ment.

the federation cities. [Due to the insufficiency of the data, we must conclude that] whether the federation plan in any city means a net social advance or the reverse is yet to be demonstrated. No A warning. demonstration, moreover, can be made in the next two or three

years. The more far-reaching effects can hardly show themselves in that time. It must be recalled also that the forming of a federation means an immense amount of work, which is wasted unless the federation accomplishes more than the constituent associations could do. Unless this result is very probable, federation should not be undertaken. ...

We recognize that many of the federation difficulties ... are due Mistakes of to mistakes of management. The secretary of one of the large fed- manageerations states that “no important movement has suffered more from hasty organization, inadequate preparation, and amateurish leadership than the federation movement.”

It should be remembered that to a considerable extent when an Federation organization enters a federation it burns its bridges behind it. The often an

irrevocable secretary of one of the large federations writes: “Obviously, after step. a few years of giving which is almost altogether undesignated giving it will be very difficult to restore designations or even to restore the old unfederated order.” A few months ago Mr. Williams stated that “the biggest obstacle The great

est obstacle to the success of the federation plan is that its logic is too good

to federait looks too easy.” This is very true. It partly explains the great tion. mortality among federations. Five out of twenty have been abandoned and one other has suspended operations. The abolition of competition in the financing of social organizations, for the sake of avoiding its waste, is as attractive a proposition in theory and apparently as logical as the abolition of competition in business. . . . But in the social field ... there are spiritual and psychological factors Conclusion. which leave doubts as to the ultimate advantage to be derived from giving up a plan of work which has behind it the experience of more than one generation of social workers, in order to adopt one which, according to many who are in a position to know, is still in its experimental stage.

Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. What is the relation of dependency to urban life? 2. What is the most obvious effect of the mobility of the urban

population? 3. What are the social causes of intercommunity migration? 4. What is a chief cause of the migratory tendency among wage

earners? 5. How may the causes of dependency be classified? 6. Why is it necessary to analyze cases of dependency in a careful

and detailed way? 7. Outline the history of the family which became dependent because

of removal from New York to Detroit under unfavorable circum

stances. 8. Explain the case of the family which became dependent because

of removal to an environment in which the chief wage-earner

was not qualified to support the family. 9. What is the relation of friendly visiting to organized charity work? 10. Give an example of how a friendly visitor instructed a family

in the fundamentals of a proper diet and the care of money. 11. Give some further examples of the constructive work of the friendly

visitor representing the Associated Charities of Boston. 12. What are two general types of charitable relief? 13. What three classes of things does Mr. Bardwell believe an inmate

has a right to expect of the almshouse? 14. Describe an ideal almshouse building. 15. What has the inmate of the almshouse a right to expect in the

way of food and medical attendance? 16. What ought the inmate to receive in the way of recreation? 37. What twofold development has taken place in the field of insti

tutional relief? 18. Why is division of labor necessary in the control of state insti

tutions? 19. What is the proper field of a state board of charities? 20. What is the political principle of administration at the basis of

all state boards? 21. What are the reasons for adopting this principle? 22. What is a financial federation? 23. What can be said as to the educational and social gains from

financial federation? 24. What is the greatest obstacle to the success of the financial fed

eration? 25. What is the conclusion of the American Association for Organizing

Charity with respect to the future of the financial federation? CHAPTER XXV

RURAL LIFE

1

deserves Suggestion

145. Why young people leave the farm A fundamental factor in the problem of rural life is the tendency Some causes of country people, and particularly of young country people, to re- of the city

ward drift. move to towns and cities. The causes for this cityward drift are complex, but in general they are grouped around the belief that the city offers more advantages and fewer dis advantages than does the country. Particularly where young people are concerned it is necessary to notice the influence of suggestion upon the cityward drift. This important influence, often overlooked, is described by Professor Groves in the following passage:

