and that at this same date all the other children who raised tomatoes ceased to have any more for sale. On this date 78 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE a heavy frost had killed the tomatoes of all of the children except this one girl. Her father had predicted a frost that night, and had in- structed her to pick her green tomatoes and place them in a bed of hay. Each day after that they were uncovered, and those that ripened were taken out and sent to market. The family, of which this Italian girl was a member, had lived in the community but one year. They had come from a section where this method of protecting the tomatoes from frost was practiced. It was not practiced in this community in Cook-County. All the children of the school who were planning to raise tomatoes the next year said they would try it. I recognize, of course, that community educa- tion must affect, not only the children, but the parents as well. It is for that reason that the Bureau of Education established a Division of Home Education a few years ago to devote its energies to encouraging education among adults, particularly those in rural districts. Among other things, the Division has organized national read- ing courses, in which a large number of persons from all parts of the United States are enrolled. They are given a definite list of books to read, THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 79 usually eight or ten, and upon the presentation of satisfactory evidence that the reading has been completed, are awarded a certificate suitable for framing. It bears the signature of the Com- missioner of Education and the red seal of the Bureau, and while its intrinsic value is small, it has done much to encourage many people to take the course. The Bureau has assisted also in the establishment of night schools throughout the United States for the eradication of illiteracy, for teaching English to persons of foreign birth, and for further education of those required to leave school before completing the full course. The most interesting among these schools are the rural night schools established in many parts of the country, but particularly in Southern states. There are probably between 4,000 and 5,000 rural night schools at the present time. The movement started in Kentucky five years ago in Rowan County, for the definite purpose of eradi- cating illiteracy in the adult population. The County Superintendent persuaded the teachers to establish night schools and to conduct them with- out any increased salaries. These were held in every rural school in the county and were very largely attended. They have been held each 8o THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE year since. They are the "moonHght schools" that have been advertised quite extensively, the name coming from the' fact that the schools have been maintained only on moonlight nights, when the people could get out over the rough roads and paths. Other counties and states took the movement up and these schools are now found in all Southern states, including Arkansas and Oklahoma, and Texas in the Southwest. Their establishment was for the particular purpose of decreasing the amount of illiteracy among the adult population and among the boys and girls beyond the regular school age. In sev- eral places in the country, rural schools have been established to give high school education to farm boys and girls who left regular school on the completion of the elementary course, whose labor is needed on the farm, and who cannot, therefore, attend day school; also there are night schools established for boys of this class, where the entire time is devoted to a study of vocational agriculture and to other things designed to be of special help to them in their life work. These are all movements to bring the home and community culture into proper rela- tionships. DISCUSSION FROM THE CITY TO THE FARM It is my firm belief that the city boys and girls of today will be the farmers of tomorrow. It is well, therefore, to urge that some thought be given to the question of preparing these city boys and girls for successful farm pursuits. Twenty years ago practically ninety per cent of the students studying agriculture in the agri- cultural schools and colleges of our country came from the farms. Within recent years these con- ditions have changed greatly. Statistics now show that over sixty-five per cent of the students at present studying agriculture in the agricultural schools and colleges of the state of New York and the neighboring states, come from the cities. New York State, realizing the changed condi- tions, has established a School of Agriculture at Farmingdale, Long Island, to train city boys and girls and men and women, for profitable farm occupations. Ninety-five per cent of the stu- dents come from New York City. — A. A. John- son. 83 84 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE "BACK TO THE HOME" EDUCATION Emphasis should be laid upon the value of club work in training our young people. In practically every state there is a man known as the State Leader of Boys' and Girls' Club Work. This official is the joint representative of the State Agricultural College and the United States De- partment of Agriculture. His duties are to out- line club activities for boys and girls in agricul- ture, gardening, and home economics. In most of the states corn, potato, gardening, poultry, pig, baby beef, canning, baking, sewing, and handi- craft work clubs are now organized. The State Leader of Club Work furnishes the machinery for carrying on the work ; he provides enrolment cards, printed instructions, and follow- up work; gives demonstrations, and conducts training schools for local leaders in the work. He secures the assistance of experts from the State College and the United States Department of Agriculture to assist in furnishing the best information to the club groups. The boys' and girls' club work is a "back to the home" education. Everyone realizes that the home should be the most important factor in the training of our young people for good citizen- THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 85 ship. A large number of our homes do not fur- nish the industrial activities that practically every home furnished a few decades ago. Many of our schools, the Young Men's Christian Association, Boy Scouts, and many other organizations are endeavoring to provide a substitute today for the "chores" or industrial activities which were a part of the home life of most of our young people only a few years ago. All of the modern movements have one seri- ous drawback, namely that they take the young people away from the home. What we need today more than any other one thing is a home education, an education that will make it pos- sible for fathers and mothers really to get ac- quainted with their children, and the children with their parents. Many men and women today have forgotten that they ever were boys and girls. They cannot get down to the young people's point of view. The best way of really bringing the family together is to get them to do something together — to organize a father and son garden, poultry, or corn club; and a mother and daughter canning, baking, cooking, or sew- ing club. The State Club Leader has very defi- nite plans for such organizations. 86 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE This work not only keeps boys and girls at home for a longer period, but it encourages thrift, industry, and good citizenship on their part. Considerable money may be made by young people in a very wholesome manner through the club activities. The work teaches first that something cannot be obtained for nothing. A certain amount of conscientious effort is required in order to achieve success. When good returns are secured, the profits may be invested in a local savings bank. This work also furnishes a good business training, because a careful record of all expenses and receipts must be kept by all club members. One more point is that in any plan for rural or urban progress the most helpful point of attack is the young people of the community. Older people do not change very much. In youth the mind is receptive, and it is possible to mold the character and to elevate the ideals of the men and women of tomorrow by working with the boys and girls of today. — E. K. Thomas. COUNTY WORK FURNISHES CHANNEL FOR OTHER ORGANIZATIONS In Michigan we have the cooperation of the THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 87 Department of Agriculture in our state through the crop project work for boys and girls. Hun- dreds of boys and girls are supervised jointly by the County Young Men's