t few in state
legislatures as compared with other classes; it has no governors nor
judges. In fact, this class is almost without leadership in the sphere
of political life and must depend on representatives of other classes to
secure justice. Economically it is relatively powerless likewise,
possessing practically no control over markets and prices through
organization in an age when organization dominates all economic lines,
accepting interest rates and freight rates offered it without the
ability to check or regulate them, and buying its goods at whatever
prices the industrial producers set. Its leadership up to the present
time has been of the sporadic and discontinuous sort. It has been
individualistic, lacking social outlook and vision. Consequently for
community purposes its significance has been slight."[34]

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 34: Prof. John M. Gillette, in American Journal of Sociology,
March, 1910.]

XIII

RECREATION

The time has passed in which the amusements of the community can be
neglected or dismissed with mere condemnation. In the husbandry of the
country every factor must be counted. We are dealing no longer with a
fatalistic country life, but with the economy of all resources.
Therefore the neglecting of the play life and ignoring the leisure
occupations of a country people are inconsistent with the new economy.

Moreover the ancient method of condemning all recreations passed away
with the austere economy of earlier days. The churches in the country no
longer discipline their members for "going to frolics." The country
community no longer is of one mind as to the standard by which
recreation shall be governed. Yet every event of this sort is closely
inspected by the general attention.

The experience of the cities, in which social control has gone much
farther than in the country under the deliberate harmonizing of life
with economic principles, has much to contribute for the building up of
rural society through various means, among which is recreation.

The need of recreative activities in the country is shown by recent
surveys undertaken in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and
Kentucky by the Presbyterian Department of Church and Country Life.
Generally, throughout the farming population, it was discovered that no
common occasions and no common experiences fell to the lot of the
country community. In the course of the round year there is, in
thousands of farming commu