There is an intensive life at a few great
political or industrial centres, and wide areas where there is
stagnation and decay. Stagnation is most obvious in rural districts.
It is so general that it has been often assumed that there was something
inherent in rural life which made the countryman slow in mind as his own
cattle. But this is not so, as I think can be shown. There is no
reason why as intense, intellectual, and progressive a life should not
be possible in the country as in the towns. The real reason for the
stagnation is that the country population is not organized. We often
hear the expression, "the rural community," but where do we find rural
communities? There are rural populations, but that is altogether a
different thing. The word "community" implies an association of people
having common interests and common possessions, bound together by laws
and regulations which express these common interests and ideals, and
define the relation of the individual to the community. Our rural
populations are no more closely connected, for the most part, than the
shifting sands on the seashore.
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