A SPANISH-AMERICAN TYPE AND A TYPICAL ADOBE HOUSE IN NEW MEXICO
Less than one hundred Indians are reported in the combined four counties, and the number has been diminishing in every county except Union. Sixty-nine of the eighty-one reporting are in Hughes County, a small section of which is included in the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. But Hughes had 169 in 1910. Spanish-Americans in Union, a cross between Mexicans and Pueblo Indians (the Spaniards brought no women with them for 400 years), equal between one-fourth and one-third of the total population. They live chiefly in the south-central and southwestern sections of the county, and together with their habitations remind one of picturesque Mexico. Sheridan County has the largest proportion of negroes of any of the four counties—147 out of a total of 214; but these western states in general have only a small percentage of negroes in their population, varying from 1.6 per cent in New Mexico to 9.7 in Wyoming. The Chinese and Japanese in the four counties number, all told, less than 150.
Wide Spaces and Few People
County areas ordinarily group themselves into so-called “communities,” where individuals share common social and economic interests centering in a definite locality. In this country, with its scattered pioneer population, community groupings are less definite and permanent than in the East or Middle West. Here they are usually determined by topography, and especially by the rivers and creeks and the railroad. Along the railroad are trade centers which serve the entire county. The majority of these communities are of small population and large area, with a small trading center containing stores, hotel, school, possibly a church or two and some houses huddled together. The county seat largely centralizes the life of each county.
Outside the trade centers and the open country area included within their community boundaries, the counties fall into certain social groupings. Where the land is good, and is being intensively developed, there are well-defined permanent communities. Some have even grown staid and conservative. In other sections the story is pathetically different. One lonely family, a forlorn row of claim shacks along the horizon, are all that is left of a real social life that existed only a few years before. A woman standing at the door of the only habitation in a round of sky and stretch of plain, tells how “all the good neighbors are gone and us left grieving for the fine times we once had.” Transiency is usual inhomesteading country, many people only remaining long enough to homestead their land. In Beaverhead and Hughes, which have been longer homesteaded, there is a larger proportion of residents of more than fifteen years than in the other two counties. But in all four counties, there are temporary groups of people with some social life at present, which may or may not have significance in the future. On the whole, present development tends to be permanent because most of the desirable land in Beaverhead, Sheridan and Union, and all of the land in Hughes has long since been taken up. All community limits are more or less indefinite. For example, a rancher living near the boundary of two communities may go to two or more centers for trade. And a dance or barbecue will bring people from any number of the communities.
WHERE MAIN STREET MIGHT HAVE RUN
The hut of a lonely homesteader.
County interests tend to become concentrated in increasing proportion in the county seat. Dillon, the Beaverhead County seat, is fairly well located in the central eastern section. It is considered one of the best business towns of the state, drawing trade from every point in Idaho. Dillon is a retired ranchers’ town, conservative and wealthy. Community spirit is not manifest. The old settlers run the town and are not friendly to the ideas of others. Even a Commercial Club has found it hard to survive in Dillon. Sheridan City, the county seat of Sheridan County, with a population of about 10,000, is wide-awake and progressive. Although there are a number of growing industries and it is a division point on the railroad, Sheridan is also dependent to a large extent uponfarming. Clayton, the county seat of Union, a town with a spirit of “boost,” informs travellers by means of a bill board that it is “the smallest town on earth with a Rotary.” Clayton’s large proportion of transient population is at once typical of the frontier in its nonchalant spirit, in its cowboys with sombreros, jingling spurs and high-heeled boots that click along the pavements; it typifies the Range country in the canvas-covered wagons, coming in provided with camping outfits and rations to last for several days because “home” is far away. But all this is gradually changing, and Clayton is becoming more of a farming center, less like the frontier and more like the Middle West. Pierre, the Hughes County seat and State capital, is a busy town. It has a number of industries and is the center for an extensive farming and stock-raising region, but the capitol overshadows the rest of the town in importance.
