I am handing you herewith the outline of a rather pretentious plan for a comprehensive cooperative study of rural conditions in Vermont. This all comes out of our Eugenics Survey and our Advisory Committee will have a good deal to do with the study if it comes about. It is going to cost a lot of money but I think the various organizations that have indicated a willingness to participate are amply able to take care of their own part of the work and I am now trying to secure the promise of one of one of the larger foundations to underwrite the overhead connected with the unifying of the plan, preliminary conferences, and final publication of joint results.

I shall be very glad if you find it possible to look over this plan and give me your estimate on the following points, providing it is possible to secure the cooperation of a dozen or so organizations locally involved ‐‐ providing the necessary funds are forthcoming ‐‐ and providing a very wise and capable man can be secured for general chairman.

1. Is such an undertaking desirable in your opinion? 2. Is it a practical plan for Vermont? 3. Is Vermont a good place to choose for the working out of such an experiment? 4. Is it possible to secure enough local cooperation to make the study and afterwards to carry into effect in any considerable part of the recommendations? 5. Is it a strategic time for such a study? 6. In view of your answers to the above, do you favor the participation of the Eugenics Survey?

THE PRESENT EUGENICS SURVEY

For a period of twenty months, a survey has been conducted in Vermont for the purpose of finding out all that could be learned in regard to a series of sixty two defective and delinquent families. The accompanying preliminary report, recently published, gives a statement of the results up to February, 1927, and the typewritten statement, also enclosed, outlined briefly the plan for a continuation of the work.

The present effort is in the direction of compilation and correlation of the results thus are gathered in regard to these sixty two families. A general history of each family and a family tree chart showing the status of the individuals thus far discovered, back as far as six generations, are being prepared. This will include a very large mass of data all of which bears on the causes and results of the deficiency and criminal tendencies of the families.

THE RURAL PROBLEM

Throughout the entire survey, both in the field work and in the compilation of data thus far acquired, it has been forcefully brought to the attention of the workers that the problems of delinquency and deficiency in Vermont are very largely affected by, if not the results of, rural conditions. Vermont is conspicuously a rural state. The whole question of crime, disease, and feeblemindedness interlocks very intimately with the conditions in the country. Every phase of rural life has its bearing upon urban life, especially in a state in which the rural population so overwhelmingly preponderates.

These conditions in the isolated rural sections appear to have been studied in no comprehensive and exhaustive fashion. Many surveys and studies have been conducted in this country and elsewhere both intensively and extensively, but so far as can be discovered some particular phase of rural life has been the subject of the investigation. The merit, if any, of a comprehensive survey lies in the interrelations of the several phases of human activity. A study of the cause of the declining population may disclose the relation of any one of the phases of rural life to that decline but the probabilities are that no single explanation suffices.

RELATION OF SUBNORMALCY TO DECLINING POPULATION

The Advisory Committee of the Eugenics Survey are convinced that a comprehensive study will bring out the importance of the mental status of people of all ages as a cause of the declining population. Undoubtedly we look at the matter from a biased point of view, but we are strongly inclined to believe that the degree of intelligence of a community will be found to serve as a yardstick for the efficiency of the farms, the schools, the social clubs, the churches, and other elements in the life of the people which have "stayed on the farm".

THE 1926‐27 MENTAL STUDY

Through the generosity of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, New York City, a psychiatric and psychological study of over a thousand school children was made in connection with the Eugenics Survey. This work was done in the period from November to April, 1926‐27, and the report is expected from the office of the National Committee within the month.

The children studied were from four selected areas. The choice was made on the basis of the representative character of the four areas, and an attempt was thereby made to discover the mental status of a typical cross section of the school population of Vermont. Only one of the areas could therefore be a really rural school district. It is highly desirable that a similar study be made in conjunction with the general comprehensive survey which is now planned.

PROPOSED COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY

It is a well‐known fact that the population of Vermont as a whole has been losing rather than gaining in numbers for a considerable period. Also, that the falling off in the country districts has been alarming. In one area where there were six good rural schools twenty years ago, there are now only two. Farms are abandoned, churches and stores closed. What is the cause of this desertion? Is it poor soil, the attraction of the city, inadequate marketing facilities, or are the schools and amusements too poor to hold the population?

