represented among the country people. Out of 419 farmers about whom 

 inquiries were made, only 99, or 23.6 per cent., belonged to any lodge, and 

 the majority of these belonged to one of the orders of Woodmen. The 

 conclusion would be, therefore, that while the lodge plays an important 

 part in the social life of some of the farmers, it does not vitally affect the 

 great mass of them. The Farmers' Union, which has already been 

 mentioned, is a social as well as a business organization, and is really 

 much more influential than the lodges among the country people. 

 Unfortunately, however, it is on the decline. 



Of open organizations or clubs there are a few in the towns but none 

 in the country. 



The social life of the negroes is, of course, absolutely distinct from that 

 of the whites. They are by nature a sociable people. They like to live 

 together and work together. Their drift toward the town is largely due 

 to the tendency to congregate. Their social life centers around the lodge 

 and the church. Even in the open country you often find their lodge 

 hall side by side with the church, and in the towns they have many 

 different lodges. These lodge halls are the scenes of many dances and 

 receptions. The church is really no less important as a social center than 

 the lodge and on meeting days they drive 8 or 10 miles to attend service. 



SCHOOLS 



Gibson County has adopted the new County Board system of school 

 management, and is, therefore, among the more progressive of the 

 Tennessee counties. According to this system the county and not the 

 district surrounding each school is the unit. The control of all the 

 country schools is vested in a board of five men, who, with the county 

 superintendent, determine the various schools districts, apportion the 

 school funds and fix the teachers' salaries. These are determined accord- 

 ing to the enrollment. The plan works well, although there is opposition 

 to it in certain quarters. It is said that it takes away the old sense of 

 responsibility on the part of the people and is less economical. The 

 people will not board the teachers at special rates and will not provide 

 wood and make repairs as they did under the old system. In two cases 

 where the county board refused to authorize the erection of schools which 

 were clearly unnecessary, the opposition went so far as to build a school 

 house independently. In one case a little hamlet of 160 people took out 

 a city charter in order to establish a new school of its own. 



There are in all 135 schools in the county, 97 white and 38 colored. 

 Of these, 11 white schools and 6 colored schools are in the towns. The 

 rest are country schools. Map No. 5 shows the distribution of schools. 



An important feature of the school system is the division of the 

 country schools into "primary" and "secondary." Forty-eight are 



28 



