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Mountain Life & Work vol. 23 no. 2 Summer, 1947

Mountain Life & Work vol. 23 no. 2 Summer, 1947 Council of the Southern Mountains 400dpi TIFF G4 page images University of Kentucky, Electronic Information Access & Management Center Lexington, Kentucky 2003 mlwv23n20447 These pages may freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Mountain Life & Work vol. 23 no. 2 Summer, 1947 Council of the Southern Mountains Berea College; Council of the Southern Mountains Berea, Kentucky Summer, 1947 $IMLS This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. T`3E L1RRARy WARREN WILSON JR. Cod. LFrr. MVANN,pNpA, N. G" MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK EVE LOOK BACKWARD TO LOON FORWARD OLIVE DAME CAMPBELL THE NEW AGRICULTURE APRIL AGAIN LOUIS BROMFIELD JESSE STUART TRAGEDY OF ERRORS-194' EDWARD U. FAULKNER STRAWS IN THE WIND .SEAN AND JESS OGDEN SUMMER 1947 VOLUME XXIII NUMBER MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK ORGAN OF .THE COUNCIL OF SOUTHERN MOUNTAIN WORKERS IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY AT BEREA, KENTUCKY, IN THE INTEREST OF FELLOWSHIP AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS AND THE REST OF THE NATION. Acting"Editor .... Arthur M. Bannerman Howard Beers Editorial Board James Still Olive D. Campbell Adelaide Gundlach . . . Alice Cobb SIGNED ARTICLES ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE EXPRESSION OF EDITORIAL OPINION NOR DO THEY CARRY THE ENDORSEMENT OF THE COUNCIL. IN THIS ISSUE WE LOOK BACKWARD TO LOOK FORWARD REMEMBERED EVENT STRAWS IN THE WIND THAT STIRS THE COMMUNITY . TRAGEDY OF ERRORS-1947 THE NEW AGRICULTURE THE RIGHT TO CASE WORK SERVICES Olive Dame Campbell 1 -George Scarbrough 5 -Jean and less Ogdan 6 -Edwsrd H. Faulkner 9 -Lovis Bromfield 11 -Elizabeth M. Cosby 13 THREE QUESTIONS FOR THE MOUNTAIN CHURCH -Harold r~. Kaufmari 20 'APRIL AGAIN THE HIGHLANDS AND RURAL VALUES Report of Thirty-fifth Annual Conference .r AMONG THE BOOKS EDITORIALS ANNOUNCEMENTS -Jesse Stuart 16 -Dayton Hulburt 23 25 32 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 PER YEAR, SO CENTS PER COPY. ISSUED SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER. Entered at the Post Office at Berea, Kentucky as second class mail matter August 22, 1945, under the act of March 3, 1879. ADDRESS ALL CMAMUNICATIONS TO COUNCIL OF SOUTHERN MOUNTAIN WORKERS, BEREA, KENTUCKY MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK VOLUME XXIII SUMMER, 1947 NUMBER 2 "We Look Backward--To Look Forward" OLIVE DAME CAMPBELL This year at the Conference in Knoxville I overheard the following comment: "It seems to me we have been discussing the future of church and independent schools for years! And where are we?" I might have answered: "But the day schools with their problems of church and state are practically gone. Some of the boarding schools are closed or turned over to the public school; a few are changed in character." The speaker was right, however. The question, along with a number of others, has appeared and reappeared on many a Conference program. It is still a live issue in 1947. "We look backward in order to look forward," they used to say to us in the Danish Folk Schools. I have not time in this brief editorial to analyze all past Conference programs, but a hasty examination of some of them, with attached reports, recalls a number of steps in our growth. The "Conference," as we called it, had its first meeting in Atlanta in 1913, April 24th. Just how this came to pass is a long story. I will only say here that the call was issued in the name of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, the Home Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., and the Executive Committee of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Mr. Campbell, representing the Russell Sage Foundation, cooperated throughout and furnished, by means of his intimate knowledge of mountain work and workers, the names of agencies and individuals which should be included, and topics which might profitably be d,scussed. The program as finally laid out read as follows: Geography and the Extent of the Mountain OLIVE DAME CAMPBELL retired as Director of the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, North Carolina, in 1946. Mrs. Campbell has been closely associated with the Council of Southern ,~.~untain Workers since its beginning nearly thirty-five years ago 1 is now collecting material for a complete historical record of Council's activities. Problem; Rev. W. E. H u d s o n (Presbyterian Church, U.S.) Survey of Facts, Forces, Workers and Institutions; John C. Campbell (Russell Sage Foundation) The Church in the Mountains; Dr. V. I. Masters (Baptist), Rev. Isaac Messier (Reformed Church) Day schools, extent of such teaching and future; Prof. J. R. Hunter, E m o r y , Virginia (M. E. Church, South) Normal schools, extent and future; John C. Campbell The exceptional mountain boy and girl; their training for teaching or the ministry; Rev. H. J. Derthick (Christian). Education for citizenship in mountain communities as Christians, farmers, artisans, and merchants; Rev W. E. Finley, Marshall, North Carolina (Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.) Work done under my supervision; Miss C. S. Parrish (Department of Education, Atlanta, Georgia) So great was the interest of the thirty-five delegates who assembled, that before this first meeting was over an organization committee was appointed and the resolution made and passed that: 1. The Conference informally assembled in Atlanta be and is hereby constituted an annual meeting to be known as the Southern Mountain Workers Conference. 2. That its membership shall consist of all persons engaged as workers in and for the mountain schools of the South; trustees of such schools, secretaries, officers and members of all Mission Boards engaged in work in the mountains and all active friends of the mountaineers connected with Foundations and Societies for their uplift or personally interested in their welfare who may attend its sessions. Page 2 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK 3. That an Executive Committee of seven be chosen which shall be charged with the duty of arranging annually for the place of meeting, providing a program of the conference and extending invitations, etc. Mr. Campbell was elected Chairman, a position which he held until his death, and Mr. Messler, Secretary of the Conference, a position which he also held for many years. A report (unsigned) states that: "The representative character of the Conference contributed to its interest and helpfulness. There were present field secretaries of the Presbyterian Church, North and South, of the Baptist, Disciples and Methodist Churches, representat;ves from the Congregational and Reformed Churches and from the Sage and Peabody Funds; the Presidents of Berea and Maryville Colleges and the heads of individual enterprises. "Denominational interests were eliminated and all the time and energy were devoted to the common cause - the spiritual and material uplift of the Appalachian section. The Conference proved to be exceptionally free from any selfish propaganda. Those who had made careful surveys presented the facts ascertained. The problems involved and the results to be attained were discussed. The individual methods of dealing with the various phases of the work were presented so that we had not only the theoretical but also the practical viewpoint. "This is the first general Conference on Mountain Work and it promises to be fruitful of much good." The second Conference was held April 21-23, 1914, in Knoxville, the most central point. From that time on for many years, we went to the "Knoxville Conference." Ninety-two went in 1914. "The purpose of the Conference," says the 1914 call, "is to promote acquaintance among those engaged in work in the Southern Highland region, and through exchange of ideas to further the best methods of work. It is proposed to make this conference a conference in fact, where questions of health, sanitation, country life, rural social service, administration, etc., may be discussed Summer, 1947 freely rather than through formal addresses." That the occasion was increasingly successful would seem to be indicated by the fact that 108 attended the next year. The 1915 call states: "Although the Conference will partake more than ever of the nature of a conference, with free dis cussion by persons meeting, at first hand, the many questions of rural welfare, there will be op portunity to hear several persons of national reputation," among them the Hon. Philander P. Claxton, U.S. Commissioner of Education. He it was, who at this historic occasion, first introduced us to the folk school and cooperatives of Den mark. At, this early date the character of the Con ference was already established. It was friendly and informal. We always opened our first eve ning with a social period for, you remember, dele gates were not known to each other. Those more generally acquainted were asked to circulate about and introduce people. Mr. Campbell used to talk to all he could, himself. He had the greatest con cern for workers from little isolated stations back in some cove-workers who had probably strained their slender resources to come to this meeting. He knew what it meant to feel alone in a strange group and wanted everyone to have a good time as well as to learn something. It was one of my special delegated duties to watch out for anyone who seemed to be standing apart; and see that he or she met other people. One has to remember, too, that Conference delegates, in those first years, not only did not know each other, but knew little about agencies other than their own. They did not know the mountain country, except their own immediate surroundings, and they had no understanding of the mountain problem in the large. Mr. Camp bell carried around with him a great map, so wide we could hardly get it into the train, showing the whole region and regional divisions, colored so as to make clear their general character. Special disks indicated distribution and affiliation of church and independent schools. When he did s~ not speak about this map, he hung it in the Con ference room where all could examine it. Thus we became acquainted with mountains and mountain work. o If, for some years, there was a tendency to run c into "testimony" as individuals felt impelled to ex plain their own "peculiar" problems, that tendencj t. J ~I tI w h. la cc d~ R la w g: m ummer, 1947 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK gradually disappeared with larger knowledge and wider acquaintance. Instead we began to talk reas and general problems and came to see our Own work as one among many, against the larger rural background. Some of the following subjects on the second and third Conference program give an idea of their scope: Industrial Development of the Mountain Country through Redirection of Education; Rural Nursing; Cooperation between Church School and Public School; Religion of the Mountains; Ballads and Folklore; What should be our real motive prosecuting mountain school work? Recreation; Necessity of all Mountain Workers to keep in touch with general Educational Developments. Relation of school to surrounding country; Some suggestions for the better adaptation of Education in the upland South. In 1918, we were discussing agricultural activities of mountain schools and wider agricultural possibilities for the mountain country. That was the year Professor Brallir, of the Nashville Agri t ra'- an d Normal Institute, got us all so in u ted n the possibilities of bulb-growing in this With Lrea. sheets of daffodil bloom around me, this lovely April morning in 1947, 1 find myself wondering how many heeded his suggestion. W e heard, too, of the cooperative movement in Ireland, under Sir Horace Plunkett-too ill, alas! to come and tell about it himself. We were introduced to the initials, A. E., the Irish George Russeli, one of the most inspiring writers in any land, on what a country culture may be. Then, it was, too, that we first heard Dr. Harcourt Morgan speak on a subject "to be announced." I cannot remember today what that subject was, but what he said was infinitely wise, I am sure. Of course, there was never a time when everyone was satisfied with the program. All too clearly, during six years when Mr. Messler and I tried to carry on and to provide a good program, I recall how I used to watch for the letters of commendation and criticism. There was always someone who thought the Conference was "not re ~' ',gious enough" or else "too religious"-usually ~', oth. But, at least, everyone was free to say what he wanted, and a courteous hearing was c,iven to the oinions and beliefs of all, whether P conservative or liberal. '~'`I 1919, the last year of Mr. Campbell's life, t.2' program carried largely printed questions Page 3 which led the way for discussion: Brief review of educational work, public and private, in the Southern Highlands, and present trend of such work. Is the work of our mountain schools adapted to the needs and life of the mountain people? Has th;: time come for Church Boards to lessen contributions for educational work in the mountains? What are they doing to work with public school authorities? Desirability of denominational and interdenominational surveys. Could your county do more financially for public education? Discussion of pending State Bill, by which Federal Government would pledge immediate encouragement to State efforts in Americanization and illiteracy campaigns. L a t e r sections related to a health program; ways of making a living in the mountains and possibilities of cooperative efforts toward those ends. The final morning and afternoon sessions settled down to: Right of mountain communities to self-determination in matters of religion. Is the Church in the mountains reaching the life of the mountain people? What should the work of a denomination be in the community? How is recreation provided for in your community? In a detailed report of the Conference, I find a brisk and interesting discussion involving the vexed question of the future of the church schools. I would like to repeat it here, but can only say that it indicated generally favorable sentiment at that time for the turning over of private school work to public school authorities. Appealed to from the floor as to how he felt on this working out, Mr. Campbell's answer was: "Merely that it does work. You don't need to trust your own judgment as to whether it is time for the public to assume the resonpsibility. Don't use it; write to Dr. Claxton, or to some government specialist. Tell him your conditions, or better, get a specialist to spend a week to three months in your county; and get his candid opinion. Then abide by his opinion. My own opinion is that the time has long come for church and independent schools to stop Continued on page 28) NIVCN-rAIN LirL AND WORK Summer, 1947 1'rinirul with pPrn,i.