THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XIII 717 



of Red Oak, and Dr. Florence Sherbon, of Colfax. The assisting super- 

 intendents were Mrs. E. E. Sherman, of Keosauqua; Mrs. O. A. Ruste, of 

 Charles City, and Mrs. Charles Brenton, of Dallas Center. 



Interest in the vitalized country church was quickened by the display 

 made by the church and country life department of the Presbyterian 

 Board of Home Missions, under the direct charge of Rev. C. H. Purmort. 

 The exhibit occupied a conspicuous place on the piazza of the state col- 

 lege building and was visited by many people. It supplemented the ex- 

 cellent addresses delivered recently at the rural life conference held at 

 Ames and showed the great need of introducing new methods and new 

 life into the country churches of the grain belt, in which interest is all 

 too rapidly waning. Conspicuous in the exhibit were placards similar to 

 the following: "The country church has done everything in its power 

 to pave the farmers' road to glory land, but it has paid far too little at- 

 tention to his road to the nearest village." Statistics were posted on 

 other placards calling attention to representative counties in various 

 grain-belt states in which church life is rapidly dying. That this is 

 largely due to inefficient ministers is^ shown by the record of Boone 

 county, Indiana, which has eighty-two rural churches, seventeen with 

 resident pastors, fifty with non-resident pastors (twenty-seven of these 

 living outside of the county) and fifteen with no ministers whatever. 

 It is the theory of those back of the movement to awaken interest in 

 the rural church that only resident pastors^ and those who live in the 

 country and are personally familiar with country problems, shall be em- 

 ployed to minister to the country churches. The exhibit at Des Moines 

 last week can hardly fail to be of value in carrying on this work to 

 make the country church minister more and more to the daily needs of 

 the country people. 



"Give us a woman's building" is the cry of the women who took such 

 an active part in last week's fair, not only in the management and con- 

 duct of the babies' show, but all over the grounds. That it is high time 

 the fair board were seriously considering the cry few can deny. Much 

 of the present prosperity and greatness of Iowa is due to the devoted 

 and untiring women who from the pioneer days down to the present 

 moment have worked with an eye single to the advancement of family, 

 home and state. Other states of the grain belt have taken better care 

 of their women, at their state fairs, than has Iowa. Minnesota de- 

 votes an entire building to its women, their work and their comfort. 

 Why should not Iowa be equally progressive and appreciative? Iowa 

 women are doing things in various lines of work that form the inspira- 

 tion and the incentive for their sisters all over the country. Premiums 

 in every department of the fair are being won by women in large num- 

 ber year by year. There are women farmers, doctors, lawyers, artists, 

 sculptors, writers and preachers in Iowa whose work is every bit as in- 

 spiring and educational as anything that is being done by man. Why 



