392 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



enterprises on a national basis. It is time, therefore, that we 

 challenge all our old practices and make plans in a new way. 



I see considerable dangers in the boys' and girls' club work, 

 as some of it is undertaken at the present time or into which 

 it may drift in the future. Perhaps there are other dangers, 

 but four will be sufficient for discussion at the moment. 



(1) These clubs or contests may not represent real effort on 

 the part of the child. Work that is credited to the child may 

 be done by father, mother, brother, sister, or by associates. 

 Probably in many cases the child's responsibility is only nom- 

 inal. The boy or girl may receive credit for accomplishments 

 that are not his or hers and that therefore are not real ; and if 

 they are not genuine, then, of course, they are dishonest. They 

 start the child on a wrong basis and on false pretenses. All 

 such work should be under careful and continuous control. 



(2) The rewards may be out of all proportion to the effort 

 expended. The prize should have relation to the value of the 

 effort or the earning-power of the work, or it is likely to be 

 damaging to the child and to arouse opposition in his community 

 or among his associates. Rewards in agriculture have not come 

 easily, and this has been one of the merits of the occupation in 

 the training of the race, and it is one of the reasons why agricul- 

 ture is a strong and important national asset. 



When we make the rewards too easy, we not only cheapen the 

 effort, but we lose the training value of the work. We must be 

 careful that we do not let the rewards in agriculture come more 

 cheaply or more easily than in other occupations. The person 

 must work for what he gets and really earn it, or else the oc- 

 cupation will lose in dignity and standing with the people. 

 Agriculture should not accept gratuities. 



Some time ago a young woman came to my office to secure a 

 subscription, saying that if she accomplished a certain number 

 of hundreds, she would win a scholarship. She was willing to 

 expend weeks of very hard work, to go to much inconvenience 

 for the purple of earning the scholarship. About the same 

 time, certain young boys were brought to my office as one stage 

 in a trip that was given them for relatively unimportant effort 

 in an agricultural contest. I could not help feeling that the 

 rewards of exertion were unjustly distributed. The travel-prizes 