The study can be divided into the following parts:‐‐

1. Agricultural. Study of soils, crops, live stock. 2. Farm Economics. Transportation, markets, cooperative marketing organizations, relations to extension staff of State University. 3. Farm labor. Quality and cost of farm hands and kitchen help. 4. Religious opportunities. Churches and Bible schools, denominational connections, community churches. 5. Schools. Buildings, teachers, interest of the community. 6. Recreation. Clubs, social organizations, movies, magazines, libraries. 7. Medical study. Number and character of doctors, hospital opportunities, medical inspection of school children, visiting nurses. Relation of the Shepard‐Towner bill. 8. Races. Distribution of native Americans, French Canadians, Europeans. Their connection with each of the above divisions of the study. Relative permanence in the population of each race. 9. Politics. Political affiliations, connection of races thereto, the voting and an non‐voting part of the population and the causes of non‐voting. 10. Mental study. The mental status of all ages, representation in the state institutions for insane and feebleminded. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SUBNORMALCY AND RURAL DETERIORATION.

DIRECTOR

As elaborate a study as is herein outlined would require the supervision of an expert. It is anticipated that the co‐operating agencies would first choose a director of the survey. He should be a recognized authority on rural sociology. A man of national reputation is clearly called for.

THE TEN DIVISIONS

A brief outline of the phases of investigation which have already been suggested for each of the ten headings is here given.

1. Agricultural. Suggested agency: ‐‐Vermont Experiment Station through the Purnell fund. The question to be answered is, “Can a more intelligent handling of the local farms be made to pay?' The study would include soil analyses with reference to the best crops to be raised and as to the parts of the soil which are profitably tillable, which should be used for grazing, which for reforesting, etc. The question of fertilizers, drainage of swamp‐land, rotation of crops, diversification or unification of crops would also come under this investigation. It would be necessary to put two or more investigators into the field for a thorough study. 2. Farm economics .Apart from the strictly agricultural aspects of the study the financial side of the problem seems to call for a special group of investigators. These workers should go into the matter of size and value of the farms, amount and cost of farm labor, per capita output, and gross and net earnings of a selected group of typical farms in each community studied. The several sources of income should be tabulated in order to discover and then to inform the farmers as to the part of his business that is most profitable, and the part, if any, that is losing money. The questions of budgets and of bookkeeping for the farmers might involve too much of a campaign of education to come within the proper sphere of this study, but it might be possible to start such a movement in the community.The other headings given above for this heading, “Farm economics, are self‐explanatory, and the difficulty will be to limit this field to a practical working division of the main problem. 3. Farm labor. If it seems best to make a separate study of this question, that part of the study of farm economics which was given this title should be turned over to a separate worker in order to discover to what extent the efficiency of farm labor, including that in the farm home, affects the net income. There would plainly be a direct bearing of a mental study upon this question. The probability of using young men and young women who have received proper training in institutions needs investigation, and the lessons therefrom might be profitably applied in our Vermont communities. 4. Religious opportunities. Denominational and interdenominational agencies have already gone into the matter of the rural church and a great deal has been written about it in the religious and secular press. Perhaps this comprehensive study will throw some additional light upon the question, What is the matter with the country churches? It may likewise be true that the country churches, good, bad, and indifferent, will be found to have a good deal to do with the social life and general welfare of the area that they serve. It is possible, that far greater usefulness could be achieved by the rural church. The information has probably been collected already and can be obtained by the Director of the Survey from the various agencies that have it in their records. 5. Schools. Full information concerning the rural schools, their teachers, their buildings, the appropriations for maintenance and improvement, and the amount of interest shown by the community in its schools can probably be secured at the office of the Commissioner of Education. The Steele report is an example of work done by an outsider on the question of the salaries and training of rural teachers. All this information needs to be supplemented by the mentality of the school children and the psychological factors that enter into difficult cases of discipline, retarded progress, etc.There is very little prospect of starting in the country schools of Vermont special classes for training subnormal children. Some means, however, should if possible be devised for taking care at least in the most elementary way of that rather considerable part of the population. 6. Recreation. Here is an important phase of community life to which a number of agencies have already given attention in various parts of the country. A study of all the recreational opportunities of the communities selected for this comprehensive study could not fail to be illuminating in connection with the other aspects. This study should be made to include adult education since it is probably through the clubs and lodges that the organized informing of the adult population is best carried out. A census of the magazines, books and newspapers subscribed to or read by the people would be most enlightening. 7. Medical study. An examination of information already in the hands of the President of the University of Vermont on the matter of the medical facilities in country districts should be made with reference to the selected localities. What kind of doctors are within reach if there are any? How far do the people have to go for hospital treatment and what are the opportunities at the hospitals, if any, that are within reach? What are the chances for the establishment of rural hospitals supposing that assistance could be secured for the building and equipping of such? Is there full cooperation between the people and the available agencies such as the Children's Aid Society, the State Department of Public Welfare, the State Board of Health including the antituberculosis society and the workers under the Shepard‐‐Towner measure? Is there any opportunity for organizing a visiting nurse association in the community or for adopting some plan for subsidizing more doctors? 8. Races. Most of the questions that might be asked under this heading would probably be answered by an analysis of the findings of the investigators in other divisions. The nativity and racial connections of all persons interrogated by any of the other groups would be readily obtainable. We have been charged with sending out of Vermont the low‐grade old colonial stock and also with allowing that same class of the population to form pockets of degeneracy back in the hills. The relationship between all the various causes of futility and ineffectiveness on the one hand and racial connections on the other hand together with the permanence or migratory tendencies of the various elements should be investigated. 9. Politics. The question here is in regard to the connection if any between religious or racial affiliations and indifference to the suffrage. What is the cause of the failure to vote? Do the races or the religious sects have any tendency to stick together with one party or another or to refrain from voting at elections? What is the attitude of the local village or town government to that of the state and the nation? Is there any cooperation in the matter of appraisal of property for taxation and any opportunity for cooperative handling of that task? 10. Mental study. As indicated above this seems to the Advisory Committee of the Eugenics Survey of Vermont to be the keystone of the entire problem. The relation of subnormalcy to each of the several aspects of the study would seem to be a very important matter to discover. It should be the principal aim of those in charge of this division to endeavor to formulate a definite program, statewide in its bearings, for the betterment of the population in regard to mentality. A study of the facilities at the existing institutions has already been made by the psychiatric unit in 1926 and 1927. Recommendations for additional facilities or for revisions of those now available and plans for increasing these facilities by means of state appropriations should form the chief part of any report to be made by the students of this part of the problem. Suggested agency:‐‐The National Committee for Mental Hygiene which has so generously and effectively cooperated in the present survey is the logical agency to carry on this phase of the study. It has already been intimated that the National Committee for Mental Hygiene would in all probability be glad to take care of this part of the study, providing the whole program is carried out.

