THE COMMUNITY IDEA 145 



The Consolidated School District. The consoli- 

 dated school district seems almost the ideal area for a 

 true community, not mainly nor perhaps even chiefly be- 

 cause we are to think of the consolidated school as the 

 one community center, but because in the very nature of 

 the case the consolidated schoolhouse will be so located 

 as to serve the interests of that group of farmers who 

 support the school and who therefore are rather accus- 

 tomed or at least will soon become accustomed to think- 

 ing of themselves as having common interests. The 

 location of the school is sometimes in the open country, 

 but often in a small village; in either case, it is not at all 

 unlikely that it may be found near a prominent church, 

 Grange hall, elevator or creamery. The consolidated 

 school district, therefore, forms more nearly a natural 

 community area than any other district except the New 

 England town. 



The North Carolina Plan. A law has been passed 

 in North Carolina which makes it possible for a group 

 of people to organize afresh a legal community much 

 like the New England town. The possibilities of this 

 sort of legislation are extremely interesting, because 

 such communities can be definitely planned and not left 

 to chance. 



The Practical Step. But how shall we really deter- 

 mine the boundaries of the local community? We 

 have these various tests, some good and some not so 

 good. As a practical convenience, we would urge the 

 use of the township wherever there is nothing imme- 

 diately at hand that is better. When the Grange was 

 organized fifty years ago, it had to face just this ques- 

 tion what should be the " jurisdiction " of the local 

 or subordinate Grange? The plan adopted was gener- 

 ally to take the township as the unit. Departures have 



