128 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



join the league on payment of the dues. The 

 minimum dues are one cent a month for each 

 pupil, for other members not less than ten cents 

 a term. But these dues may be made larger by 

 vote of the league. Each town league sends a 

 delegate to the meeting of the state league. 

 Each league has the usual number of officers 

 elected for one term. These leagues were first 

 organized in 1898 and they have already accom- 

 plished much. They have induced school com- 

 mittees to name various rural schools for distin- 

 guished American citizens, as Washington, Lin- 

 coln, and so forth. They give exhibitions and 

 entertainments for the purpose of raising funds. 

 Sometimes they use these funds to buy books for 

 the schoolroom. The books are then loaned to 

 the members of the league; at the end of the 

 term this set of books is exchanged for another 

 set of books from another school in the same 

 township. In this way, at a slight expense, 

 each school may have the use of a large number 

 of books every year. The same thing is done 

 with pictures and works of art, these being 

 purchased and exchanged in the same way. 

 Through the efforts of the league schoolhouses 

 have been improved, inside and out, and the 

 school grounds improved. It is not so much the 



