438 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



dominates the community ideals. It therefore is a movement 

 which must be determined from the standpoint of qualitative 

 rather than quantitative values. There are 45,000 such com- 

 munities in the United States and Canada with a combined popu- 

 lation of over 12,000,000, thus including over 60 per cent, of the 

 boyhood and young manhood in this field. There are 2,000 coun- 

 ties considered organizable in the United States and 500 in 

 Canada on the present basis of organization and type of work. 



The term "county work" is applied to this movement because 

 the county already affords a ready geographical unit for con- 

 structive work. Counties have distinctive traditions of their own 

 social elements and existing organizations of a county-wide char- 

 acter. As the result of repeated failures in individual communi- 

 ties apart from other communities, a county-wide organization 

 commanding the combined resources of men and money within 

 the county, made possible in community life that which could 

 not have been accomplished independently. 



There are two factors that enter into this plan so essential to 

 success volunteer effort and expert supervision. The volun- 

 tary organization, 4he county committee, consisting of from fif- 

 teen to twenty prominent business and professional men and suc- 

 cessful farmers, constitute the administrative unit and clearing 

 house for policies and programs for the country-wide activities as 

 well as for individual communities. These county committeemen 

 are selected with great care, primarily meeting one of two quali- 

 fications : to be able to command resources of their own to promote 

 this work for a period of years, or to possess such influence as to 

 command the resources of others, both in time and money. They 

 all must stand for the best things in community life, be vitally 

 related to the church, to the school and other agencies that make 

 for community progress. They constitute a voluntary body not 

 unlike the faculty of a university at one time, of the health board 

 of the county in another instance, as the clearing house for a 

 religious campaign at another time, as a voluntary body of com- 

 missioners to advance the specific interests of a county, and in 

 no uncertain degree to measure out their best judgement fre- 

 quently along the lines of advancing the agricultural or economic 

 interests. Therefore, the county committee assigns these various 

 aspects of its work to sub-committees, each of which renders its 