The movement of population toward urban centers study in the light of the modern teaching of psychology. ... Sug- and the ru

ral child. gestions influence the child profoundly, and, of course, not less in the country than in the city. In many cases the life of the rural child is penetrated more deeply by significant suggestions, because his life, since it is spent in a less complex environment, offers a smaller quantity of suggestions, or a greater uniformity of such influence. In any case, the suggestions that enter the mind of the rural child provide a basis for explaining later actions. Every occupation provides reasons for discontent, but in the Significance

of disconcountry any dissatisfaction with the conditions of . . . farming is

tent with likely to develop into discontent regarding the country itself, for the farming. occupation and the environment are hardly to be distinguished. Indeed, in leaving the occupation of farming, it is usually necessary for such people also to leave the country towns. . . . Suggestions, therefore, that farming does not pay, or is too laborious and unprofit

a

.

able, translated into effective action, bring about a removal from

both industry and locality. The effect The early experiences on the farm may leave a suggestion of unof prolonged reasonable toil. Romantic youth cannot rest content with a vision toil.

of endless, lengthened hours of work and merely a living. . . . Parents have at times been responsible for this conception of farming, because they have insisted upon having their sons and daughters work unreasonably during vacation and after school. The parent who looks backward upon a generation more given to long toil than this, may the more easily commit this mistake and teach his children

to hate the farm and rural life. The effect The adult of little imagination is likely to forget another source of deferred

of experiences in youth that may suggest to the country boy attitudes or restricted recreation. that later provide a basis for discontent in regard to rural life. The

boy on the farm finds at times that his holiday and vacation are encroached upon by needed labor. Weather and harvest conditions rob him of the pleasures that his village chum enjoys. Some definite plan for an outing or some greatly desired day of sport has to be given up that the crop may not be injured. Doubtless parents allow these disappointments to happen with little reason, and looking at the matter from an adult point of view, do not regard the boys' feelings as of serious significance; and yet, in the light of modern psychology, we know that such experiences may build up a very significant hos

tility to the rural environment. The rôle of Modern advertising is itself a supreme illustration of effective advertising.

suggestion, and its development has been for the most part in the hands of urban interests. Such advertising has forced rural people to contrast their manner of life with urban conditions, and often with the result of discontent. They are drawn to the city on special occasions by alluring city publicity manipulated with scientific skill by experts, and often return to their country homes dissatisfied because of false notions regarding the pleasures of the city. Of course this is more largely true of young people and they are more

open to suggestion. .. The lure of Spectacular success is largely dependent upon urban conditions of success in

life, and such success obtains public attention. Even in the country, the city.

the successes talked about are likely to be those made possible by city life. These are given space in the magazines and daily papers edited and published in the cities, and so they naturally occupy the minds of rural readers of such periodicals. The young man who feels the attraction of such enterprise . . . receives a suggestion that invites him cityward. When a community is itself represented by some former resident in some spectacular success, it is certain that many young men will question their future on the farm in that locality. Thus ... the career of a man of fame may continue to act as a tradition long after his death and still add to the rural migration.

146. Buying farms with land-bank loans 1 In brief, a solution of the rural problem requires that the country Making the be made so attractive that people suited to rural life will be drawn farm attrac

tive. toward, rather than repelled by it. One way of making rural life attractive is to render farming more profitable, and one way of rendering farming more profitable is to extend the farmer adequate credit facilities. In 1916 Congress passed the Federal Farm Loan Act, the aim of which was the improvement of the financial as- The Federal

Farm Loan pect of the farmers' life. In 1921 the United States Department

Act of of Agriculture issued a report which was based on the experience of 1916. 2,700 farmers who had borrowed money through the Federal Farm Loan Banks. The following is an extract from this report:

An analysis of 78 per cent of the total number of loans from the Only a time of the organization of the Federal land banks to November 30,

cent of the 1919, indicates that only 13 per cent of the amount thus loaned amounts was for the purpose of purchasing farm land. It is probable, however, for the purthat even this small percentage represents an increase in the propor- pose of tion of loans for this purpose. An analysis of about one-third of the buying farm

land. loans made prior to November 30, 1918, indicates that only 8 per cent of the proceeds were used for buying farm land. If the proportion of loans is representative, within a year the proportion of the total number of outstanding loans made for buying farm land in. creased from 8 to 13 per cent. As this year was a period of rapid growth in the volume of business, the total amount of loans being

small per

1 From the United States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 968. “Buying Farms with Land-bank Loans.” Washington, July 29, 1921; pp. 4-6, 8, 10–11.