Part 13 (1/2)

We declare the duty of the community to provide good schools, means for community recreation, safe sanitary conditions, improved highways, and encouragement to thrift and home-owners.h.i.+p.

We purpose to make the neatness and attractiveness of our homes and farms a.s.sets of distinct value to the towns.h.i.+p.

We agree to do our share in the creation of public sentiment in support of all measures in the public interest.

We agree to put aside all partisan and sectarian relations when dealing with community matters.

We state our conviction that the best rewards from this organized effort lie before each one in a deepened interest in others and in an increased ability to cooperate the one with the other for the good of all.

We, the citizens of Plainsboro Towns.h.i.+p, incorporated by act of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, approved April 1, 1919, and accepted by us on May 6, 1919, subscribe to this declaration.”

If such a Declaration of Purposes were adopted by every rural community, and were taught the children as a civic oath of allegiance, would it not have more immediate effect on practical patriotism than even the Declaration of Independence, and what new meaning would be given to local government? Here is an example of rural civic spirit which, if it could become general throughout the rural communities of the United States, would remold the political and social organization of the whole country; for it provides both the mechanism and the spirit which are essential for making democracy a reality rather than an ideal.

_Community Government and Democracy._--The local community is indispensable as the primary political unit for the maintenance of true democracy, both because it is small enough that there can be personal relations between its members, in which a real consensus of opinion can be formed, and also because only in it can the ma.s.ses of mankind have any personal experience or partic.i.p.ation in government. Unless the individual has a social consciousness of the community in which he lives, he can have but a feeble and hazy realization of larger social groups. Unless the community through its individuals is self-conscious, it cannot take its rightful place in the larger community of which it forms a part. If democracy does not obtain in the local community, the voice of such a community in the affairs of the county or state will be that of its self-chosen leaders. It is difficult to conceive how any real democracy can be secured in State or Nation where it does not obtain in their const.i.tuent communities. It is entirely possible to have a government democratic in form and theory, but actually a political or economic feudalism, supported by local chieftains who represent not the people, but themselves or some business or other special interests. The very life of true democracy is in the partic.i.p.ation of individuals in the government of the local group and in the organization of the locality groups, so that there may be a fair discussion and expression by those who are bound together by common interests through some form of self-government for the rural community.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] ”Civil Government in the United States,” pp. 17, 18. Boston, 1890.

[76] ”Local Government in Illinois,” p. 10. Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies in History and Political Science. Vol. I, No. 3, 1883.

[77] Editor's note, p. 51. ”Penn. Boroughs,” by Wm. F. Holcomb. Johns Hopkins Univ. Stud. in History and Pol. Sc. Vol. IV, No. 4, 1886.

[78] See E. H. Ryder, ”Proposed Modifications and Recent Tendencies in Rural Government and Legislation,” p. 112, Proc. 3d Natl. Country Life Conference.

[79] ”Why Not Local Self-Government for Rural Communities,” pp. 4-48.

North Carolina Club Year Book, 1917-1918. ”County Government and County Affairs in North Carolina.” The University of North Carolina Record. No.

159. Oct., 1918. Chapel Hill, N. C.

[80] H. Paul Douglas. ”Recent Legislation Facilitating Rural Community Organization,” p. 124, Proc. 3d Natl. Country Life Conference.

[81] Public Laws of 1919, Reprinted as Appendix A, p. 116, of A. W.

Hayes, ”Rural Community Organization.” Chicago, 1921.

[82] ”A Community Organization.” National Stockman and Farmer. July 26, 1919.

[83] For the const.i.tution see Appendix A, page 247.

CHAPTER XVII

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION[84]

From one standpoint the whole progress of civilization is but a process of social organization, the establishment of those relations.h.i.+ps which best promote the largest measure of human welfare. In the previous chapters we have noted the various aspects and problems of rural life which have necessitated the community as a unit for social organization.

As a result of the growing conviction that the conditions of rural life can be made satisfying only through the collective efforts of definite communities, there has arisen a widespread movement for the better organization of community interests and activities, which has come to be known as community organization. Although this movement is being encouraged by many agencies, its greatest significance and importance arises from the fact that, for the most part, community organization of many diverse types is springing up in rural communities throughout the country as a means of meeting their local needs. This spontaneity of the movement is the best evidence that changing conditions have brought about a real need for some better machinery for community development.

In order to understand community organization so that we may intelligently encourage its development, it will be well to consider (1) the underlying causes, (2) the process of organization, and (3) the forms of organization.

1. _Causes._--Usually the immediate cause of attempting community organization is the common desire to meet a need which cannot well be realized except through the united effort of the whole community.

Improved roads are needed, a library or playground is desired, a Liberty Loan must be raised, a Fourth of July celebration or a pageant is to be undertaken, a band or baseball team needs financial support and patronage to prevent its disbanding, hard times or a fire make unusual aid necessary to certain families, an influenza epidemic compels a united effort for the care of the sick. In all such cases a citizens'