FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



have a thousand leaders instead of half a dozen. This example 

 is typical of urban commercial and industrial life. The highest 

 type of manhood and womanhood cannot be developed from 

 a machine-like environment and such is the prevailing environ- 

 ment in the cities. 



(4) Spiritual Atrophy. In recent years there have been 

 some marvelous revivals of religion. But in every case where 

 unusual results h'ave been achieved the revivals have been 

 preceded by the most painstaking preparation imaginable, and 

 have been conducted by an organization and in accordance 

 with a system that have proved to be flawless. The forces of 

 righteousness have been mobilized to the last individual and 

 only forty-two centimeter guns have been employed. Further, 

 the laws of psychology have been called to the aid of those 

 behind the revivals in so dextrous a manner that the almost 

 impregnable citadel that guards the emotional nature of the 

 composite urban resident has been forced to capitulate. It 

 is generally recognized that so great has become the spiritual 

 atrophy in the cities that only efforts of a most unusual char- 

 acter can bring victory. The average city resident seems to 

 live near the surface, to borrow an expression from William 

 James, and the multiplicity of distractions of city life pre- 

 vents his frequent retirement into the sacred chambers of his 

 personality, where the moral nature has its sanctuary. This 

 surface life causes him to become susceptible to the influences 

 of materialism and therefore makes him somewhat unre- 

 sponsive to the inner voices. 



The four major perils of Rural America are low agricultural 

 standards, absence of team-work, dearth of rural patriotism, 

 and growth of urban ownership. 



(i) Low Agricultural Standards. It is a notorious fact 

 that the greatest mining operation of the past generation has 

 been fertility mining in the United States. The nation has 

 been living off the fertility of the wonderful soil with which 

 God has blessed this continent. The census report tells a 

 sad story of agricultural conditions. Countless acres have 

 been absolutely abandoned because their fertility has been 



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