Give other illustrations to show the dependence of people upon one another in your community.

Compare the farmer of to-day in your neighborhood with the pioneer of Indiana described on page 14 with respect to his equipment, skill in making things and kinds of implements used.

Compare the average farmer’s home in your neighborhood to-day with that of the New England farmer described on page 14 with respect to household activities.

Are farmers in your neighborhood to-day more or less dependent upon others to supply their wants than they were when your parents were children?  Why is it?  Get all the information you can from your parents on this point.

Which is more dependent upon others for its daily wants:  a family that lives on a farm in your neighborhood or one that lives in town?  Give examples to prove your answer.

Do you know cases in your own community where land has increased in value while lying idle?  What are the reasons?

Do you know of cases in your community where property has depreciated in value because of neighborhood influences such as suggested on page 18?

Do you know of cases in your community similar to the one described on page 17 under the heading “Held Back by Neighbors”?  Explain. (Consult at home.)

UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF INTERDEPENDENCE

We do not always realize how dependent we are upon one another until something happens to disturb our accustomed relations.  We best realize our dependence upon the telephone when it is out of order.  The recent great war produced conditions that made us conscious of our interdependence in unexpected ways.

For example, if we had gone into a store to buy underwear in the early part of the war, we would have found that the price had greatly increased, and we might have been told, if the salesman were well informed, that the high price was due to the manufacture of airplanes!  The explanation is that the wire stays used in the manufacture of airplanes are made of steel wire from which machine knitting needles are also made.  In the early part of the war all of the available wire of this kind was taken for airplanes, thus limiting the supply of knitting needles and consequently of knit goods.

The manufacture of airplanes is also said to have affected the price of fish!  The nets used for catching certain deep-sea fish, such as cod, must be made of linen, which is invisible in water.  The linen which had been used for this purpose suddenly came into great demand for the manufacture of airplane wings.  Since airplanes were necessary, linen fishing nets were sacrificed and the price of deep-sea fish went up.  This, of course, created a demand for other kinds of fish, and the price of the latter also went up.

CONFLICTS DUE TO INTERDEPENDENCE