Means of Livelihood
Cattle were once raised on a large scale in this country. That was the day of the cowboy. But with the coming of the homesteader and his fenced land, stock has had to be raised in smaller herds and more restricted areas. In the old days, there was a great deal of open range land. Most of this has now been homesteaded. Naturally the rancher has resented the steady appropriation of his “free range” by the farmer.
While cattle raising is still the chief source of income, there has been a steady gain in the relative value of farming, especially since the introduction of irrigation and dry-farming methods. About half the farm land in both Beaverhead and Sheridan is under irrigation, and there is some irrigated land in the northern part of Union, but practically no irrigation in Hughes County. Some dry farming is carried on in every section of each county. General farming and dairying rank next to stock raising. Hay and forage are the chief crops. Considerable farm land is fit only for range land for cattle; it is too broken or dry for crops. Dairying is comparatively a new development.
Forest Reserve land in Beaverhead and Sheridan is allotted to ranches for cattle range. In Beaverhead National Forest, 10,530 acres have been homesteaded and seventy-five claims have been listed, chiefly in 160 acre tracts. Very little homesteading has been done in the Big Horn National Forest because the entire area is above the practical range of farm crops, and killing frosts occurevery month in the year. In the entire forest, only about a dozen tracts have been taken under the homestead laws, averaging a little over one hundred acres each; all have been abandoned, except a few used as summer resorts.
A WYOMING RANCH
The home of a well-to-do rancher in Sheridan County.
As is usually the case in frontier country, a large majority of the farms and ranches are operated by owners. South Dakota, at the threshold of the West, has a larger proportion of tenancy than any of the other states represented. The percentage in South Dakota is 34.9 per cent., in New Mexico it is 12.2 per cent., in Wyoming it is 12.5 per cent., and in Montana it is 11.3 per cent. In Beaverhead tenancy has decreased from 10.2 per cent. in 1910 to 7.2 per cent. in 1920. In Sheridan, it has remained about the same, 20.5 per cent. in 1910 and 20.4 per cent. in 1920. Hughes has had a marked increase—from 16.6 per cent. in 1910 to 30.9 per cent. in 1920. Tenancy has increased 11.9 per cent. in Union during the past decade. This has been partly because so much of the land is held by absentee owners who have proved up on the land, moved away, and are waiting for property to go up in value; also because on account of the high taxation some cattlemen find that they make better profits by renting instead of owning.
Beaverhead County is rich in minerals, including gold, silver, copper, lead, ore, graphite, coal and building stone. Comparativelylittle mining has been done since the war on account of low prices. A large amount of coal is produced in Sheridan County. Stretching out one after the other in a compact series, there are six large mines north of Sheridan City, set in the midst of an agricultural area and having little relation to the rest of the county. There is also a small coal mine being operated at Arvada in the eastern part of the county. A number of farmers and ranchmen are lucky enough to have small coal veins on their land, and mine their own coal with pick and shovel.
A MONTANA MINING CAMP
Oil is thought to be present in both Hughes and Union, but very little has been done with its development. There is some coal in the mountains in Union, and building stone and deposits of lime and alum are found in some communities. There are numerous gas wells in Hughes County. Many ranches have wells giving sufficient gas for all domestic purposes.
Each county has a number of smaller industries, such as printing establishments, lumber yards, etc. Sheridan City has several large plants, including an iron works, flour mill, sugar beet factory and a brick and tile plant. All the counties benefit from the summerauto-tourist trade. The city and towns all have camping grounds for tourists. Sheridan has a tourist building, with a sitting-room, fire-place for rainy days and rest rooms, in her city park. Sheridan also has a park in the Big Horn Mountains. Both Beaverhead and Sheridan have a small number of resorts. Sheridan has three “Dude” ranches, the largest of which is the Eaton ranch, established in 1904.
