(ftorttcll Ittiueraitg SItbrarg 
 
 Sttjaca. S?em ^ntk 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 ALFRED C. BARNES 
 
 1889 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BV1210 .A43 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 032 340 477 
 
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/cu31924032340477 
 
MESSAGES OF THE MEN AND RELIGION 
 MOVEMENT 
 
 SEVEN VOLUMES FOUR DOLLARS 
 
 Carriage Collect 
 
 Indispensable to Ministers and Laymen 
 
 1. Congress Addresses 4. Christian Unity. Missions 
 
 2. Social Service 5. Boys' Work 
 
 3. Bible Study. ETangelism 6. The Rural Church 
 
 7. The Church and the Press 
 
 U"Vro equally comprehensive compendium of present day Christian ideals 
 and methods, Bor any eqaally adequate statement of the current 
 religious needs of the country has previously been put forth from any source. 
 Every Christian intelligently concerned for the effective adjustment of the 
 Church to the obligations of the present hour should by all means avail himself 
 of the information and inspiration so compactly crowded into this modest set of 
 books. " From The Continent 
 
 (tnpHE men of the Church will find these books of inestimable value. 
 Not until the Church shall have taken many a heroic stride will they be 
 laid aside as outgrown. Perfectly printed and beautifully bound, as the 
 set is, I am proud of it as well as grateful for it." 
 
 Rev. C. C. Albertson, D. D. 
 Pastor Lafayette Presb. Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 (fpHEIR production i-s probably the most important single event in the 
 life of Protestant America during the past decade." 
 
 W. T. ELLIS, 
 
 Swarthmore, Pa. 
 
 ( ^ILTERE is a forceful message to men. A straightforward, honest, earnest 
 
 appeal to nobility of life. Such books not only win our admiration 
 
 but our souls.'* The Baptist Temcher. 
 
 (CnpHEY are a source of inspiration in the task that is set before me of 
 bringing some new visions to the country church.'* 
 
 Clair S. Adams, Field Asst., 
 Presbytsrian Board of Home Missions. 
 
 assoqation press 
 
 124 Host 28th Street, New York 
 
Rural Church 
 Message 
 
 Men and Religion 
 Movement 
 
 The resources of the Church 
 and their application .to rural 
 conditions and needs. 
 
 New York: 124 East 28th Street 
 London : 47 Paternoster Row. E. C. 
 1914 
 
CorYKIGHT, J9I«, BY 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF 
 YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 PAGE 
 THE RURAL CHURCH OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 
 
 I Survey of Rural dviLizATioN and Insti- 
 tutions. Warren H. Wilson i 
 II Descsuption of an Ideal Rural Civiuza- 
 
 TioN. Henry Wallace 14 
 
 III The Means at Hand for the Development 
 
 OF AN Ideal Rural Civilization. 
 
 H. J. Waters 27 
 
 IV The Rural Awakening. 
 
 J. O. Ashenhurst 47 
 V Coordination of All Rural Institutions. 
 
 Albert E. Roberts 60 
 VI The Supply of Leaders for the Country. 
 
 Kenyon L. Butterfield 72 
 VII A Living Wage for Rural Pastors. 
 
 F. M. Barton 83 
 VIII The Enlarging Ideal of the Country 
 
 Church E. S. Tipple gS" 
 
 IX The Religious Aspects of Getting a Living 
 
 IN the Country. Thomas Nixon Carver 109 
 X Remarks on Presentation of Report of 
 
 Commission. Henry Wkllace, Chairman iig 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 SOCIAL RELIGION IN THE COUNTRY 
 
 I The Literature of the Church and Coun- 
 try Life Movement. 
 
 George Frederick Wells 141 
 II The Country Minister. G. Walter Fiske 154 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III The Minister's Use of the Survey. 
 
 E. Fred Eastman i66 
 
 IV Cooperation and the Struggle of Making 
 
 A Living. J. L. Coulter I77 
 
 V Education for Country Life. 
 
 Willet M. Hays i88 
 VI The Country Church a Social Center. 
 
 Matthew Brown McNutt 20l 
 VII Better Church Buildings — A Necessity. 
 
 N. W. Stroup 214 
 VIII The Value of Recreation in Rural Com- 
 munities. Myron T. Scudder 228 
 IX Poverty and Degeneration in the Coun- 
 try. John R. Howard, Jr. 243 
 X What Country Ministers Have Done 
 
 Warren H. Wilson 259 
 
BOOK I 
 
 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 
 
RURAL CHURCH COMMISSION AND 
 CONTRIBUTORS 
 
 Chairman, Henry Wallace, Editor Wallace's 
 Farmer, Des Moines, la. 
 
 Secretary, Rev. Warren H. Wilson, Supt. 
 Presbyterian Dept. of Church and Country 
 Life, New York City. 
 
 Edward van Alstyne, Director, Farmers' Insti- 
 tutes, Kinderhook, N. Y. 
 
 Rev. J. O. Ashenhurst, Pastor, Peroberton, O. 
 
 Lem. Banks, Attorney at Law, Memphis, Tenn. 
 
 Hon. Willet M. Hays, Assistant Secretary, 
 Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 
 
 John R. Howard, Jr., Secretary, Thompson 
 Trust Fund, East Northfield, Mass. 
 
 Rev. Matthew Brown McNutt, Pastor, Plain- 
 field, 111. 
 
 Albert E. Roberts, International Committee, 
 Y. M. C. A., New York, N. Y. 
 
 Rev. N. W. Stroup, District Supt., Cleveland 
 District, M. E. Church, Cleveland, O. 
 
 H. J. Waters, President State Agricultural Col- 
 lege of Kansas, Manhattan, Kans. 
 
 Joseph Wing, Farmer and Lecturer, Mechanics- 
 ' burg, Ohio. 
 
 Rev. George Frederick Wells, Federal Coun- 
 cil of Churches. 
 
■ RURAL CHURCH COMMISSION AND 
 CONTRIBUTORS 
 Continued 
 
 F. M. Barton, Publisher, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 President Kenyon L. Butterfield, Mass. Ag- 
 ricultural College. 
 
 Professor Thomas N. Carver, Harvard Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Professor E. S. Tipple, Drew Theological Sem- 
 inary. 
 
 Professor G. Walter Fiske, Jr., Dean of Ober- 
 lin Theological Seminary. 
 
 Professor J. L. Coulter, Bureau of the Census, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Principal Myron T. Scudder, Scudder School 
 for Girls, New York City. 
 
 Rev. E. Fred Eastman, Field Investigator, 
 Presbyterian Dept. of Church and Country 
 Life, New York City. 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL CIVILIZATION AND 
 INSTITUTIONS 
 
 Warren H. Wilson 
 
 Before attempting to state the prevailing con- 
 ditions among rural churches and communities^ 
 it should be said that there are large areas in 
 the United States in which rural churches thrive, 
 and country people prosper. Broadly speak- 
 ing, they are classified under the statement by 
 an eastern professor of economics: "There are 
 three classes of successful American farmers. 
 In the order of their success they are, the Mor- 
 mons, the Scotch Presbyterians, and the Pennsyl- 
 vania Germans." These farmers have success- 
 ful country churches. Their rural religious or- 
 ganizations have resisted the recent economic 
 changes, which have so adversely affected other 
 rural populations. And the organization of their 
 communities is religious. Their churches are 
 their social machinery for success in farming. 
 
 Another statement, by a western agricultural 
 college president helps further to define the ter- 
 ritory of successful rural life in America. 
 "Only those peoples," said he, "who brought 
 from Europe a form of culture of the land have 
 maintained themselves in the east against the 
 competition of the western lands." He added 
 
THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 that He referred to the Pennsylvania Germans, 
 German Lutherans, Danes, Polish and rural 
 Catholics, and other similar successful tillers of 
 the soil. All of these have strong and tenacious 
 country churches, able longer than American 
 congregations do, to resist the social and eco- 
 nomic forces which are dissolving American 
 country communities, and closing a surprising 
 proportion of country churches. 
 
 The most of the country churches, however, 
 do not belong under these classes : and our con- 
 cern is with the most of the churches, because 
 theirs are the prevailing conditions. They also 
 are the American churches: their state a result 
 of causes that characterize the American way 
 of living. The successful do not help the un- 
 successful. Averages count for nothing in such 
 a survey. We have to deal with typical states, 
 with representative experiences. This chapter 
 and this book have concern with the American 
 rural church, rooted in American farming, the 
 most illuminating institution for him to study 
 who would know American country life. 
 
 Profitless living is the first trouble in American 
 rural civilization. There is a lack of adequate 
 income, in the first place. Near Ithaca, New 
 York, farmers prosper as they do in few parts of 
 the State ; but by a survey made by the College 
 of Agriculture it was found that among 615 
 farmers the average labor income was only $423. 
 That is, after paying interest on their invested 
 capital, and accounting for work done by others, 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 3 
 
 the fanner is able to pay himself a wage of only 
 about $1.20 per day. 
 
 There is little room here for the satisfactory 
 farming described by Dean Bailey, who asks for 
 the farmer a good income; an income good 
 enough to support a family ; good enough to give 
 something to the community; good enough to 
 enable the fanner to keep up the land in as fertile 
 and as productive condition as it was when he 
 got it. 
 
 Meantime the prices of farm land are going 
 up, while the values of the same land are going 
 down. The land will produce less, but it will sell 
 for more. This is a very bad condition for rural 
 civilization, for it is deceptive. The farmer has 
 a bigger capital, but gets a smaller interest on it. 
 He is ever tempted to sell, and many farmers, 
 under this rise of price of lands, are moving from 
 place to place. The old homestead, once sacred, 
 is regarded not as a home but as a property. 
 Moral and religious institutions cannot be so 
 listed among one's ticketed assets: and they are 
 not valued at all. 
 
 The superficial prosperity which results shows 
 its weaknesses in retarded schools and churches, 
 alongside of farms well-stocked and improved. 
 For the farmer can afford to borrow money 
 against his increased capital, for improvements. 
 He cannot be expected to give to the church out 
 of borrowed money. And he will not pay bor- 
 rowed money for the improvement of schools or 
 the betterment of the roads. 
 
4 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 The expenditures of any community for civi- 
 lization must always come out of its profits. It 
 would be a false benevolence to pay them by in- 
 creasing mortgages. To have better churches, 
 schools and homes the American farmer must 
 have a better income for his labor. 
 
 All through Indiana and' Illinois are farmers, 
 representative men, who are working hard to 
 secure four and five per cent interest on their 
 investment. I met one of these men who had 
 sold out and gone to Arkansas and there was 
 making one hundred per cent interest on the 
 money on which in Indiana, with harder labor, 
 he could only get three per cent. Of course, 
 out of such men no preacher, of however great 
 eloquence, could create a lasting and permanent 
 church. 
 
 Another farmer in Illinois when his farm was 
 worth $75 per acre was raising on it ninety bush- 
 els of corn per acre; but when it had gone to 
 $175 per acre was able only to raise, with more 
 ■work and better machinery, forty-eight bushels 
 of corn per acre. Such farmers live with an 
 eye to the speculative sale of their lands. They 
 are not building homes, or improving schools, or 
 interested in better churches. They cannot farm 
 well enough for sustaining these centers of rural 
 civilization. 
 
 (We are in the midst of a period of farm specu- 
 lation, in which the agents are farmers them- 
 selves. Inflated prices prevail; for while there 
 has been an increase in the prices paid for farm 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS . 5 
 
 produce the farmer's net income has gone up but 
 little, and his invested capital has increased much. 
 Nowadays the farmer is a consumer, as well as 
 a producer. He lives not on his products but 
 on his profits. When prices of cotton and wool 
 and meat and grain go up, his income is thereby 
 taxed, just as the income of a city man is, because 
 he too has to buy all these in manufactured 
 forms. There is therefore no justification for 
 the increased prices of farm land in an increased 
 net profit for the farmer. Such speculative 
 prices as now prevail tend only to disturb the 
 farmers of a community, to undermine the sta- 
 bility of families, and to break up the support of 
 churches. 
 
 This speculation means a change of owner- 
 ship, and a rearrangement of the population of 
 the farming communities. "The farms are pass- 
 ing into the hands of those who will till them 
 to the best advantage," says Professor Carver. 
 And on the same reasoning, Mr. Jared van 
 Wagenen, a New York farmer, says, "The coun- 
 try church must concern itself with seeds and 
 silos, because ultimately the land and the wealth 
 in the country will pass into the hands of the 
 best farmers. Therefore the Church must see to 
 it that her people are good farmers." This was 
 the logic of the Country Life Commission, which 
 grounded the whole rural question upon better- 
 ment of economic conditions. 
 
 A sort of social exploitation of the open coun- 
 try by the towns, villages and small cities, adds 
 
6 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 to the speculative exploitation of the lands. It is 
 a long step from living on a farm to living m 
 town. A working farmer differs most of all 
 from a retired farmer. The retired farmer 
 wants to be citified, and his wife hopes to be 
 cultured. The working farmer dignifies life 
 with ownership of land, and despises the man 
 who knowing only how to farm lives idle in a 
 town house. Villages and small cities all over 
 the country which have their incomes from farm- 
 ing, look for their ideas to the big cities, and 
 find no charm in the open country. 
 
 Until very recently this took the form of neg- 
 lecting to live off the surrounding country and 
 buying farm produce, butter and eggs, from the 
 big cities, through endless middlemen ; but in the 
 past two years in many small cities markets have 
 been established, where the farmers can stand 
 their wagons and sell direct to the consumers of 
 the town. In those towns, walled off from the 
 open country by a social rampart, the churches 
 have had as a rule no country worshippers, and 
 no farmers are on their official boards. Sir 
 Horace Plunkett first pointed this out, and 
 showed the connection between economic aliena- 
 tion and religious cleavage. Churches are ex- 
 ceedingly sensitive to social feeling, and the 
 farmer who lives within a mile of a church in 
 "not a good farmers' town" will go three miles 
 to church in the country rather than one mile to 
 the church in which he is an alien. Yet that 
 church is usually supported by money that smells 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 7 
 
 of fertilizer, and its members lay it on the plate 
 with hands that are still callous from handling 
 the reins. It takes a special revolution for a 
 church in such a town to become serviceable to 
 the people of the surrounding country. The best 
 way to make that revolution easy is for the re- 
 tired farmers of the town to secure the estab- 
 lishment of a town market, where producers of 
 the country can meet the consumers of the town. 
 
 Good examples of the overcoming of this 
 alienation of town and country are the work 
 of Dr. Persons in Cazenovia, New York, and of 
 Mr. Adams in Bement, 111. Both these men have 
 made their cliurches cathedrals of country people. 
 When the latter was about to extend his work to 
 the farmers out of the center, he was told by an 
 older man, "That bell on your church can be 
 heard ten miles; if the farmers want to come 
 they always know when the church is open!" 
 But now the sound of "that bell" has a definite 
 meaning to the people for ten miles round. It 
 is the call . of "our church" to worship. Mr. 
 Adams keeps a saddle horse, and has a woman 
 assistant who also lives in the saddle, to supple- 
 ment his work. Most town ministers have little 
 religious use for horse or automobile. 
 
 Resulting from this organized exploitation of 
 the open country and occasioned by the poverty 
 of social life among people who have so little to 
 spend on their social machinery, there is a great 
 tendency for owners to live in town and to work 
 the land through tenants. It is often easier to 
 
8 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 secure a tenant than to hire a hand. Sometimes 
 the tenant, or "renter," makes more than does 
 the owner. Our concern with him here is in 
 the fact that, irrespective of his personal char- 
 acter, he is a bad man for rural society. This is 
 because he has only a one-year lease on the land. 
 He cannot improve the soil because another man 
 may have it next year. He cannot support a 
 church because he has no anchorage in the place. 
 He is sometimes instructed to oppose the im- 
 provement of schools because the landlord feels 
 that he cannot aflford to pay more taxes. We 
 fotmd in Illinois tenants who were instructed by 
 the owners that the improvement of schools 
 would lead to increase of the rent. 
 
 These families of renters, and those families 
 who have not enough land to get a living from 
 it, are the people on whom the country church 
 has least hold. They most of all need its minis- 
 tration, and they attend the least of any, they 
 have the smallest place in the membership. Yet 
 over the whole country four families out of ten 
 are renters. This proportion is increasing. It 
 is already greatest on the best lands, and on the 
 best lands the percentage of tenantry is increas- 
 ing with the greatest rapidity. 
 
 In spite of the fact that we have no peasantry 
 in America, there is a growing distinction of 
 classes among country people, which shows itself 
 in religious conditions. Churches are exceed- 
 ingly sensitive to social change. It was found in 
 the Pennsylvania Survey that in the communities 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 9 
 
 where there is only one social class 62 per 
 cent of the churches are growing, 19 per cent 
 stationary and 19 per cent losing. In the com- 
 munities in which there are two social classes 
 this condition was changed; only 34 per cent 
 were growing, 34 per cent were stationary and 
 32 per cent losing ground. But in the communi- 
 ties in which this class distinction had gone fur- 
 ther, and three or more classes had appeared, 
 two-thirds of the churches were doing well : that 
 is, 68 per cent were growing, 17 per cent sta- 
 tionary and 15 per cent were losing. This con- 
 dition, which applied to all the churches, of all 
 denominations, exhibits a cause of much relig- 
 ious confusion. It at the same time points the 
 way to the remedy, and it justifies a counsel of 
 hope to those who are going through the proc- 
 ess. The lot of a minister in a country com- 
 munity of two classes is a hard one. 
 
 There are too many churches in the country, 
 especially in the villages. This is a well known 
 condition. It results from a number of causes. 
 The tendency to class distinction is one. An- 
 other is the increase in the number of renters 
 in a community. The minister of a badly over- 
 churched Pennsylvania town says the chief 
 cause has been the arrogant hatred of the "Penn- 
 sylvania Dutch" by the Scotch-Irish. Another 
 cause is dogmatical zeal, especially on the part 
 of ministers. Sad to relate, one of the greatest 
 causes of all is just plain meanness of spirit, and 
 the desire to rule. 
 
lO THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 It must always be remembered that there are 
 fewer people in the country than there were be- 
 fore farm machinery banished two hands out of 
 three to the cities. Nowadays most of the work 
 of farming is done in factories, where cunningly 
 devised machines are made which under the care 
 of a man who can "drive team" will do the work 
 of several men. So that there is not a living in 
 the country for all the people who have a hand in 
 tilling soil. 
 
 These and other causes have closed many coun- 
 try churches. It is estimated, on a basis of sur- 
 veys in thirteen counties in Illinois, that in that 
 State alone 1700 country churches have been 
 closed in the past twenty years; and they are 
 abandoned forever as churches. Similarly 550 
 were found abandoned in Missouri. 
 
 Yet more churches are being formed every dec- 
 ade. The new Census disclosed many new de- 
 nominations, born in the past decade, in which 
 men have been deploring the decay of faith. It 
 is a cheering, and yet a baffling spectacle. Fed- 
 eration of religious forces is the aspiration of 
 us all, yet we breed a spawn of new "sects and 
 bisects" overnight! Denominations are even 
 conceived with the professed aim of uniting 
 Christendom, and baptized in the name of unity, 
 and preached as a means of uniting Christians by 
 further division of the number! Truly "man- 
 kind is incurably religious!" But there are 
 many who agree with Benjamin Kidd in holding 
 that religion transcends reason, notwithstand- 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS II 
 
 ing the fact that they have never read his book. 
 
 The mind of rural folk is independent, self- 
 reliant and unwilling to cooperate. Farmers will 
 not obey farmers ! They will not generally co- 
 operate in getting a living, they decline to central- 
 ize the schools, and their churches, which need 
 it most, have the least tendency to federate. This 
 uncooperative state of mind is due to lonely work 
 and solitary living. Long hours pass when the 
 farmer sees no one and thinks within his own 
 interests alone. He becomes suspicious as well 
 as self-contained, wary of his neighbor as well 
 as jealous of the great combinations of industry. 
 He is at once afraid of the "money trust" and 
 opposed to the leadership of a neighbor for any 
 common interest. 
 
 This results in a flat and level equality in the 
 country. Men decline to be led, and the natural 
 leader is terrified at the name, hastening to deny 
 that he or any one else leads his neighbors. In 
 53 communities in Pennsylvania only one was 
 found in which a farmer was leader of his fel- 
 lows ; and in 22 of these communities no one was 
 acknowledged as a leader. In the others a min- 
 ister, a merchant or a politician, but never a 
 farmer, was the leader. 
 
 This independence of mind takes the form of 
 austerity, which forbids play. Most rural com- 
 munities have inadequate social life. Young 
 folks are restless there. Farm hands prefer the 
 towns and cities, with their warmer sympathy for 
 the play spirit. Villages and towns, near to the 
 
I? THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 open country, usually furnish an over-supply of 
 paid recreation, of a poor sort, because there is 
 so little play among the rural people. The young 
 men and women come to these places, the farm 
 hands too, and engage in amusements, oflfered 
 them for pay, that are lower than they would 
 have at home. And the village is defiled with 
 playhouses which would not be created for any 
 people who live at home. 
 
 The whole problem of recreation needs to be 
 worked out in the country under religious and 
 school auspices. It is closely related to moral 
 problems, not only because some go wrong 
 through the form of amusements which they find, 
 but because the playground is the field in which 
 to train men, especially the young, in the needed 
 virtues of honor, truthfulness, courage, and all 
 the experiences of team-play. Obedience is the 
 lesson farmers need to learn most of all, and it 
 is a flower that blooms best in the mind of the 
 child that has played much with other children 
 at organized games. 
 
 The recreations which do "flourish in the coun- 
 try are mostly innocent, showing that the rural 
 moralist has more cause to praise than to blame 
 the young. 
 
 Two things are greatly needed in country 
 places. The first is in every community a 
 place and a habit of leisurely meeting. Country 
 people meet now in commercial and indifferent 
 places. The whole tone of life in the country 
 is tinged with the color of the country store. 
 
SURVEY OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS I3 
 
 It smells of raisins and salt mackerel. It should 
 have the savor of good converse in an uplifting 
 place, and should be clothed with the remem- 
 brance of good music. Every country church, 
 especially if placed in a village, should open some 
 room for the farmers, on the day on which they 
 "do their trading" and generally in the evenings, 
 and should offer some periodic entertainment, of- 
 ten of an elevating, and always of a refreshing 
 sort, in order that the leisurely associations of 
 country people may leaven the whole community 
 with a spirit above that of the country store. 
 At present the church is content to attempt on 
 one Sunday of the month, for two hours, to erad- 
 icate the spirit which the store has implanted 
 every day of the month, except Sunday. It is 
 the spirit of horse trading, of small politics, of 
 neighborhood gossip and of the changes of the 
 weather. 
 
 The last and greatest need of the oowntry is a 
 resident pastorate. Most of the ministers who 
 preach there do not live there. And they do not 
 generally preach where they live. They are ab- 
 sentees, like the landlords. The preach about a 
 Holy Land of old and a heavenly city that is to 
 be. We need pastors. Preaching is easy, and it 
 is most pleasing often when it is most false and 
 foreign. The gospel for the country must be 
 vital, modern, attentive to life as it is. The man 
 who preaches it ought to be able to live on the 
 soil and know the people who till it so well as to 
 teach them that "the soil is holy." 
 
II 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF AN IDEAL RURAL 
 CIVILIZATION 
 
 Henry Wallace 
 
 Humanity never rises above its ideals. The 
 most magnificent temple ever erected first existed 
 in the mind of the architect, and fell below his 
 ideal. What ought to be is always above and 
 beyond what is. Unless, however, we have be- 
 fore us the vision of something better, we can 
 never rise above what we are. 
 
 So long as we think of the farm as merely a 
 place to live, either cheap or cheaply, or as merely 
 a place to make money, we shall never evolve a 
 rural civilization worth while. So long as we 
 think of the farm as a farm and not as a home, 
 our home life will always be defective. So long 
 as we think of country life as competitive instead 
 of cooperative, we shall never have an ideal rural 
 civilization. So long as our children are taught in 
 the rural schools in terms of the city, by teachers 
 who in their secret thoughts regard the life of 
 the city as the only life worth living, these chil- 
 dren when grown will prefer the city. So long 
 as our religion is taught in abstract terms which 
 the people who need most the blessings of the 
 14 
 
AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 1 5 
 
 gospel do not understand, without illustrations 
 from rural life, and by preachers whose ambition 
 is tc fill or at least occupy a city pulpit, the va- 
 cant pews in the rural church will be in the ma- 
 jority. 
 
 A rural civilization that will hold men to the 
 soil must be satisfactory materially, intellectually, 
 socially and spiritually, to the boys and girls 
 born and bred on the soil. If agriculture is to 
 be the basis of a rural civilization, it must fur- 
 nish a comfortable living to the man who tills 
 the soil; not necessarily great wealth, but by no 
 means poverty. It must approximately realize 
 the ideal of Agur the son of Jakeh, whose prayer 
 was thought worthy of incorporation in the 
 Proverbs of Solomon: 
 
 "Give me neither poverty nor riches; 
 
 Feed me with the food that is needful for me: 
 
 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say. Who is 
 
 Jehovah ? 
 Or lest I be poor, and steal. 
 And use profanely the name of my God." 
 
 For the problems of agriculture are at bot- 
 tom economic problems. There is no virtue in 
 poverty either in the city or the country, though 
 some make a virtue of it. There may be, and 
 there are here and there, manly virtues and 
 womanly graces in poverty-stricken homes; but 
 there can be no high civilization where the till- 
 ers of the soil are peasants, with children doomed 
 
l6 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 to peasantry, who have masters or over-lords to 
 do their thinking for them. "The man with the 
 hoe," his senses dulled by continuous toil, in- 
 capable of appreciating the beauties of earth or 
 sky, the song of birds by day or the voices of 
 the night, the majesty of the storm or the sooth- 
 ing, quieting influence of the calm, can never be 
 the basis of a stable and permanent democracy, 
 as the farmer must ever be, the bed-rock on 
 which our institutions, both civil and religious, 
 must ever rest. A rural civilization worth hav- 
 ing must fundamentally rest on a sound economic 
 basis. 
 
 The man who tills the soil must have his re- 
 ward, not a living merely, but a living that will 
 fit him and his for the duties of citizenship, a 
 living worth fighting for in the field of politics 
 in times of peace, and when his country calls 
 him to its defense, in times of war. For as a 
 Chinese philosopher said ages and ages ago: 
 "The well-being of the people is like a tree: agri- 
 culture is its root; manufactures and commerce 
 are its branches and its life. If the root is in- 
 jured the leaves fall, the branches fall away and 
 the tree dies." About all that the modern apos- 
 tles of country life have done or will ever do is 
 to expound and illustrate this saying of the an- 
 cient oriental sage. No civilization can long en- 
 dure in a country like ours, unless it is based on 
 an agriculture which is economically profitable. 
 
 An ideal rural civilization must furnish ample 
 scope for the ever-expa«ding intellect of the till- 
 
AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION I^T 
 
 ers of the soil. In the degenerate days when 
 the apocryphal books were written the son of 
 Sirach, who had great esteem for his wisdom and 
 the wisdom of his father and his grandfather, 
 recorded the opinion of the general public con- 
 cerning the farmer in these words: 
 
 "How can he get wisdom that holdetH the 
 plow, and that glorieth in the goad ; that driveth 
 oxen and is occupied with their labors ; and whose 
 talk is of oxen; who giveth his hand to make 
 furrows, and his diligence to give the kine fod- 
 der? . . . He shall not be sought for in 
 public council, nor sit high in the congregation. 
 He shall not sit in the judges' seat, nor under- 
 stand the sentence of judgment. He can not 
 declare justice and judgment, and shall not be 
 found where parables are spoken, but will main- 
 tain the state of the world." 
 
 Compare this with the saying of the prophet 
 Isaiah in the degenerate days of Ahaz, when after 
 describing the methods of the farmers of that 
 day he writes : 
 
 "For his God doth instruct him aright, and 
 doth teach him. . . . This also cometh forth 
 from Jehovah of hosts, who is wonderful in 
 council and excellent 'n wisdom." 
 
 With our men of wealth pouring out with 
 lavish hand their millions for the endowment of 
 the higher institutions of learning, with the 
 churches endowing the smaller colleges, with the 
 states spending in some cases two-fifths of their 
 taxes for the education which the common 
 
1 8 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 schools give, with the government endowing uni- 
 versities and agricultural colleges, and both state 
 and national governments expending millions an- 
 nually for agricultural education, for experimen- 
 tation and extension work ; there can be no rural 
 civilization worthy of the name or really worth 
 having, that does not quicken and stimulate the 
 intellect of the boys and girls reared in the open 
 country. 
 
 We are unspeakably foolish to expect a boy or 
 girl reared in the open country to remain there, 
 if we continue to send them, at the age when the 
 mind is most plastic, to a one-room school, wind- 
 swept and sun-baked, with a handful of pupils 
 of varying ages (hence a playless school), taught 
 by a town-bred miss, who teaches only while 
 awaiting an attractive proposal of marriage, or 
 (that failing), a position in a town school, whose 
 soul revolts at country manners and customs, and 
 who regards the life of the town or city as the 
 only satisfying life. 
 
 If we are ever to have an ideal rural civiliza- 
 tion, it must be soil-born. It must be an ex- 
 pressing of the best feelings, ambitions and de- 
 sires of the child of the fields, whose vision is 
 bounded only by the wide horizon by day and the 
 starry heavens by night, and not of the child of 
 the house, whose vision is that of the streets by 
 day and electric lights by night. The country- 
 man, whose plan for his day's work may have 
 to be entirely changed when he scans the sky 
 in the morning, and who must perforce be an 
 
AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 1 9 
 
 all-round man, doing many things well, but a 
 specialist in none, is a different sort of man al- 
 together from the city man, with whom the 
 weather is a mere incident and who is, speak- 
 ing generally, a mere pivot or crank, or perhaps 
 a wheel in a great machine, who does but one 
 thing and that automatically, almost without con- 
 scious thought. 
 
 If this child of the fields, living close to nature, 
 or rather, nature's God, does not have the fullest 
 opportunity to develop his intellectual powers; 
 if he is not so trained that he can see the work- 
 ing of law in the movement of water in the 
 soil, in the opening bud, in the growing grass, in 
 the sugaring-off of corn when the extreme heat 
 of the season is passing, in the gathering storm 
 and in the lightning flash, then there can be no 
 rural civilization worthy of the name. 
 
 If he is not taught to regard the earth on 
 which he treads, from which he gets his own liv- 
 ing and feeds all others, as holy ground, teeming 
 with life; in which the microbe is supernatural 
 to the germless clod, the plant supernatural to 
 the microbe, the animal supernatural to the plant, 
 and himself to the animal, as to him God is 
 supernatural, there can be no rural civilization in 
 a true sense. (Neither can there be in the end 
 any abiding civilization in the city. The cities 
 come to the country for horses, which they wear 
 out in a few years. In like manner they must . 
 ever draw on the same country for men and for 
 families, to be worn out in from one to three 
 
20 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 generations.) This teaching can be done effect- 
 ually only in the terms of farm life and in the 
 spirit of the farm. This and this alone will open 
 up to the inquiring mind of the country-born a 
 whole wonderland of knowledge ; and so in time 
 a rural civilization providing for both the ma- 
 terial and the intellectual well-being. 
 
 An ideal rural community must provide a sat- 
 isfactory social life for the coming generations. 
 We, in these days, even in the oldest sections, are 
 at best but pioneers ; and whether we will or not, 
 are laying the foundations for a civilization of 
 some sort, building a temple for the habitation of 
 the unborn. It is a matter of world-wide con- 
 cern and tremendous import, whether we build 
 with wood, hay, stubble, or with the most pre- 
 cious and enduring things of which the mind of 
 man can conceive. Long before the final Judg- 
 ment Day, the fire will test the permanency and 
 value of our work. 
 
 That civilization must provide for the social 
 wants of the coming generation; for the great- 
 est thing in this life after all is mankind, and 
 the best part of humanity is the boy and girl 
 filled with the joy of living, whose ideals are as 
 yet undimmed. Better, much better, than even 
 the wine of which Solomon spoke, "that goeth 
 down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are 
 asleep to speak," is the joy of social intercourse 
 to the young people. Society they must and will 
 have, and by the decree of God thrilling in every 
 nerve and fiber of their being ought to have. It 
 
AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 21 
 
 is for US to say whether that same social life 
 shall elevate their lives and keep them pure, or 
 debase them ; whether that age-long and divinely 
 decreed attraction of the man and the maiden 
 for each other shall result in a noble manhood 
 and pure womanhood, or whether it shall mar 
 and debase the image of God stamped on every 
 little child born into the world. 
 
 The future civilization of America depends 
 largely on whether we are to have a playless 
 country school, or schools large enough for games 
 for pupils of each sex ; whether the sports of the 
 countryside are to be country sports, real sports 
 without the pollution of the dollar mark, train- 
 ing the young people for cooperative and team 
 work, self-control and confidence in themselves ; 
 or whether they are forced to the towns and 
 cities for the recreation and amusement which 
 their natures demand. If we are ever to have 
 a civilization distinctly rural (we are far from 
 that now), the open country must provide its 
 own society, its own sports — sports that are born 
 of the soil and conducted as pure sport for 
 sport's sake, not professional, nor dollar-stained. 
 
 The same is true of society. Man is essentially 
 a social being, gregarious, as absolutely dependent 
 on his fellow man for the supplying of his in- 
 tellectual arid spiritual wants as for the supply 
 of his material wants. The countryman does 
 not fit into the social life of the city or even of 
 the country town. The townsman regards the 
 retired farmer, no matter how wealthy he may 
 
22 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 be, as desirable only to the extent of his wants 
 to be supplied from the store, but otherwise an 
 encumbrance, a brake on the wheels of progress. 
 
 Whether in the town or the country, if there 
 is to be society, there must be a social center; 
 and whether that social center is a saloon, a 
 dance-hall, a club or a church, determines the 
 character of the man and woman who attends. 
 A rural civilization must have a rural social 
 center; and whether that will be the centralized 
 school, a church, the Grange or a club, is some- 
 thing that time and local circumstances alone 
 must determine. But a social center there must 
 be, if a life worth living is to be found in the 
 open country. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that an ideal rural 
 civilization will provide for the expression of the 
 religious convictions, emotions and spiritual life 
 of the country people. A civilization without 
 religion falls short even of barbarism. The main 
 distinction between man and other animals is 
 that he is capable of a religious experience, while 
 they are not. "There is a spirit in man, and 
 the breath of the Almighty giveth them under- 
 standing." That is, man alone of all animals is 
 capable of fellowship with the Divine. 
 
 Of all men the farmer is naturally the most 
 religious. He is more than any other class in 
 close contact with the great forces of nature, 
 which express and reveal "His everlasting power 
 and divinity." He is awed by the majesty of the 
 summer storm, the pitiless power of the winter 
 
AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 23 
 
 blizzard; and soothed by the balmy breezes of 
 spring. The flower opens out its petals before 
 his eyes as it welcomes and encloses the dew- 
 drop. The ancestral traits revealed in the young 
 things as they come to the farm teach him of 
 the inheritance of evil as well as of good. The 
 wild life on his farm and that which flies over 
 it reveal to him those implanted instincts that 
 show God's method of caring for the sparrow. 
 His very occupation develops in him the ster- 
 ling qualities of industry, temperance, economy, 
 frugality, without which professed religion is a 
 vain thing. His success in his business is meas- 
 ured by his actual obedience to the laws of God 
 in nature in connection with his actual obe- 
 dience to the moral law. 
 
 Of all classes the farming class is undoubtedly 
 the most susceptible to religious impressions; 
 and yet from 50 to 60 per cent of the country 
 people on the prairies and in the uplands the 
 nation over have no church connection, and send 
 for the preacher only for the solemnization of 
 marriages and the burial of the dead. Never 
 was there a finer field for missionary effort. 
 Seldom has there been one so poorly occupied; 
 and why? 
 
 Partly because country churches are still ac- 
 tively competitive, and are building fences for 
 protection against each other with material never 
 quarried out of the rock of Zion. Partly be- 
 cause the eternal verities of our religion are ex- 
 pressed in terms of a theology that has outlived 
 
24 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 its usefulness. Partly because ministers fail to 
 follow the example of the Master, who taught 
 the fundamental truths of religion in terms of 
 the daily and for the most part country life 
 of His hearers. Partly because the religion thus 
 taught is applied to only a fraction of the farm- 
 er's life. The religion that will touch the 
 farmer's heart, and shape and mold must not 
 appeal to his emotions alone, although emotion 
 has its place; nor to reason alone, although that 
 has a large place. It must take in his whole 
 life — ^the plowing and sowing and cultivating 
 and reaping; his home life; the etWcs of his 
 business; his political life; the education of his 
 children, and their sports and plays as well. 
 
 The fatherhood of God revealed in the Man 
 who was declared to be the Son of God by His 
 resurrection from the dead; a life begun here, 
 continuing in the life to come by those who have 
 a living faith in the Risen One ; the brotherhood 
 of man expressed by brotherly deeds; the duty 
 of the farmer to help in every way possible his 
 struggling brother farmers — these are the great 
 fundamental truths that appeal to God's hired 
 man, or rather helper, through whom and by 
 whom he feeds and clothes the world. The 
 farmer will sit at the feet of the sincere man, 
 who knows the heart and life of the farmer, and 
 who interprets to him the will of God in terms 
 of farm life. For the support of a gospel of this 
 sort the farmer's pocketbook will always open 
 willingly. 
 
AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 2$ 
 
 This is my concept of the gospel of the new 
 and coming rural civilization. It is coming, 
 certainly coming, though perhaps yet a long ways 
 off, and yet perhaps nearer than we think. Un- 
 til it does come our civilization, such as we have 
 even in the city, is not on an enduring basis. 
 Until it comes we shall continue to send to the 
 city young men trained by their intense individ- 
 ualism and insufficient moral teaching to a purely 
 selfish competition, to develop in the fierce com- 
 petition and strife of the city the full fruits of 
 the gospel according to Beelzebub: "Every fel- 
 low for himself," the said Beelzebub controlling 
 not merely the hindmost but the foremost as 
 well. For the vices of the city, at least the more 
 respectable vices, are simply the fuller develop- 
 ment of the vices of the country. 
 
 The country church does not flourish, partly 
 because of failure to preach the gospel as above 
 outlined, and partly because forces operating at 
 least through the entire Anglo-Saxon race are 
 driving the farmer from the open country to the 
 city — forces which he did not create, but which 
 are sterilizing both the country church and the 
 country school by driving the farmer from his 
 farm. No such phenomenon as the drift of 
 farmers by the thousands to the town to rot 
 like "a fat weed on . . . Lethe wharf," or 
 the pouring of country schools into city schools, 
 or the drifting of tens of thousands of their sons 
 and daughters to the city (whence they can not 
 return because unfitted by city life for the life 
 
26 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 of the farm), would have been possible without 
 some great underlying causes, which it is not 
 in my province at this time to describe. 
 
 The consumer whether in the city or the 
 country complains of the ever-increasing cost 
 of living; the farmer of the ever-increasing cost 
 of production and distribution. The food supply 
 of this country can be doubled, but it can not 
 be even materially increased until there are more 
 skilled laborers on the farms. This skill can 
 be acquired only on the farm, and can be re- 
 tained on the farm only by making life in the 
 country satisfactory to those born on the farm. 
 This can not be done without a material, intel- 
 lectual, social and religious life in the open 
 country, that will meet the wants of the country 
 people young and old. A readjustment is in- 
 evitable, and there will be some severe jolts 
 while it is being made; but the only way it can 
 be made is by the development of a rural civiliza- 
 tion that will be satisfying to those who in the 
 future must feed and clothe the world. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE MEANS AT HAND FOR THE DE- 
 VELOPMENT OF AN IDEAL RURAL 
 CIVILIZATION 
 
 H, J. Waters 
 
 'The great rural interests are human interests, and 
 good crops are of little value to the farmer unless they 
 open the door to a good kind of life on the farm." 
 
 Keep on the farm a fair proportion of the 
 best people produced there, and develop them 
 to their highest state of efficiency by education 
 and organization, and an ideal civilization is at- 
 tained. Reduced to its simplest terms it is a 
 problem of an intelligent man provided with a 
 reasonable opportunity. 
 
 How so to organize the rural forces that the 
 husbandman may derive a reasonable profit 
 from his investment and labor at the same time 
 that he sells his products — ^the world's food — ■ 
 at a price which the consumer can afford to 
 pay, is our most fundamental problem. Thus, 
 the man in the city is as much concerned in the 
 character of our rural civilization as is the man 
 on the farm, for it is here that he must look for 
 his food, and it is here that the city must look 
 for much of its best blood. 
 27 
 
28 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Heretofore most of the best stock that the 
 country produced has been lost to the country. 
 One of the things for which the last quarter of 
 a century will be especially distinguished when 
 history is written, is the great tide of populatioii 
 which has flowed from the country to the city. 
 In the same period that our rural population 
 doubled, our city population increased tenfold. 
 Within the last decade most of our great agri- 
 cultural states have lost in numbers, people liv- 
 ing on the farm. The number of individual 
 farms has decreased, while the size of the aver- 
 age farm has increased. 
 
 David Starr Jordan,* President of Leland 
 Stanford University, has pointed out with great 
 clearness how nations decay through the sur- 
 vival of the unfit; that is, when the best speci- 
 mens of manhood, the most fit physically, men- 
 tally and morally, are killed in war, and the 
 weaker and least fit are left behind to become 
 the parents of the next generation. There is not 
 a stockman or farmer who would expect to 
 maintain even the present standards of his herds 
 and crops, much less to improve them, if he sold 
 off the best he produced and kept as parents or 
 seed the poorest. Exactly the same principle 
 applies to people. If we are to maintain our 
 present standard of manhood and womanhood in 
 the country, it will be necessary to retain as 
 parents of the succeeding generations a fair 
 
 * " The Blood of the Nation," Boston, 1906. 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 29 
 
 \ 
 
 pioportion of the best that the country produces. 
 
