persons
to a church.

As compared with the city church the country church obviously has a very
much smaller opportunity to enlarge its attendance and increase its
support and membership until some method of combining country churches
shall have been put into successful operation.

TABLE VIII

AVERAGE NUMBER OF PERSONS TO A CHURCH

Key:
1 _State of Ohio_
2 _1,170 strictly rural townships_
3 _173 suburban townships_
4 _Large towns and cities_

1 2 3 4
Population 4,767,121 1,693,894 342,077 2,731,150
No. of churches 9,890 6,060 582 3,248
No. of persons to a church 482 280 587 841

Complete data for ministers' salaries are not available, but the amount of
the minister's pay is indicated by the figures in the official records of
the two denominations which have the largest number of rural churches.
There were in 1917, 688 pastors of rural churches of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. (See Table IX.) These received, on an average, $993 per
year, or $857 and free use of parsonage. Six hundred and sixty-two
ministers, or 96 per cent, received less than $1,500 per year; 513, or 75
per cent, received less than $1,200 per year; while 303, or 44 per cent,
received less than $1,000.

In the United Brethren Church, according to the records of its
Conferences, in 1917 there were 188 pastors of rural churches. (See Table
X.) Their average salary was $787, or $680 and free use of parsonage; not
one received as much as $1,500 salary; 171, or all but 17, received less
than $1,200; while 135, or 72 per cent, received less than $1,000.

Not only are ministers given inadequate pay, but the rate of its increase
in relation to the increase in the cost of living gives no promise of its
becoming adequate.

In the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church the average
salary of the country minister in 1905 was $733, including the estimated
rental value of parsonage, while in 1915 it was $915, making an increase
of $182, or 25 per cent, in ten years. During the same period, however,
according to data supplied by the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the retail prices of food consumed by the ordinary
workingman's family in the nation increased no less than 37 per cent.

It is probable, on the other hand, that the farmers have a constantly
increasing ability to pay, for in