WHAT IS OUR COMMUNITY?
ELEMENTS THAT MAKE A COMMUNITY
In the preceding chapters we have often spoken of "our community."
As a matter of fact, each of us is a member of a number of
communities. It is time to consider just what they are
Every community, of course, consists of a GROUP OF PEOPLE who
occupy a more or less DEFINITE LOCALITY. Much depends, in
community life, upon the character of both the people and the
locality they occupy. But the essential thing about a community is
that the people who comprise it are WORKING TOGETHER (cooperating)
under an ORGANIZATION (government) for the COMMON GOOD (common
purposes).
LARGE AND SMALL COMMUNITIES
A neighborhood of farmers with their families may constitute a
community. In this case the area occupied may be extensive while
the people are few in number. Or the community may be a city with
a population very large in proportion to area it occupies. There
are villages, towns, and small cities of varying sizes both as to
population and area. Each state in our Union is a community and so
is the nation itself because each is composed of a group of people
(very large in these cases), occupying a definite territory (also
large), and having a government through which the people are
working for common ends. There is a world community, but it is, as
yet, very imperfect. The nations and peoples that comprise it have
been slow to recognize their common purposes and have so far
failed to develop adequate means of cooperation, (See Chapter
VIII.)
Is your class a community? (Apply the definition given above.)
What common interests does it have? Has it any government or laws?
Is your school a community? Apply the same tests as above.
Is your home a community? What are some of its common interests?
Are there laws in your family?
What are some of the things in which your family and your nearest
neighbors have a common interest because of living close together?
Do your family and your neighbors work together to provide for
these interests?
What are some of the things in which all the people of your city
or village (or the one nearest to you) have a common interest, and
which the city, or village, government helps to provide for?
INTERDEPENDENCE OF RURAL AND CITY COMMUNITIES
A community of farmers has interests of its own, largely centering
around farming activities, or the social life of the local
neighborhood. A few miles away is a village or city whose people
also have their own peculiar interests, such as the lighting of
the streets at night, or the building of a new high school, or the
election of a mayor. Yet there are interests common to both the
farming community and the city community. The city is dependent
upon the country for its food supply, and the farmers are
dependent upon the city for their market. Probably some of the
farmers send their children to the city schools. Thus city and
rural communities are bound together into a larger community with
interests common to both.
In the early days of western settlement a community was founded in
Illinois. It was an agricultural community, but in the midst of it
a village grew, which in the course of time became a small city.
One of the first settlers was a young farmer with a mechanical
turn of mind. He began experimenting to improve the methods of
planting grain. The result was the invention of a corn planter,
the manufacture of which became one of the chief industries of the
growing city, employing hundreds of men and sending machines to
all parts of the world. Another young farmer invented a better
plow than those which had been in use, the manufacture of which
became another of the city's industries. In those pioneer days
each family usually made its own brooms, but one young man in this
community earned his way through the local college by making
brooms from corn raised on the college farm. The college cornfield
disappeared in the course of time, but on one part of it there
grew up a broom factory employing a large number of workmen. These
city industries were thus literally "children of the soil," and
the city's prosperity depended upon the agriculture of the
surrounding region. On the other hand, the city provided the
farmers with improved plows and corn planters, furnished them an
immediate market for their products, supplied them with goods
through its shops and stores, and gave education to hundreds of
farmers' children in its schools and college.
NEED FOR RURAL AND CITY TEAMWORK
Sometimes jealousies and antagonisms arise between small
neighboring communities, and especially between rural and city
communities. This interferes with the progress of both
communities, and of the larger community of which each is a part.
It may be proposed to build a township high school. It is natural
that the several communities that comprise the township should
each want it. But the interest of the entire township should be
considered in determining the location of the school, and not
merely the advantage of one local district as against others. It
sometimes happens that the people of a city are exempted from
taxation for county purposes outside of the city, although the
benefits would be almost, if not quite as great, for the city as
for the country. This sort of thing serves to set off city and
country against each other instead of binding them together to
their mutual advantage. The case of Christian County, Kentucky,
described in Chapter III, is an excellent illustration of teamwork
between city and country in the interest of the entire county, and
of the results achieved by it.
SMALL COMMUNITIES UNITE IN LARGE ONES
In this chapter there are three maps of Dane County, Wisconsin,
which show how small communities, both rural and urban, are united
into a large community, the county. Map I shows the school
districts and the townships which comprise the county. The city of
Madison occupies the center, and small towns and villages are
scattered here and there. The country school is the chief center
of interest in each school district. Here and there through the
county are high schools. Each of these is a center of a larger
irregular area, including a number of school districts and parts
of several townships as shown in map 2. Map 3 shows TRADE AREAS.
Trade and education are two of the chief interests that bind
people into communities. But where these interests exist, there
are likely to be other interests; the high school is likely to be
a meeting place for social and recreational purposes.
