Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... The Rural Community And Its Needs SOME one has said that "the community is defined by the team haul";1 but neither a political nor a geographical subdivision of county or state is a commu-is a nity. Not even the inhabitants of a township, community? village, trading district, etc., when taken collectively, form a true community. It is only when such people act together as a unit for common purposes and when they have acquired the habit of thus working together for common ends that the term "community" fitly expresses this relationship. The name is also loosely applied by some people to churches, schools, clubs, and the like. They are not communities but institutions, devices, and means to an end--frameworks, or community centers, around which real communities may be built. In the final analysis a community means the federation of all the forces and resources of a convenient territory to carry out a common program of work for the benefit of all. Of suitable community framework there is no lack in the country districts of the United States, but of real communities there is still a great dearth. The rural districts need community builders. The sovereigns of a democracy are its people--not a privileged governing class of them, but all the people. In order to govern themselves well, they must be Educating the educated to the highest point of efficiency community which their resources will permit; but while we freely grant this in theory, in practice we fall far short of this ideal. The besetting sin of a democracy is that the people fail to be in earnest, to be persistent, to think things 1 Warren H. Wilson, The Evolution of the Country Community, Chapter XII. through for themselves. As a people we depend upon others to do our thinking for...