THE RURAL HOME 325 



to realize the change in rural home conditions, and the tendency 

 they have shown toward assuming that the function which the 

 rural home should perform and does perform in the community 

 has remained unchanged in spite of the great economic and social 

 changes outside the home. 



Because of this scarcity of reliable material on which to base 

 attempts to solve some of the problems of the rural home, it 

 seems to the committee that the most important pieces of work 

 that it can undertake for the coming year will be those of 



(1) Gathering together the few studies which have already 

 been made of the rural home and 



(2) Making new studies in different sections of the country 

 and under different conditions, in order to secure, if possible, suf- 

 ficient material for formulating some tentative statements as to 

 the present status of the rural home in the community, its func- 

 tion, and its problems. 



The committee feels that further information should be 

 gathered concerning the following points and it expects, also, to 

 add others to the list : 



(1) The functions that the home is performing in the rural 

 community and the degree to which it is necessary or desirable 

 at the present time, with our present community organization, for 

 the home to provide food, shelter, clothing, recreation, sanita- 

 tion, religious life, etc., for the family. 



(2) The relative emphasis now placed in the rural home upon 

 the satisfaction of the desires of the members of the family for 

 (a) food, (b) shelter, (c) clothing, (d) "higher life." 



(3) The relationships existing among individuals in a family 

 which tend to retard or accelerate progress in the community. 

 It is felt by the committee that the study of the relationships be- 

 tween men and women and between adults and children in the 

 family may indicate whether the rural home is tending to retain 

 a form of despotism even though at times benevolent despotism 

 which is out of harmony with the democratic standards being 

 introduced into the community, because of its failure to provide 

 for a division of rights and responsibilities among its members; 

 or whether the retention of the older form of family organization 

 is lending advantageous stability to the community. For exam- 

 ple, when the war made it necessary for the food administrator 



