FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



and a military band gave the large crowd the benefit of good 

 music during the day. 1 



Instances similar to these might be multiplied, indicating 

 that the play activities of the nation are beginning to find 

 widespread expression in the rural sections. So the rural 

 Young Men's Christian Association and Young Women's 

 Christian Association find it comparatively easy in any county 

 to formulate a play program that will appeal to the people. 



Another step of the two associations is providing for a 

 program of work designed to assist young people in their 

 more serious activities. Of course, the work of the county, 

 like that of the city, is two-fold : work in which the hands 

 play the larger part and work in which the brains play the 

 larger part. It is less the duty of a rural association to 

 give instruction than to cooperate with the agencies through 

 which instruction is given. For example, rural secretaries can 

 accomplish wonderful work through cooperation with the 

 schools ; with the government and states in agricultural exten- 

 sion work; and with the institutions that supply rural sections 

 with books and periodicals. 



A further duty consists in training young men and women 

 for the responsibilities and duties of the city, since many 

 boys and girls that are fitted, and others that are unfitted, 

 leave the country for the city. Instruction of the right char- 

 acter can save thousands that would otherwise be lost in the 

 fierce struggle of urban life. A well-known social worker in 

 a large American city recently made the statement that 85 per 

 cent of the human wreckage of his city was of rural origin. 2 

 To show how great the present drift is from village to city, 

 some statistics prepared by one of the leading educators of 

 the state of Ohio, Prof. C. W. McClure, many years super- 

 intendent of the public school of Germantown, Ohio, a town 

 of 1,776 inhabitants, will be given. During the eleven years 

 beginning in 1904 and ending in 1915 the school graduated 179 



1 These instances are taken from several numbers of Rural Manhood. 



2 See Proceedings of Country Church Conference held December 

 8-10, 1915. 



