FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



from the standpoint of health and sanitation; and an Infant 

 Welfare Station. 



Attention has just been called to the several units that are 

 to be found in Rural America, and emphasis has been placed 

 on the fact that great results may be attained through their 

 cooperation. Now a word might be said about the best 

 method of cooperation. Here, again, no hard and fast rules 

 can be given because conditions are so different in different 

 sections of the country. But this rule might be said to have 

 general application. Within each separate and distinct com- 

 munity center there might be a clearing-house managed by 

 the leaders representing all the activities and movements of 

 a community character in the community. If, for example, 

 a village were to establish a clearing-house, there would be 

 every likelihood that the village would enjoy a symmetrical 

 development, since all movements and activities would be 

 given their true place in the life of the village and a vast 

 amount of waste resulting through duplication of effort 

 would be eliminated. Take the work of charity alone. There 

 are, in every community, many organizations of a different 

 character that engage in charitable work, with the result that 

 some families receive too much, some receive too little, and a 

 great deal of harm is done through indiscriminate giving. A 

 clearing-house could take care of this work in a scientific 

 manner and accomplish, at the same time, a great constructive 

 work, which would in the end be the means of raising above 

 the poverty level many who either temporarily or permanently 

 have sunk below it, purely because of social conditions that 

 might be eliminated. Then a clearing-house of clearing- 

 houses would permit of much better work in the larger units. 

 A clearing-house system worked out in a county would not 

 only be the means of producing higher economic standards, 

 but would result in the placing of the collective citizenship 

 on higher levels intellectually and spiritually. Furthermore, 

 a system of clearing-houses would be the best means in the 

 world of taking advantage of the aid that from many sources 

 is coming from the outside : the Federal Government, the 

 state, great foundations and other organizations. 



