atisfactory home life, then community
development should be considered primarily from the standpoint of its
effect on the farm home, for the social strength of the country will be
more largely determined by its homes than by its other social
institutions. We should endeavor, therefore, to build up that type of
community life which makes for better homes and stronger families. While
seeking to afford superior advantages to individuals, all effort toward
community improvement should recognize that the strength of the
community is in its home life.

The need of this point of view with regard to rural community
organization has been very forcibly indicated by Mr. John R. Boardman,
one of our keenest observers and interpreters of country life in his
"Community Leadership." He says:

"At the heart of the rural situation is the rural family.
The social problems involved in home life in the rural
village and on the farm are of two kinds,--developmental and
protective. The social unit in the city is the individual.
Urban conditions have rapidly disintegrated the family as a
social unit. Grave dangers have resulted from this
interference with the unity of domestic life. The rural
family is in danger of meeting the same fate. It is now the
social unit in the rural social structure. Every effort must
be put forth to make this situation permanent. The major
problem is one of home conservation. Protection of the rural
family against social exploitation will demand increasing
attention. The development of social organization along
lines which interfere with the unity and solidarity of rural
family life must be approached with extreme caution and
tolerated only as they may be absolutely necessary. So far
as possible social organization must be built around the
rural family and give it every possible opportunity to act
as a family in the scheme of organization and activity. The
home as a social center must receive increased attention.
There is great danger, in the new interest which is being
aroused in rural social life, that the matter of social
organization be greatly overdone. The rural family will be
the one to suffer first and most severely as a result of
this craze for social organization."

In support of this point of view it is interesting to note that the
strongest rural inst