•inn of W. Lir-,k~ Hamilton, l.exinvtun, KKtttueF:y ,,/'Summer, 1947 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Remembered Event GEORGE SCARBROUGH Birds cried in the cedars all night when Reuben died And there was rain in the night along toward morning, Rain without thunder and wind, unusual for the time, Out of a few white clouds. There could have been stars, But no one remembers; and surely there was no moon, Since it is said of moons that men grieve by: "The moon was like a coffin, sitting straight, the night he died." But we recall the heavy blueness at the well And the solid way the windlass turned in the odd, Strong color until our arms were blue moths flying out of sight. The field of sunflowers behind the house Was of use to a number of us at a time for talking. We said the clouds were much too white for raining And that a wind should blow this time of summer; Near the coolness of the well we talked of Reuben, Of the water he drank, and his small mole-hands on the dipper. It was nearly two when strangeness grew no stranger, And the noise of the birds in the cedars ceased to bother, And we subtracted ourselves from the house for good. There was not much to do and the flower field was pleasant. It was a first experience to one of us there, And he sobbed against our shoulders. Reuben's father Went with us and sat and asked and told us nothing. Next morning his head was like a white aster in the sunflowers. GEORGE SCARBROUGH is a senior at Lincoln Memorial Uni versity. He tells us that he has always lived in the shadow of the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, and is himself part Cherokee. His poetry has been published in Harpers, The Land, and other well known periodicals. Page 6 Our search for community "success stories" began in the summer of 1941. We were engaged together with other members of the Extension Division of the University of Virginia in a piece of practical research-"to find ways of helping communities to help themselves through the efforts of their own citizens." The program was initiated and sponsored by the Extension Division. Its range included all phases of living-social, economic, and cultural. To find ways to stimulate communities to raise their standards in any of these areas and then to help them implement their programs, drawing on whatever resources-local, state or federal were ailable, was the assignment of the staff. val I The philosophy on which the program was based was an honest belief in the democratic way of life. Democracy, it was assumed, exists where everyone has the opportunity for choice. If it is to do more than exist, everyone must desire to use his opportunity for choice. Assuming that our constitutional government gives us the framework which makes possible the realization of such a goal, the general aim of the program was to help individuals and communities learn to choose their ways of living and, having made the choice, to achieve the desired results. We wanted to experiment and chose several communities for the purpose. At the same time we knew that many communities throughout the country were already accomplishing fine things. The people concerned in them must, consciously or unconsciously, have learned something about "techniques of community development." We could learn from them. Perhaps we could even interpret the best programs we found in such a way as to interest and inspire to action persons in other communities. Our attempt to achieve the last JEAN AND JESS OGDEN have been known for a long time especially through the choice New Dominion Bulletins, which come monthly from the Extension Department of the University of Virginia, and are modestly signed "J. and J." The contents of a number of these bulletins were used to make the book Small Communities in Action, reviewed in the Spring number of MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK. To those of us who wait for the New Dominion Bulletin as eagerly as for the Atlantic, this article will be of very special interest. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Straws In The Wind That Stirs The Community JEAN and JESS OGDEN mentioned aim resulted in the publication of the New Dominion Series in which seventy-two "success stories" were reported during the four experimental years ending May, 1945. Since that time the Extension Division has continued to publish one story each month during the academic year. In connection with looking at programs, both for our own education and for stories to pass on to others, we have observed closely more than one hundred and fifty communities in the Southeast at work on some aspect of selfimprovement. From programs observed but not reported, as well as from those reported, certain general trends emerge. In these trends are encouraging indications that communities are shaking off their lethargy. Viewed as a whole, the trend is toward A working problems out on the local level through democratic processes. Study Leads to Action A glance over the field of community development shows that a surprisingly large number of programs begin with study groups of one kind or another. These vary in purpose; in size; in sponsorship; in subject matter considered; in educational level, age and sex of participants; in geographical area represented. In fact, they are as varied as communities themselves. The one thing they seem to have in common is a more or less serious consideration of some subject by two or more persons meeting together over a period of time. Viewed as a whole they present rather convincing evidence that study of even abstract ideas or "cultural" subiects may lead to programs of action that are far-reaching in their effect. In one community, for example, the seventeen persons enrolled in a class checked culture as their reason for being there. A community cannery and a recreation program were among the tangible outcomes. At some point in every program careful analysis or study of the total situation becomes necessary. , It may start because a group is disturbed by a bad situation and wants to consider possible solutions-' or it may begin as a more generalized consideratiohi Summer, 1947 Summer, 1947 of the community and serve as the means of defining problems and planning methods of attack. In either case three things are clear: (I) no one pattern of procedure fits all situations or communities; (21 where effective, the study program is closely related in time as well as purpose to a program of action growing out of the analysis of resources and needs; and (3) the process, where it has proved most effective, is a cumulative one with new possibilities continuously emerging as the program gets under way. Logical Progression as Program Develops A community is much more likely to start with an obvious need than with a carefully worked out plan. In the process of meeting that need, very often those concerned become aware of other needs, and a sequence of activities gets under way. A good community program in one field is seldom an isolated instance. It is one expression of something at work in that community which will by the same process lead to other developments. The fine hospital or recreation program or cannery which is the only sign of progress in an otherwise backward community is probably an accident or an inheritance. It is not necessarily evidence of growth. Organization to Facilitate Action Also at some point in its development, every community is likely to "organize." In some instances the organization precedes the program it sponsors; in others, it grows out of the program as the need for better coordination of all resources and groups becomes apparent. Sometimes it outlives its usefulness and drops by the wayside while the program sponsored by it continues to flourish. "Council" is the term by which it is most generally designated. In our exploration of programs for New Dominion Series, wide variety in councils has been found. In one respect there seems to be consistency. The councils that have played and continue to play a vital part in the communities they serve not only are adapted to the social patterns of those communities, but are also flexible enough to adapt themselves to changing patterns as a program develops. This flexibility may account, to some extent, for the ephemeral nature of many councils. Their demise is not always evidence of failure. r•a Councils, like study groups, have been effective ~-.fn various .stages of the development of many com MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 7 munity programs. On the other hand, they do not constitute a panacea. Their mortality rate is high. Many, after brilliant beginnings, slip quietly out of existence. Others linger on without realizing or being willing to admit that they have no vital place in their communities. Divers reasons can be found for the untimely end of promising councils. The most common cause is inability to move from the study to the action phase of a ,program. The council which has the strength and leadership necessary to make that critical transition is likely to continue to serve the community long and well. And never have communities been in greater need of such service! Who Starts and Who Gets the Credit? Initiation of a program may come from many and varied groups. It may center around an individual, school, church, extension service, health department, or some other agency. It may be the outgrowth of a study group or of a planning committee. But whatever the initiation or the sponsorship, there is a growing conviction on the part of citizens that agencies, institutions, and indi v*duals must no longer exploit community programs for treir own prestige. There is a gratifying number of instances of wholehearted acceptance of this principle by the groups involved. One young minister who has been the inspiration of a very fine, church-centered program expresses this trend when he says that the emphasis throughout his program has been "upon human needs and their satisfaction through coop:rative community effort and planning rather than upon the aggrandizement of the church as an institution." To be sure, petty jealousies between agencies s*11 exist but, more and more, ti in most communi their subversive influence is being recognized. In the long run the group that starts a program must be willing to lose its identity in order to find a more abundant life in the finer community made possible through cooperative efforts. The trend in this direction is more apparent on the local level than in the organization setup which is farther removed from the people. Too frequently pressures for numbers or for showing results come to local workers from the state or federal level. Then the question of credit may take precedence over the best interests of the community. The agency worker in the community is more likely to see his relationship to other local programs than are his MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK superiors in state, regional, or national headquarters. "Helping communities to help themselves" implies a different philosophy from "helping communities." It implies a different understanding of the role of leader. It implies a different procedure. In both philosophy and procedure a faith in people is basic-the same faith in people which is fundamental to a belief that democracy is the best way of life. The procedure depends on leadership-more or less widespread-rather than on a leader. To one person, perhaps, must go the credit for having the necessary vision-for inspiring, for motivating. But his success can be measured by the degrees to which he has developed leadership and thus worked himself out of a job. In most good programs it is easy to point to the person, agency, or institution from which the original inspiration has come. The more closely a program approaches the democratic ideal, however, the more difficult it becomes to put one's finger on the leader. Each person concerned assumes increasing responsibility. The readiness with which the original leader relinquishes his place in the picture is one important test of his mastery of the process of developing real leadership. The readiness with which others accept their full share of leadership is the test of whether the program really is rooted in the community. The stimulation does not, by any means, always come from a professional or from a person with special training for community work. Many o f the best programs we have found have had their initiatzon or their leadership in "mere laymen" in the community. Communities Are Trying. There is evidence that citizens' committees and elected officials are. getting together on planning. In most cases, the citizens' committee still has to play the gadfly role, acting primarily as a pressure group. While there are relatively few situations where the public official has taken the initiativeas in Clayton, Georgia-in establishing an advisory group and has voluntarily submitted himself to its planning, there are increasing instances in which studies and recommendations of citizens' groups are welcome by officials as a basis for action. There is, as has been intimated before, a definite trend toward the acceptance of responsibility on the part of citizens. There is a desire to under Summer, 1947 stand what is being done and to consider what should be done. There is rather exciting evidence of ways m which community planning groupsby whatever name they are called-are attempting to get information and understanding to all the people. Even where there is no coordinating group, women's clubs, service clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and similar organizations are seeing the need for a more scientific approach to community problems. They are asking state universities to conduct workshops for their officers and members in order to give them a ,more comprehensive understanding of the implications of their programs. They are seeking help in developing "adult education techniques" in order to become more effective in reaching the rest of the people. There is a trend-or, perhaps, evidence in all these trends-toward a reversal of delegation. Citizens are beginning to plan, and officials and agencies to carry out citizens' plans. Truculent determination "not to be told by Washington or Richmond" is gradually giving place to a more positive approach. Communities are analyzing needs, considering local, state, and federal resources, and asking for what help is available in meeting their needs. Communities are trying to shake off their lethargy for a positive attack on their responsibilities. Problems Exist Readers of New Dominion Series occasionally have asked that more attention be given the "problems and difficulties encountered" in programs described. An honest attempt has been made to present t?iem in each story, but the emphasis has purposely been upon what was being done rather than upon what had to be overcome. This emphasis was not determined entirely by the writers. The participants in a good program when telling us a story generally "accentuated the positive." Observation and careful questioning of many persons have convinced us that opposition frequently does not develop, or at least does not assume great importance, where faith in a program is strong. Those who have put their hand to the plow firmly and purposefully have not kept looking over their shoulders. Opposition has been dealt with as it occurred but has not been anticipated nor feared. There have been problems-expected and unforeseen-but they assume a proper proportion when the purpose is positive and constructive. (Continued on page 30) Summer, 1947 TM 'LtBRARY WARREN WILSON JR. COLLEGE MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK SUIANNANOA, N. G Page 9 Tragedy 0 f Errors--i947 EDWARD H. FAULKNER Time was when it was the yokels of the hinterlands why furnished the comedy of the world. With little need to be serious about tomorrow's food supply or about .Junior's hollow tooth, Shakespeare's audience rolled in the aisles (if any) as they watched the comic performances dramatizing the mischances of their day. We, today, can smile indulgently over the ancient mistakes. But the bungling of our time is too serious for sfles. (It is not furnished by yokels nor is it mi 1 1 subject for comedy). These tragic doings stem from what we are pleased to call science, and often pass for the last word in research results. And may I disclaim now any desire to decry research in general or to cast aspersions upon the good name of science. Both science and research we must have, and we already owe incalculable debts to both pure science and the researchers that grow out of it; but we are at many points in our general economy, nevertheless, victims of mistaken (or misdirected) "findings" of serious research men. I'm thinking particularly of those vital concerns, health and the food supply. We can blame ourselves in much of this victimization, however; for we are a nation of hero worshipers. And when one of our heroes eats Blarney Toasted Sawdust-the Energy Bearing Breakfast Food, we begin to buy the same for our breakfast. The fact that it requires fruit, milk, bacon, or other foods to justify calling it an acceptable food fails to register; we follow the crowd and demand the food our hero is said to eat. In other words, many of us get into trouble, dietary and otherwise, because we take the easy course of letting commercial interests direct our "thinking." The "energy bearing" foods so widely advertised are as good an example as any to lead off a discussion of dietary errors, for the volume of such foods now being used monopolizes stomach space which otherwise might be filled with real food. But the question is not one of discarding one food and EDWARD FAULKNER will be familiar to most readers as author of Plowman's Folly and Uneasy Money, both of which were reviewed in MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK. Mr. Faulkner lives ,;r~Elyria, Ohio. He says that he "just missed being a southerner" ause at one time he seriously considered coming to live and ~rk at Berea. He is an agriculturist. using another. The food consuming habits of Americans root much deeper than that. In fact, we have developed in this country farm practices which make it both difficult and expensive to eat a really nourishing diet. The system