THE COMMUNITY IDEA 157 



laundries have been in operation in Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin long enough to prove the feasibility of the 

 plan. 



COMMUNITY PROTECTION 



Nor have we yet exhausted the possibilities of the 

 community idea. We still, to a considerable extent, 

 leave the individual farmer to protect himself against 

 unfavorable conditions. He fights his own potato bugs 

 and tries to defend himself against the blight. But 

 effective protection is almost wholly a community af- 

 fair. Not many years ago, a law was passed in some 

 western states compelling farmers to spray against cer- 

 tain diseases, and why? Simply because the failure of 

 a single farmer to combat a pestiferous insect or a con- 

 tagious disease of his trees made him a menace to all 

 his neighbors. The whole thing becomes a community 

 affair. The spread of weeds is very serious in some 

 regions. It is possible because we still treat the mat- 

 ter as a concern of the individual farmer. But the in- 

 jury falls upon the entire community of farmers. A 

 noxious weed law in Wisconsin requires that every 

 property owner destroy certain weeds if found on his 

 land. 



THE COMMUNITY IDEA APPLIED TO COUNTRY LIFE 



The Education of the Rural People. The school is 

 perhaps more completely a community institution than 

 any other agency of rural endeavor. For decades, and 

 in some parts of the country for generations, its main- 

 tenance has been a community charge. Every family 

 has participated in the cost and every family has felt 

 free to participate in the advantages of the school. 

 But the rural school has failed thus far to measure up 

 to its full capacity as an educational institution, both 



