call to heroic service, but it is irksome only
to the man who has missed the joy of complete consecration to the country
field and to the Man of Galilee.

B. A CHALLENGE TO COLLEGE WOMEN

I. Some Responsibilities Shared with Men

_A Necessary Partnership, and its Increasing Burden_

Men can never solve the rural problem without the help of women.

In the primitive days of early barbarism, it was woman that domesticated
the farm animals,--while men were away, at war and the chase,--and thus
made possible agriculture and the arts of rural life. We may well expect
educated modern womanhood to contribute its share even in the development
of scientific agriculture; but in all the social problems of the new rural
civilization the help of women is indispensable.

The rural home, school, church and grange and every other institution for
the social, educational and religious welfare of country folks depend very
greatly upon the cooperation and leadership of trained women. To a degree
this has always been true; but in several aspects this responsibility is
destined in the future to fall more heavily than ever upon women.

_Responsibility for Rural Education_

For various reasons men are rapidly retiring from the ranks of country
school teachers. In a single generation the proportion of male teachers in
American schools has diminished 50%. In the North Atlantic states 86% of
all teachers are women; while even in the western states over 80% are
women, against 55% in 1870.

It appears to be quite a safe statement, even judging by incomplete
statistics, that there are more women teachers in the United States and
Canada than in all the rest of the world combined. Whereas only 15% of the
teachers of Germany are women, and 36% in Switzerland, 47% in France and
64% in Italy, the proportion in the United States the same year (1906) is
found to be 76.4%.

While from the viewpoint of the needs of adolescent boys there may be
reasons to deplore this increase of women teachers, it is certainly
accelerating. The educational burdens of the country are falling more and
more upon women. College girls should study rural education as a real
vocation and realize the vast opportunity for unselfish social service
which is involved in it.

The college settlement in the city slum has aroused not merely a romantic
interest but the consecration of many earnest college girls. Let more of
them feel the same call to altruistic service in the