It was quite natural that the rapidly growing city should attract a large

proportion of college men preparing for business and professional life and

various kinds of religious and social service. Not only have larger

opportunities for earning money usually been found there, but the city has

certainly needed the men. The call of the city in its dire need of

Christian idealism and consecrated leadership has been as urgent and

definite a call to service as ever a crusader heard. Dr. Strong's eloquent

appeal to earnest young people in his "Challenge of the City" is by no

means extravagant. His facts are facts and his logic is convincing. He is

quite right in saying, "We must save the city in order to save the nation.

We must Christianize the city or see our civilization paganized." But even

if "in a generation the city will dominate the nation," _where are the men

who will then dominate the city? Most of them are now in the country towns

and villages getting ready for their task_, developing physical, mental

and moral power in the pure atmosphere and sunlight of a normal life. To

work on the city problem is a great life chance; but _to train rural

leadership is to help solve the city problem at its source_.

Thus, the bigger and more urgent the city problem becomes, the more

necessary it will be to solve the rural problem, for the city must

continue to draw much of its best blood and its best leadership from the

country. Professor M. T. Scudder explains in a sentence why this is a

continuing fact: "The fully developed rural mind, the product of its

environment, is more original, more versatile, more accurate, more

philosophical, more practical, more persevering than the urban mind; it is

a larger, freer mind and dominates tremendously. It is because of this

type of farm-bred mind that our leaders have largely come from rural

life."[38] City leaders, of course, ought to be _trained in the city_, and

they usually are, even though born and bred in the country.

_Rural Progress Waiting for Trained Leadership_

Leadership is the ultimate factor in every life problem. No movement can

rise above the level of its leadership. In many fields to-day, progress

is lagging because of inadequate leadership. This is acutely true in all

phases of rural life. Rural progress is halting for the lack of trained

leadership. The colleges must be held responsible for furnishing it.

The agricultural colleges are rising magnificently to their opportunity

and are striving to keep pace with the demands made upon them for

technically-trained rural leaders. But though some of them double their

enrolment every three or four years they cannot supply graduates fast

enough for the various agricultural professions, quite aside from other

kinds of country life leaders.

All schools of higher education must share the task of training and

furnishing rural leadership. The broadening of country life, and its

rising standards, puts increasing demands upon its untrained leaders which

they are unable to meet. Rural institutions can no longer serve their

communities effectively under the leadership of men lacking in the very

essentials of leadership. Many country communities are demanding now as

high-grade personality and training in their leaders as the cities demand,

and they refuse to respond to crude or untrained leadership. Well-trained

doctors, ministers, teachers, et cetera, have a great chance to-day in the

country, because their _training_ finds unique appreciation for its very

rarity and efficiency; while every profession is foolishly overcrowded in

all cities.

As soon as adequate leadership, well trained and developed, is furnished

our country communities, they will develop a rural efficiency which will

make the rural problem largely a thing of the past. But until then,

progress halts. Leadership is costly. Trained, efficient personality,

ready for expert service is rare and beyond price. The colleges are

lavishly sending it to the cities. The country deserves its share and

patiently presents its claims.

II. Rural Opportunities for Community Builders.

_The Call for Country Educators_

There is little need of emphasizing to college students the opportunities

of the teaching profession. Since 1900 teaching has claimed more graduates

than any other life work. Taking 27 representative colleges as typical,

more than one-fourth of all college graduates become teachers, the

percentage having doubled since 1875. Of the class of 1911 in Oberlin

College (both men and women), 60% have been teaching during their first

year out; while of the men in the ten classes 1896-1905, 27% are still

engaged in teaching, presumably as their permanent work.

Unfortunately the smaller salaries paid rural teachers has made the

country school seem unattractive, and when accepted by young collegians by

necessity rather than choice, it has been regarded often merely as an

apprenticeship for buying experience, a stepping-stone to a city position.

Country salaries of course must be increased, and they certainly will be,

with the new development of rural life and the steady improvement in

schools; especially with increased state aid which is more and more

generously given.

With a living wage already possible in centralized schools, and the great

personal rewards which far transcend the material benefits, the life of

the country teacher is one of true privilege and deep satisfaction.

College men should regard it as a genuine _calling_ and discover whether

its call is for them. If a man has no real love for country life, let him

not blight the country school by his subtle urbanizing influence. Most

rural discontent is caused by such as he. But if his heart is open to the

sky and the woods and the miracles of the soil; if he loves sincerity in

human nature and appreciates the sturdy qualities and vast possibilities

for development in country boys and girls, he will revel in the breadth

and freedom and boundless outreach of his work.

If he is a man of vision and of power, the country school principal has

greater local influence and social standing than he would have in the

city. He has the finest chance to make his personality count in the great

Country Life Movement, sharing his visions of a richer, redirected rural

life not only with his pupils but every citizen and gradually leavening

the whole community with a new ambition for progress. The responsibility

for training the local leaders of the future devolves upon the teacher. It

is he who can best teach a wholesome love for country life and help to

stem the townward tide. He can organize around the school the main

interests of his boys and girls and develop the impulse for cooperation

which in time will displace the old competitive individualism and make

social life congenial and satisfying. Through organized play,

inter-community athletics, community festivals, old-home week, lyceums or

debating clubs in the winter, with occasional neighborhood entertainments

utilizing home talent, contests in cooking and various other phases of

home economics, in corn-raising and other agricultural interests,--the

possibilities are endless for making the school the vital social center of

the rural community. It will all take time and energy and ingenuity. It

will cost vitality, as all life-sharing does. But though it costs, the

sharing of life is the greatest joy, and it is the teacher's privilege in

large measure. It is the measure of his true success as well as his

happiness. Investing one's life in a group of boys will yield far greater

results in the country than in the city where their lives are already so

full they would little appreciate it.

Professor H. W. Foght says three things are now required of the teacher of

a rural school. "(1) he must be strong enough to establish himself as a

leader in the community where he lives and labors; (2) he must have a good

grasp on the organization and management of the new kind of farm school;

and (3) he must show expert ability in dealing with the redirected school

curriculum."[39] In short, if he lives up to his opportunity as a rural

leader, he will train his boys and girls distinctly for rural life, giving

them not only the rudiments of agricultural training, but an enthusiasm

for farming from the scientific side as the most complex of all

professions; utilizing the vast resources the country affords for teaching

objectively, not merely through hooks, and thus bridge the gap between the

school and life.

_The Call of the Country Church_

The modern college man is not attracted to the ministry of the country

churches which are conducted along old lines. If that ministry is to

consist merely in preaching once or twice a week to half a hundred people,

conducting a mid-week service for one-fifth of that number and doing the

marrying and the burying and the parish calling for a fraction of a rural

community divided among three struggling churches, then the college man

refuses to be interested. Consequently we find most of such churches are

manned by untrained men. They usually receive the wages of an unskilled

laborer. Trained ministers usually receive a living wage. The college man

demands at least a man's job; a chance to invest his life where his whole

personality will count and where his energy and perseverance will be

allowed to work out his problems to a successful issue.

Let us grant at the start that churches which have no real field, in a

community that is over-churched, need not expect to get our college men

for pastors. If they have only a fraction of a field, let them have half a

man. Likewise the church which is too selfish to offer the minimum living

wage in return for faithful service must not expect a self-respecting,

educated minister to serve it and at starvation rates. Even a martyr has

no license to starve his wife and children to gain his starry crown. The

church which gives no liberty to its pastor, but treats him like a hired

man, and dictates his professional policy and perhaps even his pulpit

messages, will of course not hold, if it ever should gain, a man of

ability and initiative. And, lastly, the church which lacks the modern

spirit, is hopelessly behind the times in its dogmatic teaching, rails at

modern science as ungodly, and denies the social gospel of Jesus and the

prophets, such a church will neither deserve nor desire the services of a

college-trained man. His reverence for truth as well as loyalty to his own

ideals would forbid his serving them.

_Large Tasks Awaiting Real Leadership_

While there are some small men with little training serving churches under

the above conditions, there are also thousands of other churches striving

to do God's will in the service of men, many of them with earnest, able

pastors. These men usually win the respect and confidence of their

community and are given great opportunity as community builders when their

leadership proves equal to the task. As the new rural civilization has

developed, the title Country Minister has become once more a title of

honor, just as the term Country Gentleman has again come to its own. In

the readjustment of country life to the new agriculture and the new social

ideals of cooperation, a new and brighter day has dawned for the country

church. It is a day of new prosperity and of widening service.