The Young Idea
Good school systems have been developed in the comparatively short time since these counties were organized and running as active units of group life. Buildings are almost all fairly well built. Teachers receive good salaries. Of course, the schools are nowhere near ideal. The isolation and distances present serious school problems. Small rural schools persist where distances are great. Union is the only county of the four with any consolidated schools. The problem of supervision is great. Each county has local school districts and a local board of trustees in each. The county superintendent, a woman in each county, has a difficult time visiting the more remote schools and does not reach them often. Many roads and trails are practically impassable during the largest part of the school year. Because of the isolation it isoften difficult to find a teacher or to get a place for her to live, when one is secured. School terms vary from five to nine months, the longer terms predominating. Only six communities in the four counties have active Parents’ and Teachers’ associations.
WHEN OIL IS FOUND
The Snorty Gobbler Project at Grenville, N. M.
Besides the two elementary schools in Dillon, used as model schools by the State Normal which is located there, Beaverhead County has forty-six elementary schools. Two of these, the schools in both villages, Wisdom and Lima, offer one year of high school. The only four-year high school in the county, located at Dillon, has sixteen teachers and a student enrollment of 185. The entire school enrollment in the county in 1920-21 was 2,671; the total number of teachers, 100; the total cost of school maintenance $510,006.00. The State Normal had an enrollment of 561 during the summer of 1920; 190 in the winter of 1920-21 and 620 in the summer of 1921.
There were seventy-four schools running in Sheridan County in 1920-21, not including the city schools. In addition to the Sheridan High School, there are five schools in the county offering some high school training. Big Horn has had a four year course, but this year (1921-22) is sending her third and fourth year high school pupils to Sheridan City in a school bus; Dayton offers two years of high school, and Ranchester, Ulm and Clearmont each have one year. An annual county graduation day is held in the Sheridan High School. It is an all-day affair with a picnic in the park in the afternoon. The total number of pupils in rural schools in 1920-21 was 1,850, the total cost of maintenance, $264,647.21. The Sheridan High School with its enrollment of 522 is the largest in the state. The total school enrollment of the county, including the five Sheridan City elementary schools and the high school was 4,772. There was a total of 173 teachers, of which ninety-six were employed in the rural schools. A parochial school in Sheridan City has an enrollment of about 180 and four teachers. The city also has two privately owned business colleges with a total enrollment of 150.
In Union County, there are 108 elementary schools outside of Clayton, with a total enrollment of 4,500 and a force of 170 teachers. Nine schools have some high school work. Five have a two-year course; two have a four-year course. Several elementary schools have been consolidated within the past few years, and occupy new buildings to which the children living at a distance are transported in motor trucks. Besides four earlier issues of school bonds, totalling $79,000, the people have voted, in this year of hard times,an additional issue of $88,000. Clayton has four elementary schools with seventeen teachers and an enrollment of 723. The Clayton High School has twelve teachers and an enrollment of 225. It has a new well-equipped building.
Hughes County has thirty-nine rural schools outside of Pierre. Four schools offer some high school work, two offering one year, one two years and one three years. Pierre has three elementary schools. The Pierre four-year high school has 220 students. The total school enrollment of the county, including the schools in Pierre, was 1,530, the total number of teachers seventy and the total cost of maintenance $130,199.35. There is a Government Indian Industrial School located just outside Pierre.
The lack of opportunity for high school training in so large a part of each county, brings about an increasing migration into the county seat for educational advantages. Many families leave their ranches and move in for the winter instead of sending a child or two. Some come in for elementary schools, because of bad roads and the inaccessibility of their country school. This is one of the greatest factors in the growth of these centers. To illustrate the number of pupils from the country, 150 of the 522 pupils of the Sheridan High School are non-resident and all but about ten are from Sheridan County. In Union County, fifty of the 225 pupils in the Clayton High School come from all over the county, the majority coming from ten miles around Clayton. The number of county children attending Clayton schools is increasing at the rate of about 15 per cent. a year. These children have certain marked characteristics. They are older for their grade than the town children, they average higher marks, and are anxious to make the best of their opportunity. In other words, they do not take education for granted, like the town or city child.
