SECTION B THE RURAL COMMUNITY 



(Hall 5, September 21, 3 p. TO.) 



CHAIRMAN: HON. AARON JONES, Master of National Grange, South Bend, 

 Indiana. 



SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR MAX WEBER, University of Heidelberg. 



PRESIDENT KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD, Rhode Island State Agri- 

 cultural College. 



SECRETARY: PROFESSOR WILLIAM HILL, University of Chicago. 



(Translated by Professor Charles W. Seidenadel, Ph. D., University of Chicago) 



BY MAX WEBER 



[Max Weber, Regular Honorary Professor, University of Heidelberg, b. Erfurt, 

 Germany, April 4, 1864. Dr. juris. Berlin, 1899. Assessor, Berlin, 1890; Pri- 

 vat-docent, University of Berlin, 1892: Special Professor of Commercial Law, 

 ibid. 1893; Regular Professor of Political Economy, University of Freiburg, 

 1894; of Heidelberg, 1897; Regular Honorary Professor, Heidelberg, 1903. Au- 

 thor of History of Commercial Societies ; The Condition of Agriculture in Ger- 

 many, and numerous articles in commercial and scientific journals. Editor of 

 Archiv fur SozialwissenscJiaft.] 



YOUR committee has invited me to speak on " rural community," 

 which I can understand only in the sense of " rural society," on 

 account of the opposition of this society to the city and to industry 

 as other topics of your programme. Your wish cannot possibly be 

 fulfilled if taken in its literal sense. The social constitution of rural 

 districts is the most individual and most connected with historical 

 development of all social communities. It would not be reasonable 

 to speak collectively on the rural conditions of Russia, Ireland, Sicily, 

 Hungary, and the Black Belt. But even if I confine myself to the 

 districts with developed capitalistic culture, it is scarcely possible 

 to treat the subject from one common point of view. For a rural 

 society, separate from the urban social community, does not exist 

 at the present time in a great part of the modern civilized world. It 

 does not exist in England any more, except, perhaps, in the thoughts 

 of dreamers. The constant proprietor of the soil, the landlord, is not 

 an agriculturist but a lessor; the temporary owner of the estate, 

 the tenant or lessee, is an undertaker, a capitalist like others. The 

 laborers are partly migrating laborers of the season, and the rest are 

 journeymen of exactly the same class as other proletarians. All are 

 joined together for a certain time and then are scattered again. If 



