AUTHOR'S PREFACE
For years the United States Department of Agriculture has been directing highly successful coöperative work among people of the rural districts. I have made no attempt to cover this in detail, but have outlined the work in a few of its phases in the hope that interest may be stimulated and that a wider use may be made of the vast amount of valuable material on the subject that is at all times available at Washington.
The book does not pretend to present any views I may personally have on the methods of community organization; I am not an expert but a student, and therefore I have merely tried to present, in logical consequence and in convenient and condensed form, the views of experts in various lines of community work for the benefit of other students of this important subject.
The book would not have been possible except for the generous and enthusiastic assistance of Dr. Henry E. Jackson, Expert in Community Work of the United States Bureau of Education. I am also indebted to Mr. O. B. Martin, and to other officials of the States Relations Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, for guidance in the selection of bulletins from which the material on rural community organization has been taken.
Ida Clyde Clarke.
Washington, D.C.