This means a new opportunity for the right sort of a country minister

sufficient to claim the life service of strong men. In fact, the task of

readjustment is too difficult for any but strong men. Broken-down

ministers, or men who have failed in the city, must not look to the

country parsonage to-day as a refuge from toil or a temporary harbor for

repairs. The insistent needs of the Kingdom of God in the country to-day

demand strong, efficient men, specifically trained for country service and

thoroughly acquainted with country folks and their life needs. _We must

have a permanently loyal country ministry for life, men who plan to devote

their lives to rural redemption._

_The Modern Type of Country Minister_

College men of earnest spirit, who have determined to consecrate their

lives to any life mission to which they believe God has called them, must

listen to the call of the country church. The very difficulty of the task

will challenge their interest and their courage. Would they know exactly

the type of leadership the country church to-day requires? Let them study

word by word this splendid description by Dr. Butterfield, unequalled in

its clear analysis:

"The country church wants men of vision, who see through the incidental,

the small and the transient, to the fundamental, the large, the abiding

issues that the countryman must face and conquer.

"She wants practical men who seek the mountain top by the obscure and

steep paths of daily toil and real living, men who can bring things to

pass, secure tangible results.

"She wants original men, who can enter a human field, poorly tilled, much

grown to brush, some of it of diminished fertility, and by new methods

can again secure a harvest that will gladden the heart of the Great

Husbandman.

"She wants aggressive men, who do not hesitate to break with tradition,

who fear God more than prejudice, who regard institutions as but a means

to an end, who grow frequent crops of new ideas and dare to winnow them

with the flails of practical trial.

"She wants trained men who come to their work with knowledge and with

power, who have thought long and deeply upon the problems of rural life,

who have hammered out a plan for an active campaign for the rural church.

"She wants men with enthusiasm, whose energy can withstand the frosts of

sloth, of habit, of pettiness, of envy, of back-biting, and whose spirit

is not quenched by the waters of adversity, of unrealized hopes, of

tottering schemes.

"She wants persistent men, who will stand by their task amid the

mysterious calls from undiscovered lands, the siren voices of ambition and

ease, the withering storms of winters of discontent.

"She wants constructive men, who can transmute visions into wood and

stone, dreams into live institutions, hopes into fruitage.

"She wants heroic men, men who possess a 'tart cathartic virtue,' men who

love adventure and difficulty, men who can work alone with God and suffer

no sense of loneliness.

"The critical need just now is for a few strong men of large power to get

hold of this country church question in a virile way. It is the time for

leadership. We need a score of Oberlins to point the way by actually

working out the problem on the field. We need a few men to achieve great

results in the rural parish, to reestablish the leadership of the church.

No organization can do it. No layman can do it. No educational institution

can do it. A preacher must do it,--do it in spite of small salary,

isolation, conservatism, restricted field, overchurching, or any other

devil that shows its face. The call is imperative. Shall we be denied the

men?"[40]

[Illustration: Presbyterian Church, Winchester, Ill.]

_Student Recruits for the Home Ministry_

The Student Volunteer Bands in most of our colleges unite in a stimulating

comradeship the young men and women who have pledged their lives to

foreign missionary service. It is well worth while for our college men who

have heard this call of the country church for this specialized service of

Christ and humanity to organize local groups of Student Recruits for the

Home Ministry, as has been done in various centers on the Pacific coast

and at Oberlin College, Grinnell and elsewhere, under various names. At

Oberlin this strong body of choice young men, in the college of arts and

sciences, meets regularly through the year with a vitally helpful program

which stimulates their intelligent interest in and loyalty to the ministry

as the greatest of all professions. At the close of the year the members

of this Theta Club, as it is called, are tendered a banquet by the

students of Oberlin Theological Seminary, with a message from some

successful pastor. It is counted one of the most significant events of the

college year.

_The Call for Christian Physicians_

There have been many followers of the Good Physician who have never been

ordained except by the grace of God, whose consecrated devotion to the

needs of sick humanity has been a genuine ministry. Often the Christian

physician is the best friend of the family. Certainly he has countless

opportunities to serve more than the bodily needs of men; and no man in

the community is rendering more sacrificial service. He is ever at the

call of human need, day or night. He heeds the call of the poorest as

quickly as the wealthiest, and does from 5% to 30% of his work without

remuneration. He is one of the most necessary factors in every community;

yet for many rural communities the nearest up-to-date physician is many

miles away.

In these days of specialists, "general practice" is relatively less

attractive. There is some danger also that the fine idealism which has

long characterized this splendid profession may yield to the growing

commercialism which to-day threatens all professions like a canker. When

surgeons operate for dollars instead of for a cure; and physicians make

the art of healing strictly business instead of scientific kindness, it

will be a sad day for humanity.

The work of the physician is not properly a business; it should be classed

as _social service_ of the highest order. In spite of the higher standards

of medical schools recently[41] with an emphasis on a general college

preparation, fewer college men are going into medicine. The percentage has

steadily decreased since 1850, and in the past twelve years there has been

a sharp decline. The proportion at Harvard College has declined one-half

in thirty years, though meanwhile Harvard Medical School has become a

strictly graduate department.

It is evident that luxury-loving collegians are avoiding the medical

profession to-day just as they are dodging the ministry. If they have

capital of their own, business offers them a larger income and makes

little demand upon their sympathies in personal service. _Selfish men

avoid the costs of life-sharing_ which a life in close personal

associations compels, as is true of teaching, the ministry and the medical

profession. But this is no handicap but greater opportunity, for men of

real earnestness.

_The Special Need of Country Doctors_

The profession is seriously overcrowded in the cities, but people in the

rural districts are literally dying for trained physicians. Some medical

faculties are advising their graduates not to stay in the city but to

settle in country villages where they are most needed, and where quite

possibly they would find greatest success. "There are many towns in this

state," writes a medical professor, "with only 500 to 1,000 people, where

a young physician could do well and where he is needed."

Although, according to the best data obtainable, most medical graduates

settle in cities,--the proportion at the College of Physicians and

Surgeons, New York, being as high as 90%,--there is a rapidly increasing

demand for them in the suburban and rural sections in the East because of

the strong city-to-country movement. The secretary of the Harvard Medical

faculty notes this: "With the advent of automobiles and the desire of

people to live in the country, serious problems in medicine are frequently

presented to the country practitioners."

The need of educated physicians in country communities is well stated by

Dr. Means of the Ohio Medical School: "The condition of medical practice

in many of our country communities is deplorable. I can recall any number

of places where there are two, three, four and five physicians and not one

of them has had any post-graduate work from date of graduation, and none

of them known to attend medical societies. Their professional work is on a

par, no better, no worse, than that of their ancestors. I always feel that

such communities sorely need an up-to-date physician who has been educated

along the lines of modern sanitation and general medicine. The demand for

a medical education has grown to such proportions in the last ten years

that graduates, after having spent so much time and money, do not care to

go into country practice. The five years or more that they spend in city

environments while completing their medical education almost unfits them

for country life. The result is that our cities are filling up with young

physicians who can scarcely make a living. These are men of character and

proficiency who would give tone to any country community and supply a

public want."

_The Unique Rewards of Country Practice_

There are, to be sure, certain serious disadvantages under which the

country physician labors, such as distance from hospitals and nurses; but

these are overbalanced by the manifest need and greater opportunity. The

situation is acute. For earnest college men, willing to invest their lives

in rural leadership, this constitutes a real call to a life of service

which may be God's own call to them. No one who has ever read Ian

Maclaren's story of Dr. MacLure, "A Doctor of the Old School," can fail to

appreciate the peculiar devotion of country people to their trusted

physician "who for nearly half a century had been their help in sickness,

and had beaten back death time after time from their door."

After the funeral of the good old doctor who had so long sacrificed his

comfort for the people of Drumtochty, Lord Kilspindie from Muirtown Castle

voiced at the grave this tribute to the faithful physician of country

folk: "Friends of Drumtochty, it would not be right that we should part in

silence and no man say what is in every heart. We have buried the remains

of one that served this Glen with a devotion that has known no reserve,

and a kindliness that never failed, for more than forty years. I have seen

many brave men in my day, but no man in the trenches of Sebastopol carried

himself more knightly than William MacLure. You will never have heard

from his lips what I may tell you to-day, that my father secured for him a

valuable post in his younger days; but he preferred to work among his own

people. I wished to do many things for him when he was old, but he would

have nothing for himself. He will never be forgotten while one of us

lives, and I pray that all doctors everywhere may share his spirit."

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his

friends."

_The Rural Call to the Legal Profession_

Though the legal profession is greatly overcrowded in the city, trained

lawyers are scarce in the country. "My impression is," says a law school

dean, "very few of the country lawyers are professionally trained men,

especially in the South and some of our western states." Another dean

estimates the number of trained country lawyers as about one-fourth. The

older lawyers in the small places are apt to be the best trained,

according to the judgment of Dean Irvine at Cornell Law School; though

that rule is often reversed in the cities. "Rarely does a law school

graduate settle down in a town of less than 5,000 people," says the dean

at Boston University. The great majority of Columbia law graduates remain

in New York City. Eighty to ninety per cent. of Cornell lawyers settle in

cities above 10,000 people.