Economic and Social Tendencies
Growth of the Farm Bureau
Nogreater laboratory exists for scientific farming than in this western country. A Farm Bureau, popularized through county agents, is an asset of prime significance to a region that will endow the rest of the country with the fruits of its development. Hughes, in 1915, was the first of the four counties to organize a Farm Bureau. Sheridan and Union followed in 1919. Beaverhead County has no Farm Bureau. A County Farm Agent was employed for eight months in 1918, but did not have the support of the ranchers. They felt that an agent, in a stock raising county like Beaverhead where hay flourished without cultivation, was a needless expense. As one rancher remarked, “We did not want some one who knew less about our business than we did.” As an index to the success attending expert farm advice, one entire community in Beaverhead attempted and abandoned dry farming, whereas in other counties where Farm Bureaus and agents have given service and advice no entire community has failed so completely.
The Farm Bureaus not only improve agricultural methods, but are creating local leaders and a community spirit. The Farm Bureau offers a definite program that is rewarding if adopted. It develops in the individual community a spirit of independence and self-respect which must precede coöperation. The Sheridan Farm Bureau records a typical objective: “to promote the development of the most profitable and permanent system of agriculture; the most wholesome and satisfactory living conditions; the highest ideals in home and community life, and a genuine interest in the farm business and rural life on the part of the boys and girls and young people.... There shall be a definite program of work ... based on the results of a careful study of the problems of the county. It shall be formulated and carried out by the members of the organization, with the assistance of their agents and specialists as may be available from the State Agricultural College.”
Each Farm Bureau has county leaders or a board of directors, each member specializing in and promoting some particular project, as poultry, cattle, marketing of grain, dairying, roads, child welfare, clothing, food and county fair. During 1919-1920 forty-three Farm Bureau meetings were held in Sheridan County, with a total attendance of 1,321. Twenty extension schools or courses were given with a total attendance of 261. Two community fairs were held, and six communities put on recreation programs. The Farm Bureau upheld Governor Carey’s announcement of Good Roads Day by donating $3,300 worth of work on the roads. Seventeen communities were organized; twelve have community committees. Nothing can better create community spirit and enlist coöperation.
A FARM BUREAU DEMONSTRATION
The County Agent for Sheridan is making grasshopper poison.
Each community also adopts a program of work of its own under the leadership of the community committee. A community program for Union County, which is inaccessible to the railroad, is as follows:
A HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENT
Here is a Woman’s Club at an all-day meeting in Union County receiving instructions in the workings of an iceless refrigerator.
The Farm Bureau works with the County Agents, the Home Demonstration Agents, and the Boys’ and Girls’ Club leaders, wherever such agents exist. The County Agents are giving themselves whole-heartedly to their jobs, and the demands for their services keep them busy driving through counties for purposes of demonstration or organization. The Hughes County agent reports the following schedule: fifty days on animal disease, thirty-seven and one-half days on boys’ and girls’ club work, thirty-seven days on organization, twenty-three days on marketing and 116 days on miscellaneous work.
Sheridan and Union have Home Demonstration agents, energetic women, who go out over the county organizing groups of women and giving demonstrations and talks. Some of their achievementsin Sheridan County may be cited. Hot lunches were established in six rural schools in coöperation with the Public Health Nurse; some phase of health work was carried on in four communities and in Sheridan City schools a clothing school was held; 200 women were taught the Cold Pack method of canning; four home convenience demonstrations were given; five pressure cookers were purchased; twenty-five flocks were culled; twelve American cheese demonstrations were given, and 500 pounds of cheese made.
Boys’ and girls’ club work is carried on in every county except Beaverhead. The boys and girls all over the county are organized into clubs and work on various kinds of projects. Union County’s record for 1920 is notable:
Pure-bred hogs and cattle owned by boys and girls are sold under the auspices of the Farm Bureau. Prizes are offered. In Sheridan County, the county club champions are sent to the “Annual Round-up” at the State University. In Hughes, three teams of three members each were given a free trip to the State Fair as a reward for their efforts and achievements. One member of the Cow-Calf Club won a free trip to the International Live Stock Show in Chicago as a prize for his exhibit at the State Fair.