 It is hopeless to expect, and it is not neces- 
 sary, in order to maintain present standards, to 
 retain all of the best, but to lose most of the 
 best will inevitably produce an inferior race. 
 
 It is estimated that 85 per cent of those who 
 have achieved sufficient distinction to have their 
 name recorded in the current number of "Who's 
 Who in America," have been born and reared 
 on the farm or in the rural village. Of especial 
 significance in this connection is the fact that 
 these people did not find their opportunity in the 
 rural community. The city provided the oppor- 
 tunity, and has derived the direct benefit from 
 their achievements. 
 
 In order to retain a fair share of the best 
 stock in the country, it will be necessary to do 
 two things. First: to equalize the opportuni- 
 ties in the country and city. To make chances 
 for success — conspicuous success — as large in 
 one place as in the other. Second: we must 
 cease to employ our schools, churches and litera- 
 ture, and the conversation at the family fire side, 
 to accentuate this drift from the country to the 
 city. 
 
 The difference between city and country life 
 in respect to business opportunities, social ad- 
 vantages, etc., has been greatly exaggerated in 
 the public mind. The young people of the coun- 
 try have been taught in their homes, schools, and 
 through the literature placed in their hands. 
 
30 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 largely to overestimate the advantages of city 
 life, and they have not been taught correctly to 
 comprehend its disadvantages. Likewise, the 
 people of both the city and the country exagger- 
 ate the difficulties and drudgeries of country 
 life, and fail fully to appreciate its great and pe- 
 culiar advantages. This trend cityward, there- 
 fore, partly is due to the half education that has 
 prevailed in the rural districts, giving farm 
 boys and girls glimpses of more attractive city 
 life than really exists, without teaching them at 
 the same time the attractiveness of country life, 
 and how they may attain their ideals of living 
 in the country. 
 
 Equalizing the Business and Social Advan- 
 tages IN THE Country and Town 
 
 It goes without saying that we should seek to 
 accomplish this by increasing the opportunities 
 of the country, rather than by restricting those 
 of the city. This involves the whole range of 
 successful farming, of insuring to the farmer a 
 fair share of what the consumer pays for his 
 produce, the coining of this income into the right 
 sort of family life, and its utilization in building 
 and maintaining a high civilization. 
 
 Maintaining a High Man-Yield 
 
 During the last quarter of a century our total 
 food output was doubled, but the yield per acre 
 remained stationary. Our population is increas- 
 ing at the rate of over one million per year, whicK 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 3I 
 
 means that within the next two generations, we 
 again shall need to double our food production. 
 This second doubling cannot come as did the 
 first, by doubling the area under the plow. We 
 have reached in a large way the end of the ex- 
 pansion of our tillable area and henceforth we 
 must look to the acres now in cultivation to pro- 
 duce the food we consume. At first thought the 
 doubling of our acre-yields seems like an appal- 
 ling task, and it may be doubted if the farmer 
 of tomorrow will be able to meet this demand of 
 society. The outcome in this respect, however, 
 need not give us serious concern. It is no longer 
 an unsolved problem. Other nations have 
 doubled their acre-yields and when it is neces- 
 sary, we will double ours. It is true it took 
 Great Britain a full century to do it, but with 
 the experience of European countries as a guide, 
 it will be possible for the American farmer to 
 accomplish this feat in less than a single genera- 
 tion. 
 
 Intimately connected with this, however, is a 
 problem of far more fundamental significance 
 than the doubling of acre-yields, a problem which 
 the world has not yet solved, namely, the keep- 
 ing of the man-yield up while doubling the acre- 
 yield. The increased acre-yield in America must 
 not come at the expense of the man-yield. We 
 must not offer the manhood and womanhood of 
 the American farmer as a sacrifice upon the 
 altar of high acre-yields, as has been done in 
 European countries. To illustrate; the aver- 
 
32 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 age yield of wheat in America is less than 15 
 bushels per acre, in Germany about 31, and in 
 France about 30. The yield per farm family is, 
 
 In America $900 
 
 In Germany $S8o 
 
 In France $57° 
 
 The intelligence of the people on the farm 
 in any country finally is directly related to the 
 income derived from the business as compared 
 with the income from other occupations. People 
 will stay on the farm if the opportunities are as 
 good in agriculture as in other lines, the intelli- 
 gent and ambitious will leave the farm if they 
 are not. Reduce the income of the farm family 
 in America to that of Continental Europe, and a 
 peasant class in America will be the inevitable 
 result. That is to say, the American farm must 
 yield profit enough so that the people of su- 
 perior blood will be content to remain on the 
 land. If farming is allowed to become unprofit- 
 able as compared with the other occupations, it 
 will be given over to a less efficient race than 
 is now on the farm. Great Britain is already 
 feeling the effect of the operation of this law. 
 There are a million and one half fewer acres 
 under cultivation there now than there were ten 
 years ago. A Government Commission, after 
 carefully investigating the situation offers as a 
 cause the impossibility of land ownership on ac- 
 count of the high price of land and the relatively 
 low returns which have lad to slack methods of 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 33 
 
 farming and rendered the business wholly un- 
 profitable except on the best land. 
 
 The Hundred Per Cent Farmer 
 
 In the effort to equalize the country and city 
 opportunities, the farmer must do his part. He 
 must farm to the full capacity of his soil and 
 season. 
 
 Will a better education than he now has make 
 him more effective? Will the soil under the 
 management of a high school or college trained 
 farmer yield its harvest more abundantly and 
 more certainly? 
 
 Cornell University recently took the record 
 of 573 farmers in New York State, representing 
 all the farmers in a typical agricultural district, 
 and classified their earnings per adult laborer, 
 according to the education of the farmer, with 
 the following results: 
 
 Number Average Endowment 
 
 of labor 
 farmers income 
 Attended district school only 398 $318 
 Attended high school or 
 
 equivalent 168 622 $ 6,000 
 
 Attended college 10 847 10,500 
 
 Thus a high school trained farmer was nearly 
 twice as effective as a district school trained 
 farmer. A high school course was, according 
 to their results, more than the equivalent of a 
 $6,000 endowment. 
 
 When a non-technical high school course 
 
34 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 nearly doubled the efficiency of a farmer, as 
 compared with an eighth grade course, what may 
 be expected of a man trained in a properly 
 equipped agricultural high school? Or when a 
 part of a college course will make a farmer two 
 and three-fourths times as effective as a dis- 
 trict school trained man, what may we expect of 
 a graduate of an agricultural college? 
 
 What Vocational Education Has Done For 
 Denmark 
 
 Among the countries of Europe, Denmark has 
 been notably successful in meeting these prob- 
 lems with her technical schools, and we may de- 
 rive much profit by considering the results. This 
 little country, with an area of a little more than 
 15,000 square miles and with a population of 
 about two and a quarter million, makes school 
 attendance compulsory up to the age of fourteen 
 years. In these schools the children are taught 
 bookkeeping, business methods, and everything 
 possible pertaining to the industries and to farm 
 life, all in addition to the ordinary school sub- 
 jects. Above this, are the sixty agricultural 
 high schools and the courses in the agricultural 
 colleges. That little country supports twenty- 
 nine agricultural colleges with an attendance of 
 more than six thousand students. In America 
 we are satisfied if a state, substantially aided by 
 the nation, supports one agricultural college. 
 
 The United States with favorable soil and cli- 
 mate supports a population of twenty-eight peo- 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 35 
 
 pie to the square mile and is struggling to keep 
 its trade balance in food stuffs on the right side 
 of the ledger. 
 
 Denmark, with a poor soil and a harsh climate, 
 supports a population of 155 people to the square 
 mile, and exports nine dollars worth of food 
 stuif for every acre under cultivation. 
 
 The United States, so recently settled and yet 
 so undeveloped, has not more than thirty-five 
 per cent of her population on the farm, while 
 Denmark, old as she is, has approximately sixty- 
 five per cent of her people on the farm. In this 
 country, with Uncle Sam still giving away farms, 
 four out of every ten farmers are tenants, car- 
 rying with them all the baneful influences which 
 a tenant system exerts upon the country roads, 
 the country schools and the country church. In 
 Denmark nine out of every ten farmers own the 
 soil they till. 
 
 The Rural School 
 
 The boys and girls in the rural schools today 
 are to be the farmers and farmers' wives of to- 
 morrow. It is they who will have to double our 
 acre-yield if the world is not to go hungry, and 
 to do what has not been done, maintain a high 
 man-yidd. Nine-tenths of these children will 
 not enter a high school unless it is brought to 
 them. 
 
 The rural schools need to be consolidated and 
 a first class high school should be put within easy 
 riding distance of every boy and girl in America. 
 
36 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 In these schools the boys must be taught econom- 
 ics and government; how to judge stock; how 
 soil is wasted; how to market the products of 
 their labor. The girl should be trained to take 
 her place at the head of a home, which means 
 that she should have a knowledge of human nu- 
 trition, personal hygiene, home decoration, sew- 
 ing and cooking. 
 
 This is the first time in history that the remedy 
 for recurrent poverty and suffering among both 
 the producing and the consuming classes has 
 been sought in a more extended and a more prac- 
 tical education. We must be certain not to fur- 
 ther emphasize the difference between the city 
 and the country by giving the children of one 
 class superior advantages and neglecting the 
 others. 
 
 Types of Farming 
 
 We hear much about establishing intensive 
 systems of farming. Cases are brought forth by 
 way of illustrating the possibilities in this direc- 
 tion wherein returns of from $100 to $500 
 per acre are obtained from fruit, market vege- 
 tables or some other special crop. It should be 
 remembered, however, that less than 5 per cent of 
 our total rural area is devoted to crops that lend 
 themselves to such intensive methods. Double 
 the area in such crops and the demand of the 
 market would be over supplied and still we 
 would have ninety per cent of the agricultural 
 area to be grown in the staple crops, such as 
 corn, wheat, cotton, hay, etc. ; or devoted to live 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 37 
 
 stock and dairying. For this purpose relatively 
 large farms are demanded with the extensive use 
 of machinery and the minimum of hand labor. 
 ,This type of agriculture cannot support a dense 
 rural population and it will be many years before 
 we shall substitute for it what we now think of 
 as intensive agriculture. 
 
 Immediate progress, therefore, must be made 
 chiefly in improving the system of general farm- 
 ing, rather than in seeking to offer something in 
 its stead. 
 
 The Farmer's Show 
 
 In every sense equal in importance with high 
 yields is the matter of retaining on the farm 
 a fair proportion of the wealth produced there. 
 The farmer is more efficient as a producer than 
 he is as a seller. He has handled his acres to 
 better advantage than he has his crops. 
 
 He has not had, and is not now getting, a fair 
 share of what the consumer pays for his prod- 
 ucts. The road from the producer to the con- 
 sumer is a road of a hundred costs and profits. 
 The consumer complains of the high cost of, liv- 
 ing. The farmer is making slight profit on his 
 investment at present prices. The elimination of 
 all unnecessary middlemen, and of the great 
 waste in our present method of transacting busi- 
 ness, is the remedy. 
 
 The farmers of the United States by their 
 industry and sacrifice produced last year, nine bil- 
 lions of wealth, two-thirds of which found its way 
 into the channels of trade. According to the 
 
38 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 United States Department of Agriculture, it cost 
 approximately 55 per cent of what the consumer 
 paid for this material to take it from the farmer's 
 side track to the kitchen of the consumer. This 
 means that the farmer sold at his door, material 
 worth six billions, for which the consumer paid 
 at his door, thirteen billion dollars. It cost 
 more to get this material from the farm to the 
 consumer than the farmer received for producing 
 it. The largest single item in this enornaous 
 charge was the freight and express account which 
 amounted to approximately two and a quarter 
 billion dollars.* This is equivalent to nearly 
 $125 for every family in the United States, 
 or almost one-fifth of the total cost of living for 
 the average family. 
 
 We move our products about unnecessarily. 
 It is a common practice to ship fruit from Cali- 
 fornia, Oregon and Washington and let our 
 own go to waste, or so neglect our trees that they 
 fail to bear. We ship wheat out of the Dakotas, 
 and ship back flour from Minneapolis, shredded 
 wheat from New York, and crackers from St. 
 Louis. Kansas apples are marketed in Colorado 
 and Colorado apples are sold in Missouri and 
 Kansas. Iowa produces but a small proportion 
 of the wheat her people consume, yet fully 
 twenty-five per cent of what she produces is 
 marketed outside of the state in a raw condition, 
 and the flour or its equivalent is shipped back. 
 Rarely, indeed does a beefsteak reach our table 
 
 * Inter-State Commerce Commissioners Report, 1911. 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 39 
 
 with less than two and frequently with four 
 freight charges. Regularly we ship our feeding 
 cattle to Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, or St. 
 Louis, to be sold and shipped to one of these 
 live stock centers to be slaughtered. The fourth 
 shipment carries the meat to the point where it 
 is consumed, and not infrequently it is back over 
 the same road that the live animal came, either 
 as a feeder or a fat animal. Kansas, the fourth 
 largest live stock producing state in the Union, 
 ships practically all her stock out of the state 
 alive and all the meat her million and three-quar- 
 ters of people eat, is shipped back at a high rate 
 plus icing charges. 
 
 The responsibility for this situation does not 
 rest wholly upon the middleman and the railroad. 
 The farmer himself is a liberal buyer of things 
 that he might provide at home. Moreover, he 
 should not permit this great army of people to 
 stand between him and his customer, — the con- 
 sumer. 
 
 Cooperation Will Eliminate Waste 
 
 The farmer represents the only class of large 
 economic importance that is not compactly or- 
 ganized for its own protection and progress. 
 He buys and sells and transacts all his business 
 as an individual without any regard for the wel- 
 fare of his fellow farmer. He accepts without 
 successful protest the price fixed by others on 
 his wares. He pays the price fixed by others on 
 their wares. He does not fix the price either on 
 what he sells or on what he buys. 
 
40 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Economically the most important member of 
 society, the farmer has nothing to say about the 
 terms under which he will work. Cooperating 
 he might easily remedy this situation and become 
 an effective business man, and producer as well. 
 
 The American farmer thus far has refused to 
 cooperate with his neighbor. This is largely be- 
 cause he has been reasonably prosperous. People 
 who live under less favorable conditions and are 
 skilled in overcoming the adversities of nature, 
 are easy to organize and hold together. The 
 American farmer will have to learn how to act 
 collectively. It is earnestly to be hoped that 
 he will learn this lesson from a more kindly 
 teacher than adversity. 
 
 Utilizing the Earnings 
 Back of the earnings of the farm stands the 
 equally fundamental factor of the utilization of 
 the income in the building of a home life and in 
 supporting religious and educational activities. 
 Without high standards here we shall have no 
 high civilization. 
 
 Standard of Family Life on the Farm 
 Conditions under which women cannot satis- 
 factorily live, or under which children do not 
 want to live, will not long attract good men. 
 
 There are many men in the city today per- 
 forming menial labor, and living from hand to 
 mouth, who would gladly go back to the farm 
 where they know they would succeed far better 
 than they have in the city, and where they know 
 
DEVELOeiNG AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 4I 
 
 they would have an opportunity to live a better 
 life than the city affords, if they were assured 
 that their wives and children would be happy 
 there. 
 
 The woman's objection to the life on the farm 
 is in part due to the lack of conveniences which 
 the farm in many instances can now afford to 
 provide, and in part to the absence of social ad- 
 vantages which the country community can and 
 must provide. 
 
 The country girl must be taught to make her- 
 self as atttractive as the town girl, and must have 
 the same opportunity to marry well as though 
 she had been brought up in town. Also, the 
 country bred boy must not have the parlors of 
 the town homes closed to him because he is 
 from the country. His manners and customs 
 should be such as to make inter-marriage be- 
 tween the city and country easy and natural. In 
 a word, the social barriers now existing between 
 the city and country must not be permitted to 
 stand. If they are wholly artificial, they must 
 be eliminated by proper education. If they are 
 natural, the cause must be removed. 
 
 Country Leaders 
 
 The great need of the rural districts is leaders. 
 They constitute the first real step in progress. 
 They must be found among the rural people. 
 There has been a notable lack of leaders in the 
 country, not because men capable of leadership 
 have not been produced there, but because they 
 
42 THE RURAt CHURCH 
 
 have not found opportunity there. Great leaders 
 have not been developed among the farmers 
 mainly because the farmer has refused to be led. 
 The laborer in recent years has been easy to or- 
 ganize and to lead. The farmer always has been 
 prejudiced, suspicious and in no particular 
 degree interested in the cause of agriculture. 
 Politically he has not been ineffective. His 
 devotion to party in general has been greater 
 than his devotion to occupation. The gov- 
 ernment thus far has failed to develop an 
 agrarian program or policy because the farm- 
 ers have allowed themselves to be divided 
 between two dominant policies and have been 
 content to vote mainly on city questions. He 
 has not made his way into the legislative bodies 
 in sufficient numbers to become an effective 
 force. 
 
 A characteristic of the management of our 
 great railway systems and of all successful cor- 
 porations is that of recognizing merit within their 
 own ranks and rewarding it with their prizes. 
 By this means they have been able to attract and 
 hold the best talent of the country at scarcely 
 living wages, simply for the chance at the larger 
 opportunity ahead. The rural community has 
 not offered large opportunities and has not been 
 particular about bestowing those which were at 
 its disposal upon its own people. Labor in 
 recent years has learned this lesson well, and it 
 is by this means that it has become for the first 
 time in history effective in its struggle with the 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 43 
 
 employing class. The farmer must learn this 
 fundamental lesson before he can hope success- 
 fully to cope with the consumer against whom, 
 he must be pitted forever. 
 
 Where the Leaders Are to Be Trained 
 
 At the moment the agricultural colleges have 
 practically a monopoly in the training of men 
 for rural leadership. Until very recently, how- 
 ever, they gave no attention to the training of 
 leaders except in the line of production. To 
 teach men how to grow two blades of grass 
 where one grew before was regarded as their 
 whole duty. To prepare men for the responsibil- 
 ity of leadership in its entire range had not 
 occurred to them as any part of their opportu- 
 nity or duty. 
 
 Thus far the universities have practically 
 neglected this important field. Apparently until 
 this moment theological seminaries had not 
 thought of preparing men especially to take 
 charge of country parishes. The teachers' col- 
 leges and the normal schools of the country have 
 not yet come to realize that it is part of their 
 duty to fit men and women especially for the 
 great task of building up the rural schools. 
 
 We must not lose sight of the fact, however, 
 that the largest and most important task is to in- 
 spire the country people to help themselves, 
 rather than to be helped. The one strengthens, 
 the other destroys. They must be taught how 
 to render effective community service. They 
 
44 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 are the only real asset, and out of them 
 must be builded whatever rural civilization 
 we have. As stated elsewhere, this force 
 has not been utilized to the limit of its capac- 
 ity because the countryman has not shown 
 an interest in country institutions. He has 
 looked upon the farm simply as a place for mak- 
 ing a living. To him it is a factory and not a 
 home. He looks upon the town or the city as 
 the place in which to spend his money and his 
 leisure. Institutions must be established in the 
 country that will satisfy all the requirements of 
 the members of the family. There must be com- 
 munity tasks if we are to interest and hold the 
 best of the people in the country. Unterammer- 
 gau, without a community task is a decadent 
 rural village. Oberammergau, with the Passion 
 Play has held its best people and has commanded 
 the attention of the world. The annual render- 
 ing of the Messiah at Lindsborg, Kansas, has 
 become a community task large enough to hold 
 the best stock of that community for more than 
 a third of a century. 
 
 The Country Must Have the Benefit of Its 
 Leisure Class 
 
 The country should have the benefit of its own 
 leisure class. The men who have accumulated 
 sufficient wealth to live without work, should re- 
 main in the country and devote the balance of 
 their lives to the improvement of the rural condi- 
 tioMs, instead of leaving the country and contrib- 
 
DEVELOPING AN IDEAL RURAL CIVILIZATION 45 
 
 yting to the welfare of the town. Since they are 
 no longer obliged to put forth a daily struggle 
 for sustenance, they are in a position to fight the 
 battles of the rural class. They could become 
 heads of local corporations for the transaction of 
 the community business, or local cooperative 
 enterprises, provided, of course, that the rural 
 people were willing to recognize them as leaders 
 and entrust them with positions of responsibility. 
 
 Development of Rural Idealism 
 
 Before we shall even approximate an ideal 
 rural civilization, it will be necessary to develop 
 higher ideals in the country. A class never rises 
 above its ideals. Give to any people a vision of 
 something better than they have known, and they 
 will strive to attain it. Give an occupation a 
 good name, and it is at once a better occupation. 
 "For where your treasure is, there will your heart 
 be also." There must be heroes in the country 
 as well as in the city; for where a boy's heroes 
 are, there will be his interests also. In order to 
 idealize rural life, it should be pictured with all 
 the attractiveness that it should possess. 
 
 The farmer needs to appreciate his own im- 
 portance to society and to civilization. He needs 
 to realize that he holds in his hand the destinies 
 of nations. He must feel that whether our civil- 
 ization shall advance or decline, shall be deter- 
 mined by his skill and intelligence. Of course, at 
 the same time, he must realize that this is a large 
 responsibility resting upon him and that he 
 
46 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 should have power commensurate with his 
 responsibility. 
 
 If the American farmer is to prove an excep- 
 tion to the history of the world and remain the 
 independent, thinking, progressive individual that 
 he has been thus far, instead of becoming a peas- 
 ant, as has been the case in all history, he must be 
 trained for his task and be given a fair chance 
 to succeed. 
 
IV 
 
 THE RURAL AWAKENING 
 
 J. O. ASHENHURST 
 
 The rural awakening of our day is marked 
 by the general recognition of the fundamental 
 nature of agriculture in civilized society and the 
 value of farming as an honorable occupation; 
 the appreciation of the economic, social, educa- 
 tional, and religious problems of the farming 
 community ; and the cooperative effort of all the 
 forces operating in rural life for the general 
 good. 
 
 Persons not familiar with this awakening 
 might suppose that the country life movement is 
 a strictly American product and the creation of 
 the Roosevelt administration. But it is evident 
 that a movement so broad as this must be the 
 result of causes which are rooted in the con- 
 stitution of human society, and that the forces 
 which have led to this awakening must have 
 been working in the world for many years. 
 Country life ideals are inseparable from the 
 policy of conservation which, in recent years, has 
 aroused the enthusiasm of the populace and has 
 called for the action of legislative bodies. And 
 the work of the farmer is fundamental : he stands 
 47 
 
48 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 between the world and starvation. There is 
 nothing so essential as the conservation of the 
 soil. The policy of conservation cannot operate 
 eflFectively if it does not include the interests of 
 agriculture. And, while the rural problem as 
 we are beginning to know it in the United 
 States and Canada has not developed the same 
 acute stages in other lands, there is a world- 
 wide awakening of rural interests. It is re- 
 markable that the idea of conservation has de- 
 veloped so rapidly and has extended so widely. 
 It at first attracted world-wide attention in a 
 conference of governors and other statesmen. 
 The national conservation congresses have 
 served to strengthen the public interest in the 
 cause and the civilized nations recognize the 
 call for an International Conference of Conserva- 
 tion. World-wide interest in conservation makes 
 a world-wide awakening in rural life a neces- 
 sary result. 
 
 Various influences from Great Britain and the 
 Continent have contributed to our rural awaken- 
 ing in America. It is more than probable that 
 the appointment of the Commission on country 
 life, was a direct and legitimate effect of the 
 matchless work of Sir Horace Plunkett and the 
 Irish Cooperative Societies. Some of the Con- 
 tinental countries have dealt with rural life in a 
 broad and masterly manner, thus contributing 
 to the welfare of the farmer in every land. Our 
 rural population and rural institutions have re- 
 ceived strength from immigration from these 
 
THE RURAL AWAKENING 49 
 
 favored lands. These immigrants have brought 
 with them the social impulses, love of agricul- 
 ture, skill in farming, and wise forms of co- 
 operation and the spirit of cooperation which 
 mark the rural life of Germany, Holland, Den- 
 mark and other countries. There is a fixed rural 
 life policy in these countries. In Denmark, for 
 instance, an excellent system of education has 
 been in use for many years. In the common 
 schools as well as in the high schools, the edu- 
 cation is related to the farmer in very practical 
 ways and, as a result, the farmers as a class 
 have grown into a natural aptitude for those 
 metho«ds of rural life and cooperation which ap- 
 pear to us so startling in their newness. 
 
 The rural awakening in America originated in 
 New England. Years before the general pub- 
 lic began to regard the serious and practical 
 problems of the country districts there were 
 earnest men in New England who were discuss- 
 ing the conditions and needs of country life. 
 Leading men among these investigators were 
 liberal in theology and brought to the subject 
 minds trained to the strict scientific method and 
 were prepared to accept whatever facts might 
 be revealed by investigation of the conditions 
 of rural life and the country churches in New 
 England. As early as 1884, Samuel Dike wrote 
 on "The Religious Problem of the Country Town" 
 in careful and sympathetic study. A somewhat 
 more vigorous treatment of the subject was given 
 by President Hyde in his famous article in the 
 
50 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Forum on "Impending Paganism in New Eng- 
 land." Rollin Lynde Hartt wrote an article on, 
 "A New England Hill Town." It was written 
 in a vein of humor and the sarcasm attracted 
 attention and brought down on his head a storm 
 of criticism. And so the merry game went on. 
 The Governor of Vermont took a hand and is- 
 sued a startling Fast Day proclamation in which 
 he described a deplorable state of things in the 
 country districts of New England. 
 
 These men were not mere prophets of 
 evil proclaiming the wrongs they found by their 
 investigations. They had remedies to propose. 
 One of these was the restoration of these de- 
 cadent towns by a system of country social set- 
 tlements. Interesting experiments were made 
 but the plan was artificial and never proved of 
 any value in the solution of the problem. All 
 these investigators, however, recognized the 
 problem to be economic as well as religious. 
 
 Our present country life movement has had its 
 forerunners and prophets. There have always 
 been public-spirited men and churches and pas- 
 tors who made real the vision of the Church min- 
 istering to the community. The spirit of social 
 service has been found in many notable examples. 
 We delight to find all our ideals of the country 
 church movement which men think new worked 
 out in all their details a hundred years ago in 
 Steinthal of Alsace, by John Frederick Oberlin, 
 of Ban-de-la-Roche, who was known even among 
 the Catholics of Steinthal as "the saint of the 
 
THE RURAL AWAKENING 5 1 
 
 Protestant Church." During the sixty years of 
 his pastorate he raised his poverty-stricken flock 
 to a position of industrial prosperity and changed 
 the barren Steinthal into a patriarchal paradise. 
 
 In the early days of our American common- 
 wealths, before the definite beginnings of this 
 awakening in New England, many country 
 pastors and country churches were powerful in- 
 struments in the development of our modern 
 civilization. The pastor on the frontier was an 
 empire-builder. To a large extent, he created 
 and sustained the religious, educational, and so- 
 cial fabric of the new forming communities. He 
 was an important factor in the development of 
 the new country. He supported the struggling 
 settlers in their life of hardship, and danger. 
 He guided them by his wise counsels and inspired 
 them by his lofty visions. There was Manasah 
 Cutler, whose faith and diligent labors secured 
 the liberal provisions of the "Ordinance of 1787" 
 and the grant of land to thq Ohio company. 
 There was James B. Finley, known as "Father 
 Finley," and Philander Chase, who did a work 
 for the Church in Ohio and the West that "no 
 other man then living would have attempted." 
 Such men who served as pastors, missionaries, 
 and teachers among the hardy pioneers, were also 
 forerunners of the rural awakening that is now 
 upon us: they gave to our national life an up- 
 ward impulse which will be felt through all 
 coming time. 
 
 The changes in country life were first felt in 
 
52 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 New England. As the fertile prairies of the 
 West were opened to settlement the farmers 
 were attracted to them from the thin soil of 
 the hill towns in New England ; the factory came 
 to take the place of the farm; foreigners sup- 
 planted the original stock; and forsaken 
 churches, abandoned farms and deserted houses 
 became common sights among the hills and moun- 
 tains. There was a pathetic reality in the lines 
 published some years ago in The New England 
 Magazine, "To a Deserted House in New Eng- 
 land": 
 
 "From thy broad hearth in former days 
 The Star of Empire took its way, 
 And in the western sky now glows 
 Resplendent with the worth of those 
 Whose mind and heart were taught of thee." 
 
 In 1908, President Roosevelt appointed the 
 Country Life Commission. Surely that was 
 something new under the sun! We all thought 
 it was rather funny and wondered what he 
 would do next. But quite rapidly the people be- 
 gan to recognize the importance of the step and 
 the movement was given the right of way. The 
 able names that appeared as constituting the 
 Commission made it quite impossible to treat the 
 matter lightly. 
 
 There was no( appropriation made by Congress 
 for this commission and these men who gave 
 their services thus loyally took up the work 
 vigorously and in a remarkably short time had 
 collected a large mass of information on the 
 
THE RURAL AWAKENING 53 
 
 conditione of country life and made a report to 
 the President. The commission issued ques- 
 tions designed to bring out a statement of condi- 
 tions in all parts of the United States ; conducted 
 personal correspondence investigating different 
 lines; held hearings in thirty cities in different 
 parts of the land to which all who were inter- 
 ested in the farm life were invited to express 
 their views on matters concerning country life. 
 
 One hundred and twenty-five thousand re- 
 plies were received to the questions sent out by 
 the commission and reports were kept of the 
 hearings. Besides this they . secured a large 
 amount of material such as essays, papers and 
 comments which are included in the results of 
 their services. This valuable material has never 
 been tabulated so as to be available for use of 
 persons interested in the various subjects. The 
 abridged report of the commission to the Presi- 
 dent was published as a senate document, a 
 limited number of copies being printed solely 
 for the use of senators. 
 
 There was a great demand made upon con- 
 gressmen for copies of the report, and the 
 Country Life Convention held in Spokane, Wash- 
 ington, in November, 1909, requested the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce of that city to secure the ap- 
 proval of President Taf t to the publication of the 
 report. This was done and the Chamber of 
 Commerce of Spokane, Washington, has the 
 honor of doing a vast service for the advance- 
 ment of country life which congress failed to do. 
 
54 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 The Country Life Commission called for a 
 campaign of rural progress. The report says: 
 
 "We urge the holding of local, state and even 
 national conferences on rural progress, de- 
 signed to unite the interests of education, or- 
 ganization, and religion into one forward move- 
 ment for the rebuilding of country life." 
 
 It is impossible to tabulate the results of this 
 call. The people have followred the suggestion 
 with great enthusiasm. The Governor of Wash- 
 ington soon appointed a State Country Life Com- 
 mission which became active at once and other 
 states adopted means for carrying on the work. 
 Agricultural colleges led in the movement for 
 popularizing country life conferences. The 
 National Corn Exposition held at Columbus, 
 Ohio, in the winter of 1910 developed into a 
 great and enthusiastic country life conference. 
 The Dry Farming Congress in the so-called arid 
 states of the far West has been captured by the 
 movement. The Church has been rapidly fall- 
 ing into line and is cooperating with other forces 
 and institutions for rural progress. 
 
 The Board of Home Missions of the Presby- 
 terian Church led the way among the churches, 
 being the first to establish a department to deal 
 with the country churches and conditions in the 
 country. This department has made the first 
 rural surveys of a comprehensive character that 
 have ever been made. Its surveys of counties 
 in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, 
 Kentucky, and Maryland are the present models 
 
THE RURAL AWAKENING 55 
 
 for this kind of work. The churches of Ohio 
 are now making a rural survey of the entire 
 state under the direction of this department. 
 
 This survey work is in accordance with the 
 suggestion of the Country Life Commission that 
 "the time is now come that we should know in 
 detail what our agricultural resources are." 
 Agricultural colleges, experiment stations, state 
 and federal departments of agriculture, are pur- 
 suing surveys comprehending every material re- 
 source of the nation and these departments are 
 desirous of the cooperation of churches, in order 
 that there may be a complete view of the condi- 
 tions existing in the rural communities of the 
 state — economic, material, social, educational, 
 moral and spiritual. 
 
 It is just to note that the agricultural colleges 
 have carried on a long and patient service in the 
 interests of better farming; and that while this 
 effort began in the desire to make two blades 
 of grass grow where one grew before, it has 
 gradually developed into a broad outlook on the 
 symmetrical development of human character. 
 These institutions have prepared the way for the 
 recent awakening. The progress of our state 
 agricultural institutions is in some measure an 
 index to the progress of the rural life movement. 
 In 1882 there were only five states in- which there 
 were experiment stations organized and the 
 farmers did not appreciate services rendered by 
 the schools and experiment stations. Farmers' 
 institutes were scarcely known thirty years ago. 
 
56 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Within the last fifteen years there has been a 
 great change and today the farmers are more 
 and more looking to these scientific institutions 
 for assistance. 
 
 Along all lines the movement is gaining in 
 momentum. Within the past three years col- 
 leges and universities have introduced courses in 
 rural sociology. Under the direction of certain 
 agricultural colleges, summer schools have been 
 held for country ministers. The movement for 
 teaching agriculture in the common schools is 
 advancing rapidly. States have enacted legisla- 
 tion providing for it. The County Work de- 
 partment of the Y. M. C. A. is meeting with 
 wide acceptance and is cooperating with the 
 Church, the schools, agricultural clubs and the 
 Grange. Teachers' associations, farmers' insti- 
 tutes and the great agricultural papers have all 
 imbibed the spirit of rural progress and are co- 
 operating in the advance of the ideals by which 
 country life is to be rebuilt. 
 
 The report of the Country Life Commission 
 says : 
 
 "The time has arrived when the Church must 
 take a larger leadership, both as an institution 
 and through its pastors, in the social reorganiza- 
 tion of rural life." 
 
 This expresses the conviction that is deeply 
 felt by all the great leaders — ^by those whose 
 service follows chiefly the economic progress of 
 the country as well as by those who are more 
 intimately associated with the moral and social 
 
THE RURAL AWAKENING 57j 
 
 advancement of the people. And this view lays 
 upon the Church a great responsibility. If the 
 Church should fail to awaken in this universal 
 awakening of rural forces and interests, all would 
 be lost, for the moral and spiritual values of 
 human life are the eternal values. But the 
 Church will not fail. The Church has already 
 caught the vision and is preparing to take the 
 place of leadership accorded to her by the forces 
 which are cooperating in the reorganization of 
 country life and the application of the gospel 
 to modern rural communities. 
 
 Within the past three years nearly all of the 
 following organizations have come into existence 
 for the purpose of expressing the interest of the 
 various denominations in the problems of the 
 country church and country life and for the 
 fullest cooperation with -other efforts to come to 
 an understanding of the needs of the churches 
 and to adopt methods , that will enable the 
 churches to do their full part in the re-direction 
 of the life of the country. The organizations 
 referred to are: The Department of Church and 
 Country Life of the Home Mission Board of 
 the Presbyterian Church; The Committee on 
 Rural Churches of the United Presbyter- 
 ian Church; the Committee on Rural Churches 
 of the Baptist State Conference, New York; 
 The Commission on Rural Life of the Okla- 
 homa Methodist Conference; The Commission 
 on the Study of the Rural Church Problem of 
 the Pacific Coast ; The Country Church Commis- 
 
58 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 sion of the Cleveland District of the Ohio 
 Methodist Conferences, and there are others 
 forming. 
 
 The literature of the country life movement 
 is increasing very rapidly. The agricultural 
 papers are alive with the theme, books and pam- 
 phlets and reports of conferences are multiply- 
 ing and magazine prize-articles on country life 
 progress. Four years ago a speaker at Winona 
 I Lake Bible Conference said in regard to the 
 country church: "A few years ago little litera- 
 ture could be found on this subject although a 
 vigorous search was made in the largest librar- 
 ies in Chicago and Milwaukee. Today the Car- 
 negie Institute has a man under her direction 
 making a thorough study of the subject." But 
 the increase of literature on the general country 
 life subject and on the country church in partic- 
 ular since this declaration was made has been 
 remarkable. Even now those who began the 
 study of the country church a few years ago 
 find themselves falling behind in the effort to 
 keep pace with the growing literature on the 
 subject. 
 
 With literature and knowledge increasing so 
 rapidly, with new recruits and splendid leaders 
 coming constantly to the front in the solid ad- 
 vance that is being made, with the perfect accord 
 of the leaders who seem to see eye to eye on 
 this problem to a remarkable degree, with the 
 tide already turning from the town to the 
 country, with the schools introducing nature 
 
THE RURAL AWAKENING 59 
 
 studies and scientific agriculture, with agricul- 
 tural colleges teaching the preachers and theologs, 
 with the country preachers beginning to take 
 pride in being country pastors, with country 
 churches everywhere catching the vision of com- 
 munity service — surely the dawn of a new day 
 for the country and the country church is upon 
 us. 
 
COORDINATION OF ALL RURAL IN^ 
 STITUTIONS 
 
 Albert E. Roberts 
 
 Much has been written and said about co- 
 operation, coordination and federation of rural 
 forces and if one-half of the schemes that have 
 been suggested as solutions of the problem of 
 church unity had in them real constructive merit 
 most of the ills of country life would have been 
 dispelled and the country church would have 
 come to its own. The fact is that most of the 
 plans for cooperation and federation have come 
 from the top rather than from the bottom up. 
 The Church has been among the last to recognize 
 that the permanent forces for the reconstruction 
 of a community are the resident forces and that 
 paternalism from the city or large town be it 
 ever so good will never be accepted by the coun- 
 try community permanently. Programs and 
 propaganda arbitrarily arranged by artificial self- 
 constituted boards of city dwellers will not be 
 accepted by the country folk in any large num- 
 ber for the farmer is not yet ready to allow 
 himself to be dominated by the city mind. There 
 must be an arousing of the community oonscious- 
 60 
 
COORDINATION OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 6l 
 
 ness and community conscience until a local in- 
 itiative is awakened and the country people have 
 a community point of view. The farmers and 
 their families must set themselves vigorously to 
 the task of making their own program for the 
 reconstruction of their community life, or as 
 some one has said the "building up a new and 
 adequate rural civilization." Much harm has 
 been done and progress has been retarded by city 
 people assuming a patronizing attitude toward 
 the country people and many efforts to bring 
 together the religious forces of a community 
 have not only failed, but have actually left the 
 community in a worse state of religious and 
 social unrest and disintegration than it was be- 
 fore any effort was made at federation, simply 
 because the promoters have approached the prob- 
 lem on an artificial rather than a natural basis. 
 For instance, a scientific survey of a rural com- 
 munity may reveal the fact that five churches 
 are being meagrely supported where one or two 
 would do the work more efficiently. The econ- 
 omist or rural expert could show by a cold an- 
 alysis of the situation that three churches ought 
 to go out of existence and without doubt he 
 could show on the basis of actual results of a 
 period of years just which three should close 
 their doors, but to get the members of these 
 three churches to see it from the point of view 
 of the economist the social expert, or the pro- 
 fessional church uniter is quite another matter. 
 All of this goes to show that underneath the 
 
62 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 method the system and the machinery of feder- 
 ation and cooperation there must be the spirit of 
 cooperation. In other words the agency or the 
 person that can set up a platform in a community 
 upon which all of the institutions of that com- 
 munity can unite in some things if not in all and 
 can so lead as to develop such a spirit of co- 
 operation that men and women of diflfering 
 faiths will say "Let us get together in our church 
 work as we have been together in our play fes- 
 tival, our community carnival, our farmers im- 
 provement association, etc.," has laid the foun- 
 dations for true cooperation and permanent fed- 
 eration of social and religious forces. 
 
 The whole matter reverts to the question of 
 leadership and leadership involves not only spe- 
 cial preparation, ability, tact, and great wisdom, 
 but a willingness to pay the price. 
 
 The three fundamental institutions through 
 which rural redirection must be brought about 
 are the home, the church and the school. Others 
 may be supplementary but they must never 
 supplant, they may be cooperative, but they must 
 never be competitive. The primary question, 
 therefore, in the consideration of federation and 
 coordination is the proper function of these 
 fundamental agencies, their relationship to each 
 other and to the secondary organizations. 
 
 The home is perhaps the seat of greatest in- 
 fluence and the attitude of the country home, 
 determines the efficiency of the church and the 
 school. The church is or should be the inspir- 
 
COORDINATION OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 63 
 
 ator of thought and ideals and the school re- 
 flects the real conditions in the home and the 
 church. Each has its distinct place in the com- 
 munity and each to perform its proper func- 
 tion is dependent upon the other. In so far 
 as other institutions can aid in the proper func- 
 tioning in these primary agencies they should 
 be encouraged. When they overlap and tend 
 to disintegrate rather than solidify the com- 
 munity they should not be tolerated, for with- 
 out doubt class segregation, denominational 
 rivalry and sectional feeling are aniong the great- 
 est hindrances to an adequate and satisfying 
 rural life. 
 
 The problem then is first of all to discover, 
 enlist and train local leaders for the home, the 
 church and the school. Second, to stand for 
 the training in our colleges, normal schools, and 
 theological schools of men and women who are 
 rural-minded, who will give their lives to the 
 country, who will become resident leaders of 
 leaders and teachers of teachers. Home-makers 
 who will stand for a real partnership of husband 
 and wife, who will give the boy and the girl in 
 the home a real share of profit and pleasure of 
 the farm as well as a definite share of responsi- 
 bility for it, who will see to it that the farm 
 home, as well as the farm and the barn, is 
 equipped with modern machinery and that cul- 
 tural as well as vocational literature is avail- 
 able. Such homes would do much to stem the 
 tide of young people city-ward and would pro- 
 
64 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 duce leaders of thought capable of promoting 
 cooperation and federation. 
 
