RURAL LIFE PROGRESS 239 



would be only one duty commensurate with the privileges and 

 opportunities of the present day. 



Political and social life. The progress of country life 

 institutions depends in large measure upon the social organ- 

 ization and political control affecting rural life. The laws 

 and their enforcement governing schools, roads, taxation, land, 

 voting, and all social affairs of the country, contribute directly 

 to the progress or hindrance of these matters touching coun- 

 try people. As our young men and women go out from the 

 new country schools where they have learned to love the 

 open country and to understand its needs and how to meet 

 them efficiently, and where they have gained an education 

 enabling them to stand among men of all vocations on equal 

 terms, then voting will be more independent and intelligent, 

 laws v/ill be enacted and enforced giving better justice to 

 country life interests, and political and social life will be 

 cleaner and more elevating. 



The country church. Last but not least among the num- 

 ber of the country life institutions to share in the progress 

 of our century is- the country church. No other institution 

 labors so unselfishly for the conservation of all the better 

 things of life as does the church. The country church may 

 be dead or dying out in many places, but if rural life is to 

 prosper, if agriculture is to become permanent, if country 

 life institutions are to progress, then the country church must 

 be saved, and it, too, must keep pace with the progress of 

 the times. In this progress the country church must become 

 a community serving institution. There should be only one 

 country church in the community, and all the people should 



