THE STUDY OF RURAL LIFE 9 



Comparative lack of identical resources need not 

 mean poverty of attainment. Let us agree that 

 relatively the country will lag behind the town. 

 Is the country continually gaining in those things 

 that are fundamentally important and that 

 minister to its best life ? is the kernal question. 



Perhaps the most common error in studying 

 rural conditions is the failure to distinguish the 

 vital difference between the urban problem and 

 the rural problem. Sociologically the city problem 

 is that of congestion; the rural problem is that of 

 isolation. The social conditions of country and 

 city are wholly different. Institutions that succeed 

 in alleviating social disorders in the town may or 

 may not succeed in the country — in any event 

 they must be adapted to country needs. This 

 applies to organizations, schools, libraries, social 

 settlements. And the adaptation must be one 

 not only of form but of spirit. In other words, 

 the farm problem is a peculiar problem, de- 

 manding special study, a new point of view, and 

 sometimes unique institutions. 



Those accustomed to large cities make a 

 pretty broad classification of " country.' ' A 

 town of five thousand people is to them "coun- 

 try." But it is not country. The problem of 

 the village and the small town is not the rural 