 For the leadership of the Church we need pas- 
 tors who are specially trained for the country 
 ministry. Men who will not think of the coun- 
 try church as a stepping stone to the city church 
 but who will recognize in the country church a 
 life work worthy of the best minds and greatest 
 hearts. Such a man will become a most positive 
 factor in the coordination and federation of all 
 country institutions, for such a man will have 
 the confidence and love of his people and will 
 if he stays long enough in the community to be- 
 come one of them, be a leader of thought and 
 a molder of public opinion. 
 
 And for leadership in the country school we 
 need the school teacher who will not only im- 
 part knowledge but who will work in closest co- 
 operation with the pastor, the home-builder and 
 the home-maker as a social engineer for the en- 
 tire community. 
 
 Such a combination of leadership would fonri 
 the basis of a permanent and constructive fed- 
 eration of community interests, and it is diffi- 
 cult to see how a real federation could be formed 
 on any other basis. 
 
 In most country communities this happy com- 
 bination does not exist yet, but in many there 
 is at least one such a potential leader — some one 
 who not only has a vision of the possibility of a 
 church united in spirit and coordinated with the 
 home, the school and supplementary agencies, 
 
COORDINATION OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 65 
 
 but who has a willing spirit and a brave heart. 
 The key to ultimate community solidarity is in 
 the hands of that potential leader and any or- 
 ganization seeking to promote the spirit of unity 
 in the rural church as well as the rule of the 
 Kingdom of God in other rural institutions will 
 do well to focus its time, strength and energy 
 upon the development, encouragement and train- 
 ing of such a leader. 
 
 And a leader who has been inspired by the 
 possibility of social and religious cooperation 
 will be the first to recognize and teach the fact 
 that social and religious federation cannot ex- 
 ist permanently without economic federation — 
 the one is the complement to the other. There 
 must be a religious. motive in any leadership that 
 looks to permanent and constructive economic 
 cooperation and the church must inspire in- 
 dividuals with such a motive. Economic pro- 
 cesses of advancement along cooperative lines 
 will surely react upon the church, but the in- 
 spiration for initiative and leadership should 
 come from the church. 
 
 That the arousing of a community conscious- 
 ness and the development of spirit of federation 
 and cooperation is being followed by a definite 
 uniting of moral and economic forces in many 
 communities is demonstrated by some very en- 
 couraging beginnings. 
 
 A New England town had maintained a church 
 quarrel for many years, it had suffered from a 
 bitter rivalry between two churches of the same 
 
66 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 denomination as well as an unusual spirit of 
 distrust between churches of different denomina- 
 tions. Various attempts were made to promote 
 cooperative activities with but little success, for 
 the church factions had created lines of social 
 cleavage until practically every family was ar- 
 rayed on one side or the other and neither side 
 would compromise. Several meetings called to 
 consider plans for federation ended in dismal 
 failures. One day six young men who had de- 
 cided in a Young Men's Christian Association 
 meeting to live Christian lives and to join the 
 church on the basis of giving their best serv- 
 ices and efforts made a proposition to a young 
 lawyer that he become their leader and that the 
 group work for the consolidation of two of the 
 churches. They proposed to the church leaders 
 they would join as a group if these churches 
 would unite. They promised moreover to enter 
 heartily into the activities of the church and 
 work hard for its development. Male acces- 
 sions to the church had been so rare and the 
 plan proposed was such a novel one that after 
 a memorable meeting the contending factions 
 came together and the church in that community 
 became an aggressive force for righteousness. 
 This event reacted upon every phase of com- 
 munity life. The spirit of cooperation inspired 
 by the leader of a few boys became contagious 
 and dominated the community making possible 
 permanent federation. 
 
 Six years ago in a small town two churches 
 
COORDINATION OF RURAt INSTITUTIONS d^ 
 
 were barely existing. Outward signs of decay 
 were evident in the ill-kept and out-of-repair 
 buildings, there were practically no men who 
 could be counted on for leaders, and few boys 
 of the "teen" age in the Sunday-school. Re- 
 peated efiforts to get these churches together had 
 failed, though every one admitted that one could 
 do the work better than the two. A careful 
 canvass of the town revealed the fact that one 
 man was hopeful of the future, every one else 
 believed the situation hopeless. This one man 
 became a leader of a group of boys. He was 
 trained and developed and encouraged by fre- 
 quent visits of a community social engineer. 
 He was an ardent church man but his approach 
 to the problem was from the view-point of the 
 community ; and it was only a short time before 
 he had demonstrated the possibility of uniting 
 in Christian and social activities including Bible 
 study practically all of the boys of the town. 
 Other leaders were discovered and the raen and 
 the boys worked together for community soli- 
 darity. There is but one church in that town to- 
 day, but it stands as a credit to the community. 
 It has been thoroughly renovated. A new parish 
 house has been added to its equipment. The 
 parsonage has been remodelled. A pastor who 
 believes that a country church is worthy of the 
 services of as good a man as the city can se- 
 cure and who is more anxious for the extension 
 of the Kingdom in the community than for the 
 building up of his denomination is the leader. 
 
68 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 An adult Bible class and three vigorous boys' 
 classes are among the assets of the new com- 
 munity. 
 
 Wherever the spirit of cooperation has been 
 developed the church heads can effect definite 
 coordination sometimes leading to federation. 
 For instance, in a middle western field a Baptist 
 man who had long cherished the thought of get- 
 ting two weak churches together found another 
 man — a member of the rival Methodist Church 
 — who shared his views. These menl worked and 
 prayed together only to find that denominational 
 loyalty in that community was stronger than 
 church unity. The district supervisors of both 
 churches were consulted and suggested that in 
 the interest ofi economy the better of the 
 two buildings be used exclusively and the other 
 closed temporarily. It was also suggested that 
 a compromise might be effected whereby the 
 people could have Baptist for three months and 
 Methodist for the succeeding three, alternating 
 on this basis for one year. The experiment was 
 tried and the mere fact that the people came to- 
 gether in one house of worship, did much to 
 break down prejudice and misunderstanding and 
 at the end of the first year it was unanimously 
 voted to extend the term of service of the pas- 
 tors to one year, so that now there is practically 
 a united church in that town and the people 
 realize that the supposed differences are more 
 imaginary than real. This happy state of affairs 
 can be traced directly to the one personality 
 
COORDINATION OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 69 
 
 which created and diffused the cooperative spirit. 
 
 In many an over-churched town where the 
 sentiment has not progressed far enough for 
 the people to feel that they belong to one church, 
 they are using one house of worship for preach- 
 ing service, another for the Sunday-school and 
 social center and thus individualism is giving 
 way to a social spirit and denominationalism to 
 a larger appreciation of the Kingdom. 
 
 Summer schools for the training of rural com- 
 munity leaders are conducted in many states and 
 institutes for country pastors, school teachers, 
 county Young Men's Christian Association sec- 
 retaries are sending into thousands of rural com- 
 munities men and women inspired with the 
 vision of their community united. 
 
 Agricultural colleges are reckoning with the 
 fact that the best farmers in the world are re- 
 ligious farmers and are encouraging the churches 
 to promote farmers' clubs and institutes, furnish- 
 ing lecturers and teachers for such occasions. 
 Many of them are offering short courses for 
 rural pastors and church workers. 
 
 All-day meetings for the discussion of the 
 function of the country church and its relation 
 to other rural institutions have been conducted 
 under the auspices of the County Work de- 
 partment of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion. These gatherings have been attended by 
 representatives of eighteen leading theological 
 schools, the United States Department of Agri- 
 culture, the National Bureau of Education, the 
 
70 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 agricultural colleges of the east, the leaders of 
 the great denominational bodies, the Young 
 Men's and the Young Women's Christian As- 
 sociations, the Federal Council of the Churches 
 of Christ in America and other organizations. 
 
 The consensus of opinion of the more than 
 one hundred leaders that have attended these 
 meetings is that there must be special trained 
 rural pastors if the country church is to assume 
 its rightful place of leadership in the community, 
 and to meet this need many theological schools 
 are now offering special courses for the train- 
 ing of pastors who are willing to give their lives 
 to the country and who will not think of the 
 country church simply as a preparatory school 
 for the city churches^ 
 
 These conferences have also recognized and 
 emphasized the importance of working with the 
 resident forces of the community rather than 
 for them, in arousing the spirit of federation and 
 cooperation instead of insisting that the ma- 
 chinery and system of cooperation be adopted. 
 
 In June 191 1 at White River Junction, Vt., a 
 state-wide get-together dinner was held under 
 the auspices of the Windsor County Committee 
 of the Y. M. C. A. 500 of the leading men of 
 the State came together. The speakers included 
 Ex-President Roosevelt and President Butter- 
 field of the State Agricultural College of Massa- 
 chusetts. The effect of the meeting has been 
 felt even to the remote corners of the state in 
 arousing and inspiring the educational, social 
 
COORDINATION OF RURAL INSTITUTIONS 71 
 
 and religious, as well as the economic interests 
 of the commonwealth. This gathering was 
 made possible after six years of hard work of a 
 man who saw the vision of cooperation and 
 labored in many communities to promote the 
 spirit of federation. 
 
 And so instances by the hundred could be cited 
 showing the growing tendency to place the em- 
 phasis on the spirit rather than upon the letter 
 of cooperation. 
 
 The cause for an awakening in any rural com- 
 munity can always be traced to a person who has 
 a cooperative spirit and the greatest service that 
 can be rendered to the cause of federation just 
 now is not the promotion of schemes and sys- 
 tems of cooperation nor the encouragement of a 
 great federating bureau, but by consistently and 
 persistently teaching that every community is 
 the arbiter of its own success and that the resi- 
 dent forces must be the permanent forces of its 
 reconstruction. When the spirit of federation 
 and cooperation is dominant the method and the 
 system will take care of itself. 
 
VI 
 
 THE SUPPLY OF LEADERS FOR THE 
 COUNTRY 
 
 Kenyon L. Butterfield 
 
 The key to the solution of the country life 
 problem in America is adequate leadership. 
 Consequently, the proper training of rural leadr 
 ers is the most significant single task that 
 emerges out of the country life movement. In 
 considering the rural problem as a whole there 
 are many questions for investigation. There 
 are puzzling aspects of education and organiza- 
 tion to be worked out. But in the last analysis 
 everything goes back to the development of lead- 
 ers who understand the problem of rural life, 
 who can voice the real needs of the people, and 
 who can apply a constructive program. 
 
 A very large proportion of this leadership 
 must be found among the farmers themselves. 
 Whether we are interested in the rural question 
 as a whole, or whether we are anxious to de- 
 velop the efficiency of particular rural institu- 
 tions, we shall find that little progress can be 
 made apart from the intelligent cooperation of 
 those practical farmers who have influence with 
 
SUPPLY OF LEADERS FOR THE COUNTRY 73 
 
 their fellows. Possibly it is not too much to say 
 that one of the supreme difficulties in solving 
 the country life problem is the difficulty of se- 
 curing adequate leadership. There are some in- 
 stitutions, like the church and the school, in 
 which the paid professional expert must be the 
 leader. But even he can accomplish compara- 
 tively little unless he have working with him in- 
 telligent laymen who also see the vision. The 
 social institutions of American country life are 
 essentially democratic, and these institutions can 
 thrive only through participation of the people 
 to be benefited, and this participation must ex- 
 press itself partly through the initiative of the 
 stronger minds and wills. 
 
 With respect to particular tasks, farmers are 
 needed as leaders, in the first place, in develop- 
 ing better farming. The business of farming is 
 to be gradually professionalized; that is, more 
 and more there must come the application of 
 fundamental scientific principles to the actual 
 operations of the farm. The mass of farmers 
 cannot at once become professional farmers. It 
 is the few who will lead the way. Consequently 
 agriculture in its business and technical aspects 
 needs leaders. But there are many other tasks 
 in which the leadership of the working farmer 
 is essential. In the Church itself and its many 
 activities, in the management of the rural 
 schools, in the conduct of local government, in 
 officering the Ttrange and other voluntary organi- 
 zations, as leaders of boys through the Sunday- 
 
74 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 school and other agengies — ^in these ways and 
 perhaps in others the working farmer finds a 
 sphere of usefulness absolutely essential to the 
 development of country life and its institutions. 
 
 Necessarily, however, there must be a distinct 
 professional leadership, that is, a leadership of 
 men and women who give their lives definitely 
 to some sort of rural social service. Perhaps 
 the country preacher is the most conspicuous of 
 these leaders, because he is more nearly a per- 
 manent fixture than other professional leaders. 
 It is true that his term of service is short, but 
 not so short as that of the teacher. He has not 
 always looked upon himself, nor has he been 
 looked upon, as a community leader; but if the 
 church is to realize its function as a community- 
 building institution, the country clergyman must 
 be a community leader. 
 
 The teacher ought also to be a lead-er for the 
 same reason, namely, that the school as an in- 
 stitution has a definite social function to per- 
 form. It is difficult for the teacher of a small 
 rural school to become a leader, simply because 
 her term of service is so short and she is usually 
 not at all trained in anything more than the mere 
 rudiments of teaching elementary subjects to 
 young children. But as the consolidated or cen- 
 tralized school develops and as agricultural or 
 rural high schools are instituted, the opportuni- 
 ties for definite community leadership on the part 
 of the principals and teachers of those schools 
 will grow apace. 
 
SUPPLY OF LEADERS FOR THE COUNTRY 75 
 
 The county secretary of the rural Y. M. C. A. 
 already occupies a position of splendid leader- 
 ship in community building. While the specific 
 function of the Y. M. C. A. is to reach boys and 
 young men on behalf of a whole manhood mo- 
 tived by the Christ spirit, nevertheless in the 
 application of this idea the community is reached 
 in many ways. 
 
 There are a number of outside agencies now 
 working in rural communities and their officials 
 are exercising a very large degree of leadership 
 — such, for instance, as the agricultural colleges 
 through the extension service, state boards of 
 agriculture, and officers of voluntary associa- 
 tions, such as the Grange, the Society for the 
 Prevention of Cruelty to Children, etc. 
 
 There is also a form of semi-professional 
 leadership that ought to be developed more com- 
 pletely than it is; namely, that of a community 
 service on the part of professional and business 
 men who are located in country places. Physi- 
 cians, lawyers, bankers, and merchants, and par- 
 ticularly the editors of distinctively country 
 papers, may do a profoundly important work on 
 behalf of rural community building in ways 
 wholly incidental and yet germane to their vo- 
 cations. 
 
 The question that is set for answer here is. 
 How may these leaders be trained ? At the out- 
 set it is perfectly clear that not every man who 
 becomes an expert farmer or the head of one of 
 these rural institutions will be an actual leader. 
 
76 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 And yet almost any trained man can exercise 
 some form of leadership, particularly if he is 
 associated with some organization or institution, 
 and he certainly is likely to be a better leader 
 for having been trained as a leader. 
 
 On the other hand, there are a great many 
 natural leaders who are not trained, or at least 
 who do not have any special training. For ex- 
 ample, it is perfectly true that a man of bright 
 mind, social instincts, adaptable temperament, 
 democratic spirit, and with practical methods, 
 might make a most conspicuous success in a 
 country parish even though he never learned the 
 difference between a Holstein and a Shropshire I 
 Personality is a far more dominant factor than 
 preparation. Nevertheless, other things being 
 equal, the value of training for leadership in 
 rural life will hardly be disputed. The question 
 is, How much of it should be of a special char- 
 acter, and how may it be given? 
 
 Insofar as this preparation is to be given by 
 institutions of education there are perhaps three 
 principles that must be observed. 
 
 I. We must first inculcate and develop the 
 spirit of community service. This seems a fairly 
 obvious truth, and yet I am not at all sure that 
 the mere possession of a desire to be of help to 
 another person is sufficient. There must be 
 some fundamental grasp of the significance of 
 the community-idea, of the inter-relationships of 
 individual and community, of the methods by 
 which the community-idea may be developed. 
 
SUPPLY OF LEADERS FOR THE COUNTRY 'JJ 
 
 and a passion not only for helping individuals, 
 but for helping groups of individuals. 
 
 2. Training in leadership should give an in- 
 sight into the rural problem. This problem is 
 a rather definite and unified sort of thing. It 
 has many phases. It is related, of course, to 
 the whole problem of our modern civilization; 
 but it is a specialized study, and the rural leader 
 ought to understand its content and meaning. 
 
 3. The rural leader should appregiate the re- 
 lationship of his special vocation to the problem 
 of rural community-building, and particularly 
 the relationship of that institution which he rep- 
 resents to the reconstruction of agriculture and 
 rural life. The professional leader especially 
 can hardly work intelligently unless he has an 
 understanding of all these things. 
 
 The special purpose of this paper is to indicate 
 how these general principles in the training of 
 rural leadership may be applied more specifically 
 to the training of country pastors. 
 
 I. We need a permanent country pastorate. 
 iWe can hardly expect that every man who takes 
 a country charge shall remain there all his life 
 any more than we may expect that every gradu- 
 ate of Columbia University who plans to follow 
 teaching will become a permanent member of 
 the faculty of that university. Many strong 
 men who succeed in country parishes will in- 
 evitably be called to city parishes. Nevertheless, 
 there should be developed a rural clergy as a 
 professional group that tends to specialize itself 
 
78 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 and that tends to induce other men to make it 
 their life work. The idea of the country pasto- 
 rate as a distinct vocation should be promulgated 
 among young men. The need and feasibility of 
 such permanent service should become a part 
 of the common thinking and talking about the 
 country church. 
 
 2. It will then follow almost inevitably that 
 special preparation will be considered necessary 
 for a permanent country pastorate. For it will 
 be recognized that the rural problem differs 
 from the city problem at many points, that the 
 rural mind is not the urban mind, and that 
 methods in the country phurch cannot be those 
 of the city church. Recognizing then the need 
 of a permanent country pastorate and the con- 
 sequent need of special preparation for that pas- 
 torate, the question arises, 
 
 3. What should this special preparation con- 
 sist of? In general it should consist in the ap- 
 prehension of the rural problem and of the rela- 
 tion of the church to that problem. If we agree 
 that the church has a social purpose — ^that is, that 
 as an institution its work must relate itself def- 
 initely to the work of community-building — ^then 
 it is entirely logical that the leader of the church 
 in a country community shall appreciate the 
 complete task and his relation to it. 
 
 Now, this rural problem, has several aspects. 
 In the first place, there is the scientific aspect, 
 which attempts to learn more of the laws of 
 nature that control the food supply. There is 
 
SUPPLY OF LEADERS FOR THE COUNTRY 79 
 
 the practical, or technical, aspect, which deals 
 with the methods by which the individual farmer 
 can best do his work of growing food. There 
 is the business aspect, which has to do with 
 the disposition of farm products and their 
 proper distribution to consumers. There is the 
 economic aspect, which asks how the farmers as 
 a class can best succeed in their business. And 
 then, most important of all to the clergyman, is 
 the social, or community aspect; that is, how 
 can the people who farm best develop personal 
 character^ cooperate for common welfare, main- 
 tain permanent and successful social institutions. 
 The social phase of the rural question is pro- 
 foundly affected by the other phases of the ques- 
 tion; hence the alert clergyman will want to 
 know the whole problem. It is not necessary 
 that the individual pastor should understand all 
 about agricultural science or farm practice or 
 marketing of farm products, and certainly it is 
 not expected that he should pose as an expert 
 in these fields. Nevertheless, the more fully 
 he appreciates the significance of all the phases 
 of the big problem which we call the rural ques- 
 tion, the more completely can he relate religion 
 and the institutions of religion to the life and 
 labor of his people. 
 
 4. How best can this special preparation be 
 given? At present it is not given. There is no 
 institution for training rural preachers. Inter- 
 est in the subject is being aroused and various 
 short courses, conferences on country life, and 
 
8o THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 similar devices are multiplying rapidly. With- 
 out question these enterprises are turning the 
 attention of men now in the rural field, and even 
 of young men desiring to become rural pastors, 
 to the nature of their problem. But they do not 
 represent an adequate foundation- for the gen- 
 eral task of training a rural clergy. 
 
 The theological seminaries and other institu- 
 tions from which clergymen graduate are, of 
 course, the natural centers at which training 
 courses may be expected to develop. At the 
 present time a number of theological seminaries 
 are offering courses or lectures on the [country 
 church, and in the courses in sociology an in- 
 creasing amount of attention is given to the 
 rural community. One seminary has established 
 a chair of rural sociology. Thus far, however, 
 no institution in the country, so far as can be 
 learned, has established a definite course of 
 training, intended to lead directly into the coun- 
 try pastorate — a course of training that might 
 be considered as a special preparation for that 
 particular type of work. Moreover, it is quite 
 evident that theological seminaries have their 
 limitations. The curriculum is already an over- 
 crowded one. The range of subjects considered 
 necessary for the proper training of the clergy- 
 man grows wider every year. It is difficult to 
 introduce new subjects. Then again, it is not 
 easy to find instructors in rural sociology who 
 can cover the whole rural problem as it ought 
 to be viewed by the country clergyman. 
 
SUPPLY OF LEADERS FOR THE COUNTRY 8 1 
 
 Personally I doubt whether we shall secure 
 the training needed for a country clergyman un- 
 til we establish, preferably in the institutions 
 that now train ministers, either separate schools 
 or highly specialized courses for country clergy- 
 men. Doubtless it will be argued that the train- 
 ing for a country clergyman in its fundamental 
 aspects should not differ from that of the clergy- 
 man who is to work in the city, partly because 
 the problems of human life are the same every- 
 where, and partly because it is impossible to 
 predict where a man will find his best opportu- 
 nity. But let us remember that we have before 
 us the great problem of country life as a specific 
 question. Many agencies are at work trying 
 to solve the problem. Shall the church meet 
 its peculiar obligations? It can do so only 
 through the most vigorous revival of country 
 church activities, led by the clergyman. This 
 new task calls for special training in just the 
 same way as the new agricultural high school 
 calls for men with a special training, and as the 
 new agriculture calls for men with a special 
 training. If the church desires to keep its place 
 in the country life movement, it must train its 
 preachers for their , special work. 
 
 The rural problem is very comprehensive. It 
 has so many phases that the agricultural college 
 is pretty sure to be the only educational institu- 
 tion that can cover the whole field. The ques- 
 tion arises, -therefore, whether in the special 
 training of the country clergyman the agricul- 
 
82 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 tural colleges may not help. I am confident 
 that courses could be arranged so that a student 
 could take a year at an agricultural college with 
 great profit, and that this year might well be 
 substituted for a year either in college ©r in the 
 divinity school. The student would be expected 
 to take courses in rural sociology, agricultural 
 economics, rural education and rural govern- 
 ment. If he so desired, one or two courses in 
 agriculture might be opened to him; but it is 
 not to be supposed that he is to spend much time 
 in studying the details of fanning, though he 
 may well understand some of the practical prob- 
 lems which the modern farmer has to face. The 
 atmosphere of an agricultural college is worth 
 something to every man intending to become a 
 rural leader. 
 
 Without meaning to be a critic of the institu- 
 tions that now prepare the rural clergy, and 
 recognizing the difficulty of organizing new 
 lines of work, I nevertheless urge, as a final 
 consideration, the absolute necessity of a con- 
 certed, definite, aggressive movement for the de- 
 velopment of adequate means of special prepara- 
 tion for a permanent body of country clergy- 
 men. The country church is the most important 
 single agency in the development of the country 
 life movement in its higher reaches, and the 
 trained country clergyman is the greatest asset 
 of the redirected country church. 
 
VIl 
 
 A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS * 
 
 F. M. Barton 
 
 We will imagine that the 148,809 Evangelical 
 preachers of the United States go on a strike, 
 and that the denominations appoint their officials 
 and representatives to compel the men to go 
 back to work, and open the closed churches. 
 We will suppose that one representative of the 
 preachers and one of the churches finally meet 
 for a last hearing and, failing to agree, choose 
 an additional man. The three arbitrators re- 
 solve themselves into a commission to hear com- 
 plaints, arguments, and discussions. These 
 pages will give a summary of the claims of the 
 Church and its employees, and will then present 
 the case in detail from the standpoint of the 
 preachers — the other side will not lack for ad- 
 vocates. 
 
 The Contentions and Claims of the 
 Preachers 
 
 (i.) According to government statistics, out- 
 
 * Rural or country churches are defined as those in towns or 
 districts of 2,500 or less. Over 75 per cent of the churches 
 of the United States are rural churches. 
 
 83 
 
84 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 side of the 125 largest cities in the United States 
 the average salary of ministers is $573- Sta- 
 tistics from denominational year books show the 
 average salary of one denomination as low as 
 $325. The highest average salary shown by any 
 denomination is $880. Excluding the large cities 
 this denomination shows an average of $710. 
 The largest denomination, excluding the large 
 city conferences shows an average of $607.79. 
 These are quoted to verify the government 
 figures. 
 
 (2.) The preachers claim that this salary is 
 paid very irregularly, and in thousands of cases, 
 the amount agreed upon is not paid in full. 
 
 (3.) The preachers claim that two-thirds of 
 their number are not receiving living wages. 
 One-third are serving churches able to pay a 
 living wage, but on account of denominational 
 duplication one-third are serving churches that 
 cannot afford to pay any more than they are 
 paying now. 
 
 (4.) The preachers claim that they are sub- 
 jected to all kinds of humiliating treatment at 
 the hands of the officials of the church. Many 
 churches are ruled by some one officer who re- 
 sembles the political boss. Woe to the preacher 
 who does not gain his favor. The preachers 
 bear this injustice for themselves, but naturally 
 object to their wives and children suffering from 
 it. 
 
 (5.) As an evidence of general dissatisfac- 
 tion and unbearable conditions one denomination 
 
A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS 8$ 
 
 with 6,000 preachers lost 405 of them during 
 1911. 
 
 Conditions That Should Arouse a United Chris- 
 tendom 
 
 Humanly speaking, the battle between right 
 and wrong, is a draw, providing the Church is 
 the only force which the Commander has work- 
 ing in the world. But in the discussion let us 
 not forget that history shows that in crises He 
 is the more apt to show His power. At a time 
 like this it is exceedingly important that every 
 soldier should be fit, and ready for the campaign. 
 The officers in command of the different regi- 
 ments should be filled with zeal, loyalty and hope. 
 If their corps commander were with them shar- 
 ing their hardships, and privations, as Washing- 
 ton fared with his soldiers at Valley Forge, it 
 might be different. But there is a spirit of un- 
 rest and mutterings over the plenty at head- 
 quarters and the scarcity at the picket posts and 
 on the frontier. 
 
 Seventy-five per cent of the churches are in 
 communities or towns of 2,500 and less. Con- 
 sider that the average salary of ministers of all 
 denominations excepting those in the 125 largest 
 cities is $573. This indicates that 75 per cent 
 or at least two-thirds of the preachers, leaders, 
 or officers in the Christian army are dissatisfied 
 with the rations. 
 
 Let us allow four members to the average 
 preacher's family and allow for: 
 
86 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Rent $i8o 
 
 Food 365 
 
 Clothes 100 
 
 $645 
 This leaves nothing for doctors' bills, insurance, 
 carfare, vacation, etc. When it is considered 
 that the preacher's family consists usually of 
 five or six, the amounts quoted above are not 
 sufficient for the absolute necessities of life. 
 
 Here are a few of the indictments against 
 some rural churches: 
 
 Two Typical Examples of Injustice Borne by 
 Rural Ministers 
 
 A Michigan Methodist pastor was promised 
 $600 but last year he got but $340. He has a 
 wife and two children. He serves two churches, 
 keeps a horse, and drives 27 miles on Sunday. 
 He raised $500 to buy lumber to repair the church 
 and parsonage. The church officials offered to 
 pay him $2.50 per day as a carpenter, but as a 
 preacher they considered him worth only $1 per 
 day. He worked 83 days and his local paper 
 says improved the church and parsonage $1,000 
 worth. At this date of writing they had paid 
 $5 of the $207.50. 
 
 A South Dakota pastor says: "I have seven 
 children, and salary is $700. Last year with 
 crop failure I got $555. This year prospects are 
 worse. I came here two years ago from Eng- 
 land. I could have gone on the road as a sales- 
 
A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS 8/ 
 
 man at $112 a month salary and commission, also 
 $5 a day expenses. I only had nineteen mem- 
 bers, but with visiting and ordinary meetings, 
 membership increased to ninety-eight, with one 
 hundred and fifty Sunday-school pupils. I 
 preached three times each Sunday, and every 
 Sunday walked 31 miles. Then the crops failed 
 and in six months I have lost by removal, eighty- 
 two members. I have had to go out and work 
 when I could get it." 
 
 Do not Pay What They Promise. $200 Behind 
 on $520 Salary (Missionary Society Pays the 
 Rent) 
 
 "I am the missionary pastor of two Baptist 
 churches, two miles apart, under agreement be- 
 tween them and our state missionary organiza- 
 tion that they were to pay $6 and $4 per week, 
 resgectively. 
 
 The church that was to pay $4 (20 members) 
 has done so. But the other, the older church of 
 40 residents and a dozen non-resident contribut- 
 ing members, has not, from the start, two and 
 one-half years ago, averaged above $5, and 
 for over a year past but little over $2, and though 
 I allowed them a year ago to reduce this agree- 
 ment from $6 to $5 per week, they have fallen 
 off worse than before, until now they owe me 
 $200. Sixty dollars of that would pay all we 
 owe and leave a good balance for needed 
 clothes, dental work, and other absolutely neces- 
 sary expenditures. 
 
88 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 The Hard Lines of a Country Preacher 
 
 Henry Wallace, LL. D., writes, in the United 
 Presbyterian : 
 
 "Here, for example, is an itemized statement 
 of the expenses of one pastor of a purely rural 
 congregation. His salary is $i,ooo a year, and 
 expenses as follows: Fuel for stove, $50; for 
 furnace in parsonage, $100, and sometimes more; 
 horse feed, $110; shoeing and keeping up harness 
 and buggy surrey, $50; total, $310. This man 
 is a tither; hence his tithe is $100. He now has 
 left $590 for the support of himself, his wife 
 and children, including clothes, doctor and dental 
 bills, and all incidentals. He has an investment 
 in thel horses, buggy, surrey and harness, of 
 $3i7> which he saved when preaching several 
 years ago at a salary of $1,000. He cannot live 
 on this $590 that is left of his salary after pay- 
 ing for fuel and keep of horses, and is obliged 
 to use the income from an inheritance to the 
 extent of $150 a year. In other words, as he 
 puts it: 'It costs me at least $150 a year for the 
 privilege of preaching to this congregation. It 
 is a fine congregation, good people; but they 
 never ask me what it costs the minister to live, 
 but tell me about former pastors, who back in 
 the sixties and eighties laid up some money on 
 $800 a year.' Now I am not going to give this 
 minister's name; but these are the facts. 
 
 "Here are some more facts from a different 
 congregation: The ladies of the congregation 
 
A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS 89 
 
 gave the minister's wife a present of fifty dol- 
 lars. Out of the joy of her heart she unwisely 
 told of the gift. The result was that the min- 
 ister's salary for that year was cut down just 
 fifty dollars. The good wife said that she had 
 learned that it was not wise to tell of her good 
 fortune." 
 
 How One District Raised the Salary to $750 
 
 The following is quoted from an article by 
 N. W. Stroup, D. D., District Superintendent of 
 the Cleveland district, East Ohio Conference. 
 He has made the minimum salary in his district, 
 $750. Note the cases of injustice that helped 
 him bring about the emancipation: 
 
 "Let us mention two sad examples of injustice 
 calling for remedy that may serve as an ex- 
 planation for the action of our Country Church 
 Commission. First, that of a pastor who was 
 compelled to sell his life insurance policy to 
 enable him to buy a horse and carriage, neces- 
 sitated by a change of location. The brother 
 died suddenly and his widow was deprived of 
 the insurance money to which she was right- 
 fully entitled. Second, a pastor with a wife and 
 family to support, served a charge faithfully for 
 eleven months last year, and during that time 
 received but $248 for three churches, and yet 
 he was required to buy a horse and carriage and 
 harness costing $140, at the beginning of the 
 year, and then wait until the close of the year 
 for the balance of the $600 promised. On the 
 
go THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Western Frontier such treatment might be ex- 
 cusable, but on the Western Reserve it is out 
 of harmony with the principles of the gospel we 
 preach." 
 
 Here is one result of making the minimum 
 salary $750: 
 
 "One pastor who may serve as proof of the 
 above was continued for an additional year so 
 that he might have time to reap the harvest of 
 his sowing. This man recently experienced one 
 of the greatest revivals known in that charge 
 for a generation. The gift of $150 in this in- 
 stance was instrumental in helping to make pos- 
 sible one hundred conversions. Thus we see 
 that money has a very vital relationship to the 
 Kingdom." 
 
 A Proposed Remedy 
 
 It is shown in Dr. Stroup's statement that the 
 addition of $150 to the salary of a country min- 
 ister made it possible for a pastor to remain on 
 the charge and that his work resulted in 100 
 conversions in one year. It was estimated that 
 over $2,500 would have to be raised among city 
 churches in the district to make the minimum 
 salary of the rural churches $750 in Dr. Stroup's 
 district. Only $1,000 was required. When the 
 rural churches learned of the movement, more 
 than half asserted their independence, and raised 
 enough to increase the salary. Some of those 
 churches receiving aid this year will be self-sup- 
 porting next year. 
 
A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS 9I 
 
 The following plan I believe will remedy the 
 difficulty, and relieve the Church of God from 
 the handicap of a discouraged, crippled leader- 
 ship. 
 
 The minimum salary for ministers shall be 
 $750 and the maximum salary $3,000. 
 
 1. Any church may pay more than $3,000 pro- 
 viding the church gives an amount equal to the 
 excess of the $3,000 to ministerial relief, to be 
 used exclusively for insuring a minimum salary 
 of $750, and for support of ministers who have 
 been honorably retired on account of age, or 
 disability. 
 
 2. No church shall receive any portion of 
 this relief fund, unless the members of said 
 church are giving for church and ministerial 
 support, an amount equal to the amount of taxes 
 paid on real and personal property, by the cotnt- 
 bined membership. 
 
 That this would be opposed by pastors of 
 large influence and large salary would be the gen- 
 eral conclusion. But a wide correspondence with 
 ministers of this class indicates a close sympathy, 
 and aj willingness to help their under-paid breth- 
 ren. If a resolution similar to the above were 
 adopted by the several denominations it would 
 smoke out the members of churches who can 
 afford to pay and don't pay. It would not be 
 surprising to those familiar with conditions if 
 an agreement of that kind should result in the 
 accumulation of a large amount within five years 
 — an amount that would enable the church to 
 
92 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 support its veterans in a manner that would 
 clear itself of the shame and disgrace of its pres- 
 ent niggardly treatment. 
 
 A Source of Ministerial Supply 
 
 If some of the ministers who are feeling the 
 strain of city pastorates at $1,200 to $1,500 a 
 year would take the summer courses in state 
 schools of agriculture, they would make the very 
 best kind of pastors for rural churches. 
 
 If country churches would provide a comfort- 
 able parsonage, three acres of ground, and pay 
 $750 per year, they could secure the very best 
 men. For after 45 years of age, men with red 
 blood in their veins begin to long for mother 
 earth, and they want to be established — ^they like 
 to think that they have a place that is permanent. 
 The denomination that mans its rural churches 
 with good men on a salary that will make them 
 permanent, will promote the Kingdom of Heaven 
 on earth, and will shine as the stars in the 
 firmament. 
 
 Organization of Church Finances 
 
 An old colored minister was told by his church 
 committee that the church had decided to raise 
 his salary : 
 
 "I appreciate de intentions ob de bredren, but 
 my ole back's done humped enough now, raisin 
 de present salary." 
 
 Very few country churches have any regular 
 
A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS 93 
 
 financial system. The preacher does it all, and 
 puts his trust in the collection basket. And his 
 faith would be rewarded if all the members 
 were acquainted with the Master, and his anxiety 
 for his fellow-workers. 
 
 This paying when the crops are sold makes 
 hypocrites of the members, and servile depend- 
 ents of the preachers. What crop? If the 
 wheat crop is good they wait for the corn crop 
 to be sold, and finally pay it out of the crop 
 that may happen to be a failure. Is it any won- 
 der that so much wheat grades No. 2 and oats 
 rust, and potatoes blight? 
 
 Contract Between Church and Pastor 
 
 There is more injustice to preachers than any 
 other class, because there is no written agree- 
 ment as to what salary they shall receive. 
 Preachers who receive $3,000 and over with few 
 exceptions have the salary agreement in writing. 
 But the man who needs every cent he is promised 
 trusts to luck and a verbal agreement. 
 
 I know a church which had been paying 
 $1,200 a year, and negotiated through their 
 church authorities for another pastor. The au- 
 thorities understood and so did the minister, that 
 the salary was to be $1,200 as it had been for 
 years. When the minister had moved they told 
 him the salary was $1,100. 'Why?" "Well, 
 they had bought a pipe organ and they owed on 
 it yet." This minister had to stay there four 
 years and unwillingly paid $400 on that organ. 
 
94 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 They used this organ to aid them in singing 
 praises of a just God. This dishonest trick is 
 only a sample of hundreds of others equally un- 
 scrupulous. 
 Promise and Fulfilment 
 
 It is not uncommon for church committees to 
 promise a salary, which they have never paid, 
 and never hope to pay, barring miracles, in order 
 to get a good man. 
 
 "iWe are sorry we can't raise all the money. 
 The Lord will provide," is what the pastor re- 
 ceives instead of the promised wages. 
 
 A minimum salary of $750 to be paid monthly, 
 and the contract to be drawn so that it is good 
 for a loan at a bank would help solve many diffi- 
 culties, and lift a load of care from preachers' 
 hearts. If church officers can't pay regularly, 
 let them borrow from the funds of the denomi- 
 nation, the endowment funds of colleges of the 
 churches. You can imagine bishops and church 
 officials smiling at the security. "Have faith in 
 the Lord, He will provide." What is sauce for 
 the official ganders ought to be sauce for the 
 ministerial geese that are being plucked for down 
 to make up the beds, on which reprobate mem- 
 bers imagine they are to be carried to the skies. 
 
 Jesus said "When Thou takest thy gift to the 
 altar and rememberest that thy brother hath 
 aught against thee, leave thy gift," etc. If in the 
 Judgment it were suggested that it would be! well 
 to make good unpaid pledges to preachers, there 
 might be general consternation. 
 
A LIVING WAGE FOR RURAL PASTORS 95 
 
 The Church Entitled to Support as a Social as 
 well as a Religious Organisation 
 
 Sixty-five per cent of farmers own their lands 
 and homes. The land owners who rent or hire 
 their farms operated are not the large factor in 
 providing the preacher's salary. But those that 
 can be reached whether Christian men or not, 
 can afford from selfish motives to promote the 
 interests of the church nearest to their land hold- 
 ings. It would be better for the owner if the 
 renter were a Christian man. The returns from 
 the farm would be more satisfactory, and its ap- 
 pearance improved. But if the country church 
 provides Sunday-school for thd renter's children, 
 the influence from even that will make more 
 profitable the landlord's holdings. 
 
 The merchants, business men, blacksmiths, and 
 artisans of the community are much larger fac- 
 tors than the landlords and can well afford to 
 support a church. // there were only one church 
 in a community, I, think they would. 
 
 The taxpayers support the schools. School 
 taxes are paid with more satisfaction than any 
 other taxes. Schools do only part of the work 
 that prevents people growing up in ignorance and 
 becoming a burden upon the community. 
 
 These land-owners, business men, whose in- 
 terests are near the country church can well af- 
 ford to support it — ^and support it so liberally, 
 that with the amount given by the members, the 
 best pastor for the place can be secured. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUN- 
 TRY CHURCH 
 
 E. S. Tipple 
 
 When we left the seminary a quarteH of a 
 century ago, most of my classmates went to 
 country circuits or small village churches, while 
 I, for some reason which I have never yet been 
 able to discover, found myself appointed by the 
 bishop to a church in New York City, scarcely 
 half a block from Broadway. Not long ago one 
 of my friends of the seminary days confessed 
 that in the early years he had a notion that I 
 "looked down on him," because he was a coun- 
 try preacher. Ah, if he had only known how 
 I envied himl How, as I walked the unsym- 
 pathetic streets of that great, boisterous, unfeel- 
 ing city, or climbed the stairs of foul tenements, 
 I longed for the open spaces of the country and 
 the simplicity of a country church ! Look down 
 upon the man who has a chance to breathe deep, 
 to think without haste, to look far, to shepherd 
 God's flocks on the hills? This is the man to 
 look up to, to felicitate, even to envy. 
 
 Who that knows the modern city, with its 
 amazing growth, its appalling religious needs, 
 96 
 
ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 97 
 
 its dire menace, its sordid commercialism and 
 relentless competition, its unbridled love of 
 amusement, its seeming indifference to soul-cul- 
 ture, would think of looking for the ideal parish 
 in the city? Work there is, and an abundance 
 of it, demanding all there is of any man who 
 may be called of God to undertake it. But I 
 have long felt that the ideal parish, that is, the 
 parish to be desired and coveted, is the country 
 parish; that the fortunate minister is the one 
 whose portrait is drawn by Wordsworth in "The 
 Excursion" : 
 
 "The calm delights 
 Of unambitious piety he chose. 
 And learning's solid dignity ; though bom 
 Of knightly race, nor wanting powerful friends. 
 Hither, in prime of manhood, he withdrew 
 From academic bowers. He loved the spot — > 
 Who does not love his native soil? — he prized 
 The ancient rural character, composed 
 Of simple manners, feelings unsupprest 
 And undisguised, and strong and serious thought, 
 A character reflected in himself. 
 With such embellishment as well beseems 
 His rank and sacred function." 
 
