The wise country minister will certainly keep in touch with the public school, will be seen there frequently, and will give his genuine support to the teacher in all of her endeavor to do a really noble work with a very limited outfit.  He will help her to withstand the gross utilitarianism of the average farmer, who is slow to believe in anything for today that cannot be turned into dollars tomorrow.  What with the consolidation of township schools, improved communication by rural delivery and telephone, better roads, the increasing use of automobiles, and the rising interest in rural life generally, together with a broad view of pastoral leadership and the “cure of souls” for the whole countryside, the minister may be a vital factor in shaping the social and religious life of the country boy; and he will, because of his character and office, illumine common needs and homely interests with an ever-refined and spiritual ideal.  His ministry, however, cannot be all top, a cloudland impalpable and fleeting.  It was with common footing and vital ties that Goldsmith’s village preacher

     Allured to brighter worlds and led the way.

After such fashion and with thorough rootage in country life must the minister of today turn to spiritual account the wealth-producing methods of farming.  Out of soil cultivation he must guarantee soul culture by setting forth in person, word, and institution those ideals which have always claimed some of the best boyhood of the country for the world’s great tasks.

CHAPTER IV

The modern city and the normal boy[3]

Modern cities have been built to concentrate industrial opportunity.  They have taken their rise and form subsequent to the industrial revolution wrought by steam and as a result of that revolution.  So far they have paid only minor attention to the conservation or improvement of human life.  Justice, not to mention mercy, toward the family and the individual has not been the guiding star.  The human element has been left to fit as best it could into a system of maximum production at minimum cost, rapid and profitable transportation, distribution calculated to emphasize and exploit need, and satisfactory dividends on what was often supposititious stock; and because these have been the main considerations the latent and priceless wealth of boyhood has been largely sacrificed.

The amazing and as yet unchecked movement of population toward the city means usually a curtailment of living area for all concerned.  The more people per acre the greater the limitation of individual action and the greater the need of self-control and social supervision.  Restrictions of all sorts are necessary for the peace of a community wherein the physical conditions almost force people to jostle and irritate one another.  In such a situation the more spontaneous and unconventional the expression of life the greater the danger of bothering one’s neighbors and of conflicting with necessary but artificial restrictions.  Even innocent failure to comprehend the situation may constitute one anti-social or delinquent, and the foreigner as well as the boy is often misjudged in this way.