As the farm people of the United States have more contact with towns and
cities and as through better education and means of communication they
come into a larger participation in all the ranges of human culture,
they come to realize that only through collective effort can they secure
many of their new desires. Although many associations for special
interests attract their allegiance, their attachment to a locality and
their common relation to the existing center of social activities, give
rise to a devotion to the community, for only through the united effort
of all interests can they realize their highest desires. Loyalty to the
family is broadened into loyalty to the community, which finds its
incentive and dynamic in devotion to the family. The family becomes less
self-sufficient, but through its wider associations in the community,
the relations of the members of the family to each other assume new
and--because they are more largely voluntary--higher values, and the
family attains its highest development through the larger fulfilment of
its members.[103]
The farmer no longer glories in his isolation, or magnifies the virtues
of independence, for new conditions require the cooperation of the whole
community if farm life is to be made satisfying. Willingness and ability
to work with others for the common good win social approval. Next to
devotion to the family, loyalty to the community is essential for the
realization of the best possibilities of rural life.
COMMUNITY SERVICE[104]
"Strong, that no human soul may pass
Its warm, encircling unity,
Wide, to enclose all creed, all class,
This shall we name, Community;
"Service shall be that all and each,
Aroused to know the common good,
Shall strive, and in the striving reach
A broader human brotherhood."
FOOTNOTES:
[97] "Balancing Country Life," p. 60. New York, Association Press, 1917.
[98] "Old World Traits Transplanted," p. 145. New York, Harpers, 1921.
[99] Mary P. Follett, "The New State," p. 59.
[100] "The Problem of Christianity."
[101] "The Community," p. 74. New York, Association Press, 1921.
[102] Josiah Royce, "Race Questions and Other American Problems," p. 65.
[103] For "through the process of limitation the family attains a
completeness impossible before. Its members may not realize within it
what is in truth the life of the family, for it now retains alone within
its limits that principle of mutual affection of husband, wife, and
children which alone is its _exclusive_ possession."--R. M. Maciver,
"Community," 2 ed. p. 242. London, Macmillan & Co., 1920.
[104] Sarah Collins Fernandis, Survey. February 8, 1919.
APPENDIX A
Constitution of Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.[105]
CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 1.--NAME
The name of the organization is the Community Association of Plainsboro
Township.
ARTICLE 2.--OBJECT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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