by which we produce the bulk of our food has practically doomed us to an inadequate diet. Fortunately, people who live and work in mountainous territory, I may say, probably have much the advantage over those of us who have access largely to commercially grown foods. In hilly country a much higher proportion of the average diet comes directly from the land; and much of that land suffers less from erosion than does the broad expanse of territory that produces most of the food that goes to market. While it may seem obvious that erosion should be more serious where the slopes are steeper, my observations have not confirmed that as true. Farmers of the hills do not so generally "drive" their land through tile tight cropping routines that are followed in the areas where heavy machinery can be used to advantage. This more leisurely pace of farming may account for soil surfaces which take m more of the rainfall. Whether food is adequate or deficient in composition depends upon whether natural processes participac: in its development. While the use of lime and fertilizers can compensate to some extent for mishandling of land, it may be impossible to make up entirely for soil mismanagement by such means. Natural agencies, on the other hand, can be depended upon to fully nourish crops in any s*I where full play is allowed these forces. ol I Land that is left to lie idle soon begins to teem with life of all kinds, from bacteria to earthworms, toads, and other visible creatures. The activities of all these small life are devoted solely to their own life concerns. None of them is . trying to benefit the soil for human use. But the effects of It is unusual for us to receive almost in the same mail, articles from two such prominent writers, both Ohioans, with interests so similar, (and points of view sometimes so dissimilar) as Mr. Faulkner, author of the above article, and Mr. Bromfield, who has written the article which follows. We are pleased and gratified to publish both in the same issue of MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK. Page 10 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK their action is universally to work over the organic debris of the soil surface and subsurface so that it can more quickly be picked up and used as food for plants again. Without high populations of living things in the soil we can have no real fertility; and crops that are produced in soil which has little or no life in it, fail to get some of the vital substances that animals and human beings must have Did it ever occur to you that we need never to have learned about vitamins, for instance? Essential as vitamins now are to many people living in isolation from the land, they were first discovered because certain foods were found to be inadequate for completely nourishing the animals or people who consumed them. Research eventually identified the rood factors which were present in some lots of food and absent from others; and from such small beginnings our knowledge of vitamins resulted. But, if all animal feed and human food always had been produced in land which was normally active biologically, no food would have been lacking in "vitamins," and we would never have learned that such things exist. Indeed, there are people in some parts of the world who have never heard of vitamins, and who never require them, because their land is so biologically active that their food "has everything." A good example of such a tribe is the Hunzas. These people live in the northernmost tip of India, and their story is well told by Dr. Guy T. Wrench in his book The Wheel o f Heaith, published in this country by Lee Foundatio;:, Milwaukee 3, Wisconsin. These Hunzas lack the benefits of research, but they have the benefits we hope research will bang to us. Their health is so good that an English Army surgeon, Dr. Robert McCarrison, who lived for seven years among them, says he treated them for minor ailments and accidental injuries only. He was the only physician serving a population of 8,000 people, yet had little to do for them. Imagine the impossibility of a single doctor serving an American city of 8,000. In general, research in the United States has been conducted by the government or by institutions whose commercial interests could benefit from the results of research. Government research results in many instances, would never have been known to the public except for the fact that somebody decided to popularize them. For example, some government laboratory discovers a new and Summer, 1947 effective insecticide. The laboratory cannot make this insecticide and sell it to the people who need it; so some individual or firm, equipped to manufacture and sell it, takes it over and through advertising succeeds in bringing it to the attention of the whole population. By such means most research results become popularized. Commercial interests in this way have brought to general attention hundreds of research items. Indeed, there are in existence right now thousands of research discoveries that you and I know nothing about because as yet nobody has found a way to popularize them profitably. In some cases no wide field of usefulness exists; in other cases something else equally good is available. Just as the soil organisms that prepare the soil for growing food food crops are interested only in their own concerns, so, too, the commercial agencies that popularize important research findings are concerned primarily with their own affairs. Benefits that accrue to people who make use of any new product of research may seem miraculous; they often are when compared with what would have been possible a generation ago, or even two years ago; but there is no altruism back of ti:e distribution of most research products. Inde;:d, the dissemination of vitamins and of many other of the findings related to health has become big business. Health and its promotion have become commercialized. So true is this that medical researchers think almost solely in the field of laboratory developments. The idea that natural processes might be harnessed to do at no cost what "science" now does at tremendous cost is entirely outside the field of thinking one finds in so-called "health research" laboratories. Why? The answer is not difficult. With the best intentions in the world "science" has simply taken over the field; has even forgotten that nature once developed health with no effort at all where we now find ourselves laboring mightily, and unsuccessfully, to produce it. All of which is definitely, if remotely, related to the "improved" methods farmers now follow in the growing of their crops. Those methods have evicted the ant and the earthworm as well as the myriads of other beings that formerly lived in the soil. Where originally it was feathery and moist, the soil today is pavement-like and dry. 'though today's farmer can manage man' (Continued on page 32) J Summer, 1947 Very slowly, over a period of thousands of years, man has been learning about himself. Within the last century more and more progress has been made and, still slowly, he is beginning to learn that he cannot and never has existed independently of his environment and of those laws of God and of Nature which are essentially the same. In all of this the importance of the soil upon which he lives, side by side with the plants and the animals which provide the means of his very existence, has become more and more clear. One of the greatest of discoveries, proven beyond any dispute, is the fact that poor or worn out or eroded soil does not produce healthy or abundant crops or animals. Neither does it produce healthy and intelligent people, possessed ofLn itiative and energy. Dr. Jonathan Forman, one ( the greatest authorities on nutrition and al rgies, has said, "We are what we eat!" Dr. ugh Bennett, head of the Soil Conservation Service and one of our great Americans has put it another way, "Poor soil makes poor people!" One might add that this statement is only the beginning, a,ad continue by adding, "Poor people make poor soil; poorer soil makes poorer people and so on in an unending vicious circle rolling always down hill toward final calamity." The surface of the earth is dotted with ruined cities, nations and civilizations which died when they wore out their soils or allowed them to be washed away. The list is long-China, India, Greece, Southern Italy, North Africa, the Near East and large portions of new countries like the United States, Australia and Venezuela. The best symbol I know of what soil destruction can mean is a sight that GI's often saw in North Africa - miserable, ignorant, poverty-stricken, under-nourished people sunning themselves listlessly in the marble ruins of the great cities which ., Ince dotted the southern shore of the Mediter ~Nr'ranean. The destruction of the soil in agricul LOUIS BROMFIELD, well known novelist, has also interested and chvllenged his public with new ideas about agriculture and ecor"kics. Pleasant Valley, A Few Brass Tacks have been reviewed ~.SVIOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK during the past year. Mr. Bromfield's home is near Xenia, Ohio. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK The New Agriculture LOUIS BROMFIELD Page 11 rural areas of the Roman Empire contributed certainly as much as any other factor to the downfall of a nation which once dominated the whole of the known world. But it was not economic alone in effect; with the soil went the vigor, the health, the intelligence of the people of the worn-out lands. We now know enough to read and interpret all this evidence from the past and in it we are beginning to find the answer to many of the evils and even the disasters which threaten us in this New World, a world which, measured in terms even of historic time, is only a fraction of a second old. We know that calcium, phosphorous and many other minerals are absolutely necessary to the health, vigor and intelligence of peoples. The same is true of proteins which are essentially no more than nitrogen translated into terms of food for man and beast. We know that when any one of these is lacking, the health, vigor and intelligence are imperiled. When all of them are lacking or existent in too small quantities, life itself cannot continue. We have in this once rich nation whole worn-out or eroded agricultural areas where the populations are listless, unhealthy and subject to all kinds of disease, who are born and die without any hope of success, prosperity or achievement because they have not in their flesh and bones, blood and brains, the minerals which could give them at least an even chance with people living in agriculturally richer and more fortunate areas. Some of these people settled originally upon deficient soils which were minerally deficient and were never real agricultural land and some wore out the land on which they lived by poor agricultural practices or by allowing the soil to be eroded or leached out. The cash spending money of some of the people in these areas is as little as five dollars a year. In the same areas country banks have long since died like flies because there was little or no money to deposit and little or no securitv to offer for loans. Out. of all the knowledge acquired during the last half century, there has grown up in this country a new kind of agriculture which can be Page 12 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, 1947 the hope of our national future if it gains wide enough practice. It is an agriculture made up of ancient practices, learned painfully by man out of bitter necessity and experience-the necessity of finding enough food to keep alive. It is made up too out of the remarkable discoveries of new truths concerning the physiology of mankind and its relation to the soil upon which it lives. It is based fundamentally upon the principle of working with nature rather than fighting her, as so many American farmers have done in the past. It includes two or three main objectives-to keep the rainwater where it falls and where it is badly needed at certain seasons rather than permitting or encouraging it to run off rapidly, carrying down flooding gullies the precious top soil and minerals by which plants, animals and man himself all live. It is based upon the principle of returning to the soil as much or preferably more than man takes from it both of minerals and of organic material. In the whole of the New Agriculture, the eternal law of God and Nature concerning compensation -that you get what you give in this life whether it is in human relations or relations with plants, animals and soils. The New Agriculture is built upon terracing and strip cropping, contour plowing and green crops which cover the soil during the long destructive months of the winter rains. It includes the use of commercial fertilizers in quantities sufficient To maintain the balance of lime, phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen upon which the health and vigor of crops, like the health and vigor of man and beast living upon them, is dependent. It depends upon use of lime and phosphates because through the use of these man can grow legumes like the clovers, vetch and alfalfa which take nitrogen out of the air in large quantities and pump it into the soil, and out of nitrogen comes the protein which is so necessary to health, to vigor and mr:lligence. The successful farmer of the future will be, as he has long been in those parts of Europe where there are no poor farmers in any sense of the word, a scientist, a specialist and a business man. He will understand his soil and cherish it and depend not on the gambling hope of high prices to save him but upon maximum production per acre. It costs the man who produces 20 bushels of corn per acre approximately five times as much to produce a bushel of corn as it does the man who produces 100 bushels. The successful farmer of the future will watch his soil and his crops, knowing them as he knows the back of his hand. He will be:) able to afford mechanization and a decent house and a good car. He and his family will be healthy, vigorous, intelligent and capable of great success. He will work fewer hours for a bigger income. He will have money in the bank or land which can stand as security for a loan. He will understand that each dollar well invested in seed and fertilizer will bring back five or more dollars. The farmer who believes that "what was good enough for grandpappy was good enough for me" is a doomed man. If you look about you, you can see them everywhere-farmers whose buildings need paint and repairs, whose children look dulleyed, pale and sickly, whose fields produce less and less each year, whose livestock look scrubby and illkept. There is no longer a place for him in the highly complex civilization of our industrial modern world. He will have to take to the road as a migratory worker or accept -a living standard as low as that of a Chinese peasant. He may be liquidated altogether. The answer to the prosperity of the farmer does not lie in subsidies, bribes, price floors and guaranteed parity prices. One day, and it is not too far off, the rest of the Nation will grow tired of paying taxes to sub sidize the poor farmer and he will have to stand on his own. The answer to the farmer's prosperity lies in himself, in good farming, and in production per acre. The rising generation is learning the facts outlined above through Four-H clubs and in agricultural vocation courses in the rural and village schools. Some of the boys and girls are having a tough struggle against the prejudices and ignorance of parents who find that "what was good enough for grandpappy is good enough for us" but the young folks will win out in the end because God, Nature and economics are all on their side and nobody ever licked such a combination or even any one of the combination. Back of it all lies the truth of the old aphorism that "God helps those who help themselves." One might add, "God help those who go on farming in the old wasteful, greedy, ignorant fashion!" There is no future for them. (Continued on page 32) Summer, 1947 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK (The Spring number of MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK carried a condensation o f a report from the Kentucky Child Welfare Division, and promise o f an article from the Division, developing in further detail some particular aspect o f this wide, important work. Miss Cosby has elected to present the Division's service to unmarried mothers of the state because it is a service greatly needed, very effective, and perhaps least known of any, in our area. Workers who wish to know more about this program, or other