 What an attractive picture! So also is Oliver 
 Goldsmith's exquisite sketch of "Sweet Auburn," 
 with its soft-toned landscape, its evening sports 
 of the village folk, its sounds of life from the 
 cottage homes, and its gentle and earnest coun- 
 try preacher. It will probably be said, how- 
 ever, that these are descriptions of country par- 
 
98 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 ishes of an earlier generation, and that the coun- 
 try parish of today is far more prosaic, more 
 commonplace, and more uninviting. But isn't 
 this largely a matter of point of view? James 
 Russell Lowell in his Harvard address speaks 
 of the parson in olden times as being what his 
 name implied — the chief person of the com- 
 munity. In the colonial period of our history, 
 the foremost place was occupied by him, and in 
 the rural districts of New England especially, 
 as Thomas Wentworth Higginson says, he was 
 the most loved of men, and at times the most 
 feared. The years have brought changes, many 
 of them, and particularly has country life 
 changed. There have been depreciations of farm 
 values, young people have gone away, foreigners 
 have taken the place of the native born, the 
 Church seems no longer to hold its place of in- 
 fluence in the community. All this is true, and 
 yet the country parish of today ofifers as never 
 before a field of superb opportunity, and makes 
 a glorious appeal to heroism and devotedness. 
 
 It may be that the country minister cannot 
 again be as in the early New England days the 
 village oracle, but he may be a community 
 leader in noble enterprises, worthy the ambitions 
 and gifts of the best of men. Is it true, as 
 Phillips Brooks said, that it is the absence of 
 the heroic element in our modern Christianity 
 which marks the difference between it and primi- 
 tive Christianity? It cannot be wholly true, for 
 the cry of far away fields, in foreign lands, 
 
ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 99 
 
 brings a quick response from hundreds of our 
 noblest young men and young women. There 
 are still those who are not disobedient to the 
 heavenly vision, and who leave all to follow the 
 Master across tempestuous seas. But not all 
 the mission fields are in the Orient or Africa. 
 What of the challenge of the country parish? 
 Is there no appeal to the heroic in the barren 
 fields of country life, the isolation, the narrow- 
 ness, the want and sorrow which abound where- 
 ever people live ? Much of America is fast com- 
 ing to be missionary territory, which can only 
 be possessed in Christ's name by those who have 
 the missionary spirit. 
 
 The country parish is not to be regarded as 
 "a stepping stone to something better," some-/ 
 thing to be endured for a year or two, until a 
 more desirable opening in the large town or city 
 is found; it is a part of the world-kingdom of 
 our Lord, as important as' any other part. When 
 John Keble, one of England's rarest ministers, 
 who was always a country minister, having gone 
 from a country rectory to Oxford to be educated, 
 and leaving Oxford to minister for a genera- 
 tion and more in rural England, was about to be 
 ordained, he wrote to a friend: "Pray for me; 
 pray earnestly, my dear, my best friend, that 
 He would give me his grace, that I may not be 
 altogether unworthy of the sacred office on which 
 I am, rashly I fear, even now entering ; but that 
 some souls hereafter may have cause to bless 
 me. Pray that I may be free from vanity, from 
 
lOO THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 envy, from discontent, from impure imagina- 
 tions; that I may not grow weary, nor wander 
 in heart from God's service. . . . Without 
 any foolish affectation of modesty I can truly say 
 that the nearer the time approaches, the more 
 strongly I feel my own unfitness and unworthiness 
 for the ministry; and I must have all the help 
 I can get in the awful and difficult preparation; 
 do not, therefore, forget me in your prayers." 
 Whoever enters upon his work in such a spirit 
 will regard his God-given task with such 
 humility of heart, and with such a high and 
 solemn regard for his calling in Christ Jesus, 
 that he will not draw back from any field, town 
 or country. It will not be a hardship to him to be 
 sent to the crossroads, to the high hills, to the 
 out-of-the-way places; he will thank God, as 
 did Alexander Maclaren, the prince of English 
 expository preachers, that at the beginning of 
 his ministry "he was struck down and remained 
 for twelve years in an obscur6 place." 
 
 But the country parish is not so undesirable 
 as one might imagine. There are hardships, to 
 be sure, but there are also many high and holy 
 privileges. The country parish offers many 
 things to a man who has eyes to see. For one 
 thing it gives him a chance now and then to 
 look at the stars. The country preacher's world 
 is not a world of rocks and stones merely, or 
 chiefly. He can walk in the open fields; he has 
 wide horizons; flowers spring up at his feet. 
 For him birds sing, and streams flow by to the 
 
ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH lOI 
 
 sea. He lives in the open country. All of 
 God's out-of-doors is his to revel in. Men used 
 to wonder why Charles Kingsley could be con- 
 tent with the little country parish of Eversley, 
 made up of three small hamlets, peculiar for 
 nothing, as he said, but want of houses and 
 abundance of peat bogs, — a most unpromising 
 and unattractive field of labor. When that great 
 nature lover began his ministry at Eversley, 
 there was not a grown man or woman among 
 the laboring class who could read or write. The 
 church was nearly empty. The farmer's sheep 
 were pastured in the churchyard. The alms 
 were collected in a wooden saucer. A cracked 
 basin held the water for baptism, and beside the 
 altar, covered by a moth-eaten cloth, there stood 
 one old broken chair. 
 
 How could a man be content with such a place 
 when London, for example, would gladly wel- 
 come him? On one occasion he wrote, "I love 
 home and green fields more and more, and never 
 lust either after Babylon or the Continent." 
 Why should he? His heart was in Eversley. 
 Life in that quiet parish was never uneventful. 
 He never found it dull or monotonous. True, 
 his love of nature was a veritable passion. 
 "Don't study matter, for its own sake," he ex- 
 horted his people, "but as the countenance of 
 God." "Study the sky, study water, study trees, 
 study the sounds and scents of nature." "Study 
 the form and color of leaves and of flowers, and 
 the growth and habits of plants, not to classify 
 
102 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 them, but to admire them and to adore God." 
 But much as he loved nature, he loved man 
 even more. All his parish labors had their 
 source in his passion for ailing, decrepit, battered 
 men and women whose lives were narrow, im- 
 poverished, and without hope. He was the in- 
 timate friend of everyone in the parish. Because 
 they loved him, they familiarly called him 
 "uncle," nor did he resent it. It has been told 
 more than once how he became all things to all 
 in his parish, how with the farmer he discussed 
 the rotation of crops, and with the laborer the 
 science of hedging and ditching. Children loved 
 him and ran after him, tugging unafraid at his 
 coat. Daily he visited from house to house. 
 What a beautiful picture this of England's most 
 popular preacher in his generation, cultured, 
 scholarly, book-loving Kingsley, going' from door 
 to door in a rural community just from sheer 
 love of it! 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that distinction and 
 fame came to this Eversley parish, minister. He 
 was not "lost in the country." It was not long 
 before a path was worn to his door, and hither 
 came men and women from all parts of the 
 world. That country parish had become a world 
 center. From everywhere people wrote to him 
 concerning their difficulties. Strangers asked 
 advice on delicate questions of conscience and 
 conduct. Skeptics asked him concerning their 
 doubts. By his fidelity to his opportunity, by 
 his refusal to leave the country which he loved 
 
ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH IO3 
 
 and the needy folks whom he loved more, by 
 his writings in the interest of the oppressed and 
 downtrodden, by his appeals for justice for men 
 everywhere, he made as large a contribution to 
 the progress of the Kingdom of God in the nine- 
 teenth century as any man who preached in any 
 city pulpit, or worked in any city parish in the 
 same period. 
 
 What I am trying to say is this, that for one 
 who loves nature, who is sensitive to its charms 
 and can utilize its power, the country parish 
 offers an inviting field, and that a man may win 
 distinction there as well as anywhere else and 
 wield an influence as far reaching. No man 
 has other limitations upon his activities than his 
 own heart. "The field is the world," said Jesus. 
 There is no east, no west, no home field, no 
 foreign field, no country parish, no city parish 
 to that minister, who, like his Master, carries 
 the world on his heart. Wherever stationed, he 
 is at the center: 
 
 "Where our duties' task is wrought 
 In unison with God's great thought. 
 The near and future blend in one." 
 
 It was said in my hearing not long since that 
 the time would soon come when it would be as 
 great an honor to be a successful country minis- 
 ter as a city minister. I replied that the time 
 was already here, and had been here ever since 
 Charles Kingsley put Eversley upon the map of 
 the world. 
 
104 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Again, the country parish offers a man a 
 chance to meditate deeply on things of the spirit. 
 The chief business of the preacher is still to 
 preach. Whatever the demands upon him for 
 leadership in community service, however many 
 or varied the tasks laid upon him in city or town, 
 the supreme work of the Christian preacher is 
 to preach. Great silences are necessary to great 
 thoughts. Where in the turbulent modern city 
 can one find quiet? The roar of traffic fills the 
 streets ; the clangor of bells penetrates to every 
 room. The darkness brings no relief. The city 
 is one vast, seething cauldron of noise. What 
 opportunity is there for reflection, for medita- 
 tion, for pondering upon the deep things of God ? 
 Yet one must have solitude — 
 
 "If chosen man could never be alone 
 In deep mid-silence, open-doored to God, 
 No greatness ever had been dreamed or done." 
 
 One of the joys of a country parish is that it 
 gives a man a chance to think, to brood over 
 God's words to men, to write down God's 
 thoughts, and to reach a larger audience with the 
 printed page. It was from the experiences of 
 a country pastorate that Richard Baxter wrote 
 his immortal book, "The Reformed Pastor"; 
 and because he had a country parish that he 
 could write his "The Saints' Everlasting Rest," 
 the "Call to the Unconverted," and more than a 
 hundred and fifty other volumes. There are 
 
ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH I05 
 
 many and great advantages in being a country 
 preacher. 
 
 ■ And if he will, the country preacher may have 
 for recreation, and without interfering with his 
 sacred duties as a shepherd of the flock, a gar- 
 den. A garden! An old fashioned garden! 
 What delights there are in the very mention of 
 the word! The most prized picture of my 
 father which I possess is of the dear man, when 
 past eighty, bent with years, but with face aglow, 
 he stood among the flowers of his loved garden 
 caressing them as in the long ago, and as 
 through the years he had caressed his children ! 
 "There is no love so great, save that of a 
 woman," says a modern English writer, "as a 
 man's love for his garden. Its charm is ever fresh 
 when the sun shines brightly, or even in the depth 
 of winter, for then it is the time for discussing 
 possibilities, and the gardener is planning, wait- 
 ing, and preparing for the advent of spring and 
 the joys of summer. It may not be a very 
 elaborate garden; but it is just the little bit 
 of God's earth that is left to the tending of one 
 man and his partner in life, a Paradise as beau- 
 tiful as Eden." 
 
 For years I was familiar with a painting by 
 Dyce, showing George Herbert, "holy George 
 Herbert," as he was called, walking in his gar- 
 den at Bemerton. But even if one does not 
 know the picture it takes little imagination to 
 see that tall, erect, thin man, with a benignant 
 face, and a gracious, courtly air, yet humble 
 
I06 THE RURAt CHURCH 
 
 withal, walking along the Nadder, as it flows 
 silently at the foot of the garden, slipping quietly 
 by on its way to' the spire of Salisbury Cathedral, 
 three miles away. This Bemerton gfirden is 
 much the same — I saw it not long since — ^as it 
 was when the Country Parson walked amid his 
 flowers, softly singing his own beautiful hymn: 
 
 "The God of love riiy shepherd is, 
 And he that doth me feed. 
 While he is mine, and I am his. 
 What can I want or need? 
 
 He leads me to the tender grasse 
 
 Where I both feed and rest; 
 Then to the streams that gently passe : 
 
 In both I have the best." 
 
 A wonderful country parson was saintly George 
 Herbert, as may be seen by anyone who will 
 read his famous book, "The Country Parson," 
 which is as truly autobiographical as Newman's 
 "Apologia," and one of the most beautiful things 
 said of him was that he himself became a coun- 
 try minister that he might show how it could 
 become a field fit for intelligent, energetic, stately 
 and holy living, and for genuine devotion and 
 self-sacrifice on behalf of the unlearned and 
 simple folks of his small parish, and it is with 
 a like spirit and a like purpose that chosen men, 
 trained men, must enter upon the conquest of 
 the country. 
 
 The country church oflfers a field of particu- 
 lar need and unusual opportunity. There are 
 
ENLARGING IDEAL OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH 107 
 
 the problems of a declining population, of lack 
 of workers, of poor financial methods and in- 
 adequate resources, of the maintenance of too 
 many churches in dwindling communities, of 
 buildings unfitted for modern forms of church 
 work; there are social problems, a thou- 
 sand of them, which have sprung out of the 
 changed conditions of country life, and the read- 
 justment of the times, all combining to make a 
 task worthy the strongest, most zealous minis- 
 ter. 
 
 And the opportunities? They are as numer- 
 ous as the problems. The country preacher will 
 have the opportunity today of cultivating rever- 
 ence, of encouraging simplicity of worship, of 
 developing a deep and restful type of piety, of 
 keeping alive in the hearts of men a sense of 
 the sublimity and beauty of God's world, of 
 idealizing country life, of interpreting the farmer 
 to himself, of putting in modern terms the teach- 
 ings of Jesus Christ concerning one's relations 
 to others of the community, of identifying him- 
 self with the joys and sorrows of people in 
 whom God is interested, of inspiring them to 
 intellectual and social culture, of encouraging 
 them in innocent and healthgiving amusements, 
 of advising them as to their material interests, 
 of cultivating patriotism, and in innumerable 
 ways helping on the Kingdom of Heaven. As 
 a recent writer said, "The man with a sense of 
 pure neighborliness, patience to understand con- 
 ditions, love that will serve all the sides of 
 
I08 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 human life and will make the gospel touch every 
 side and province of man's nature, will find the 
 country church a field of never-ending interest, 
 and one that demands and repays the very best 
 that he can give." And this is true. 
 
IX 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF GETTING 
 A LIVING IN THE COUNTRY 
 
 Thomas Nixon Carver 
 
 "He who sows the ground with care and dili- 
 gence acquires a greater stock of religious merit 
 than he could gain by the repetition of ten thou- 
 sand prayers." — Zoroaster. 
 
 Wherever the struggle with nature has been 
 severe and man has been forced to exert him- 
 self to the utmost to protect himself against his 
 hostile surroundings, he has given to his work 
 a religious or semi-religious character. Sowing 
 and reaping have become such serious matters, 
 and the life of the people has depended so in- 
 timately upon the success of the season's farm- 
 ing, that nothing has been left undone which the 
 people imagined would help in the work or in- 
 sure a harvest. The preparation of the soil and 
 the sowing of the seed have become religious 
 ceremonies, and the harvesting of the crop has 
 been followed by a period of festivity and 
 thanksgiving, of which our national Thanksgiv- 
 ing festival is a somewhat idealized survival. 
 The oldest recorded hymns of the Indo-Euro- 
 pean branch of the human race are agricultural 
 109 
 
no THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 hymns. The ancient Peruvians seem to have 
 worked out a very perfect calendar, as the re- 
 sult of their efforts to make the seasons of sow- 
 ing and reaping conform to the laws of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 The development of modern science and its 
 application td agriculture have tended to dis- 
 credit the purely ceremonial aspects of the re- 
 ligion of rural people. They have come to see 
 that the rites and observances with which they 
 have accompanied their work have had nothing 
 to do with the germination of the seeds, the 
 ripening of the crops, or the destruction of 
 pests. There has, therefore, been a tendency to 
 assume that religion itself has nothing whatever 
 to do with agriculture or successful industry of 
 any kind. A little deeper insight, however, into 
 the nature of religious problems will tend to re- 
 verse that decision. Probably the highest form 
 of religious thought in the world today is that 
 which regards the universe as not merely cre- 
 ated by divine power, but as momentarily re- 
 created or sustained by the continual recreative 
 activities of the divine will. That which we call 
 for convenience a law of nature, or an observed 
 uniformity in natural procedure, is merely an 
 observed uniformity in the operation of the di- 
 vine will; and that which we sometimes call a 
 supernatural event, or miracle, is merely an act 
 of the divine will which does not come under 
 one of its observed uniformities. When we ac- 
 cept this point of view frankly and fully, and 
 
GETTING A LIVING IN THE COUNTRY III 
 
 conclude further that the most satisfactory way 
 of discovering what the divine will really is is 
 to study its uniformities rather than its rare 
 and exceptional acts; and, further, when we de- 
 pend more and more upon the uniformities of 
 that will and less and less upon its unusual 
 manifestations, we shall not be less but more 
 religious. That is to say, when we fully real- 
 ize that we get a more complete knowledge of 
 the divine character by learning how that will 
 acts all the time, every day, normally, regularly, 
 as a matter of course, than we do by learning 
 what it has done and may do under very rare 
 and exceptional circumstances, and then bend 
 all our efforts toward conforming to the ways 
 of God thus constantly and uniformly mani- 
 fested, rather than depending upon special mani- 
 festations, — we shall no longer be under the re- 
 proach of having forgotten the Author and 
 Giver of all good things, but will be showing a 
 higher recognition of divine providence than 
 was ever shown by the ceremonial religions of 
 the past. 
 
 Another conclusion to which we should be 
 forced by the acceptance of such a religious be- 
 lief as this would be that they who most fully 
 conform to what we call the laws of nature, or 
 the uniformities of divine procedure, are show- 
 ing in the highest sense obedience to God; and 
 that they who through this conformity to the 
 regularities of the divine procedure succeed and 
 flourish become by that very fact the "chosen 
 
112 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 people," or the "children of God." Then our 
 efforts would be directed not toward securing 
 special favors from the! Ruler of the universe by 
 accompanying the plowing of the land and the 
 sowing of the seed with elaborate religious cere- 
 monials, but by studying the conditions of the 
 soil, the laws of germination, plant nutrition, 
 etc., understanding thereby that we are study- 
 ing the laws of the divine procedure. And the 
 people who obtain the fullest and most complete 
 knowledge of God by this kind of study, and 
 show the most complete obedience to His uni- 
 verse thus discovered, are His chosen people, 
 by whatever name they may be called. If they 
 who conform to the laws of the universe tend 
 to flourish, to prosper, to multiply, and to sur- 
 vive in the struggle for existence, they will not 
 only be the naturally selectsd, but they will be 
 obeying the first command in our sacred Book, 
 to "Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the 
 earth and subdue it: and have dominion ovet 
 the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
 and over every living thing that moveth upon 
 the earth." 
 
 Man has been able to achieve his dominion 
 over the rest of the animal creation (i) by rea- 
 son of his greater knowledge of and control 
 over the forces of nature; (2) by reason of his 
 greater self-discipline, whereby he has subor- 
 dinated the lesser to the greater interest, the 
 whim of the moment to the needs of the future ; 
 (3) by reason of his greater power of coopera- 
 
GETTING A LIVING IN THE COUNTRY II3 
 
 tion with his fellows, under which he has com- 
 bined his efforts with those of his fellow man 
 on a larger scale and for more distant ends than 
 the less intelligent brutes have been able to do. 
 If the possession of these powers has given man 
 his dominion over the rest of the living world, 
 any branch of the human race, which combines 
 these same powers in larger measure than other 
 branches, will be able to hold dominion over 
 them as surely as over the fish of the sea, the 
 fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field. 
 Moreover, any group, or class, or neighbor- 
 hood within the nation which develops these 
 powers more highly than the rest of the 
 nation will achieve the same result. And 
 the church which succeeds best in develop- 
 ing these powers will become the true church, 
 or the church of God, because its people will 
 have become in this deep and fundamental sense 
 the people of God. That is to say, the people 
 who conform most closely to the will of God 
 as manifested regularly, normally, all the tim« 
 in the laws of the universe are the most truly 
 obedient to the will of God, and this obedience 
 brings its normal reward in the form of greater 
 prosperity. And if they succeed and flourish 
 by reason of this conformity or obedience, that 
 is a visible sign that they are chosen by God 
 himself for the peopling of the earth and the 
 building up of His kingdom. The church which 
 can show definite evidence of this kind of sal- 
 vation need not lay great emphasis upon historic 
 
114 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 origins, nor engage in windy contests over his- 
 toric questions. Which is the true church is 
 not a question of the past. It is a question of 
 the future. It is not a question of origin. It 
 is a question of achievement. In reply to the 
 question, "Can any good thing come out of Naza- 
 jreth?" it can reply, "Come and see." 
 
 The church that can show such results, that 
 can say to the unchurched, our way of life is 
 good because it works well; our people con- 
 form to the laws of health and therefore have 
 good health; they conform to the laws of agri- 
 cultural, production, therefore they have good 
 crops; our people conform to the laws of in- 
 ward peace and harmony, they do not fret and 
 worry over trifles, they economize their ener- 
 gies and do not waste them in fretfulness, in 
 idleness, in dissipation, in brawling, nor in ig- 
 norance, therefore our people are happy, — the 
 church that can make such an appeal as this 
 without exaggeration, the church that can point 
 to actual achievement of this kind, would have 
 a very effective appeal to the unchurched, and 
 would have something pretty definite around 
 which the loyalty and enthusiasm of its mem- 
 bers could develop. 
 
 It is particularly noticeable that in any good 
 farming country the good land tends to get 
 more and more into the hands of the best farm- 
 ers, for the simple reason that such land is 
 worth more to a good farmer than to a poor 
 farmer. From this fact we must predict that 
 
GETTING A LIVING IN THE COUNTRY II5 
 
 if Christians are better farmers than non- 
 Christians, then Christians will come into pos- 
 session of the farms, and the rural districts will 
 become Christianized; otherwise they will not. 
 But if non-Christians prove to be the better 
 farmers, then they will come into possession of 
 the farms, and the rural districts will become 
 paganized. We need not expect any miracle to 
 happen to prevent these results, or to save the 
 church from its own inefficiency. In view of 
 this hard and unrelenting principle, how futile 
 it would seem to discuss such questions as. 
 Should the church concern itself with tem- 
 poral affairs? or Should the church concern it- 
 self with the economic problems of its com- 
 munity? The answer is not it should, but it 
 must. Unless the church makes itself a positive 
 factor in the building of the rural community 
 and rural civilization, it will have to get out. 
 And in the main the church must rebuild the 
 rural community through its own members, by 
 making them better farmers, better citizens, of 
 more value to the community. 
 
 But if the question is asked, should the min- 
 ister teach scientific agriculture, the answer is 
 not so simple. There are a good many things 
 besides scientific agriculture necessary to the 
 making of good farmers, just as there are a 
 good many things besides military science in 
 the making of good soldiers. In the making of 
 good soldiers there are necessary, for example, 
 such qualities as courage, loyalty, and amena- 
 
Il6 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 bility to discipline. And there are such quali- 
 ties as industry, sobriety, thrift, and mutual 
 helpfulness, together with a love for the open 
 country, the trees, the crops, and the animals, 
 necessary to the making of good farmers. Sci- 
 entific knowledge is not difficult to obtain by 
 those who possess the moral qualities which will 
 enable them to use it, — such as the spirit of stu- 
 diousness, willingness to be taught, aiid willing- 
 ness to improve their methods when a better 
 way is shown. These moral qualities are not 
 so easily obtainable as the scientific knowledge 
 itself. They must be developed by a long 
 course of training, sometimes lasting over gene- 
 rations. 
 
 Since individual gifts differ, it is difficult to 
 say just what each minister should do toward 
 the making of good farmers; but one thing is 
 certain, he must achieve that result; otherwise 
 he is a failure. One may achieve this result if 
 his preaching is a clarion call to high endeavor 
 on the part of his hearers ; another if he stimu- 
 lates a love for the animals and the crops, the 
 open country, the winds and the stars; another 
 if he appeals to the still small voice of con- 
 science, so that every one who hears him will 
 do his work more faithfully and better there- 
 for ; another by appealing to patriotism and the 
 love of mankind, to show themselves in the pro- 
 duction of better crops for the feeding of the 
 nation and the hungry multitudes; and another 
 if he merely teaches agricultural science, or 
 
GETTING A LIVING IN THE COUNTRY 1 1 J; 
 
 shows the farmers how to market their products 
 economically. In any or all of these ways, and 
 many others beside, the preacher may make 
 himself and his church an essential factor in 
 the building of a rural civilization, in filling the 
 rural districts with Christians, in laying deep 
 the economic foundations of the kingdom of 
 God. But he will fail, and deserve to fail, if his 
 preaching, however popular it may be, or how- 
 ever pleasing from an aesthetic standpoint, does 
 not result directly or indirectly in a greater 
 economy and utilization of human energy in 
 his community, and in the greater success of the 
 people to whom he ministers as a result of that 
 economy and utilization. 
 
 Just at the present time social service is the 
 keynote of all our religious campaigns. We are 
 beginning to learn that the success of a religious 
 revival is to be tested not wholly by its effect 
 upon church attendance, but by its effect upon 
 the death rate; not by its effect upon church 
 contributions, but by its effect upon the rate of 
 wages; not by its effect upon prayer-meeting 
 attendance, but by its effect upon the food sup- 
 ply. But the point which needs emphasis above 
 everything else is that all useful work is social 
 service, even though we happen to get our liv- 
 ing by it; and the greatest social service any 
 church can perform is to sanctify the regular 
 occupations of its members, and make them feel 
 that they are doing religious work when they 
 are growing crpES, pr mining coal, or manufac- 
 
Il8 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 turing shoes or clothing. This is particularly 
 applicable to the country and country life, where 
 the regular occupation of the average member 
 brings him into the very closest contact with 
 the great forces of nature, where he has a more 
 intimate experience of the creative power of 
 the divine will, where it is easy to see that one 
 is working with God when one adjusts one's 
 methods of cultivation to the needs of the soil 
 and the crop which one is growing. 
 
'X 
 
 REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF RE- 
 PORT OF COMMISSION 
 
 Henry Wallace, Chairman 
 
 The Commission upon the Rural Church have 
 realized from the first that if the results of the 
 Men and Religion Forward Movement in the 
 cities are to be permanent, it must be extended 
 to the country towns and the open country. 
 The more study we have given the subject, the 
 stronger has been the conviction. The reasons 
 are obvious. 
 
 According to the census of 1910, 53.7 per cent 
 of our continental population live in the open 
 country and in country towns of less than 2,500 
 population. It is from the rural population that 
 the cities of this land, and of all lands, and in 
 all ages, have drawn the vigorous blood with 
 which to replace the enormous human waste in- 
 cident to SCity life. It may in fact well be 
 doubted whether cities of 50,000 and over could 
 continue to govern themselves, to prosper, or 
 even to continue an existence worth while, with- 
 out this stream of fresh blood from the country, 
 with its cool nerves, firm muscles and good hab- 
 its. 
 
 119 
 
'I20 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 The rural population furnishes about 90 per 
 cent of the ministry, without which neither the 
 churches of the city nor of the country can 
 survive. It has furnished the great majority 
 (estimated at from 75 to 80 per cent) of the 
 successful business and professional men in the 
 cities. The city is the testing ground of hu- 
 manity. It wears out country men and families 
 as it wears out country-bred horses ; or to state 
 it in another way: The surplus population of 
 the rural districts is fed into the maw of the city 
 as we feed grain into a thresher ; and as the re- 
 sult we have much straw, of more or less value, 
 grain of various grades, and tailings. 
 
 The men behind the Men and Religion For- 
 ward Movement have the conviction that if we 
 are to have a permanent civilization, the most 
 that is possible must — through its Social Service 
 Department — be made out of the tailings; that 
 the brotherhood of man must be practically il- 
 lustrated through its Community Service; that 
 the physical health, the mental health and the 
 efficiency of boys must be developed to the ut- 
 most through its department of Boys' Work; 
 that by its evangelistic work the gospel of Christ 
 must be demonstrated to be the only solution of 
 the problems that rise between those who have 
 and those who have not, between those who have 
 much and those who have little. The men who 
 organized this Movement have seen that if hu- 
 manity is to do well for itself, it must do good 
 to others, must be altruistic in its motives ; and 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OP REPORT 121 
 
 hence the Movement lays large emphasis on mis- 
 sions. They have seen further, that all its de- 
 partments must be bottomed on a thorough 
 knowledge of the Book in which God reveals 
 himself to us; and hence it emphasizes Bible 
 study and Bible teaching. But with all this the 
 work can not be permanent until it is carried to 
 the source from which every city in this land 
 and in all lands draws its new, fresh, virile 
 blood — the country town and the open country. 
 This great Movement, destined to be world- 
 wide, pould have been possible only in the full- 
 ness of time. It was not possible in that pioneer 
 stage when the individual was dependent solely 
 on his own right arm for the support of himself 
 and his family; when the salvation of his own 
 individual soul was not only an important thing, 
 but the only important thing. It would not have 
 been possible in that later stage — and in some 
 sections of the country a very recent stage — 
 when the salvation and Christian education of 
 the family was the Christian ideal, and when 
 churches were merely groups of families intent 
 only on family salvation. It could not have 
 come in that later stage, when to add members 
 to the church on profession was the crowning 
 glory of the preacher, whether pastor or evan- 
 gelist; when we sowed much seed, much of it 
 grew, but through lack of cultivation was 
 smothered by weeds. It could not have come — 
 nor can it come now — so long as and where 
 churches are competitive instead of cooperative, 
 
122 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 and are building up defenses against each other 
 with materials not always quarried out of the 
 Rock of Zion. 
 
 It could not come so long as the spread of 
 the gospel was regarded as mainly woman's 
 work, and men were permitted to think on the 
 spiritual side of their heads in nickels and dimes, 
 while with the material side they thought in hun- 
 dreds and thousands of dollars. In other words, 
 it could not come until religion was regarded as 
 a man's job. It could not come until Christian 
 business men with a world-vision began to see 
 that the pure daughters of the upright were not 
 safe, even though living in the parental home, 
 so long as red lights burned on the other end of 
 the avenue; that the health of the wealthy was 
 not safe so long as the slum and disease breed- 
 ing tenements were allowed to exist in the same 
 city. It could not come until they began to see 
 that neither business nor even our free institu- 
 tions were on a safe foundation until the laborer 
 received his proper reward ; until by the develop- 
 ment of the community spirit we grasped as 
 never before the full meaning of the Christian 
 doctrine, the very core of the teaching of Jesus 
 — the essential brotherhood of man. 
 
 The vision is not yet quite clear to any of us. 
 We see as yet "men as trees walking." Clear 
 vision will come in time to those who seek for 
 it; but it must include not only the city with 
 its palaces and its hovels, its paradises and its 
 slums, but also the country town and the open 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT I23 
 
 country as well, from which the city, and all 
 cities, must ever draw the fresh blood needed 
 to maintain the vigor or even the continued ex- 
 istence of urban civilization. 
 
 To the man who does not know life in the 
 open country as it really is, who knows it only 
 on the surface, the problem of realizing the 
 ideals of the Men and Religion Forward Move- 
 ment among the people of the fields may seem 
 simple and easy of solution. He may say that 
 the life of the country is in itself simple ; that the 
 country has neither palaces nor slums; that it 
 has neither millionaire nor pauper ; that there are 
 no labor unions, no strikes; that there are no 
 "publicans" to be despised nor gross "sinners" 
 to be shunned; that country life develops some 
 of the cardinal virtues of Christianity — industry, 
 economy, frugality; that there are no tempta- 
 tions to steal and few opportunities to cheat; 
 that there is neither extreme poverty nor ex- 
 treme wealth; that there is no lavish display of 
 dress and equipage; and seldom in the open 
 country either saloon or brothel. 
 
 He may go even farther, and maintain in 
 truth that the farmer is the most religious of 
 humankind, because living near to nature and 
 nature's God; that he is a constant witness to 
 the magnificence of the summer's storm of wind, 
 rain and sometimes hail, the cruel and pitiless 
 blast of the winter's blizzard as well as the 
 genial spring shower; that for him the lily 
 blooms and the flower opens to embrace the re- 
 
124 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 freshing dewdrop; that for him the birds sing 
 the sweetest songs and the fields wave with 
 golden grain. And all this is strictly true. 
 
 The problem seems entirely different to the 
 man who knows country life as it really is. The 
 difficulty in realizing in the open country and the 
 country towns the ideals of the Men and Reli- 
 gion Forward Movement do not grow out of any 
 lack of intelligence, for the rural population 
 have a higher average intelligence than the 
 urban; nor do they grow out of any lack of 
 either religious instinct or capacity. His near- 
 ness to nature makes him reverent toward God, 
 the great Power behind nature. 
 
 The prime difficulty, speaking generally, is 
 that the men of the fields are a mass of indi- 
 viduals with no social coherence, with no organi- 
 zation, and with an enormously exaggerated idea 
 of their own independence and self-sufficiency; 
 hence without social ideals and native leadership. 
 This was not so for the first half of the nine- 
 teenth century. The causes of this change are 
 not all religious nor social, but mainly economic, 
 and for their existence the farmer can scarcely 
 be held responsible. To discuss these causes in 
 detail would take me far afield; but let me re- 
 mind you of some facts you have long known : 
 
 The opening up of a tract of the richest land 
 on which the sun shines, seven hundred miles 
 square, west of the Mississippi, from 1870 to 
 1900 — land that needed neither tilling spade nor 
 ax to fit it for the plow, ruined New England 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT I2S 
 
 agriculture and seriously injured the agriculture 
 of the middle states. The enactment of the 
 homestead law, a free gift of a quarter section 
 to every landless man who wanted it; the free 
 gift of an empire of land to railroads, which 
 must be put under cultivation before it could 
 furnish traffic, so stimulated agricultural produc- 
 tion, that it iceased to be profitable. For thirty 
 years the farmers of the middle west were 
 forced to feed the cities of the Old World as 
 well as the New with food at about half the 
 cost of production; to mine their soil fertility 
 and sell it at the cost of mining. The young 
 people of the west, like those of the east, seeing 
 nothing in farming under these conditions, but 
 a life of drudgery and unrequited toil, accepted 
 the ofifer of the city of higher wages, shorter 
 hours and fellowship, good or bad, with their 
 kind. 
 
 The phenomenal growth of the cities, and the 
 success of the farm boy everywhere, stimulated 
 the ambition of the ambitious and the greed of 
 the covetous. The city grew in population, and 
 the country continually declined. Within the 
 last fifteen years prices rose, rents rose, and land 
 in the west doubled in price. The middle-aged 
 farmer, with his wife and smaller children, 
 moved to town to take it easy, thus half empty- 
 ing the rural school. There are in my State 
 three schools which last year did not average 
 one pupil, and hundreds with less than six pupils. 
 The rural school is for the most part taught by 
 
126 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 a town-bred miss, while awaiting an attractive 
 offer of marriage, or that failing, acquiring the 
 three years' experience necessary to secure a 
 position in the city schools. The country 
 churches are largely filled by young preachers or 
 students of theology, trained in the seminary to 
 tell in a pleasant way to a city congregation 
 what they think; and with an ear ever open to 
 a call from a city church. The teacher can not 
 teach in terms of fanrn life, because as a rule 
 she knows nothing about it and does not want 
 to know, because it is not to her taste. Thq 
 preacher can not preach, as Jesus did, in terms 
 of country life, because he does not know the 
 heart of the farmer. 
 
 This explains why in the country life surveys 
 which have come under my notice, taking in 
 those churches which were in CKistence ten years 
 ago, about one-fourth are growing, speaking 
 generally, one-fourth standing still, one-fourth 
 dying and one-fourth dead. This tells why, 
 with exceptions here and there, there is no social 
 life in the community, and can not be so long 
 as the farmer and his young folks are steadily 
 attracted townward or cityward. 
 
 The great superabundance of denominations, 
 and in some sections of churches, renders the 
 problem vastly more complicated and difficult. 
 Matters which evidently neither Jesus nor His 
 disciples thought of sufficient importance to war- 
 rant explicit teaching — as for example, forms 
 of church government — divide the churches in 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT I27 
 
 the country and little town, until of those who 
 sincerely desire to serve the Lord, there are 
 barely enough to keep the church alive, to run 
 the machinery, but not enough of either finan- 
 cial or spiritual power to make any impression 
 on the unchurched, numbering from 30 to 70 
 per cent of the total population. The support of 
 the church under these conditions involves often 
 great sacrifices, so great that the real object of 
 the preaching of the gospel is often overlooked, 
 namely, to make Christians, not Presbyterians 
 or Methodists or Congregationalists or Baptists. 
 The foreign missionary must perforce drop these 
 impediments and devote himself to saving souls; 
 and he succeeds. The country and the village 
 pastor, largely because he insists on lugging 
 them along with him, often fails in comparison 
 with his brother in the foreign field. 
 
 This, then, is the diagnosis: The fanner 
 looking constantly townward or cityward, with 
 no satisfactory school life, because the teacher 
 looks townward, nor satisfactory church life, 
 because the preacher, even if country-bred, is 
 trained for the town and looks townward; no 
 social center save at the s:hurch, and that for the 
 members and adherents only, or else stained with 
 the dollar mark ; small congregations ; preachers 
 paid less on an average than the coal-miner 
 or artisan; with an oasis here and there, where 
 some servant of God has seen a vision of a 
 rural civilization on a sound economic basis, 
 meeting the intellectual, the social and religious 
 
128 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 wants of the boy and girl born and raised in the 
 open country. 
 
 The realization in the open country or in the 
 country town of the ideal for which this Move- 
 ment stands requires more, much more, than the 
 preaching of the gospel as it is ordinarily 
 preached. It involves the reconstruction of 
 rural life. It involves turning the attention of 
 the rural teacher, the country preacher, the 
 farmer and his family countryward instead of 
 townward. 
 
 There must be a rural social center that will 
 gratify the desire, divinely implanted in the 
 breast of every human being, for fellowship with 
 his kind and with those of his own age and sim- 
 ilar tastes. If the boys and girls of the open 
 country are compelled, as they are now in the 
 majority of country places, to go to town for 
 their amusements, they will, if they can, go to 
 town to live. If the men and women of the 
 fields are to develop into fine human beings or 
 secure a fair return for their labor, there must be 
 some social genter where, by congenial fellow- 
 ship with each other, they may learn to know 
 and trust each other. 
 
 The preferred social center in any rural com- 
 munity is the rural church. It is already or- 
 ganized, and is ordinarily made up of the best 
 class of people in the community. It has for 
 its pastor an educated man, who has seen some- 
 thing of the world of men, and who should be, 
 and is if fit for a place, the ablest all-around 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT I29 
 
 man in his community. If he has the right per- 
 sonality and the vision of an ideal rural civiliza- 
 tion — a country community cooperating for good 
 living, for intellectual improvement, for a satis- 
 factory social life and for full expression of the 
 religious life; if he can so adapt himself to his 
 environment as to know the heart of the farmer 
 and unfold the teaching of the Master, as the 
 Master himself did, in terms of country life; 
 neither the township nor the country will be 
 the limit of his usefulness and influence. 
 
 To do this, however, he must be a man among 
 men and not merely a Presbyterian among 
 Presbyterians or a Baptist among Baptists. If 
 he can not express the eternal verities of our 
 religion in terms of rural life, he can not hope 
 to influence the life of the farmer. If he can 
 not, after the manner of Paul, show the country- 
 man how the teachings of the Master apply to 
 his eating and drinking, his buying and selling, 
 his treatment of his wife, his children, his 
 neighbors and his hired hands, he is falling short 
 of the full measure of usefulness. 
 
 Country people care little about the preacher's 
 philosophy, but they are obedient as none other 
 to a clear: Thus saith the Lord. They live 
 habitually in such close touch with the realities 
 of nature, and the power of God as manifested 
 in nature, that they can not live on negations. 
 They will forgive much, and overlook more in 
 a man who is in vital touch with their lives, 
 who is among them not merely to build up the 
 
130 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 congregation, but to develop a nobler life in tHe 
 entire community. 
 
 There is the same natural relation between 
 the forces of righteousness in the country that 
 there is between the forces of unrighteousness 
 in the city. In the latter the saloon, the brothel 
 and the gambling den always go together. The 
 country church, the country school, the exten- 
 sion work of the agricultural college and the 
 country work of the Young Men's and Young 
 Women's Christian Association are the things 
 that make for righteousness in the country and 
 country town, and should always cooperate. 
 
 The leader at the rural social center, whether 
 that be a school or a church, will combine these 
 forces. The pastor can more readily be the 
 leader and persuade the teacher in the rural 
 school to teach arithmetic in terms of the farm 
 instead of the bank or customs house; the 
 botany of the fields instead of the botany of 
 the books; local geography as well as that of 
 distant lands. He will welcome to his church 
 on a proper day the lecturer who brings the col- 
 lege to the farm. He will through the boys 
 and girls of his church and Sabbath School 
 reach out to the boys and girls of the un- 
 churched. If the boys play baseball on Sun- 
 day instead of going to church, it will largely 
 be his fault. If he were equal to his job, he 
 would persuade the parents of the boys that 
 they will do more work in five and a half days, 
 with country play on Saturday afternoons, 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT I3I 
 
 than in six days without play. The boys will 
 gladly go to hear a man preach who can do 
 them that service. 
 