The secretary of the law faculty of the University of Michigan believes

"there is a need of one or more trained lawyers in every community of a

thousand people. Such a lawyer would, of course, serve the surrounding

country as well as the town in which he lives." Dean Harlan F. Stone of

Columbia writes: "I believe that there will be in the future exceptional

opportunities for the well-trained lawyer in the smaller communities. He

will probably not make as much money as with a large city practice, but if

he possesses good general qualifications and _integrity_ it is inevitable

that he should be an influential man in his community, and live a useful

and, from the broad point of view, successful life. His chances of

entering politics or going on the bench in the right way are probably

better than in the large cities."

Here, as in the other professions, the choice seems to be between larger

earnings in the city and larger rewards in the country; greater fees, with

less relative appreciation, or the finer rewards of gratitude for personal

services and neighborly kindness and the broad opportunity for influence

and leadership in a place where both are greatly needed. The call to

college men with the legal mind and a passion for justice, to practice law

in the country, is a true call for Christian consecration. It probably

will involve some financial sacrifice, but it will mean a life of great

satisfaction. The true man who heeds this call will become the trusted

adviser of the widow, the protector of the defenseless and the innocent,

the righter of many wrongs, the peacemaker in needless feuds, the

incorporator of cooperative business projects which will fraternalize old

competitions, the public spirited leader in all new movements for the

betterment of rural life; and, if God wills and the people choose, a

career in straight politics, which nowhere needs highminded leadership

more than in some rural counties where the ballot is a mere chattel and

public office a private graft.

_Life Opportunities in Agricultural Professions_

College men are apt to overlook the fact that, after all, the fundamental

professions in the country are those directly connected with agriculture.

The scientific agriculturist, who tills the soil as accurately as the

engineer constructs a bridge and with possibly higher scientific

requirements, will naturally be the prime agent in rural progress. It is

good to see the enthusiasm of students in agriculture after they have

caught this vision. "I like farming," writes a student at the State

College of Washington, "and believe there is as much room for scientific

work in agriculture as any other line of work." Another writes, "I think

there are great opportunities open for agriculture in this Northwest. At

first I thought I never would like the farm because I could see nothing

but work; but I have become acquainted with some of the possibilities and

find there is something besides drudgery."

The city person of average intelligence who thinks farming is "just

farming" would be amazed to discover the breadth and variety of

agricultural professions. Besides scientific husbandry in general, there

is animal husbandry and the breeding of blooded stock, dairying, farm

management, horticulture, agricultural engineering and technology,

particularly in irrigation, forestry, veterinary surgery and medicine,

fruit-growing, entomology specializing, parasitology, plant pathology,

agronomy and cereal breeding, agricultural chemistry, landscape

architecture, agricultural editing, agricultural teaching, from elementary

grades to university, institute lecturing, weather bureau service,

scientific investigating at government experiment stations, and public

service in great variety under state and national departments of

agriculture. In all of these there is a chance for college men to invest

their lives and reap the rewards of real influence.

_Some Special Rural Opportunities_

In answer to the question "What special opportunities are there in country

life to-day which should appeal to college students to invest their lives

in the country?" Secretary Mann of the Cornell faculty summarized as

follows: "Successful farming; teaching or supervising the teaching of

agriculture; scientific investigations at home or in government stations;

rural landscape improvement; agricultural experts as county agents or

officers; local agricultural experts on individual responsibility;

agricultural police duty, including inspectors of all sorts in state and

national departments of agriculture; organizing of cooperative societies;

agricultural advisers in the employ of railroads, chambers of commerce and

the like; representatives of commercial organizations that desire to

extend their operations into the open country, as for farm machinery

concerns, manufacturers of packages, dairy supply houses, canning

industries and the like; social betterment; rural Y. M. C. A. work;

supervisors of rural playgrounds; and rural civic improvement." The list

is surely a varied one, broad enough to fit any variety of talent, when a

man has a real love for rural life and wishes to find his life usefulness

in the country.

A most pertinent suggestion comes from Dean Meyer of the Agricultural

Department of the University of Missouri which college students may well

consider: "The greatest need of the rural community to-day is cooperation;

but no plan of cooperation can ever be successful among farmers in the

absence of some one, or a very few men who have all the qualifications of

_outstanding leadership_. There is a real call for our college trained men

to go into the country, study local conditions, and then promote a plan of

business cooperation. If this is successful he may then expect with equal

success to carry on a plan for social cooperation which will lead to a

betterment of the home, the church and the school." Again we are reminded

that the ultimate problem is leadership, the costliest thing in the world;

but the very commodity of personality which college men ought to have

ready for wise investment. It is the call for _community builders_ all

along the country-side which forces itself upon the strongest men of brave

initiative, of courage, tact and ability. This call, a modern call of new

insistence and vast significance, should challenge the college man like a

call to battle.

_The Call of the County Work Secretary_

Among the many calls to a life of service which challenge the college

man, one of the most urgent is the call to rural leadership in the Young

Men's Christian Association. It is peculiarly a college man's task.

Possibly one country lawyer in four is professionally trained. The

percentage of educated country ministers is smaller still. Country

doctors, though usually medical graduates, are very seldom college men.

But the rural secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association is

usually college trained. With wise foresight, the Association is sending

many of its best men into the country field where the need of leadership

is so acute. No other branch of Association work has so large a proportion

of college trained men except the work with college students themselves;

this is the right perspective.

The man who aspires to this interesting and strategic work with the boys

and young manhood of the country must be a man of large capacity for

leadership and with a broad knowledge of human nature. He must be a keen

lover of country life and must understand country people and their great

interests. The more he knows of scientific agriculture the better; but he

must above all be a man of devout Christian spirit and a thorough

knowledge of the Bible; with a fine friendliness for all sorts of people,

and a great longing to help the country boy to develop into useful

Christian manhood.

In most other lines of rural service a man's influence is ordinarily

limited to the single community in which he lives. The County Work

Secretary's field is an entire county. He is not working merely with a

single group of people but with similar groups in a score of townships

and usually the finest people in each village, whom he selects for their

local Christian influence and their devotion to community welfare. Through

these local leaders our Secretary multiplies his own life, as he shares

with them his visions and his hopes, as he enlists them for specific tasks

and trains them for the service; giving them the benefit of his expert

knowledge of country life, of rural sociology and of boy life, of teaching

method and the modern interpretation of the Bible.

While his primary task is the discovery and training of local leadership

as a Christian community builder, he also makes his office a convenient

clearing house of ideas and practical plans for community betterment. As

he quietly goes about his work it soon becomes evident that he is a "man

who knows"; and his expert knowledge, his cooperation and advice are

sought by parents and teachers, churches and Sunday schools, pastors and

superintendents, school supervisors, women's clubs, farmers' institutes

and Granges, and he must be a man of large ability to prove equal to his

opportunity. As a trusted neutral among the churches, he of all men has

the best chance to overcome church rivalries and bring together jealous

churches in a working federation or a real unity. He must be at once a man

of prayer and an athletic specialist who can through his local leaders

organize wholesome sports among his boys; he must not only have a genius

for cooperation and securing the cooperation of others in worth-while

tasks, but he must be able to take the single farmer, single-handed, and

in a quiet, friendly but masterful way get that farmer to give his

growing boy a fair chance.

The call to the rural secretaryship is as genuine a call to a life of

ministering love as is the call to the ministry. As a matter of fact, a

few of the most successful rural secretaries are ordained ministers and

find their theological training and pastoral experience of great value in

their work. These secretaries are not using their present position as a

stepping-stone to the city field. Few of them would accept any city

opportunity, as experience has proved. They have devoted their lives to

the work of rural redemption, especially saving the country boy. They have

fitted themselves to be experts in rural work, the work they love, and few

of them ever care to leave it. This complete consecration accounts largely

for their success. Let a man not attempt to share their work unless he can

bear their cross. It is a call to heroic service, but it is irksome only

to the man who has missed the joy of complete consecration to the country

field and to the Man of Galilee.

B. A CHALLENGE TO COLLEGE WOMEN

I. Some Responsibilities Shared with Men

_A Necessary Partnership, and its Increasing Burden_

Men can never solve the rural problem without the help of women.

In the primitive days of early barbarism, it was woman that domesticated

the farm animals,--while men were away, at war and the chase,--and thus

made possible agriculture and the arts of rural life. We may well expect

educated modern womanhood to contribute its share even in the development

of scientific agriculture; but in all the social problems of the new rural

civilization the help of women is indispensable.

The rural home, school, church and grange and every other institution for

the social, educational and religious welfare of country folks depend very

greatly upon the cooperation and leadership of trained women. To a degree

this has always been true; but in several aspects this responsibility is

destined in the future to fall more heavily than ever upon women.

_Responsibility for Rural Education_

For various reasons men are rapidly retiring from the ranks of country

school teachers. In a single generation the proportion of male teachers in

American schools has diminished 50%. In the North Atlantic states 86% of

all teachers are women; while even in the western states over 80% are

women, against 55% in 1870.

