RURAL COOPERATION 



consulted. The library must be carried to the people, that the 

 advantages accruing from its use may be enjoyed in the 

 several communities of the county. This may also be said of 

 a number of institutions such as the county Y. M. C. A., county 

 Y. W. C. A., county hospital and some others. The head- 

 quarters of each must be centrally located, but the aim of 

 each should not be so much to draw persons, distantly located, 

 to them, as to carry the advantages they have to persons dis- 

 tantly located, with the idea all the time in mind of developing 

 every community in the county. 



An interesting example of county-wide cooperation in the 

 establishing of institutions and organizations for county 

 work is to be found in Van Wert County, Ohio. Van Wert 

 County many years ago led the way in the county-library 

 field, and the great success the Brumback Library has 

 achieved in giving to its 29,000 rural population access to the 

 world's literature has made the library well known all over the 

 country. At present in this county there are in course of 

 construction an endowed county Y. M. C. A., an endowed 

 county Y. W. C. A., and an endowed county hospital. It is 

 believed that these four institutions through perfect coopera- 

 tion will be able to accomplish a work that will prove to be a 

 stimulus to scores of other rural centers. At any rate, the 

 cooperative work of the four institutions during the next few 

 years will be an interesting study. 



A striking case of township cooperation comes from the 

 celebrated Illinois township which contains the three towns, 

 La Salle, Peru and Oglesby. Five institutions have been 

 welded into a unit for the benefit of all the people of the 

 township : a Tri-City High School ; a Manual Training and 

 Domestic Science Institution, with complete equipment in- 

 cluding a large assembly hall; a Social Center Building, con- 

 taining gymnasium, swimming pool and shower baths, game, 

 class, club, music and art rooms, and a library; a Hygienic 

 Institute, provided with a bacteriological laboratory, a special- 

 ized library and a small staff of experts whose duty it is to 

 keep the whole township on the highest plane of efficiency 



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