The Rural School Community Center

In the use of the phrase social capital I make no reference to the usual acceptation of the term capital, except in a figurative sense. I do not refer to real estate, or to personal property or to cold cash, but rather to that in life which tends to make these tangible substances count for most in the daily lives of a people, namely, goodwill, fellowship, mutual sympathy and social intercourse among a group of individuals and families who make up a social unit, the rural community, whose logical center is the school. In community building as in business organization and expansion there must be an accumulation of capital before constructive work can be done. In building up a large business enterprise of modern proportions, there must first be an accumulation of capital from a large number of individuals. When the financial resources of these several individuals have been brought together under effective organization and skilful management, they take the form of a business corporation whose purpose is to produce an article of consumption-steel, copper, bread, clothing-or to provide personal conveniences-transportation, electricity, thoroughfares. The people benefit by having such products and conveniences available for their daily needs, while the capitalists benefit from the profits reserved to themselves as compensation for their services to society. Now, we may easily pass from the business corporation over to the social corporation, the community, And find many points of similarity. The individual is helpless socially, if left entirely to himself. Even the association of the members of one's own family fails to satisfy that desire which every normal individual has of being with his fellows, of being a part of a larger group than the family. If he may come into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community 130