y constructive work in the country must be done by the
educator. It is well for the church to recognize its limits, and to
magnify its own function within them. Vision and inspiration are the
duty of religious leaders. The application of these in a variety of ways
to the generations of young people in the country is an educational task
which the church can do only in part.

But the great necessity of arousing the church at the present time to
its duty as a builder of communities in the country is this. In all
parts of the United States country life is furnished with churches.
Perhaps not in sufficient degree in some localities, but in general the
task of religious organization is done. These religious societies hold
the key to the problem of country life. If they oppose modern socialized
ideals in the country, these ideals cannot penetrate the country. If the
church undertake constructive social service in the country, the task
will be done. The church can oppose effectively; it can support
efficiently. This situation lays a vast responsibility upon all
Christian churches, especially upon those that have an educated
ministry; for the future development of the country community as a good
place in which to live depends upon the country church.

This is not the place to discuss whether a population can be improved
and whether a community can be saved. The pages that are to follow will
discuss these questions. It is the writer's belief that a population can
be improved by social service, that the community is the unit in which
such service should be rendered in the country, and that by the vision
and inspiration of the church in the country, this service is
conditioned. He believes with those who are leading in the service among
the poor in the great cities that the time has come when we have
sufficient intelligence to understand the life of country people, in
order to deal with the causes of human action; we have sufficient
resources wherewith to endow the needed agencies for the reconstruction
of country life; and we have a sufficient devotion among men of
intelligence and of means to direct this constructive social service
toward the entire well-being of country people and of the whole
commonwealth.

The writer is indebted for help in the preparation of this book to Miss
Florence M. Lane, Miss Martha Wilson and to Miss Anna B. Taft, without
whose assistance and criticism the chapters could not have been prepared
and w