Christian Association and by government experts. We find the project work meets the educational needs of our work. Mr. E. C. Linderman, Government representa- tive for Michigan, finds just the medium he needs for his work in our Association groups, with their permanent leadership, which have as a basis the Christian ideal of service and are experienced in working together. County Work, in its policy of training leadership, furnishes a channel for the work of other agencies in supplementing the work of the home, church, and school in the de- velopment of a richer rural life in the future. — C. L. Rowe. THE WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS In discussing the educational problem of rural life, the work the Christian Associations are doing in the rural field in developing the work of the Christian ministry, through the better or- ganization of church forces for the work of the entire community, should be emphasized. Clar- 88 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE ence Poe says that the trouble with country life is that "the power belt of organization has not been attached to the dynamo of rural aspiration." The Associations are helping to make that attach- ment. — Professor E. L. Earp, Ph.D. ABOUT THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS Intimate acquaintance with the Southern High- lander for nearly twenty-five years may justify my conviction that he is among the keenest of mortals. Unless our efforts in his behalf are entirely disinterested denominationally, we need not be surprised if he views "missionaries" much in the same light as professional uplifters are regarded elsewhere. He draws many lessons and conclu- sions from his own environment. May I describe how he traps quail ? To tempt the hungry covey, he spreads generously a wide arc of bait, with radii converging to one spot — the door of the trap, n we give him cause to feel that our health work, recreational plans, and other com- munity welfare work with their wide appeal are designed to lead him and his to, and through, the door of "our church," we need riot be surprised if he and his view our work with suspicion, hav- THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 89 ing learned something from the sad experience of bobwhite and his brood, who let their natural hunger for the good things of life imprison them. — John C. Campbell. MAKE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FIRST I am very much interested in that phase of rural work which seeks to serve the Southern Highlanders. I believe it is in the direction toward which Christian men and women ought to turn more and more; that is, the tackling of hard problems in rural places where the people are constantly going to the cities and making up an immoral and vicious element, because we Christian people have been too much concerned in trying to put our churches where they would pay. I believe that if we would turn around and look at the problem in the right way, we must recognize that in dealing with it the great need is thorough educational work, with the real Christian life of the workers as an example in the community. So, if we want to deal with the problem at all, we must go back to the sections where there is no competition, where nobody is doing religious work, and there establish Chris- tian communities as educational centers. I be- go THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE lieve in boarding schools among the mountain people and among the poor white people. If they are carried on rightly and we can get the chil- dren out of the environment and lift them up, then we can attend to the matter of Christianiz- ing them afterwards, or drawing them in the direction of our own religious ideals. If our lives are right, and our ideals are correct, we shall win them. Let us try more in the way of giving and sacrificing, and less in the way of trying to advance our own particular cause or our own personal interests. — Rev. William Du Hamel. RURAL PROBLEMS MUST BE SOLVED FROM THE INSIDE It has struck me that perhaps a word of cau- tion would not be out of place. I believe, and believe with all my heart, that these rural prob- lems will not be solved to any great extent until they are solved from the inside. For the last six years I have been out in the West in a new community, handling the shovel, working out the problems of irrigation and of farm life. If we can get at some of these problems from the inside, if we can get young men and young wo- THE HOME AND COMMUNITY CULTURE 91 men to go into these communities to live, and there to face some of the problems which the farmer faces, we will accomplish two things. In the first place, we will discover that the prob- lems are not so easy as they appear. In the second place, we will find that we can exert very much larger influence if we can get right down to earth where the people live, and work shoulder to shoulder with them. We can do much more and be of much greater service in that way than we can possibly be if we work just from the outside. There is excitement in that life, there is interest in that life, but it is not so easy. In all seriousness, I believe there are today untold opportunities over this country for educated young men and for educated young women to go right out and tackle the job at first hand, as well as to tell other people how the work ought to be done. — Rev. 0. F. Gardner. V THE HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION V THE HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION Rev. Arthur W. Hewitt Member of Vermont State Board of Education and Pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Plainfield, Vt. I seem to have read and heard everything pos- sible that has been written and said upon the country problem, until I myself have come to know as much about it as Baalam's ass knows about the binomial theorem. I cannot settle any part of any of this problem. The only reason why God lets me loose upon the subject is that I am content to live the country life. I do not believe one can understand what a man says unless he knows the background from which the man is speaking. I was a country- man born, and I was raised in a poor farm home. For years and years I pulled the scratchy woolens over my naked, shivering little carcass in a room 95 96 THE HOME OP THE COUNTRYSIDE where the frost was half an inch thick on the walls. In that home there were no pictures on the walls, there was no silver on the table, but there was a good father and a good mother and I was happy as the day is long. Nine years ago I was ordained in the ministry. I took one of the smallest and most despised charges in our con- ference. I am serving that charge today, con- tent and happy to do so. I do not lack for oppor- tunity. There are tv*^elve hundred and fifty people that must be churched in my church, or nowhere. There are eighty-one miles of road in my parish for me to cover. I have had all the chances a young man could wish, to leave the country life, and when anybody pities me for staying in it, I smile. I have seen some of the cities of this continent and there is nothing, from Cliff Walk at Newport to Orange Grove Avenue at Pasadena, that I would for a moment desire at the price of giving up the sight of those long, undulating Green Mountain ranges against the sunset where the autumn colors are bright with all the glory of the City of God. There has developed a great deal of disagree- ment about the country problem. The simple fact is that it is impossible to generalize on the HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION 97 country problem. If any one does not agree with what I say, he will be right. I do not need to care anyway, because I know I am right, too. It differs all over the field. There is no such thing as generalization on the country problem. The relation of the "Home and Community Religion" is simply the home as the producer of religious personality. To begin with, mother- hood in the home is given in the image of God. Man could not fully express that image. God saw the image complete only when woman was made. And it is not only "like as a father pitieth" his child, but also "as one whom his mother comfotteth," will I comfort thee. So there is in the home at its center the mother, the most reli- gious element of the home, more so than the father. We sometimes regret that men are not more given to religion. Let us look at the other side of it. It is providential that the wo- man is more religious than the man, because of her greater influence on the mind of the child. If the women were not more rehgious than men, would not the religious sentiment die out of the race? This