aspects of the total Child Welfare program, or about services in other states, may write to Miss Cosby, or to Miss Marjorie Wilson, Director o f Child Welfare Division, Department o f Welfare, Frankfort, Kentucky. The organization welcomes inquiries, and seeks means o f offering wider service). Predictions are that 100,000 children will be born out of wedlock in the United States this year. That is an average in round figures of 2,000 for each state. This average does not bring actual truth to the picture for it is to be assumed that the largest proportion of these births will occur in states having cities with a high population count. The actual truth stands, however, that regardless of where the births occur, there is a local, state, and federal responsibility involved for providing the most careful and secure planning that it is possible to provide. "The first step in helping a baby born out of wedlock to get a start in life without the legal and social handicaps that society still imposes for illegitimate birth is to make available to his mother during pregnancy, at delivery, and while she is planning her future and the future of her baby, whatever advice and assistance she needs." This statement of Katherine F. Lenroot, Chief of the Children's Bureau, clearly defines the need for: ELIZABETH M. COSBY is the Foster Home Consultant, Child Welfare Division, Department of Public Welfare of the State of Kentucky. She is a native of New York State, a graduate of the University of Chicago, and has been in Child Welfare work in ,:=~ntucky since October 1945. Miss Cosby has published a num1~Ct~ of articles on Welfare work, one of which appeared recently 'fin Kentucky. The Right To Case Work Services For Every Unmarried Mother and Her Baby ELIZABETH M. COSBY Page 13 1) protective service, 2) medical care, and 3) case work service. Most of us understand and accept the need for protective service and medical care, but there is a definite need for understanding why every unmarried mother has the right to the assurance of reliable case work service also. Mary had lived all o f her four years in an institution for children. She had never known parents o f her own. Mary's own mama had wanted to keep her, but couldn't. There was no social worker to help her decide the best possible early plan for herself and her child. Mary was deprived for four years of the individual love and care that every child should know. When the social worker learned of Mary, she immediately began to work toward constructive plans for this child's placement in a permanent home. Why does an unmarried mother have a right to case work services? Because she is generally an adolescent. Because she is bewildered and scared and hurt, and because she does not understand why she did it or what she can do about it now. Because she is bearing the weight of a big problem, generally without family or close friends. She needs the opportunity for talking things out in her own way-at her own tempo, with an indi Page 14 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK vidual who is trained to understand, accept, and assist. Because she must make a vitally important decision regarding her own future and the future of her baby, and she is seldom aware of the resources of her state or of the legal and social implications concerning the release or the keeping of her baby. And last, but not by any means least, because she has the right to move from this difficult experience with a better understanding of herself, with a hopeful way for the future, and with the knowledge that she has had time to arrive at her own best decision concerning a temporary or permanent plan for herself and her baby. How can the social worker help? What can she do that any intelligent, understanding, senstive person cannot do? __We social workers draw heavily upon examples of other professions in answering this question. We are trained as the doctor is trained. as the lawyer, the nurse, and other professional groups are trained. Would you have other than a trained physician attend your physical ills, or other than a trained nurse attend your bedside in critical illness? Of course you would not, if you had any other choice. Would you then deny the unmarried mother the service of a trained social worker when she is faced with a problem which she cannot solve alone? She might be your daughter, your sister, your close friend. This problem is not selective in s'k'ng only at the homes of the poor. It strikes tri I at wealth as ruthlessly. The social worker considers each unmarried mother as an individual different from all other individuals, having certain inherent strengths and weaknesses. These inherent strengths and weaknesses are what the social worker uses in helping the unmarried mother to gain insight into why she did it and what she can do about it now. Interviews with the unmarried mother begin on those subjects uppermost in her mind. The social worker, by an understanding, uncensured, and objective attitude, encourages the mother to discuss her difficulties and the solutions that seem possible to her. Out of the social worker's knowledge and experience in dealing with similar situations, she will know when to interject a comment that will lead the girl into further explorations of i,er problem. She will know the implications of what is said and the way it is expressed and also the significance of what is left Summer, 1947 unsaid. Through the interviews a young woman who has been deprived of emotional satisfaction and is in conflict with herself and others, is helped to release her hostility and is thereby freed to') move forward with constructive plans for the present and the future. Many unmarried mothers have met with deprivation throughout their lives and have missed a warm affectional relationship with their own parents. Jimmy has remained with his own mama. They both went to live with her sister in another state. The social uorker helped Jimmy's mama to make this plan for the best future o f herself and her baby. A recent letter from the girl says in part, "We have been getting along just fine. You wouldn't .know Jimmy note-he is getting to be such a big boy. Everyone who sees hint falls in love with him. I have been going with a boy now for the past six months. He wants to marry me and I am sure he is the one for me. I f Jimmy learns to care too, we will be married next year." Let me tell you briefly about Jean. This young girl was in her fourth year of High School when she was forced to quit because of her pregnancy. She was referred to us by the principal of her school because of his interest in giving the best p'ble h ossi elp to this student. From the beginning of our relationship with Jean, the social worker sensed Jean's sincere interest in understanding why her problem had occurred and what she could do in the future to find a more satisfying life for herself. Jean way the fourth in a family of eight the dren who had always known economic insecuri,,,J( Summer, 1947 The mother had been in poor health over a long period of years because of having "too many children too fast." She was unable to give the physical care and the individual love her children needed and desired. The father moved from one job to another and never earned an adequate wage. The burden of responsibility for a large family was too much for him to carry. At intervals he deserted. Jean had the feeling that she had never really known a father. She had never felt his love or concern for her, and she had always feared him. Jean said that as a child she had always had to wear ill-fitting cast off clothing. The children at school made fun of her. "Something inside" gave her the determination to get an education "at any cost," but there were many times when she cried inwardly-feeling so all alone in the struggle. She did housework at a meager wage in order to have money for books and clothing. Is it small wonder that jean got herself "in too deep" in her first relationship with an older boy, when this made her feel she was important and loved and wanted? As the social worker and jean talked through her past experiences and her feelings about these, Jean was helped to understand why her problem had occurred. On the side of what she could do about it now, the social worker helped jean to see that every individual needs satisfactions in many areas to obtain a good balance. She needs education and a job in line with her interests and abilities, she needs recreation, she needs religion, she needs to work toward the best possible relationship with her own family, and she needs to feel she is making some contribution in her relationship to others. Jean was quick to sense that she had not known all of these satisfactions. She seemed eager to work toward the goal of obtaining a more satisfying balance of relationships and experiences. Aside from this help, jean needed to make her own best decision about a permanent plan for her baby. The social worker and jean talked to gether about all of the known possibilities for keep ing the baby before jean's final decision to re lease him for adoption was accepted. At this point the girl was ready to share complete information Yancerning her background and the background of -=ae alleged father. Jean was given the assurance \",cuat her baby would be carefully and thoughtfully MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 15 placed in an adoptive home. She was helped to understand the way in which adoptive parents become known to us, the study we make of them in order to select the right baby for each home, and the year's period of supervision after the child's placement in order to give further protection to the child and the adoptive parents. The present law in relation to adoption was also interpreted.--, Jean's baby was placed in a carefully selected adoptive home when he was three months of age. The social worker talked to Jean, telling her about the foster parents and their home (without giving any identifying information). Jean felt much more secure in this knowledge and said to the social worker "now I know I have made the best decision for my baby's future." Since returning to her home community, jean has attended church regularly, has sung in the choir, attended the young people's society. She now has plans for further education and a higher goal in a job. She has been more understanding of some of the problems her parents have had, and she is helping her younger brothers and sisters to find their way toward more complete satisfactions. The fact that jean has had a child born out of wedlock has not "ruined" her life. With the help of the social worker, she has been able to draw forth both the positives and negatives of this very difficult experience and to use these in building a better future for herself. As previously stated, there will be approximately 100,000 babies born out of wedlock in the United States this year. This means that 100,000 mothers will be needing the security of careful planning for their own futures and the future of their babies. It is your responsibility as citizens of your community - as teacher, doctor; minister, nurse, A new adoption law became effective June 19, 1946 in Kentucky. This new law states in part "Any person or parent instrumental in placing, or who assists, aids or abets in placing a child for adoption in a home other than its own without notifying the Department (Department of Public Welfare) in writing and having its advice and consent shall be guilty of contributing to the neglect of such child as that offense is defined by the Kentucky Revised Statutes, 1944 Edition, Chapter 199, and punished as therein provided." Page 16 Arthur's mother wanted to keep ham too, but she loved him in a way that made her want to consider his future before her own. She said, "I am too young-I need to finish High School. My son needs a mother and a father now." When Arthur was three months of age, she gave her consent to his placement in an adoptive home. She bad confidence in the social worker who stood by her during this difficult experience. She had the assurance that the right adoptive home was selected for her son. "Soon as you learn to drive your car, I want you to take your Ma and me down to see Daddy Claxton," Pa said. "I've been wantin' to see old Daddy here lately. Your Ma wants to see Aunt Sebie." "I think I can get you there all right," I told Pa. "Can you take us Sunday?" "Yes," I said. "Want to go soon as I can," Pa said, "for old Daddy surely hasn't much longer to live in this world. I wonder what he's dom' to keep busy since he left the railroad. We've put in many a day workin' together, but we couldn't help gettin' old. Now we have to talk about what we have MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, -1947 lawyer, businessman, neighbor, relative-to refer any unmarried mother, coming to your attention, to a social work agency. In a rural area the logical person from whom to seek help is the Child Welfare Worker, but unfortunately not all counties have such workers. Under any circumstances the State Department of Welfare, Division of Child Welfare has a responsibility for this service. Contact can be made directly with the State Depart= ment for suggestions as to where the girl may get help through eit::er a public or private agency. Maude Morloc:-1, Consultant with the United States Children's Bureau, has studied the problem of the unmarried mother over a long period of years and she says, "The thought that should motivate all in contact with the girl is that what has happened to her need not be a destructive experience, as it is ge:lerally accepted that it must be. She can look forward to marriage and motherhood under happier circumstances, for the records show that many can and do achieve satisfactory marriages. All depends, or at least much depends, upon the attitude the girl encounters and the help she is given at a fateful time." 'dl p' April Again JESSE STUART done. I'd likc to hear old Daddy laugh again just like he used to laugh when we pulled track and tamped cross-ties!" When Sunday came Mom and Pa climbed in the back seat of the car. Pa grunted before he sat down. "It's my legs," he said as he put his cane down beside him. "I'm not the man I used to be. I'll bet we'll find old Daddy in a wheel chair." "Maybe not," Mom said. JESSE STUART is known to almost everybody as the author of Man With a Bull Tongue Plow, and Taps for Private Tussie. More end more widely he is becoming known for his generous enthusias for projects having a social interest for his own people of mountains. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK As I drove along, Pa looked through his new spectacles at the fallow fields covered with scrubby pines and sawbriar clusters and bisected by eroded gullies. " Everything is gettin' old," Pa said to Mom. "The hills are gettin' old. They raised real heavy crops of corn, cane, and tobacco when I's a boy." Pa talked as we rolled a 1 o n g the sycamore shaded lanes, dashed over the little creeks that flowed brightly in the spring sunlight. Soon, we left the hollow road to an asphalt highway. It wound over the low hills where we saw plowed gardens and painted cottages surrounded by neatly shaven lawns. It would not be long before we came to the cottage where the Claxtons lived. "The last time I was at old Daddy's place," Pa said, "I had to climb a ladder to get up the bank to his house. I've just been sittin' here thinkin' how they'll get Daddy's coffin down to the road when he dies. He ought to be thinkin' about it. I think they could let his coffin down the bank with ropes." "But Daddy's not dead yet," Mom said. "He may live longer than you think." Now there were fewer curves to swing around and fewer hills to climb. I made better time as we neared the cottage where Daddy and Aunt Sebie lived. "Look, won't you," Pa said with a s u d d e n burst of new life. "There's Daddy's old hill farm. Somebody's cut the undergrowth from his beech groves." "Maybe, he's done it," Mom said. "He couldn't have done it," Pa said. "Look at the posts in his fences. All sound as silver money." "Well, were here," I said, pulling to the side of the road and stopping the car. "This is not the place," Pa said looking from the car window up the bank. "I don't see any ladder up the bank." "Concrete steps," Mom said. When we got out of the car, Pa stood supporting himself on his cane. He looked at the concrete steps up the steep slope that wound gently to a white-painted cottage high upon the bank. On each side the walkway, the steep slope was cov Cered with lush grass. Tall yellow locusts, with flcwering tops that were alive with bees, grew on '~Ds steep grassy slope. It was a slope of exquisite ",,GUuty. Page 17 "I'd like to know whose doin' all this work for old Daddy," Pa said as his cane tapped gently on the concrete steps. "I'm doin' it, Mick," Daddy Claxton said, then he laughed until you could have heard him at the far side of his beech groves. "Who did you think was doin' it?" Daddy Claxton came down the steps to meet us, holding his big hand to greet us. "How are you, Mick?" he asked shaking Pa's hand. "Not much good, Daddy," Pa said. "Throw away that c a n e and you'll be all right," Daddy said to Pa laughing louder than ever. "You don't look right with a cane." "You look twenty years younger, Daddy," Pa s*d as he looked at Daddy's bright blue eyes and al his smooth face. "I am twenty years younger, Mick," Daddy said. When Aunt Sebie, a tall spry woman with a lean face and snow white hair, heard Pa and Daddy talking she hurried from the kitchen. "Mallie," she said to Mom, "I've just been thinkin' that you'd get down to see us since you got your new car." She greeted Mom and they walked toward the white-painted cottage together, each talking faster than birds in April. I watched them as they entered the house, looking at some new antique porch chairs Aunt Sebie had bought for a bargain. "Have you done all this work, Daddy?" Pa asked. "I'm not kiddin' you, Mick," Daddy said, "I've done it all. I made these steps and sodded this bank. I dug yellow locust sprouts up five years ago and set this bank to keep the dirt from slippin'. Look at 'em now!" "Big enough for fence posts," Pa said. "It doesn't take a hill long to wash away," Daddy said. "And, it doesn't take long to stop it. Locust roots are good to hold the ground for there are so many roots on a tree and they are tough as leather." "Daddy, I've often wondered about you since we left the railroad." Pa said. "I didn't expect to find you still workin'." "Mick, I didn't find out what life was all about until it was almost too late to live," Daddy said, slapping Pa on the back. "I didn't know that I Page 18 could make a livin' for Sebie and me on this little poor farm until I tried it. I've had more real enjoyment workin' here for myself than I've ever had in my life." "Don't you ever get lonely for 'em? Don't you miss the mournful whistles of the freight engines?" "Not one bit, Mick," Daddy said as we walked slowly across the lush yard grass. "I never want to hear train whistles again. I've got sweeter music around here than train whistles!" "Yow-yow-yowl" "Boof-boof-boof !" "Dogs," Pa said. "I'd rather hear 'em bark, Mick, as to hear trains whistle," Daddy said. "Come and look at my dogs!" "Daddy you ust to say when we worked on the railroad that you wouldn't have a dog on your place," Pa reminded him. "Never changed my mind about anything until I reached seventy, Mick," Daddy said. "Pretty late, Daddy." "Better then than never," he told Pa laughing louder than the April wind. We walked across the yard to the far edge where there was a high woven-wire fence. A pretty shepherd nuzzled his nose against the wire, whining his friendliest greetings to welcome us. "Where did you get 'im, Daddy?" Pa asked. "Sebie woke me in the night when she heard a little pup whinin'," Daddy said. "I got out'n bed, lit my lantern and went down to the creek. It was upon a rock in the middle of the creek, wet and tremblin' like a leaf in the November wind. I held it in the palm of my warm hand while I looked around to see where it came from. I found the coffee sack weighted with rocks and four dead puppies in it. This one had got through a hole in the sack. I brought it to the house and its eyes we-en't opened. But, we raised it." "What would you have done if all the pups had been alive?" I asked him. "I'd a-raised 'em all if I could," he answered quickly. As we talked about this pretty shepherd, Aunt Sebie was over on the porch showing Mom her cats. There must have been fifteen cats gathered around them. "It's the same way with cats," Daddy said pointing to the cats. "People carry them down the MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, 194.1~) road and dump them out at our place. They come up here and we feed 'em. They soon become pets and we wouldn't take anything for 'em. I don't know just how many cats we have. But I do know that we don't have a mean cat." "Where did you get this Irish Setter?" Pa asked as the deep red colored bird dog walked across the yard. "i saw a bird hunter shoot him over there on Cartwell's hill," Daddy said pointing to the hill, "because he rushed the quails. He left him for dead. I heard 'im whinin' later and I went after 'im. I worked hard to save his life. I'm glad he won't bother birds. I don't want a dog around here that will bother my birds." "Mere dogs," Pa said with surprise looking at the woven-wire pen behind the cottage. "Got nine dogs, Mick," Daddy said. "Have to keep 'em in pens to keep 'em from fightin' one another. They are jealous over me, Mick. See that beagle hound over there. Family moved off and left him up yander at the first house on your right as you drive back up the highway. Little fellow staved there and waited for his master to come back until he nearly starved. Then he came down here and fell in my yard. He was that near gone. I poured warm sweet milk down 'im. He got all right. My other dogs are strays. They just drifted here and started stayin' with me." After Aunt Sebie showed her cats to Mom, she took Mom over the yard showing her the wild flowers and mild shrubs that Daddy had dug up in the woods and had set out for her among the tame flowers. "Daddy's so good anymore to set flowers for me," Aunt Sebie told Mom. "He never would bother with flowers until he was retired from his job." "Retired from eight hours work to s i x t e e n hours work, Mick," Daddy said laughing until he could be heard across Town Branch valley. "I ust to look at my watch to see how near it was i to quittin' time. Now, I never look for I'm afraid it's time to quit work. Have better health than I ever had in my life. Did you see my fences and my pasture as you drove along the road?" "I couldn't believe you'd done all that work," Pa said. "Well, I've done it all, Mick," he said. "There's ,,) not a rotten post in one of my fences. Got ~~ pasture underbrushed of briars and sprouts." ~ummer, 1947 While Mom and Aunt Sebie looked at the flowers and Daddy and Pa talked about the days they had put in on the railroad together, how they used to mow the poison vines along the track since they were the only two men in their gang immune to poison vines, I looked at a hen running around on one good and one wooden leg. "What happened to that hen?" I asked. "Car run over her down there in the road two years ago," he said. Ground her leg off and I fixed her wooden leg. I wouldn't have killed the poor old thing at all." As Daddy walked about showing Pa his dogs, the chickens followed him over the yard. The hen with the wooden leg tried to stay the closest to his feet. Birds and pigeons flew down from the bird boxes and alighted on his big hat-brim and his shoulders. They talked to him and Daddy told Pa they were telling him they were hungry. Daddy held the palms of his hands out and the birds knocked each other away as they all tried to crowd on his outspread hands. "You see when birds like a man like these birds like me, Mick," Daddy said, "It's a sure sign that my heart is all right and that I'm going to live a long time. You know when we were pensioned off'n the railroad because we were too old and young men took our places, it was in the middle of autumn. The leaves were dyin'. Everything was dyin' and there was trouble over the world. I thought I was an old man, Mick, I thought everything was over. I was seventy years old then and everything was dyin', grass, flowers, and leaves. And the birds were goin' south. When I came home, I went to work about my place. I soon found out I didn't need the pension the railroad was nice enough to give me. I can live without it with my garden and cows!" Pa looked strangely at Daddy as he talked. Pa looked at his hands filled with talking birds, his broad hat-rim filled with quarelling birds. Then Pa looked at the chickens gathered around him and he watched the dogs as they nuzzled the woven-wire pens and whined to him. Pa leaned on his cane, his face wore a strange expression. I'd never seen an expression such as the one on Pa's face now. He seemed to think that Daddy had found new life while he had lost his life; he seemed to think that Daddy was getting young inn=in while he was growing older. `,,y'l felt like everything was over for me when I MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 19 left the railroad," Pa said. "I felt old as the gulley-washed hills that had been plowed until they were old and tired-just like an old man!" "I spent fifty-four years on the ra i 1 r o a d , Mick," Daddy said. You spent t h i r t y years, didn't you?" "Yes," Pa said. "That's not long." "It's a long time," Pa said, twirling his cane. "It's not how long a man lives, Mick," Daddy said, "It's how he lives. I've lived more since I've come home to stay on this little forty-acre farm. I've had more enjoyment with my cats, birds, chickens and dogs. I've loved to set wild flowers in the yard for Sebie. I don't feel anymore like the whole world is dyin'. I feel like the whole world is much alive in its springtime and that I'm in the springtime of life. I've never been so happy, Mick." "And you look so young," Pa said. "I thought y'd be in a wheel chair." ou 1 "Wheel chair," Daddy repeated, laughing until his laughter re-echoed on the cliffs beyond Town Branch and returned to mock him. "I'm younger than 1 have ever been in my life. I'm young because I'm in love with everything around me. I'm seventy-five years young. The earth is young; and it is spring! Go home and throw that cane away, Mick. You are too young to walk with a cane." Pa didn't say anything. He stood 1 e a n i n g against his cane watching Mom and Aunt Sebie as they lifted young pigeons from the boxes. Mom and Aunt Sebie laughed as if it were the Aprils of theix lives. April was in the trees and the flowers and the yellow locust tops and April was in them. Everybody laughed and talked. The pigeons cooed and the chickens cackled to each other and to Aunt Sebie, Mom, Daddy Claxton, Pa and me. The dogs whined to us. The cats meowed to us. The hen with the wooden leg trotted about and was happy as the other chickens. But the April sun was sinking over the scene. "Daddy, I feel a lot younger since I've see you again," Pa said, "but the sun in the sky tells us we'd better be startin' for home. I want you and Aunt Sebie to come and see us soon as you can." "We'll do that, Mick," Daddy said. "Don't let this be your last trip to see us." "We won't." Mom and Aunt Sebie exchanged fond fare Page 20 wells, laughing, talking, free and jovial as the spring wind that rumbled through the yellow locust tops. We walked slowly down the concrete steps to the highway where we got in the car and started for home. Pa craned his neck to see Daddy's clean pasture field and his sound fence posts again. As we rolled quickly over the a s p h a 1 t highway and onto the hollow sycamore-shaded lanes, I l o o k e d in the front mirror where I watched Pa rolling down a sidewindow with one hand as he fingered nervously at his cane with the other. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK The redbud and the dogwood Are songs in every heart While spring is in Kentucky. What poet has the art To set their bloom to music? Their blending is a chord O f nature's composition Beyond the spoken word. -John Lincoln Harman Three Questions For The Mountain Church HAROLD F. Few persons interested in mountain society doubt the vital place of the church in the life of this area. Likewise, few doubt that the church could and should make a much greater contribution than it has made heretofore. A brief appraisal of the situation, organized around three somewhat related questions is presented here. These are not new questions. They are known to all familiar with our American rural church movement. They orient us toward both study and action and have implications for the individual local church as well as the area-wide scene. First, we may ask, how effective an organization is the mountain church? Second, how inclusive or exclusive is it? Lastly, is it "a part of," or "apart from" the community? Effective or Ineffective? An ideal measure of the effectiveness of the church would be the proportion of devout and active Christians in an area and the rate of growth of this group. Because of the difficulties of determining such measures, however, we must be content with less adequate information. Four criteria of organizational effectiveness are suggested. They are: (1) the rate of church membership, (2) the calibre of leadership, (3) the nature of auxiliary organizations and (4) the relative HAROLD F. KAUFMAN is Associate Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Kentucky, has had an active part in the work of the Council of Southern Mountain Workers for a number of years and is the author of a number of articles pertaining to the Rural Church. Summer, 194i"'1 KAUFMAN strength of the church in comparison with other organized groups. It is well known that the proportion of church members in the Southern Appalachians is relatively low as compared with many other sections of the country. In Kentucky, ` for example, the lowest ratios of church membership are found in the southeastern, mountain portion of the State. The counties in the north-central section of Kentucky, on the other hand, have ratios of church membership three to five times that of the mountain counties. The effectiveness of our mountain churches is certainly influenced by the conviction, insight and resourcefulness of their leadership. This applies to both ministerial and lay leadership. It is well known that rural ministers have less training, shorter tenure and lower salaries than their urban colleagues. Mountain ministers in turn compare unfavorab'y on these and other characteristics with those in more prosperous rural areas. A recent survey of five mountain counties in Kentucky revealed that only 30 per cent of the ministers there devoted full time to the ministry. One out of four of these individuals devoted full time to one church. One in three had some college or seminary training, and only two out of five received more than $1000 a year annual salary. More adequately trained leaders and a better use of those we have is an obvious need of the mountain church. The mountain church m--y work out a type of organization in which it c•~ ~'~~.mmer, 1947 more effectively utilize its trained minister as well as lay leader. A part of this program would Lallow for the utilization of ministerial students as interns. In setting up in-service training the great variations ;n background must be recognized. On the one hand, there is the seminary graduate with considerable experience in the mountain parish and on the other the relatively untrained, lay preacher. Mr. Vladimir Hartman, in a recent issue of MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK, well described the problem involved in broadening the outlook of the completely pulpitcentered and relatively untrained mountain preacher. The organizational effectiveness of the mountain church might also be compared with the minimum standards suggested by the Committee on Town and Country of the Federal Council of Churches. These standards call for: (1) a resident pastor devoting full-time to the work of the ministry, (2) public worship every Sabbath, (3) Sunday School meeting regularly, (4) Vacation Churca School annually, (5) youth program, (6) adequate program of community service and (7) reasonably adequate plant. In view of these - standards it is of interest to note that approximate ly one-third of the churches in the five-county survey described above had Sunday Schools; one third had preaching services every Sunday; and one-fourth of them had youth organizations. Although the ratios of church membership are relatively low in the mountains, the church is the strongest voluntary organization in this area. This is true because it has relatively little competition from other organized activities. In many open country neighborhoods, it is the only organized group. A recent study of a selected population in the Kentucky mountains showed that from four to five times as many persons belong to church as to all other organizations combined. Knowledge of its potential strength should be a real challenge to the church. In most situations, however, the church is not one united group but a number of unrelated organizations. The organizational effectiveness of the mountain chuIch must be seen from the standpoint of the society of which it is a part. Hence, in our mountain counties there is a danger of imposing, without some modification, standards demanding a high degree of organization. This point is dis,,cussed more in detail below. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 21 Inclusive or Exclusive? The second question we should ask concerning the mountain church concerns its inclusiveness. Unfortunately, to speak of the church as the most important organization in the mountain community is misleading, for the church is not one united group but a number of independent ones. Three significant types of cleavage among our churches may be noted. These are: (1) the doctrinal, (2) the social class and (3) the town-country. It is well known that the mountain areas are almost entirely Protestant with the Southern Baptist, the Methodist, and the Presbyterians among the leading religious bodies. In the Kentucky mountains, the Southern Baptists have the largest membership; the anti-missionary Baptist churches grouped together are second in membership; the Methodist third, and the Disciples of Christ fourth. The smaller religious bodies are much more numerous in the mountains than they are in the more prosperous sections of the State such as the Central Bluegrass. Although mountain churches have a strong sectarian emphasis, there is a growing group of leaders who believe that in some phases of the Christian ministry the work can best be carried on cooperatively. On this point, information from the survey of five mountain counties is both relevant and heartening. One-third of the 119 churches surveyed in this area reported that they were engaging in some type of cooperative activity with other churches. Twenty-five per cent of the churches cooperated on special day programs; 13 per cent had joint preaching services; 110 per cent had cooperative Vacation Bible Schools; 10 per cent had joint youth services; 7 per cent shared the use of a building and 6 per cent cooperated with other churches in carrying on Sunday Schools. Needless to say, the type of cooperation which overcomes sectarian differences is that which focuses attention on the immediate tasks at hand and does not delay action because of lack of doctrinal agreement. The mountain area is a mission field for the church, presenting real problems but also great opportunities. This means that in some ways there are greater possibilities for cooperative work here than in the more established fields. As a whole the mountain church is relatively young and is growing. Elizabeth Hooker found that in the Southern Appalachians church membership in Page 22 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, 1947 creased almost twice as fast as the population between 1906 and 1926. Only one-third of the 119 mountain churches reported above had been established as long as 50 years. In contrast to this it was found that five-sixths of 471 churches studied in the Bluegrass area of Kentucky were 50 or more years of age. In mountain communities as elsewhere, definite differences are seen to exist among the churches with respect to the social standing of their membership. Even in isolated neighborhoods where everyone appears "about equal" it has been observed that families of the highest social standing are not likely to attend churches in which those of the lowest status predominate. Also persons of higher income and education are more likely to be church members and leaders than those of lower status. The religious bodies appealing to this latter group are growing more rapidly than the more established churches. (This trend is well described in an article in this journal, Fall, 1944, entitled "The Pentacostal Churches.") Some have suggested that two types of ministry are necessary-one to the more fortunate and one to the less fortunate. Others, however, would contend that the church must overcome rather than merely mirror the divisiveness of society. This is especially true, it would be argued, in our mountain communities in which social differences are not nearly so great as in urban areas. Another type of division which must be overcome if the mountain church is to attain greater inclusiveness is that of the separation of the town from the open country church. A consciousness of the total community must be developed. The lack of such consciousness was aptly described by Dr. Hermann N. Morse a number of years ago. "The Protestant Church," he said, "thinks in terms of constituencies rather than of populations . . . they are class churches which appeal to certain intellectual or emotional types. Very few are community churches in the sense of actual service, or seeking to serve all elements in the community, and all aspects of community life." As centralization in the county-seat and other towns in the mountain areas develops, the open country population in increasing numbers will be lost to the church unless a community-wide strategy is followed. A Part o f or Apart from the Community? The above discussion leads us to our third ques tion. How is the church to develop a community consciousness-to become a part of, rather than apart from, the community? Can religion be made a qualifying factor in every experience of life or must we be content for it to be merely a segment of our existence? The relation of the church and community may be described in two ways: (1) the community's influence on the church and (2) the church's effect on the community. The influence of social and economic forces on the church may be seen in a number of ways. The Southern Appalachian area, for example, is relatively unorganized and the church reflects this condition. Dr. Paul E. Doran (MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK, Fall 1943) has described this condition when he says: `The emphasis is not so much upon the church as an organization as it is upon an audience called together to hear some man preach. Many churches do not even have membership rolls nor is there any semblance of organization such as is found in Christian churches generally throughout the world. In such churches the preacher almost never lives in the community he serves and yet he is the center of the whole program." As mountain society has relatively little formal organization, one should use membership ratios with caution in comparing the religiosity of the mountain people with more urbanized populations. Yet mountain life is in process of great change. Organized activities are growing rapidly and the church is facing more and more competition from other agencies. Thus it is doubtful if a mountain church lacking in organization and program would long maintain its present relatively strong position in community life. Many of those interested in the future of the mountain church are not content to have it remain passive with respect to the social changes just described but want it to assume leadership boldly in the building of the community of tomorrow. To do this there must be a social and intellectual mapping of the community and larger area and a discovery of ways in which the Gospel can be applied. What, for example, are the most effective methods of interesting a church in its community-special study classes, projects, the sermon, or other means? As to the content of community program, we need not look far. The mountain community's greatest wealth is its children, and their education, health (Continued on page 33) ~urnrrie,, 1947 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 23 The Highlands And Rural Values A Report o f the 35th Annual Conference o f Southern Mountain Workers', DAYTON HULBURT Most of the reminders of the war were gone this year when the Council of Southern Mountain Workers met again for the thirty-fifth annual meeting in Knoxville. Raymond B. Drukker, Chairman of the Council, opened the first session on Tuesday evening, March 4. After being welcomed by Emmett Burns McGukin, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Knoxville, where the meetings were held, the group heard T. B. (Scotty) Cowan, Pastor of Everybody's Church, Lexington, Kentucky, speak on "God and .Economics." The general theme of the conference was "The Highlands and Rural Values" and several aspects of thiq theme were considered. Dr. Howard Beers, Professor of Rural Sociology, the University of Kentucky, led the first panel and open forum, on "Unfinished and New Business in our Dr. Beers summarized the conclusions of the panel and forum discussion by saying: "Neither factories alone, nor continual relief programs, nor a mass migration from the area, nor governmental purchase of land could possibly solve the problems of the Appalachian region. Because there are many problems there are many answers. The right factories, suitably organized, would be helpful. It would help also to restore timber on many locations; to abandon some land rather than to clear more hillsides; to adopt better farming practices on productive bottom lands; to have well-administered programs of public works; to have federal and state support for schools; to increase migration from some areas; to have the government acquire some land; to extend rural electricity and telephones; to have hospitals and rural health centers; improved management of ,local government; cooperative marketing of special crops and cooperative use of farm machinery; organizations of business men to stimulate improvement in business practices; more adequate public DAYTON HULBURT has been Director of Admissions at Berea College since 1945. He is a graduate of Berea and of the Chicago Theological Seminary. u health and public welfare programs. Each of these developments would contribute something - but none of them alone could accomplish the whole task. The amount of unfinished and new business in the region is as great as the amount of living to be done there." Three groups met simultaneously to discuss specific phases of the total question. At the final session on Thursday morning, each group submitted a report of its activities and conclusions. Group I asked the question, "What Conflicting Forces are at Work?" as it considered Dilemmas in Education in our region. Led by Dagnall Folger, Director of the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, North Carolina, this group decided that education and educational finance should be based on the principle of taxing the nation's wealth, wherever it is, to educate the nation's children, wherever they are. More federal aid is essential. It is not financial handicaps alone, however, that keep the schools from doing a good job. There is lack of a proper sense of values: too much emphasis on book-learning for white-collar jobs; too little respect for manual labor-and too little provision for the 70 percent who will not find white-collar jobs or go to college. We want teachers who teach because they desire to teach and love youth, but we should pay them more than we have been paying. Some public schools are handicapped by petty politics. We must do a better job of arousing our people to participate in politics, so they will support right causes and right candidates. To justify their existence, private schools must carry out their pioneering function. They must point the way for public education. There is no need for duplication of effort. It was felt that the group did not fully decide what the function of private education is. Per A detailed report of the conference is available for lOc at the Council of Southern Mountain Workers, Berea, Ky. Page 24 haps, it was said, they might break up into smaller groups next year and tackle the problem again. Group II, in considering the Rural Church, asked a question about "New Wine in Old Bottles." Mr. Arthur W. Hewitt, pastor, rural church leader, and educator, from Northfield, Vermont, led the discussion. The group emerged with the following conclusions: Perhaps it is not strange that the present churches are bursting under present-day difficulties; maybe they ought to burst with things in the shape they're in. The church school should reach all children. Perhaps we should do away with Sunday School, and substitute Church School. We are content with "peanuts" in church work; we ought to hold out for more. Seminaries, perhaps, are not yet ready to train a minister to serve the whole community. Men in Seminaries who work with rural fields sometimes do merely "lip service." However, that is better than nothing. When the recreation leader becomes accepted as a part of a community, then the recreation becomes communitycentered. Group III, the Youth Group, was composed of students from a number of schools and colleges. It formulated its own discussion topics after hearing the opening sessions of the conference. Under the leadership of Ralph J. Ramsey, Instructor of Rural Sociology, at the University of Kentucky, the young people had time to discuss three topics which the; chose. The first topic was: Does Christianity Have a Place in the School? There was varied opinion among the group on this question. The second problem was that of Equality in Federal and State Funds for all American Youth Regardless of Race, Religion, or Income. The third question was, Will Industrializing the South Keep Youth at Home? It was felt that most of our young people migrate to urban com MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, 1947 munities, in the North and East. In the South there are the necessary manpower and natural resources. Why not put factories here in rural sections? More of our young people would stay in the South. Factories would increase living standards. The youth group adopted a resolution that was presented to she general assembly. The motion was made, seconded, and voted on, unanimously, that the youth group have a two-day conference for Rural Youth, sponsored by the Council of Southern Mountain Workers. The second general session of the conference included another panel and open forum, on the topic, "To What Extent Shall Broadway be Brought to the Country?" Glyn A. Morris, Supervising Principal, Evarts, Kentucky, was discussion leader. The group agreed on the assumption that the present Council program meets the approval of the group, and also on the obvious need for recreation. The only question remaining was "What kind?" educate people to entertain themselves, and rule ~, out competitive recreation. Others said we should teach people how to compete, because competition is a part of life, and we need to face it. In summarizing the discussion, one of the mem bers of the panel said that in recreation, compe tition is a good thing in its place, but there should be some attempt to teach recreation which would emphasize cooperation, at least part of the time, instead of competition exclusively. A certain amount of Broadway is important, and desirable, but folk games and music, an important part of our heritage, ought to be preserved. The panel attempted to set up standards to judge various kinds of entertainment and recreation, but had no success, either in who should set the standard, or in how to meet it. The question, "Shall we teach our people the highest types of recreation we know, in order that they will then want more of it, or shall we wait until they know it, in order that they may ask us for it?" was left unanswered.J Some members of the group said we should mmer, 1947 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Among The Books HERE WAS ONCE A SLAVE, by Shirley Graham, selected by Carl Van Doren, Lewis Gannett, and Clifton Fadiman from over 600 manuscripts for the Julian Messner Award as the best book combating intolerance in America. Published by Julian Messner, Inc., New York. 310 pp. $3.00. Not very many Americans today know that there was a Negro named Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery, who spoke for the Abolitionists and ran a newspaper until slavery was ended, who later held high offices in the District of Columbia and became the first U. S. Minister to Haiti, and who commanded the respect of great audiences in Europe as well as in this country. It is very timely that a popular biography of him should now appear, so that this outstanding Negro may be as well-known to us as Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. There Was Once a Slave tells the story of his ouch s0 vividly and with such power that one rods it very difficult t0 put the book down. The picture of the slave-boy who was brought up in Baltimore as a companion for his master's son, picking up good manners and education, then was discarded, sent to a brutal cotton farmer to be "broken in"; of his horrible beatings; his secret rescue by a Voodoo leader; his determination to "follow the North Star," and attempts to escape, at first almost disastrous, then triumphant, through his bold and clever tactics-all these things are stirringly told, and into the story the author succeeds in weaving the tale of Ameba Kemp, a timid white woman who probably saved Frederick's life at the same plantation where he was almost beaten to death, and through whom, some fifty years later, he was to meet his second wife. In fact, the threads of the story are so skillfully woven that one seems to be reading a fast-moving novel, rather than a real biography, and one wonders how the author has possibly ~anaged to do it. To a student of the traditional "white" histories of the Reconstruction days in the South, the Cuthor's point of view on such controversial issues as the Carpetbag governments and such a fide as Francis Cardoza seems utterly topsy turvy. This furnishes valuable perspective and reminds us that histories written by partisan men are invariably prejudiced and tend to whitewash their own side and discredit the opposition. Probably the true facts lie somewhere between the extreme points of view of those who excoriate the Carpetbag regimes on the one hand, and those who justify them, on the other. There are most arresting and absorbing pictures presented also of John Brown, whom Douglass loved, of Douglass' sponsor William Lloyd Garrison, and of Richard Cobden and Daniel O'Connell whom Douglass worked with and with whom he moved crowds when he went abroad before his freedom was purchased. The last part of the book is not so powerful as the first part-perhaps because the great drama and struggle of his life were past. Fame and fortune had succeeded slavery and the intense teamwork of Abolitionist days. The intensity and single-mindedness of his early years could hardly continue under these conditions. Perhaps the author strives a little too hard to show that they did. Be that as it may, Miss Graham writes well. Her style is smooth, her choice of words and images masterly, and the whole book shows her artistry. One hopes that millions will learn through her pages of the struggle, the achievements, the dignity, the humanity of Frederick Douglass, born a slave. -Stuyvesant Barry, Instructor, Pine Mountain School, Pine Mountain, Kentucky NORTH STAR SHINING, by Hildegarde Hoyt Swift, William Morrow and Co., New York, 1947. 