ORGANIZATIONS OF THE RURAL COMMUNITY
Throughout most of the United States the farmer's sense of belonging to
a community is rather vague. The villager has a definite idea of the
village because it has a boundary, he can see it, and in many cases it
is incorporated; but in most cases, outside of New England at least, the
villager and the farmer have not thought of themselves as belonging to
the same community. Farmers do, however, belong to many organizations
which meet in the village and more and more farmer and villager mingle
in the associations devoted to various special interests. The farmer's
loyalty has, therefore, been primarily to organizations rather than to
the community as such, but as these different organizations have
multiplied he has become increasingly aware that most of them, each in
its own field, are devoted to the interests of the common good. Through
the common interests of organizations in the life of all the people is
arising a new conception of the community. As Professor E. C. Lindeman
has well pointed out,[68] at the present time the community is more an
association of groups than of individuals, and it is these groups and
organizations which largely control community action. If we are to
understand the relation of the farmer to his community, we can do so
only by knowing the organizations and groups to which he belongs, for it
is in them and through them that his loyalty to the community arises.
_The Grange._--By all odds the strongest local organization of farmers
throughout the northern and western states is the Grange, which is the
local unit of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. For half a century,
from the time of its organization in 1868 until 1920, it had a larger
influence upon national legislation than any other organization of
farmers, and it was largely through its efforts that many of the more
important acts for the benefit of agriculture were passed by
Congress.[69] The growth in membership and number of local granges in
recent years testifies that the grange meets a real need in farm life.
Its maximum membership was in 1875 when 858,050 members were paying dues
to the National Grange. From then it declined to 106,782 members in
1889, but in the next thirty years it grew to approximately 700,000
members in 1919. State Granges are now organized in thirty-three states
and there are approximately 8,000 local or subordinate granges. In the
earlier years of its history there were many granges in the South, but
since the decline in the '80's there have been practically no granges
south of Virginia and Missouri.
Although the Grange is a secret order or fraternity, with a ritual
similar to other fraternal orders, its membership is open to any one of
good character, and the local granges frequently hold "open" meetings to
which all the people of the community are invited. The strength of the
Grange as a community organization is largely due to two factors: first,
its broad program, and second, that it is a family organization. Both
men and women are admitted to membership and in several states junior
granges for the older children are numerous. Although the grange
actively supports state and national legislation for the benefit of
agriculture, it is strictly non-partisan in politics and is
non-sectarian with regard to religion. In the earlier years it undertook
to operate numerous cooperative enterprises, including many cooperative
stores, and it was the failure of many of these which caused its sudden
decline of membership in the late '70's. In recent years, although it
has vigorously sponsored cooperation, it has favored independent
cooperative organizations, having no organic connection with the grange,
with the exception of grange insurance companies whose advantages are
usually limited to grange members.
Possibly the greatest service of the Grange is its educational and
social work. The "lecturer's hour" is a feature of every meeting, and in
this hour a program planned by the lecturer is given by members of the
grange, or outside speakers are invited to address it on topics of
interest. These programs include both discussion of educational topics
having to do with all phases of agriculture, home life, and civic
affairs, but also music, recitations and other entertaining features.
Special social evenings and suppers are held at frequent intervals and
the young people often enjoy an informal dance after the regular grange
meeting. The local grange, more than any other organization, provides a
forum for the discussion of the problems of agriculture and country
life, and is thus a powerful agency for the creation of public opinion
on any matters of community concern. The management of its business and
the participation in the lecturer's programs furnish the best
opportunity for the development of leadership and for training in public
speaking, so that the local Grange has been the means of discovering and
training much of our best rural leadership.
For many years the attention of the Grange seemed to be directed chiefly
toward the support of needed national legislation, but recently grange
leaders have perceived that, like all such organizations, its permanent
strength and influence depend more largely on the degree to which the
local grange is a vital force in the life of its members and of its
community. In a recent article on "The Future of the Grange," S. J.
Lowell, Master of the National Grange, ably voices this point of view:
"The farm people of America are better informed on all the
great questions of the day; are pursuing better agricultural
methods; are demanding better roads, better schools, better
churches; are doing more effective teamwork for
forward-looking projects; and in consequence are more
valuable men and women and citizens because of the Grange
influence of the past and its presence in their life to-day.
Remove the Grange from America and there would be taken out
of our progress of a half century one of the largest
contributing factors.
"It will be setting up a declaration contrary to the belief
of some that exerting legislative influence, important as it
is, is not the most valuable function of the Grange; that
its cooperative activities, however they may have
flourished, will not loom largest in the grange program of
the future; that not even its efforts for state and national
reform will be recorded as its greatest service to its day
and generation. Rather we must estimate the Grange value of
the future by its quiet, steady, unfaltering efforts,
continued year after year, in thousands of local
communities--many of them far removed from the busy
activities of men--to bring the rural people together, to
teach them the fundamentals of cooperation, of efficiency,
of teamwork, of practical educational progress, and of the
value of a forward-looking rural program, into whose
accomplishments all the people of a locality may
conscientiously enter.... This view of Grange service to
rural America is apparent in the extent to which the
community-betterment program has been taken up by
subordinate granges in nearly every state. Though a secret
organization--a fraternity in fact as well as in name--the
Grange is more and more making of itself an overflowing
institution, seeking to render actual benefits to its
immediate home locality. Hundreds of live Granges this year
are carrying out some form of community improvement along a
great variety of directions."[70]
He then goes on to give a brief glimpse of the variety of these
community enterprises. In Massachusetts the State Grange has for several
years had a committee which awards annual prizes for the best community
improvement work done by the local granges, and this has stimulated a
lively interest in community activities.