It appears to be quite a safe statement, even judging by incomplete

statistics, that there are more women teachers in the United States and

Canada than in all the rest of the world combined. Whereas only 15% of the

teachers of Germany are women, and 36% in Switzerland, 47% in France and

64% in Italy, the proportion in the United States the same year (1906) is

found to be 76.4%.

While from the viewpoint of the needs of adolescent boys there may be

reasons to deplore this increase of women teachers, it is certainly

accelerating. The educational burdens of the country are falling more and

more upon women. College girls should study rural education as a real

vocation and realize the vast opportunity for unselfish social service

which is involved in it.

The college settlement in the city slum has aroused not merely a romantic

interest but the consecration of many earnest college girls. Let more of

them feel the same call to altruistic service in the rural school,

accepting it with a genuine love for country boys and girls and for

country life,--then the problems of rural education will lose much of

their seriousness. With increasing centralization of rural schools and

ever rising standards, worth-while opportunities in country teaching will

rapidly develop. Nor will the need be merely for teachers in the grades

and in high school work. Capable women are everywhere needed in

educational leadership. Country life specialists are now needed in state

and country normal schools, agricultural high schools, and county high

schools, as well as the country colleges.

_Responsibility for Rural Health and Sanitation_

Probably the chief reason for the slow progress of modern sanitation in

rural districts is the lack of training of country doctors in the modern

aspects of their profession. In the country, sanitation is largely a

household matter, and women have most at stake and the greatest influence

here. In a few months or years one trained nurse or woman physician could

raise the ideals of sanitation and hygiene in the country homes of a large

area.

Old-fashioned rural neighborliness and large families have combined in the

past to keep trained nurses in the city. The country people have managed

to get along without them usually. But both these causes have been

diminishing and there is serious need in most country sections for the

expert services of trained nurses. The "district nurse association" plan

has already gained acceptance in country places and its rapid spread would

prevent much hardship. Combined with community ownership of sick-room

appliances, this would greatly help to make country life comfortable for

people accustomed to city conveniences.

Rural frugality hates to pay a woman nurse a man's wages! But gradually

efficiency will win and the higher life standards prevail, and this will

give countless young women splendid opportunities for broad service, with

which the petty office positions in the city cannot compare.

Conservative country folks are slow to recognize the professional

authority of the woman physician; but the prejudice will soon pass.

Certainly a capable woman with a modern medical equipment would not need

many months to prove her superiority to the average low-grade country

doctor; and she would soon find a great life work. While college men are

more and more shirking this great healing profession, let the college

women give it large consideration. It offers wonderful scope for serving

the deepest needs of humanity as well as their bodily ills; and the

college girls who dream of medical missions need not go so far from home

as India to realize their visions.

_Opportunities for Religious Leadership_

The burdens of the country pastorate, like the burden of the ballot, ought

not to fall upon the women; but the time seems to have come when there are

not enough good intelligent men to maintain either.

It is impossible at present to furnish one-half of the rural churches in

the United States with _trained men_ to be their pastors. Canada imports

hundreds of clergymen annually from England. Thousands of rural pulpits in

the States are vacant. Tens of thousands of rural churches have merely

untrained preachers. Very few have resident pastors. Dr. Wilson of the

Presbyterian Board of Home Missions is authority for the statement that of

the 192 country Presbyterian ministers in Missouri, _only two_ of them are

living with their people in the open country.

We find the chief reason for country church decay the lack of a trained,

resident pastor. Under present conditions it is impossible to meet this

need from the supply of college men entering Christian work. To be sure,

thousands of these unmanned churches are surplus churches. They have no

real field; perhaps never had. And Providence is allowing them to die, for

the glory of God! It is far better when they graciously unite with some

neighboring church,--but the necessary grace is often lacking.

Very many churches with a real field need ministers and can get only

untrained men. Hundreds of such churches write in vain to the seminaries

every year, as the writer can testify. There seem to be plenty of

untrained ministers, in most states; but it is an open question whether

such leadership does more good than harm. Would not a well-trained woman,

with a genuine Christian purpose, gifts of real leadership, and a complete

college and theological training, be likely to do better service in the

pastorate of such a church than an untrained man? It seems strange that we

even consider it a subject for debate!

The number of women ministers seems to be increasing in several

denominations, though not rapidly yet. Sometimes they are untrained, but

when well equipped they render efficient service. Occasionally you find a

woman with the true pastor's spirit gaining surprising success in a

difficult country church after a series of men have conspicuously failed.

It might be well to try this experiment oftener.

We are now developing in America the second[42] generation of college

women. If eugenics teaches us anything, it gives us the right to expect

from these college-bred daughters of college-trained mothers an increased

efficiency and a new type of leadership. With every decade, a higher type

of American womanhood, the peers of the ablest women of history, is being

developed in the land. At last we are obliged to remove all our

traditional barriers and to offer them unlimited scope for their life

usefulness. Every profession is now open to them, wholly on the basis of

merit.

Among these opportunities for the right sort of trained woman is the

country pastorate. It requires possibly a rare type of womanhood, and

probably a small percentage would succeed. But mere prejudice against the

woman minister should not deprive the country churches of her sympathetic

service if she is a woman of the right sort. Let fitness, training and

worth decide, not mere traditions and prejudices. Sometimes a man and his

wife, both ordained ministers, can together serve two churches acceptably

and successfully. In fact, a case can be cited where in a western state

the important work of church supervision is done conjointly by the state

superintendent of home missions and his equally capable wife, both being

trained, ordained ministers.

It is needless to emphasize the fact that womanly sympathy, intuition and

tact are needed in the rural pastorate and that the consecration of the

right type of college woman's finest powers can perhaps find no better

field, or receive deeper appreciation, than in the service of the rural

churches. The question is sometimes asked, If a college woman wished to

study for the ministry, how could she secure her training? Would the

theological seminaries admit her as a student? The best answer to this

question is the fact that there were 467 women enrolled as theological

students in 46 of the 193 theological schools of the United States during

the last college year, according to the annual report just issued by the

National Bureau of Education. Several are non-sectarian schools; the rest

represent twenty different denominations.[43]

Quite likely a large proportion of these young women are studying to be

foreign missionaries, teachers of the Bible in college, or deaconesses.

Not only in the United States, but also in the Presbyterian and Methodist

churches of Canada, hundreds of young women are finding splendid scope for

consecrated talents in this deaconess work. As yet, however, this branch

of Christian service is wholly confined to cities, not necessarily because

of greater need there, but because the city has the necessary means to pay

for the work. Ordained or not ordained, the rural churches sadly need the

inspiring capable leadership of our college women.

II. Some Unique Opportunities for Rural Social Service

_The Opportunity of the Village Librarian_

As the country grows older the number of rural public libraries increases.

Not only are Carnegie libraries rather frequently seen in the smaller

towns, but neat little stone structures, erected by some former resident

who loved his old country home, are occasionally found even in small

communities. It is one of the finest ways to honor one's family name and

to serve the social needs of one's early home. No family monument could be

more sensible or serviceable.

Usually the rural library is more than a mere reading room with

book-storage attachment. It is always a center of social interest, and

when built on generous lines becomes a real "neighborhood house." As such

institutions multiply,--and they certain will,--many young women of social

gifts, as well as technical library training, will be needed to make the

library or neighborhood house a center of social power, the value of which

will be limited only by the personal resources of the librarian. Without

the nerve strain of teaching, it closely parallels the teacher's

opportunity with the boys and girls, and has a growing chance to stimulate

the mental life of men and women. As women's clubs increase in the

country, more farm women are cultivating the reading habit. Every year the

bulletins of the agricultural colleges with their "Reading Courses for

Farmers' Wives" are getting more popular.

_The Specialist in Household Economics_

Perhaps the sorest spot in the rural problem is the lot of the neglected

farm wife and mother. Even where agricultural prosperity is indicated by

great barns filled with plenty, often a dilapidated little farmhouse near

by, devoid of beauty, comfort or conveniences, measures the utter

disregard for the housewife's lot.

Money is freely spent when new machinery is needed on the farm, or another

fifty-acre piece is added after a prosperous season; but seldom a thought

of the needs of the kitchen. While the men of the family ride the sulky

plow and riding harrow of the twentieth century, the women have neither a

washing machine nor an indoors pump,--to say nothing of running water,

sanitary plumbing or a bathtub![44] Sometimes the drudgery of the farm

kitchen is endured by the mother uncomplainingly, or even contentedly; but

the daughters recoil from it with growing discontent.

The life conditions of farm women are rapidly improving; but the gospel of

better homes and convenient kitchens needs thousands of gentle apostles,

equipped with modern methods of household economy, hygiene, cooking and

every domestic art and science. It necessitates rare tact, and it is

doubtless most effective when least professional, when its benevolence is

simply veiled by neighborliness, joined perhaps with the daily routine of

the teacher or librarian. But the purpose involved is a splendidly worthy

one, to raise the standards of housekeeping in a whole community of homes

and bring in a new comfort and efficiency for both men and women. To do

this is to enrich and sweeten country life at its source.