 The Men and Religion work in the country 
 is essentially the same as that in the city. In 
 both there will be the community ideal and the 
 fundamental doctrine of human brotherhood. 
 The social service in the country is to take care 
 of the man on the edge, who is liable to fail 
 through sickness or misfortune, or likely to 
 yield to temptation. The boys' work is to see 
 that the boys have wholesome play that leads 
 to cleanness of life, to that efficiency which 
 goes with team work, and an opportunity for 
 development in school and church. The com- 
 munity service is that of developing a class 
 consciousness binding the country people to- 
 gether, and in both town and country evangel- 
 ism and the missionary spirit. For we serve 
 ourselves best by conscious and continuous ef- 
 fort to serve others. The church that gives 
 freely for missions will give freely to its own 
 support, and vice versa. 
 
 In both country and city we have the bane 
 of a narrow sectarianism. Narrow is the 
 proper word. Denominations we must have and 
 ought to have, for men differ in tastes and 
 points of view; but they should be cooperative 
 instead of competitive, and will be so when we 
 see clearly that the work of the denomination 
 is primarily to save souls and develop splendid 
 human beings. When denominations and 
 
132 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 preachers in the country and country towns 
 see clearly that their primary work is to save 
 souls, and to train them for right living here 
 as well as hereafter, they will see that, speak- 
 ing generally, the country is not over-churched. 
 Here and there it is; but when a community 
 understands that the pastor is their friend and 
 helper, that he stands for all that is best in 
 their lives, he will not lack an audience, nor 
 will he have need to complain of lack of finan- 
 cial support. 
 
 "I am not a member of the church," said a 
 farmer at a corn judging school the other day; 
 "but if you will send a man to my township 
 who will preach that sort of gospel, I will pay 
 a hundred dollars a year and my father will 
 pay another hundred." 
 
 The financial support given the rural min- 
 ister is as a rule shamefully small; but there 
 are two reasons for this: First, the community 
 does not regard the service of the pastor as a 
 community service, and he feels that the con- 
 gregation and not the community should sup- 
 port him. The congregations as a rule have 
 not realized that the pastor's salary should be 
 increased proportionately to the increase in the 
 price of farm products and farm labor. They 
 do know, however, that if they are to have effi- 
 ciency in a team of horses, they must keep them 
 in good heart by kindness and must feed them 
 without regard to the price of grain. They are 
 not broad enough yet to see that if they are to 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT 1 33 
 
 have efficiency in a pastor, he must be kept 
 in good heart by kindness and freedom from 
 worldly anxiety. They really mean well; they 
 simply do not think. Genuine, but tight-wad, 
 saints are they, rich in "saving grace" but un- 
 developed in the grace of giving. 
 
 We have nowi pointed out the necessity for 
 the extension of the Men and Religion Move- 
 ment to the open country, if the results of the 
 Movement in the city is to be permanent. We 
 have pointed out the necessity for a Christian 
 rural civilization, if any civilization worth while 
 is to survive in the city. We have touched on 
 the woeful lack of organization and leadership 
 in the open country, the townward and city- 
 ward look of country preachers, country teach- 
 ers, retired fanners, and the boys and girls 
 reared in the open country. We have sketched 
 briefly the economic forces that have led to this 
 disorganization, and have suggested in broad 
 outline the remedy, namely, cooperative church 
 work among the denominations, instead of com- 
 petitive, making the saving of souls and char^ 
 acter building the main objects, and the most 
 efficient means of increasing church member- 
 ship; the development of the community spirit 
 and of social centers, preferably the rural 
 church, but cooperating with the rural school 
 teacher, the extension department of the agri- 
 cultural college, and the country work of the 
 Young Men's and Young Women's Qiristian 
 Association; and above all the preaching of 
 
134 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 the gospel in terms of farm life; and as neces- 
 sarily, through a careful study of human nature 
 in the country. All. this is merely a statement 
 in terms of country life of the brotherhood of 
 man, the fatherhood of God, and the efficiency 
 of the gospel of Christ to save the man bom 
 out of the church as well as the man bom in 
 the church, the poor as well as the rich, the 
 tenant as well as the landlord. 
 
 The question arises : Will it work? The an- 
 swer is that here and there over all this broad 
 land it is being tried; and that wherever it has 
 been tried and in proportion as it has been ap- 
 plied, it has worked and will work. More than 
 that: the revival of the country church has 
 become necessary to the very existence of the 
 city church. The city has never grown enough 
 preachers to supply even half its own pulpits. 
 Even its most influential laymen are for the 
 most part country-born. 
 
 The time for a church-wide movement at re- 
 viving the country church is propitious. Eco- 
 nomic forces which during the last thirty years 
 of the last century drove the country-born to 
 the town and city are ceasing to draw men 
 townward and beginning to draw them country- 
 ward. The low cost of food, which built up 
 the cities and impoverished the country, will 
 never return. The present so-called high price 
 of food, which is merely normal, is already 
 checking the flow to the city and compelling 
 city population to spread out over the country 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT 1 35 
 
 along suburban trolley and inter-urban lines. 
 The labor troubles, now becoming world-wide, 
 mainly due to the normal cost of living and that 
 largely to the wicked waste of the fertility of 
 the Mississippi Valley, are turning the eyes of 
 the laboring man as well as the well-to-do in 
 this country and in Europe also, countryward. 
 
 Ever since the Country Life Commission, af- 
 ter having visited some thirty states, pointed 
 out the shortcomings of the rural church and 
 the country school, and the, lack of a rural 
 civilization satisfactory to its own boys and 
 girls, all denominations have been waking up 
 to the necessity of developing a higher church 
 life and a higher civilization in the country 
 town and the open country. The country 
 church is waking up. Scores of country 
 preachers are availing themselves of the aid fur- 
 nished by the agricultural colleges in their sum- 
 mer schools for country pastors. 
 
 The main thing lacking, humanly speaking, 
 is leadership. It must be leadership that knows 
 the country; leadership not only spirit-born, but 
 soil-born; not necessarily born on the soil, but 
 akin in spirit to the man who tills the soil. We 
 can not uplift men by standing off and saying: 
 "Come up to me"; but by showing them in 
 Christian humility what is best in us, we can 
 draw out in response what is best in them. 
 
 We may have to change our methods of 
 preaching — and we will when we get a broader 
 vision; — ^and lay greater emphasis on the duties 
 
136 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven on 
 this earth — the portal of the life to come — and 
 follow more closely the example of Jesus when 
 he preached to the small farmers and in the 
 country towns of Galilee. We may have to 
 broaden our conception of Christianity until it 
 includes the square deal in business and a better 
 family life; but in doing all this we shall only 
 become more Christ-like, and develop a type of 
 religious life which will carry its credentials 
 with it. 
 
 We may be obliged to modify some of the 
 teachings in the "schools of the prophets" — ^less 
 theology perhaps, much more exegesis; less 
 training in doctrinal preaching, much more in 
 exposition; more psychology or training in hu- 
 man nature, and more instruction by precept and 
 example in the best way of mixing with men 
 of all classes. All this and much more is im- 
 perative; for this nation can not survive with 
 53-7 per cent of its population unorganized, 
 hence not in touch with each other, and approxi- 
 mately half of them entirely outside the direct 
 influences of the church of God. 
 
 Agriculture after forty years in the wilder- 
 ness has at last in some sections come in sight 
 of the Promised Land — a sound economic basis. 
 To place it on a permanent basis it will be nec- 
 essary to make a careful study of some dis- 
 tinctly rural problems; among them the prob- 
 lems growing out of the relation of landlord 
 and tenant, and the problem of cooperation for 
 
REMARKS ON PRESENTATION OF REPORT 1 37 
 
 better business as well as a better social life. 
 What the country needs, in addition to material 
 prosperity, is opportunity for development of 
 the intellectual life, of the social life and of the 
 spiritual life. In all these last leadership must 
 be taken by the country church. Given this, 
 and the country will continue to send to the 
 city, as it did in the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, the most magnificent material for build- 
 ing up a splendid urban civilization. The alter- 
 native is : eventually a rural peasantry, "the man 
 with the hoe," and a decadent nation. 
 
BOOK II 
 SOCIAL RELIGION IN THE COUNTRY 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE CHURCH 
 AND COUNTRY LIFE MOVEMENT 
 
 George Frederick Wells 
 
 Scientific management has not yet been ap- 
 plied in the field of the rural * church. When 
 the trial is made, the conservation and greatly- 
 increased efiiciency of our working forces for a 
 better rural life will unquestionably result. 
 
 On what lines can conservation, redirection 
 and stimulation be attained? We can look no- 
 where else for the answer to this question than 
 to a scientific, Christian program for the social 
 welfare and betterment of the rural community. 
 
 On reflection one realizes that already very 
 much has been lost to the church and country 
 life movement by too limited attention to the 
 literary side of the question. As great as the 
 losses may have been on the educational, the so- 
 cial service, the civic and the agricultural and 
 economic sides of the movement, we believe that 
 they have been even greater on the religious 
 or church sides. Enthusiastic leaders have 
 dashed into the field to work out seemingly all 
 
 * For the sake of clearness let it be said that the etandyoiat 
 of this discussion as to the definition of the term rural is that 
 of the United States Census Bureau. The terms "rural" and 
 "country" alike refer to political divisions outside of cities 
 having fewer than 2500 people. When territory outside of 
 cities, towns and village communities is distinctly referred to. 
 it is under the term, "open country." 
 141 
 
142 THE RURAL CHURCHJ 
 
 important plans without turning to tfie library 
 to find that the same things have already been 
 accomplished in a multitude of cases. Had 
 greater heed been given to the matter of bibliog- 
 raphy, also, the present literature of the subject 
 would now be at a much higher stage. We may 
 well expect that the writers of the future will 
 begin where the writers of the past have left 
 off. The time has arrived when the mere con- 
 ventional covering of old ground is unwelcome. 
 The library study of the question, therefore, is 
 a part of the process which is finally to solve the 
 spiritual and social problems of rural progress 
 in America. 
 
 The framework of this study of church and 
 country life literature will be a practical and at 
 the same time a scientifically valid community 
 program for country churches. For a fuller 
 statement of this, see the Annals of the Ameri- 
 can Academy of Political and Social Science 
 (March, 1912, pp. 137-9) and Warren H. Wil- 
 son's leaflet, "The Country Church Program" 
 (address its author, 156 Fifth Avenue, New 
 York). 
 
 To classify our literature will in large part 
 describe it. To classify and to describe, on the 
 background of a central, living outline, will in- 
 sure its investment in the field of service. To 
 classify, describe and invest will send forth lead- 
 ers who will produce a civilization on American 
 soil, which will be abreast of the highest and 
 best in American ideals and spirit. 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE MOVEMENT I43 
 
 The first, most fundamental, and most ex- 
 pansive item of religious work in any given 
 community is to get there a God-worshiping 
 group of people. Such a worship group re- 
 quires two things. The first of these is a 
 preacher of the Gospel as a religious leader. 
 The second is a house or church in which to 
 worship. The literature which places special 
 emphasis upon the leadership of the Christian 
 minister in country districts is already quite ex- 
 tended. 
 
 One book which treats most admirably in a 
 general way of the problem of the supply of min- 
 isters for local leadership is John R. Mott's 
 "The Future Leadership of the Church" 
 ($1.00), 
 
 It may safely be said that if a country pastor 
 can have only one book which treats especially 
 of country community building, that book should 
 be "The Story of John Frederic Oberlin" by 
 Rev. Augustus Field Beard, D. D. ($1.25.) The 
 practical importance of this book, as a demon- 
 stration of what one man by a life-long ministry 
 accomplished under trying circumstances, can- 
 not easily be over-estimated. It amounts to an 
 inspiration. It would be an invaluable mission 
 to make this book available in every non-urban 
 parish in America. 
 
 Two other books have been published, which, 
 though not of so great practical import, are con- 
 
144 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 spicuous additions to the literature of leadership 
 in rural parish work. "Some Famous Country 
 Parishes," by Professor Ezra S. Tipple, D.D., 
 Ph.D. ($1.50), portrays most attractively the 
 rural origin and environment of John Fletcher, 
 Charles Kingsley and others. "A Country 
 Parish" by Frank Samuel Child ($1.25), is an 
 interesting story of the "Prime Ancient So- 
 ciety" of which Mr. Child is now minister. 
 
 During the past few years, the country life 
 movement, in seeking information concerning 
 the re-direction and integration of religious and 
 social forces, is doubtless responsible for an over 
 emphasis. The popular call for fewer rather 
 than for more church buildings represents, pos- 
 sibly, such an over emphasis. Now that we 
 know that, in the larger part of the United 
 States, overlooking is in excess of overlapping, 
 and that rehgious vitality is more needed than 
 less church equipment, the tide has turned. The 
 church erection, church building and church ex- 
 tension work of the missionary boards has been 
 continued with courage, though often unheeded 
 by the more popular movement. 
 
 There is no book of outstanding service on 
 this increasingly important phase of rural better- 
 ment. The article on Home Missions in the En- 
 cyclopedia of Missions (Funk & Wagnalls Com- 
 pany, New York, 1910, pp. 301-11), will give 
 some general light upon this subject. Two ar- 
 ticles are available upon the architecture of 
 country churches in general. The first is, "The 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE MOVEMENT 145 
 
 Rural Church," by J. Cleveland Cady (Outlook, 
 Sept. 26, Oct. 31 and Nov. 28, 1896, 287 Fourth 
 Avenue, New York), and the other is "The 
 Country Church in America," by WiUiann B. 
 Bigelow (Scribner's Magazine, Nov., 1897). 
 
 II 
 
 A Worship Group should very soon grow into 
 a Service Group. The second item in the pro- 
 gram of a church concerns the duty of the mem- 
 bers of that church to be of personal service to 
 people outside of the church. A service group 
 requires a program of spiritual work and teach- 
 ing which, for the country church in common 
 with all churches, consists of evangelism, reli- 
 gious education, pastoral and personal visitation, 
 temperance and other moral reforms and mis- 
 sions. 
 
 The class of books which emphasizes individi- 
 ual missionary service in behalf of country com- 
 munity life has a few splendid examples. 
 
 The book of greatest recent interest on this 
 phase of rural need is "The Church of the Open 
 Country," by Rev. Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D. 
 (50 cents). Since its publication, it has awak- 
 ened many earnest persons to the possibilities 
 of devoted work outside not only of cities, but 
 of towns and villages as well. 
 
 "Rural Christendom," by Rev. Charles Roads, 
 D.D. (90 cents), and "The Day of the Country 
 Church," by Rev. J. O, Ashenhurst ($1.00 net), 
 are most valuable supplements to stimulate to the 
 
146 THE RUkAL CHURCH 
 
 practice of the second stage in the growth of the 
 country church. 
 
 The leading book thus far upon the religious 
 phase of the country life problem is beyond ques- 
 tion, "The Country Town" by Rev. Wilbert L. 
 Anderson, D.D. ($1.00). This book interprets 
 the problem in both a deeper and a broader spirit 
 than any other. It is not mentioned at the head 
 of the present division because it is more a scien- 
 tific survey and argument than a missionary ap- 
 peal. President Kenyon L. Butterfield's "The 
 Country Church and the Rural Problem" 
 ($1.00), unexcelled in clearness and sympathy, 
 occupies medium ground as to both content and 
 mission, between the books by Anderson and' 
 Wilson. Which of these books should one first 
 read and study, it may be asked. The close 
 student of the problem' should first read Ander- 
 son, the average working pastor might well read 
 Butterfield, and the Christian worker in the 
 church should give first attention to Wilson. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The third fundamental step for the country 
 church is to lead those who worship God and 
 personally serve their fellow-men to realize fel- 
 lowship or federation with other like groups if 
 they exist in the same community. 
 
 In the same way that it is impossible for a 
 child to do the work of a man simply because 
 he is not large and strong enough, it is often 
 impossible for one church to work with a neigh- 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE MOVEMENT I47 
 
 bor church on the federal or level plan. Where 
 two or more churches in a community have like- 
 ness in their stages of development, they may 
 enter a Fellowship Group by forming what are 
 called maximum service church federations, one- 
 minister federations of churches, or inter-church 
 associations. In some instances, with two or 
 more adjoining congregations, it may be decided 
 that the best thing is to form one church and 
 congregation, to be affiliated with a single de- 
 nomination. 
 
 The literature on the subject of the practical 
 federation of country churches is very limited. 
 There are no books which treat especially of the 
 subject. Pamphlet literature may be obtained 
 by addressing the Federal Council of the 
 Churches of Christ in Aimerica, at 215 Fourth 
 Avenue, New York; and Rev. E. Tallmadge 
 Root, Field Secretary of the Massachusetts and 
 Rhode Island Federations of Churches, 53 Mt. 
 Vernon Street, Boston, Mass. 
 
 The following publications are of leading 
 value upon this important problem of country 
 churches: — "What is Church Federation?" in 
 the Homiletic Review for June, 1911 (35 cents), 
 "A Study in Local Church Federation" (40 
 cents), and "One-Minister Federations of Coun- 
 try Churches" (30 cents for the series). 
 
 IV 
 
 A church through fulfilling its life as a Wor- 
 ship Group, a Service Group and a Fellowship 
 
148 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Group may thereby develop to the point of abil- 
 ity to cooperate as an organization with other 
 organizations in the same icoramunity. 
 
 The church as a member of a Cooperative 
 Group will promote or inspire the improvement 
 of schools and their consolidation where neces- 
 sary; the improvement of the Grange and other 
 organizations which encourage better farming; 
 and the improvement of organizations for pub- 
 lic recreation. 
 
 The second and the fourth items of the coun- 
 try church program mark very different kinds 
 of activity. The spirit of the Service Group 
 church is that of personal service. The spirit 
 of the Cooperative Group church is that of co- 
 operation between organizations as such. 
 
 The book with which we are most familiar 
 on this phase of the subject is "Chapters in 
 Rural Progress," by President Kenyon L. But- 
 terfield ($1.00 net). This book treats of the 
 farmers' institute, the Grange, and the farmers' 
 school, on a level with the farmers' church. 
 This level plan marks this entire class of litera- 
 ture. It is the literature of the federation of 
 rural social forces. 
 
 The book of the broadest, most Statesmanlike 
 and yet of the most sympathetic and penetrating 
 spirit is Sir Horace Plunkett's "The Rural Life 
 Problem of the United States" ($1.25). 
 
 Four publications of conspicuous value belong 
 to the literature of the country church in co- 
 operation. The Report of the Country Life 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE MOVEMENT I49 
 
 Commission, Senate Document No. 705 of the 
 United States Government, is the best known 
 of these (75 cents net). The fourth volume of 
 The Cyclopedia of American Agriculture 
 ($20.00 net) discusses the whole range of coun- 
 try life organizations and principles in a most 
 interesting and practical manner. "Country 
 Life," the March, 1912, number of the Annals 
 of the American Academy of Political and So- 
 cial Science ($1.00) is a most useful and handy 
 volume. The only periodical of national scope 
 which touches the field of the church and coun- 
 try life in a standard manner is "Rural Man- 
 hood," the keynote of which is cooperation 
 (County Work Department, Y. M. C. A. 124 
 East 28th Street, New York, $1.00 per year). 
 Three books by Dean L. H. Bailey, "The State 
 and the Farmer," "The Country Life Move- 
 ment" and "The Outlook to Nature" ($1.25 
 each) have the point of view of rural social co- 
 operation. 
 
 There is yet a harder task for the eountry 
 church. It often happens in the country, as in 
 the city, that home life, school life, civic life, and 
 industrial or commercial life, do not adequately 
 provide needed human privileges. In such cases, 
 the church must make of itself a home, a school, 
 a civic institution, or an industrial or commercial 
 agency. At any cost, it must secure provision 
 for public health, wholesome living conditions. 
 
150 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 and the care of dependents, defectives, and de- 
 linquents. By thus substituting, it enters into 
 the relations of the Substitutional Group. The 
 church as a substitutional group does institu- 
 tional church work. 
 
 The literature on this phase of work is very: 
 meager. Rev. Charles E. Mayward's "Institu- 
 tional Work for the Country Church" (50 
 cents), conveys much of the point of view and 
 method of institutional work. "Institutional 
 Church Work in Rural Sections," by the Rev. 
 Jonas Inman (10 cents) is an enlightening ar- 
 ticle. 
 
 There are two further stages of development 
 which it is the privilege of country churches to 
 strive for. There are, therefore, two more items 
 in a community program for rural churches. 
 
 VI 
 
 Each and every church in a rural community 
 should become a vital part of the entire com- 
 munity. A church fulfils its community rela- 
 tion and social duty when it reflects the reli- 
 gious and moral aspect of the whole community. 
 No church is fully a community church until 
 its life becomes the religious life of the whole 
 Community Group. 
 
 VII 
 
 The country church may become vitally re- 
 lated to church and society everywhere. The 
 church which both gives and receives from so- 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE MOVEMENT 151 
 
 cial forces external to the community, thereby 
 enters the World Group. It thus realizes its 
 place in the Christian Kingdom. 
 
 Such, today, is the many-sided, but infinite 
 possibility and problem of country churches, 
 viewed in the light of a new perspective. 
 
 Many active and growing rural churches prac- 
 tice these advanced stages of work in some or 
 most of their aspects. The whole literature of 
 the rural problem has the spirit and ideal of just 
 such standards. We cannot now, although we 
 will sometime, be able to point to specific literal^; 
 treatment of all these aspects of work. 
 
 There are, however, two classes of writings 
 which emphasize country church work related 
 to community groups and world groups. The 
 first is the literature of the survey idea in coun- 
 try life. The second is the literature of country 
 church demonstration. 
 
 SOCIAL SURVEY LITERATURE 
 
 We desire to study the rural church in all its 
 relations. We need, therefore, to know in which 
 one or more of the group stages any given 
 church is functioning. Therefore, the social 
 survey literature. 
 
 Professor L. H. Bailey's "The Survey-Idea in 
 Country-Life Work," though it emphasizes more 
 the agricultural than the social side of the sub- 
 ject, is a timely instruction to rural investiga- 
 tion (Pamphlet, 19 pp. Address the author at 
 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.). 
 
152 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 The Department of Church" and Country Life 
 of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions 
 has recently published four valuable reports of 
 rural surveys in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri 
 and Illinois. They are the beginning of a series 
 of illustrated reports of actual conditions, which 
 may be secured by addressing the Department 
 at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. 
 
 Three handbook guides to the making of sur- 
 veys in rural and village communities by pastors, 
 classes of students or by social experts are avail- 
 able. The first is "A Social Survey for Rural 
 Communities" (ten cents per copy). "A 
 Method of Making a Social Survey of a Rural 
 Community," by Rev. C. J. Galpin, is an interest- 
 ing treatment of the same subject from a differ- 
 ent angle (Circular of Information No. 29, Jan- 
 uary, 1912, II pp., the University of Wisconsin 
 Agricultural Experiment Station, Madison, 
 Wis.). "A Social Service Program' for the 
 Parish" by Rev. F. M. Crouch presents a 
 scheme which will interest still others. 
 (Pamphlet of the Joint Commission on Social 
 Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 24 
 pp. It may be had upon request of the author, 
 157 Montague Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.). 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH DEMONSTRATION 
 
 The most useful literature today on the coun- 
 try church is that which reports agtual work 
 and results. "The Story of John Frederic 
 
THE LITERATURE OF THE MOVEMENT I53 
 
 Oterlin" by Beard has been the pioneer of this 
 class of studies. "Quaker Hill, A Sociological 
 Study," by Rev. Warren H. Wilson ($1.10), has 
 had some influence. The best known demon- 
 stration story of this class is that by Rev. Mat- 
 thew Brown McNutt, pastor of Du Page Pres- 
 byterian Church, Plainfield, 111., "Ten Years in a 
 Country Church" (25 cents). "How a Country 
 Church Found Itself" by Rev. C. O. Bemies 
 (World's Work, Aug., 191 1) is a similar inter- 
 esting portrayal.* 
 
 * This review of church and country life literature would be 
 incomplete without some reference to available bibliographic lists 
 upon the subject, "Writings on Practical Country Church 
 Problems" (Homiletic Review for Aug. 1909) is a somewhat 
 exhaustive list of publications up to that date. "A Selected 
 Bibliography on the Country Church Problem," a pamphlet by 
 the New England Country Church Association, is another good 
 beginning (8 pp., Sept. 1909. Address Prof. H. K. Rowe, 
 Newton Center, Mass.). In November, 1910, the Gospel of the 
 Kingdom (Bible House, New York) published "A Selected 
 Bibliography of the Country Church Problem." 
 
 Notb: The books in the foregoing list may be obtained at 
 prices noted by addressing ASSOCIATION PRESS, 134 East 
 38th Street, New Yoric. 
 
II 
 
 THE COUNTRY MINISTER 
 
 G. Walter Fiske 
 
 The country minister is the minister of the 
 church that serves the working farmer. The 
 term has not so very much to do with the census, 
 for there are country ministers in many a good- 
 sized village as well as in the open country; and 
 unfortunately most of the preachers serving the 
 churches in the open country live in towns and 
 villages instead of with their people. 
 
 There is no denying the fact, that vnth the 
 growing city dominating our civilization, the 
 country minister has not been envied, or his post 
 coveted; except perhaps by men unequal to his 
 task. Too frequently it has been a mere step- 
 ping-stone to a city pastorate instead of a stop- 
 ping place for a genuine life work. 
 
 But with the coming of the Rural Life Move- 
 ment and a broadening opportunity for the 
 country church, the title country minister is be- 
 coming once more a title of honor; just as the 
 term country gentleman is again coming to its 
 own. A new rural civilization is gradually win- 
 ning its way in the country. It is blessing the 
 country with many comforts and social privi- 
 leges. A new economic prosperity follows in 
 IS4 
 
THE COUNTRY MINISTER 1 55 
 
 its wake. Rural life is here and there becoming 
 the envy of the "cliff-dwellers" in the cities. 
 And even rural discontent vanishes before the 
 smile of dollar wheat. Gradually but surely 
 rural life is being redirected and readjusted to 
 the new conditions, and this promises a brighter 
 day for the country church. It rests largely 
 with the church to make the promise good. 
 
 This means a new opportunity for the right 
 sort of country minister. It is an opportunity 
 sufficient to claim) the whole life service of big 
 men. In fact the task of successful readjust- 
 ment is too difficult for any but strong men. 
 Broken down ministers who have failed in the 
 city must not look to the country parsonage today 
 as a refuge from toil or a temporary harbor for 
 repairs. The insistent needs of the Kingdom of 
 God in rural districts today demand strong, ef- 
 ficient men, specifically trained for country serv- 
 ice, lovers of the country life, and thoroughly 
 acquainted with country people and their needs. 
 
 SOME PERSONAL REASONS FOR FAILURE 
 
 It IS not the function of this chapter to dis- 
 cuss broadly the country church problem. But 
 the personal relation of the minister to that prob- 
 lem it is necessary for us to consider; for it is 
 altogether too true in most country churches that 
 success or failure depends upon the minister. In 
 saying this, however, we do not relieve a 
 decadent Church of the responsibility for 
 its own failures. The pattern largely deter- 
 
156 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 mines the product, and the country minister is 
 usually just as large a man as the rural church 
 has allowed him to become. 
 
 In many instances we find that country 
 church decline is the fault of the pastor. Very 
 often he does not live with his people but 
 in a town several miles away. This results ia 
 making the minister a town man rather than a 
 country man and social differences combine with 
 distance to make successful cooperation doubly 
 difficult. This also tends to turn the minister 
 into a mere preacher, when what the country 
 churches need most is a pastor; — not a gossip- 
 monger but a strong friendly man who lives the 
 gospel right among his people. 
 
 More fundamental than this is the minister's 
 lack of preparation. In the great majority of 
 cases the country pastor is an untrained man 
 trying to do a skilled laborer's task; — or more 
 accurately, he is a professional man with little 
 or no professional training. We expect little 
 legal wisdom or success from untrained lawyers. 
 We consult poorly trained doctors only for 
 "light cases." Even our school boards in count- 
 less places are insisting that teachers must have a 
 professional training in normal schools. But 
 three-fourths of the country ministers, when all 
 denominations are considered, have practically 
 no preparation for their profession except what 
 they have "picked up" by themselves. An under- 
 trained profession is necessarily an under-paid 
 profession. Well trained ministers usually receive 
 
THE COUNTRY MINISTER I57 
 
 a living wage. The bulk of country ministers 
 except in a few denominations are neither well 
 trained nor respectably paid. It takes a per- 
 sonality of real strength, and fitted by a com- 
 plete course of study, to develop a country church 
 into a financially capable, as well as spiritually] 
 effective, institution. 
 
 The country church today with its broaden- 
 ing responsibilities requires the leadership of 
 ministers of thorough preparation and high 
 ideals. 
 
 IDEALS OF THE COUNTRY MINISTER 
 
 With constantly rising standards in all pros- 
 perous rural communities, there should be a 
 parallel rise in the ideals of the ministers. The 
 lazy, seedy dominie, contented with marking 
 time, and confining his energies merely to run- 
 ning his meager church machinery, is only a 
 petty sort of parish priest. The narrow-hearted 
 ecclesiastic, bent solely on building up his little 
 church at the community's expense is a tame 
 sort of social vampire. It is the broad-gauged 
 man, counting himself not merely the hired man 
 of his little church, but the minister of the King- 
 dom of God, who really serves his community. 
 It is thus he magnifies his office, by forgetting 
 it in service; and through unselfish service be- 
 comes the recognized "person," the real leader 
 of the community life, if he stays there long 
 enough to become universally loved and re- 
 spected. 
 
158 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Toi attain this success, the country minister 
 must have broad ideals of the Church's mission. 
 Two things keep many strong men out of the 
 rural ministry today: A divided over-churched 
 field and a narrow opportunity. That is, narrow 
 sectarianism resulting in limiting a man's chance 
 to a fraction of a community (and therefore a 
 meager salary) and a narrow conception of the 
 Church's function. But strong men are able to 
 develop a broad community usefulness for the 
 Church. The pastor who merely tries to save 
 the souls of his little flock and diplomatically 
 "get them into heaven" has missed the true con- 
 ception of the Church's function. The whole 
 man must be redeemed, in body, mind and 
 spirit. There has been too much superficial 
 "soul-saving" which has left the pocket book un- 
 consecrated, the mind still fettered by tradition, 
 the body still enslaved by appetite and the social 
 conscience unaroused by the call for brother- 
 hood. 
 
 If there is any sort of human need or com- 
 munity weakness in the place, it is the Church's 
 duty, as the vicar of the Christ who went about 
 doing good, to see to it that that need is met in 
 some adequate fashion. The Church will usual- 
 ly do this indirectly by inspiring other agencies 
 or individuals, but somehow it must fill the gaps 
 in the social structure and either do the needed 
 work or get it done. 
 
 It will be necessary to make at once a thorough 
 sociological survey of the field, to discover what 
 
THE COUNTRY MINISTER I59 
 
 its needs are, and what the human resources are 
 which may be utilized to meet the needs. The 
 details will work out differently in every field 
 and will vary greatly with every passing year. 
 The main thing is to see the vision of the 
 Church's broad opportunity as the divinely ap- 
 pointed guardian of humanity in the community, 
 a responsibility which cannot be limited to the 
 issues of the next world, and may not be post- 
 poned or avoided, but must be met, in order to 
 make this world a decent world to live in, and 
 our rural corner of it a comfortable and re- 
 spectable place for character to grow. 
 
 THE minister's IDEALS OF COOPERATION 
 
 The larger vision; of his mission will force the 
 country minister out of the petty jealous atti- 
 tude of mind which regards every other social 
 institution as in competition with his church. 
 The burden of his task, to save his community 
 and annex it to the Kingdom of God here and 
 now, will so weigh upon him that he will gladly 
 welcome two things : the most cordial federation 
 with all other Christian churches in his town- 
 ship; and cooperation with every agency which 
 is in any way bettering the life of the people. 
 
 This will involve on the one hand a church 
 federation with all churches in the township, and 
 also in the country, for planning a country-wide 
 campaign for righteousness, and conserving 
 all religious interests on the community basis. 
 
l6o THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 It will involve not only occasional union 
 services of worship but perhaps quarterly con- 
 ferences to plan for the welfare of the com- 
 munity and to organize cooperative work for the 
 season. Churches unwilling to meet this test 
 are magnifying sectarianism at the expense of 
 the Kingdom of God. The minister should be 
 loyal to his denomination, but the welfare of his 
 community as part of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 has prior claim upon him. 
 
 The country minister with right ideals will 
 also cooperate with all other agencies for rural 
 welfare : the local schools and library, the Grange 
 and such other fraternal organizations as are 
 really serving the community rather than acting 
 as social parasites; the village improvement so- 
 ciety, the nearest hospital, the township trustees 
 or "overseers of the poor," the farmers' insti- 
 tutes and cooperative societies, the nearest agri- 
 cultural college, and particularly the rural Young 
 Men's Christian Association, if organized in his 
 county. When the last of these is well con- 
 ducted it probably has the best leverage of all 
 social forces for uniting the churches in country 
 sections today. 
 
 IDEALS OF PERSONAL EFFICIENCY 
 
 The country minister must have higher ideals 
 of personal efficiency and thoroughness. The 
 problem of the rural church will never be solved 
 until we have stronger personalities in the rural 
 
THE COUNTRY MINISTER l6r 
 
 pulpits and parsonages. It is a question of 
 leadership, ultimately. Give us big enough men 
 and the difficulties will quickly vanish. A 
 modest country minister said to me not long ago, 
 "I've never been in a church yet, but where, if 
 I'd been a big enough man, I could have solved 
 the problem." 
 
 Another man, "loafing on his job," who re- 
 marked that he "hoped he would some day have 
 an opportunity big enough really to test his pow- 
 ers" is never likely to succeed. He is losing his 
 great life chance by neglecting present oppor- 
 tunities. 
 
 The country churches must not expect much 
 stronger leaders until they pay living salaries 
 which will make it! possible for the strongest men 
 to rear cultured families in the country parishes. 
 But the men now in the field can grow to be 
 larger men, if they mil. The growth of per- 
 sonality is the hardest task in life; but with God 
 all things are possible. Let in God's spirit and 
 a small soul simply has to grow. The prescrip- 
 tion for a growing life of leadership is this : Let 
 the spirit of the living God into your life; then 
 your personality will continuously outgrow itself. 
 Thus has all high leadership been developed and 
 effectually maintained, from the days of Moses 
 to the present. 
 
 Let the country minister raise his own ideals 
 of personal efficiency. Let him not be satisfied 
 with himself, though his people flatter him 
 enough to turn his head. Let him insist on 
 
l62 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 scholarly habits of life, regular study hours, per- 
 sistent, vigorous work at his books. 
 
 The lack of books need not prevent this: 
 colleges, theological seminaries, state and city 
 libraries will meet a man more than half-way, 
 if he is really hungry for books. Poverty may 
 prevent the country minister's owning many 
 books, — and some have practically no books 
 at all, — ^but nothing need prevent his read- 
 ing the best literature except his own lack of 
 the scholar's ambition. The traveling library is 
 here to stay. No American minister needs to 
 "go dry on brains" for lack of books. 
 
 The danger of mental stagnation is one of the 
 most serious dangers the rural ministers face. 
 But it can be conquered. A persistent habit of 
 scholarly life will greatly help. Keeping in 
 touch with the nearest libraries will keep up the 
 supply of the best books, though the pocket book 
 may fail. And the incentive for study can be 
 gained by comradeship with the best minds in 
 the parish and in the country. Rural ministers 
 should be more helpful to each other here. Let 
 them plan courses of study together and meet 
 in small groups once in two weeks for confer- 
 ence and discussion. Let them secure the help 
 of agricultural college extension privileges. Iri 
 all possible ways let them keep in touch with 
 the thinking world and they will keep their own 
 thought vital. They will thus become, as they 
 should become, leaders of thought, as well as 
 life, in their community. 
 
THE COUNTRY MINISTER 163 
 
 One element in the minister's efficiency is his 
 democratic mixing with country folks. The 
 smaller the minister's personality, the more 
 he seems to delight in being called, "The 
 Reverend Brown," or even "Reverend" for 
 short. Not only is this stamp of professionalism 
 a serious hindrance to the man's influence, but it 
 is also ungrammatical. The term reverend is 
 only a prefix ; it is not a title. The word rever- 
 end is not a noun. It has never been anything 
 but an adjective. In some sections this abuse 
 of the English language is very common. 
 
 Two other matters of policy and method are 
 serious enough to require attention in this 
 crowded chapter: the dependence on revivalism 
 and the habit of sectarian preaching. The rural 
 sections need genuine evangelism, the gospel of 
 righteousness, and of personal and social re- 
 demption, preached in every church and school- 
 house of the land. But superficial, emotional re- 
 vivals have for generations been the curse of 
 the rural church. Dependence upon the annual 
 revival to keep the church alive is as unnatural 
 as dependence on any other stimulant. Most of 
 us have learned to shun stimulants, the after 
 effects are too awful. Let the country pastor be 
 his own evangelist most of the time, and follow 
 up and prepare for his work of spiritual harvest- 
 ing with a continuous program of thorough re- 
 ligious education and spiritual culture. 
 
 In the northeastern part of the country sec- 
 tarian preaching of the old fashioned sort is 
 
164 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 seldom indulged in, but in many other sections 
 it seems to be still the stock in trade of many 
 rural pulpits. Divisive sectarianism always 
 postpones the Kingdom of God. It is peculiarly 
 bad in the country, where Christian unity is so 
 necessary. It is a sin at least, in the city; but 
 it is a crime in the country. At best it is a 
 city luxury which the rural sections cannot 
 afford. 
 
 Let nothing said herein be construed as un- 
 friendly criticism of the man who is faithfully 
 bearing the heaviest, loneliest burdens of the 
 Church, the country minister. He deserves 
 praise, patience and appreciation. But he needs 
 to enlarge his own capacity for effective service 
 by seeing broader visions and discovering larger 
 ideals of efficiency. He should not always be 
 blamed for his failures. Too often he is called 
 to his church with the cheerful hope that he will 
 accomplish the impossible, in spite of inherited 
 difficulties of long standing. And if he fails to 
 crowd the church, fill the contribution box and 
 make people love each other who are deter- 
 mined not to, then he may be pronounced unsuc- 
 cessful and is allowed to move on in disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 Rather let him stay by his task five years in- 
 stead of one and he will compel success. Con- 
 tinuity of leadership of the right sort solves the 
 rural problem. And let us have more leaders of 
 the right sort, college men with the vision of 
 rural opportunity, who hear ringing in their ears 
 
THE COUNTRY MINISTER 165 
 
 the call of the country for men who love country- 
 folks. For such men there is a difficult life mis- 
 sion today, with plenty of "the moral equivalent 
 of war," but a chance to invest their lives as 
 community builders like Johann Friedrick Ober- 
 lin. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE MINISTER'S USE OF THE SURVEY 
 E. Fred Eastman 
 
 A survey of a community is a scientific 
 study of the forces and conditions that are af- 
 fecting the lives of the people who live within 
 its bounds. It is a study of all such forces and 
 conditions — economic, industrial, social, educa- 
 tional, moral, vital and religious. It is the scien- 
 tific rather than the doctrinal approach to the 
 work of improvement. 
 
 Why make such a study? Better ask, how 
 work efficiently without it? For how improve 
 until we know just what needs improvement? 
 How remedy until we make a diagnosis? The 
 modern minister is not content with treating 
 symptoms ; he wants to get at causes. He wants 
 to find what the forces in his community are 
 that work against the Kingdom of God. 
 
 But the forces are not always apparent. For 
 example, the churches of a certain community 
 are bemoaning the fact that they are losing 
 ground, that their membership is dwindling and 
 that interest in religious matters is a thing of the 
 past. The modern minister is not content with 
 assigning such causes as "Worldliness," "Love of 
 Money," "Cooling of the Heart," "Grip of Sin," 
 etc., to this state of affairs. He knows that such 
 i66 
 
THE minister's USE OF THE SURVEY 167 
 
 phrases are descriptions of symptoms, not 
 causes, and that the trouble lies deeper. He 
 undertakes a survey, and he makes these dis- 
 coveries (I take an actual instance) : 
 
 In the last ten years the price of farm land in 
 his community has increased over one hundred 
 per cent, doubling the farmer's capital. But the 
 farmer's income has not increased. The five 
 thousand dollar farm that yielded an income of 
 five hundred dollars ten years ago still yields the 
 same income although the value of the farm has 
 gone to ten thousand dollars. The interest on the 
 farmer's investment is therefore but five per 
 cent to-day, where it was ten per cent ten 
 years ago. This condition has naturally given 
 rise to the tendency to sell, to convert the 
 capital into cash and put it where it will bring 
 a larger interest. Many farmers have followed 
 this tendency, have sold their farms and moved 
 away. .When they have moved, of course, they 
 have gone out of the church. The population 
 has become a shifting population. Community 
 spirit has died — witnessed by the passing of com- 
 munity recreation, the old husking bees, quilting 
 bees, barn raisings, etc. The minister discov- 
 ers not only that his population has become shift- 
 ing and that social life has become stagnant; he 
 finds that morals are suffering. The rise in the 
 price of land has raised the age of marriage, 
 with an inevitably harmful effect upon the sexual 
 cleanliness of the young people of the commun- 
 ity. Ten years ago when land was twenty dol- 
 
l68 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 lars an acre, a young man could afford to buy 
 a patch of forty acres or more by the time he 
 was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. He 
 could afford then to get married, to "set up for 
 himself" at that age. But to-day land is forty 
 dollars an acre, and the young man must save 
 longer. He is now twenty-five or twenty-six 
 before he can "set up for himself" and his girl's 
 age is proportionately greater. In other words, 
 the period between the birth of the young peo- 
 ple's social instincts and their marriage — ^the 
 temptation period — has been lengthened. Is it 
 any wonder that the number of young people 
 who can keep themselves clean through a temp- 
 tation period of, say, eight years, is less than 
 the number who can keep themselves clean 
 through a period of five years? 
 