thing is providential. But the crux of the problem is in training up the child, the getting hold of the imagination of 98 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE the child in the home and firing it with religious zeal. That is the ground in which we must deal with the whole question. In Kenneth Grahame's book, "The Golden Age," a little boy is found seated in the hog's trough paddling around and having a good time ; and a man comes along and in astonishment says, "What are you doing in that hog's trough?" "This is not a hog's trough, this is the good ship Argo and I am Jason on my way in search of the Golden Fleece," replied the boy. It was all real to him. But why not fill his imagination in the same way with the things of God's work? My greatest ambition once was that I might have a long flowing beard, because in all those Bible pictures didn't Abraham have a cascade of whiskers? My interpretation was not always correct, I know. What it was to hunger and thirst after righteousness — well, I didn't know so much about that, but I did know it was usually a long time to Sunday dinner after going to church; I didn't know whether I was hungering and thirsting after righteousness, but that is what I thought it was. I could not understand why my mother put her hand over her eyes during the prayer. Why could not anybody sit and look around the way I did? I HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION 99 could not understand why they wanted to bother with looking at that book they called the Bible, when the bound volume of Harper's Weekly for 1878 was much more interesting, because of its more numerous pictures. But I came after a little to have my imagination fired with the scenes from the Bible. Then one day when my father found me hanging up by both hands to the limb of an apple tree just as people used to sing about Jeff Davis hanging "to a sour apple tree," and asked me what I was doing up there, I said, "Why I am Judas Iscariot." And then he said to me, "What is all this tin doing around here?" "Oh," I said, "those are the thirty pieces of silver." Again one day father found me in the kitchen. I had crumpled up three copies of the thrice-a-week New York World and started a fire with them — I am not giving any advice as to what is the proper use to make of the New York World — and father said, "What is this?" "Well," I replied, "I am ofifering up a sacrifice to the Lord." Had I not seen all that in the Bible ? And did I not have my shoe-box Ark of the Covenant with my paper angels? I did not have much knowledge of ornithology then, nor have I now; but I got all those angels into my 100 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE imagination when a boy. And it helped to save me, when the tempests came in those later teens and early twenties when sex comes to loom so large in life. Every boy has passed through the tremendous stress of temptation. If when he is old and gets to be a bishop he doesn't want to admit it, he simply isn't telling the thing as it is. The instruc- tion given in youth will not save the young man, for the reason that what advice can be given is not very effective. The fact is that the people in the country simply do not know how to give it. It is not that they do not want to. But there is something that will save a boy, and that is getting his conscience vitalized by the message of God's Word. Every boy whose heart has been fired by God's Word in the country home, knows that one may live with sin in pleasure, if there is no conscience ; that one may live with conscience at peace if there is no acknowledged sin; but the two to- gether will not stay in the same heart. One or the other goes, and goes forevermore. A State Commissioner of Education used to say about a man, well-trained educationally, but unable to do the job efifectively, "his knowledge HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION loi does not function." I have referred to the spirit- ual teaching in the home. Now how does this thing function in the country community life? What elements are there in the community life? There are the political life, the school life, the commercial life, the social life, and many others. But I shall not attempt to treat all of these. First, how does it function in the political life? Carl E. Milliken, Governor of Maine, is a splen- did example. How does it function in the busi- ness life? There is no store-keeper in my com- munity who dares to withhold his contribution to the church, or open his store on prayer-meeting night. Men in business come to love the ideals of the Christian home and the church, when they are vitalized by the teaching of the Christian home. How does it function in the school life? Any time I leave my pulpit for a Sunday, it is sup- plied by a school man, either a superintendent or a teacher. We have teachers up there who do not say to their pupils, "You must ask to be pardoned when you pass in front of anybody." Rather they themselves so put this duty before the children, by their own example and by pre- cept upon occasion, that every child naturally 102 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE does that thing. Precepts are made to function by example. If there is a school house where there is no Sabbath school provided, many of these teachers will institute a Sabbath school and superintend it themselves, so that the children may have their religious teaching. Lastly, how does it function in the church? There was a man in a Vermont community who used to get up at four o'clock during the week to do his work, but on Sunday he got up at three o'clock, in order that he might do his chores and drive several miles to church. One time the stewards of that church thought that they could not pay the minister's salary and this man said, "You know I am a poor man, but that salary must be paid if I have to put a mortgage on my farm." What an indictment against "the cussed- ness of the saints!" Is it any marvel that his favorite hymn was: '"I love Thy kingdom, Lord, The house of Thine abode, The Church our blest Redeemer saved With his own precious blood. For her my tears shall fall, For her my prayers ascend. To her my cares and toils be given, Till toils and cares shall end." HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION 103 Note: The next section consists of a series of ques- tions and answers, bringing out Mr. Hewitt's marvel- lously rich experience and peculiarly appealing point of view. Question: How many churches are there in the village (Plainfield, Vt.) where you live? Mr. Hewitt : We had two and a half when I went there. I have stayed nine years and all the other churches have died. Question: Do you think that one church is sufficient for a community? Mr. Hewitt: It is generally thought in our community that it is. I think it is true in the country, that we are considering the success of the institution rather than of the community. For example, we have in our community a fairly successful institution. We have to contend against great loss by death and removal in the country. More than fifty per cent of the church which I found there has gone by death and removal. But we have succeeded in making a net gain of seventeen per cent, and yet when our church is full to the extent of its seating capacity, and the expense budget is being increased and bills paid on time, and the institution itself is successful, people straightway forget all about 104 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE that magnificent country that surrounds every church, where there are' so many people uncon- verted, people who will remain unconverted until they die, because nobody cares about their souls. My church is full every Sunday morning, but if the largest congregation that I have ever had should decide to leave me, and just one-half of those left in the community should come to my church just one-half of the time, we could not seat the congregation in our church building. Question: Do the members of other denom- inations come to your church freely and partici- pate in its life? Mr. Hewitt : They do, quite freely. The ele- ments in our parish are Methodist, Episcopal, Congregational, Baptist, and Universalist. All classes of people contribute; nearly all of them participate, even in the prayer meeting. The Congregationalists take as much part as the Methodists do, although the church is of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. Question: Do you have any social work of any sort, any community organization in that church? Me. Hewitt: We have the Boy Scouts. We are just beginning to organize the Camp-Fire HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION 105 