RURAL COOPERATION 



better advantage also affects the village and town. These five 

 facts are serious when considered with reference to the wel- 

 fare of the villages and towns of the nation that are depend- 

 ent largely on the residents of contiguous territory for their 

 support. 



There is one redeeming circumstance, however : changes 

 have not come about all at once, and villages and towns have 

 been able gradually to adapt themselves to the new trend of 

 things. In the olden days, life in the village and town was a 

 comparatively sleepy life. Little effort had to be put forth by 

 the business interests because they were sure of the trade of 

 the contiguous territory. But in the course of the industrial 

 awakening, villages and towns began to see the handwriting on 

 the wall and adopted more progressive methods, with the 

 result that in many parts of the country today there are vil- 

 lages and towns that have magnificently risen to the demands 

 of the new times and grown in spite of the five major handi- 

 caps mentioned. The changed times have been the means of 

 rousing them from their lethargy and of causing them to 

 summon all their energies to the solution of the new prob- 

 lems that confront them. Hence, many villages and towns 

 have found the changed order of things a blessing in disguise. 

 They are today active, alive to all their interests, hopeful, opti- 

 mistic and keenly sensitive to the stimuli that contribute to 

 community development. The Saturday Evening Post told, 

 some months ago, of a store in a country town of 1,000 inhab- 

 itants, that built up, as a result of advertising and progressive 

 methods, an annual business of almost $400,000. Moreover, 

 the town as a town showed enterprise in all directions. On 

 the other hand, hundreds of villages and towns not possessed 

 of sufficient tenacity, resourcefulness and unity have suc- 

 cumbed to the handicaps imposed by the changed order of 

 things and are today leading decadent lives. 



Two villages come to the writer's mind. Both are favorably 

 located in good agricultural sections and are almost the same 

 distance from larger towns and cities. Yet one is progressive 

 and prosperous, and the other is conservative and backward. 



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