 The minister goes back to his pulpit realizing 
 that the religious decadence of his community 
 has had economic causes. Economic causes 
 need economic remedies — not theological. He 
 can preach to his people now out of an under- 
 standing of their problems and a sympathy with 
 their struggles. He can shape his gospel to meet 
 their needs. This is but one example of what 
 his survey discovers. It brings to light forces 
 that work in silence but produce effects of 
 mighty consequence. It shows relationships that 
 were not guessed ; it shows possibilities for serv- 
 ice that were undreamed of. 
 
 How make such a study ? It is a simple thing, 
 more simple by far than it may appear on paper. 
 
THE minister's USE OF THE SURVEY 169 
 
 Let us consider first the ground the survey 
 covers, and second, the way to get the facts. 
 First, the ground to be covered. 
 
 1. Boundaries, Maps, Etc. Prepare seven 
 outline maps of the community, one for each of 
 the following sections: economic conditions, 
 population, transportation and communication, 
 recreation and morals, education, religious activi- 
 ties, and social welfare. The boundaries of the 
 community will really be difficult to determine. 
 In general they will be measured by a day's 
 team haul radius from the community center. 
 It is often convenient for purposes of using sta- 
 tistics already collected by the government to 
 use the township (or in the South the election 
 district) as the basis of the survey. Just what 
 the boundaries of the community shall be, should 
 be determined, however, by the common sense of 
 the men who are to make the study rather than 
 by any general rule laid down by an outsider. 
 These outline maps should contain simply the 
 roads, the schools, the churches, markets and 
 the important features of the topography. 
 
 2, Economic Conditions. The following 
 data should be collected under this head: the 
 natural resources, mineral and vegetable, the 
 amount and sources of the farmer's income, a de- 
 scription of the quantity and character of farm 
 tenantry and farm labor, an account of the 
 quantity and kind of specialized farming, an out- 
 line of the methods of farming including a de- 
 scription of the rotation of crops commonly em- 
 
170 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 ployed, the use of commercial fertilizer, the care 
 of farm machinery, the amount of artificial 
 drainage and the general effects of the prevail- 
 ing method of farming upon the fertility of the 
 soil. All these things should be studied in re- 
 lation to their status ten years ago to show in- 
 crease or decrease, progress or decadence. 
 Under this head also should come a brief study 
 of the markets and the transportation agencies 
 employed in marketing and whatever cooperative 
 undertakings there are for selling or producing. 
 
 3. Population. After finding the present 
 number of inhabitants of the community, find 
 out what changes have taken place in this popu- 
 lation during the past ten years, what increases 
 or decreases, and their causes. In case families 
 have moved out, find where they have gone. If 
 families have moved in, find where they came 
 from. Make a short classification of the pop- 
 ulation by industrial types, that is, the number of 
 farm owners, farm tenants, farm hands, me- 
 chanics, merchants, clerks, miners and profes- 
 sional men. 
 
 4. Transportation and Communication. 
 Find the number of miles of macadamized, 
 gravel, and dirt roads, of railroads and of trol- 
 leys. Find out the cost per mile of building and 
 of maintenance of each of these. Then make a 
 study of the way public opinion is being formed. 
 Find where men meet, when they meet, how 
 many of them meet and who are the moving 
 spirits among them. Describe the social cen- 
 
THE minister's USE OF THE SURVEY I7I 
 
 ters. Describe the effect of the introduction of 
 the telephone upon the social life. Find out the 
 number of societies, secret and open, the mem- 
 bership of each, the average attendance and just 
 what they contribute to the social life of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 5. Recreation and Morals. Find out how 
 how many of the following recreations are in 
 vogue in the community, together with the num- 
 ber taking part in each and the character and 
 purpose of the performance: baseball, bowling, 
 basketball, football, dances, moving picture 
 shows, pool and billiards (rooms), theaters, lec- 
 ture courses, home talent plays, indoor gym- 
 nastics, tennis, golf, cards, picnics, socials and 
 fairs. It is very important to find what agency 
 provides these recreations — church, school, sa- 
 loon, lodge, societies or some unorganized 
 agency. The question of morals is a ticklish one 
 and should be handled with care. The moral 
 conditions among the unmarried should be de- 
 scribed. The average age of marriage together 
 with the fluctuations in this age during the last 
 ten years should be determined. The number 
 of saloons and blind tigers in the community to- 
 gether with quantity and character of their pat- 
 ronage should be found and careful estimates 
 prepared of the material cost of these institu- 
 tions. If the community has any centers of 
 special moral infection they should be studied the 
 same way. 
 
 6. Rural Education. The following data 
 
172 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 should be secured for each school: (a) Ma- 
 terial equipment, including the number of rooms, 
 the dimensions of each, the decorations, char- 
 acter of the desks, the lighting (whether from 
 one side or from two or more sides), the heat- 
 ing, the presence or absence of globes, maps, 
 charts and musical instruments, the nature of the 
 water supply, the location and condition of the 
 toilet, the size, beautification and equipment for 
 play of the grounds, (b) The teaching force, 
 including the number of teachers, male and fe- 
 male, their qualifications (academic training, di- 
 ploma held and grade of certificate) their salary 
 as compared with previous years and with other 
 schools, and their tenure, (c) Pupils. The 
 enumeration of the district compared with its 
 enrollment and both compared with its average 
 attendance. The character and purpose of the 
 organization in the student body should be de- 
 termined and the general sentiment of the pupils 
 concerning the school, (d) Studies. Find 
 out to what extent the following studies are 
 taught : Nature Study, Elementary Agriculture, 
 Domestic Science, Manual Training, Music and 
 Drawing. Note the length of the year's session 
 in days and the number of recitations each 
 teacher has per day. (e) Library. Find the 
 number of volumes, their value, the amount 
 spent during the last year, the character of the 
 selection and the proportion of pupils that use 
 the books, (f) The school as a social center. 
 Find the number of entertainments given in a 
 year, their character and to what extent attended 
 
THE MINISTERS USE OF THE SURVEY 173 
 
 by the school patrons. Determine for what 
 other purposes the school building might be 
 used for community betterment, (g) Miscel- 
 laneous. Find out how much the school actu- 
 ally costs, where the money comes from and 
 how it is spent. If it is a one-room school, find 
 out if consolidation with other schools would be 
 practicable. 
 
 7. Religious Conditions and Activities. 
 Locate each church upon the map and then ob- 
 tain the following information concerning it: 
 value and equipment, membership and attend- 
 ance (note increase or decrease during the last 
 ten years), size and character of the Sunday- 
 school, how graded, how taught and how sup- 
 ported. Describe each organization in the con- 
 gregation in reference to purpose, membership, 
 number of meetings per year and the service 
 rendered by it. Find the church budget and see 
 how its money comes and how it goes. De- 
 scribe as impersonally as possible the minister, 
 in regard to his preparation, education, salary, 
 family and his previous charges. Learn from 
 what class of the population the church is draw- 
 ing its membership. That is, is it reaching only 
 the prosperous, the farm owners, or does its serv- 
 ice extend to the tenant, farmers and the hired 
 hands? When each church has been studied, 
 get this general information for the whole com- 
 munity: what proportion are members of any 
 church, how much cooperation exists between the 
 various denominations; what is the general 
 sentiment of the community toward religion in 
 
174 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 general; number of abandoned churches, and 
 what practical service the churches in general 
 are rendering to the community. 
 
 8. Social Welfare. Describe the housing 
 conditions of the community in regard to the 
 average number of rooms, the sanitation, the in- 
 terior and exterior decorations, and the labor 
 saving devices for women. Lastly, obtain from 
 the Board of Health or the physicians of the 
 community if there is no Board of Health, the 
 vital statistics within the last few years, — ^birth 
 rate, death rate and the number who have died 
 from preventable diseases. 
 
 Second, the way to get the facts. From what 
 sources will the minister get these facts ? From 
 the following: 
 
 (a) From public records. Much material can 
 be had at the County Court House in the public 
 records of the County Clerk (for marriage li- 
 censes, etc.). Treasurer, Assessor, Surveyor, 
 Commissioners (if there are any). Recorder and 
 Superintendent of Schools. Many counties have 
 a Board of Health which ig glad to furnish vital 
 statistics. The Bureau of the Census, Wash- 
 ington, D. C, has for free distribution two bulle- 
 tins on every state, one on Agriculture and one 
 on Population. These contain invaluable data 
 if the community boundaries correspond with 
 the minor civil division, which is the basis of 
 the Census Reports. The published reports of 
 various denominational bodies, Associations, 
 Presbyteries, Conferences, etc., are also avail- 
 able for church statistics. 
 
THE MINISTER S USE OF THE SURVEY 17S 
 
 (b) From interviews. Choose a dozen well 
 informed representative men and women in the 
 community, and interview them regarding the 
 various sections. If a house-to-house canvass 
 is practicable, so much the better, but it is not 
 necessary. A dozen answers to the same list 
 of questions from as many different parts 
 of the community give fairly accurate re- 
 sults. Each answer will have eleven checks 
 upon it. It should be emphasized that the people 
 to be interviewed should be representative, not 
 simply the best known or the wealthiest. They 
 should include farm owners, tenants, real estate 
 men, merchants, professional men, teachers and 
 young people as yet unlabeled in regard to call- 
 ing. It should be remembered, too, that the min- 
 ister is going after facts, not opinions. He will 
 find it advantageous to be equipped with letters of 
 introduction from well known public men, a 
 state official or two as well as local men. Of 
 course every minister, teacher and official in 
 societies and clubs should be seen in person to 
 obtain the official data o:S the organization which 
 each represents. 
 
 Let the minister use his outline map for the 
 different sections in whatever way seems best. 
 It is a good opportunity for developing undis- 
 covered genius.* 
 
 • In case it is impossible for the minister to make the survey 
 personally, the writer suggests the agency of fourteen men in 
 the congregation who can be counted upon for three hours a 
 week for a month or so. Separate the men into seven teams of 
 two each. Assign one team the study of Economic Condi- 
 tions, another, Population, a third. Transportation and Com- 
 munication, a fourth, Recreations and Morals, etc. Then pro- 
 ceed as above. 
 
176 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 When the work of collecting data is completed, 
 prepare a report. If the minister has not found 
 what the community needs; if he is not able to 
 say without hesitation and without doubt, 
 "Here is where our efforts must be applied, and 
 here, and here," he has not done his work 
 well. If he has failed to see the connection 
 of the respective sections while doing the field 
 work, he cannot fail to see it now. He will 
 find that all have been parts of the great whole; 
 that the conditions found under one section of 
 the study are but the natural results of certain 
 causes uncovered in another. The combined re- 
 port will form a Book of the Community, such 
 a book as it has never had before. Now let him 
 prepare recommendations. 
 
 When these are ready it is time for Conserva- 
 tion Day. Advertise that day. It is the day 
 on which the community will learn of what stuff 
 it is made, and what its needs and possibilities 
 are. Bring as many of the community into the 
 meeting as the church will hold. .Let each team 
 present its report and its recommendations in 
 plain, straightforward English. With the 
 knowledge of the facts before it, with a man 
 prepared to lead it, the church is ready to shape 
 a program for its service to the community. It 
 is' ready to do battle for the Lord. 
 
ly 
 
 COOPERATION AND THE STRUGGLE 
 OF MAKING A LIVING 
 
 J. L. Coulter 
 
 The hardest struggle of the human race is the 
 struggle to preserve life. During the earlier 
 centuries, human being in groups protected them- 
 selves against attacking parties, and here we have 
 an illustration of the struggle for preservation 
 of human life that was true cooperation. The 
 purpose was mutual defense, or mutual oflfense, 
 whenever necessary. During the hunting and 
 fishing stages, men cooperated in their effort to 
 find a living. During the long centuries after 
 people took up agriculture and the care of flocks 
 and herds, men cooperated. They formed vil- 
 lage communities, or clans, or tribes, or in some 
 way showed that they believed it was best to 
 work together in their effort to make a living. 
 In time of war they cooperated with each other 
 in attacking the enemy and in time of peace they 
 likewise cooperated in their struggle with Nature 
 in her many forms. The first real break of 
 large dimension from the usual accepted form 
 of organization came with the establishment of 
 farms owned and operated as separate units. 
 The family became a unit, distinct from the 
 clan, the tribe, or the community. Of course 
 177 
 
178 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 there was some division of labor (which may Be 
 called cooperation), among the members of the 
 family, but this is a very secondary form and 
 is not to be compared with the true cooperative 
 spirit not based upon family love and affection. 
 With the establishment of thousands, and finally 
 of millions of individual farms, a new, great and 
 powerful characteristic was developed and has 
 continued to develop in many sections of the 
 world. This is individualism, and the deter- 
 mination to struggle without cooperation with 
 one's fellow men. 
 
 But the cooperative spirit never entirely dis- 
 appeared. It could not and it cannot now be 
 destroyed. Even at the present time, coopera- 
 tion is absolutely necessary for the purpose of 
 maintaining government. Here we have polit- 
 ical cooperation. It displays itself in the elec- 
 tion of representatives to carry on the govern- 
 ment. It is omnipresent in some form- in all 
 political activities. This cooperative spirit is 
 necessary and is constantly present whenever the 
 thought of war or the need for protection arises. 
 Where we have a squad of men, or a company, 
 or a battalion, or a regiment, organization and 
 cooperation are absolutely necessary, and all men 
 recognize this fact. 
 
 Man is a gregarious animal. It is the excep- 
 tional man who is an anarchist in politics, a 
 miser in economics, or a social recluse. Men 
 like to talk together, to eat together, to sing to- 
 gether, to commune with each other in various 
 
THE STRUGGLE OF MAKING A LIVING I79 
 
 ways, and therefore for social purposes men have 
 cooperated and will continue to do so. 
 
 The desire of people to get together, and in- 
 deed the absolute necessity for getting together, 
 is as well shown when we consider the playing 
 of children as in any other case. Practically 
 no game can be played without the cooperation 
 of two or more children. The base ball game 
 and the foot ball game would be impossibilities. 
 Without cooperation we would have to be sat- 
 isfied with the individual child playing with a 
 doll or a rattle. What is said of play is equally 
 true of social activities generally. The choir, 
 the music hall, the theater, — all are based upon 
 cooperation, and unless there is perfect coopera- 
 tion there cannot be true harmony. But these 
 activities receive the attention of people only as 
 children and during an occasional evening or 
 afternoon during later life. The spirit of co- 
 operation, however, is thoroughly developed 
 among the small boys and girls. If we desire 
 to encourage and develop cooperation in later 
 life, it is fundamental that games and songs and 
 organizations of boys and girls for other pur- 
 poses should be fostered during their younger 
 years. 
 
 But these activities are not so closely related 
 to the struggle of making a living as are many 
 other activities of the farming class. As we 
 pass along, we find the need for cooperation re- 
 duced more and more until we reach the point 
 where we find the farmer thoroughly convinced 
 
l8o THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 that cooperation is entirely unnecessary. In con- 
 trast we find other business men who live in 
 cities, towns and villages organizing for every 
 conceivable purpose, — ^bankers, lawyers, mer- 
 chants, doctors, teamsters, laborers, — all or- 
 ganize. 
 
 Farmers willingly cooperate in the construc- 
 tion of roads. This includes the building of 
 bridges, the digging of ditches, the clearing of 
 paths through the forest. But after they have 
 prepared such a road as is absolutely necessary, 
 the need for further cooperation is not as power- 
 ful, and it is more difficult to secure cooperation 
 in the perfecting of the road than in the original 
 laying of the highway. On the frontier, in the 
 absence of trained carpenters, bricklayers, plas- 
 terers, lathers, plumbers, and others of this class, 
 farmers have been in the past and are at the 
 present time, driven to cooperation in the build- 
 ing of their homes. Qiildren are unable to 
 work, the mother of the family can do little, 
 the father is helpless alon& Several neighbors 
 will get together and each assist the others from 
 time to time in the completion of their build- 
 ings. This kind of cooperation was more neces- 
 sary in the past than it is at the present time. 
 Because of the absence of the necessity, this 
 homely old way of rendering assistance to a 
 neighbor has more or less disappeared. 
 
 The struggle for a living best displays itself 
 (in agriculture) in the herding of flocks and in 
 the cultivation of the soil. Here cooperation 
 
THE STRUGGLE OF MAKING A LIVING l8l 
 
 was necessary in the earlier days to protect the 
 flocks from wild animals and thieves. With the 
 perfection of political cooperation, this organiza- 
 tion for economic protection was less necessary 
 and gradually disappeared. Fences were built 
 and officers of the law were selected to main- 
 tain the peace and to protect the property. At 
 the present time in many communities there is 
 such close cooperation among the people that 
 rules of groups of farmers are constructed into 
 laws that dogs shall not run at large because 
 they endanger the lives of the smaller domestic 
 animals on the farms. This is a sample of poli- 
 tical cooperation with great economic signif- 
 icance. 
 
 Thousands of illustrations of this kind of co- 
 operation could be cited. Suffice it to say that 
 whenever enough members of a community agree 
 upon some step which will be to the mutual 
 advantage of the community, effort is made to 
 secure through political cooperation a law carry- 
 ing into effect the desire of the majority. If, 
 however, it is not necessary for all to agree to 
 the law, and whenever a majority cannot be 
 secured, it is common for a voluntary associa- 
 tion to be organized. In this case, only those 
 who become members put into effect the desire 
 which prompted the organization. This is 
 special cooperation and not universal coopera- 
 tion in which the majority plan for all. 
 
 Under the system of conducting agriculture 
 at the present time in the United States, the in- 
 
l82 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 dividual farm unit predominates. There are 
 very few farms operated by communities. There 
 are many large farms! operated by hired laborers, 
 and many large plantations operated by many 
 tenants, but this is not true cooperation. We 
 have division of labor to be sure, but not mutual 
 cooperation. The individual farmer owns such 
 live stock as he has on his farm. He owns 
 such implements and machinery as he has. With 
 his domesticated animals attached to his machines 
 he cultivates the soil of which he has charge. 
 
 In some sections of the country, however, co- 
 operation is necessary, and in all parts of the 
 country it is desirable in agricultural production. 
 In sections where there is not enough water or 
 where there is too much water, cooperation is 
 almost absolutely necessary to dig ditches for 
 carrying off the surplus and to provide irriga- 
 tion facilities for carrying on sufficient water. 
 In all parts of the country, cooperation is desir- 
 able. Groups of farmers should own in com- 
 mon valued animals to head their herds, and 
 more expensive machines and implements such 
 as road machines and many large field machines. 
 Likewise, many communities would find it to 
 their advantage to own large combination plows 
 to be operated by powerful engines. 
 
 But after the preliminary work of producing 
 the crop has been completed, the need for co- 
 operation is even more pronounced. The need 
 begins with the gathering of the crop. This is 
 true in the cotton fields, in the orchards, in 
 
THE STRUGGLE OF MAKING A LIVING 183 
 
 the grain fields, and in live stock areas. Uni- 
 form grading, sorting, packing, and preserving, 
 is desirable. Here there is need for cooperative 
 canning factories, fruit drying factories, cream- 
 eries, cheese factories, baling presses, cotton gins, 
 oil mills, and many other similar enterprises. 
 These cooperative enterprises may take the form 
 of capitalistic cooperation, or they may take the 
 form of democratic cooperative societies. I be- 
 lieve that every effort should be made to bring 
 to the people of this country industrial demo- 
 cracy in which the human being is the power 
 behind the throne and not the money invested. 
 This is clearly the rule in our political life, in 
 our social life, in our religious life, and why 
 not in our economic life? 
 
 I noted above the desirability and the need 
 for cooperation in the changing of the raw ma- 
 terial produced by the farmers, changing cream 
 into butter and cheese, cotton seed into oil, etc. 
 This is not only desirable but it is actually car- 
 ried on in many parts of the United States. In 
 the large fruit belts, cooperative picking, sort- 
 ing, and packing is common. In the great grain 
 belts of the North and West, cooperative han- 
 dling of grain is now an established fact. In the 
 cotton belt of the South, the cooperative ware- 
 houses, gins and oil mills have already made 
 their appearance. In the vegetable areas, co- 
 operative marketing and canning societies have 
 gotten a foothold. In the large dairy sections 
 of the North, the cooperative creamery and 
 
184 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 cheese factory is now making rapid headway. 
 
 No harm can come from discussing the stor- 
 ing of agricultural products in the same breath 
 with cooperation in manufacturing or changing 
 the form of the product. I think it is equally true 
 that no harm can come from discussing at the 
 same time cooperative marketing of such prod- 
 ucts as the farmers have for sale. Organiza- 
 tions are rapidly forming but thousands are still 
 necessary to look after the marketing of the sur- 
 plus of fruits, nuts and vegetables, grains and 
 seeds, hay and forage, tobacco, cotton and other 
 products of American farms. Two-thirds of the 
 people of the United States live in cities, towns, 
 and villages. They must be supplied from the 
 farms of the one-third who live in the open 
 country. Both buyers and sellers should be 
 organized into community groups in order to re- 
 duce the struggle for an existence to its most 
 economic form. All waste should be elminated 
 wherever possible. 
 
 Just as it is true that consumers of agricul- 
 tural products should organize to purchase sup- 
 plies from the producers, just as it is desirable 
 to establish cooperative stores in cities, towns, 
 and villages, so it is necessary for farmers to 
 organize into cooperative societies to purchase 
 things which they need but which they do not 
 produce. Here we have need for organization 
 to purchase implements and machinery, live 
 stock, feed, household suipplies, and other very 
 useful articles. 
 
THE STRUGGLE OF MAKING A LIVING 18$ 
 
 Farmers must recognize the uncertainties of 
 nature. Sometimes it rains too much, some- 
 times not enough ; sometimes it hails ; sometimes 
 the wind blows; the lightning strikes, and na- 
 ture is not just as it should be from the view- 
 point of the individual farmer. Not all are in- 
 jured. Indeed, few are hampered in their 
 struggle for a living. This year it is one per- 
 son, the next year it is another. The same per- 
 son is seldom visited several years in succession. 
 There is great need here for community of in- 
 terest so that when one suffers, the burden of 
 the suffering may be distributed among many. 
 In this way all suffer very, very slightly every 
 time the lightning strikes; all suffer slightly 
 whenever it hails; whenever fire burns a build- 
 ing; whenever an animal dies. But under this 
 system, no member of the community suffers 
 very materially at any time. The burden is dis- 
 tributed. The need is mutual insurance for all 
 members in every community. There are at 
 the present time thousands of these mutual socie- 
 ties in the United States and more are being 
 established from year to year. The need is 
 recognized. The instrument is invented. Uni- 
 versal adoption is the demand of the times. 
 
 In the struggle for a living, directing force is 
 almost if not quite as essential as physical labor. 
 We cannot depend upon the man of genius, the 
 man with an intuition, the one who is bom 
 with foresight. The great mass of people must 
 have constant organization, careful education. 
 
l86 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 In order to effect this to the highest degree, it 
 is absolutely essential that wider and more sat- 
 isfactory cooperation be applied in our educa- 
 tional institutions. The country school, isolated, 
 poorly equipped, trying to serve a small number 
 of children with a poorly trained teacher can- 
 not survive many more years. At the present 
 time, in the northern states, with the greatest 
 success in Indiana, consolidated or union schools, 
 are rapidly being established. The consolidated 
 school has three or more rooms with courses 
 suited to the need of the country children. The 
 union school is a combination of two of the 
 smaller schools into a two room school. Co- 
 operation in education, in the consolidation of 
 schools, is one of the great cooperative move- 
 ments of the present day. 
 
 The movement during the century when one 
 turns towards religious activities has been in the 
 direction of disintegration, — ^breaking down of 
 the old church organizations and the establish- 
 ment of new sects and denominations. If this 
 movement were found in other fields we might 
 compare it to the movement of individuals who 
 insist upon having a special make of furniture 
 for their rooms, who must have shoes made to 
 order, who must have their heads measured for 
 hats. But we are tending in the opposite direc- 
 tion at the present time. We must accept more 
 and more the standard product because it is 
 econonuic and because the struggle for a living 
 demands it. And so in the religious field. 
 
THE STRUGGLE OF MAKING A LIVING 187 
 
 Each must be willing to let the other worship 
 in his own way in his own home, but a common 
 church with common instituions accepted by all 
 must be the development of the next generation. 
 We have noted the need for cooperation in 
 times of war and in times of peace. We have 
 noted the possibilities of political and industrial 
 cooperation. In the struggle to make a living 
 men are forced to act together. We have noted 
 the possibilities of cooperation for social pur- 
 poses, for educational purposes, for religious 
 purposes. Indeed, there is no field of human 
 activity where cooperation is not an advantage 
 over individualism. But in order to have suc- 
 cessful cooperation, it is necessary for each one 
 to yield to the other. With a million people, 
 each has a slightly different way of looking at 
 things. These should form themselves into 
 groups who think most nearly along the same 
 lines. Mutual helpfulness must be adopted 
 throughout the land. If I help my neighbor or 
 make him any better off in any way, I do a 
 good turn for him, a better turn for the country, 
 but best of all for myself, for in turn I am sure 
 to reap many fold. 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE 
 WiLLET M. Hays 
 
 Surveys of country life have helped to bring 
 clearly into view certain weak and inefficient fea- 
 tures in the organization of country life. The 
 great development of science and practical tech- 
 nique during the past half century have placed 
 both farming and home making on a new basis. 
 This' new knowledge demands an avenue through 
 which to approach farm production and country 
 life. Some of our older institutions which can- 
 not meet the conditions under an enlarged science 
 and practice of agriculture and home making 
 are giving way. New institutions are being de- 
 vised and methods that are better adapted to the 
 new conditions are supplanting the old. 
 
 Since the county is an administrative unit 
 through which things approach country life 
 from the outside, it will serve for the unit in dis- 
 cussing plans for the recentering and reorganiza- 
 tion of country life institutions. Without guid- 
 ance the county was filled up with too many 
 small, unrelated, unorganized, and often competi- 
 tive country life institutions. In a county of 500 
 square miles there were 125 one-room schools, 
 each with a district two miles square. There 
 were often a hundred churches, which, not be- 
 188 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE 189 
 
 ing at the same centers as the schools, served to 
 decentralize the conamunity life. Villages and 
 country stores scattered here and there, mainly 
 at still other centers, further tended to decentral- 
 ization and a lack of organization. In many 
 counties creameries, cheese factories, grange 
 halls, town meeting halls, and other institutions 
 placed without reference to unified neighborhood 
 centers still further make a hodgepodge of the 
 rural community. While this scrambled condi- 
 tion is not without some minor advantages, it 
 makes impossible organic unity of the life in the 
 open country such as is found necessary for 
 efficiency in all biologic, social, and economic or- 
 ganizations. 
 
 Recognizing the weakness of this lack of 
 orderly organization of country life, experiments 
 have been made, some of which have resulted in 
 the development of improved institutions which 
 may be fitted together into an efficient system. 
 The one most fundamental feature of the pro- 
 posed new plans for organization of the open 
 country is very simple but its simplicity aids to 
 give to it its paramount importance. The mere 
 act of consolidating the several one-room schools 
 into a several-room school, increasing the school 
 neighborhood from four square miles, to twenty- 
 five square miles, or thereabouts, is the basic 
 feature of the new plan. By traveling in public 
 vans to these schools for a decade or two, the 
 children are prepared to make a unit of the en- 
 larged neighborhood. Not only the educational. 
 
igo THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 but the social, economic, political, and even this 
 church life of the community may thus be cen- 
 tered about this nucleus, the consolidated rural 
 school. 
 
 In the enlarged sphere of this recentered coun- 
 try life new and larger things become possible 
 along many lines. The division of labor in the 
 enlarged school makes possible the employment 
 of a teacher prepared to instruct in agriculture 
 and another prepared to instruct in country home 
 making. These teachers can give instruction 
 not only to the boys and girls, but also to the 
 parents along many vocational lines concerning 
 the management of the farms and the farm 
 homes and concerning neighborhood interests. 
 As soon as all of the several hundred people of 
 the enlarged neighborhood become intimately 
 acquainted in the school, new and more vital 
 forms of recreational and social life are de- 
 veloped. 
 
 The cooperative organization for marketing 
 dairy, grain, fruit, live stock, and other products 
 becomes practicable. A political unit, or voting 
 precinct can be made coterminous with the school 
 neighborhood; and may we not hope that the 
 church, in a federated or unified form, will 
 gravitate to a common meeting house beside the 
 consolidated rural school? Societies of horti- 
 culture, live stock, women's clubs, granges, etc., 
 centered at the school will gain a more vital foot- 
 hold than can these organizations now when the 
 rural neighborhoods lack definite centers. 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE I9I 
 
 Consolidated rural schools, which had their 
 beginning in New England "towns" many years 
 ago, but which were begun in the open country 
 less than twenty years ago, in northeastern Ohio, 
 are undergoing a rapid development. This re- 
 centering is distinctly a farmers' movement, 
 though teachers generally favor it. Township 
 after township, and district after district is be- 
 ing consolidated until now it is estimated that 
 there are between 2,000 and 3,000 of these open 
 country schools, more or less typical, in that they 
 haul the children to school from a district sev- 
 eral miles across to a school building with several 
 rooms. The greatest drawback these schools 
 have had has been the lack of teachers of agricul- 
 ture and home economics. State colleges of 
 agriculture have only recently appreciated the 
 very great opportunity they have in extending 
 their vocational lines of education through these 
 schools. Once these colleges have produced a 
 sufficient number of teachers of agriculture and 
 country home making to supply two to each 
 school of this kind, the popularity of consolida- 
 tion will doubtless bound forward with great 
 rapidity. It is estimated that for the nearly 
 3,000 agricultural counties, approximately 30,000 
 consolidated rural schools in the open country 
 and 10,000 village schools with country life 
 features in them will be necessary. These would 
 not cover quite all the area, as it is found nec- 
 essary to retain the one- and two-room school 
 building in isolated places, as in mountain valleys. 
 
192 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 where consolidation is not practicable. There 
 will be tributary to each of the nearly fifty state 
 colleges of agriculture, an average of approxi- 
 mately 800 consolidated rural schools, ranging 
 all the way from several such schools in Rhode 
 Island, to several thousand in Texas. In a typ- 
 ical agricultural state like Iowa or Georgia, ap- 
 proximately 2,000 of these schools will give 2,000 
 opportunities for the state college of agriculture 
 to extend its teaching of agriculture and home 
 economics to all the people. If Iowa agricul- 
 tural college for example, had 2,000 of its gradu- 
 ates teaching agriculture and 2,000 teaching home 
 economics to one or two hundred thousand of 
 Iowa farm youth from twelve to seventeen years 
 of age, the college would have an influence in 
 the state several times as great as that which if; 
 now exerts. If each of these teachers sent an- 
 nually one graduate from the local schools to 
 study agriculture or home economics in the state 
 college, that institution would soon have tens of 
 thousands of collegiate students in these subjects. 
 It has been suggested that instead of the col- 
 leges taking the students direct from these local 
 consolidated rural and village schools, there be 
 a series of secondary schools between these and 
 the college. Following this idea the so-called 
 Page-Wilson bill in Congress would place the 
 federal government in the position of cooperating 
 with the states in establishing an agricultural 
 high school in each eight or ten counties. Thus 
 Iowa, with its nearly 100 counties would have, 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE I93 
 
 broadly speaking, 1,500 consolidated rural 
 schools in the open country and 500 consolidated 
 with, or as a part of the village schools. It 
 would have ten agricultural high schools, and one 
 agricultural college. The Page-Wilson bill also 
 provides that the state normal schools would 
 assist the agricultural college in preparing the 
 teachers of agriculture and home economics for 
 these schools. Again using figures broadly, we 
 may assume that each consolidated rural schools 
 would have 100 pupils in the first six grades, 
 thirty in the 7th and 8th grades, and twenty pupils 
 in the 9th and loth grades. This would give an 
 aggregate number of 200,000 in the first six 
 grades. Beginning the technical subjects with the 
 7th grade, it would give, of students studying the 
 vocational courses, 60,000 in the 7th and 8th 
 grades and 40,000 in the 9th and loth grades, or 
 100,000 in all. If, now, 500 students attended 
 each of the ten agricultural high schools, there 
 would be in these institutions, 5,000 students. 
 If the agricultural college and the state normal 
 schools then had 5,000 in agriculture and home 
 economics, there would be, counting above the 
 6th grade, a total of 115,000 studying the voca- 
 tions of farming and home making. 
 
 Since nearly everybody is in favor of such a 
 scheme as we have roughly outlined, may we not 
 look forward to the development of the country 
 church, rural recreational life, cooperation in 
 marketing farm products, and in purchasing 
 farm supplies, and other needed developments to 
 
194 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 give us both greatly increased farm products 
 and a country life with larger outlook, socially 
 brighter, with sweeter homes, and a stronger 
 place even than now in our civic and political 
 life? 
 
 Can we not build upon the works we see ac- 
 complished in the invention of machinery, in the 
 growth of science, and in the scientific breeding 
 of plants and animals, a faith that we can also 
 rebuild our country life organization? Is not 
 this is a great engineering proposition ? Have we 
 not developed, here and there, successful units 
 out of which we can construct a whole with 
 greater power for good? Shall we longer as- 
 sume that we must wait for country life or- 
 ganization to evolve as it may? Are not our 
 leaders ready to do team work in devising a new 
 country life social structure? 
 
 If we are ready for this large piece of states- 
 manship, must we not recognize that the physical 
 act of consolidating the rural schools, thus provid- 
 ing larger country life centers, is the first and 
 most important part in our foundation plan? 
 
 The effort above has been to show the parts of 
 the structure: The next question which arises 
 is: What are the agencies which should build 
 the parts of this structure? Manifestly our 
 farmers, our legislators, and our educators must 
 cooperate under newly devised laws in bringing 
 about consolidation. The legislature may do its 
 part by providing a law under which the county 
 can make for itself a plan, so outlining the dis- 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE I95 
 
 tricts of the entire county that no parts are left 
 out. This will avoid inharmonious and incom- 
 plete plans where each part of the county con- 
 solidates groups of schools upon local initiative. 
 Such a plan unites the entire county in taking this 
 matter up seriously and systematically. The 
 state legislatures could do nothing better than 
 to offer to pay part of the cost of changing 
 from the one room to the several room school. 
 Thus if $i,coo were offered toward the new 
 school building and $500 or more a year toward 
 the additional cost of vocational instruction in 
 the new school, the farmers of the county would 
 be induced to make the change in an orderly way. 
 Money given from the state treasury to these 
 schools will do the most good if given specifically 
 for that part of the work which provides for 
 vocational instruction in agriculture and country 
 home making, leaving the general studies to be 
 paid for as now from local funds. A thousand 
 dollars annually added to the current expense of 
 each of thirty or forty thousand districts would 
 then cost the states $40,000,000. The increased 
 farm production from farmers thus better trained 
 in their business would easily cause an increased 
 production of $400,000,000 or a profit of 1,000 
 per cent, annually. The better homes, better 
 social conditions, and the stronger life generally 
 arising' from this new system of education, would 
 easily be worth in addition several times $400,- 
 000,000. 
 
 Congress, the state legislatures, and private in- 
 
196 THE RURAL CHURCBC 
 
 dividuals are now spending approximately one 
 million dollars annually in extension work, much 
 of which is called demonstration farming. Un- 
 der this system an expert farmer is employed in 
 each county. He secures the cooperation of 
 some of the best farmers of the county in demon-- 
 strating in a scientific and practical way methods 
 of greatly increasing the yields under the aver- 
 age conditions of soil and climate in that county. 
 Between one and two hundred thousand farmers 
 ard thus cooperating with the United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture and the state colleges 
 of agriculture. These same county teachers of 
 demonstration farming also work with the farm 
 boys and girls. Under the auspices of the United 
 States Department of Agriculture about 75,000 
 farm boys are competing, each growing an acre 
 of corn; and about 25,000 girls are competing, 
 each growing and canning one-tenth of an acre 
 of tomatoes. Those who get the largest yields, 
 and those who produce the products most eco- 
 nomically, are given prizes and the one who wins 
 the state prize is usually given a free trip to 
 Washington to call on the President and receive 
 a diploma from the Secretary of Agriculture. 
 The popularity of this work is leading toward 
 the establishment of farm demonstration bureaus 
 in the agricultural counties of the entire United 
 States. In some of these bureaus, along with 
 the demonstration farm teacher a woman expert 
 in the teaching of farm home making is! also em- 
 ployed. These several thousand teachers of agri- 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE I97 
 
 culture and home economics are cooperating with 
 the county superintendents in the introduction of 
 agriculture and home making in the rural 
 schools. The colleges of agriculture have 
 on hand, immediately the stupendous task; 
 of supplying trained workers for these 
 3,000 county bureaus, and for the thirty or 
 forty thousand consolidated rural schools which 
 the present movement promises to develop. As- 
 suming that each teacher will remain inl the pro- 
 fession for an average of five years, there will 
 be needed, including the teachers in agricultural 
 and home economics in other high schools, ap- 
 proximately 10,000 new teachers each year. 
 Thus, on an average, each of the fifty state col- 
 leges of agriculture will be called upon' to supply 
 200 annually. If one-fifth of the number grad- 
 uating from agricultural and home economics 
 courses become teachers, this will mean average 
 graduating classes of i,ooo. Manifestly, these 
 agricultural colleges will need the assistance of 
 agricultural high schools and state normal schools 
 in turning out this enormous number of teach- 
 ers. 
 
 What strength and joy we could add to the re- 
 ligious life of this country if after consolidating 
 the three or four hundred thousand one-room 
 rural schools into forty thousand consolidated 
 rural schools, we could so federate and unite the 
 hundreds of thousands of weak rural churches 
 as to have an average of two churches for each 
 consolidated rural school district and have these 
 
198 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 80,000 churches located beside the country life 
 schools! Of course it would be better if there 
 were only one church but that may be too much 
 to hope for. Now we have often one church 
 to less than 200 people. If we had a church to 
 each several hundred people, one near each 
 of these new schools, our country church life 
 would be made over. We could then afford 
 virile and highly trained country preachers who 
 could cooperate with the schools and other count- 
 try life organizations and thus help give the 
 church that vital relation which our country life 
 civilization now sadly needs. 
 
 Let us picture the consolidated rural school 
 with its ten-acre school farm devoted to instruc- 
 tion in agriculture, its five- or six-room school 
 building, and its cottage for the principal. Let 
 us picture beside the school-farm the five or ten- 
 acre parsonage farm with its church and parson- 
 age. We might place beside it the cooperative 
 store, cooperative creamery, and other neighbor- 
 hood cooperative enterprises. The church or a 
 separate hall would serve as a common meeting 
 place for the entire community. The teacher 
 and preacher could cooperate in helping to build 
 up technical societies, to organize the recreational 
 life of old and young and to aid in bringing 
 things useful to the community from outside 
 institutions, as from the agricultural college, the 
 United States Department of Agriculture, and 
 the state university. 
 
 Church organizations, including the Young 
 
EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE 1 99 
 
 Men's Christian Association, our educational 
 associations, conservation commissions, depart- 
 ments of agriculture, agricultural colleges 
 and experiment stations, and other agencies 
 have each in its own way been studying the 
 units of which our country life organization 
 is made. The unsuccessful and the successful 
 features of our country life institutions are now 
 fairly well known, and while we should with re- 
 newed vigor continue to investigate all these mat- 
 ters, are we not ready for a period of broad con- 
 struction? True, this construction must go for- 
 ward with the greatest care; but it is also true 
 that at best there will be great delay. 
 
 What has been said above is a mere illustra- 
 tion of the fact that we have new factors such 
 as the consolidated rural school, the agricultural 
 high school, the agricultural college, the state 
 and branch experiment stations, the county agri- 
 cultural bureau, which have proven successful, 
 and which might be employed as prominent fea- 
 tures in constructing the new system of country 
 life organization. If our farmers, our educa- 
 tors, our legislators, our experts in country life 
 affairs, and our philanthropists will unite in 
 working out broad constructive plans, may we 
 not soon hope to develop more rapidly a new 
 order of things ? Those who invented the flying 
 machine merely brought together in a new form 
 of construction, principles and devices nearly 
 all of which were already in successful use. 
 Does the fact that Uncle Sam's domain covers 
 
200 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 a vast area make this task of reorganizing our 
 country life insurmountable? Is it not practica- 
 ble to see the nation, the state, the county, and 
 the consolidated rural school district as units and 
 in their proper relations to each other? If our 
 state legislatures will all pass laws providing both 
 for the making of plans for the redistricting of 
 our counties and appropriating, say half the 
 money required to provide instruction in agricul- 
 ture and home economics in these schools, the 
 main step will be taken in the reorganization of 
 our country life along lines which cannot help 
 but be far superior to the plans now in use. 
 Our country people are fairly prosperous and 
 happy under present conditions but our cities are 
 clamoring for more food. Under the new sys- 
 tem our farmers would be more prosperous and 
 far happier and our cities would have more 
 abundant and cheaper food. 
 
 The Federal Congress has under consideration 
 a bill to establish several hundred agricultural 
 high schools and branch experiment stations, one 
 in each five to fifteen counties, 300 to 400 in all. 
 The passage of such a measure would mark a 
 great step, but a far larger step is the consolida- 
 tion of the rural schools and the preparation of 
 vocational teachers for these schools by the state 
 colleges of agriculture and the state normal 
 schools. 
 
VI 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL 
 CENTER 
 
 Matthew Brown McNutt 
 
 No treatment of this subject can be adequate 
 that does not recognize in the beginning the 
 country mind and the country conditions. 
 
