PROBLEMS OF RURAL SOCIAL LIFE 361 



develop it as a passion for a definite, concrete, national achieve- 

 ment. At all times and in all lands the desire for victory in 

 war has been the most powerful stimulus to patriotism. That 

 gives the people something definite to strive for, a concrete 

 achievement around which patriotic sentiments may crystallize. 

 That " peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," we 

 doubtless believe in a general sort of way ; but until our belief 

 becomes particular, and we come to center our desires upon 

 some definite productive achievement in the arts of peace we 

 shall never be able to arouse the patriotic passion as effectively 

 in peace as in war. This ought to be especially clear to students 

 who will have observed that school loyalty, merely as an abstract 

 virtue, is difficult to develop without some definite achievement 

 like an athletic contest or a debate, or even a spelling match, to 

 be carried through. For our country schools, as well as for every 

 other social agency in the country, one great problem, therefore, 

 must be to particularize the patriotic sentiments of the com- 

 munity and give them a definite, productive aim. 



People generally get what they want most. When a common 

 or universal passion for productive achievement is once definitely 

 aroused in a community, the achievement will follow as a matter 

 of course. Any community can have as beautiful a countryside 

 as it wants, provided it wants it seriously enough, and with suf- 

 ficient unanimity, to spend the time and energy necessary to 

 beautify it. Any community can have as moral a community 

 or ;is prosperous a community as it wants, under the same con- 

 ditions. Conversely, the lack of a common desire or a common 

 social interest means failure in the arts of peace as surely as in 

 those of war. 



The desire to make the village the most beautiful village in the 

 world, or to make one's township the most beautiful township, 

 or to make it the greatest corn- or cotton- or wheat- or potato- 

 growing township, or to make its schools the best in the world, 