Although the Grange is primarily a farmers' organization, yet where the
local grange meets in the village, and particularly in the older states,
a considerable number of the members are village people, so that the
Grange represents the life of the whole community. On the other hand, in
many neighborhoods which are at some distance from a village center, the
Grange hall may be located in the open country, its membership is
composed wholly of farmers, and it is solely a class organization. No
studies are available to show the proportion of Granges which meet in
villages or in the open country and the effect which this has upon the
relation of the Grange to the community, but it may be safely asserted
that, as is the case with the church and the school, the Grange tends to
meet in village centers as a matter of convenience to the largest number
of its members, and that, as indicated by Mr. Lowell, it is coming to
recognize its responsibility for the general improvement of the
community as a whole.
_Other Farmers' Organizations._--Throughout the South and in Kansas and
Nebraska the Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union is the leading
farmers' organization, but it is chiefly devoted to cooperative business
enterprises and does but little for the education or social life of its
members, who are usually all men. The same may be said of the Society of
Equity, which is strongest in Wisconsin, Kentucky, and South Dakota. In
Michigan, although the Grange is strong, the Gleaners have a
considerable membership.
In many states, particularly where the grange is not well established,
farmers' clubs have been organized. In some cases local conditions make
clubs feasible where it would be difficult to enlist a large enough part
of the community to make a grange equally successful. In some cases such
clubs are open to farmers only; in others they include the whole family;
while in recent years many farm women's clubs have been organized.
Whether such clubs should be for the whole family, or for men or women
only, is largely a local question depending upon the social usages and
homogeneity of the population. In Wisconsin and Minnesota family clubs
have been most successful. It is doubtful whether this would be equally
true in the South. In the South such local clubs have been the local
units of the extension work in agriculture and home economics. Where for
any reason it is not possible to include the whole community in a club,
several clubs may be organized, each including a congenial membership,
as is now the case with women's clubs in cities, and these may then be
federated for community purposes.
_Lodges._--In most rural villages will be found one or more lodges of
fraternal orders, such as the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias,
Maccabees, etc., with the corresponding orders of women's auxiliaries.
The place and influence of lodges in the life of the rural community
have been strangely neglected by students of country life, and we have
no means of evaluating their place in the rural community. Not
infrequently the regular meetings and special parties and banquets held
by these orders form a large part of the social life of the village. In
other cases the meetings are but poorly attended and the lodge is
maintained chiefly for its insurance benefits. In some of the larger
villages and towns the larger and more prosperous lodges have game rooms
and reading rooms attached to their halls, so that they serve as club
rooms for their membership. Usually the membership is more largely
composed of village people, but a considerable number of farmers
maintain their membership, even though they do not attend regularly, and
in exceptional cases the membership is largely composed of farm people.
It is obvious that the lodge as a secret order is devoted to the
interests of its own membership and usually it has no definite program
of work for the benefit of the whole community. Yet it must be
recognized that the assistance rendered by the lodge to its members in
sickness and to their families when in distress of any kind, is a
considerable asset to the welfare of the community and is a powerful
influence in promoting that spirit of brotherhood upon which all
community life depends. Usually the lodges actively support and
participate in any community activities in which they may appropriately
take part, such as Memorial Day or Fourth of July celebrations,
community Christmas trees and other festival occasions. The churches, or
at least the ministers, sometimes feel that the social life of the
lodges absorbs so much of the time and interest of their members as to
prevent their activity in church work, which attitude has often obtained
between the church and Grange, but it is a question whether this is not
often due to the failure of the church to provide such activities as
will command the loyalty of the people, and, on the other hand, not
infrequently the leaders in lodge work are also most active in the
churches. To the extent that the lodges seem self-centered and make no
direct contribution to community improvement, this is doubtless due to
the lack of any means whereby their support may be enlisted in a program
of community betterment. The place of the lodge in the community is much
like that of a fraternity in a college or university; its primary
obligation is to its own membership, but when enlisted in any activity
for the common welfare it furnishes one of the best means for developing
the community spirit of its members, and its participation is a means of
strengthening its own organization.