46 pp. Mrs. Swift is not a novice in dealing with racial matters in this greatest democracy in the Western World. I do not call America that to gloss over her manifest sins, nor to hold her up to scorn because she has belied the wondrous mission of freedom and justice she has espoused. I can sing with Mrs. Swift, and yet be as critical and unsparing as she is in the couplet toward the end of the first canto: "Through the loss of my own freedom to build a world for the free." This epic of the black man in the New World is not all tragedy, and its glory is its lack of selfpity. This mood Mrs. Swift has caught, and her use of free verse is flexible for this high purpose "Yet I brought immeasurable gifts I brought the gentleness of the Bantu The Dahomian's arrogance and courage. I bronwht devotion-and wisdom-" and equally this defiance of Frederick Douglass "I fought for my people With the keen rapier of a word." The running comments on heroes and heroines has a long gamut, and it is played upon with fidelity and skill. The notables like Douglass and Harriet Tu'man are there (we think of Mrs. Swift's former tribute to Harriet in her .Railroad to Freedom) but also the less-well-known are not unheard, both of former eras and of these frenzied latter days. The "types" of black folk are introduced without apology and with real charm; all must be included to make a complete picture of what they both were and are. I like best of all in this the stanza on page 24, with its simple but impressive catalogue "I am the man in the ranks, I am the taxi driver, I am a Pullman porter, I am a mailman, I stow freight; I paint ships. You may not know our names, but we know you." Then, one cannot help noting the care with which the artist, Lynd Ward, has handled the same subject matter. Whether it is the average and almost unknown worker "in the ranks," or whether it is a Hayes or a Carver or Miss Anderson, he is reverent and filled with awe as he catches the spirit of person and event and places it before one in line and shadow and color, too. This is good collaboration, and one congratulates the author on having an artist colleague with ability to see and to transmit his vision by this means. We should be less than human if we did not pause with bowed heads as we honor a black chaplain of this World War II to whom this volume is dedicated. His eulogy is on page 44, and is an appeal that will not be forgotten by those of MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, 199''•i' us who also lost our sons in that same fearful war. (Our own lad lies in a foreign grave in North Italy, while Clarence Griggs lies in far away Okinawa Reviews should be candid as well as apprec'~l ative, and I cannot share too greatly the spirit of the old slave who chants on page 20 "Why should I leave the plantation I loved?" and I know full well the romance and folk-lore and balladrv which surround this with a sort of halo. It is like "My Old Kentucky Home" and so must forever have its appeal. But it is also true that the slave who was faithful was manly about it. He was too much of a gentleman to leave; he did not stav because of weakness or mere sentiment. If the master had possessed the same devotion to l:is duty, rather than thinking how he could exploit "Uncle Tom" all the more, we should have the better side of a none-too-lovely era. When one has nostalgia for an old order which was corrupt to the core, something less than human self-respect takes control. Because I know the author did not intend to convey that, I call attention to it, lest some rest content with a shat low romanticism that still feels the Slaveocrac was a worthy part of the American scene. -William Lloyd Imes President, Knoxville College Knoxville, Tenn. AN INTRODUCTION TO PLAYWRITING, by Samuel Selden. F.S. Crofts, New York, 1946, 120 pp. If a truly useful book on how to write a play is within the realm of possibility, there is every go,d reason why Samuel Selden should be its au,.ior In his long association with the Carolina Playmakers and with their founder, the late Frederick Koch, and as producer of the plays of Paul Green, Mr. Selden has a background that should prepare him eminently for the role of guide into the intricacies of dramatic composition. He has; in addition, a disarming modesty in his claims. It is rarely indeed that one finds the author of a "how-to-do-it" book failing to hirer that the intelligent reader will, upon careful ap ~.: plication of everything within its covers, emerge a master in the field. Says Mrs. Selden " . . . everything stated in these pages will be regarded as~' tentative. As soon as the writer devises his own methods, he will be expected to lay this beek ,5ummer, 1947 But for the beginner who is already at work, there follow some very practical aids and principles. Especially in that section of the book devoted to "Developing the Play" through the eyes of actor, scenic artist, stage manager and audience, we find extremely vaulable material. Here are presented the fruits of rich theatrical experience, mellowed by a thoughtful attitude towards life, which the theatre tyro, as well as some old timers, might do well to digest. In the section on "First Steps" there is a bit of psychological aid which though negatively and statistically expressed, should be of real encouragement to the struggling young author. The results of a questionnaire sent to twenty leading writers indicate, says Mr. Selden, that almost none of them enjoyed the actual process of writing. Properly interpreted, this can indeed encourage those young authors who "confronted with the pain which attends their early efforts . . . have [!statements whether or not they are abnormally dull." Inevitably, the book contains some categorical statements to which the critical theatre person may take exception. But the reader should easily be able to accept the author's advice to skip over material which is foreign to his ways of thinking and yet find much that is more perceptive and practical. For Selden's tone is never dogmatic and his material only occasionally so. An Introduction to Playwriting is not another "how-to-do-it" book. Its accomplishment, like its objective, which is accurately expressed by the title, is modest enough and therefore, in its field, distinctive. And when taken with the grain of salt provided by the author himself, the young writer who has not waited for introductions to the dramatic muse but has plunged ahead and expressed his worship in terms of hard and serious endeavor may well find this unpretentious book an excellent guide for the re-shaping of his efforts into a dramatically acceptable form. -Martin Ponch, Editor of Compass Magazine, Instructor in Speech, State College, San Francisco, Calif. TI-3E CHURCH ACROSS THE STREET, by Reginald D. Manwell and Sophia Lyon Fahs. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 27 Boston: The Beacon Press, 1946 248 pp. The writers of this important book in the field of religious understanding and appreciation have si ificantly woven together a number of fine igni 1 literary threads. Dramatic biographical sketches, historical orientation, clear cut theological definitions, practical aspects of churches are all skillfully worked out. This splendid achievement in popular religious writing combines accurate scholarship with religious empathy. Anyone living in a typical American community will find most of the churches whose founders are described in this book. Here are the founders Martin Luther, John Calvin, Michael Servetus, Ignatius Loyola, Thomas Cranmer, Robert Browne, John Bunyan, George Fox, ,John Wesley, Hosea Ballau, Joseph Smith, and Mary Baker Eddy. The illustrations which accompany each of the chapters are well selected, adding the visual aid of some great personality or dramatic event in history to the material outlined in the text. The writers have taken great pains to anticipate the chief questions that are in the mind of the average person concerning the various denominations. Each of these questions is indicated in a sub-head which breaks up the otherwise solid pages into manageable units. I know of no book which equals this one in providing information and interpretation of controversial ideas. Young people and adults both will enjoy the book and will gain richly from it in appreciating the Church Across the Street and in understanding why it behaves as it does. Not only are the Christian groups dealt with but the final chapter is given over to Judaism. At a time when so many interfaith activities are being launched in the hope of building religious brotherhood it is fitting that the spirit of the synagogue be included in such a volume. In organizing the material around some dominant religious personality each chapter tends to emphasize Religion as a very human affair, but the religious experience of these various persons is sympathetically entered into and concretely described. The book should make a fine contribution to a growing ecumenicity of the Protestant Churches and to the growing awareness of common values among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. -Walter G. Muelder Dean of Boston University School of Theology Page 28 THE HOLY EARTH, by Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Christian Rural Fellowship, New York. 117 pp. This good book is more important than most good books of rural life for several reasons. It is one of the first classics of the modern rural life, movement, written by a real pioneer whose thinking penetrates deeper than mere practical activities. The author is the outstanding philosopher of country life and was chairman of the Commission on Country Life appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. The book is one of backgrounds, and of attitudes, and essential relationships. It represents the productive soil itself as holy, a sacred trust from God, not to be mined or exploited, but to be conserved and developed, because our relationship "J 1;). 4 f~'' "WE LOOK BACKWARD-TO LOOK FORWARD" (Continued from Page 3) doing public school work. They can do specialized work." I wish I could go adequately into the years since Mr. Campbell's death, especially into the long fruitful period when Miss Dingman was our Secretary. The general purpose and character of the Conference has remained the same. Various devices have diversified and enlivened meetings; speeches by distinguished outside authorities, speeches by ourselves-fewer speeches-fewer subjects, more discussions, panels, forums, exhibits, moving pictures. We are not only concerned about recreation, but we furnish some to ourselves. We sing folk songs instead of talk about them. We have even published, through the kindness of Lynn Rohrbough, a little booklet of folk songs, some of them from our own area. After a long day and evening of discussions, we dance folk dances. There are many enthusiasts now. Since 1933 the Conference has supported an "Itinerant Recreation Leader" who has carried this creative, non-competitive recreation into many a remote school and center. Short Courses at Berea and at the John C. Campbell Folk School have spread interest and skills which climax in a large, annual festival on Berea's big gymnasium MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Summer, 194,"y1 to nature is essentially a spiritual one. The human habit of destructiveness of resources for private gain should be educated out of man.` for it is a violation of God's will which has bound, the principles of reverence and social obligation into all His gifts and the processes of nature. The ideas which permeate this book are the real foundation of all right ways of rural life. Life on the soil is centered in God and the vital forces of nature are sacramental. The book is accompanied by a Study Guide providing a helpful analysis as a basis of seven class discussions. -Rev. A. W. Hewitt Minister and Author, Northfield, Vermont floor, and in smaller regional festivals. Remembering the schools as they were in the days when, by,wagon, horse-or-muleback, I accompanied Mr. Campbell on his long field study, I cannot see groups from all over the mountains dancing joyously together, without a surge of emotion and thankfulness. There have been other interesting developments. Out of a long fostering of craft interests in the mountains, the Conference has given birth to two craft organizations-one more definitely educational, The Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, Inc., and the other, Southern Highlanders, Inc., more definitely a marketing organization. A statement of the sales of mountain handicrafts made through the two is impressive. A joint executive office, known as the Craft Education Program, holds these independent organizations loosely together.; its Director sits on the Conference (now Council) Executive Board. This craft development suggests a possible sim liar development for the fast-growing recreation ), interests which have many outside connections, and in time other groups as they grow stronger, such as the Education and Rural Church Commit- ""~-' tees, which have held many separate meetings, and enthusiasts in cooperative and study-circles. This would not mean necessarily a breaking away from the big central group, but does suggest that the 'ccntral group must keep very much awake. The cheering growth of interest and responsibility among Conference members, and an effort to build u:3 a more active representative revolving Advisory Board, have resulted finally in the incorporation of the Conference as the Council of Southern Mountain Workers, with its charter and by-laws. Just how this more formal organization gill affect us is yet to be seen. Development has been greatly hampered, so far, by lack of an executive; our first Executive Secretary was with us but one year. The Council Executive Board has worked out a long statement of aims and proposed activities which we might find valuable to print and discuss through these pages, or on the open Conference floor. We might, also, well discuss how these desirabie ends might be best brought about. Should the Council's best service be to keep in touch with present and prospective members, act as a clearing house, furnish the machinery for meetings, provide information and advice, carry on Mountain Life and Work and