Chapter XXII Rural Forces
The United States is a vast domain. Its material resources are enormous. Its fertile and easily tilled soil, its magnificent forests, its great stores of ore, coal, oil and gas; its fine water-power sites and its temperate and healthful climate have all contributed to the making of a prosperous and progressive nation. Without these natural resources the United States could not be what it is.
The waste of some of these resources is almost beyond belief. In mining, one-half the anthracite and one-third the soft coal is left in the ground in such a manner that it may never be economically recovered. A ton of coal will produce 1,400 pounds of coke, worth $1.50, and 20 pounds of sulphate of ammonia, worth 50 cents. If all the nitrogen in coal which is turned into coke in Pennsylvania were recovered, it would furnish enough of this element to supply the needs of every acre of tillable soil in that state. Only about 44% of the wood in the trees now harvested in the United States is incorporated into buildings, apparatus and furniture. The rest is wasted in the process of cutting, sawing and manufacturing into the finished products.
Facts like these have led the nation to realize that the conservation of our natural resources is an immediate and pressing problem. The United States has, however, a greater inheritance than these great and beneficent gifts of nature and a more fundamental problem than the preservation and efficient use of them. In a single sentence, the greatest inheritance of the American people is their Puritan ancestry. The word Puritan is here used to apply not only to the New England Pilgrims, but to all our early forefathers, whose traditions and practices have served to set this country apart from the other countries of the world. Because of the traditions which have been handed down to us, we are healthier-bodied and cleaner-minded men and women. We are more efficient, not merely in making money, but in everything that goes to make a full and well-rounded life.
It is well to realize the resources of other nations. The agricultural possibilities of France appear to the casual observer to compare favorably with any equal area in the United States. One may see farm land in Italy which has been cultivated for at least two thousand years which is evidently as fertile as any of the limestone valleys of the Atlantic States, the prairies of the Mississippi valley or the Palouse district of the Northwest. Russia has enormous areas of fertile soil. Careful observers report that in Manchuria there are great stretches of country, which today possess natural opportunities similar to those which the Mississippi valley offered one hundred years ago. The recent stories of the deposits of coal and mineral wealth in China are almost fabulous. Europe has rich mines, great forests and unrivaled water-power.
Some years ago a native of Argentina and a native of the United States were dining together. The Argentinian had served his government as consul to Canada. He related that he had recently written an official letter in which he had occasion to refer to the people of Canada and to those of this country. He explained that in alluding to the former he could say the Canadians, but the latter he could not call Americans, since his people were also Americans. After due consideration he referred to us as the Yankees. But, turning to his hearer, he said, with great emphasis, I do not look upon the people of the United States as a nation, but as a new civilization. In other words, our nation is not simply one of fertile farms, enormous mines, great forests, unparalleled railroad systems, palatial stores, or wealthy cities, but he saw that we are a people of different economic, political, educational, social, moral and religious ideals.
There are in every rural neighborhood certain forces whose objects are to increase the educational advantages, the social opportunities and the moral aspirations of the people. This subject need not be discussed merely in the abstract. There are in every community concrete evidences of these forces. There is the rural church. There is the rural school. In many localities are to be found, also, buildings, for social and fraternal purposes, as grange halls, structures for holding fairs and picnics. These are tangible evidences that there are rural agencies at work in the community whose chief purpose is to increase the educational advantages, the social opportunities and the moral aspirations of the people.
How are these existing rural forces to be made more effective? If co-operation in financial affairs is essential under modern conditions, it is more needed in social matters. Such co-operation does not imply that these separate forces shall be fused into a single one. Each of them has its particular and peculiar work to do, but each should work in harmony and not in the spirit of antagonism with the others.
There should be formed in each locality a committee for which the following name is proposed: The Community Committee of Rural Forces. Emphasis should be placed upon the word community. Like all moral movements, progress must come from within, and not from without. The movement must be adapted to its environment. Like the plants that grow there, it must be indigenous to the soil.
This committee should be composed of representatives of the churches, the schools, farmers clubs, granges, fair associations, farmers institutes; and other organizations which are striving to increase the educational advantages, the social opportunities and the moral aspirations of the people.
Oftentimes the object of these rural forces is confused with efforts to increase the financial prosperity of the farmer. It goes without saying that the maintenance of the fertility of the soil is essential to the food supply of the nation. The problems of the economic production of plants and animals are of great importance to the prosperity of the farmer. The idea, however, that the proper solution of these economic problems is to be the means of solving the educational, social and religious problems is simply putting the cart before the horse. Economic questions can only be satisfactorily adjusted through the application of intelligence and right ideas.
