d them in the roomy fields of rural life and leadership.

CHAPTER I

THE RURAL PROBLEM

CHAPTER I

THE RURAL PROBLEM

I. _The Problem Stated and Defined_

Definition and analysis.
A classification of urban and rural communities.

II. _City and Country_

How the growing city developed the problem.
The surprising growth of rural America.
A false and misleading comparison.

III. _Rural Depletion and Rural Degeneracy_

The present extent of rural depletion.
Losses in country towns.
The need of qualitative analysis of the census.
The question of degeneracy in city and country.
Stages and symptoms of rural decadence.
The Nam's Hollow case.
A note of warning.

IV. _The Urgency of the Problem_

A hunt for fundamental causes.
The unfortunate urbanizing of rural life.
Why country boys and girls leave the farm.
The folly of exploiting the country boy.
The city's dependence on the country.

V. _A Challenge to Faith_

The Challenge of the Country

CHAPTER I

THE RURAL PROBLEM

ITS DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT URGENCY

I. The Problem Stated and Defined.

Early in the year 1912, some five hundred leading business and
professional men of the cities of New York state met at a banquet, under
the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association. During the evening
it was discovered that nine-tenths of these influential city leaders had
come from country homes. They were born on farms in the open country or in
rural villages of 2,500 population or less.

Facts like these no longer surprise intelligent people. They are common to
most cities, at least on our American continent; and herein is the crux of
the rural problem. At great sacrifice for a century the country has been
making the city. Doubtless thousands of incompetent citizens have been
forced off the farms by the development of farm machinery; and the country
was little poorer for their loss. But in surrendering to the city
countless farm boys of character and promise who have since become the
city's leaders, many a rural village has suffered irreparably. To be sure
this seems to be one of the village's main functions, to furnish leaders
for the city; and it has usually been proud of its opportunity. It is the
_wholesale_ character of this generous community sacrifice which has
developed trouble