_Demonstration Centers of Rural Culture_

In the cities a very effective social service is done in the settlements

as demonstration centers of refinement and Christian living. We need the

same quietly effective plan in thousands of rural communities where life

is still crude rather than simple and where the finer life-values are too

little appreciated.

As the new rural civilization develops and the higher education becomes

more diffused, this gentle but powerful leavening of country life is bound

to follow. In very many communities it is already in process. It ought to

follow as a matter of course that wherever a college-bred woman returns to

a country home, or founds a new one, there is developed a real

demonstration center of rural culture. The down-drag of environment

sometimes proves too strong for weaker natures and higher ideals are

gradually forgotten. Sometimes, too, a tactless condescension reveals to

sensitive neighbors that fatal sense of superiority which is deadly to all

good influence, for rural democracy is passing proud.

But with the right spirit of neighborly helpfulness and an effort to

overcome the barrier which is always raised at first by superior

advantages, the woman of true unaffected culture has a great chance for

fine influence in a rural community.

In such a community not many miles from Buffalo there is such a

gentlewoman. She is blessing the whole neighborhood to-day in scores of

simple ways. According to her own modest statement, she is just "idling"

now, for ill-health interrupted her cherished plans as a successful

teacher in a mission school in China.

In keen disappointment but fine cheerfulness she settled in this little

village, and soon found ample scope for quiet, happy usefulness. The old

house she had bought for a home was remodeled modestly but with rare

effectiveness, with verandas, fireplaces, cosy corners and a convenient

kitchen. With a distinctly rural note in it all, the house was furnished

in inexpensive, elegant simplicity, with a charming effect which became

quite the wonder of the community.

Neighborly relations were easily established and the "running in" habit

was ere long encouraged. Soon the cheerful living room, so unlike the

urbanized parlors of the neighborhood, became a social center for the

young folks, and music and good pictures and the joyous life developed

undreamed of social resources in the community, hitherto latent but

unexpressed. It is a genuine demonstration center of rural culture, but

unspoiled by any professional taint. It is just neighborly friendliness,

with a well-guarded passion for helpfulness; and it is bringing that true

human appreciation which all genuine life-sharing wins. May a thousand

other college-bred women see the same vision and earn the same joy.

_Womanly Leadership in Church and Club_

The college woman who "buries herself" in a rural community has only

herself to blame if she finds no opportunity worthy of her talents. There

may be no "career" of spectacular success awaiting her, but homespun

chances to serve, and be loved for her helpfulness, meet her at every

turn.

If she stands off a year or so, in self-pity, bemoaning the meagerness of

her environment, she may work for a decade thereafter to regain lost

confidence and live down a reputation for snobbishness. But if she shows

herself friendly at once; if she leads only when invited, and earns the

opportunity by a genuine modesty, ere long her talents, and whatever

leadership capacity her college life has given her, will find plenty of

exercise.

A single college graduate of the right sort can do wonders in a little

country church or grange or club. The rural churches are suffering for

trained laymen to make them effective institutions; but the need is

sometimes just as acute for the right sort of womanly leadership, trained,

tactful, enthusiastic and effective. The same is true of the social clubs

and all local institutions which are open to women. With the rising

standards in rural life we shall look more and more to such women of

culture to bear the burdens of redirecting and vitalizing the work of

rural institutions. It is a worthy work and brings its own true rewards if

generously and wisely done.

_The Rural Association Secretary_

Far more is now being done for the country boy than for the country girl

in many communities, and a few college women are discovering in this fact

a great call to social and religious service.

In a few colleges, through their outside religious work, the girls have

become a little acquainted with the life of the younger girls in the

surrounding country. Sympathy leads them to try to help broaden the

outlook of these younger sisters, and to bring them the religious ideals

and the wholesome fun, both of which their lives often lack.

The Young Women's Christian Association for a few years past has conducted

community work in country towns on lines somewhat similar to the county

work of the Young Men's Christian Association. A few young women are

working as county secretaries, and they are women with a vision, and a

splendid earnestness. The work, however, is still quite new. It needs

development and extension into the smaller villages which need it most.

Doubtless this will be done as fast as college women of the right sort,

with a real consecration to the needs of the country girl, present

themselves as volunteers for this service.

College men are finding a splendid chance for life investment today in the

rural secretaryship,--as has been described earlier in this chapter. There

is no reason why their success with the country boys cannot be duplicated

by successful women secretaries with the country girls and women.

It is idle to claim that the average country homes are doing all that

needs doing for the country girls, or that the church life and school life

are effectively safeguarding them. Moral conditions in too many villages,

tardily perceived but often staggering when discovered, belie this false

optimism. We must face the fact that country girls need a more wholesome

recreational life than most villages afford, and higher ideals of true

womanliness than they often gain at home or church or school.

College young women of the right sort, with a winsome personality and some

talent for leadership, with social grace and power, with something of

athletic skill and a knowledge of organized play, and above all with a

wholesome Christian earnestness interpreting religion in practical modern

terms, have a great field of service among these country girls with all

their social hungers unsatisfied and their latent capacities unawakened.

The urgent need of such work in numerous rural counties can hardly be

questioned. Its vast possibilities can be discovered only by actual

experiment in any community.

In very many ways today the rural problem, so fascinatingly varied and

increasingly urgent, challenges the personal interest of the young women

of our colleges. They are only beginning to study it. Their eyes have been

all too narrowly set on the city and the town. But their rapidly

increasing numbers as well as the broadening every year of their outlook

upon life gives us reason for the faith that this challenge will not be

unheeded. Self-sacrificing womanhood is the salvation of every

civilization, urban or rural. It needs only to demonstrate the need; then

consecrated womanhood will heed the call. The coming decade should see

them by the hundred investing their lives in rural social service and

community betterment, that the kingdom of heaven may sooner come.

Nothing could better voice, to the young men and women of America, the

heroic appeal of country life leadership and service than Professor

Carver's manly challenge printed on the next page. Though not written

exclusively for the country, it fits rural life most admirably.

The Productive Life Fellowship

"It offers to young men days of toil and nights of study. It offers

frugal fare and plain clothes. It offers lean bodies, hard muscles,

horny hands, or furrowed brows. It offers wholesome recreation to the

extent necessary to maintain the highest efficiency. It offers the

burdens of bringing up large families and training them in the

productive life. It offers the obligation of using all wealth as

tools and not as means of self-gratification. It does not offer the

insult of a life of ease, or aesthetic enjoyment, or graceful

consumption, or emotional ecstasy. It offers, instead, the joy of

productive achievement, of participating in the building of the

Kingdom of God.

To young women also it offers toil, study, frugal fare, and plain

clothes, such as befit those who are honored with a great and

difficult task. It offers also the pains, the burdens and

responsibilities of motherhood. It offers also the obligation and

perpetuating in succeeding generations the principles of the

productive life made manifest in themselves. It does not offer the

insult of a life of pride and vanity. It offers the joys of

achievement, of self-expression, not alone in dead marble and canvas,

but also in the plastic lives of children to be shaped and moulded

into those ideal forms of mind and heart which their dreams have

pictured. In these ways it offers to them also the joys of

participating in the building of the Kingdom of God."[45]

TEST QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII.

1.--Why are college students discovering a new interest in studying the

rural problem?

2.--What proportion of your college enrollment came from country

communities, and what percentage of your alumni have invested their lives

in the country? Compare this with other colleges mentioned in this

chapter.

3.--Show how the vital interests of the city are deeply involved in the

problem of rural leadership.

4.--When adequate support is secured, what special opportunities for

service do you see in the work of a country teacher?

5.--What elements in the call for trained ministers for country churches

appeal to you as most urgent?

6.--Show how the modern minister, equal to his task, has as big an

opportunity to-day as ever in the past.

7.--What elements of heroism in the modern ministry make equally high

demands on the earnest college man, whether he stays in America or goes to

the foreign field?

8.--Why are college graduates avoiding the medical profession to-day more

than formerly?

9.--What do you think of the special opportunity and need of trained

country physicians?

10.--How do you estimate the chance a trained country lawyer has to-day

for Christian influence and service?

11.--Among the various professions connected with modern agriculture,

which offers the best opportunity for the investment of a life in

worth-while service?

12.--What do you think of the County Work secretaryship as a chance for

real rural leadership and community building?

13.--Compare the proportion of women teachers in the United States and in

the rest of the world. What does this indicate?

14.--Discuss the opportunities in the country for trained nurses and

physicians.

15.--What is the modern opportunity for women in rural religious

leadership, and what sort of a woman could succeed as a country pastor?

16.--What do you think of the opening for village librarians and

"neighborhood house" workers?

17.--In what details do country homes need expert leadership in household

economics and domestic science?

18.--Compare the demonstration centers of rural culture which you have

known with the illustration described in this chapter.

19.--What do you think of the work of the County Work secretary of the

Young Women's Christian Association?