Such a comprehensive study is obviously in line with the work of a number of national organizations. Many of these have already participated in somewhat similar studies in various parts of the country. All such agencies should be brought together into a cooperative group for the conduct of this program. They should be represented on a joint committee which should include also the present Advisory Committee of the Eugenics Survey of Vermont or its representatives. The working out of the plan for the study and the method of conducting the same should be the duty of this general committee. While it is impossible to forecast with any certainty what is going to be involved, it might be suggested as a basis of calculation that a full year's study beginning in April, l928 and engaging a group of ten workers in the field and in their offices for that time together with the necessary incidental expenses would necessarily run into a considerable sum of money. Seventy five thousand dollars is suggested as a very rough guess as the amount necessary. The committee would be under the necessity of devising means of securing this amount of money before the undertaking could begin.

The following organizations have been approached in regard to the above plan for a comprehensive study in Vermont: ‐‐ The National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Person interviewed was Dr. Frankwood K. Williams, Medical Director of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene.

The Commonwealth Fund, and the Rural Hospital Division of the Commonwealth Fund, Persons interviewed were Miss Quinn, Assistant Director of the Commonwealth Fund, and Dr. Southmate, Director of the Rural Hospital Division of the Commonwealth Fund.

The American Country Life Association. Person interviewed was Mr. Henry Israel, Executive Secretary of the American Country Life Association.

The National Research Council. Person interviewed was Mr. Gano Dunn, chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Research Council.

The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund. Person interviewed was Dr. Ruml, Executive Head of the Laura Spelman Memorial.

The Social Science Research Council. Approached by way of a letter from Professor Daniel B. Carroll of the Department of Political Science of the University to President Hall of the University of Oregon, who is Chairman of the Executive Council.

The general impression from all the interviews was that of surprising cordiality on the part of almost every one of the people who were seen. They gave generously of their time to consider the plan and the writer came away from each interview with a very definite impression of having been given very cordial and sympathetic encouragement in the undertaking. These were preliminary interviews. It is not expected that any organization would be willing to tie itself up to the plan on first hearing of it. There is no question of the readiness of a number of the executives who were seen to use their influence towards a cooperative undertaking and the participation of their own organizations

Reasonable hope of cooperation and financial help has been held out by one organization, namely, the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. There is ground for thinking that the Social Science Research Council may shoulder the responsibility for their part of the program, and that the American Country Life Association may be able to secure sufficient funds to engage in a part of the study such as the sociological survey with reference to amusements, recreation, etc., and perhaps also the necessary overhead for coordinating the various divisions.

The purpose of this study is not solely to gather facts. It seems not unreasonable to expect that the results will lead directly to constructive effort and legislation that will tend to hasten the present barely visible tendency to check the loss of population in rural areas of Vermont, and similarly of every state in the union. The aim is therefore practical as well as purely scientific.