Girls. We have considerable of the old- fashioned country social life, sociables around at the houses, apples, pop-corn, coffee and games — just a good time to talk things over. Question: Is the community prospering eco- nomically F Mr. Hewitt: Yes, I would say so. It is a fairly well-to-do farming community. Nobody has very much money. There are few people that are in want. Question: What kind of schools have you? Mr. Hewitt: We have the country village graded school of a very good type. We have trained teachers. We have been able to bring it about in Vermont, so that now practically every teacher must have had either experience in teaching or special professional training. Question: Do you have just that one church in which to work? Mr. Hewitt : No, I have outside of this a con- stituency bome seven and a half miles away, over one of the hilliest roads that the rain ever washed. There is a little community that used to he called Sodom, but the people thought it was a hard name and they changed it to Ada- mant. There had been no church there whatever. io6 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE We began work in a dance hall and the people that wanted to dance on Saturday did not want to get the hall ready for us on Sunday morning, so we had to go into a school house where the benches were altogether too brief for six-feet Yankees and Scotchmen. Then we got hold of an old stone building, gathered our furniture from deserted churches all over the state, and now have a little church building of our own which has transformed the whole countryside. Question: What is your idea of an institu- tional church for Plainfield? Do you think that it has a place? Mr. Hewitt: I should think so, if organized according to the institutions of the countryside. Question: Would you believe in the introduc- tion of social features? Mr. Hewitt: Yes, I see no reason why these should not be used to as large an extent as the pastor is able to be a leader in all these things, for he will have to be the leader. These things depend, in the first instance, upon the leadership of the pastor. Interesting features of the problem enter here. In the first place there is no efficient pastoral leadership in the country because the salaries are HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION 107 so small. And good salaries are not paid in the country, because good leadership is scarce. These two teeter against each other continually. The only solution I can think of is just to go to a small place, to stay, and to be contented and to trust returns to the Lord. Just let the church grow, although of course it will take tiine. I think the words used by Isaiah describe the country church. It is "despised and rejected of men." Just as soon as our leaders begin to de- velop their magnificent abilities as leaders, we lose them to the cities, and the country church is discouraged and disheartened for that reason. Question: You believe, then, in long pastor- ates in country churches? Mk. Hewitt : Yes. The church I am serving had a tradition that no pastor ever stayed more than three years. We have reconstructed the church building at a cost of a good many thou- sand dollars. The expense budget has increased fifty per cent and all our bills are paid on time. Every department of the church has grown, but although I put the best of my life into it and tried as hard as I could, the church declined steadily until I had stayed out the traditional limit of three years. After that, success began io8 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE to come. That is one reason why I beheve in long continued work under one stated pohcy and in one stated place. Question: Have you organized play in connec- tion with your church? Mr. Hewitt : Probably not in the way in which most people understand it. We have very defi- nite plans about that. We have a scout camp and other enterprises of like nature, but our recrea- tional program takes a somewhat different direc- tion. Question: What appeal for country life serv- ice would you make to a group of educated young men? Mr. Hewitt: I would approach them some- what along these lines. First, I would place before them the size of the job. Country work is really a larger field than the city work. Next, I would present the difficulty of the job. I could show them, I think, that the country church is the thirteenth labor of Hercules. Then I would show them the difficulties within the church. Lastly, I would show them the rewards of the country work, if one but stays by it until these rewards come. Question: Do you find that while you are the HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION 109 pastor of the only church in the town, the fact that it is denominational prevents you from touching directly or indirectly every family in your whole community, because certain families still hold out? Mr. Hewitt : I would say that the difficulty in getting in touch with every family is the diffi- culty of the size and inaccessibility of the field. Denominational distinctions do not make so much difference as would be supposed. I find that I can now get close to those of other denomina- tions, as I could not within the first three years of my ministry there. It is only a matter of their coming to know you and care for you. Question: Do you get close to people who are outside of any denomination, that is, the indiffer- ent people f Mr. Hewitt : Yes, to some extent. But when you are counting the size of your membership, namely the Christians, you are not counting your harvest field, but rather your reapers. That which you mention is really our field and our first duty. Question: What answer would you give to the young minister or theological student who objects to the country field on the ground of no THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE inability to grow in his intellectual life, by rea- son of the lack of intellectual stimulus in the work? Have you anything to say on that line? Me. Hewitt: I know there are disadvantages in the country. I cannot hear first-class lectures or go to conference without considerable expense. That is true of the young man in the country. But it is also true that there are compensating advantages. The long, unbroken opportunities for study, which are possible in the country, will, when the young man becomes adjusted, more than compensate for the advantages which he loses. As we grow older there is a tendency to become occupied with the things that need to be done immediately. We tend more towards activity and less toward deep thinking. Habits of deep thinking can be established in the country better than anywhere else, after a student be- comes adjusted. Question: Do you find a lack of intellectual stimulus on the part of your country people — or do you feel that as much intellectual stimulus exists in the country congregation as in the city congregation? Mr. Hewitt : It is said, when one goes to the city, put on your best clothes, and when one goes HOME AND COMMUNITY RELIGION in to the country pulpit, take your best sermon. I do not think there is such a lack of intellectual stimulus in the country as is generally thought to be the case. The telephone and the automo- bile and the various other means of communica- tion have so brought the world together that there is no great difference. The best magazines are on the table of the intellectual country home. I think possibly a quarter of my congregation is composed of school teachers, or those who have at some time in their lives been school teachers. We have an intellectual congregation in the country that really is an inspiration to a preacher. I feel, when I appear before my congregation every Sunday morning, that I am obliged to do my intellectual best, to do just as well as I would in the city for any city audience. Question: Do you make it a practice to hold services in little country school houses? Mr. Hewitt: The appointment at Adamant takes my time Sunday afternoon. We have one other Sunday school in operation every Sunday, and if I had four local preachers or trained Sun- day school men I could use them every Sunday in the outlying borders of my parish. Question: Do you find that your entrance into 112 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE political life militates against your influence in the church life? Mr. Hewitt: I think I have won one or two opponents of the church on account of my polit- ical life. They are men who never came to the church before I entered political life. They never contributed anything. They were men about whose opinion the church did not know nor care. But I have found that my Christian influence is greatly widened because