20.--What other opportunities for service in rural communities come to

college women in country homes?

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

A Classified Bibliography

Suggested collateral readings for further study in connection with the

topics treated in each chapter of this book.

I. THE RURAL PROBLEM

_Its Development and Present Urgency_

Bailey, L. H., pp. 31-43 in "The Country Life Movement."

Butterfield, K. L., "The Rural Problem," chapter 1 in "The Country Church

and the Rural Problem."

Butterfield, K. L., "Problems of Progress," chapter 2 in "Chapters in

Rural Progress."

Anderson, W. L., "The Rural Partnership with Cities," chapter 2, in "The

Country Town."

Anderson, W. L., "The Extent of Rural Depletion," chapter 3, in same.

Anderson, W. L., "Local Degeneracy," chapter 5, in same.

Roads, Charles, "Rural Christendom," chapters 3, 4 and 5.

Gillette, J. M., "Conditions and Needs of Country Life," pp. 3-11 in

"Country Life."[46]

Hartman, E. T., "Village Problems and Characteristics," pp. 234-243 in

same.[46]

Hibbard, B. H., "Farm Tenancy in the United States," pp. 29-39 in

same.[46]

Cance, A. E., "Immigrant Rural Communities," pp. 69-80 in same.[46]

Plunkett, Sir Horace, "The Rural Life Problem in the United States."

chapters 3-4.

II. COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM

_Rural Resources and the Country Life Movement_

Bailey, L. H., "Why Boys Leave the Farm" and "Why Persons Take to

Farming," pp. 89-136 in "The Training of Farmers."

Bailey, L. H., "Country and City," chapter 2 in "The Outlook to Nature."

Butterfield, K. L., "The Solution of the Rural Problem," chapter 2 in "The

Country Church and the Rural Problem."

Anderson, W. L., chapters 4, 6, 8, 11 and 12, in "The Country Town."

Carver, T. N., "Shall Rural People Set Their Own Standards?" pp. 370-4 in

"Principles of Rural Economics."

Roads, Charles, "Present Relations of City and Country" and "A Great

Future for Rural Districts," chapters 2 and 7 in "Rural Christendom."

Ogden, H., "Vital Statistics of Rural Life," chapter 1 in "Rural Hygiene."

Plunkett, Sir H., chapter 7 in "The Rural Life Problem of the United

States."

Roosevelt, T., "Rural Life," in "The Outlook" for Aug. 27, 1910.

True, A. C., "The U. S. Dept. of Agriculture," pp. 100-109 in "Country

Life."

Bailey, L. H., "The College of Agriculture and the State," pp. 219-263 in

"The Training of Farmers."

Powell, E. P., "How to Live in the Country."

Washington, B. T., "How Denmark Has Taught Itself Prosperity and

Happiness," in "The World's Work" for June, 1911.

III. THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION

_Factors That are Making a New World in the Country_

Kern, O. J., "The New Country Life," chapter 1 in "Among Country Schools."

Roads, Charles, "A Great Future for Country Districts," chapter 7, in

"Rural Christendom."

Anderson, W. L., "New Factors," chapter 13 in "The Country Town."

Carver, T. N., "The Factors of Agricultural Production," chapter 3 in

"Principles of Rural Economics," (also important paragraphs in chapter 2).

Langford, W., "What the Motor Vehicle is Doing for the Farmer," in

"Scientific American," for Jan. 15, 1910.

Van Norman, H. E., "Rural Conveniences," pp. 163-7 in Mar. 1912 issue of

the "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science."

Dixon, S. G., "The Rural Home," pp. 168-174 in same.

Parker, Harold, "The Good Roads Movement," pp. 51-7 in same.

Hamilton, John, "Influence Exerted by Agricultural Fairs," pp. 200-10 in

same.

Bailey, L. H., "Cyclopedia of American Agriculture," many fine articles in

Volume IV on social conditions.

IV. TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE

_The Oldest of the Arts Becomes a New Profession_

Carver, T. N., "Historical Sketch of Modern Agriculture," chapter 2 in

"Principles of Rural Economics."

Carver, T. N., "The Factors of Agricultural Production," chapter 3 in the

same.

Butterfield, K. L., "The New Farmer," chapter 4 in "Chapters in Rural

Progress."

Bailey, L. H., "The Agricultural Shift," chapter 1 in "The State and the

Farmer."

Davenport, Eugene, "Scientific Farming," pp. 45-50 in "Annals of the

American Academy of Political and Social Science," March, 1912.

Hays, W. M., "Farm Development," especially "Irrigation," chapter 10.

Moorehead, F. G., "Efficiency on the Farm," in "Technical World," Aug.,

1911.

Plunkett, Sir Horace, chapter 6 in "The Rural Life Problem of the United

States."

V. RURAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

_Country Life Deficiencies, and the New Cooperation_

Bailey, L. H., "Community Life in the Open Country," pp. 97-133 in "The

Country Life Movement."

Bailey, L. H., "Redirecting of Rural Institutions," pp. 111-135 in "The

State and the Farmer."

Carver, T. N., "Principles of Rural Economics," chapter 6 on "Problems of

Rural Social Life," and part of chapter 4.

Wilson, W. H., "Rural Decay and Repair" and "Cooperation and Federation,"

also "Rural Morality and Recreation," chapters 1, 4 and 5 in "The Church

in the Open Country."

Butterfield, K. L., "Federation for Rural Progress," chapter 17 in

"Chapters in Rural Progress," also chapter 10 in same, on "The Grange."

Eyerly, E. R., "Cooperative Movements Among Farmers," pp. 58-68, in March

1912 issue of "The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social

Science."

Scudder, M. T., "Rural Recreation a Socializing Factor," pp. 175-190 in

the same.

Johnson, G. E., "Education by Plays and Games," especially chapters 1 and

2.

Stern, R. B., "Neighborhood Entertainments."

Bancroft, "Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium."

Heatherington, C. W., "Play for the Country Boy," in "Rural Manhood" for

May, 1911.

VI. EDUCATION FOR COUNTRY LIFE

_How Efficient Rural Citizenship is Developed_

Foght, H. W., "The American Rural School," entire; especially chapter 15

on "Consolidation of Schools."

Kern, O. J., "The Rights of the Country Child," chapter 2 in "Among

Country Schools."

Butterfield, K. L., "The Rural School and the Community," chapter 9 in

"Chapters in Rural Progress."

Zellar, J. W., "Education in the Country for the Country," in the 1910

Report of the National Education Association.

Bailey, L. H., "The School of the Future," chapter 3 in "The Outlook to

Nature"; also "The Nature Study Idea."

Bailey, L. H., "The Developing of Applicable Education," pp. 135-172 in

"The State and the Farmer."

Wilson, W. H., "Schools for Country Life," chapter 3 in "Church in the

Open Country."

Foght, H. W., "The Library and Rural Communities," chapter 13, in "The

American Rural School."

Miller, L. K., "Children's Gardens."

"Rural Manhood," rural education number, Sept., 1912.

Gold, G. D., "The Psychology of the Country Boy," in "Rural Manhood" for

April, 1911, and April, 1912.

VII. RURAL CHRISTIAN FORCES

_The Community-Serving Church and Its Allies_

Anderson, W. L., "The Preservation of the Church" and "The Church as a

Social Center," chapters 16 and 17 in "The Country Town."

Butterfield, K. L., "The Task of the Country Church" and "Difficulties and

Suggestions," chapters 3 and 4 in "The Country Church and the Rural

Problem."

Fiske, G. W., "The Function of the Country Church," chapter 5 in "The

Rural Church and Community Betterment."

Wilson, W. H., "Church and Community," chapter 2 in "The Church in the

Open Country."

Wells, G. F., "The Rural Church," pp. 131-9 in March, 1912, "Annals of

American Academy of Political and Social Science."

Wells, G. F., "The Country Church and Social Service," in Nov. 1910 issue

of "The Gospel of the Kingdom."

Roads, Charles, "Rural Christendom."

Ashenhurst, J. O., "The Day of the Country Church."

Beard, A. F., "The Story of John Frederick Oberlin."

Tipple, E. S., "Some Famous Country Parishes."

Roberts, A. E. and Israel, Henry, "The Rural Work of the Y. M. C. A.," pp.

140-8 in March, 1912, "Annals of American Academy of Political and Social

Science."

VIII. COUNTRY LIFE LEADERSHIP

_The Challenge to College Men and Women_

Butterfield, K. L., "The Call of the Country Parish," chapter 5 in "The

Country Church and the Rural Problem."

Foght, H. W., "The Rural School Teacher," pp. 69-115 in "The American

Rural School."

Educational Review, October issue 1910, on "Ways in Which the Higher

Institutions May Serve Rural Communities."

Roberts, A. E., "Leadership," pp. 133-143 in "The Country Church and Rural

Welfare."

Bailey, L. H., "Woman's Contribution to the Country Life Movement," pp.

85-96 in "The Country Life Movement."

