g to the records of the Conferences held in the
fall of 1917 the majority of the ministers (58 per cent) of the largest
denomination received less than $1,100 each, three-fourths (74.6 per cent)
less than $1,200, while the average amount was $857 and free use of
parsonage. In the denomination with the second largest number of country
churches the average salary was only $787, or $680 and free use of
parsonage.

Over considerable areas a large proportion of the ministers are
uneducated. Often they are illiterate and entirely unfitted to render
service acceptable to the more intelligent part of their people. In most
of the State, the standard of education for ministers is low. It is in
part due to the failure of an insufficiently educated ministry to
stimulate the intellectual life of the people, that from 1,500,000 to
2,000,000 people in the State have no public libraries.

Unless a larger and stronger social and religious institution is created
in the country districts than is now found in the country church, the more
vigorous young people will for the most part leave the country, and an
inferior class will take their places on the farm. A process of reverse
selection will therefore set in which must result in the general
debasement of our rural population and ultimately of our nation as a
whole. As is well known, this process of decadence is already taking place
over very large areas in rural America.

CHAPTER IV

WHERE CHURCH EFFICIENCY IS LOWEST

The facts summarized in the previous chapter show that in rural Ohio the
church as a whole is not adequately performing its great and difficult
task. It is equally evident that no institution could hope for a high
degree of success unless more progressive in method and administration.
Furthermore, unless the urban officials or directors in charge of rural
churches come to appreciate the fundamental importance of the country
church problem, address themselves more seriously to the task in hand, and
make really effective use of improved organization and available human and
material resources, the country church will continue to decline. While
there are very many successful churches, and many rural communities
socially, morally, and economically prosperous, failures occur in equally
large numbers.

A most striking illustration of the churches' inefficiency may be found in
southern and southeastern Ohio. Here, in a region covering at least
eighteen counties, the f