of a somewhat bigger political influence. There are many men in my parish who are very respectful to me and very helpful to the church, who did not know that I existed until they found that I had some little influence in the legislature. VI THE HOME AS AFACTOR IN THE COMMUNITY VI THE HOME AS A FACTOR IN THE COMMUNITY Warren H. Wilson, Ph.D. Secretary Department of Church and Country Life, Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church^ The subject, "The Home as a Factor in the Community," seems to require a definition of the home. My understanding is that "home" means "household group." This smallest organ- ization of mankind, the most universal and per- haps the oldest social organization in the world, is peculiarly related to country life. One may say that the household group is God's plow for the country. By a little group of people as- sembled in obedience to the need of shelter, food, and clothing, held together by affection, and ornamented and graced with much of culture and 1 Owing to the illnesa of Governor MUUken. Dr. Wilson presented this subject. "5 ii6 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE aspiration, the land is tilled. Without it there is no such thing as farming. The forces that make the household group are not sex attraction and the mating instinct, but the economic needs and wants of people. The community, as I understand it, is the habitat of a household group. People that live in the country are on a short tether. They can- not get far from home, and the radius of this short tether, which is usually the team-haul drive from home, is the radius of the country com- munity. Within this community everybody is acquainted with everybody else. Personal char- acter is verified by personal acquaintance. These people in the country are neighbors, and the term used in "Thou shalt love thy 'neighbor' as thyself," referred originally to country neigh- bors. It has never been obeyed by city neighbors and it has no proper relation to people on the other side of the world. It refers to the people in the small acquaintance group which we call a community and neighborhood. Between them is a love such as one has to one's own person. One loves his hand or foot, not from conceit or in a sentimental way, but in a matter-of-fact recog- nition that it is a part of himself. Thus we love HOME AS A COMMUNITY FACTOR 117 our neighbors. This neighbor love is the spirit of the community. In the country it can leave no one out. There are none who are not acquainted. Vital relations extend from one to another. Moral life is one for the whole community, as physical life is also, in a degree. Good health or bad, high morals or low pervade the whole com- munity and tend to characterize all the life. Between the home and the community, between the household group and the neighborhood, there is a clearly defined relation. The community conditions the household, as I said, in matters of health and morality, and in matters of intelli- gence, to a degree. The levels of the com- munity, that is of the neighborhood, tend to be the levels of each home. Below those levels of intelligence, of health and goodness, no house- hold is likely to fall. Above them it is unusual for any household to rise. I think of a country neighborhood in which lived a man at fifty, in his time of mental and physical strength, a leader, choice, fine, and fear- less. His sudden death was occasioned by the uncleanness or stupidity of a household near his in the same neighborhood which, by its ill health, lowered the power to resist disease in the whole ii8 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE community, released an infection upon all, and struck down the strongest, ablest, and highest of men, in the cleanest house in the place. This illustrates the tendency of the neighborhood to condition the individual household. It is the same with morality. The incoming of a foreign stock, with different standards, in many respects coarser and baser, has a tendency at once to lower the tone of each household and to bring all people to the same level. On the other hand, the community seems to be dependent upon the household for progress. There is no such thing as progress coming from ordinary folks. Marginal people do not dis- cuss; they do not propose reforms; they do not foresee. The common folk who are in danger of death, who never are sure of their job, who do not own property, or if they do, have it mortgaged, are not the people who produce re- forms. They do not effect changes. These come from certain households. Individual groups, in which an intelligent man has the backing of his women folks and his kinsmen, are the centers of the better life for the countryside. Both reli- gious and intellectual a'dvance is made by them. Proposals of improvement all originate in a HOME AS A COMMUNITY FACTOR 119 household or a group of households. The capa- city to start things is a very precious ability. It is probably inherited, born in the germ plasm of certain ones who have it from their ancestors. These people are likely to be educated. There is a presumption that they will be well-to-do. There is every probability that they will own property. They are likely to be in certain house- holds and families in the community, and they owe a duty to the whole neighborhood. Furthermore, the management and administra- tion of affairs once begun is possible for only a few. I recall that, as a country minister, I could find in the neighborhood no one to be treasurer of my little church, except one young woman in a family in which honesty was uni- versal. We gave that family the funds to keep because we could trust them; but when it came to keeping accounts, they were universally in- capable, and every year I had to spend a week in tearful and almost hysterical company. The young woman on whom the treasurer's job fell was always in possession of too much funds and terrified in straightening out her accounts. This dependence of country communities upon a few families for management and administration is 120 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE traditional in the country. The greater number of those who can manage have gone to the cities and are well employed there. The church in the country that has no merchant in it is usually in- efficient. The church that has a business man is very generally managed better than the average. In a country neighborhood I know, there were twenty years ago three families, all of them well to do, and each containing at least one person of extraordinary business ability. Without going into details, it is fair to say that this group of three families, agreeing purposely on the policies for the church, and depending upon one another, suppHed the administrative ability for the whole. Without them the church would have had no pro- gress ; with these agreeing and united, the church had five years of extraordinary revival. When one of them died, the progress was halted; when the second passed away, the bright days were gone. The three together illustrated the extraor- dinary relation that certain households have to the whole community. The household is beyond any man's control. It is not subject to legislation. It cannot be affected by preaching or by direct proposal. One need not think he can stop men from marrying HOME AS A COMMUNITY FACTOR 121 or from getting divorced. Young men and wo- men fall in love and men cannot hinder. We establish churches and we maintain schools, partly in the recognition of the fact that only by these institutions and their long arm of indi- rection can we reach and influence the homes that are to be made in the community. But while the household is reached only by indirection, the community can be reached by direct action. There are organizations that can be made or unmade. We can create and we can reform and reconstruct the school. We can make church legislation, and we can, in a large degree, afifect the church, though it is not subject to rational control in the same degree as the school is. The Grange, the farmers' cooperative society, the neighborhood improvement society, are, in a degree, open to reason and to persua- sion. They are means of direct action, by which the community can affect the household, and this influence is wrought by certain households, with- out which nothing can be done. Finally, it seems to me that we need today new investigations with reference to the country. The Country Life Movement has gone far for- ward. Ten years ago a few devoted people began 122 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE to agitate for a nation-wide betterment of country life. We are still, however, in the beginnings. Thankful