1920.] Social Service in Rural Areas. 



145 



SOCIAL SERVICE IN RURAL AREAS.* 



Sir Henry Rew, K.C.B. 



It is not necessary to dilate upon the urgent importance of 

 the developement of social activities in the country districts. 

 The dullness of village life has long been recognised as one of 

 the main reasons for the migration of the sons of the soil to scenes 

 of fuller activity, but efforts to alleviate it have been spasmodic 

 and sporadic. The time has come when the human needs of 

 the countryside have become insistent, and the future of 

 agriculture is seen to involve a sociological, as well as an 

 economic, problem. 



In one respect efforts to stimulate social activities in rural 

 life start with an advantage. In many, it may perhaps be said 

 in all, country villages there is a tradition of social service which 

 only needs to be re-invigorated and adapted to the new condi- 

 tions. It is easy to sneer at the Lady Bountiful conception of 

 human relationship, but criticism of it should be directed rather 

 to the social system under which it existed, than to those who 

 honestly tried to fulfil the responsibiHties which fell upon them, 

 and to do their duty conscientiously in that state of life to which 

 they had been born. This spirit of social responsibility, which 

 was the appandage .of the inheritors of the patriarchal scheme 

 of village life, must be widened and cultivated, so that all 

 members of the community shall feel that their duty to their 

 neighbour is a mutual obligation. 



But if the countryside has a tradition of social service which 

 may be counted for righteousness, it derives from its past other 

 quaUties which increase the difficulties confronting all attempts 

 to revive the communal spirit. The psychology of the country- 

 man is baffling, even to those who have spent their lives in the 

 country. The recent improvement in the economic status of 

 the farm worker, and stiU more the self-confidence which 

 organisation awakens, have presented him in a new aspect to 

 many who thought themselves well acquainted with him. The 

 young men who return to the villages from the army have to 

 a large extent abandoned the mask which has so long hidden 

 the working of the rural mind. They have not only found 

 expression, but they have thrown off timidity. Their fathers 

 were inarticulate and timid by habit and instinct. Their real 



• Read before the Conference of the National Council of Social Service in 

 the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, on Thursday, 8th April, 1920. 



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