 Human nature is the same everywhere, of 
 course, but people think in terms of their en- 
 vironment and habits of life. Any one who has 
 ever lived or dealt with country people knows 
 that they have a mind peculiar to themselves. 
 A farmer and his wife having lived in the coun- 
 try for fifty years sold their farm and moved 
 to town. Before they had their furniture all 
 placed in their new home the wife remarked to 
 one of her old country neighbors : "Everything 
 in town is so different!" Of course it was. It 
 is somewhat difficult to analyze this difference 
 between the country mind and the city mind, 
 but it exists. The life of the country people is 
 much more simple, quiet and free from excite- 
 ment. The country folk are more reserved than 
 their city friends. They are slow to take up 
 with new things. Their habits and standards of 
 life are different. They wear no masks. They 
 have a different code for visiting, neighboring 
 and transacting business. They have a greeting, 
 
202 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 a gait, a handshake all their own. They live 
 in a different world — so to speak. 
 
 Conditions, too, are very unlike those found 
 in the city. Distance separates homes. Men 
 are engaged in the same occupation. They work 
 separately, independently and in the open. They 
 live on much the same educational, moral and 
 social plane. There is little rivalry or competi- 
 tion. They are self-governing, privileged char- 
 acters. 
 
 It is quite natural and reasonable, therefore, 
 that these rural folk should require institutions 
 differing in method from those found in town 
 or city. While a social-center church might not 
 be possible or applicable in a city it is almost, if 
 not altogether demanded in the country. 
 
 It is necessary at the outset, therefore, to 
 clear the ground of all perconceived notions 
 about the country church which have had their 
 origin in the city atmosphere, that the situation 
 may be considered wholly from the country point 
 of view. 
 
 Another fact to be recognized in a satisfactory 
 treatment of this subject is that the conditions 
 found in the country today are vastly different 
 from what they were in the pioneer times. The 
 old type of country church does not meet the 
 new needs. 
 
 THE NEED OF SOME SOCIAL CENTER IN A COUNTRY 
 COMMUNITY 
 
 There are very few societies or organizations 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER 203 
 
 in the average country community. The unit 
 is the home. There are few meeting places and 
 few meetings. There is little to command the 
 attention of an entire rural neighborhood save 
 an occasional "party," "picnic," "school exhibi- 
 tion" or "show." Two farmers plowing in ad- 
 jacent fields will have a social chat across the 
 line fence while their horses rest. The farmers' 
 wives will indulge in a friendly visit over the 
 telephone, where they are fortunate enough to 
 have this modern convenience. Or, when the 
 'phone is lacking they will don their sunbonnets 
 and make the visit in person. The young folks 
 will go singly or in pairs to a neighboring home 
 or perhaps to town to spend an occasional even- 
 ing. If they are church people they will all go 
 to the meeting house on Sunday for worship. 
 This is apt to be the extent of social intercourse 
 in the ordinary rural community unless there is 
 some special provision made for it. These cas- 
 ual meetings are of an individual nature. There 
 exists no community sense, warmth or senti- 
 ment. 
 
 In the pioneer days the farmers were more 
 dependent. They were obliged to come to- 
 gether frequently to help one another. 
 
 In many country localities now, the tendency 
 is to go to town for amusement and entertain- 
 ment. This is made possible by the better roads 
 and improved modes of travel. But such a cus- 
 tom frequently results in exploiting the farmer 
 and leaving his own home neighborhood a barren 
 
204 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 waste in so far as social life and service is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 People are naturally gregarious. They like 
 to be together. They crave companionship. 
 The city and the town furnish many opportuni- 
 ties for social intercourse and for social serv- 
 ice, — the country few. Every neighborhood, 
 therefore, town or country, needs some common 
 meeting place where old and young, rich and 
 poor, educated and uneducated may come to- 
 gether for work and play, for sociability, for 
 educational and spiritual uplift. 
 
 THE COUNTRY CHURCH IS ADMIRABLY SUITED TO 
 BECOME SUCH A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 All men are more or less religious by nature. 
 They are created in the image of one common 
 Father. Religion ought to be common ground 
 upon which all men can stand. People are nat- 
 urally brotherly, and they have down in their 
 heart of hearts, a common interest in and rever- 
 ence and love for the one God and Father of 
 all. 
 
 The preaching of denominational dogmas and 
 doctrines in the past has confused a great many 
 minds and has been the means of dividing com- 
 munities by sectarian walls that are harder to 
 break than adamant. When I hear of men 
 willing to go to a schoolhouse, or tent, or grove, 
 or hall to hear the gospel preached, but who will 
 not go into a church, it always make me think. 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER "205 
 
 It is difficult for a country church to become an 
 eflfective religious and social center in a sect- 
 ridden community, where each farmer hitches 
 to his carriage Sunday mornings and, with his 
 family, will thread the public highways this way 
 and that for miles till they finally come to the 
 particular brand of worshipers with whom they 
 fancy they can praise God to their satisfaction. 
 A good share of the "world," so-called, is still 
 content merely to be onlookers with reference 
 to this kind of business. It wants none of it. 
 
 Let the country community forget its church 
 difference for a generation and emphasize anew 
 the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man 
 and the Lordship and Saviourhood of Jesus 
 Christ and at the same time cultivate and give op- 
 portunity for a brotherly service and the country 
 church will become a real religious and social 
 center and a tremendous force for righteousness. 
 
 The church may easily be made the social 
 center of a rural community for the reason that 
 there are not the varying and conflicting de- 
 grees of social strata in the country that there 
 are in the town and city. Country folk live on 
 practically the same social plane. Their tastes, 
 achievements and standards of living are much 
 the same. An3 therefore, they can come to- 
 gether in a social way as one great family. They 
 can unite easily in social service because their 
 interests are so much in common. 
 
 The fact that such social intercourse and serv- 
 ice is associated with the center of religious in- 
 
206 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 fluence will be a sure guarantee of its whole- 
 someness and it will react, also, to a very gr^at 
 advantage upon the religious life of the people. 
 So often it happens that the social life in a com- 
 munity is out of joint with religion. This can- 
 not happen where the inspiration and incentive 
 comes from the church. 
 
 With the social center at the church, many 
 special occasions will arise which will call out 
 the whole country-side. This coming together 
 as one body will have a most edifying and social- 
 izing effect upon the people. Anniversary days 
 in the country are generally very scarce. This 
 broader fellowship will tend to awaken and 
 foster a wholesome community pride and senti- 
 ment. It will do much to break up that indi- 
 vidualistic spirit so commonly found among the 
 farming class which is only akin to selfishness. 
 And it will make possible many pleasant and 
 helpful things that could not otherwise be had. 
 
 I know of one country church that has estab- 
 lished an anniversary day which it calls, "The 
 Annual Re-union." The whole country-side 
 turn out — from two hundred to two hundred 
 and fifty strong and spend the day together. Its 
 purpose is wholly for fellowship and inspiration. 
 Old friends and members of the church who 
 have moved out of the neighborhood come back 
 to renew their acquaintance. Those who cannot 
 attend sometimes send messages which are read 
 at the meeting. A brief memorial service is 
 held for those who have passed away during 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER 207 
 
 the year. A good program is provided, con- 
 sisting of music and addresses, some by local 
 talent, some from abroad. A banquet is served 
 at noon free to everybody. It is a great day. 
 Farmers leave their work in the field to attend 
 the Annual Re-union. It is talked about all 
 the year, and the dead-level gait gets a severe 
 jolt. Every country church should learn the 
 value of these great inspirational occasions and 
 have them. 
 
 ^This same church has another great time at 
 the New Year sociable held on New Year's 
 eve. Another is held on the 4th of July. Still 
 another at "The Harvest Home and Thanksgiv- 
 ing Festival," when the decorations are the new 
 grains, fruits and vegetables — sent afterwards to 
 the poor in a great city — and when the music 
 and the speaking are right hearty in the pres- 
 ense of God's wonderful bounty. 
 
 This same church conducts a Lyceum Course 
 every season — ^not for pecuniary profit, but for 
 the sole purpose of bringing wholesome en- 
 tertainment and lectures within reach of every- 
 body in the community. And all the people 
 patronize it liberally and heartily irrespective of 
 creed. The Catholics and the German Luther- 
 ans attend. People from the surrounding towns 
 are there when the weather and roads are fav- 
 orable. No attraction from the Lyceum Bu- 
 reaus draws the crowds that the home talent en- 
 tertainments draw. 
 
 The religious festivals, such as Christmas, 
 
2o8 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 Easter and Children's Day have a prominent 
 place in this church, and all of them are largely 
 attended by everyone in the community. 
 
 These special occasions wfhether religious, 
 patriotic, social or educational, develop a great 
 variety of talents in a great number and variety 
 of people. This plan not only interests and de- 
 velops the individuals themselves, but it sets 
 them to work toward community ideals and en- 
 terprises. It stimulates team work which is 
 usually sadly lacking among the rural folk. 
 
 Another great value of such work is that it 
 calls for leadership among the people themi- 
 selves. 
 
 Dr. Warren H. Wilson well observes in his 
 book on "The Church and the Open Country" 
 the following: "The community objective de- 
 termines the type of leaders. If the means be 
 religious, ethical, and social, the leaders who 
 shall arise will be devout and popular men. If 
 the meetings of the people are purely for busi- 
 ness purposes, the leaders of the town will be 
 concerned alone with its business prosperity. It 
 is the business of the minister and the teacher 
 in the country community to agitate the com- 
 munity and so unite it that the leaders of the 
 community shall be men (and women) of con- 
 science, of intelligence and of a progressive spirit. 
 If the loafers of the town ard the only ones who 
 have opportunity for frequent associations, then 
 the loafers will select the leaders. But if the 
 regular meetings of the town are bright, intel- 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER 209 
 
 lectual and popular; if the enjoyment is fur- 
 nished by music, by dramatic expression, by the 
 remembrance of the past of the community, and 
 by planning for the future, then the leadership 
 of the town will flow from these sources and 
 the common mind of the community, will demand 
 and will secure those personalities who shall 
 stand before all the people to accomplish that 
 for which the whole people aspire." 
 
 The commingling of country people at the 
 church center may be made a real stimulus to 
 many kinds of practical service which shall help 
 to make ruraldom a new earth. Lessons will not 
 be assigned and recited, perhaps, and studies 
 completed as in a school, but many beginnings 
 will be made through these church activities 
 that will be completed in the home, the school, 
 or college, in years to come — ^beginnings in sci- 
 entific study, music, home-making, better farm- 
 ing, more intellectual and conscientious citizen- 
 ship, esthetic taste, home and rural sanitation, 
 better business, better living, better schools, 
 world-wide evangelization, and what not. The 
 social center church may be made a place of in- 
 spiration, a place where high ideals are projected, 
 an atmosphere in which all the people are 
 helped to find themselves, to know their gifts 
 and to know their own true life. Everything, 
 indeed, that pertains to the needs and welfare 
 of a rural community, may find substantial en- 
 couragement in a live social center country 
 church. 
 
210 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 It is nonsense to say that these social activi- 
 ties centering in the country church will detract 
 from religion and lead to worldliness. They 
 produce the opposite result as has been demon- 
 strated in many social service churches. Social 
 service tends to give life and reality to religion. 
 
 The fact that so many community boys break 
 away from the church in the teen age shoves 
 that there is something seriously wrong with the 
 methods employed in our country churches. 
 This accounts for the sparsity of men in many 
 churches — the boys are not held. 
 
 Suppose the boys, and others for that matter 
 — have received the message of salvation which 
 the Church has to give them and have become 
 disciples of Christ. What then ? Are they sim- 
 ply to rest the remainder of their lives in the 
 consciousness of this peaceful state and find 
 their Chiefest enjoyment in the thought alone, 
 that they are saved ? A lot of them get excused 
 from this monotony, when there is nothing else 
 to follow. Many more wish they were out and 
 still others remain good, but are good for noth- 
 ing so far as building up the community in 
 things that are worth while is concerned. 
 
 People are saved to serve. They are not only 
 saved from something, but to something. The 
 Church is full of people that gloat over their 
 personal salvation, who at the same time have 
 not the least interest in saving anybody else. 
 Church life and business is bound to become 
 insipid and drag where the gospel of social serv- 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER 211 
 
 ice is not preached along with the gospel of 
 salvation and where Christian people are not 
 trained to cooperate and lend themselves to the 
 good of all in the community. 
 
 A power of any kind is useless unless it is 
 harnessed to some worthy object or task. A 
 saved man is of little use in the Kingdom until 
 he becomes active in saving others and in trans- 
 forming the community where he lives. 
 
 There is a great power centered in the Chris- 
 tian people of the community that has never 
 been harnessed to anything. Country preachers 
 and evangelists have been working solely for 
 the conversion of the farmer and have been sat- 
 isfied when this is accomplished, failing to set 
 before him any definite form of service. Coun- 
 try teachers have confined their efforts mainly 
 to putting into the hands of the country children 
 the tools for getting an education, namely, read- 
 ing, writing and numbers, to cramming the chil- 
 dren's minds with text book knowledge. But 
 these teachers, with the country preachers have 
 failed to inspire in these yoimg farmer boys 
 and girls, or their parents, any community spirit 
 or pride that would even so much as beautify 
 the school playground or plan and arrange a 
 decent church lawn, much less transform the 
 whole community. Witness the surroundings of 
 thousands and thousands of country schools and 
 churches — barring some magnificent exceptions. 
 
 So that both the country school and the coun- 
 try church — the two principal institutions of the 
 
212 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 country — ^have missed and are missing the mark 
 by not inculcating community ideals and setting 
 the country people to the task of building up the 
 community in the things that make for a more 
 abundant life. 
 
 A really converted man will naturally want 
 to set his environment and living conditions — 
 as well as those of his neighbor — in perfect 
 order. But he needs to be directed in this re- 
 construction. Herein lies the great opportunity 
 for the country church and the country school. 
 They must work together for the common good 
 of the whole community. 
 
 Christian people in cities and town have been 
 organized, whether by the church or the school 
 or some other agency, or by all. With this 
 organization they have been led to unite their 
 forces and to center them on the task of build- 
 ing a new city. As a result of this organization 
 the city folk are enjoying a civilization a hun- 
 dred years in advance of their country friends, 
 according to one student of the times. 
 
 To quote Dr. Wilson in conclusion: "The 
 needed teaching of our time is that of the: orga- 
 nized community. Christian people and other 
 well-meaning folk must all assemble as the lead- 
 ers and must be enlisted as the workers in com- 
 munity betterment. They must be taught to 
 recognize clearly the bounds of their community. 
 They must come to see how fully their own 
 lives, and the lives of their children and kindred 
 are spent in that little environment. They must 
 
THE COUNTRY CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER 2I3 
 
 make of it a republic to be ruled in sanitary re- 
 spects, in all matters of beauty, and in the re- 
 creative life, in the interest of developing per- 
 sonality and of the unfolding social life. 
 
 "In the service of this little republic the influ- 
 ence of the Church will be the dominating ele- 
 ment. If Christian churches are not the com- 
 munity centers, then new churches will arise. 
 This great task will be done." 
 
VII 
 
 BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS— A NE- 
 CESSITY 
 
 N. W. Stroup 
 
 The Country Church is the one institu- 
 tion that has done and can do most to 
 enrich individual character, make home hap- 
 pier, and daily toil more attractive and 
 gainful. Other societies may supplement, 
 but none can replace the work of the 
 Christian Church. As its steeple towers above 
 every other building in village and hamlet, so 
 its ideals, its inspirations, its message to men, 
 its hopes and helps are pre-eminent. May we 
 not be guilty of sanctioning a condition such as 
 David faced when he declared — "I dwell in a 
 house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth 
 within curtains ?" 
 
 We realize the imperative need of a new type 
 of rural church architecture. The new era in 
 education has been brought about by the cen- 
 tralized graded schools and the introduction of 
 agricultural courses. The electric railway, the 
 automobile and the macadam and brick roads, 
 has given us a new era in transportation. The 
 country telephone and rural mail delivery and 
 the increased valuation of farm property has 
 created a new era in country commerce. In the 
 214 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — A NECESSITY 215 
 
 face of these advances the rural church has been 
 compelled to use aa equipment that is out of 
 harmony with this new era in which we live, and 
 to which we must minister. 
 
 The conditions in the urban church in con- 
 trast to those of the rural church are very strik- 
 ing. The city during the century has had a 
 phenomenal, growth in prosperity and population. 
 The old frame buildings of a generation ago 
 have been replaced by fine stone structures 
 adapted to present needs, and furnished with the 
 best up-to-date equipment. The rural communi- 
 ties during the same period were being deprived 
 of their best families, and the remnant that re- 
 mained was so heavily burdened with the cur- 
 rent expense budgets that new buildings seemed 
 impossible. When we come to know conditions 
 and causes, we are no longer surprised at find- 
 ing results such as now confront at least seventy- 
 five per cent of our rural leaders. 
 
 The new vision of man as related to the 
 larger appeal has called forth a new type of 
 church architecture. We have outlived the 
 false dualism which insisted on drawing a dis- 
 tinct line of cleavage between things designated 
 as secular and things sacred. We have come to 
 believe in the whole man — ^both the temple and 
 the tenant, and would not that either be abused 
 or neglected. Man as a totality is to be served 
 and saved. Nothing human is foreign to the 
 modem Christian in his ministry. We now| seek 
 not merely to save souls, but to save the total 
 
2l6 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 man, since as Hugh Price Hughes once de- 
 clared: "All the souls he knew anything about 
 possessed physical bodies and lived on earth 
 among men." The church of half a century 
 ago did not think to provide for physical and 
 social beings, and in the building there was no 
 place for the boy or girl. 
 
 The Church, spiritual in message and motive, 
 is yet material in method and means. It must 
 have a body through which it works and wins. 
 The adaptability of the organism in and through 
 which the spirit is to do its service is a very 
 important element in church work. It is an 
 encouraging sign of the times that architects 
 and church officials are coming to appreciate 
 this fact and are placing emphasis upon the 
 proper construction of the building. While it is 
 true, as one architect puts it, that "Bad archi- 
 tecture is as baneful as bad grammar, and more 
 enduring in its influence than unorthodox 
 preaching, therefore our churches should be 
 leading exponents of good taste and good style." 
 
 Buildings express ideals and they speak a 
 varied language. A hut and a palace each tell 
 their own story and refer to a distinct type of 
 society. Churches should give forth a message 
 and their presence should be capable of pointing 
 each passer-by to the Father who loves, and the 
 Son who saves. Churches are the visible expres- 
 sion of the invisible God, just as Christians are 
 incarnations of the unseen Christ. They are 
 more than marble and more precious than any 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — A NECESSITY 217 
 
 mere beauty of design or dignity of architecture. 
 These buildings stand in a class that is both 
 unique and inspirational. 
 
 But in this twentieth century utUity is writ- 
 ten largei in religion and education, as well as in 
 business. The monk and the scholarly recluse 
 are not vital to this era, if in reality they ever 
 were in any era. The church edifice of today 
 should be beautiful and artistic, but it must be 
 practical and able to meet the test of utility. 
 Without detracting from spiritual worship, we 
 are coming to place a new emphasis upon Chris- 
 tian work. We are discovering that men may 
 and should worship God in their daily work, and 
 that these are in reality part and parcel of each 
 other. 
 
 We, unlike our forefathers, look upon the 
 church not so much as a holy of holies into 
 whose sacred precincts only the few may enter, 
 but rather as a building set apart to be used in 
 Christlike ministry to men. Our holy of holies 
 is wherever a. sincere soul is found seeking God. 
 We speak less of the holiness of temples built 
 of brick andi stone, and emphasize more the in- 
 finite value of human beings created in the 
 image and likeness of a holy God. The change, 
 is not one of spirit, but wholly one of service. 
 Church builders a century ago emphasized three 
 things — ^beauty, stability, and architectural or- 
 thodoxy. Some would insist on adding a fourth, 
 "utility," but they put a very narrow interpre- 
 tation upon the word. 
 
2l8 THE RURAL CHUKCII 
 
 The country church building as it now exists 
 is one of our chief barriers to success. While 
 it is true that the demand for able leadership is 
 imperative, it is equally important that they have 
 adequate buildings through which to do the 
 work. A first class workman is unable to do 
 efficient service if he is compelled to use in- 
 ferior instruments. The building should be 
 adapted to the needs of the particular commun- 
 ity to which it is expected to minister. It must 
 be a place in which to work and worship; a 
 community center from which shall radiate an 
 atmosphere of reverence and righteousness, and 
 a spirit of unselfish service for others. Ruskin 
 gave expression to the highest motive in church 
 building and in Christian ministry when he 
 said : — 
 
 "I do not want a marble church for every 
 village, nay, I do not want marble churches at 
 all for their own sake, but for the sake of the 
 spirit that would build them. The Church has 
 no need of any visible splendors; her power is 
 independent of them, — ^her purity is in some de- 
 gree opposed to them. The simplicity of a pas- 
 toral sanctuary is lovelier than the majesty of 
 an urban temple ; and it may be more than ques- 
 tioned whether to the people, such majesty has 
 ever been the source of any increase of effective 
 piety; but to the builders it has been and must 
 ever be. It is not the church we want, but the 
 sacrifice ; not the emotion of admiration, but the 
 act of adoration; not the gift, but the giving." 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — A NECESSITY 219 
 
 The modem church needs not only an audi- 
 ence room and a Sunday-school room, but com- 
 mittee rooms, social rooms, a boys' club room, 
 reading room, gymnasium, kitchen and dining- 
 room. It is the plant used in accomplishing the 
 varied work of Christianity and should be as well 
 equipped and as wisely adapted for efficiency as 
 a twentieth century machine shop. The social, 
 economic, and political problems of the hour are 
 all fundamentally religious and the state must 
 look to the Christian Church for their ultimate 
 solution. This is a mighty challenge and ought 
 to stir us out of our stereotyped and antiquated 
 methods and cause us to redouble our energy in 
 the conquest of Christ's coming Kingdom. We 
 must gain contact with the community by going 
 about doing; good as the Master did. It does not 
 matter whether we call it social service, "indi- 
 vidual work for individuals," or applied Chris- 
 tianity, the essential thing is that the work be 
 done. 
 
 This work may be done in part by means of 
 the Christian education of the Bible school, in 
 part by the prayer service, in part by the 
 preached word, in part through boys' clubs and 
 men's leagues and also by influencing the boy's 
 home life, athletic life and school life. We 
 must be all things to all men that we may win 
 all. We are divinely called and commissioned 
 to save the lost and the Master made no provi- 
 sion for failure. He said that we should be- 
 come "fishers of men" and gave no restrictions 
 
220 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 as to the style of pole or the kind of bait. The 
 call is to catch men and we dare not be dis- 
 obedient or derelict in duty. If we are con- 
 vinced that the old building erected two genera- 
 tions ago is illy adapted to our needs, then we 
 should proceed with the alterations and adapta- 
 tion of that which is merely the human instru- 
 ment used to serve divine ends. 
 
 The salvation of our young people is condi- 
 tioned on the human side by the manner in 
 which we provide a place for them in our build- 
 ing and speak to them in our message. In the 
 church of a century ago there was no room for 
 an active boy or girl. While in those days they 
 had nowhere else to go, today the world has a 
 hundred open doors for them night and day 
 offering the most up-to-date attractions, so that 
 it is worse than useless for a few good saints 
 to gather in the church and condemn the dance 
 hall across the street that has caught the young 
 people. Less mere condemnation and more ag- 
 gressive service and self-denial would solve the 
 problem. Let the saints bring their tithes into 
 the treasury and build a new church home for 
 the young people for whom they now have no 
 room. In one village church where, this call, 
 which for a generation had been unheeded, was 
 answered in the construction of an attractive 
 basement, one hundred young people recently 
 came together for a pleasant social evening un- 
 der clean and wholesome religious influence. 
 This manless church of a year ago now has an 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — A NECESSITY 221 
 
 energetic men's league of over fifty members. 
 The Master calls upon us to meet the de- 
 mands of our day and generation and to over- 
 come evil with good. While we may get in- 
 spiration out of singing — 
 
 "Faith of our fathers living still," 
 
 we must not forget that we are divinely called 
 and commissioned — 
 
 "To serve the present age 
 Our calling to fulfill." 
 
 Our idolatry of method is no justification for 
 an unfruitful ministry. We are to be wise and 
 by wisdom win. To excuse our failure by com- 
 plaining of the indifference and irreverence of 
 the people, is unbecoming the followers of the 
 conquering Christ. 
 
 "The time has arrived," in the thought of the 
 Country Life Commission, "when the Church 
 must take a larger leadership, both as an insti- 
 tution and through its pastors in the social re- 
 organization of rural life. The rural church 
 must be more completely than now a Christian 
 social center." This means abler leadership, 
 better salaries, better business methods and bet- 
 ter buildings. The building is only the phys- 
 ical organism through which the work is carried 
 on, but it is nevertheless a very important ele- 
 ment in the efficiency of the ministry. A one- 
 armed man or an individual who walks with a 
 
222 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 crutch may, and often does accomplish great 
 things, but he would do better with a complete 
 body. Some men who have been semi-invalids 
 have wrought signal victories, but their infirmi- 
 ties are no argument against health and strength. 
 Our forefathers won many victories and saved 
 thousands in log cabins and barns, but that was 
 in the day of homespun and handpower. Their 
 problems were not ours. 
 
 "New occasions teach new duties 
 Time makes ancient good uncouth." 
 
 It is sometimes true, as Marion Lawrance 
 states, that the rural church is the most un- 
 sightly building in the town. It is far too com- 
 mon to find an old frame building that has not 
 been painted for twenty years, whose founda- 
 tion is partly gone, with windows broken, a 
 leaky roof, with paper and plaster falling off, 
 with a wood pile in the front vestibule and a 
 yard grown up with weeds and briers. "How 
 dwelleth the love of God in such a place?" 
 These sad conditions are not always due to pov- 
 erty, but more often to community carelessness 
 and personal stinginess. 
 
 The modern emphasis insists on having the 
 gospel applied to every-day life. The ecclesi- 
 astic leaders of the Middle Ages thought they 
 had safely confined Christianity within the walls 
 of monasteries and cathedrals, but they awoke 
 during the sixteenth century to find that they 
 had, in reality, shut it out. We have almost en- 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — A NECESSITY 223 
 
 tirely ceased erecting costly cathedrals and are 
 building serviceable workshops which are in ac- 
 cord with the words of the Master when He 
 said — "I came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister." "The quaint structures of our grand- 
 fathers, with tower-like pulpits and penlike 
 apartment-pews, with long stems of stove-pipe 
 suspended by wires from the ceiling, and ill- 
 smelling oil-lamps," have not all passed away 
 even in this twentieth century. They served 
 their day, but they have not ceased to be. 
 
 We find churches still in use that were built 
 before the Sunday-school had become a part of 
 the Christian program. It does not seem rea- 
 sonable that such buildings could be suited to 
 the demand of the| present. It is very often true 
 that "inadequate and poorly adapted buildings 
 make the best teaching and training impossible." 
 "The teachers need the help of good equipment, 
 good ventilation" as well as good graded les- 
 sons. The church of the future is to be more 
 and more a place for instruction and inspira- 
 tion. Pastoral teaching will take precedence 
 over the office of priest and prophet. Jesus 
 was, and is, the world's great Teacher. We are 
 to continue and complete "the things He began 
 both to do and to teach." 
 
 We visited a manufacturer recently who had 
 completed a new factory and installed new ma- 
 chinery. In reply, to our inquiry as to how 
 many of the machines were the same as he had 
 used twenty-five years before, he replied that 
 
224 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 tHe machinery was all the latest improved, and 
 none of it more than ten years old. He was 
 manufacturing the very same sort of goods and 
 using the same steam power, but it was now 
 done by new methods, new machines and in 
 new buildings. We preach the same gospel that 
 our fathers preached. We send out the same 
 brand of Christians convicted and converted by 
 the same Holy Spirit, but we need new build- 
 ings and new: methods that will make it possible 
 for the Church to successfully compete with 
 present day conditions and customs. 
 
 We would wherever possible build new build- 
 ings. There is always an optimistic suggestion 
 in a new church. It speaks of a living, grow- 
 ing faith and future progress. It announces to 
 the community that the Church expects to stay, 
 and that retreat or surrender are not a part of 
 the Christian plan. On the other hand, an anti- 
 quated, out-of repair, tumbled-down building is 
 favorable to indifference and infidelity. A neg- 
 lected church is apt to mean neglected morals. 
 The last quarter of a century has been character- 
 ized not by courageous conquest, but by a rather 
 discouraged attempt to avoid retreat. We need 
 to restore community confidence in the Rural 
 Church and inspire courage in the loyal leaders 
 and discouraged officials. 
 
 In many communities the best we can confi- 
 dently expect just now is that they will repair 
 and remodel the building. This is a practical 
 possibility in almost every rural parish. The 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — A NECESSITY 225 
 
 old church can be raised up and a good roomy 
 basement provided for use in holding socials and 
 literary entertainments. This can be done at a 
 cost not to exceed one thousand dollars, and in 
 some neighborhoods for a very much less 
 amount. There are some old buildings that are 
 so large and so greatly in excess of the present 
 needs that a portion of the audience room could 
 be partitioned off for Sunday-school and social 
 purposes. Tthis plan when carried out by a 
 practical church architect has many good fea- 
 tures. It not only affords a more satisfactory 
 room for regular worship, but furnishes a com- 
 plete set of class rooms for the work of Chris- 
 tian education in the art of right living. 
 
 In a few communities the old church has been 
 repaired and used as a social center, a. dining 
 hall, a Sunday-school room, and week-night 
 chapel, while a new building has been erected to 
 accommodate the regular Sabbath services. In 
 some villages where two or more denominations 
 are struggling to exist, there could and should 
 be the uniting of the Christian people of both 
 churches under the guidance of one pastor. This 
 would enable the members to use one building' as 
 a sort of parish house, or sell the one and invest 
 the money in remodeling the other. As a con- 
 crete illustration of what might be a practical plan 
 of federation in many rural sections, we would 
 mention two villages four miles apart, each hav- 
 ing a Method'st and Congregational church 
 with a pastor residing in each community. In 
 
226 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 one of these centers the Methodist church is at 
 present much the stronger, while in the other 
 center the Congregational church seems to have 
 a better hold upon the people. There can hardly 
 be a question but that the wise thing to do is for 
 the members of both churches to unite in the 
 interest of efficiency, economy, and Christian 
 comity. This would make it possible for 
 each pastor to receive a living wage and a 
 worthy hearing for his message. It would also 
 solve the better-building problem, and replace 
 two run down churches with one modern edifice. 
 
 John Keble was one of England's most fa- 
 mous country pastors. In his early years he 
 received a salary of but five hundred dollars a 
 year. It is said that he found "the church at 
 Hursley in poor condition, and unadapted for 
 worship according to his ideas, and knowing 
 that the poor rural community which he was 
 serving could not meet the expense of rebuild- 
 ing, he met the cost himself, some thirty thou- 
 sand dollars, providing for this large expendi- 
 ture by the receipts from the sale of 
 "The Christian Year." This is one way to 
 meet the problem of providing new and better 
 buildings. Rural America may well pray God 
 to send a few men like John Keble who will be 
 content to give their time and talents to these , 
 out-of-city communities. 
 
 We arei glad to see the dawning of a new day 
 in country life. In the short space of four years 
 the attitude of scores of representative men has 
 
BETTER CHURCH BUILDINGS — ^A NECESSITY 227 
 
 been wholly changed. The call for conserva- 
 tion in rural resources has become one of the 
 leading principles of the nation. The farmer 
 and the farm are certain to regain their rightful 
 place in the program of democracy. This is 
 no time for religious retreat, but the opportune 
 hour for a great advance. We must retrench 
 our position and reaffirm our purpose to make 
 the rural church a center of the social, intel- 
 lectual, and religious forces of the entire com- 
 munity. The men wrho possess a large vision 
 of country life will demand better building in 
 and through which to express the larger min- 
 istries of modern Christianity to the needs of 
 all men and all the man. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE VALUE OF RECREATION IN RURAL 
 COMMUNITIES 
 
 Myron T. Scudder 
 
 Country life must be made more attractive or 
 our rural districts will lose population to a point 
 that threatens national disaster. No nation can 
 long continue to exist unless its rural popula- 
 tion is numerous, vigorous, contented, patriotic, 
 and righteous. 
 
 As every one knows our country districts have 
 long been suffering depletion. Even now multi- 
 tudes of the better classes are busy exchanging 
 their country homes for homes in the city. Of 
 course a part of the exodus is entirely normal and 
 is caused by economic conditions, such for in- 
 stance as the application of machinery to agri- 
 culture. It has been said that "work once re- 
 quiring 14 men can now be done by 4 men, and 
 in such a situation there is nothing for the 10 
 men to do but to go to the city." Granting 
 these figures, a migration of 10 men out of 14 
 is, of course, tremendous, but under the circum- 
 stances it cannot be helped, and need not be 
 considered alarming. But when more than 10 
 out of 14 leave their rural homes and when there 
 is nothingi in the world that all 14 want so much 
 as to get away from the country and into the city, 
 then the situation becomes menacing indeed. 
 228 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 229 
 
 Now the truly rural mind as developed on 
 the farm is greater than the urban mind. It is 
 almost purely democratic. In it, labor and capi- 
 tal are reconciled, and the farmer sees no reason 
 why he and his hired help should not eat to- 
 gether, as well as work side by side in shirt- 
 sleeves. In it the professional, the scientific, 
 and the mercantile must strike a fairly even bal- 
 ance. The fully developed rural mind, the 
 product of its environment, is more original, 
 more versatile, more accurate, more philosoph- 
 ical, more practical, more persevering than the 
 urban mind ; it is a larger, freer mind, and domi- 
 nates tremendously. 
 
 It is because of this type of farm bred mind 
 that our leaders have largely come from rural life. 
 Ninety-four per cent of the leading citizens of 
 one of our large Eastern cities, according to 
 Dr. Hillis, of Brooklyn, were brought up on 
 the farm. Of a group of one hundred repre- 
 sentative men, commercial and professional, in 
 Chicago, it was found that eighty-five per cent 
 were farm or village bred. Eighty-five per cent 
 of the students in four colleges and seminaries 
 came from country districts, while upwards of 
 sixty per cent of the men and women mentioned 
 in "Who's Who" likewise are from the country. 
 Dr. Hillis well says: "The brain and nerve 
 centers are not more dependent upon the sound- 
 ness of the related tissues than the city upon the 
 rural districts." 
 
 And it is, of course, essential to national wel- 
 
230 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 fare that the rural districts should continue to 
 furnish such leaders and therefore should be 
 populous, prosperous, and contented. Yet 
 everyone knows that they are neither the one nor 
 the other. Isolation, hard work, long hours and 
 small returns have increased discontent espe- 
 cially amongst the young, while the call of the 
 city has been increasingly seductive. So it is 
 not to be wondered at that a natural, legitimate 
 migration from country to town has swelled to 
 alarming proportions, scores of thousands fleeing 
 like fugitives from the hardships and isolation 
 of the farm lands, their departure making still 
 more dreary and deadening t© those who remain 
 behind, the isolation f^^om which they have es- 
 caped, and augmenting a discontent that in many 
 sections has caused people to settle down into 
 an almost hopeless lethargy. The uppermost 
 sentiment everywhere seems to be: "Anything 
 but this ! How can I get away ?" National wel- 
 fare requires that this point of view be changed 
 to one in which, with cheery hopefulness all 
 ask: "How can we make conditions such that 
 we shall be glad to stay ?" 
 
 At this point it is important to bear in mind 
 that the terms "rural" and "country" mean very 
 different things in different sections. A state- 
 ment that is entirely applicable to a farming 
 section or to country villages in, say, the moun- 
 tain regions of eastern Tennessee, or perhaps 
 nearer home, should not be considered "per- 
 sonal" by residents of the many cultured, rural 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 23 1 
 
 communities of this land of ours. Think of the 
 mountain whites and Georgia "crackers," think of 
 the sparsely settled population of the Far West, 
 of the rude mining settlements and lumber dis- 
 tricts, perhaps fifty miles from any railroad, 
 think of the black belt of the South, the half- 
 civilized Indians, the undesirable immigrants, 
 and others who are scattered over our agricul- 
 tural districts East, West, North, and South, 
 perhaps nearer than we like, and remember that 
 these are part and parcel of the rural problem. 
 In many rural communities, conditions are dis- 
 heartening, indeed. With schools and churches 
 feeble, or extinct, no worse places could be con- 
 ceived of in which to bring up children. No 
 wonder people want to leave. Yet for the sake 
 of the country at large, something must be done 
 for them; they must be made wholesome. But 
 while a complete and frank description of such 
 rural conditions as may be found in many parts 
 of all our states would make a dark picture, yet 
 with it all one would have to tell of many com- 
 munities of refinement and of great prosperity. 
 It is encouraging to note, that as an aid to im- 
 proving conditions, the telephone, the trolley, and 
 the rural free delivery are operating favorably. 
 The rural school and church are beginning to 
 feel a new life. Economic conditions are also 
 improving, and farm lands and crops are more 
 valuable than ever before. A rural literature is 
 rapidly developing, teeming with excellent books 
 and magnificently edited periodicals. Most as- 
 
232 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 tonishing are the varied agencies which have 
 begun to operate for social uplift. The future 
 is certainly full of hope. Amongst these 
 agencies the playground and recreation idea is 
 attracting more and more attention. 
 
 Everyone has observed how the play spirit is 
 sweeping over the country. The quest of rec- 
 reation is not only legitimate; it is as essential 
 as food, shelter, and religion. Mr. Joseph Lee, 
 the father of the playground movement in this 
 country, says: "The thing that most needs to 
 be understood about play is that it is not a 
 luxury, but a necessity: it is not something that 
 a child likes to have, it is something that he 
 must have if he is to grow up. It is more than 
 an essential part of his education ; it is an essen- 
 tial part of the law of his growth, of the proc- 
 ess by which he becomes a man at all." This 
 is true for the country child as well as for the 
 city child. We are beginning to catch the wide 
 significance of play and to recognize that the 
 playground is a social institution just as much 
 as the home, the church, and the school. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that play in the coun- 
 try is not so much to promote health as to de- 
 velop the higher social instincts, to introduce 
 another powerful centripetal factor into country 
 life which will counteract the expulsive features 
 which have been so actively depopulating our 
 everywhere give but little thought to the re- 
 creational life, while with certain elements of the 
 recreation and amusement. The older people 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 233 
 
 everywhere give but little thought to the re- 
 creational life, while with certain elements of the 
 population the quest for means of passing leisure 
 hours often takes crude, uninteresting and even 
 childish forms, not infrequently is rough and gro- 
 tesque, and altogether too commonly leads to im- 
 morality to a degree that is not generally sus- 
 pected. 
 
 Into this matter of promoting wholesome re- 
 creation for the young and the old, the rural 
 church, the reconstructed school, the rural 
 Y. M. C. A., the Grange, and other fraternal 
 orders must enter heart and soul. As the writer 
 has stated elsewhere, an adequate program of 
 play would include pleasurable outdoor and in- 
 door occupation for (a) day schools, (b) homes, 
 (c) Sunday-schools, (d) other social organiza- 
 tions, public and private, suitable for Sundays 
 as well as week-days, adjusted to the season of 
 the year, and adapted to the needs of (i) very 
 little children, (2) children from eight to thir- 
 teen, (3) boys and girls in the adolescent period, 
 (4) adults; sex as well as age being taken into 
 account when necessary. The word play thus 
 broadened brings us into the realms of kinder- 
 gartens, manual training departments, vacation 
 schools, summer camps, boys' clubs, girls' clubs, 
 nature-study clubs, camera clubs, collection 
 clubs ; it has to do with swimming, fishing, boat- 
 ing, skating, skeeing, and snow-shoeing; also 
 with all forms of athletics ; with the use of tools 
 and implements, with the use of clay, plasticine, 
 
234 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 paper pulp, and putty for modeling; with lije 
 use of tops and marbles, bean-bags, balls and 
 kites, stilts, toys, soap bubbles, cards, dissected 
 maps, scrap books, and the myriad other amuse- 
 ment materials, plays and games which are the 
 heritage of the human race, and without sharing 
 in which no child can grow to complete; manhood 
 or womanhood, and no adult can live a cheerful, 
 joyous, well-rounded-out life. 
 
 Briefly, let us itemize some of the more im- 
 portant phases of a propaganda for socialized, 
 supervised recreation, indoors and outdoors in 
 home, church, school and community. 
 
 1. Amongst other indoor activities we should 
 emphasize story telling Mr. Richard T, Wyche, 
 so well known as an apostle of this great and 
 important art, says, "There are many homes 
 that cannot afford libraries and the adornment 
 of art, but no home is so humble that parents 
 cannot gather the children around the fireside 
 on a winter's evening or about the doorsteps in 
 the twilight of a summer's day and tell them 
 stories." Suggestive lists of books on story tell- 
 ing may be obtained of the Playground and 
 Recreation Association of America. 
 
 2. From the story told at the fireside to the 
 story told on the stage or platform before an 
 audience is a natural evolution. Dr^rn.atic soci- 
 eties should be organized in every good sized 
 community, and where the population is scat- 
 tered several communities may unite to form 
 one. Note the results of an active villa^^e dra- 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 235 
 
 matic society in Oberammergau. Oberammer- 
 gau cannot be duplicated elsewhere, perhaps, yet 
 properly conducted dramatics will enrich life 
 greatly in our country communities. 
 
 3. Clubs for young people are as necessary 
 in the country as in the city. Organizations like 
 the Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, KnightsI of King 
 Arthur, and Pioneer Girls should be fostered and 
 supervised by adults. Here is where the coun- 
 try pastor may exert a powerful influence, as 
 well as the country teacher. 
 
