s, his churches to be
maintained, and if the country community is to be a good place to live
in. None of these populations can be imitated. It would be impossible
for a community to take over their modes any more than it could imbibe
their motives. The study of them throws light upon the problem of
country life in America. Above all things it illustrates the especial
union of the country church with the social economy of the farmer and
his household. It shows that the life of country people is co-operative,
that it is undermined by division and disunion and that in the open
country where man is least seen his society is most evident. The
dependence of each man upon his neighbor is increased in modern times by
the thinning out of the rural population and the increased economic
burden laid upon the farmer.

Finally, the exceptional populations present an exceptional victory over
economic and natural forces. They abolish poverty within their own
bounds. Every one of the communities just described turns the power of
its common organization upon the problem of maintaining the lower margin
of the community. They who are in danger of falling behind are sustained
and carried on. None in these communities is permitted to fall into
pauperism. The workingman without capital, whether he be in their
meetings or only employed on their farms, is kept from want. The widow
with her little house and one cow is insured against the loss of any
feature of her small property. This seems to me to be the greatest
triumph of these communities. It is the test, I am convinced, of their
organizations and of their success. In this they demonstrate one of the
greatest possibilities of country life. They show that in the open
country it is possible for men to live without the suffering and
degradation of poverty.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 17: History of American Presbyterianism, by R. E. Thompson.]

[Footnote 18: An exception to this statement must be noted, in the
Scotch settlements in Canada and Nova Scotia.]

[Footnote 19: Professor John L. Gillin, in American Journal of
Sociology, March, 1911.]

[Footnote 20: Quaker Hill, by Warren H. Wilson.]

VI

GETTING A LIVING

The core of a community must be economic. The main business of life is
to get a living.[21] The reason for existence of any community is found
in the living which it supplies its residents. Men are attracted to a
community by the increases in their living furnished by