an as much to the hard-working
grower as to the broker who may never see a grain of it? May not the
grove at Turtle Lake yield as keen enjoyment as do the continental
forests? Is the ambition to own a fine farm more ignoble than the desire
to own shares in a copper mine? It really does not matter so much what
one gossips about or what one's delights are or what the carving of the
rungs on ambition's ladder; the vital question is the effect of these
things on character. Do they stunt or encourage the inner life? It must
be admitted that country people do not always accept their environing
opportunities for enjoying the higher life of mind and heart. But do
they differ in this respect from their cousins of the town?

We must remember, too, that this is a large country, and that a study of
rural conditions in a certain community, township, county, state, or
section may not give us the correct basis upon which to determine the
agricultural status of the country.

Nor must we make the mistake of confusing conservatism and decadence.
That the city will in many particulars always progress more rapidly than
the country is inevitable. But speed is not the ultimate criterion of a
full life. Again must we apply the test whether the gain is relative or
essential. Telephones, free mail delivery, electric car lines, operas,
great libraries, cathedrals--all come to the city first, some of them
solely to the city. The country cannot hope to be other than inherently
conservative as regards such institutions. But may there not be found
such adaptations of or substitutes for these institutions as shall not
only preserve the rural community from decadence, but, indeed, build it
up into strength, beauty, and purity?

Comparative lack of identical resources need not mean poverty of
attainment. Let us agree that relatively the country will lag behind the
town. Is the country continually gaining in those things that are
fundamentally important and that minister to its best life? is the
kernal question.

Perhaps the most common error in studying rural conditions is the
failure to distinguish the vital difference between the urban problem
and the rural problem. _Sociologically the city problem is that of
congestion; the rural problem is that of isolation._ The social
conditions of country and city are wholly different. Institutions that
succeed in alleviating social disorders in the town may or may not
succeed in the country--in any event th