RURAL UPLIFT ELSEWHERE 243 



by popular subscription for a model schoolhouse, 

 adapted to community use. One county in Texas has 

 issued bonds for half a million dollars to build five 

 schools equippe 1 as social centres. The United S 

 Bureau of Education becomes a clearing-house o: 

 formation on the movement, issuing bulletins ou social 

 and recreation work. It is proposed to add to the Fed 

 eral Department of Education an expert on the a< 

 ties in school buildings after school hours. The slogan 

 of the movement is : " We are going to have a new rural 

 life. The farm is not to have the life of a race of 

 mite." 



And even Congress is found investigating the prob- 

 lem, proposing remedies, and making the same demand 

 for leadership upon the church. In 1908 President 

 Roosevelt appointed a Country Life Commission to re- 

 port upon the condition of country life, the means avail- 

 able for supplying the deficiencies which exist, and the 

 best methods of organized permanent effort along tht- 

 lines of betterment of rural conditions. Th~ Commis- 

 sion point? out the need of four great forces : ' KJcow- 

 .e underlying facts must be understood " ; 

 '*' Education there must be a new kind of education 

 adapted to the real needs of the farming people " ; l ' Or- 

 ganization there must be a vast enlargement of volun- 

 tary organized effort among farmers " ; and " Spiritual 

 Forces the forces and institutions that make for mor- 

 ality and spiritual ideals among rural people must be 

 energized. We miss the heart of the problem if we 

 neglect to foster personal character and neighborhood 

 righteousness. The best way to preserve ideals for 

 private conduct and public life is to build up 

 the institutions of religion. The church has great 