Development of Coöperation
Irrigation means coöperation, but coöperation in buying and marketing is comparatively a new development. Coöperation, however, is a necessity because so many farmers are distant from the trade centers and shipping points. Coöperation is the prime interest of the Farm Bureaus which, in some counties, undertake coöperative buying and selling. The Hughes County Farm Bureau has been especially effective in promoting coöperative enterprise. Says the County Agent:
The Medicine Valley Farm Bureau has done considerable work along different lines, but the most outstanding has been the promotion of a Farmers’ Coöperative Elevator. Most of the stock in this enterprise has been sold and work will be started very soon on the building.... The Harrold Live Stock Shipping Association was promoted by the Farm Bureau Community Club south of Harrold. Several meetings were held by this club on marketing. Members were supplied with coöperative shipping instructions and information. At the present time, most of the stock shipped out of Harrold is shipped through this organization. It has proved a success. This community club was also instrumental in the promotion of a coöperative elevator at Harrold ... in addition to the organization projects on marketing, considerable buying and selling in car-load lots has been done by the different Farm Bureau Community Clubs. The Snake Butte Community Club has bought four car-loads of coal for its members, with a saving of at least $200. They have also bought a car of flour, a car of apples and a car of fence posts, all of which has effected a saving of another $200. Three other community clubs have bought supplies by the car-load. These purchases have netted members of the county a saving of approximately six hundred dollars.... (The Farm Bureau through its exchange service has located 4,550 bushels of seed flax, 495 pounds of Grimm alfalfa seed, 200 bushels of seed wheat, 100 bushels of rye and 800 bushels of seed corn.) One thousand, six hundred and eighty-five pounds of wool was also directed to the state pool of the National Wool Warehouse and Storage Company at Chicago, Illinois.
The Medicine Valley Farm Bureau has done considerable work along different lines, but the most outstanding has been the promotion of a Farmers’ Coöperative Elevator. Most of the stock in this enterprise has been sold and work will be started very soon on the building.... The Harrold Live Stock Shipping Association was promoted by the Farm Bureau Community Club south of Harrold. Several meetings were held by this club on marketing. Members were supplied with coöperative shipping instructions and information. At the present time, most of the stock shipped out of Harrold is shipped through this organization. It has proved a success. This community club was also instrumental in the promotion of a coöperative elevator at Harrold ... in addition to the organization projects on marketing, considerable buying and selling in car-load lots has been done by the different Farm Bureau Community Clubs. The Snake Butte Community Club has bought four car-loads of coal for its members, with a saving of at least $200. They have also bought a car of flour, a car of apples and a car of fence posts, all of which has effected a saving of another $200. Three other community clubs have bought supplies by the car-load. These purchases have netted members of the county a saving of approximately six hundred dollars.... (The Farm Bureau through its exchange service has located 4,550 bushels of seed flax, 495 pounds of Grimm alfalfa seed, 200 bushels of seed wheat, 100 bushels of rye and 800 bushels of seed corn.) One thousand, six hundred and eighty-five pounds of wool was also directed to the state pool of the National Wool Warehouse and Storage Company at Chicago, Illinois.
A TRUCK FARM IN HUGHES COUNTY
Beaverhead County has three active stock-growers’ associations, the most active of which is the Big Hole Stockmen’s Association which established stock yards at Wisdom and at Divide, their shipping point. They finally induced the railroad to help pay for the yards. This association was founded chiefly to work for a road from the Big Hole over into the Bitter Root Valley. The Forest Service was willing to help build the road if Beaverheadand Ravalli Counties would also help. Beaverhead County did not favor the project because it feared competition from the Bitter Root products. But the Big Hole Valley wanted the road on account of the business it would bring in. The Stockmen’s Association raised about $7,000 towards it and the county finally put in $3,500. Besides their contribution of money, the members of the Association donated time and teams. One reason why they have held together so well and so long was because they shared the debt. It has been hard sledding, but they have won out. Their wage scale, which is established annually, was successfully operated for the first time last year (1921), when all but two ranchers stuck to the prescribed wage of $2.00 per day for hay hands. They have fixed up the Fair Grounds at Wisdom and give a Pow-wow there every year.