for what has been done, we need today as much as anything else, more knowledge and light. Ordered and measured intelligence is our greatest necessity. Let me suggest one or two things which we should investigate. First, there is need of an investigation of the physically defective and sub- normal in the country. This will call for expert and patient care by pathologists and other trained men and women. These investigations have been begun and there is reason to hope that they will go forward to greater completion. The other need for the country is to find some way for colonizing those in the city who are land hungry, that they may come to dwell in the open country and have that which they dearly prize — the possession of land. I wish that there might be a large organization, under the efficient leadership of the Young Men's and Young Wo- men's Christian Associations, to put into the country those families of the city who seek to go there and thus to relieve the labor stringency in the country and at the same time the conges- tion of the great city. HOME AS A COMMUNITY FACTOR 123 In the third place, I am earnestly hoping to see men and women volunteering for the country ministry. Nothing is more needed than leaders of the spiritual life of the open country. The days to come promise for the farmer greater prosperity and with it a confusing alteration of his status. In this situation, to the end that he may be patient, there is needed the voice of the intelligent, educated, and devoted man in the country pulpit. The minister should live with his people in the country and give his whole life to them. The number of young men and young women of the highest order who are going into the country is very small. That this number may be increased let us devoutly pray, and to this end let us devotedly work. DISCUSSION A PLEA FOR THE FAMILY INSTITUTION There is no doubt that, in our time, especially in our own country, there are very great dangers threatening the institution of the family. This condition is found in Europe and it is found here. These dangers come from at least three distinct sources. One is Socialism. However, we need be little concerned about that, because I under- stand that the Socialism of today does not attack the family as early Socialism did. The second danger is that from modern industry, under which women are going into gainful occupa- tions. There is possibly no other country in which so many women are going out to earn their own incomes as in our own. It may be a good thing. It has its dangers, but it also has its ad- vantages. We must accept it in relation to the family and certainly it has a great influence there. It has been said also that the family has proved itself a failure in the proper training of children ; that statistics have been gathered and facts have been correlated to show that the family is not 127 128 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE doing the work which ought to be done by it in bringing up children for citizenship, and that be- cause the family is failing in this vital work, the family must undergo a change. This is a very serious contention and I fear there is altogether too much ground for it. In spite of all these things, however, I believe that we ought, wher- ever we go, to stand for the family and to urge upon the people everywhere its vital significance in our country and in the world. Those who oppose the family and tell about its failure have not yet gone so far as to tell us a substitute which would promise more for our children. I do not believe there is any better relation to be substi- tuted. I believe the family is a divine institution, I believe the family is here to stay. I feel very keenly, when I hear attacks upon it, that we must, in view of the facts, acknowledge that the family has laid itself open to assault. It has not fulfilled its function, and we ought to seek improvement. We should stand for the institution of the family, however, and great responsibility rests upon pastors and teachers everywhere in urging upon men and women to see to it that their homes fulfil their high purpose in the Hfe of the nation. —Dean J. W. A. Stewart, D.D., LL.D. HOME AS A COMMUNITY FACTOR 129 THE HOME AND "COMMUNITY ACQUAINTANCESHIP" In spite of all that has been said, it is still true that the largest percentage of leadership in the nation at large does come from Christian country homes. There is no question about that for the Christian ministry, and there is no question about it lor the educational field. A statement has been made which I would like to supplement, namely, that the drudge cannot make a good mother. There have been good mothers who have been drudges in the country home, but they would have been better mothers if they could have been saved from the drudgery. Therefore, our task is to save them from just as much of this drudgery as we can, so that the home may function more efficiently and continue to give us more intelligent leadership. One of the sorest needs of our modern country life has been outlined in a little bulletin by Pro- fessor Galpin of the University of Wisconsin. It is the need for building up acquaintance- ship in the open country. Some people remember the days of the peddler in the country, the fellow who came around with a pack on his back, and perhaps carried a broomstick with which to drive 130 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE the dogs away. His goods looked attractive and people bought, not because, as a matter of fact, he had a good assortment, or because his wares were of high quality, but because there was nothing about the homes of these people that offered a contrast. Conditions are similar in these homes with respect to marriage. Many a young man makes a choice which leads to what we call close inbreeding, for the same reason. He has made too few acquaintances, so there is no variety of choice. We have found that the country church is at a low ebb, and that these general conditions affect the church. We must do something to revive the church life, and we can do it in no better way than by engendering a strong community con- sciousness. We must build up acquaintanceship. This gives the young man and the young woman a better chance in every way. It helps the family life. It leads to development. Where our churches are too weak to furnish a place for building up home acquaintanceships, I believe we should support the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation. They can furnish just the opportunity we want. — Profesor E. L. Earp, Ph.D. VII FROM THE CHICAGO COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE VII FROM THE CHICAGO COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE Editor's Note: On October 25, 1916, there was held in the city of Chicago, under the auspices of the County Work Department of the International Com- mittee of Young Men's Christian Associations, a country life conference for the Central Western States on the subject of "Balancing Country Life." Over 246 dele- gates from seventeen States were in attendance. Such was the effect of this Conference that Messrs. H. R. Earle, E. E. Horner, and C. L. Rowe were invited to attend the New York Conference to present their impressions of the Chicago Conference. Herbert R. Earle Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations I received a great deal from the Chicago Con- ference. One thing impressed me strongly, namely, that the Lord's business is the greatest business in the world and yet it is probably at present the most loosely conducted of all busi- 133 134 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE nesses in the world. I am at the head of a small business, and have men out in the woods felling trees and bucking logs, but I do not put four or five men at a two-man job. Two good "fellers" do the job of cutting down the tree, then two good "buckers" saw it up. There is too much overlapping of effort and too little unification of eiifort, in this important work of the Lord. Another thing that impressed me in Chicago, was the extent of the "unoccupied territory," the fact that so very few of our counties are organ- ized. I hope the time will come when the most remote little cottage on the frontier will get some- thing from the beginning we, are making in this most important Young Men's Christian Associa- tion and Young Women's Christian Association efifort. Lastly, I do not believe Association secretaries ask enough of their committeemen and I do not believe they ask enough of their volunteer workers. Edward E. Horner Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations The thing that impressed me most about the CHICAGO COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE 135 Chicago Conference was a statement by a suc- cessful State Secretary for County Work in a Western state, who came to me and said, "I want you to tell your committeemen that many of the successful things I am doing in my state, I learned in your county." It was an entirely new thought to me, that our county committee out there in the woods were teaching anybody any- thing that he could successfully use in a large way in another state. The next most lasting impression was that I could see in clear outline, after practically a life- time spent in a country town, a scientific well- thought-out plan of cooperation, which has been thought out and made scientific by the Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's Christian Association, whereby we can deal with the boys and girls in the county together in a way that, from my standpoint, the church has failed to do scientifically, because we did not know how and because through denominational prejudices we could not do it. And after twenty- five years, of eflfort, we have not done the thing scientifically in my community — and in many other communities the same would be true. It is a very great comfort to me to think that this 136 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE plan of cooperation has finally been thought out and has been put upon a scientific basis and is a success where it has been tried out. With this combination of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, there is an organization big enough for the job, which I feel, and have felt for many years, that the country church could not compass, because of our lack of a scientifically-thought-out plan. The need for cooperation is great and we have failed in many country communities to do the thing that ought to have been done long ago, and which perhaps can now be done after so long a delay. C. L. RowE State Secretary for County Work in Michigan The Chicago Conference was uniquely repre- sentative of the Central West, delegates from fourteen states being present. It being the first Western Conference of this character, the pro- gram and discussions gave a survey of the field as a whole. A better understanding of the work and place of the different rural agencies was one of the results. Unity and cooperation were em- CHICAGO COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE 137 phasized and the religious basis was recognized as fundamental in building the new rural civil- ization of the future. The fruits of the Conference are well summed up in the following findings : "Whereas, This Conference is concerned with the principles and facts having to do with a balanced Rural Life : "Therefore, be it Resolved, That the goal of Rural Life is a Christian Community in which individuals and institutions accept and practice the principle of each for all and all for each ; "Be it further Resolved, That the goal of Rural Life can be achieved only by workers and agencies who are inspired with the ideal of Chris- tian service and sacrifice ; "Be it further Resolved, That this ideal can be consummated only under the leadership of men and women, volunteer or paid, who dedicate their lives through the various agencies and insti- tutions to the country as a field and life invest- ment; "Be it further Resolved, That this Con- ference, recognizing the interdependence of country and city, desires to emphasize the need of a more sympathetic understanding and co- 138 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE operation between the two in the solving of social and religious, as well as economic problems; "Be it finally Resolved, That recognizing the value of this Conference, we recommend a continuance of such gatherings from year to year." APPENDICES APPENDICES Appendix I LIST OF DELEGATES TO THE COUNTRY LIFE CONFERENCE HELD UNDER THE AUS- PICES OF THE COUNTY WORK DEPART- MENT SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNA- TIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, AND THE TOWN AND COUNTRY COMMITTEE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF METHOD OF THE NA- TIONAL BOARD OF YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRIS- TIAN ASSOCIATIONS, IN NEW YORK CITY ON NOVEMBER 9TH, 1916. Canada DR. JOHN BROWN, JR., Associate General Secretary, Canadian National Council, Young Men's Christian Associations, Toronto, Ont. Connecticut CURTIS M. GEER, Hartford Theological Seminary, Haitford REV. A. T. GESNER, Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown ALVIN B. GURLEY, Yaje University, New Haven E. W. HAZEN, Member County Work Department Sub-Committee, International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Haddam C. C. HUBERT, General Secretary Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, Hartford DR. W. D. MACKENZIE, President Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford MRS. S. G. PALMER, Hartford J. A. VAN DIS, Secretary for Boys' Work, New Haven Young Men's Christian Association, New Haven Delaware REV. IRENE EARL, Delaware Society Social Hygiene, Henry Clay 141 142 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE Maine A. A. HEALD, State Secretary for County Work in Maine, Waterville E. K. JORDAN, York County Young Men's Christian Association, Alfred HON. CARL E. MILLIKEN, Governor of Maine, and Member of Maine State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Island Falls Maryland LOUIS ORTMAYER, Mai-yland State College, College Park Massachusetts PROFESSOR W. J. CAMPBELL, Springfield Young Men's Christian Association College, Springfield MISS LAURA COMSTOCK, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst E. P. CONLON, Secretary Norfolk County Young Men's Christian Association, Hyde Park D. C. DREW, State Secretary for County Work in Massachusetts, Boston H. R. HARPER, Boston University School of Theology, Boston E. M. HEDDEN, Williams College, WilUamstown GEORGE E. HORR, Newton Theological Seminary, Newton Center L. P. JEFFERSON, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst W. A. MUNSON, Norfolk County Agricultural School, Walpole S. R. PARKER, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst MRS. S. R. PARKER, Guest, Amherst JOHN PHELAN, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst PROFESSOR KENNETH ROBBIE, Springfield Young Men's Chris- tian Association College, Springfield HENRY K. ROWE, Newton Theological Seminary, Newton Center Michigan H. R. EARLE, Member Michigan State Committee Young Men's Christian Associations, Detroit C. L. ROWE, State Secretary for County Work in Michigan, Jackson E. E. HORNER, Member Michigan State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Eaton Rapids DR. J. B. MODISETT, Detroit Young Men's Christian Association, De' ■ Detroit New Hampshire PROFESSOR E. R. GROVES, New Hampshire College. Durham H. HBDLEY SMITH, Secretary New Hampshire Stats Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Durham APPENDIX 143 New Jersey R. H. M. AUGUSTINE, Country Pastor, Hanover MRS. CHARLES BARTON, Marlton PAUL B. BENNETCH, Farm Bureau, Newton H. L. COCHLEY, Leader Burlington County Young Men's Christian Association, Medford MRS. M. L. COCHLEY, President Medford Young Women's Club. Medford PROFESSOR E. L. EARP, Drew Theological Seminary, Madison REV. O. F. GARDNER, Farmers' Congress of Colorado and Phila- delphian Society, Princeton REV. H. H. GIFFORD, New Jersey Social Service Commission, New Brunswick MRS. H. H. GIFFORD, Guest, New Brunswick MRS. T. S. GLADDING, Member Town and Country Committee, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations, Essex FeUs PAUL HAYNE, Church and Country Life Committee, New Jersey Baptist Convention, New Brunswick REV. ANDREW HANSEN, MiUstone MISS M. ANNA HAUSER, New Jersey State College of Agriculture, New Brunswick REV. J. M. HARE, New Jersey Baptist Convention, Scotch Plains E. T. JUDD, Secretary Monmouth County Young Men's Christian Association, Freehold WALTER KIRKY, Member County Committee, Young Men's Christian Association, Columbus L. P. LINDSAY, Newark Young Men's Christian Association, Newark MRS. A. MARCY, JR., Hygiene Committee, New Jersey Congress of Mothers, Riverton H. D. MAYDOLE, Secretary Somerset County Young Men's Chris- tian Association, Somerville REV. A. A. McKAY, Rumson Improvement Association, Oceanic MISS A. MERRLAM, Lakewood CHARLES H. NUTTLE, Secretary Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, Morristown MISS RUTH PERKINS, Lakewood D. S. RASH, JR., Secretary Camden County Young Men's Christian Association, Haddonfield A. J. RHINES, Secretary Gloucester Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, Woodbury ALTON C. ROBERTS, Secretary Hunterdon