Butterfield, K. L., "Opportunities for Farm Women," chapter 11 in

"Chapters in Rural Progress."

Woolley, M. E., "The College Woman as a Home Maker," article in "The

Ladies' Home Journal," Oct. 1, 1910.

Bailey, Butterfield, et al., "Report of the Country Life Commission."

Israel, Henry, "The Basis of Appeal for County Work," in "Rural Manhood"

for January, 1912.

Fiske, G. W., "Religious Teaching in the Country," in "Rural Manhood" for

March, 1911.

Pontius, J. W., "College Men and Rural Evangelism," in "Rural Manhood" for

February, 1912.

Footnotes:

[1] This loss however was in the early half of the decade, as the state

census shows.

[2] For the year ending March 31, 1910, 103,798 immigrants from the United

States settled in western Canada, while only 59,790 came from Great

Britain and Ireland. The wealth of the immigrants settling in western

Canada during the five years previous to that date was estimated as

follows. British, cash, $37,546,000; effects, $18,773,000. From United

States, cash, $157,260,000; effects, $110,982,000.--_The Toronto Globe_,

July 27, 1912.

[3] "The Country Town," p. 76.

[4] Principles of Sociology, Giddings, p. 348.

[5] "The Church in the Open Country," p. 9.

[6] _The Survey_, March 2, 1912. "The Nams; the Feeble-minded as Country

Dwellers." Charles B. Davenport. Ph.D.

[7]

New England Towns Losing Population 1890 1910 Total towns

(in 1910)

Maine 348 291 523

New Hampshire 152 163 224

Vermont 187 156 229

Massachusetts 154 123 321

Rhode Island 12 8 32

Connecticut 79 48 152

--- --- ----

932 789 1481

[8] The writer wishes to make it quite clear that he is thinking, in this

discussion, merely of the boys and girls who _ought_ to stay on the farm.

Unquestionably many of them must and should go to the city. This book

pleads merely for a _fair share_ of the farm boys and girls to stay in the

country,--those best fitted to maintain country life and rural

institutions. Country life must be made so attractive and so worth-while

that it will be to the advantage of more of the finest young people to

invest their lives there. Every effort should be made to prevent a boy's

going from the farm to the city, provided he is likely to make only a

meager success in the city or possibly a failure.

[9] Yet in a class of 115 college men at the Lake Geneva Student

conference in June, 1912, a surprising number stated that they had

suffered a similar experience as boys at home, though usually at times

when the farm work was particularly pressing. One claimed that he had

driven a riding cultivator by moonlight at 2 A. M.

[10] Quoted by M. Jules Meline (Premier of France) in "The Return to the

Land."

[11] "The Rural Life Problem of the United States," p. 47.

[12] By Edwin Osgood Grover, the son of a country minister.

[13] Some allowance should be made for the possibility of students

enrolling from a small city who actually live on a suburban farm.

[14] "The Country Town," p. 185.

[15] "Rural Christendom." Roads. p. 84.

[16] H. W. Quaintance. in Cyc. of Am. Agric. IV; p. 109.

[17] Publication of the Amer. Econ. Assn. V; pp. 817-821.

[18] The financial results of these improvements in farm machinery will

not at all surprise us. It follows as a matter of course that machinery

has greatly reduced the cost of production. A leading agricultural

engineer at Washington is authority for this comparison. In 1830 a bushel

of wheat represented over three hours of labor; while in 1896 only ten

minutes; making a saving in the labor cost of producing wheat equal to the

difference between 17 3-4 and 33 1-2 cents. In 1850 it required 4 1-2

hours labor to produce a bushel of corn; while in 1894 it was reduced to

41 minutes. Likewise the labor represented in a ton of baled hay has been

reduced from 35 1-2 hours in 1860 to 11 1-2 in 1894; reducing the labor

cost of a ton of hay from $3 to $1.29.

It has been estimated that the use of agricultural machinery saved in

human labor in this country alone, in the year 1899, the vast sum of about

seven hundred million dollars, with doubtless a great increase the past

decade. No wonder American farmers are spending a hundred million dollars

a year for their implements, and for this very reason have outstripped the

farmers of the world, not only in the vast amount of production, but also

in the increased comforts and satisfactions of farm life.

[19] George Manikowske, Mooreton, N. D.

[20] See Genesis 3:17-19.

[21] Report of the U. S. Sec. of Agric. for 1910. p. 11.

[22] "Brains that Make Billions." W. M. Hays, in _Saturday Evening Post_,

Aug. 29, 1908.

[23] However, let us not jump to the conclusion that general farming

to-day is highly profitable. Inflation of farm values in many sections has

resulted in serious over-capitalization. The general farmers making big

dividends bought their farms some years ago, or inherited them.

[24] Cyc. of Am. Agri., Vol. IV.

[25] Doubtless this single fact would account for the loss in population

in many townships. There are just as many families as ever but a lower

birthrate.

[26] "The Church of the Open Country," p. 79.

[27] Rural Manhood, Vol. I, p. 22.

[28] "Rural Recreation, a Socializing Factor." Annals of the Am. Acad. of

Pol. and Soc. Sci., March, 1912; p. 189.

[29] "Rural Recreation, a Socializing Factor," p. 190.

[30] Annals of the Am. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Sci., March, 1912, p. 61.

[31] Of course country children should also be taught much about city

life; city children should be taught about country life, and in the main

the standard curriculum will be the same. The point to be made here is the

exceedingly important one that rural schools must be made to fit the boys

and girls for happy and efficient life in rural communities. This is the

specific task of the country school.

[32] "The American Rural School," p. 323.

[33] "The Country Town," p. 299.

[34] In several of the stronger denominations, and, in general, east of

the Allegheny Mountains, the proportion is much higher.

[35] Yet an earnest young college student in an Indiana college asked my

advice recently on this significant personal problem. He is anxious to

consecrate his life to the ministry of the country church, but his

particular sect does not believe it right to pay salaries to their

ministers; so he asked advice as to whether he should earn his living by

farming or school teaching,--while _giving_ his services as pastor and

preacher! Quite possibly in such a church a salary of $1000 might actually

handicap a pastor's influence; but mainly with the conservative older

people.

[36] For an authoritative statement of the County Work program and

principles written by International Secretaries Roberts and Israel, see

"Annals of the Amer. Acad. of Polit. and Soc. Sci." for March, 1912, pp.

140-8.

[37] "The Country Church and the Rural Problem," p. 146.

[38] "The Annals of the Am. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Sci.," March, 1912, p.

177.

[39] "Country Life," p. 155.

[40] "The Country Church and the Rural Problem," p. 131.

[41] Forty-six out of 166 medical colleges have been closed in very recent

years and the entrance requirements of many others raised, with a strong

tendency to make a college course prerequisite.

[42] Also a few of the _third_ generation. For eighty years Oberlin has

offered women, equally with men, its privileges of higher education; and

in 1908 conferred the honorary degree of doctor of divinity upon a

distinguished woman-minister, an alumna both in arts and theology a half

century before.

[43] Disciples, Congregational, Methodist Episcopal, Unitarian, Baptist,

Universalist, Free Baptist, Free Methodist, Evangelical Association,

Christian Brethren, Methodist Protestant, Christian, Evangelical Lutheran,

Seventh Day Baptist, Wesleyan Methodist, Dunkard, United Brethren,

Methodist Episcopal South, Presbyterian and African Methodist Episcopal.

[44] Ninety-five and two-tenths per cent. of the 300,000 rural homes in

Ohio last year had no bathtub.

[45] From "The Religion Worth Having," Thomas Nixon Carver, p. 137.

[46] Issue of the "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social

Science," March, 1912.

