drawn. The hand of politics is upon almost everything in the county, 

 and not always for good. For example, the schools, here as throughout 

 the State, are distinctly in politics, and this fact is the bane of the school 

 system, making the tenure of office of the county officials uncertain at 

 best, and thus adding greatly to the difficulty of carrying out a permanent 

 policy of school management. 



After politics, other forces to be mentioned are religious denomination- 

 alism, which among certain classes is still a controlling factor; lodges 

 and clubs have a power of their own; the farmers' clubs deserve special 

 mention, though their influence is geographically limited, as there are 

 only three in the county (except in Sandy Spring, which throughout this 

 discussion is not considered, as the problem there is a distinctive one). 

 Two of the three are limited organizations for discussion and social meet- 

 ing; the third is a cooperative association. While it is true that economic 

 pressure has been responsible for most of the progress in the direction of 

 scientific farming, nevertheless these clubs have been directly concerned 

 in giving currency to many advanced ideas and improved methods of 

 farm management. Lastly, we must mention a factor which is rather 

 hard to gauge, but which is doubtless exceedingly important in certain 

 districts, notably Gaithersburg, Rockville, Laytonsville, Olney and 

 Wheaton, and parts of Colesville; namely, the organization of the com- 

 munity into social classes. This will be discussed more in detail in the 

 succeeding paragraph. Here let us remark that this social organization, 

 where it is definite and clear cut, is probably the most potent of all 

 socially controlling forces. 



Social and Economic Standards 



By social standards, we do not refer primarily to the groups or cliques 

 of those who in any given community actually do associate together 

 regularly, but rather to the larger recognized groups, or strata of society, 

 composed of those who would or could associate together; to those classes 

 distinctly conscious of their likeness to each other and of their difference 

 from other elements of the social whole. By economic standards, we 

 refer to that classification of a community which one would make 

 measuring it by property held, by income, by housing conditions, clothing, 

 table service, etc. Since the same conditions do not prevail throughout 

 the county, it will be convenient to discuss this topic by districts, making 

 such groupings of districts as conditions warrant. 



Laytonsville. Here we have three very distinct standards, both social 

 and economic, and the lines are sharply drawn. One class is that group 

 which we have referred to as lineal descendants of the "Old South"; 

 their ancestors were of the slave-holding aristocracy and the present 

 generation maintains their traditions. A second class is composed partly 



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