hapter is correct, then the farmer is
exceedingly dependent upon his neighbor, and the permanence of rural
populations depends upon the social unity of the farmers in the
community. The highest expression of this social unity is in the
farmer's religion. Worship thus becomes a symbol of agricultural
prosperity. The writers and the orators have then truly spoken who
symbolized the beauty of rural life in the church steeple. The farmer
himself seems to recognize, in the church spire rising above the roofs
of the hamlet, the symbol of prosperous and satisfactory life in the
country.

As the tillers of the soil come to the necessity of co-operation in the
new order of life in the country, as the old isolation passes away and
the modern farmer comes to recognize his necessary dependence upon other
farmers in the community, a common place of worship will become
necessary to the community. One church will of necessity express the
life of the community and the periodic meeting of all the people in one
house of worship will be the highest and most essential symbol of the
feeling and the thought and the aspirations of that community after
true prosperity and permanence.

The purpose of this chapter has been to present the general
characteristics of the most exceptional communities in the country.
These are Mormon, Scotch Presbyterian and Pennsylvania German. By their
very names they indicate religious organization of the community and
"birthright membership" associations. They are grouped under the one
principle, that in them the religious organization is an expression of
their social economy. Their social and economic life is under the
domination of their religion.

These farmers are organized in the interest of agriculture. The
resultant social life constitutes a most intense organization in which
voluntary and conscious combination matures in instinctive union
embodied in blood relationship, neighborliness and economic union. These
populations show the correspondence between economic and religious
austerity. Thrift takes the form of dogmatic repression and finally
their organization and their relationship express themselves in
organized efforts for the well-being of the community. They deliberately
as well as instinctively co-operate.

It is the writer's belief that these exceptional communities exhibit the
principles on which American life must be organized, if the farmer is to
be a success, if his schools are to progres