The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-03-27

the one building that houses all three.
One Of our traditions has been the
hard-headed tiller of the soil, listening
at the Saturday evening assembly to
the reading Of a newspaper, and then
engaged in homely but ptthy discus
sion of the questions that were puz-
cling the wise men at WASHINGTON.
The facts seem to be otherwise. The
social mind of our rural communities,
according to DR.. Warren I'll. Wilson,
Presbyterian superintendent OF church
and country life. is saturated at such
times, not with political wisdom, but
with economic commonplace. The
church does little more for the social
instinct. Being far too numerous for
the population they serve, the churches
become the vehicle of expressing
grudges, resentments, narrow and
mean social feelings" The old-fash-
Toned rural home has disappeared, and
consolidation and Capitalization of
country schools has only begun.
The way to better things is a double
one. In the first place, there is the
conscious effort that is being made to
supply the social activity that is want
ing. With what would seem to a
stranger the height of humor, the
metropolitan center Of the hemisphere
is the headquarters Of an organization
that proposes to train our rural inhab-
itants in the art of recreation and
amusement. Parents shall be in
structed in the telling OF stories, clubs
shall be organized for the boys and
girls, there shall be lectures and en-
tertainment courses, reading circles,
public Libraries, choral unions, more
intelligent church and school socials,
itinerant social and literary meetings,
systematic teaching of plays and
games, modern forms of camping, en-
"couragement Of tramping and house
boat parties, and a great many more
delightful doings. Ones head reels at
the elaborateness of the programme.
Carried out in its entirety, it would
inevitably defeat it's purpose by driv-
ing the exhausted merry-makers from
the country to the cities, for the sake
of rest n quiet. But probably it will
not be carried so far. Programmes sell
dom are. The inertia Of the rural
subjects of the experiment will furnish
a sufficient counterpoise to the emhu-
siasm Of the experimenters. Tried
tactfully, as 10 doubt it will be tried,
1t must awaken many a community to
the realization that there is a better
means Of escape from the grind of toll
than ''recreations" that leave the body
little better off, and the mind decided
ly worse off.
The larger hope, however, would APP
pear to lie in less self Unconscious, less
external, less specific methods of So
rto1 co1uoffNn rTSynt1oV nva1 ~ Ne
most important of these at the moment
is the chautauqua. Here people sit
together without petty distinction of
creed or party, listening to vigorous
utterance and challenge of opinion,
and finding their way into new intel
lectual realms. The keen interest in
it makes this a peculiarly intensive
form of instruction and appeal, and its
effects are correspondingly lasting,
The extent of the movement in rural
regions may be judged from the state
ment that in Nebraska, with its sixty
towns of a population of more than
] 900 each, there are fifty-five chautau-
quas; in Iowa, there are nearly 200;
and in Kansas and Missouri, fifty each.
The brevity of the time during which
the sessions are held, the average be-
ing only ten days, renders them 4
means of suggestion and inspiration
than a social institution. But
in this circumstance is their value.
Instead of supplying the farmer and
his household with ready-made
schemes Of social recreation, they
quicken his intellectual processes,
give him to see beyond the boundaries
of his farm, and, best of all, make it
harder for him to enjoy the thin and
vapid amusements Of the n~eighboring
With such a hint he can be
to develop a natural social life
of his own, without peril to the indi-
vidualism which no one wants him to
lose. .....