so that she may use her influence toward making their
social environment what it should be and so that she may be able to make
the home so attractive that it will hold their primary interest and
loyalty. Thus community problems of health, of education, of recreation
and social life, and of religion become inter-related with those of the
home. The successful homemaker can no longer concern herself solely with
home-management, but must assume her share of responsibility in
community-management, or "community housekeeping."

With the new responsibilities of suffrage rural women are following the
example of their city sisters in taking a larger interest in civic
affairs and social legislation, and with a most wholesome influence on
community life. There is, however, some danger that while the men are
engaged with their business problems, these social problems will be too
largely left to the women;[7] for without the sympathetic understanding
and hearty cooperation of their husbands, rural women will find that
their new social ideals will materialize but slowly. Here again, such
family organizations as the Grange, the Church, and Farm and Home
Bureau, in which community activities engage both men and women are
peculiarly serviceable.

An interesting example of how the family may function in community life
is found in a small town in southern Michigan (Centerville) where the
people have established a cooperative motion picture theater, to which
the families buy season tickets, and where one may find whole families
together enjoying the best pictures to the accompaniment of a community
orchestra. This is also being accomplished in many community buildings.

On the other hand the home need not abdicate all of its old-time
functions as a social center. A few years ago in attending a rural
community conference at the University of Illinois I was interested to
hear a farm woman, a graduate of that university, tell how she and her
neighbors had held amateur dramatic entertainments on their front
verandas during the summer. The young people took the parts and the
audience sat on the lawn, and thus many families were brought under the
influence of the better homes who would not have thought of visiting
them. When winter came on, these entertainments were continued in a
slightly different manner, so that neighboring families were brought
into contact without any tendency toward undue intimacy between families
which would not associa