INDEX

INDEX

Abandoned farms, 6

Adelbert College, 227

Agriculture, scientific, 95, 98-109

government patronage of, 246-8

triumphs of scientific, 91-113

teaching of, 163, 241-8, 251

U. S. Department of, 96-8

Agricultural colleges, 37, 51, 167-9, 231, 246-8, 251

professions, opportunities in, 246-8

societies, 50

Allies of the country church, 203-220

Anderson, W. L., 11, 43, 174

Animals and plants, breeding of, 100-4

Automobiles in the country, 72-4

Bailey, L. H., 22, 41, 42, 56

Bible study in the country, 206

Birth rate and rural depletion, 127

Boardman, J. R., 134

Boston University Law School, 242

Bowdoin College, 226

Boys and girls and the farm, 22

Breeding, achievements in scientific, 100-4

Burbank, L., 102

Business cooperation, 122, 139-145

Butterfield, K. L., 117, 120, 218-9, 237

California Fruit Growers' Exchange, 143

Canada, 10, 101, 102, 157-8, 164, 253, 256

Carver, T. N., 76, 98, 122, 187, 263

Cazenovia church, 214

Challenge to college men, 227-49

to college women, 249-63

to faith, 27

of the difficult, 45-7

Christian forces, rural, 173-223

Church in the country, necessity for, 173-4

opportunity and function of, 173-183

elements of weakness, 183-5

factors which determine its efficiency, 185-203

types of success, 213-19

must serve its community, 189-91

Church efficiency, 178

equipment, 200

finances, 198-200

ideals, old and new, 176

unity and federation, 193-5

City, the, xii, 46, 152-4, 230-1

and country, 4, 18, 25, 46, 63-5

and its boys, 33, 37

City life drawbacks, 39

Cities, growth of, 4

Clark, F. E., 47

College graduates in the country:

men, 227-249

women, 249-264

Colleges, xiii

agricultural, 37, 51, 167-9, 231, 246-8

relation of to rural problem, 227

neglect of rural needs, 228

and rural leadership, 227-264

Columbia University Law School, 242, 243

Comenius, 165

Commission on country life, the, 51-56

Community building, 248

festivals, 136

Communities, classification of, 2

Conservation, 109

Consolidation of schools, 157-61

Cooperation in country communities, 84, 130-148, 218-30, 248, 249

in rural Denmark, 144-5

failures in, 121-5, 184

Cornell University, 227

agricultural department, 36, 38, 41, 245

law school, 242

Country boy, the, xii, 20, 22-25, 42, 154, 234

Country Boy's Creed, 35

Country life leadership, 223-266

movement, 18, 48-63, 86-7, 111, 233

attractiveness, 41, 86

deficiencies, 117-130

optimism, 33-59

Country, privilege of living in, 39

Country church evolution, stages in, 175

County work of the Y. M. C. A., 132, 167, 207-11

County secretary's opportunity:

men, 249-51

women, 261-3

Curriculum for rural high school, 162

Davenport, C. B., 16

Deaconess work, 256

Decadence, rural, 7

stages of, 13

Degeneracy, in city and country, 12, 14-17

Denmark, cooperation in, 144

Depletion, rural, 7, 11, 17

District nurse association, 252

District school system, 155

Doctors, need of country, 241, 251-3

Drudgery, emancipation from, 74-82

Dryden, John, 101

Dry farming possibilities, 107-8

Economics, household, 234

and country church, 187

Education for country life, 151-170

rural, 20, 82-3, 151-68, 231-4, 250

Educators, the call for rural, 232-4

women, 250

Efficiency, urban and rural, 91

Electricity on the farm, 79-81

Evergreen Sporting Association, 133

Eyerly, E. K., 142

Farm development, 92-3

life, 45-7

machinery, evolution of, 75-80

Farmers' Alliance, 50, 121

Farmers, conservatism of, 93-4, 118

needs of, 52

difficulty of organizing, 120

political ineffectiveness of, 121

Farmers' Institutes, 167

Farmers' National Congress, 50

Farmer's wife, neglect of the, 257

Foght, H. W., 156, 160, 234

Franklin, B., 49

Fruit growers, cooperation among, 141

Gardens, rural school, 163-5

Giddings, 12, 18

Girls in country, 20, 23, 24, 28, 261

Government cooperation, 167

Grange, the, 50, 137-8

Grinnell College, 237

Grover, E. O., 35

Gulick, L. H., 128

Hartt, R. L., 12

Harvard Medical School, 239

Hatch Act, the, 96-7

Hays, W. M., 100

Hill, J. J., 109

Hillsdale College, 227

Homes, remodeling rural, 259

Household economics, 257

Hutchins, H. L., 13

Illinois, University of, 227

agricultural department, 37-8

Immigrants and cooperation, 143

Indiana school law, 160

Individualism, rural, 117-120

Interdenominational commissions, 194-5

Irrigation, 104-8

Irvine, Dean, 242

Irving, W., 43

Isolation, triumph over, 65-74

Israel, Henry, 211

Kansas, University of, 226

Kern, O. J., 161

Law faculties quoted, 244-5

Lawyers, country, 244-6

Librarian, opportunity of the village, 256

Libraries, public, 134, 166, 256

Leadership, city, xi, 1, 230

country, 120-1, 227-265, 231

woman's, in the country, 249-64

Literature, rural, 166-7, 264-75

Machinery, agricultural, 74-81

power, 79

Maclaren, Ian, 243

Manikowski, G., 79-81

Mann, Horace, 155

Mann, A. R., 245

Marietta College, 226

Marshall county churches, 125

Masculine church leadership, 201

Massachusetts Agricultural College, 37, 38, 168

McElfresh, F., 207

Means, Dean, 242

Medical faculties, quoted, 241-4

rural practice 241-4

Meyer, Dean, 248

Michigan University Law School, 242

Minimum wage for rural ministers, 198

Ministry, the rural, 196-9

the call to, 235-40

the modern type of, 237

women in the, 253

Missouri, University of, agri. dept., 37, 199

Morality and the play spirit, 129

Mormon irrigation work, 106

Nam's Hollow case, 15

Nature, partnership with, 43

Neighborhood house, 133, 257

New England, 8, 9, 17

New rural civilization, the, 117-145

Newspapers, 72

New York State College of Agriculture, 36, 45, 168, 245

North Carolina Agricultural College, 37

Nurses, need of, in country, 252

Oberlin College and Seminary, 230, 237, 254

Oberlin, J. F., 68, 188, 216-18

Ohio Medical School, 240

Ohio State University, 227

Pacific University, 226

Pastors, few resident in country, 253

Patrons of industry, 50

Pepin County Cooperative Co., 139

Physicians, call for country, men, 240-4

women, 251-3

Physicians and Surgeons, College of, 240

Plainfield church, 214-5

Play, the gospel of, 134, 233

Playground Association of America, 135

Plow, evolution of the, 77-9

Plunkett, Sir H., 26, 144, 152

Political ineffectiveness of farmers, 121

Power of machinery on the farm, 79-81

Princeton University, 226

Quaintance, H. W., 74

Railroads, steam and electric, 69

Reading courses for farmers' wives, 257

Recreation and organized play, 128, 233-4

Religious cooperation, lack of, 123

plans for, 193-5

Right Relationship League, 141

Roads, C., 70

Roads, country, 13, 68-70

Roberts, A. E., 211

Robertson, J. W., 157

Roosevelt, T., 40, 51-3, 135

_Rural Manhood_, 135, 167

Rural problem, the, 2, 19, 1-32, 51-4

losses, 5, 7, 8, 11

gains, 5, 8

degeneracy, 12, 14-17

contentment, 35-36, 65

sincerity and neighborliness, 44

self-respect, 63-5

individualism, 117-120

progress, 54, 63, 86-7, 134, 110-1

culture centers, 258

agencies for betterment, 56-8, 84-6

postal service, 71

opportunities for social reconstruction, 117-145

morals and recreation, 125

Rural progress associations, 133

Saunders, W., 102

School, rural problems of the, 156-8

inferior equipment and support, 154

building, 156-7, 161-2

centralization, 157-61

a social center, 137

School improvement leagues, 165

School teachers, men, 231-3, 250

women, 250

Scientific agriculture, 91-117

Scudder, M. T., 136, 230

Secretary, County Work, 249-59, 263

Sectarian divisions, 192, 193, 196

Smythe, W. E., 105

Social reconstruction, 117-145

Social consciousness, the new rural, 83

Social life, lack of, 125-7

plans for, 134-7

Socialization, community, 130-2, 189

initiative in, 132

plan for, 133

South, country life in the, 64, 204

Stone, H. F., 243

Strong, Josiah, 13, 17, 229

Student recruits for the ministry, 237

Student volunteer bands, 237

Stanford University, 226

Sunday-schools, rural, 203-7

Surveys, community, 202

Swaney School, the, 161-2

Teachers in country schools, 152-4, 232-4, 250

Telephones, rural, 66-8

Text-books, 152-3

Theological study for women, 255

Trolleys, rural, 70

United Christian forces, 191

Unsocial streak, rural, 118-9

Urbanizing of rural life, 20, 152-4

Washington, George, 49

Washington State College of Agriculture, 244

Whitman College, 226

Williams College, 226

Wilson, W. H., 14, 128, 163, 198, 202, 253

Woman's opportunity in rural leadership, 249-263

responsibility in rural education, 250

Women, nurses and physicians, 251

in the service of the church, 253-5

college graduates, 254-64

Young Men's Christian Associations, 132, 167, 207-211, 248-251

Young Women's Christian Associations, 212, 261-3

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.

The following misprints have been corrected:

"and and" corrected to "and" (page 14)

"diffierent" corrected to "different" (page 49)

"Institions" corrected to "Institutions" (page 62)

"superstitution" corrected to "superstition" (page 71)

"progessive" corrected to "progressive" (page 81)

"rang" corrected to "range" (page 102)

"cooperation" standardized to "cooperation" (page 119)

"Univercity" corrected to "University" (page 246)

"cooperatoin" corrected to "cooperation" (Index)

"Kearn" corrected to "Kern" (index)

Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in

spelling and hyphenation have been retained.

Punctuation has been corrected without note.