FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



one finds depleted land fertility, abandoned farms and great 

 urban development with a rather homogeneous rural popula- 

 tion; in the South one finds sections held back by several 

 centuries of slavery, devastated by a four years' civil war, 

 handicapped by the co-existence of two races equal in popu- 

 lation, the inferior of which must be elevated at the expense 

 of the superior, and suffering from all the troubles of a 

 hitherto one crop country; in the great Mississippi Valley 

 one finds rich lands gradually losing their fertility, farms 

 decreasing in number and increasing in size, and a population 

 of considerable heterogeneity; in the Great West one finds 

 for the most part semi-arid land made productive through 

 irrigation, and a population representing some of the best 

 people of the East and Mississippi Valley scattered over wide 

 areas. In all these sections there is tremendous activity in the 

 great work of solving the country church problem. New 

 England and the Middle States are thoroughly awake; the 

 South, to any one who attended the great Conference for 

 Education and Industry in 1915, seems to have assumed the 

 responsibilities for her herculean task with a determination 

 to achieve victory; the Mississippi Valley is endeavoring to 

 fuse all the agencies of rural progress into a triumphant force 

 for shaping the destiny of the world's greatest rural popula- 

 tion, and the Great West is building a civilization of its own 

 on the experiences of America's past. 



Of epoch-making importance was the Country Church 

 Conference held in Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 9, 10, 1915, 

 under the direction of the Federal Council of Churches of 

 Christ in America. A condensed statement of the secretary 

 of the Commission on Church and Country Life follows : 



In 1910, 1911 and 1912 the Federal Council of Churches 

 (thirty-one denominations) maintained a bureau and clearing 

 house of research, information and promotion, touching the 

 various church and country life interests. Since 1913 a special 

 committee has been in charge of this work and an executive 

 gives to it his undivided attention. During the year 1915, 

 Ohio has been the field of investigation and study, the work 



80 



