Norwich bulletin., 1912-12-28
HANskA, A PROGRESSIVE RURAL COMMUNITY

regular stock of about $1S,000; does | an annual business of about $52,000; l and pays its stockholders about S7,000 i year in dividends. In addition to it's | 16S members, it has a hundred or | more regular patrons who are not | members, drawn to 1t by the fact that | 1t sells only f1rst-quality goods at fair | prices. The business of these non- | members frequently pays all the ex- | penses of the store, leaving the mem l bers their supplies at wholesale prices. |
 These Hanska farmers didn't stop | with cooperative store, however | Seventeen years ago,-two years after | the store had started, they organized | a creamery, also on cooperative lines. | This now has 165 members and more | than 200 patrons. It does business | of $70,000 a year. It Is made up of | about the same people who own and l support the store, and they find 1t | quite as important, business-wise to bunch their selling as their buying. They save money or make money both | ways,-going and coming.
 But we haven't got through with the l story of Hanskas rural activities, yet. l Its membership included only about l fifty or sixty families, but it had real progressive for pastor. He came to it, 1 also about nineteen years ago. He soon made up his mind that what the community wanted was not so much discussion of creedal dialectics as leadership in social service. He work ed out a large plan for combining re- ugion and sociability. It took him eleven years to get his first and big gest desire,-but he accomplished 1t. Now Hanska has under the wing of the church a Community Hall," which is as truly the center and capital of its social life as the church is of its re- ligious activities.
 Nobody endowed it: nobody was asked to strain his pocket-book help ing to pay for 1t. First, they raised such money as they could by socials and the like. Then lot of volunteers hauled stone and sand for the founda- tion walls. Several times hundred teams took "a day off to help. Then they got together again and finished these foundation walls. They also built sort of roof. Next they rent ed brick machine, put 1t under the extemporized roof, and made their own bricks at such odd times as home work was not pressing. As the bricks were finished, the walls went up. Two years ago 1t was completed,-a fine commodious building, with a hall ca- pablo of accommodating five hundred people or more, and fully furnished kitchen with stoves and dishes and tables, There is piano in the hall for dancing, and roomy stage for home talent dramatics. The hall cost about sl0,000, but most of this was in time and labor contributed by volunteer workers It also contains a well-se- lected library,-of good readable books, not public documents and insurance ] reports,-numbering about 2,000 vol | unaes.
 The pastor, Rev. A E. Norman takes leading part in the work of this com ' n unity center as well as that of his church. None of the regular activities of the church are neglected in any de- gree. But he finds time, also to at- tend to the library: to take part in the socials: to help play in the band,- 1, there are now two fully organized bands among the members of the ehurch's Young Peoples society. They 1 furnish all the music that is desired at festivals and the like
 If at any time the young people want to use the hall for what are known as invitation dances" or for neighbor- hood gatherings or any other proper purpose, it is rented to them for just enough to pay the cost of light, heat and cleaning.
 Now Hanska farmers are preparing to start a cooperative laundry, to save the woman-folks the hard work {; of wash days" It isn't actually go- l Ing, yet, but its promoters are confi- dent that 1t soon will be.
 Some of tho results of this combina-
 tion of progressiveness at Hanska may be summarized like this:-
 It has made and kept the farmers of the town prosperous. They are all
 comfortable and as nearly satisfied as
 human nature ever Is.
 It has knocked the sharp edges of sectarianism. Neighbors who fre-
 quently rub elbows together at the
 Community Hall can't keep the corners sharp enough to stick into folks who happen to favor different
 denominations.
 It has helped to stop the drift of
 young people to the cities. The CO.,
 operative work has shown them that
 Farming is even more profitable than anything they can reasonably expect
 Tn town: the community work has giv-
 en them a taste of 8 clean and whole
 some yet wholly satisfying social life. They have good times-really good
 times, at their gatherings: so good that
 outsiders flock to them, drawn by an
 attraction as great as that the city's
 festivities used to exert
 It has banished the saloons. There
 used tS be a few in Hanska. There
 are none, now, Nobody wants them.
 There Is somewhere better to go.
 riease don't let your racial prejudice
 or your pride in the Native American
 blood which half-a- dozen generations of New England born ancestors have given you incline you to sneer when add that Hanska is colony of Nor Wegians. Practically all the original settlers were migrants from that mar row northern kingdom. Practically all the inhabitants of the present town are their descendants of the first or sec
 ond generation. The older people still
 speak Morse; the younger people speak both languages with equal facility
 The church and Sunday school services
 alternate between English and Nor 2 wegian. Speakers at Community Hal
 talk, sometimes in one language some
 times in the other. They hold festi-
 yais including both Norwegian and
 English folk-games. They give plays
 in both tongues They discuss the rel
 alive merits of Norwegian and Ameri-
 can culture, and the possible advan. tages of combination of both.
 Now 1t hsppens that one of my fore
 bears vas among the company which
 gathered round the old oak at ''Quini.
 piak" ln i55S, to hear the Rev. Johr
 Davenport discourse of Christs temp. itation in the wilderness He was {
 signer of tho ''founeamental agree
 naent," drawn up to govern New Ha. rAl cnlnn.. I..s... AZ ssaa r...a,