Rural Problems of TodayGroves, Ernest R. (Ernest Rutherford)
Science
Rural Problems of Today
Groves, Ernest R. (Ernest Rutherford)
Rural conditions; Social problems
intercourse comes to an end or not.
Rural people are too likely to be content with their superior family
conditions. There is real need for an emphasis upon the proper use of
these opportunities. The conscientious urban parent is stimulated to his
best by the rivalry of other attractions that attempt to exploit his
child. The rural parent has no security in the greater natural
advantages of the country home. Everything depends upon the way the
rural home makes use of its opportunity. The rural church, especially,
should take to heart this remarkably significant fact.
No institution in the country has the importance of the family. Good
moral strategy requires, therefore, that effort be made to make the
rural home happy and wholesome. The needs of rural people are indeed
many, but there is no need greater than the fullest development of the
opportunities for moral progress provided by the conditions of family
life in the country. It would seem as if one principle should always be
observed--no effort is wholly good that looks toward a substitution for
family responsibility. It is also true that the family will not again
have the moral monopoly of the child. Necessary as it may be, in certain
cases, to allow the family to farm out its important functions to some
other institution, this condition ought always to be recognized as
unfortunate. The better way of making permanent progress is effort that
encourages the family to make better use of its neglected opportunities.
First of all, the rural home needs to be spiritualized. Of course, there
is equal need of spiritualizing the urban home, but that problem does
not concern us now. Objections are sure to be raised against any rural
program that bases itself upon an attempt to emphasize idealism and a
spiritual interpretation of experiences. There is, however, no other
way. Material progress will neither content nor elevate country life.
Contact with nature is so close and constant that when spiritual insight
is lacking there is bound to be a fatalistic and brutalizing tendency.
Religion that does not enter intimately into everyday life and enrich
the baffling experiences of daily labor with great spiritual
interpretations, gives little of value to country people. The rural home
awakens to its opportunities only when it is invigorated by vital
spiritual inspiration. A materialistic philosophy of life will eat the
heart out of the country and leave it in despair. Country people seldom
have wide choice; they must either penetrate common experience with the
eye of confident idealism, or they must dig the earth, bent down with
the oppressing burden of dissatisfied toil. Whatever the philosophy of
life, it will command the spirit of the home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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