May 18, 1928

General Outline of Headings 1. Falling population in rural Vermont. 2. Variety of remedies recommended. 3. Social betterment activities now operating in Vermont. 4. Previous surveys in Vermont and elsewhere. Scope and accomplishment. 5. Reasons for failure of some past surveys. 6. Features of present plan aimed to avoid similar mistakes. 7. How the plan originated [The time and the place]. 8. Opinions of experts. 9. Scope of the plan in personnel, time and money. 10. Set-up of administration. 11. Procedure for practical improvement programs. 12. Ultimate value.

1. During the census period from 1910 to 1920 there were one thousand counties in the United States, including some in almost every state, in which the population fell. These of course were the rural districts. Vermont has some characteristics peculiar to itself, but in general its problems are very much the same as those of other states so far as the rural population is concerned. The things that cause a decline in the country population in Vermont are bringing about the same results elsewhere. We do not need to dwell upon the details of the situation because it is common knowledge that in the rural areas of Vermont each successive census shows a lower population than the one preceding.

Along with the decline in numbers, a good many people who have looked into the matter are very sure that there is an almost more serious falling off in the quality. They point to the fact that many of the older families who formed the backbone of a given community 25 years ago have entirely disappeared. The older people have died off and the younger ones, having tasted the joys of life in a larger community, have been loath to return and in most cases have settled down elsewhere.

The movement from agricultural to industrial life has brought about a large part of this changing population. The younger generation demands more in the way of recreation and social activity than can be found in the isolated farm or country village. Parents want better education for their children than they had themselves and when someone is taken suddenly ill it is very hard to get a doctor to make the long trip in a hurry, especially if the roads happen to be impassible. Modern invention has of course brought the countryside to the doors of the city and many people thought that this would be the beginning of a return wave and that a great many people who had lived in the cities under crowded and restricted conditions would now decide to return to the soil, perhaps buy back the ancestral farm and again become dwellers in the country. There does not seem to be any marked tendency for this to come true. There has been no returning wave.

2. Almost every student of the changing population in rural parts of the country has had some special remedy to recommend. The treatment of the condition that commends itself to one does not appeal to the next person as being worthwhile. There are, therefore, about as many different remedies recommended as there are people seriously considering the question, and that is a good many. Some experiments have been tried aiming at an artificial stimulation of the life of the country and no doubt the current of migration cityward has been slowed down by the numerous attempts to make the country homes and communities more desirable.

One of the motives that used to be effective does not seem to appeal so strongly to the rising generation, that is, loyalty to the ancestral home. Amongst Vermonters there seems to be a remarkable tenacity in holding to the soil amongst the older people, a tendency which is akin to loyalty and patriotism. It is a strong sentimental bond and it is too bad that there is not more of it amongst the younger people. Perhaps they are more practical and less sentimental than their fathers, but the fact is that they are keener for immediate enjoyments, material comforts, a competency at the earliest possible age. Many of them had to work pretty hard in their childhood days helping on the farms. A living can be made in the city with less effort and thousands of young people would rather put up with inadequate and cramped living quarters for the sake of the greater social opportunities and recreational pleasures of the city than to have plenty of room with hard work and little pleasure in the country.

3. Quite a group of social investigators insist very strongly upon the importance of supplying young people with more social and recreational opportunities, especially in the rural areas. Summer camps for country boys and girls are increasing and various winter activities, various forms of supervised play, are carried on by the camp organizations or under separate leadership. The Community Center is a remarkably active agency in bringing together those healthful opportunities for the old and the very young as well as far the youth of the community.

It would be an easy matter to give quite an imposing list of other activities that are being conducted in various parts of Vermont, all looking toward the improvement of conditions in the sparsely settled parts of the state. A catalogue of all these enterprises- agricultural, economic, educational, medical and social- would bring out clearly the fact that no small amount of energy is now being put forth in the interests of the people who live in rural Vermont. A study of the extent to which these same activities should be grafted on to the life of other communities would be a most desirable thing to undertake, but it should be done judiciously in order to insure the greatest chance of getting results.

