282 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
referring to the culture studies. The physical sciences minister to the conditions of life ; these other branches of learning minister to life itself. Ask yourselves what it is you desire from your clergymen, your teachers, your statesmen, and you will be forced to recognize that the culture studies are in reality professional studies for these men. Consider this suggestion from the point of view of the clergyman. I know of no professional class which stands in greater need of a broad and comprehensive edu- cation. If the church is to serve as a center of positive influence in the community, it must touch the community at all points. The clergyman must be able to see how good roads are related to right living ; how manual training and technical education bear upon the moral life of the boys and the girls ; how charity is related to poverty; how industrial organization is but a phase of social organization and carries with it a moral influence ; how the circulation of good books may result in fruitful thinking and healthful living ; how through clubs for the young and societies for the old the roof of the church may be brought to shelter the pleasures of the people as well as their worship, and how all these agencies may be made to exert a positive influence for righteousness in the community. The clergyman, under this newer and broader interpretation of his functions, is nothing less than a social engineer, and it is impera- tive that he understand the complex and intricate machine which we call society.
You have doubtless heard the question frequently discussed whether our demo- cratic form of government is likely to stand the strain of commercial prosperity. The chief danger to which we are exposed arises from the popular worship of business success. (Jur society is dominated by the commercial ambition. Our form of popular government is threatened by the overmastering influence of commercial interests. The cure can be accomplished only by a widespread appreciation of what makes life worth living. The worthiness of life does not depend upon conditions, but upon an intelli- gent interest in those things by which life is surrounded. Our universities and col- leges are the guardians of this intelligent interest. The truly organized society is one in which human interests are evenly balanced. It is not desired to curb the commer- cial ambitions in men, for without the commercial interest there could be no industrial progress ; it is, however, imperative that by the side of this interest there should flourish other interests and other aims, to the end that our magnificent industrial organization, which is the wonder of history, should not in the end crush out the ideal of high living. Institutions of learning which add to technical instruction and research, the spirit of culture and of attainment, render a direct service to the com- munity in that they provide relief from the intensity of the demands of commercial life. From whatever point of view we look at education, it is the people who are the chief beneficiaries, partly because of the use they make of expert training, but pri- marily because of the influence which education exerts upon the form and spirit of society, which touches the life of the individual at every point.
" The Church and Rural Organization," by Graham Taylor, warden of Chicago Commons Social Settlement. In the organization of rural life the country church has a threefold social function. Its primary and perhaps supreme function is to keep the highest ideal of individual and community life flying like a flag, far overhead. By its worship, its example, and its prophetic aspirations it should hold aloft what is worthiest for man, woman, and child to be. To initiate agencies and movements for realizing these ideals practically and progressively is the second social function of the church, but its own organization- is not to attempt to administer the social agencies thus initiated. For, neither in the form of its organization, nor in the con- stituency of its membership is the church adapted to be an effective executive of social movements; and, even if it were, it has a higher function, which is all its own. The final function of the church, most essential to all social and civic organization, is to generate that public spirit and self sacrifice which serve the common interests at the cost of personal ease and gain or of class and institutional aggrandizement. Without this social self-denial no patriotic, philanthropic, or progressive organization of a community can succeed or survive. For the generation of this social power and for putting each citizen in possession of it, the community rightfully looks to the church more than to any other agency. In conclusion, the speaker urged the need of the co-operation of all religious denominations in rural social work.
Mr. Kenyon L. Butterfield, in discussing the preceding paper, urged the impor- tance of the co-operation of the various institutions working for the betterment of
