The Evolution of the Country Community: A Study in Religious SociologyWilson, Warren H. (Warren Hugh)
Religion
The Evolution of the Country Community: A Study in Religious Sociology
Wilson, Warren H. (Warren Hugh)
Christian sociology; Country life
A good illustration is that of a deacon in a country church, whom I once
knew. His word was proverbially truthful. As widely as he was known his
reputation for piety and simple truthfulness, for honesty and purity of
life were universal. I do not think that he was consciously insincere,
but as a trustee in administering a fund devoted to public uses he
seemed to have a clear eye for only those enterprises through which he
or members of his family could indirectly secure incomes. Entrusted with
a public service which involved the improvement of the school system, so
far as he acted individually and without prompting by those who had been
accustomed all their lives to modern methods, his action was that of
loyalty to his own family and relationship. In so doing he regularly
would betray the community and the public interest. Yet he seemed to do
this ingenuously and without any conception of the moral standards of
people used to the values of money.
I have known the same man, whose standing among farmers was that of a
blameless religious man, to borrow money, and in the period of the loan
so to conduct himself as to forfeit the respect of people used to
handling money. To them he seemed to be a conscious and deliberate
grafter. The explanation in my mind is that he suffered from the
transition out of the pioneer and farmer economy into the economy of the
exploiter.
The history of the sale of lands in the country, in the recent
exploitation of farm-lands, contains many stories of the breach of
contract of farmers, and the inability of the farmer to sell wisely and
at the same time honestly. Contrasting the farmer in his knowledge of
financial obligation with the broker in the Stock Exchange, the latter
type stands out in strong contrast as an admirable example of financial
honesty to contracts, even if they be verbal only. The farmer on the
other hand has no conception of the relations on which the financial
system must be built. He is not an exploiter to begin with, but a
farmer.
The transition from the older economy to the new is illustrated in the
dairy industry which surrounds every great city. The dairy farmer has
ideas of right and wrong which are purely individualistic. He believes
that he should not cheat the customer in the quantity of milk. He
recognizes that it is wrong, therefore, to water the milk, but he has no
conception of social morality concerning milk. He gives full measure:
but he cares nothing about purity of milk. He is restless and feels
himself oppressed under the demands of the inspector from the city, for
ventilation of his barns and for protection of the milk from impurity. I
have known few milk farmers who believed in giving pure milk and I never
knew one whose conscience was at ease in watering milk. That is, they
all believe in good measure and none believes in the principle of
sanitation. They stand at the transition from the old economy to the
new.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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