4. Too many studies, surveys and investigations have resulted in little tangible improvement, and a great deal of money has been expended and much effort put forth in order to carry out those surveys. Vermont has probably had not nearly so many experiences of this kind as have many other states. Why have they brought such apparently meager returns for the money and effort involved?

5. In answer to this question I submit to you these two answers: First, the work was not planned with sufficient care and forethought, especially as regards the accomplishment of the desired results. The survey was about all there was to it. It was believed, but proved not to be rightly anticipated, that finding out the facts would be all that was necessary, that the people would read the report of the survey, see that there was need of certain improvements and immediately set about making them. In all too many cases this prediction, founded in optimism, ended in disillusionment, and the results were not commensurate with the outlay.

The second answer to the question is that the study or survey was probably conducted by someone with a preformed judgment as to what he would find. Most specialists are honest men, but they have spent so much time in investigating one side of human life that they could scarcely be expected to be quite free from bias. The case is very much like a patient suffering from some obscure malady. Take him to a nerve specialist and the verdict is, "Something wrong with the patient's nervous system." Take him to a stomach specialist and the verdict is that an operation of some sort on the digestive tract is the only thing for him. Each specialist has a right to his own prejudices and in most of the social investigations the workers have actually found sufficient cause for recommending their own particular kind of surgical operation or medical remedy. Had there been a consultation of doctors, however, a slightly different or perhaps a radically different treatment might have been recommended.

6. In order to avoid falling into these two mistakes, first of failing to make provision for improvement programs following the investigation, and second, failure to secure the benefit of expert judgment by a variety of experts, the plan that we are now about to consider, aims to adopt the policy of flexibility so as to adjust itself to each particular situation, the policy of comprehensiveness, involving a joint study by a dozen or more experts and their helpers, covering perhaps 20 or 30 scattered typical rural areas which will be very carefully chosen, and the policy of thoroughness, aiming from the very outset and all the time to pave the way for constructive improvement measures.

7. It seems an opportune time for an investigation of this sort. The flood has changed the situation in Vermont more than most of us realize. Any great catastrophe brings a good many changes in its wake and that is true in this case. People are much more open minded and ready to consider calmly suggestions for improvement than they were a year ago. There is an alertness noticeable amongst our country people, a keen and intelligent interest in their particular problems. The inertia amounting almost to torpor of a generation ago is giving way.

Another reason why this is a good time for a study of rural conditions is that we seem to have come to the point where the conflict of ideas between those who favor industrialization and those who insist upon the return to the soil has got to be settled. There is very little use in saying, "Let things go on about as they are. Conditions were good enough for our grandparents, we can put up with them for a while yet." Things have come to such a pass in many of our rural communities that it is a question whether they will be able to keep themselves alive much longer unless something pretty radical is done and that soon.

As to the reason for selecting Vermont for such an investigation. In the first place, we are Vermonters and we want to get the good of anything that is within reach and that promises bettered conditions of living. There is much more chance of accomplishing something in a small state than in a large one, and Vermont has so very large a proportion of its area occupied by farm land, so large a proportion of its population living in villages and small towns, that it may be called a profoundly rural state.

Because then, there is a good chance of doing something here in Vermont that will really improve conditions for the country dweller, make life more interesting in the country for the young people and thereby check the movement from the small village to the larger centers; because there is a chance of getting results by carefully planning beforehand how recommendations for improvement can be carried into practical effect after they have been made by a group of investigators and as a result of thorough study; because the time is appropriate for such an investigation and hopeful for the carrying out of improvements; because Vermont is a small enough and a rural enough state to make it a peculiarly good place for such a study; it is recommended that this meeting declare itself as in favor of carrying out a plan for a Comprehensive Survey of Rural Vermont.