Let it be supposed that when a young man decides to pay attention to a young woman that instead of meeting her at the church door, or it may be at the railway station, it is considered better form for him to get permission of the mother to call upon the young woman in her own home. This is the most fundamental question in every neighborhood. What has it to do with the price of wheat?
This illustration has been used to emphasize two points. First, there are many problems in every community that are in no way related to the material prosperity of the neighborhood. Second, there is, at present, no single force in the community with sufficient influence to cope properly with many of these problems.
A young college graduate who is now managing eight hundred acres of land recently wrote: I firmly believe that one of the best opportunities to be of help to a rural community lies in the work that is to be done for the improvement of social conditions—to help make what little leisure there is clean and refreshing. Hence on return from college this young man has found time to play football and baseball with local teams and to help whenever opportunity offered at dances, musicales and similar entertainments. Games and other forms of recreation may be clean and wholesome, or they may be quite the reverse. It would be the duty of the community committee to see that dances occurred under proper environment—not next an open saloon—and that the young women were properly chaperoned.
In many communities the boys and girls are almost wholly dependent upon the neighboring towns for their amusement. This condition may or may not be desirable. If the town and country are virtually one community, there is every reason why the boys and girls from the farms should find recreation and social intercourse with the boys and girls of the village. It is a relationship that should be fostered wherever possible. When, however, the town and the country are separate communities, which prevent the ordinary social relationships, it is usually unfortunate when the young people of the one community are dependent upon the other community for their amusements.
A deeply earnest man recently said: I was born and raised upon the farm. I never knew a dull day in my life. I went fishing. I went hunting and——
Stop right there, said the listener. There is not the same opportunity today for a boy to go hunting that there was when you were a boy.
That is true.
Our ideas about such things have changed, also.
Yes, he replied, humbly enough, for he was a man of fine fiber.
I propose a substitute, said the listener. There is much more pleasure and recreation to be obtained from photographing animals than from killing them. What is needed in every rural community is a camera club.
When a boy wishes to go hunting, he merely has to buckle on his ammunition pouch, shoulder his gun and he is ready. A camera club, however, requires a social organization and a social center. The community committee would thus be required to decide whether the facilities for developing and printing pictures may best be located at the church, the schoolhouse, the grange hall or elsewhere.
A little reflection will show how many possibilities such a club might have on its social, moral and educational side. The suggestion has been made here, however, only as an illustration of the problems which arise when a rural community is organized for social welfare. The organization of a book club, or a magazine club in a rural community presents precisely the same problems. Some method must be devised for exchanging the books or magazines. Whether they are exchanged at the church, the grange hall or through the school children will depend upon local conditions requiring a community committee to decide.
This community committee will do something more than reach immediate results. It may project its influence far into the future. Not all of life is comprised in a porcelain bathtub and nickel adornments. Nevertheless modern methods of heating and plumbing are desirable in the country as well as in the city. In Indiana there is a one-room school building. In the basement there has been placed a furnace and a gasoline engine. The engine is used not only to teach the boys how to run a gasoline engine, but it makes possible a modern system of plumbing.
It is well known that many of the states within the past decade have voted to abolish or very materially restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages. No great temperance orators have roused the people as was the case thirty years or more ago. Why, then, has such progress been made in recent years? In large part because twenty-five years ago, the teaching of physiology was introduced into the public schools, which taught the evil effects of alcohol to the human system. During the past decade young men who studied these physiologies have been voting.
What has the teaching of physiology to do with the one-room schoolhouse in Indiana with its modern system of plumbing? The girls between the ages of six and fourteen are now becoming accustomed to modern systems of plumbing. When they grow older and marry they will find some way to introduce similar conveniences into their homes without regard to the price of wheat. A wise community committee will find many ways to influence future generations. Such a committee would be a priceless heritage to any community.
The natural resources of the United States are necessary to the prosperity of the people. The preservation and economic use of these resources are of vast importance. The natural resources of the world were, however, as great five thousand years ago as they are today. The soil was no less fertile then than now. The difference between the prosperity of the human race at these two periods is caused by a difference in human motive and efficiency. It is the result of ideals and knowledge. Sit at the banquet table with men who are the real powers in shaping the affairs of the world. The chances are that the champagne remains untouched. These men are not in the habit of partaking of midnight suppers. They must keep themselves fit for the next days work. They have the approval and loyalty of their wives because they deserve it. In other words, the men who do the worlds work are not drunkards. They are not gluttons. They are not libertines. They are efficient because they have healthy bodies and clean minds. It is this efficiency which the critic from Argentina saw when he said, I do not look upon the people of the United States as a nation, but as a new civilization.