_The Village Band._--A good village band is one of the most effective
agencies for promoting community spirit and sociability. The village
merchants have also found that it is an economic asset, and in many
country towns they contribute liberally for its support. A band concert
every Saturday night, or twice a week, never fails to bring a crowd of
people to town and it is a common sight to see the streets lined with
automobiles of farm people who have come in to enjoy the concert and
incidentally to do a little shopping and chat with each other and their
village friends. Although it may be called by the name of the village,
it is usually a community band, for farm boys who can play an instrument
are always welcome and frequently form a considerable part of the
membership. The community comes to have a real pride in even a
moderately good band, and on holiday celebrations and other festival
occasions it is an invaluable asset to community spirit. A crowd will
always follow a band, for it exercises a sort of group leadership for
which there seems to be no substitute.
In one small town in central New York the high school operates a moving
picture show every Saturday evening, which is preceded by a band concert
and part of the profits of the show goes to the support of the band.
Thus the community finances and controls its own entertainment. Another
small village in western New York had a fairly good band which had been
playing in neighboring villages as the only means of securing an income,
and was thus drawing trade of farmers from its own village to those
where it played. The first enterprise of the community council which was
formed there was to build a band stand and to see that the band was
financed so that it played every Saturday night in the home town. In
another case a community council was formed for the primary purpose of
bringing the support of the whole community to a fine band which had
struggled along for several years with little local appreciation.
Community orchestras are of equal value for indoor entertainments and
give opportunity for the talent of the young women as well as the men.
The community chorus or choral club has often taken the place of the
old-fashioned singing school. If a good director can be secured he will
always discover more vocal ability than has been suspected, and the
people of many a rural community have been surprised at the musical
works they have been able to produce under competent leadership.
The amount of music in a community and the public interest in its
musical entertainments are among the most significant indices of its
general culture and progressiveness. Where there is music there is life.
_The Fire Company._--One of the "most ancient and honorable" of the
organizations of the village is the volunteer fire company. The fire
company makes an appeal to the spirit of adventure and heroism common to
all red-blooded young men and furnishes something of Professor William
James' "moral equivalent of war." Its drills, exhibits and competitions
develop the finest type of team work among its members, while its
parties, festivals and entertainments for raising money are always
occasions of note in the social calendar of the community. In the older
parts of the country the firemen very frequently have a building with
clubrooms on the second floor, which form a rendezvous for its members.
Not infrequently many of the nearby farm boys belong to the fire company
and pay their dues for its support so that they may enjoy its social
advantages, although they may rarely have opportunity to do much actual
fire-fighting. In several cases community houses have been built with
one corner of the first floor constructed to house the fire equipment.
In one village I found that the fire company had taken over an old hall,
where it had clubrooms and was holding moving picture entertainments
every Saturday evening to finance the building.
_The Women's Christian Temperance Union_ is by all odds the strongest
non-sectarian organization of women in the rural communities of the
United States. In the past it has been chiefly a reform organization and
its persistent agitation was a large factor in the enactment of the
Eighteenth Amendment to the federal constitution making prohibition
national. Although prohibition is, as yet, by no means achieved, and
there is still need of upholding and encouraging those charged with its
enforcement, yet the primary purpose of the organization seems to be
largely realized. In the past it has been chiefly a militant
organization, although it has taken an active interest in problems of
child welfare, education, recreation, social hygiene, and similar topics
affecting home life. Its public speaking contests, picnics, suppers, and
sociables have done much for the social life of many a rural community.
If the fighting spirit of the past can be enlisted in a well-rounded
program for social welfare in every community where there is a Union,
this organization will continue to be a powerful factor in uniting the
women in many a rural community.
_The Cemetery Association._--Finally, the influence of the Cemetery
Association as a community organization, should not be overlooked. The
"Friendship Village Married Ladies' Cemetery Improvement Sodality,"
which Miss Gale has made famous in her delightful stories of village
life,[71] well illustrates the influences which have been started by
many a cemetery association. Not infrequently the one thing which
evinces some civic pride in an otherwise stagnant community is its
well-kept cemetery. The condition of the cemetery is a good index of
community spirit. When people neglect the resting place of their dead
they are not apt to do much for the living. But once arouse a feeling of
shame for such neglect and the effort to clean up and beautify the
cemetery has often brought all elements of the community into a common
loyalty as nothing else could do, and the satisfaction from such an
achievement may sufficiently stir community pride as to encourage other
enterprises.
The cemetery itself has a not inconsiderable influence in bringing about
the integration of the rural community. In early days every farm had its
own burying lot. Nothing is more pathetic than the abandoned burying
lots--often two or three of them--on many a New England farm. In many
cases rural neighborhoods have had a local cemetery by the country
church or district school. These, too, are increasingly neglected. On
the other hand the village cemetery is more largely used merely because
more assurance is felt in its permanent maintenance. It needs no
argument from history or from the customs of other lands, to show that
the people who bury their dead in the same place are bound together by
the most sacred ties, and that the cemetery which serves the whole
community is one of its primary bonds.
FOOTNOTES:
[68] "The Community," p. 119. New York, Association Press. 1921.
[69] See T. C. Atkeson, "Semi-centennial History of the Grange." New
York. Orange Judd Co.
[70] In "The Country Gentleman." Oct. 8, 1921, p. 17.
[71] Zona Gale, "Friendship Village"; "Friendship Village Love Stories";
"Peace in Friendship Village." New York. Macmillan Co.