ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY 171 



GAINING THE FACTS 



Before a community can make a plan, it must know 

 the facts about itself. What are the needs of the com- 

 munity? What are the best things that exist in the 

 community? What are its resources, natural and hu- 

 man? What are the possibilities of the community? 

 So we need first of all: 



A Community Inventory. The community inven- 

 tory is just a little self study by the community itself. 

 It brings together in orderly form the knowledge and 

 the insight of the people themselves about themselves. 

 The modern farmer who buys a new farm considers it 

 essential to have a definite plan of development and 

 of management. But he knows that a prerequisite to 

 the information of that plan is knowledge knowl- 

 edge of the farm and of the market, of the type of 

 soil, the history of the farm, the climate, the roads. 

 All these are factors in determining his plan. He must 

 know his farm. So if a farming community decides to 

 make itself the best possible community, the prerequi- 

 site is knowledge it must know itself. What are 

 the natural resources of the community; how have the 

 resources been used; what are the possibilities of im- 

 provement? Is the farm life all it ought to be? 

 Wherein is it strong and wherein deficient? It is not 

 necessary to presuppose that the community inventory 

 means the existence of a " sick " neighborhood. 

 Knowledge is indispensable to efficiency, and desire for 

 greater efficiency is no sign of decrepitude. The de- 

 sire of the farmers in any neighborhood to study them- 

 selves, as a starting point for developing a better com- 

 munity, is an indication, not of decadence, but of vi- 

 tality. Only the " live " man desires to improve. 



