The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-02-05
Association Building Is Very
First Place They Go.
Successful Rural Worker Is
Now Y. w. c. A. Secretary.
INFLUENCE FELT OVER U. S.
Scope of Association Covers
Entire Life of Girl.
Miss Helen Ballard Writes Ar
ticle for The State Journal.

The country girl from many places
does not feel stranded when she goes
to the city because through the county
work of the Y. w. c. A. she has
learned that she can find the same
organization in the city and she turns
to it for direction in the new life she
is entering. In Kansas there is only
one full county organization at the
present time-Montgome county
but for years in many of the county
high schools the association have
been organized and is real force
among country girls in fact the whole
community.
The Topeka Y. w. c. \. has done
much to help the country girl adjust
herself to the city but it's largest SER
vice to the country girl has been in
making her have a real good time in
the country.
Yes the country is a fine place to
live-when the works DONE said
country girl when city friend eX-
claimed about the joys of the coun-
try The point that the girl made is
that the work is almost never done,
and when it is done there is nothing
interesting to take its place. In some
sections that statement holds true to-
day, but it is fast giving place to the
ideals of the new country life move
ment, which is sweeping from east to
west and from north to south as fast
as enthusiastic, resourceful, and i'm
aginative country lovers, both women
and men, can make it.
These men and women, the ma
jority of them born in the. country,
realize that the great problem in rural
life today is to make the country, even
remote sections of it, a more useful.
happier place in which to live, that it
is the longing for interesting activities
and wholesome recreation that drives
our young men and women to cities.
Several years ago a country teacher
in Page county. Iowa, stirred the
whole community by new methods
which she introduced in her school by
adapting the subjects taught to coun-
try conditions, and by taking an active
interest in the farmers problems OF
that section. Country school garden
ing. corn testing, applying arithmetic
problems to the everyday problems OF
the farmer were unheard OF. The
farmers and farmers wives began to
want to get acquainted with the teach
er who was giving their boys and girls
a greater interest in their own homes
That country teacher was Miss Jes-
sic Field of Clarinda, Page county
Iowa, a bred in -the-bone country girl
who. because of her love for rural life
went from college into n country
school instead of accepting a position
offered her in a city school. Later
when she went to Helena. Montana, to
be principal of schools, the country
folk of Page county realized their loss
and called her back to be county su-
perintendent. What an opening this
was. Here was whole county as her
opportunity instead of one small
country school. and she had not real
~ like the work in a mining city far
removed from the fertile plains OF
Iowa. With a joyous heart she went
back to introduce her ideals for coun-
try life into the schools of the whole
county. So effectively did she do il
that her work became known through
out the country and attracted the at
tcntion of the educational departm ent
of the United States government dur
ing the Roosevelt administration
That was where the national board
of the Young Womens Christian
associations found Miss Field, but il
was three years before she would
consent to leave her beloved boys and
girls of Page county and undertake
the direction OF the small town an6
country work for the national organi-
zation of the Young Womens Chris
tian associations. Miss Field has beer
in her present work three years ano
during that time the work has grown
from the merest beginning to an or
ganization of Is county associations
made up of Sc branches in II states
with u membership of APO. Miss