The area and boundaries of a "farming" or "rural neighborhood"
community are usually rather indefinite and changeable, depending
upon surface features and upon transportation conditions, or the
length of the "day's haul." With improved roads and better means
of transportation, larger areas and more people are included. A
"neighborhood" or "trade area" with automobiles is much larger
than one where horses or ox carts are used exclusively. The
consolidated school with transportation provided for pupils
expands the rural neighborhood community.
COMMON INTERESTS OF THE LARGER COMMUNITY
Each of the small dots on map 3 represents a farm home. If we
select one of these dots and imagine ourselves members of the
family that lives there, we shall see that we are members of a
certain school district, of a certain township, of a community
that has grown up around a trade center and a high school, and of
course of the county as a whole. No matter in what school district
we live, we have an interest in some matters in common with the
people of all other school districts in the county. For example,
there is a state university at Madison, and connected with it is a
training school for teachers. The work done here influences the
teaching in all the schools of the county, and indeed of the whole
state. There is also an agricultural college at the state
university which serves the farmers throughout the entire county
and state. If we look closely at map 3, we shall see how highways
and railroads center at Madison, which is the county seat of Dane
County and the capital of the state of Wisconsin.
Just as the many small communities that make up a county are
dependent upon one another, requiring organized cooperation for
the county welfare, so all the counties of a state, and all the
people who live in all the counties, are interdependent in many
ways. The people of the city of Madison, for example, depend for
their food supply upon the farmers not only of Dane County but of
the entire state. The university at Madison serves not Dane County
alone, but the people of all the counties of the state. The public
schools of the state should be equally good in all counties and
managed by a uniform plan. Roads and other means of transportation
are a matter of concern to the entire state. And so the state is a
community, organized with a government, to secure cooperation
among all the people and all the smaller communities that compose
it. In fact, a large part of the business of the governments of
the local communities, such as city and county and township, is to
administer the laws of the central state government.
In a similar manner, the forty-eight states of the Union, with all
the counties and smaller communities of which they consist,
comprise our great national community, of which we are all
members.
COMMUNITIES IN THE LARGER COMMUNITIES
When we speak of "our community" we are likely to think at once of
the small community immediately around us--our neighborhood,
village, or city. Our citizenship in these local communities is
extremely important, and will demand no small part of our
attention. But it is equally important to be fully alive to our
citizenship in the larger communities. This is true wherever we
live; but there is a sense in which our national community is
peculiarly important to those of us who live in rural communities.
The wants of people in cities are, as a rule, looked after more
completely by their local governments than is the case in rural
communities.
The people of rural communities, and especially farmers
themselves, are directly served by the national government in a
great variety of ways. In the next chapter we shall consider our
nation as a community.
Show how the different classes of your school are bound together
by interests common to the entire school. Compare this union of
classes with the union of states into a nation. What constitutes
the government of your school?
Mention some things in which all the people of your county have a
special interest. Are these things of equal interest to farmers
and townspeople?
Do the farmers and townspeople of your county work well together,
or are there conflicts between them? If there are conflicts, what
are the causes?
Point out some ways in which the prosperity and welfare of the
farmers of your locality depend upon a neighboring city or town.
Also some ways in which, the city or town depend upon the
neighboring farmers.
If there is organized cooperation in your county, similar to that
described on page 32, has it been brought about or encouraged by
government, or solely by voluntary effort on the part of citizens?
If the government had anything to do with it, was it the county
government, state government, or national government?
Has farmland increased or decreased in value in your locality
since your father was a boy? Can you show a relation between this
change in value of farmland and the growth of nearby towns or
cities?
What industries in your town (or a neighboring town) are dependent
upon farming for their raw materials? for the sale of their
product?
What is the cotton gin? the spinning jenny? Show how these
inventions were a benefit to agriculture. How did they promote the
growth of cities?
Make a map of your school district. Do the people of this district
cooperate in matters other than those pertaining to the school?
On a map of your county, show approximately the "trade area"
served by the "trade center" nearest you. For what other purposes
besides trade do the farmers of this trade area come to the trade
center?
On a map of your county, show the area from which pupils come to
the high school nearest you.
On a map of your state, show the principle "railroad centers."
Show how these are the centers of larger trade areas corresponding
to the small trade areas of your county. Show how the farmers and
the residents of these railroad centers have common interests.
READINGS
Dunn, Arthur W., The Community and the Citizen, Chapters, i-iii.
Galpin, C. J., "The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community,"
Research Bulletin 34, Agricultural Experiment Station, University
of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
Gillette, John M., Constructive Rural Sociology (Sturgis & Walton
Co., New York), Chapter iv ("Types of Communities").
Small and Vincent, An Introduction to the Study of Society
(American Book Co.), Book II, Chapters i-iv.