rofessional fellowship by
encouraging harmony and enthusiasm. And as a whole the value of these
papers, aside from their socializing influence, is increasing as they
are more and more influenced by scientific investigation.

Secret societies and benevolent orders have a large following among
rural and village people. They are popular because they perform a very
valuable social service. No institution carries on its social function
with greater success, and for this reason it is rather strange that
rural sociology has not studied these organizations more seriously.
Because they afford fellowship, recreation, and comradeship, their
appeal is very great indeed to those who feel the hardships of physical
isolation. These societies do not limit their usefulness to community
welfare in a narrow sense, for they tie their following to similar
organizations in other localities and make possible an exchange of
interests that socializes in a marked degree. It is true that each
serves a limited number of people in the community, but the cleavage is
along natural lines and does not provoke feuds or neighborhood
hostility.

The one great danger that they create in some small places is the fact
that there are so many of them that they capture nearly every evening of
the week and make it difficult for any community-wide enterprise to
obtain a free evening to bring all the people together. It is also true
that some of them fail to take a serious interest in the community
welfare, being content merely to enjoy the fellowship that they make
possible.

This latter criticism cannot be justly made respecting the rural society
strongest in the eastern section of the country--the Patrons of
Husbandry. This society, popularly known as the Grange, affords contact
with outside organizations, but it also takes a very practical and sane
interest in its own community. No movement has done more to conserve the
best of country life; no organization has in the country maintained so
sincere a democracy. Unlike most secret societies, it has made a family
appeal and has interested husband, wife, and children. It has taken a
constructive attitude toward legislation of importance to farmers, and
rural life has certainly become greatly indebted to its efficient
socializing efforts.

The enterprise most successfully socializing country life is the
business of farming itself. The farmer, who once maintained so large a
degree of economic independence, has