is commonly known as charity. What social
work has been done in rural communities has been introduced by city
organizations and has usually been fostered by organizations of as few
of the more progressive people at the county seats and the larger towns
or small cities which have worked out into the rural communities from
these centers. Though the purposes and work of these organizations are
excellent, they will never be able to effectively meet the needs of
rural communities until their people appreciate the need for such work
and actively support it.

Much of this sort of work is regarded by rural people as "uplift" and
without local interest and support has little permanent value. The
average rural community has little use for charity in the ordinary sense
of the word. If relief is needed within its borders, it will provide,
but it fails to appreciate that more than relief is needed to prevent
the recurrence of dependency, and that punishment will not correct or
prevent delinquency. The fact is that at present country people have not
seen the social situation in their own communities and so are not
concerned with it. Most of them are of the opinion that the less
government the better, and have not come to realize that an increasingly
complex society--even in the rural community--makes it no longer
possible for the farm family to live to itself, but that for
self-preservation it must look to the social welfare of the whole
community with which its life is bound up.

The need, therefore, is for the education of rural people with regard to
their social responsibilities, which must be largely accomplished
through existing local rural organizations and local leadership. Any
system of rural social work which is to be permanently successful must
be one which is established by the people themselves from a realization
of their needs, and progressively developed as they appreciate its
worth. As Dean A. R. Mann recently said, "In dealing with rural affairs
it has long been a common mistake to underrate the validity of the
farmer's own judgment as to what is good for him." "Superimposed
organizations are usually doomed to failure because they express the
judgments of those without the community rather than those within whom
they are intended to serve." "Ordinarily the most serviceable rural
organizations will be built out of the materials of the community."[74]
It is for this reason that the advance of rural social work will de