similar services, or should it supplement these by initiating, administerine. and supporting a number of activities such as, fo, example, the Itinerant Recreation Service? The answer might, conceivably, make a difference in the effectiveness of our organization. Certainly it would make a difference in the size and character of our staff and our load of financial responsibility. We know, of course, that its form will not put life and enthusiasm into any organization. The greatest elements in our progress have been, it seems to me, an unusually fine leadership, and the enthusiastic working together of certain special-interest groups, (if I may be permitted to so describe them). Unless our leadership continues broad, live, inspiring, we shall not be able to hold groups bursting with energy and ideas. There is one factor which I think we sometimes overlook. The importance and influence of i agencies such as so many of us represent, is limited by the fact that we have come from outside the mountains. I do not minimize what clear thinking, understanding, sympathetic and tactful effort can do to help improve existing conditions, but the final power for change comes from the inside -from those whose roots, whose home, whose interests are of the area. Until they see needs and set themselves resolutely to meet them, the deepest changes we would like to see will not come. Sometimes I find myself wondering if mountain work, as a whole, inspires the old enthusiasm. Can good roads, consolidated schools, electric irons and ice boxes make up for the loss of romance? In striving for the larger view, have we lost some of the incentives which made our work so thrilling? Do the needs, seen against crying postwar needs, challcnge us as they did when we thought them "peculiar?" If you take away from us our sense of importance, of being able to accomplish, what is to compensate us for the sacrifice (if it is one) of economic opportunity, the comforts and graces of an urban or near-urban existence? Do we truly love country life? Have we, as Raymond Fosdick calls it, "the capacity to be inspired by greater faiths, greater hopes, great ideals?" At the end of an account of the second Conference, in 1914, I find this message which was addressed to Mr. Campbell by Dr. Claxton, but delivered too late to be read at the Conference. I give it to you now-thirty-three years later. "I wish you would give the Conference and those attending my heartiest and sincerest greetings. "I am greatly interested in the problem which you will discuss. In some ways, one of the most fascinating and hopeful problems in all the educational life of the country is that of the education of the white people of the upland South. It is largely a matter of adjustment. If we can ever adapt the school work to the needs of the people we shall have little difficulty in inducing them to take advantage of everything offered. There are no people in the country with greater native ability. The fact that the representatives of these mountain counties in the State Legislatures always vote for improvement in the public schools and for all other progressive things in education, shows their spirit. "We must now find some means by which the various agencies in this section may cooperate intelligently and heartily. We must realize the fact that the great factor in the solution of the problem is the pub Page 30 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK lic school. All other agencies should cooperate with the public school as the central agency. It is only through the public school that the people help themselves. Outside agencies will help them to help themselves. This is about all that outside agencies can ever do profitably for any people. Summer, 1947'?,) "In public school and private school alike we must find a means of readjusting the school work so that the result will be greater intelligence in the life the people live, in the communities in which they live, and greater knowledge and skill in transforming the raw materials of this section into actual wealth." STRAWS IN THE WIND THAT STIRS THE COMMUNITY (Continued from page 8) There are the problems of hereditary office and hereditary leadership. A certain citizen has always been chairman of every committee and must, therefore, always be offered the chairmanship of every committee. Usually he accepts-not because he wants to do anything about what the committee is set up to do but because he has the habit of being chairman, or because it is the sort of thing his family stands for in that community. Here this problem tends to merge with those of noblesse oblige and the aristocratic tradition. The motives of the hereditary leaders are usually most altruistic, but theirs is the philosophy of doing things for people rather than of helping people to become increasingly able to do things for themselves. The problem of who constitutes "the people" is one that every community attempting to control its own destiny must decide. Do "the people" concerned include only those obviously prepared by education and social status to direct the destinies of all? Or does the term apply to "even the least of these" who at first glance may seem so insignificant as to be worthless in any farreaching scheme for the common welfare? What about that one-half, one-third, or two-thirds that may be "underprivileged" because of race or economic and social status? Have they the right and the responsibility to participate in planning pro grams that affect their lives? Or are they merely to share to some degree in the benefits of plans made by others? Are they to be ignored, con sidered, consulted, or included? I I These and other problems exist. That they do exist is not cause for discouragement. In fact, where they are recognized as problems and squarely faced, even though the "solution" is not immediate, there is reason for hope of their ultimate solution through democratic processes. Progress is slow and uneven. Communities are full of contradictions. But there is progress. And when contradictions and variations cease to exist we shall need to reexamine our democracy to see whether it too, has vanished in the face of some efficient authoritarian pattern of social organization. It would, however, be unfair to leave anyone with the impression that any community group finds the way to more abundant life a broad smooth highway. There are always problemseven iii that community which can point with pride to enviable achievements made entirely through the efforts of its own citizens. There are the problems of traditional ways of doing things. "It was good enough for my grandfather and it is good enough for me," either spoken or implied, must be met on every newly opened front. Q_mer, 1947 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 31 EDITORIALS Civilized Murderers It is the easy habit of most of us to blame THEM for the past and present unhappy conditions of the world. Whom do we mean by THEM? Are THEY "Society," the "Government," the "Older Generation"-or just Other People? Does this dream (a real one by the way) perhaps have a suggestion for us? The person who had the dream found himself standing aloof in a room, watching several clever, apparently civilized, well-dressed and well-mannered p e o p 1 e , whom he knew to be murderers. He knew t h e crimes they had committed, and that they were conscious of being sought by the authorities. There was one individual among them who, like the rest, had murdered, but who unlike them, was not conscious of her guilt. The dreamer felt no fear, no articular horror, and not even surprise at being Associated with all these criminals. He did feel ~ncerned about whether or not he had a moral re ons1bility to report the guilty people to the police. He decided that he would not volunteer information, but if asked, would tell the truth. Awakening, he identified himself with the unconscious murderer, and felt the conviction, real and yet part of his dream, that we are all murderers. This brings to the writer's mind a talk heard in the early days of the war-or was it the First World War?-in which a great preacher said, "I am as guilty of killing as the soldier who is doing it for me." "We Look Backward" A part of the title was stolen from Mrs. Campbell's article in order to make a caption for this retrospective look at MOL~1-~-?TAIN LIFE AND WORK, which completes with the present number a kind of cycle, as the Editorial Board and staff end a year of service. This seemed an opportuity to review what we have done, with the hope `hat wherevcr there are gaps or weaknesses, we r iay be guided with suggestions for the future. C We have tried to make each number as wellrounded as possible, touching all the aspects of Gife, especially of mountain life, which we felt would have special interest for workers in the Mountains. During the year MOUNTAIN LIFE Ing with religious problems and interests, three with community, four with education, e i g h t with various aspects of social and economic life, one with handcrafts, one literary essay, two historical and biographical sketches, four stories, and several poems and photographs having regional interest. We have tried to keep abreast of current regional books, and during the year have published reviews of thirty-nine books and nine pamphlets. We have reported the major activities of the Council of Southern Mountain Workers, three conferences and a study tour, in as usable and interesting a manner as we could, and through announcements, reprints, and column comments we have tried to report the activities of this organization. and institutions throughout the area, which ought to be known by all of us. (We have not reported as adequately as we should have done, the Council's recreational program, which is one of the most tangible services offered to the region. In the future we hope to have a regular column devoted to this activity.) This summary of contents gives no idea of the quality of the articles and we know that their quality has been unusual. All of them have come from authorities on the subjects which they write about, and many of the authors were very widely known. This present editorial staff has received and used such contributions with thankfulness, humility, and a real respect for the reputation of MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK, b u 11 t up through twenty-two years' publication. We are making this review of the past year, as I have said, not to boast, but rather to s h a r e frankly with readers the plan and policy which have been used. We seek, with this opening of the door into the editorial office, a greater sharing of the magazine with the readers. We invite you to visit us with correspondence, or in person, and would like to make this the magazine o f all the workers of the area, as well as for them. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK has always been a good magazine. It is good because of its readers as well as its writers, and it will. grow better as readers and writers share more closely in the making of it. Page 32 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK TRAGEDY OF ERRORS-1947 (Continued from page TO) is simply food that carries everything it is sup times the acreage his grandfather could handle, his posed to carry. Such food is produced only b management has ushered in an era of problems such as his ancestors never knew. The reason is partly the nervous speed that must be maintained; he has no time to think; his advisers do his think ing for him. He follows not his own judgment, but the advice of others. Too often that advice is designed t0 fit today's emergency rather than to match the future's needs. And there is always to day's emergency to require expediency rather than the rigid following of principle. As a result, your health and mine suffer the consequences of mis directed, "improved" agriculture. And, while one of the serious aims of the work of the government among farmers is to improve their lives as well as their farming practices, the net effect on the country as a whole seems to have been something less than happy. One of the nation's most serious problems is in the field of deficiency diseases; diseases that are caused by food that lacks some one or more es sentials. Such deficiencies are traceable back to the soil, of course; and the cure for those diseases soil which is literally alive with organisms. The remedy, then, for deficiency diseases of all kinds is to remake the soil in which we grow our crops. While this may sound like an impossible task, it really is not. However poverty-stricken a soil may be, it will grow better crops after even the first season of treatment, if it is supplied with plenty of organic matter. The more organic matter provided the better, if it is either mixed in very thoroughly, or left as a thick layer on top. The effect is about the same whichever way it is done. And after the first year each succeeding season's production from the soil should be better than the last. So, while most of our people who must depend for their food on the corner grocery are at the mercy of the Tragedy of Errors as it exists in 1947, residents of areas where every citizen is his own gardener have a distinct advantage. They can personally chaperone the production of what they eat. And that ability can easily improve the pat, tern of their health. THE NEW AGRICULTURE (Continued from page 12) We have reached a point in this great nation where there is no more free virgin land to be had for the taking. We have destroyed by bad farming and erosion a fourth of what God gave us. Another fourth is more than half gone and the rest will not continue to be productive unless most of I I I us farmers change our ways. All this affects every citizen in the nation. City dwellers perhaps most of all, for it is responsible for higher and higher costs of food and higher and higher taxes not to mention such things as health, vigor and intelligence. We might well look at those miserable people sunning themselves in the marble ruins of great cities in North Africa and consider what destruction of the soil can mean to a great nation. ANNOUNCEMENTS Miss Mary Holbrook, 19 Terrace Street, Brattleboro, Vermont, has been awarded the Smith College Southern Mountain Workship for 1947-48, and. will come to the field September 1st, 1947. Miss Holbrook will travel for five months with Miss Marie Marvel, teaching country dancinb and folk song, and then will be placed in some selected mountain center where she will carry on an independent project for the rest of the term. Miss Holbrook is the third graduate of Smith College to be awarded the Workship, which was established in 1945. Miss Betsy Bankart, of Norwich, Vermont, was the first recipient and Miss') Diana Lcckard, of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, has been the holder this year. Miss Lockard will go to Hindman School next year as full time recreation leader. THREE QUESTIONS FOR THE MOUNTAIN CHURCH (Continued from page 22) and welfare should be its first concern. Another phase of the program of the mountain church in serving its community might well be that of teaching and preaching the stewardship of the natural resources-the land and the forest. Some have observed that the church is in the mountains but not a part of them. That is, it does not reflect the culture of the area and the peculiar needs of the people in its ritual, program and ministry. We have strong Biblical support, however, for an approach which attempts to integrate religion with the total culture. The Bible is truly a rural book which represents the highest religious expressions of a rural people. This emphasis on community reconstruction by no means overlooks the personal Gospel-the concern for the eternal good of the human soul. Ac conceived here the personal and social gospel are two sides of the same reality. This truth Dr. E. Stanley Jones pithily stated when he said, "Religion that does not begin with the individual does not begin; and religion that ends with the individual ends." Next Steps With all its limitations the mountain church has made a contribution of which those interested in it can justly be proud. But the needs for a high religion both today and tomorrow demand that it move ahead. The three questions asked above suggest a. direction for both study and action. To the degree that those questions receive positive answers, the mountain church will become more organizationally effective, more inclusive, and more community conscious. In this way it will be better able to make its contribution to mountain life. THE LIBRAtkyt WARREN WIJR; LLEGb SWANNAN(r)A, N, C,

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