Wayne 231 Williams 232 Wood 233 Wyandot 234 INTRODUCTION In 1913 Mr. Gill and I published, under the authority of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the results of an inquiry into the condition of the country church in two typical counties--Windsor County, Vermont, and Tompkins County, New York. The disclosure of the conditions in these two counties and the conclusions to which they pointed led to the creation of the Commission on Church and Country Life of the Federal Council. Under the direction of the Commission, it was resolved to extend the investigation of the country church to an entire State. For the reasons given hereafter, the choice fell upon Ohio. For the plan whose execution and results are here set forth, Mr. Gill and I are jointly responsible. It was submitted to, and revised and approved by, the Commission on Church and Country Life, in whose name and under whose direct supervision it was carried out. The field work was done entirely by Mr. Gill or under his immediate direction as Secretary of the Commission, and he also worked up in the office the result of his work in the field. As in the case of "The Country Church," I am responsible for the final revision of the manuscript for the press. It is now published with the approval of the Commission on Church and Country Life, and as a report of its work. In the introduction to "The Country Church," I said and I desire to repeat,--"Mr. Gill's peculiar fitness for the work of this investigation arises in part from his long and intimate personal acquaintance with the problem of country life. For fifteen years he has been a country minister. One of his tasks was to establish a church in a country community in Vermont which had been without one for more than twenty years. When Mr. Gill came to it, the moral and social laxity of the whole community was flagrant. Disbelief in the existence of goodness appeared to be common, public disapproval of indecency was timid or lacking, and religion was in general disrepute. Not only was there no day of worship, but also no day of rest. Life was mean, hard, small, selfish, and covetous. Land belonging to the town was openly pillaged by the public officers who held it in trust; real estate values were low; and among the respectable families there was a general desire to sell their property and move away.