36 THE RURAL PROBLEM. 



commercial offers of the town. Many of them are now seeking 

 distraction or amusement in the crowd of the street, the football 

 match, and the cinema-theatre, and if rural prosperity ends with 

 this it will mean that the national spirit and culture will receive a 

 smaller contribution from the rural districts than even during the 

 last forty years. Religion, politics, thought, in the villages will 

 be shaped on the lower planes which now exist in the urban districts, 

 for the humble villager is not brought into contact with the higher 

 planes of life and thought of the to^vns he visits. 



A revival of village life does not mean going back to the spade 

 and the maypole ; it means going forward to the motor plough and 

 the trade imion, together with the village club and recreation 

 ground, the co-operative society and its factory, the secondary 

 school and the church Avhich is not afraid to embrace ideas or 

 form new ideals of individual and social life. 



The watchwords of the new life of the villages are education 

 and association. The workers of the towns can do much to show 

 the villagers how to obtain edvication and how to associate ; but 

 it is fatal to offer services in the spirit of superiority. Only in 

 the spirit of community of interest and ideals can town and country 

 work together to carry forward the spirit and culture of British 

 democrac}^ and civihzation. 



