North Carolina community progress, November 20, 1921

              NORTH   CAROLINA
PUBLISHED   TWICE  A MONTH BY THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN , GREENSBORO, N.C
VOLUME 3.
MONDAY,  NOVEMBER  20.   1921
NUMBER  4.
SEEING    THE    OTHER    SIDE    OF    "MAIN    STREET"
THE   FOURTH   ANNUAL   CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN COUNTRY LIFE
ASSOCIATION   CONSIDERS   TOWN AND COUNTRY RELATIONS
CjjIELAGES, small towns and cities have a distinct
vJ social relationship to country communities. The
drama and the literature of the last decade would indicate that this relationship is in large measure unwholesome. At any rate, this literature has focused
the attention of the American people on the problems
of the village and (he small town; these units of social
organization    are    being    studied.      The    American
situation at Alexandria. The piotaganists of the cooperative system asked -some pertinent questions.
Some assumed the position that the farmer would
never reach a satisfactory plane of social living until
he could control the economic processes involved in
the marketing of  his  products.
Representatives from the Southern states insisted
that many rural communities of the South were back-
Country Life Association devotes itself to the human     ward because the property-owning and the marketing
aspects of agriculture.     Its  membership  is  composed     functions (including credits) were so thoroughly vested
largely of specialists in
the fields of rural sociology, rural economics,
and rural social, work.
Each annual conference
concentrates its attention
on one specific problem
affecting the rural population. This year the
conference discussed the
general theme: The Village or Town and
the Outlying Country;
What Should be Their
Relationships?
Unlike most conferences, this gathering dispensed with lengthy
papers and spent most
of its time discussing
actual situations. Representative persons were
THE  TEST OF  COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATION
"The measure of value of community
work is not the degree of efficiency on the
part of paid workers in doing things for
the community but the extent to which
volunteer leaders for community work
have been developed and participation secured -which will ultimately enable the
community itself to climb higher and
higher levels of community achievment.
A willingness to leave the final authority
with the people themselves is essential in
community building which aims at Democracy."
in the hands of a few
people in the towns and
villages that the farmers
lacked that degree of independence which alone
can bring about a satisfactory standard of
living. The majority
opinion appeared to be
that merchants of small
towns and villages (especially those acting as
distributors of farm
products) would be
obliged in the near future to adjust their business in harmony with
the principles of cooperation. Examples
were related by certain
types of middlemen. The
honest  middleman   who
selected  to  discuss  a  certain   relationship  between   a     wishes  to  render  a  plain  service  to  the  community
town and its surrounding rural territory. After, such
a brief exposition of an actual condition, the members of the conference discussed the relationships portrayed from the viewpoint of broad social principles
Does the Small Town Exploit the Country?
Mr. George A. Petrie of Alexandria, Louisiana, a
was commended; the speculating, exploiting middleman who thinks only in terms of his own profits was
roundly scored.
Social, Church and School Relations
The   above   method   of  creating   discussion   was
followed in connection with social, church and school
middleman, discussed the commercial or trade relations     relations.   Samples of the stories told are given below
between  his town  and the country people.    He pre-     in condensed form:
sented a frank picture of a commercial organization
within the city attempting to work out satisfactory
trade relations with the farmers; his viewpoint was
that of the honest middleman who "produces nothing
but performs a useful service to the community". An
animated  discussion  followed  his  description  of  the
A Brief Outline of Social Relationships Between Town
and Country People at Hattiesburg,  Mississippi
The Rotarians and  Kiwanians invite, on special
days, certain farmers to attend their luncheon.    The
 o	
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