Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1920-04-15
GOVERNMENT IS AFTER
CHURCH SURVEY MAPS
Graphs Will Be First Com
prehensive Community
Survey Ever Made

+. Convinced that the surveys of the
/ America are of such accuracy as to
! constitute a definite scientific contri
/ button to present day information on
! the country church, the United States
/ government, through Charles Josiah
! Galpin of the office of farm manage
/ ment Of the department Of Agriculture
has contracted to buy copy of the
survey map Of each of the 2,9GS coun.
ties to be surveyed by the town and
country division Of the Interchurch
/ Movement.
This county map is a concrete ex-
preston In graphics of the first thor
ough-going and wholly comprehensive
church and community survey ever at
tempted in this country
Each graph, when completed, shows
the location of every church, the resi-
dence of the ministers, the circuits on
which they travel in reaching their
charges, the parish lines of every
church and the community boundaries.
BY the graph, areas Of UNCONVENTIONAL
competition are discovered as well as
the areas which are untouched by any
religious ministration.
The survey to date has revealed the
fact that the average country church
is in no sense reaching the community
and is ministering only to percentage
of certain creed or sect, and also
that there are very few buildings in
which provision has been made for the
social and recreational needs of the
young people. The survey has disclos-
ed that more than one-half Of the rural
pastors are receiving less than a liy-
ing wage.
The plan of presenting church condi-
tions on county map began with the
establishment of the country life COM
mission by President Roosevelt 1t
was developed by Clifford Pinchot and
the Rev. c. o. Gill, Congregational
clergyman Of New England, who in
tensified the idea of obtaining specific
information on the churches In a COM
munity. DR.. Warren n. Wilson known
as the dean of specialists on the rural
church in America, and the Rev. H.
n. Morse, both of the rural life work
department of the Presbyterian beard
of home missions, together with DR..
Edmund de s. Drummer, head Of the
lONH anu COuulTs survey department
of the Interchurch World Movement,
brought the graphs to their present
perfection in presentation of communi-
ty matters. This graph is a vivid pic
ture, ineligible on first glance to the
lay mind, of how the church is or is
not reaching a community.
The maps ordered by Mr.. Galpin are
made in the field by an Interchurch
surveyor, checked up In the national
office and traced by expert craftsmen.
To date surveys on 1S2 counties have
been completed and more than $50 fin
ished maps are available. In more than
2 900 of the 2,96S counties the survey
is actually under way.
Mr.. Galpin, who decided that the
should have the maps, was
formerly a professor in the Wisconsin
State School of Agriculture and is the
author of many books and pamphlets,
and n pioneer in the study of farm
life and farm communities. He was
attracted by the maps in
that the manner of dividing up a coun-
ty into normal communities instead
Of townships or other arbitrary and
fixed lines shaped into the kind of
work he is doing for the government.
Aside from their use by the govern
ment, the rural maps will be distrib
uted among pastors all over the Unit
ed States in the areas concerned as
the basis of programs to reconstruct
the rural church in America.