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 coöperation 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.
"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."
[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.
[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.