By WARREN H. WILSON. The Pilgrim Press. 221 pp. Price $1.25; by mail
of THE SURVEY $1.35.
Because Dr. Wilson has made a clear and pointed statement of fundamental
conditions, the student of rural sociology is grateful for this book,
even though much of what it contains is obvious to him. Throughout, the
writer shows his belief that the rural population can be improved by a
socially actuated church. Although he believes that a country church
should be inspirational he makes clear the fact that the church cannot
succeed unless it enters into the whole life of the farm, economic and
otherwise. For instance, Dr. Wilson very properly insists that if a
farmer is producing but sixty bushels of potatoes on an acre of land
which should yield three hundred bushels he is guilty of a wrong that
should be denounced just as stridently as the doctrinal sins which have
so long occupied the attention of rural pastors. In the co-operation of
these activities rather than in actual union the writer sees promise of
a solution of many of the problems of the country church. He shows
clearly that people cannot be united in religion until they are united
in their social economy.
“The business of the church is to organize co-operative enterprises,
economic, social and educational, and ... to educate them in the
advantages of life together. Co-operation must become a gospel.”
This definition of the business of the church may seem rather heterodox,
coming from the head of a Presbyterian department, but the department of
which Dr. Wilson is the head has reached its widely recognized
effectiveness because it has been actuated by such aggressive common
sense as this.
That the volume is dedicated to Anna B. Taft, who has contributed so
largely to the success of the movement to reanimate country churches, is
indeed pleasant. Dr. Wilson adds to the value of the volume by giving
many definite instances of definite achievement in the redirection of
country life through the church’s activity.
The book is well named; it does present in an orderly fashion the
development of the country community. Dr. Wilson follows Professor Ross
of Purdue in his definition of the four types of farmers—the pioneer,
the land farmer, the exploiter, and the husbandman. The writer very
happily shows that in many communities the evolution has proceeded so
irregularly that all the four types of farmers are now living side by
side, and that their four sides may be contending for mastery. That the
pastor and the church ministering to the farmer of each type are
determined by that type is a clearly stated lesson that social workers
outside of rural communities might very well take to heart.
Some communities, Dr. Wilson recognizes, are exceptional. He apparently
agrees with Prof. T. N. Carver of Harvard that the best farmers in the
country are the Mormons, the Scotch Presbyterians, and the Pennsylvania
Germans. Each one of these peoples—for they are no less—has come to
agricultural prosperity because this agriculture has been built around
the church. The organization of the Mormons, for instance, is not only
efficient, but it revolves around the church. Dr. Wilson might very well
have gone further in this connection and called attention to the fact
that the leaders of the Latter Day Saints have made their people happy,
here and now, by realizing that all their wants—social, economic,
religious, political—were so closely interrelated that they must all be
taken care of by collective action.
As a clear and well-proportioned statement, characterized by ample
knowledge, careful statement and good temper, the book is valuable.