THE COUNTRY BOY Why does he want to leave his father’s farm to go to the city? He ought to be able to find his highest happiness and usefulness in the country, his native environment, where he is sadly needed. Can we make it worth while for this boy to invest his life in rural leadership? A Study of Country Life Opportunity...

JUNIOR DEAN, OBERLIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OBERLIN, OHIO Association Press NEW YORK: 124 East 28th Street LONDON: 47 Paternoster Row, E. C. 1912 Copyright, 1912, By THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS TO THE COLLEGE MEN AND WOMEN WHO LOVE COUNTRY LIFE ENOUGH TO RESIST THE LURE OF THE CITY AND INVEST THEIR TALENTS IN RURAL CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP WE OFFER THIS CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY...

This study of country life opportunity and analysis of various phases of the rural problems in America has been written at the request of the International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations, particularly for their County Work and Student departments. The former desired a handbook for the training of leaders in rural Christian work and the latter a textbook for the use of college students in Christian Associations wishing to study the fundamentals of rural social service and rural p

The glare of the city dazzles the eyes of many a man in college. For a generation college debates, in class, club and fraternity, have popularized all phases of the city problem, the very difficulties of which have challenged many a country-bred boy to throw in his life where the maelstrom was the swiftest. In recent years however the country problem has been claiming its share of attention. It has grown to the dignity of a national issue. The great Rural Life Movement, starting from the Agricul

ITS DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT URGENCY I. The Problem Stated and Defined. Early in the year 1912, some five hundred leading business and professional men of the cities of New York state met at a banquet, under the auspices of the Young Men’s Christian Association. During the evening it was discovered that nine-tenths of these influential city leaders had come from country homes. They were born on farms in the open country or in rural villages of 2,500 population or less. Facts like these no longer

I. Signs of a New Faith in Rural Life. THE FARM: BEST HOME OF THE FAMILY: MAIN SOURCE OF NATIONAL WEALTH: FOUNDATION OF CIVILIZED SOCIETY: THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE This tribute to the fundamental value of rural life is a part of the classic inscription, cut in the marble over the massive entrances, on the new union railroad station at Washington, D. C. Its calm, clear faith is reassuring. It reminds us that there is unquestionably an abiding optimism in this matter of country life. It suggests, th

FACTORS THAT ARE MAKING A NEW WORLD IN THE COUNTRY Introductory: Rural Self-Respect and Progress The faith of the country life movement is justified by the remarkable rural progress of the past generation. City life has been revolutionized by inventive skill, modern machinery, new forms of wealth and higher standards of efficiency and comfort; but meanwhile this marvelous progress has not been confined to cities. To be sure depleted rural districts, drained of their best blood, have not kept pac

I. Its Struggle with Rural Conservatism. Modern Efficiency not Confined to Cities Efficiency is everywhere demanded by the spirit of our times. We are living in an age that does things. Whatever the difficulties, it somehow gets things done. It brings to pass even the seemingly impossible. Are there mountains in the way? It goes over, under, or through.—There are no mountains! Is there an isthmus, preventing the union of great seas and blocking commerce? It erases the isthmus from the world’s ma

[ Cooperation of religious forces will be treated in Chap. VII. ]  ...

A. COUNTRY LIFE DEFICIENCIES I. Social Diagnosis: Rural Individualism. The preceding chapters have emphasized the riches of country life sufficiently to save the author from the charge of pessimism. Let us hold fast to our rural optimism. We shall need it all. But let it not blind us to the unfortunate facts in rural life, for diagnosis is the first step toward recovery. We are to notice now some of the fundamental social deficiencies which are almost universal in our American rural society. Dr.

HOW EFFICIENT RURAL CITIZENSHIP IS DEVELOPED I. Weaknesses in Rural Education. It is easy to blame the one-room schoolhouse for the failures of rural life. It would be fairer to say the rural schools have not kept pace with the rising standards of their own communities. There remains a deal of sentiment about the “little red schoolhouse” of the olden time; yet, discounted in cash, it fails even to keep the building painted. A recent survey of social conditions in northern Missouri reports that i

THE COMMUNITY-SERVING CHURCH AND ITS ALLIES I. The Opportunity and Function of the Country Church. Its Necessity to Rural Progress The city man’s judgment of many things rural is apt to be warped. The country is a better place than he thinks it is. Country institutions are doing better than he thinks they are; and the country church is by no means as dead and useless as he is apt to imagine. Ridiculing the plan to federate three village churches, a typical city man remarked, “What is the use? Th

A. A CHALLENGE TO COLLEGE MEN I. The Relation of the Colleges to This Problem. A New Interest and Sense of Responsibility It has been plain from the start that this book is a book with a purpose. Its object was frankly stated in the preface and the author at least has not forgotten it in a single chapter. These seven preceding chapters have condensed the facts of country life in its strength and weakness and have voiced the modern call for rural leadership. Every call for trained leadership must

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,” chapt