FRUITS OF THE EARTH
The Community spirit expresses itself in friendly rivalry at Union County Fair.
Largely through the influence of the Farm Bureau, two coöperative organizations were recently started in Union County, the Union County Farmers’ Mutual Hail Insurance Association and the Registered Live Stock and Pure Bred Poultry Association. There is only one other active coöperative at present, a Telephone Company at Mount Dora, capitalized at $3,000. A state-wide marketing association has 280 Union County members who produced in 1920 one-third of all the products marketed through theorganization. Besides the marketing associations, Hughes has a coöperative Farmers’ Lumber Company.
All these counties have coöperative stores. A coöperative store at Wisdom in Beaverhead County has fifty stockholders. Lima had a coöperative store in 1919-1920 which failed through poor management. Two Rochdale Coöperative stores were started three years ago in Ulm and Clearmont in Sheridan County. When the central organization took the surplus earnings of the branch stores to make up failures in other stores in the chain instead of declaring dividends, both the Sheridan County stores withdrew and organized coöperatives of their own in March, 1921. Sheridan City for the past eight years has had a coöperative store in which ranchers and farmers from nearby communities have most of the shares. There is also a Miners’ Store in Sheridan City. Hughes County has one coöperative store with 150 stockholders.
Urban and Rural Rivalry
All the centers are service stations for the farmers. In some places the old, deep-seated antagonism between town and country is noticeable. There is the feeling that the merchants overcharge, that big business sets the prices, that capital is to be distrusted. Most of the merchants have been of the old individualistic type which places the dollar higher than the community, an idea which the Commercial Clubs are altering. This is especially noticeable in Union County, where the feeling between country and town has been very bitter. The farmers unfortunately are unfriendly to and distrustful of the merchants and business men. Each group is really interdependent, but ‘such’ a feeling retards progress and development. As one leading farmer put it, “The prejudice between the farmer and business manmustbe overcome. There is no limit to the results if we can just get together.”
The farmers feel that the average merchant in buying farm products has not discriminated between a good and a bad product so far as price goes. In short, the honest farmer does not want to sell bad eggs or sandy maize, but he doesn’t like to get a poor price for a good product. Farmers feel that the merchants have overcharged them for goods and obtained high profits and they are undoubtedly right to some extent. The farmers believe that the fact of their charging goods on credit with the merchant gives the latter an unfair advantage over them, that the merchant thinks he can pay any price he wants when purchasing from the farmer.
Chambers of Commerce and Commercial Clubs are working toward a better understanding. Get-together meetings have been started. The first Union County meeting prepared the farmers by letters and visits, in order to suggest a more friendly and constructive meeting ground. In Sheridan and Pierre, the Commercial Clubs have been very ready to coöperate in any movements that would benefit the farmer. An example of happier relations between farmer and merchant is the rest room for farmers’ wives maintained in Dillon by the Good Government Club.
UP-TO-DATE REAPING ON THE PLAINS
Answering the World’s Prayer for Daily Bread.
Hard Times
In the history of this Range area the last three years have been the most difficult for farmers and ranchers. They have suffered acutely from the sharp drop in prices of stock and farm products. Part of the Range section has had a severe drouth. Beaverhead has had several dry years. Last year (1921), thousands of dollars’ worth of hay had to be shipped into the county as feed, and much livestock had to be sent out of the county to graze. In addition to drouth, grasshoppers, fairly plentiful before, became a scourge in part of Sheridan the summer of 1921. The farmers, helped by the Farm Bureau, worked hard to exterminate them with poisoned oats. Simultaneously with the drouth and grasshopper scourge in certain sections, the decrease in prices hasled to hard times and much suffering. Whereas a rancher was “well off” a few years ago, he now considers himself lucky if he is “in the hole” for only a few thousand. The farmers are bitter. They feel that something is wrong with the “system.” One can hardly blame them when crops bring no profit, while taxes seem to be higher than ever. The hard times have made ranchers and farmers do more serious thinking about taxes, farm conditions, and the marketing of farm products than they have ever done before.
