^5<) vSociAL Service in Rural Areas. [may. 



unmixed blessing, and, personally, I should prefer that funds 

 should be available to supplement local effort rather than to 

 supplant it. Is it too much to hope that some person or persons 

 of wealth will see an opportunity of promoting in the most 

 direct way the happiness and contentment of our villages, and 

 thereby winning immortal fame, by providing a fund from 

 which grants could be made to enable those who are doing their 

 utmost to help themselves, to complete their work before they 

 abandon it in despair ? 



The recent estabhshment of a Rural Department of the 

 Council of Social Service testifies to the general recognition 

 of the importance and urgency of the rural problem. The 

 initial need for some co-ordinating body is great. I have 

 spoken of efforts already being made, and it is quite true that 

 more is being done throughout the country than is generally 

 known. Those who are doing it are not given to advertisement, 

 and in these days much of the best work is the least advertised. 

 Even those who are well-informed with regard to social work 

 in the towns are often ill-informed as to activities in rural 

 districts. In a book just published, which gives a very useful 

 introduction to the whole subject of social service, only two or 

 three pages are devoted to work in the villages, and no indication 

 is given of the attempts which are being made to grapple with 

 it. We are hoping to modify that kind of attitude. The Rural 

 Department is intended to ensure that the rural side of the 

 problem secures at least its proportionate share of attention. 

 We are well aware that this is predominantly an industrial 

 country, and that the inhabitants of rural districts in England 

 and Wales, according to the last census, represent little more 

 than one-fifth of the total population. We recognise that the 

 complexity of town life presents special difficulties to the social 

 worker. But we claim that the maintenance in comfort and 

 contentment of the rural population has an importance to the 

 State which cannot be measured by arithmetic, and that the 

 comparative simplicity of country life is in itself an impediment 

 to social organisation. 



I make no attempt to formulate a definite programme. We 

 stand in the first instance for the principle of co-ordination of 

 all efforts for the betterment of rural conditions. We seek the 

 co-operation of all persons of good- will who are aiming in diverse 

 ways to assist and develop social acitivities in the villages. 

 Co-ordination and co-operation do not imply centralisation. 

 The only centralisation we want is a centralisation of ideas, 

 and the only combination we want is a combination for mutual 



