RURAL PROGRAM 137 



tion. Personal initiative and a cultivated co- 

 operative spirit are the very core of this kind of 

 work; yet both state and national government, 

 as suggested, might exert a powerful influence 

 toward the complete organization of rural affairs. 

 Steps should be taken whereby the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, the state 

 departments of agriculture, the land-grant col- 

 leges and experiment stations, the United States 

 Bureau of Education, the normal and other 

 schools, shall cooperate in a broad program for 

 aiding country life in such a way that each in- 

 stitution may do its appropriate work at the 

 same time that it aids all the others and contri- 

 butes to the general effort to develop a new rural 

 social life. 



10. THE COUNTRY CHURCH. 



This Commission has no desire to give advice 

 to the institutions of religion nor to attempt 

 to dictate their policies. Yet any consideration 

 of the problem of rural life that leaves out of 

 account the function and the possibilities of 

 the church, and of related institutions, would 

 be grossly inadequate. This is not only because 