County Young Men's Christian Association, Flemington B. R. RYALL, State Secretary for County Work in New Jersey, Newark WILLIAM L. SAHLER. Harlingen C. F. SAVAGE, Secretary Morris County Young Men's Christian Association, Dover REV. W. B. SHEDDAN, D.D., Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton 144 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE R. C. SHOEMAKER, Secretary Burlington County Young Men's Christian Association, Mt. Holly MRS. J. M. SPEERS, Chairman Town and Country Committee, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations, Mont- clair MRS. L. TOMLINSON, Marlton I. S. WARNER, Secretary Burlington County Young Men's Chris- tian Association, Mt. Holly New York City J. E. ARMSTRONG, Secretary Brooklyn Young Men's Christian Association, Brooklyn C. E. ARTMAN, Columbia University MISS LUCY BARTLETT, Secretary Northeastern Field Committee of National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations MISS ANNA L. BOYNTON CHARLES H. BOYNTON, General Theological Seminary H. S. BRAUCHER, Playground and Recreation Association of America MRS. S. J. BROADWELL, Member National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations DR. ANNA L. BROWN, Secretary Department of Method, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations W. L. CHANDLER, Secretary County Work Department of Inter- national Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations MISS SUSAN CLUTE, Secretary Foreign Department, National Board of Young Women's Chnstian Associations L. J. COCHRANE, Secretary County Work Department of Inter- national Committee of Yotmg Men's Christian Associations MISS EDITH M. DABB, Secretary Department of Method, Na- tional Board, Young Women's Christian Associations WALTER T. DIACK, General Secretarj; West Side Branch, New York Yoimg Men's Christian Association MISS MABEL EVERETT, Secretary Conference Department, Na- tional Board of Yoimg Women's Christian Associations W. C. FERRY MISS JESSIE FIELD, Secretary Department of Method, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations F. B. FREEMAN, Secretary Coimty Work Department, International Committee, Yoimg Men's Christian Associations L. S. FRISSELL, Business Man A. H. GREELEY, Secretary for County Work, New York State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations DEACONESS HYDE HENRY ISRAEL, Secretary County Work Department, Interna- tional Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations REV. A. S. KAVANAGH, Methodist Episcopal Hospital, Brooklyn E. H. KISER, Silver Bay Association MISS ETHEL LANDFEAR, Secretary Department of Method, Na- tional Board, Young Women's Christian Associations APPENDIX 145 MRS. WARREN M. LEEDS, Chairman Northeastern Field Com- mittee, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations MISS HILDA LOUIES, Women's National Farm and Garden Asso- ciation, Brooklyn JAMES P. LYTLE, The United Presbyterian DR. D. HUNTER McALPIN, Chairman County Work Department, Sub-Committee International Committee of Young Men's Chris- tian Associations WILLIAM McDonald M. MICHENER DR. O. S, MORGAN, in charge of Department of Agriculture, Co- lumbia University MRS. O. S. MORGAN, Guest MRS. H. M. MORSE, Member Northeastern Field Committee, Na- tional Board, Young Women's Christian Associations H. N. MORSE, Presbyterian Board of Church and Country Life DR. JOHN R. MOTT, General Secretary International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations CLEO MURTLAND, Vocational Education MRS. JOHN NICOLSON MISS C. L. PALMER, Bible Teachers' Training School J. W. PINCUS, Federation of Jewish Farmers MISS F. D. RICHARDS ALBERT E. ROBERTS, Senior Secretary County Work Department, International Coimnittee of Young Men's Christian Associa- tions LEONARD ROBINSON, Jewish Agricultural Society MRS. J. P. ROBINSON, Member Northeastern Field Committee, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations MRS. WILLIAM A. ROGERS MISS M. E. SANGSTER, Bible House MISS HELEN SANGER, Secretary Finance Department, National Board of YouiM Women's Christian -Associations MISS K. H. SCO'TT, Secretary Field Work Department, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations MISS ANNA SEABURG, Secretary Department of Method, National Board of Young Women's Chnstian Associations H. A. SMITH, 23rd St. Branch, New York City Young Men's Chris- tian Association MISS E. N. STANTON, Secretarial Department, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations MRS. A. G. STONE, Member Town and Country Committee, Na- tional Board of Young Women's Christian Associations D. C. VANDERCOOK, Assistant Editor Association Men MRS. C. V. VICKREY MRS. C. WALLACE, National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations R. A. WHEELER G. S. WHITE, Union Theological Seminary ROGER WILLIAMS, Member International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations MRS. ROGER WILLIAMS, Guest 146 THE HOME OF THE COUNTRYSIDE DR. WARREN H. WILSON, Secretary Department Church and Country Life. Presbyterian Church MRS. WARREN H. WILSON, Member Town and Country Com- mitteCj National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations J. A. WOOD, Bible Teachers' Training School THOMAS D. WOOD. Columbia University MRS. W. D. WOOD. Member Northeastern Field Committee, Na- tional Board of Young Women's Christian Associations New York State R. K. ATKINSON, Nassau and Suffolk County Young Men's Chris- tian Association, Sag Harbor E. T. DAHLBERG, Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester MRS. F. B. FREEMAN, Guest. White Plains C. A. GAMMONS, General Secretary Westchester County Young Men's Christian Association, Fleasantville MISS CORNELIA D. GEROW. Blooming Grove REV. R. T. HENSHAW, Rye MISS FLORENCE HOUSTON, Goshen CHESTER HUSTED, Pleasant Valley REV. H. C. IDE, The Cangregatiomlist (Boston), Mt. Vernon MRS. HENRY ISRAEL, Guest, Hastings-on-Hudson ALBERT A. JOHNSON, New York State School of Agriculture, Parmingdale H. R. KNIGHT, Nassau and Suffolk County Young Men's Christian Association, Mineola MISS MIRLAM KRIEG. Woodhaven JAMES A. MOORE, Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester J. W. NARAMORE, Heasantville A. S. REED, Secretary Nassau and Suffolk County Young Men's Christian Association, Mineola MRS. ALBERT E. ROBERTS, Guest, White Plains DR. J. W. STEWART, Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester ED VAN ALSTYNE, Bureau Farmers Institutes, Department of Agriculture. Albany MISS M. VAN RENSSELAER, New York State College of Agricul- ture, Ithaca Z. L. WILCOX, Secretary Orange County Young Men's Christian Association, Goshen MRS. Z. L. WILCOX, Guest. Goshen MISS RUTH C. WOODLEY, Member Northeastern Field Commit- tee, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations North Carolina JOHN C. CAMPBELL, Russell Sage Foundation, Asheville Pennsylvania SAMUEL BATTEN, Northern Baptist Committee, Social Service Department, Philadelphia APPENDIX 147 WILLIAM BOYD, Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia REV. EDMUND deS. BRUNNER, Ph.D., Secretary Moravian Country Church Commission, Easton C. R. CALDWELL, Member Pennsylvania State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Statmton. REV. WILLIAM DuHAMEL, Bethlehem Churchman, Douglasville MISS CAROLINE FORESMAN, National Board, Young Women's Christian Associations, Philadelphia JOHN HAMILTON, State College EDWARD B. POLLARD, Crozer Theological Seminary, Chester MRS. A. H. REEVE, National Congress of Mothers, Philadelphia WILLIAM WALLACE WOOD, State College Rhode Island E. K. THOMAS, State Club Leader, Kingston Tennessee B. R. PAYNE, Nashville Vermont REV. A. W. HEWITT, Plainfield A. J. HOLDEN, Member Vermont State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, Benn,ington L. M. ISAACS, Member County Committee, Young Men's Christian Associations, Orwell G. B. JOHNSON, Bennington County Improvement Association, Bennington DR. F. T. KIDDER, Member Windsor County Committee o£ Young Men's Christian Associations, Woodstock E. L. RAND, Secretary Addison County Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, Middlebury Virginia S. A. ACKLEY, Secretary Virginia State Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations JAMES H. DILLARD, Slater and Jeanes Funds, Charlottesville Washington, D. C. A. C. MONAHAN, United States Bureau of Education MRS. E. H. WARD MISS P. E. WANE, United States Department of Agriculture Appendix II DISTRIBUTION OF DELEGATES BY STATES Canada i Connecticut 8 Delaware i Maine 3 Maryland i Massachusetts 14 Michigan 4 New Hampshire 2 New Jersey 34 New York 86 North Carolina i Pennsylvania 10 Rhode Island i Tennessee i Vermont 6 Virginia 2 Washington, D. C 3 Total 178 149