8. I could name you a score of nationally known authorities on various aspects of rural life who agree with us that this is an opportune time and Vermont is an opportune place for such a study; that it is a practical idea in that there is every opportunity to carry into effect constructive ideas for the betterment of conditions of living in the sparsely settled portions of the state. No one who has not looked into the matter has the slightest conception of the scope of the researches that are now being conducted. Investigations more or less similar to but far less elaborate than the one that we are proposing have been and are under way in a great many parts of the country. I do not discover that anything of a degree of comprehensiveness approaching our plan has been considered elsewhere. In fact, cooperative studies are only just beginning to be undertaken at all. There are a surprising number of agencies, in many cases having large funds at their disposal, organized for the purpose of conducting studies either having a. scientific objective or planned for purposes of social betterment.

The present plan has the social betterment idea prominently in view from beginning to end but there is no doubt about its bringing to light a considerable amount of information of high scientific value. This makes it appeal strongly to many of the investigating agencies. They are in many cases willing to cooperate in as large a measure as our Vermont organization deems advisable. They will contribute personnel and expense money to a very considerable amount if asked to do so. I have written agreements from a number of these organizations that it such a study is put on in Vermont they will be glad to help, providing we want them to.

9. The resolutions to be presented in a few minutes will ask for the appointment of an Executive Committee. They will decide what shall, be done under your instructions. I may, however, outline briefly the tentative plan which will, be suggested to them for their consideration, but which they may or may not think best to follow even in the most general way. You may be interested to know something about what this plan contemplates.

First, the selection of a General Director. He must be a man of national reputation and wide experience in various forms of social investigation. Such a man is in view and has expressed his interest in the suggestion that he be the General Director.

Second, the establishment of a headquarters at some convenient point with an office which will, be kept up during the entire time of the study.

Third, a preliminary scanning of the problems in rural parts of Vermont by the General Director. This will require considerable travel and that costs money. The salary of the Director, the expenses of the office and office staff and the travel money will have to be raised. This will involve, for a three years' investigation, about $84,000. There is reason to believe that the Executive Committee will be able to secure this money without making a canvass of people in Vermont.

10. The fourth part of the plan is a year's investigation to choose the various places for the study. No one place will be subjected to an unwelcome amount of investigation. No investigator will be admitted to this study who has not demonstrated his ability to sell his program and otherwise make himself welcome in the community where he is working. All the investigators will be under the direction of the Executive Committee and the Director. They will be required to make frequent reports, all of which will be the property of the General Survey. A most important aspect of the work will be the compiling of the information gathered by the research workers. This will be brought together and put into its most useful form during the third year by the General Director, and the report will be published as soon as possible after the close of the study. It will make a special point of practical recommendations.

11. The final results of the study will, probably not be evident for a long time to come because if the work accomplished its purpose at all it will set in motion tendencies that will bring about improvement of living conditions, social activities and all other phases of life in the country. These recommendations for the setup of improvement programs will be made by the workers in the field just as rapidly as they come to any conclusion as to what is particularly needed in any one place. They will be just as apt to recommend the adoption of a plan in other parts of the state when they find one that is working advantageously in one of their localities. Criticisms that have no constructive importance are not wanted and will not be considered, much less published. Every safeguard will be placed about the publication of information in the press and in the printed reports so that no embarrassment will be caused any individual or any community. The workers will be chosen because of their experience in handling such matters skillfully and tactfully. No apprehension need be felt on this point. Unpleasant criticisms and the publishing of unfavorable statements about persons or places would plainly lessen the value if not ruin all success of this entire undertaking, and are therefore the last thing that the promoters of the Survey would countenance.

12. What is aimed at in this survey is to get facts in regard to the good things that are now in operation in the rural parts of Vermont and put them into operation in other parts of the state where they will fit the situation. A careful study of the needs of a community followed as speedily as possible by the setting up of an improvement program in that community, ought with careful and well grounded planning to bring about highly desirable results in our state.