le. This subject need not be
discussed merely in the abstract. There are in every community
concrete evidences of these forces. There is the rural church. There
is the rural school. In many localities are to be found, also,
buildings, for social and fraternal purposes, as grange halls,
structures for holding fairs and picnics. These are tangible evidences
that there are rural agencies at work in the community whose chief
purpose is to increase the educational advantages, the social
opportunities and the moral aspirations of the people.
How are these existing rural forces to be made more effective? If
co-operation in financial affairs is essential under modern conditions,
it is more needed in social matters. Such co-operation does not imply
that these separate forces shall be fused into a single one. Each of
them has its particular and peculiar work to do, but each should work
in harmony and not in the spirit of antagonism with the others.
There should be formed in each locality a committee for which the
following name is proposed: The Community Committee of Rural Forces.
Emphasis should be placed upon the word "community." Like all moral
movements, progress must come from within, and not from without. The
movement must be adapted to its environment. Like the plants that grow
there, it must be indigenous to the soil.
[Illustration: Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., has a son Jared, 3d, who is the
fifth of the name that has lived upon a farm of 224 acres at Lawyerville,
N. Y. Mr. Van Wagenen graduated from Cornell University in 1891, and is a
noted farmers' institute lecturer. He has taken great interest in the
country church and the betterment of the rural community. The view shows
the pond that furnishes the power for the farm's electric light plant.
The plant was installed by Mr. Van Wagenen with his own hands and has
proved a really satisfying success.]
[Illustration: Mr. Lowell B. Gable, Glen Gable Farms, Wybrooke, Pa.,
a graduate of Cornell University, is developing 812 acres of land in
Chester county. He has a herd of 80 Guernsey cows in milk and is breeding
Percheron, registered polling horses and Chester White hogs. Mr. Gable
has been supervisor of the township for two years, during which time nine
and one-half miles of macadam road have been built without materially
increasing the taxes. Mr. Gable firmly believes that one of the best
opportunities to be of help to a rural community lies in the work to be
done for
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