180 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



we want to develop an amusement hall owned and man- 

 aged by the community. 



4. The Church. The church ought to be the natural 

 and recognized center of the great ideals and the spir- 

 itual refreshments of life. It is the supreme place for 

 considering the Tightness rather than the expediency of 

 action. A church, of course, must be a friendly place 

 because friendship is the most religious thing in the 

 world. But perhaps it ought to be less of a social club 

 and more of a community school of practical religion 

 than it has ever been before. Certainly teaching and 

 discussion of community affairs and of world-wide af- 

 fairs from the religious point of view must be a large 

 part of a successful church. The great fundamental 

 purpose of the church as a community affair is to try to 

 lead the people to discover, through conferences and 

 worship and friendly, brotherly discussion, how the 

 teachings of the great religious leaders, but primarily 

 the teachings of Jesus himself can be applied in the 

 daily work and life of the people of the community. 



Community Centers rather than a Community Cen- 

 ter. Now this program may seem altogether too big 

 for the average rural community, but if we stop to 

 think about it, it is not so serious as it seems. First, 

 a farmers' exchange or cooperative business organiza- 

 tion wherever it is established, must have headquarters. 

 Make these headquarters the rallying point of all the 

 business interests of a community and you establish 

 at once an economic center of the community. Every 

 community has a school, perhaps several of them. 

 Simply enlarge the work and functions of the school 

 and build a schoolhouse adapted to these new func- 

 tions. The modern consolidated school building ac- 

 tually does this very thing and has just these uses. Not 