E. T. Devine, writing on “Montana Farmers” inThe Survey Magazine, gives the farmers’ position:
Montana farmers are much like other American producers, urban and rural, but they are even harder hit than most of their fellow countrymen, except, of course, unemployed town workers. They share in the general calamity of relatively low prices for agricultural products and they have also just passed through several years of unprecedented drouth. Freight rates are high and burdensome, and the things the farmers have to buy are still high in proportion to the prices which they get for their grain and stock. These farmers are therefore in debt, and are borrowing more than they can. They are actually and not merely in a chronically distorted imagination, having difficulty in paying their interest and taxes; and if their equity is small they are losing it.... The farmers are not seeking fundamental or permanent solutions. What concerns them is to get immediate and appreciable relief from taxes.
Montana farmers are much like other American producers, urban and rural, but they are even harder hit than most of their fellow countrymen, except, of course, unemployed town workers. They share in the general calamity of relatively low prices for agricultural products and they have also just passed through several years of unprecedented drouth. Freight rates are high and burdensome, and the things the farmers have to buy are still high in proportion to the prices which they get for their grain and stock. These farmers are therefore in debt, and are borrowing more than they can. They are actually and not merely in a chronically distorted imagination, having difficulty in paying their interest and taxes; and if their equity is small they are losing it.... The farmers are not seeking fundamental or permanent solutions. What concerns them is to get immediate and appreciable relief from taxes.
Hard times, as in Union County, usually strike our best assets. The county first had a County Agent in 1915, a Home Demonstration Agent in 1917, and Assistant County Agent in 1918 and a Club Leader in 1918. Unfortunately, the hard times forced upon the country a program of retrenchment. In 1920 the Assistant County Agent and, early in 1921, the Club Leader were removed. At present, there is a determined effort in some quarters to dispense with the other two workers.
Social Agencies
Country folk keep track of things. County papers as well as outside newspapers are read in all communities. These outside newspapers come from Denver, Kansas City, Butte or Omaha, depending upon location. Four newspapers are published in Beaverhead, two in the county seat, and one in each of the two villages. Rural Sheridan prints but one newspaper,The Tongue River News, at Ranchester. Two dailies are published in Sheridan City. Three communities in Union, and three in Hughes County, publish their own papers. The town of Clayton has theExaminerand theTribune, as well as a paper printed in Spanish. Grenville andDes Moines, two villages in Union, also have local papers. In Hughes County, Pierre has two papers, and Blunt and Harrold one each. The editors are almost all progressive and up-to-date, and vitally interested in the welfare of their communities.
More and better libraries are an urgent need of all these counties. Sheridan, Pierre and Dillon all have splendid Carnegie libraries. The majority of the schools have small school libraries. But there is only one public library in Beaverhead County, besides that in Dillon, in the community house of Wisdom village. Sheridan has no other library in the whole county. The only libraries in Union County are a collection of books for public use in the office of a village lumber yard and a small travelling library. Hughes County has a town library and three circulating libraries.
WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED
The Community House at Wisdom, Beaverhead County.
Good leadership is always essential to progress. Every one of these counties is fortunate in having some splendid county-wide leaders who are devoting themselves to their county’s progress. Wherever a county has a Farm Bureau, leadership is developed by that organization. But in rural sections where distances prevent people from coming together, leadership is wanting. Each ranch is a small isolated world and by the very nature of things there are few community undertakings. The development of local leadership, especially in remote sections, should become the concern of this country. As Hart says in his book, “Community Organization,” “the destiny of civilization is wrapped up in the future ofcommunity life. If that life becomes intelligent, richly developed, democratically organized, socially controlled—the future of civilization is secure.... The determination is largely one of leadership.”
