598 



RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



young people before they deserve to get them to invest their 

 lives in rural service. 



I believe, then, that the first step in developing rural leader- 

 ship is not the training of the individual, but the training of the 

 rural community. Rural villages must be given higher ideals 

 of leadership and of community spirit before they will appreciate 

 and support the leadership they need. In every state of my 

 acquaintance the agricultural college is rising magnificently to 

 its opportunity in this regard, and to such colleges I believe we 

 must look primarily for help. They are probably growing more 

 rapidly than any other institution in America. They are not. 

 only struggling to keep pace with the demands made upon them 

 for technically trained rural leaders, but through their varied 

 extension service and their short courses in the winter they are 

 also making great gains in spreading the gospel of the better 

 country life with higher community ideals. 



In very many places this leaven is unquestionably working, 

 lifting rural life to higher levels. Every rural home which 

 catches the new vision becomes a center of social influence mak- 

 ing for better days. Every farm conducted on modern lines of 

 scientific agriculture is a demonstration center of great value. 

 To raise the economic level of farm life in the neighborhood is 

 a real gain in itself; but the by-products of such a demonstra- 

 tion are also noteworthy, such as the discovery by the less pro- 

 gressive that there is really a scientific basis underlying farm- 

 ing; that the cost and effort of education are justified by the 

 results; that the expert really knows, and that trained leader- 

 ship is worth while; in short, that the modern standards of 

 efficiency apply to rural as well as urban life. All this is giving 

 a new dignity to rural life. Farmers are rightly becoming more 

 class-conscious, and farm boys are finding a new interest and 

 a real pride in progressive farming, as they discover the infinite 

 opportunity for technical skill involved in it, making it not a 

 mere matter of blind drudgery and a gamble with the weather, 

 as they had supposed. 



By the same method of demonstration (the only method which 

 really convinces country people) community social standards can 

 also be raised, as communities come to know what lias actually 

 been accomplished in other communities that are more progres- 