 4. The Grange and other fraternal orders, fire 
 companies, literary and library associations fur- 
 nish club life for men and women, and in these 
 the recreation side may be emphasized. To such 
 organizations the children must appeal for sym- 
 pathy and help in their playground propaganda. 
 
 5. Promoted by these organizations, communi- 
 ties should maintain lecture and entertainment 
 courses, reading circles, a public library, and 
 where possible, a choral union. Then there is the 
 stereopticon, with its wonderful possibilities. 
 The old-fashioned husking-bees and barn-rais- 
 ings are things of the past in most communities, 
 but why not bring back the spelling match and 
 the singing school? 
 
 6. Church, school, and other socials should pay 
 more intelligent attention to their programs of 
 recreation. Social evenings are very often un- 
 interesting and foolish because not carefully 
 planned. On such occasions there may well be 
 a serious core to the evening, a short literary 
 
236 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 and musical program, or a club meeting to dis- 
 cuss matters of community interest, to be pre- 
 ceded and "followed by plenty of fun and amuse- 
 ment. Well thougbt out programs of enter- 
 tainment for all sorts of gatherings in the coun- 
 try are greatly needed. 
 
 7. Township or county gatherings, extending 
 through several days have been successfully 
 maintained in several states. Most famous of 
 these is the Hesperia movement, a winter gath- 
 ering of Michigan farmers and teachers which 
 has met for years in Hesperia, miles from any 
 railroad, to enjoy a program of lectures, music, 
 and discussion from Thursday to Saturday 
 night. It is a notable instance of the efficacy 
 of a properly conducted "Stay on the Farm 
 Movement," which is far more important than 
 the "Back to the Farm Movement." 
 
 8. Itinerant social and literary meetings have 
 proved a success. Assembling by strawload or 
 walking parties on a given Saturday, bringing 
 their lunch and| meeting in a schoolhouse, 
 church, or village hall, people from several com- 
 munities may gather with great profit and pleas- 
 ure several times a year. 
 
 9. Systematic effort should be made to teach 
 plays and games to childrenj and to instruct them 
 in the art of framing up programs of indoor 
 amusement. Country children do not play enough 
 because they do not know how to play. Their 
 repertoire of games is exceedingly limited, and 
 their elders are even worse off than they are. 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 237 
 
 Hence the importance of systematic efifort to 
 teach them how and what to play. Splendid 
 work along this line is being done by Y. M. C. 
 A. county secretaries. 
 
 10. Manual training, industrial and domestic 
 arts, and nature-study furnish indoor occupation 
 of high recreational value. The making of 
 collections of stamps, eggs, autographs, etc; 
 should be encouraged as should the making of 
 useful articles for the home and school. Manual 
 methods in the Sunday-school are decidedly in 
 point here. 
 
 11. The importance of having, in connection 
 with church, school, and home a definite place for 
 play and recreation materials, which should be 
 treated with the same dignity as a library and 
 should be as liberally maintained as possible. 
 In it should be kept not only the toys and games, 
 but materials for constructing various articles, 
 drawing and painting materials, costumes that 
 have been used in dramatics and that will surely 
 come in handy again, pictures, projection ap- 
 paratus, etc. Right here it may be said that the 
 library may cooperate very effectively. Why 
 not make the library a center for recreation? 
 
 Outdoor recreation and play for country com- 
 munities may include (i) activities suggested by 
 the environment itself, such as hunting, fishing, 
 camping, tramping, mountain climbing, winter 
 sports, water sports, certain phases of nature- 
 study and of farm' life, like sugar making, husk- 
 ing bees, and so on; (2) group activities for 
 
238 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 boys like the Boy Scouts, and for girls like the 
 Campfire Girls; (3) regular playground activi- 
 ties with organized and supesvised plays, games 
 and athletics; (4) community activities, such as 
 pageants and festivals, county fairs and athletic 
 field days and play picnics. Of these: 
 
 1. Hunting and fishing cannot figure con- 
 spicuously in the long settled sections of the 
 country for the obvious reason that fish and 
 game are scarce. When these sports are no 
 longer available, other forms of recreation must 
 be provided to take their place, though not with 
 the expectation that they will be as effective. 
 The old-fashioned husking bee is no more, but 
 the sugar bush is still with us, though in less 
 romantic form because of modern methods. It 
 is now very businesslike and is no longer the 
 recreation center it used to be in numberless 
 places, with its rude shelter, its kettles, sap 
 buckets, and roaring campfires. To supplement, 
 or take the place of these old time recreations, 
 the more modern forms of camping may well be 
 encouraged in the country. Who has not known 
 boys puting up a tent near the house, or mak- 
 ing a rough shelter in the woods and sleeping 
 and eating in it for days at a time? A few 
 tents owned by the church perhaps, or by the 
 grange, or even by a ladies' club, may be made 
 a means of grace to many if under the super- 
 vision of a wise leader. 
 
 2. Tramping is an almost unknown, or at 
 least unpractised form of recreation in America. 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 239 
 
 Pile some tiedding into a wagon with provisions 
 and extra clothing, and, with some objective 
 point two or three days away, let the trampers 
 set out properly supervised and guided, camp- 
 ing along the road and thoroughly enjoying an 
 outing whose retrospect is only less delightful 
 than the actual experience. 
 
 3. What has been called the "caravan" gives 
 an interesting outing. It is a train of wagons 
 fitted up as comfortably and as attractively as 
 may be desired', a la gypsy style, one serving for 
 kitchen, another as a parlor, others as sleeping 
 rooms, the caravan moving leisurely through the 
 country in a comfortable outing. 
 
 4. Mountain climbing is just beginning to be 
 appreciated by people in this country, but chiefly 
 by city dwellers. Tens of thousands of our 
 country people live near superb mountains, the 
 conquest of which by climbing will prove most 
 inspiring to mountaineering clubs whose mem- 
 bership should include women and girls. 
 
 5. For the water there is the house boat, with 
 a great variety of possibilities, perhaps too ex- 
 pensive for a single family, but feasible for a 
 cooperative effort, especially if fitted up in the 
 simple, inexpensive way practised by fishermen 
 and river boatmen. Tramping and camping ex- 
 peditions may be accompanied by programs of 
 plays and games, athletic events, and water 
 sports to any extent desired. 
 
 6. The Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls should 
 be organized in country districts as well as in 
 
240 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 cities, though! possibly with slightly different 
 standards and tests. "Rural Scouts" have al- 
 ready appeared in the West and perhaps that 
 name instead of "Boy Scouts" should be adopted 
 for country boys. Campfire Girls is admirably or- 
 ganized for both country and city girls, with its 
 central idea of making attractive the domestic 
 life as well as the outdoor activities. The voca- 
 tional clubs, the Tomato Clubs of the South and 
 the Corn Clubs, at the same time that they are 
 professedly vocational, lend themselves to social 
 recreation as well. , 
 
 Thus far we have touched upon the more in- 
 formal modes of recreation, but we come now 
 to the still more specialized modes which center 
 in and about regularly equipped playgrounds. 
 And here we must claim that organized and su- 
 pervised play is as much a social institution as 
 are the Church and the school. 
 
 In country places playgrounds will have to 
 come, if they come at all, through the generosity 
 of some individuals or clubs, or on the initiative 
 of some organization like a powerful school or 
 college, a wide-awake church, or a county work 
 department of the Y. M. C. A. And they arc 
 actually coming in considerable numbers and in 
 all parts of the country. Everywhere they bring 
 about the same social results ; that is, they bring 
 about a fine community spirit, awaken civic con- 
 sciousness and cooperation, and make for a 
 whole-souled companionship instead of for in- 
 dividualism and isolation. 
 
THE VALUE OF RECREATION 24I 
 
 Regular, supervised play should begin at 
 home. How fortunate the children whose par- 
 ents are in sympathy with play and who will oc- 
 casionally find time to play with their children! 
 Sand piles, swings, and other inexpensive ap- 
 paratus are easily provided, and so are the chin- 
 ning bar, jumping pit, and running course. 
 
 Even the one-room school may be a factor 
 in promoting supervised play. Helpful litera- 
 ture is now procurable by those interested and 
 willing to take up this work. The country road 
 may have to be pressed into service for some 
 of the activities, but every school should have 
 ample grounds laid out and equipped for volley 
 ball, badminton, prisoner's base, captain ball, 
 base ball, or playground ball, relay races, etc. 
 Marbles and kites should be encouraged, as 
 should a hundred other games that are readily 
 learned. Folk dancing should be revived in the 
 country as it has been in the city. Here again 
 are manuals of instruction ready for the use of 
 those who take up the work. 
 
 Teachers, pastors, and play leaders should 
 make use of excursions, picnics and camping ex- 
 peditions, as suggested above. 
 
 National holidays and other special occasions 
 may be observed by the holding of pageants. 
 The Fourth of July, for instance, may become a 
 day of pleasure and profit for all by celebrating 
 it in this manner. The pageant idea for country 
 communities has been worked out with excep- 
 tional success by Mr. W. C. Langdon at Thet- 
 
242 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 ford, Vt. His pamphlet, "The Pageant of 
 Thetford," is a classic in the literature of recrea- 
 tion. 
 
 An essential phase of playground activity is 
 athletics. These cannot be elaborate of course. 
 A beginning is usually made by having the boys 
 run, jump, and chin themselves in accordance 
 with certain directions and standards. A coun- 
 try school athletic league organized among the 
 schools of a county or commissioners' district 
 tends to foster all kinds of clean athletics among 
 country children, to teach them and their 
 teachers outdoor and indoor games, and to bring 
 the schools together at least once a year in a 
 great field day and play picnic. The field day 
 has been found to be a very important factor in 
 promoting play in the country. Since the first 
 field day of this sort was started by the writer 
 in a little village in New, York State some seven 
 years ago, the idea has very generally spread 
 through the country, and it may be said that the 
 field day and play picnic has become an important 
 rural institution. 
 
 Perhaps it is not too much to say that through 
 praperly supervised play and well conducted 
 festivals the civic and institutional life of an en- 
 tire country district may be permanently quick- 
 ened and inspired, the play movement thus mak- 
 ing surely for greater contentment, cleaner 
 morals, more intense patriotism and righteous- 
 ness on the farm lands and village populations 
 of our country. 
 
IX 
 
 POVERTY AND DEGENERATION IN THE 
 COUNTRY 
 
 John R. Howard^ Jr. 
 
 Professor T. N. Carver of Harvard Univer- 
 sity, in his "Principles of Rural Economics" (p. 
 27), says, "Where the conditions of life are as 
 easy as they have been in this country up to the 
 present time, even very inefficient specimens of 
 humanity have been able to hold their own 
 against competition. . . . Accordingly one 
 finds, in out-of-the-way places in different sec- 
 tions of our country, a degree of ignorance, in- 
 efficiency, and moral degeneracy which it will 
 be impossible to find in any of the countries of 
 western Europe." 
 
 Edward R. Johnstone, Superintendent of the 
 Training School for Backward and Feeble- 
 Minded, at Vineland, N. J., in an article in the 
 Survey for March 2, 1912, writes, "The depend- 
 ency, crime, immorality, and poverty of the. 
 Jukes of Ulster County, N. Y., is paralleled in 
 at least two counties of New Jersey, and prob- 
 ably in every state in the Union." 
 
 Such statements as these but voice the com- 
 mon opinion, frequently expressed, that poverty 
 and degeneracy is prevalent in our rural dis- 
 tricts, — especially in the east, to be sure, but also 
 243 
 
244 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 in certain regions of the west which has lured 
 from the farms in the east not only the energetic 
 and intelligent but also the lazy and incompetent. 
 As Professor Meeker of Princeton says, "The 
 west is full of men who would have starved to 
 death had they or their fathers remained in New 
 England, or Pennsylvania." 
 
 It was hopedl in presenting this chapter to 
 hunt down some of these generalizations, and 
 present facts based upon actual inquiries. Presi- 
 dent Bailey of Cornell says, "It is of the first 
 importance that we do not set out on this new 
 work (the Country Life Movement) with only 
 general opinions and superficial and fragmen- 
 tary knowledge." There was not time for orig- 
 inal investigation, but it was hoped to present 
 the findings of studies already made. The re- 
 sults of inquiries made in thirty-seven states 
 show that there exists nothing but "superficial 
 and fragmentary knowledge." Such few rural 
 surveys as have been made have almost entirely 
 overlooked conditions of poverty, waywardness, 
 disease, and physical degeneration ; and for pre- 
 cise knowledge we can turn only to the studies 
 of family histories of mental defectives which 
 are beginning to be made by the foremost in- 
 stitutions for the insane and feeble-minded, and 
 preeminently by the Station for Experimental 
 Evolution at Cold Springs Harbor, N. Y., under 
 Dr. Chas. B. Davenport. The first studies un- 
 der Dr. Davenport are not yet published at this 
 writing. The history of th^ Jukes, in New York 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 245 
 
 State, already referred to, and of the Ishmael- 
 ites in Indiana, were the first such studies given 
 a wide hearing, and are still excellent reference 
 for anyone who wants to know how it is pos- 
 sible for two or three degenerate individuals to 
 cost the state in four or five generations over a 
 million dollars, through the procreation of hun- 
 dreds of lives predestined to crime, immorality, 
 and pauperism. 
 
 The only evidence it was possible to collect 
 served to show that even in the east, where for 
 from fifty to eighty years the process of "fish- 
 ing out" the rural communities has continued 
 the general degeneration to be expected has not 
 yet been realized, but seems where found to be 
 traceable in great part to certain families in each 
 region, noted for their poor specimens of 
 humanity. 
 
 Dr. A. C. Rogers, of the Minnesota School for 
 Feeble-Minded and Epileptics, in answer to a 
 question concerning the amount of degeneracy 
 in rural districts, writes, "I have never had any 
 special reason to suppose there was any par- 
 ticular amount of degeneracy in one portion of 
 the community more than another in this state." 
 And as for rural life causing mental defect- 
 iveness, Dr. Davenport, of Cold Springs Har- 
 bor, writes, "Whether in any sparsely settled 
 country there shall be more insanity or more 
 'feeble-mindedness' depends, I think, more upon 
 the nature of the germ plasm that orginally set- 
 tled that country than it does upon the nature 
 
246 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 of the country itself." If this principle is true, 
 it is filled with great hope for those who would 
 root out the sore spots in the country, for it 
 means that the direct method of segregating the 
 tainted germ plasm, to prevent it from repro- 
 ducing! its kind, will not only relieve the im- 
 mediate situation but will prevent its recurrence, 
 except as new specimens immigrate. 
 
 If country life does not make for defects of 
 mind, however, it certainly possesses dangers for 
 character. "The effect of isolation upon weak 
 characters," says Professor Carver, "is to de- 
 stroy all respect for tradition, authority, or social 
 convention." Professor E. A. Ross, of the Uni- 
 versity of Wisconsin, finds this exemplified in 
 the "low standards of life and conduct," "pre- 
 cocious sexuality," and "unfaithfulness to mar- 
 riage vows." 
 
 Mrs. Edith Ellicott Smith, President of the 
 Pennsylvania Rural Progress Association, says 
 that "great cities are now beyond question, a 
 safer place of residence than the little hamlet. 
 These places are invariably the headquarters of 
 the 'off color' population of large neighborhoods 
 without police, and set the type for a general 
 free and easy style of manners and habits, out 
 of which comes a ghastly wreck of character. 
 Certainly, even on farms, the proportion of 
 children born two or three months after mar- 
 riage is very large, and it may be that the dull 
 social life has a bearing upon this fact." 
 
 J. J. Kelso, Superintendent of the Department 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 247 
 
 of Neglected and Dependent Children in On- 
 tario, a province including cities and small 
 towns, says, "Without doubt the worst cases of 
 immorality, incest, cruelty, and neglect of chil- 
 dren, in my experience, have been in the coun- 
 try." 
 
 But why multiply "general opinions"? The 
 first and most important finding of this attempt 
 to collect the results of studies of poverty and 
 degeneracy in small towns and rural districts is 
 the utter lack of such studies, and the impera- 
 tive need of having such made if anything more 
 than "general opinions, and superficial and frag- 
 mentary knowledge" is to be made available. 
 
 In the meantime, there are ways in which the 
 individual problems in rural communities may be 
 met, whether they be of insanity, feeble-minded- 
 ness, cruelty, neglect, or poverty. 
 
 INSANITY 
 
 Fortunately, state institutional care for the 
 insane is now universal in this country. The 
 problem is not, how shall this insane person 
 be cared for? but, how shall this nervous person 
 who is rapidly losing control of himself, be pre- 
 vented from becoming insane? Eleven states 
 now provide for voluntary admission to hospitals 
 for the insane. Thus a person competent to 
 make application, who feels as though he were 
 "going to go insane," can apply for admission, 
 obtain the care best suited to prevent the dis- 
 ease from going further, and leave the hospital 
 
248 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 at will upon three to five days' notice. Just the 
 bare knowledge that there are such places to go 
 to, without waiting for that awful final plunge in- 
 to darkness, will save many a person ; and the ac- 
 tual treatment in an institution — wlUch the par 
 tient can leave at any time — will save still more. 
 Every person who reads this should ask their 
 state hospital for the insane if voluntary admit- 
 tance is provided for in his state. If it is, this 
 good news should be made known in every ham- 
 let. If it is not, no stone should be left un- 
 turned to see that a law providing for it is 
 passed. If you do not know how to go about 
 this, write to The National Committee for Men- 
 tal Hygiene, 50 Union Square, New York City. 
 
 In Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Illinois, and 
 California, work for the prevention of insanity 
 has been organized. The program, to quote 
 from' one such organization, includes. 
 
 "i. General education of the public as to the 
 cause and prevention of insanity; 
 
 2. Promotion of the establishment of clinics 
 for mental and nervous diseases ; 
 
 3. Securing proper medical treatment for cases 
 of incipient insanity." 
 
 If you want the people of your community to 
 know the avoidable causes of insanity (which ac- 
 count for about 50 per cent of the patients un- 
 der treatment) write to The National Committee 
 for Mental Hygiene to ask what society in your 
 state can send you literature and speakers. 
 From the same source you can obtain informa- 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 249 
 
 tion as to whether there is an organization in 
 your state which will help you secure proper 
 medical treatment for an individual, incipient 
 case. If this Society replies that there is no 
 agency to do either of these things in your 
 state, appeal to them to promote one that will, 
 and do all you can to back them up. 
 
 THE FEEBLE-MINDED 
 
 Feeble-mindedness is said to produce more 
 pauperism, degeneracy, and crime than any other 
 one force. It is estimated that one person out 
 of every 300 in this country is feeble-minded. 
 In the prisons and almshouses, one out of every 
 five is feeble-minded. No genuine case ever 
 was, or ever can be cured. If left in the com- 
 munity a feeble-minded boy or girl can grow up 
 only to a life of unhappiness, dependence, and 
 probably crime. The feeble-minded, because of 
 their utter lack of moral sense and consequent 
 inability to protect themselves, inevitably repro- 
 duce, almost surely reproduce their kind, and 
 are found to give birth to twice as many children 
 as normal parents. Every single one of these 
 wretched beings that is not under responsible 
 private care should be removed to an institu- 
 tion, — ^^for their own protection, training, and 
 happiness, to save the state the cost of their 
 pauperism and crime, and to protect the inno- 
 cents unborn. Five states have passed laws 
 providing for the sterilization of this and other 
 
250 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 classes of degenerates. What the results will be 
 cannot be foretold. Certainly it will save us 
 from the hideous crime of knowingly permitting 
 them to bring other degenerates into the world, 
 but whether it will not make immorality and 
 disease more prevalent is not so sure. In any 
 event, it is but a supplementary device, seem- 
 ingly invented to tide over the time until the 
 public will consent to the permanent segregation 
 of all degenerates, whether paupers, feeble- 
 minded, or criminals, and will provide the funds 
 necessary to do this. 
 
 Only twenty-five states have provision for the 
 care of the feeble-minded, and not one single 
 one has adequate provision. Three states claim' 
 to have eliminated them from their almshouses, 
 but none of the other states have. Dr. God- 
 dard of Vineland, N. J. describes "one of the 
 best almshouses to be found," where out of one 
 hundred and five children bom, during a period 
 of five years, one hundred and two were feeble- 
 minded. Backward children who are a hindrance 
 to the other children in school, the butt of 
 ridicule and a source of moral danger at play, 
 and "a nuisance" at home, when placed in a 
 proper institution are trained to such manual 
 dexterity as does not require maturity of mind, 
 contribute materially to their support — until in 
 manhood and womanhood lo to 30 per cent of 
 them attain, under direction, full self support — 
 and live safe, useful, contented lives. The 
 fundamental principle to bear in mind, however. 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 25 1 
 
 is that this safety, usefulness, and contentment 
 is assured only in a "village ior the simple." 
 There must always be the protection from and 
 for society, there must always be skilled direc- 
 tion of the employment, and there must always 
 be the simple, guarded conditions of life to in- 
 sure happiness. 
 
 Our experts at the head of institutions hesitate 
 to declare for universal and life long institu- 
 tional care for the feeble-minded, but they know 
 in their minds and hearts, and some of them will 
 say, that this is the only humane, unselfish, and 
 scientific policy. 
 
 And what can the individual in a country 
 town do about all this? He can see that every 
 child in his community, found in school or out, 
 whose development seems to lag behind his 
 years, is examined by a physician for physical 
 and mental defects. Failing the right physician, 
 a letter to the state institution for feeble-minded, 
 or to the Training School for Backward and 
 Feeble-minded at Vineland, N. J. will bring him 
 tests to apply. For the child, then, believed to 
 be feeble-minded, or for the dull, immoral adult, 
 in the almshouse or afloat, an application for ad- 
 mittance to the state institution should be made. 
 When told that there is no room, as he will be 
 in every state having such an institution, the next 
 step is to appeal to the legislators from his dis- 
 trict, and to get other voters to, and to keep 
 at it until every feeble-minded individual in the 
 community is provided for; and then pass the 
 
252 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 word along to other communities until the whole 
 state has done what no state yet has done, and 
 what not to do is from a business viewpoint 
 folly, and from a Christian standpoint sin, 
 
 POVERTY 
 
 Less seems to be known about poverty in 
 the country than about Miy of the subjects con- 
 sidered in this chapter. Only one study in one 
 county was reported in answer to the country- 
 wide correspondence already alluded to. One 
 method of approaching- this difficult field of in- 
 quiry would be through records of out-door 
 poor relief in small towns as compared with 
 larger towns or "cities." Such an examination 
 of the towns of New Hampshire, for instance, 
 shows that in 1910, in the five towns of over 
 10,000 population (the largest 57,000), 11 out of 
 every 1,000 inhabitants was given public out-- 
 door relief; in the five towns between 5,000 and 
 10,000 population, 18 out of every 1,000, and 
 in the 2,224 towns under 5,000 population, 24 
 outi of every 1,000. The amount of aid per per- 
 son assisted was $29.00 in the towns over 10,- 
 000 and $23.00 in the towns under 10,000 ; while 
 the amount per capita of population was 32 cents 
 in the large towns and 55 cents in the small. 
 This shows an unexpected amount of poverty 
 in the rural townships as compared with the ur- 
 ban, especially when it is considered that most 
 of the family emergencies in the country are 
 still met in tiie good old neighborly fashion. 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 253 
 
 Perhaps in the face of such ignorance of the 
 extent of poverty in the country, it would not 
 be expected that much progress could be re- 
 corded with respect to ways of meeting the 
 problems arising therefrom. In large towns and 
 cities, to provide for want and to help families 
 who have become unable to provide for them- 
 selves — whether from sickness, death, had habits, 
 lack of training, or incapacity — get back to inde- 
 pendence, it has been found that experience and 
 training in dealing with such problems is es- 
 sential for the best results; that the moral, 
 physical, and mental problems involved require 
 at least as much skill to solve, and are every bit 
 as dangerous to treat, as the ills for which phy- 
 sicians are necessary. How the small com- 
 munity can command such service is a problem 
 which has hardly yet begun to be answered. 
 To obtain light upon it, the thirty-seven states 
 above referred to were each asked : "Do you 
 know of any small towns or rural sections which 
 have worked out a satisfactory method of apply- 
 ing to family problems in the country the expert 
 treatment thought necessary in the city?" And: 
 "Are there any state or county organizations, 
 public or private, which afford such expert treat- 
 ment for rural families, or children, and how 
 do they operate?" The answer td the first ques- 
 tion revealed an almost absolute lack of such 
 local community developments. There are prom- 
 ising beginnings, here and there, however. One 
 county in Pennsylvania has an Associated Chari- 
 
254 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 ties for the county, with a paid worker, and 
 headquarters ini a town of 2,600. This work has 
 been under way but a few months. Other ex- 
 periments of the kind are needed, where two or 
 three towns or more unite in the employment 
 of an expert. No small town, unless with en- 
 dowment funds, can afford to pay for the full 
 time of a trained worker. Another line of ex- 
 perimenlj is that in Amherst, Mass., where, a 
 year and a half ago, a Social Service League 
 was formed to deal with all sorts of family prob- 
 lems, and a trained social worker engaged to 
 give half her time to Amherst and half to near- 
 by towns, under the direction of the Massachu- 
 setts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
 Children. An office in Amherst is kept open 
 every day, where calls for any kind of human! 
 service are received, where the district nurse 
 has her headquarters, and the needs and re- 
 sources of the town come together. Societies 
 for the prevention of cruelty to children do not 
 ordinarily interpret their function broadly enough 
 to allow of such cooperation ; and because of the 
 common identification of these societies, with 
 the arm of the law, it is possible that a more 
 natural and easy participation in the local family 
 problems not involving cruelty, is possible under 
 such a society as the New York State Charities 
 Aid Association. This association, in coopera- 
 tion with the county governments, maintains 
 local agencies for dependent children in thirteen 
 counties of the state. While the work is con- 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 255 
 
 cemed chiefly with children, in many cases the 
 agents assist public officials in connection with 
 poor relief cases not involving children, and in 
 one case, at least, the association, on request, 
 has agreed to handle all the family problems 
 which one rural township may care to refer to 
 them. 
 
 In five other states there are reported chil- 
 dren's aid societies which go to the aid of any 
 children in need of succor, and no doubt they 
 could be made to serve the other family prob- 
 lems in the rural districts of those states. The 
 Maryland Children's Aid Society was organized 
 for the purpose "of meeting each family situa- 
 tion in the counties, when it arises, to prevent 
 despondency, disease and crime, to give or se- 
 cure the proper treatment of each child in 
 trouble, and promote a local interest in matters 
 pertaining to the welfare of children." It is pro- 
 posed to develop such agencies in each of the 
 judicial districts of the state, and to place in 
 each a trained child specialist. 
 
 The State Charities Aid and Prison Reform 
 Association of New Jersey aims to establish 
 branches in every county of the state, with com- 
 mittees on County Institutions, Cooperation 
 with Churches and Private Charities, Tuber- 
 culosis, Finance, Education and Publicity, Over- 
 seers of the Poor, Children, Vagrants, and Hous- 
 ing; with a central office and a paid secretary 
 in each county. 
 
 In Oklahoma, the State Conference of Chari- 
 
256 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 ties and Correction has organized twenty county 
 conferences with a membership of something like 
 3,000, which it is intended to develop into strong 
 local agencies, a method of organization which 
 may well be copied elsewhere. 
 
 District nurses are beginning to be used in 
 small towns, and where they have had special 
 experience or training in dealing with family 
 problems, not otherwise, they may be relied up- 
 on for social as well as physical treatment. 
 This' is a form of service that may be made to 
 contribute considerably toward its own support, 
 a much larger proportion of the people in a 
 small town being able to pay than in the city 
 districts where visiting nursing is best known. 
 The best plan for making available for family 
 emergencies all the resources of a community 
 and all kinds of service — social worker, nurse, 
 attendant, household helper, neighbor — ^has been 
 developed in Brattleboro, Vermont, a town of 
 7,000, and copied in towns larger and smaller 
 and in at least one rural district. A letter to the 
 Brattleboro Mutual Aid Association will bring 
 their last report. 
 
 One other means now employed to bring ex- 
 pert advice to the family problems of rural dis- 
 tricts is through probation officers. One such 
 officer in Pennsylvania writes, "I have recently 
 been sent into the outlying inaccessible corners 
 of our county, and am appalled by what I 
 find. ... I have had a vision of missionary 
 probation officers going among these homes with 
 
DEGENERATION IN THE COUNTRY 257 
 
 the authority of the court back of them, correct- 
 ing wrong conditions, and being able, after a 
 study of conditions, to make recommendations 
 for proper and much needed legislation." Coun- 
 ty probation officers who serve not only in the 
 county court, but also in the Supreme Court, 
 and in the courts of all third class cities, towns 
 and villages in the county, have been provided 
 for in New Jersey ever since 1900. In 191 1 
 there were sixteen such county officers in New 
 York State. The influence of an officer of the 
 law going about the county at unstated inter- 
 vals is salutary in itself, and such a one is called 
 upon for much advice and unofficial corrective 
 influence. As there are only seven states with- 
 out probation laws, this is one of the most uni- 
 versally applicable agencies for bringing expert 
 aid to the problems of rural communities. 
 
 This discussion of some of the problems which 
 face all rural communities, whether or not they 
 are conscious of them, and of the means which 
 are beginning to be developed to meet them, 
 may prove helpful for those living in states 
 whefe such agencies exist; but of what use is 
 it to those who live where they are not avail- 
 able? In the first place, do noti be too sure 
 that they are not available. Make it your busi- 
 ness to acquaint yourself now, without waiting 
 for a crucial problem to arise, with all the re- 
 sources of the county, state, and nation. To 
 assist you in this, the following sources of in- 
 formation are suggested: 
 
258 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 1. For information concerning institutions, or 
 treatment for insanity, The National Committee 
 for Mental Hygiene, 50 Union Square, New- 
 York City. 
 
 2. For information concerning institutions or 
 treatment for the feeble-minded, American As- 
 sociation for the Study of the Feeble-Minded, 
 Dr. A. C. Rogers, Secretary, Faribault, Minn. 
 
 3. For information concerning institutions or 
 agencies for the care of destitute or neglected 
 children. Department of Child Helping, Rus- 
 sell Sage Foundation, 105 East 22ndi Street, New- 
 York City. 
 
 4. For information concerning agencies that 
 will assist in family rehabilitation, or concern- 
 ing the organization and financing of such an 
 agency, National Association of Societies for 
 Organizing Charity, 105 East 22nd Street, New 
 York City. 
 
 5. For information concerning institutions or 
 agencies for the care or assistance of the blind, 
 American Association for the Conservation of 
 Vision, 25 West 39th Street, New York City. 
 
 6. For information concerning institutions or 
 agencies for the treatment or prevention of tu- 
 berculosis, National Association for the Study 
 and Prevention of Tuberculosis, 105 East 22nd 
 Street, New York City. 
 
 7. For information concerning prisons, re- 
 formatories and reformatory agencies. National 
 Prisoners Aid Society, 135 East 15th Street, 
 New York City. 
 
X 
 
 iWHAT COUNTRY MINISTERS HAVE 
 DONE 
 
 Warren H. Wilson 
 
 According to President Kenyon L. Butterfield, 
 "The country church is the church that serves 
 the working farmer." From this we may de- 
 fine the country minister as the minister who 
 helps country people to be good farmers. In 
 these days only one person in three of the popu- 
 lation is working at farming, and a good farmer 
 is the man who produces much out of the land 
 for others to use, consumes little himself, and 
 makes a living on the farm satisfactory to his 
 own family and to the community. 
 
 In all the good farming we have the minister 
 ^of religion is an essential factor. The. American 
 populations who farm well, producing an abun- 
 dance of food and raw materials for others to 
 use, and securing a satisfactory living for them- 
 selves and their families, building communities, 
 holding the young people on the farm for suc- 
 cessive generations, are all religiously organ- 
 ized. As a rule their churches are their only 
 unions for better farming. Their ministers and 
 church officers are their leaders; their farming 
 is reinforced with moral and religious senti- 
 ments, which oi^anize their thought in rural 
 359 
 
26o THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 terms. Their codes of conduct are "plain." 
 Their aspirations are homely. Their standards 
 are austere. Their training makes them thrifty. 
 The examples held before them are those of in- 
 dustry, patience, faith and quietness. The ex- 
 ponents of these agricultural virtues without 
 which no farming can be either productive or 
 profitable are ministers of religion. 
 
 They are teachers of the spiritual imperatives 
 without which farming lapses into peasantry, or 
 riots out into speculation, absentee ownership 
 and landlordism. The men who have held back 
 the Pennsylvania Germans and the Scotch Pres- 
 byterians from joining the rural exodus are their 
 ministers. 
 
 With one exception these populations of good 
 farmers "brought from Europe their modes of 
 tilling the soil." The Mormon is the one Amer- 
 ican product who through whole counties and 
 states has adapted the farming industry to pro- 
 duction and to the support of strong communi- 
 ties. This sole American farmer is so religious 
 that, because of his heresies and his abhorrent 
 practices, we fear his power; but we must not 
 overlook that his leaders have been bishops, 
 apostles and pastors and that the Mormon is a 
 farmer. 
 
 Where in individual communities American 
 ministers have found a way aside from Euro- 
 pean traditions to help their people become bet- 
 ter farmers, they have generally found it along 
 the roads of Agricultural Science, Farm Cooper- 
 
WHAT COUNTRY MINISTERS HAVE DONE 261 
 
 ation, Supervised Recreation, Religious Educa- 
 tion, Religious Federation and Community Or- 
 ganization. 
 
 In this brief chapter I can give only single 
 illustrations of each of these modes of efficiency. 
 Instead of naming the minister or his denomina- 
 tion, I will mention the state in which he lives. 
 Of all rural leaders, I believe the ministers have 
 a greater number in the lead, among those who 
 are showing the way to better farming. They 
 live longer in the country than the teacher in 
 the one room school ; they are more in sympathy 
 with farmers than are the merchants, agents or 
 middle men; and they are more in favor with 
 the farmer than the professional "farm organ- 
 izer." 
 
 It is worth noting in passing that the worst 
 failure in farming in America has probably been 
 in New England, where religion in the middle 
 of the 19th Century under the "New England 
 School" of Philosophy became most idealistic, 
 its arguments most deductive ; its doctrine most 
 polemical, and its range of interest most un- 
 practical. The only areas of country life 
 known to me, in which people do not go to church 
 at all, are in New England and among colonies 
 of New England people. Among the people 
 taught by Emerson and the theorists of the Uni- 
 tarian controversy, the rural exodus has been 
 most exhausting, exploitation most complete, 
 farms abandoned, rural communities degener- 
 ate. I think the preachers of New England who 
 
262 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 taught individualism instead of social efficiency- 
 had a hand in this. 
 
 The best example of a minister who taught 
 the farmer how to farm was until recently in 
 Maryland. He is a conservative in theology in 
 an old-fashioned community, which was com- 
 pelled to transform its traditional peach crop 
 into a new husbandry. He used his pulpit as 
 his assembly, the ancient academy in which he 
 was required to teach as his class room, and 
 the forty-acre glebe beside the manse as his 
 laboratory. He studied books on soils, seeds 
 and farm management. He transformed him- 
 self from a Hebrew scholar to a specialist in po- 
 tatoes. He shifted the place of his prayers from 
 the Holy Land of Syria to the Holy Earth of 
 Maryland. He talked like a farmer in the pul- 
 pit about the sufferings and joys of his own 
 people. He introduced scientific agriculture in 
 the academy, for the next generation. He dem- 
 onstrated on his forty acres, which he planted 
 in potatoes, and protected through a dry sum- 
 mer with a dust mulch, that the soil of that re- 
 gion was suited for the raising of potatoes. 
 This man became the saviour of his people. He 
 gave them courage, leadership, intelligent serv- 
 ice, spiritual uplift in daily toil, and industrial 
 efficiency through culture of mind and heart. 
 
 In Kentucky there has been in the past dec- 
 ade a bitter fight for self respect and economic 
 freedom among small farmers. They raise to- 
 bacco, for which their soil is suited; but for 
 
WHAT COUNTRY MINISTERS HAVE DONE 263 
 
 years the price was fixed by others. Debt was 
 universal; money was scarcely ever seen by 
 working farmers; labor was little better than 
 slavery; women and children worked in the 
 fields. In the agitation for better prices through 
 combination, the preachers played a great part. 
 They saw the evils and felt in their churches the 
 bitter poverty of their people. They did not 
 flinch from the struggle nor fear its sometimes 
 bloody incidents. The end of it has been pros- 
 perity, based on economic freedom. The farmer 
 now fixes the price within reason for his prod- 
 net. The building of new and better churches 
 is only one element of extensive social improve- 
 ment among these devout, religious and independ- 
 ent people, who have prospered through indus- 
 trial organization. 
 
 In Mississippi one of the leaders of better 
 farming is an eloquent, brilliant minister, who 
 rather than starve among the discouraged lead- 
 erless flock of country people, has become at 
 once organizer, orator and editor; devoting his 
 life with religious fervor to the organization of 
 farmers to secure a better income. It is char- 
 acteristic of him and of other such leaders that 
 he talks the language of the pulpit and appeals 
 constantly to the motives of Christian conduct. 
 
 In Iowa the most eminent country life leader 
 is a preacher who learned in years of church 
 and farm life the lessons which he teaches in a 
 great weekly journal. His column on the Sun- 
 day-school lesson is the most widely read and 
 
264 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 the most thoroughly appreciated part of his 
 paper. 
 
 There is in Missouri a minister who away 
 back in the country is farming three acres him- 
 self and directing the labor of his people upon 
 ten acres more of experiment farm. This is an 
 illustration of the principles stated above. But 
 this active leader of his people has a method 
 better still. He has a Children's Church at one 
 of his preaching stations. Every office and de- 
 tail of a church of his denomination is imitated 
 in a minature congregation of children. Some- 
 times the preacher is present, and sometimes 
 not, at these services, but the young people are 
 studying and practicing religion. 
 
 Country congregations must have those poli- 
 cies for which they have leaders; at least, they 
 can have no others. Religious education is 
 difficult because so few rural folk are compe- 
 tent to teach. There was a church on the bor- 
 ders of New England a few years ago that had 
 Sunday-school leaders trained in the best 
 methods. For ten years its school was the 
 dynamo of all the good work in the community. 
 The minister was for years the teacher of 
 teachers. A Teachers' Training Class met at a 
 private house one night each week for hard and 
 thorough study of the lesson. This was fol- 
 lowed by a frank confidential talk about each 
 scholar, every event and about any need of the 
 community, which came that week into atten- 
 tion. The last half hour p| the evening was 
 
WHAT COUNTRY MINISTERS HAVE DONE 265 
 
 spent in prayer, in which all took part. That 
 Teachers' Meeting and the School through which 
 it poured its energy on the community were a 
 great help and stimulus to the farmers for miles 
 around, most of whom were not even aware of 
 its sessions, and very few of whom were ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 Religious Federation is a more important prin- 
 ciple in country life than church union. It is a 
 spiritual and not a legal transaction. It does 
 not have to be passed on by the courts, and 
 never engages the attention of the sheriff. The 
 church mentioned above received into its mem- 
 bership adherents of eleven different denomina- 
 tions. It was sanctioned at its organization by 
 the five churches on whose parishes it bordered. 
 But it was subject to none of them. This ex- 
 perience lil^e all federations of Christian folk 
 grew out of the needs of the community. It 
 served as a uniting principle in a place where 
 people of many different creeds had come to 
 live. It was the only way by which all could 
 be by religion united, rather than divided. 
 
 There is a church in Illinois, the members of 
 which have reconstructed the common schools. 
 It is -the only church of the community. Its 
 members for twenty-five years worked at the 
 task of improving the schools. This church, 
 which has an educational policy thoroughly 
 American, has customs of recreation also in 
 which all the people join. The holidays of the 
 year are celebrated together. The 4th of July 
 
266 THE RURAL CHURCH 
 
 is a great gathering to which men come from the 
 towns. The church and its people are the or- 
 ganizers of the community. 
 
 Similar influence is possessed by two great 
 churches in New Jersey. One of them has a 
 yearly "Anniversary." Nobody knows what it 
 commemorates and nobody cares, for in an aver- 
 age year it assembles some three to five thou- 
 sand people and they have so good a time that 
 each event is the anniversary of the last. These 
 people come by every conveyance imaginable, 
 from a farm wagon to a Pullman coach and six 
 cylinder motor. They are the children of the 
 countryside come home again. It is a great re- 
 union which the church possesses as a custom of 
 its own. By this means it organizes the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The other church has for two hundred years 
 rendered religious service, and united in one 
 body the people who live in a territory six 
 miles by five. Instead of several denominations 
 with their competing houses of worship, this 
 church has built three chapels in various parts 
 of the parish, in all of which each week the min- 
 ister appears, while all the people each week at 
 one service appear in the central house of wor- 
 ship. There is no danger at present of this 
 church dying out, though it is very near New 
 York City. 
 
 The standards of efficiency are changing in 
 the country. The American church and minis- 
 ter must create out of brain and heart, with the 
 
WHAT COUNTRY MINISTERS HAVE DONE 267 
 
 Divine leadership, a new way of serving the 
 people in the interest of the Kingdom of God. 
 Certain definite principles are already clear. 
 You may find them in the social methods of the 
 Europeanized American farmer; you will find 
 them among the Mormon country churches, and 
 in those churches which out in the open fields 
 are demonstrating that the American people are 
 just as religious as ever. These principles may 
 be condensed in the words : The social service of 
 the church and its people to the commtinity. 
 
 THE END