Community Spirit
Red Cross work, during the war, did a great deal toward bringing about a unified spirit. The Farm Bureau is working in this direction. When real needs arise, a community spirit is born, and unsuspected qualities of loyalty, coöperation and leadership develop, as happened in one community in Sheridan County, when that community wanted the State highway: they canvassed every load of wheat that went to Sheridan City from their community to show how much their road was used. Another splendid example of community spirit was the pageant staged by Armstead Community, in Beaverhead County, to celebrate the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Every one in the community, even the babies as Indian papooses, took part. About half of all the communities have a real community spirit, i.e., a willingness on the part of the people to work unselfishly, coöperatively, for the best interests of the community. This spirit, fostered by the Farm Bureau or by war work, has directed communities to concern themselves with their roads, schools, methods of farming and the creation and strengthening of all community bonds and interests.
The results of this spirit are shown in social and educative agencies like Lodges and the local branches of the Farm Bureau. Of the sixty-eight Lodges only seventeen are for women, and their total enrollment is about 7,000 members. While women have fewer Lodges their attendance is more enthusiastic and regular than in the case of the men. There are Commercial Clubs in the city and towns, and in a number of the villages. The American Legion has five branches in the four counties. Eight communities have Literary Societies meeting regularly. Then there are the many clubs and societies which are purely social. These include sewing clubs, card clubs, athletic clubs and similar organizations which are found in the city and towns, and in about one-third of the other communities. There are musical organizations in seven communities, and four communities have community singing. These organizations, together with the schools and churches, give the inspiration for most of the social life.
CAMPING IN SHERIDAN COUNTY
The colored cook, at least, seems to delight in her surroundings.
“Movies,” Motors and the Dance
All the larger centers have moving-picture theatres. With the coming of the “movie,” and the general ownership of cars, there is a growing tendency to go into the centers for amusement. Dancing is the most popular recreation. If an event is really a success, it ends with a dance. In many communities a dance is the only thing that will “go.” One reason for this is the lack of leadership; a dance needs no planning to speak of, which is not the case with other forms of indoor recreation. Dances attract people from great distances and are generally held on Saturday night, lasting until Sunday morning, with a feast at midnight. Perhaps the Farm Bureau has an exhibition during the day, and there is a community dance in the evening. It is held in the hall over the poolroom. An orchestra of three army veterans plays good lively jazz. The latest tunes and dances of the city are as familiar in these remote communities as are the latest modes and fashions. No country square dances here; nothing older than the very latest dancing, and the most modern of ear-capped coiffures! Whole families attend, and parents take the floor along with the young folks. There is a great friendliness. The young men are well set-up, muscular and tanned, and some of them even wear spurs which clink together as they dance. Feminine noses are not as white as they might be, though powder puffs are here, very properly concealed. Most of these girls ride horseback as well as their brothers, and both young women and men, with their athletic supple figures, their innate sense of grace and rhythm, might put to shame our tired, anæmic city dancers. At midnight, there is a supper of fried chicken, sandwiches and real cake brought a few dozen miles more or less by team or car. Everything tastes good because it is made at home. Afterwards, the tireless feet continue the intricate, graceful measures. But outside the brightly lighted hall, and beyond the sound of laughter and music broods the silent, mysterious night of a spacious country. How many city dancers know the homeward drive through a big country, the moon perhaps lighting the river, the contours of plain and butte, and the sleeping hamlets?
The most popular forms of outdoor recreation are the community barbecues, frontier days and pow-wows. Only those who live this free, healthy life in the heart of nature have appetites worthy of a barbecue. At noon the delicious beef, roasted all night over a deep trough of coals, and basted with real butter, is a social meal that many of us envy. There are frontier fielddays with sports belonging to ranch life, such as horse racing and broncho busting. The day usually ends with a big dance. Even the “dude” ranches in Sheridan hold Frontier days, and great events they are, too, with many spectators. In sections of Sheridan and Union Counties, but especially in Beaverhead, there is the beauty of the country which furnishes recreation in itself. Nature has lavished upon them every gift of line and color. The mountains and the streams, the woods and the canyons, hold a hundred delightful possibilities that are within the reach of almost every one. It is a playground as varied as it is perfect. On Saturdays and Sundays in the summer, car after car, packed with camp equipment and home-made delicacies, head for the health-giving hills and mountains.