The facts summarized in the previous chapter show that in rural Ohio the church as a whole is not adequately performing its great and difficult task. It is equally evident that no institution could hope for a high degree of success unless more progressive in method and administration. Furthermore, unless the urban officials or directors in charge of rural churches come to appreciate the fundamental importance of the country church problem, address themselves more seriously to the task in hand, and make really effective use of improved organization and available human and material resources, the country church will continue to decline. While there are very many successful churches, and many rural communities socially, morally, and economically prosperous, failures occur in equally large numbers.

A most striking illustration of the churches’ inefficiency may be found in southern and southeastern Ohio. Here, in a region covering at least eighteen counties, the failure of the churches may fairly be called pathetic. These counties are Adams, Athens, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington. In this area, after more than a hundred years of the work of the churches, the religious, social, and economic welfare of the people are going down. Although the churches have been here for more than a century, no normal type of organized religion is really flourishing, while the only kind which, during the past fifteen years, has been gaining ground, the cult of the Holy Rollers, is scarcely better than that of a Dervish. The churches have failed and are failing to dispel ignorance and superstition, to prevent the increase of vice, the spread of disease, and the general moral and spiritual decadence of the people.

Most of the information concerning the Eighteen Counties, as for convenience, this region is hereafter called, was derived from personal investigation on the ground by Mr. Gill, from the testimony of two trained investigators, and from interviews and correspondence with local merchants, physicians, clergymen, school teachers, superintendents of schools and churches, farmers, and Sunday school workers. Information confirming what had already been received was found in the statistical reports of the national and state governments. Some of the results of a study of the reports of the Ohio Bureau of Vital Statistics and the United States Census are given in Table A and in Maps A, and Maps 1 to 10, on pages 26 to 36.

In Map A the heavily shaded area indicates the Eighteen Counties included in this region. Ten other counties bordering upon them are shaded more lightly. Many communities in these ten bordering counties are influenced by the migration of population from the Eighteen Counties.

In no less than twelve out of the Eighteen Counties, the death rate from tuberculosis is excessive. (See Map 1 and Table A, column 1.) Reports of the Ohio Bureau of Vital Statistics for the years 1909, 1910, and 1911 (the latest we could secure on this subject), give the average annual deaths from this disease for 100,000 persons, as 125 for the whole State. On Map 1, all counties are shaded whose rate exceeds not 125 only, but 145. Of the seventeen counties in the State whose death rate from tuberculosis is 145 or over, all but five are in this region, and of the five one is a bordering county.

Outside this area and the bordering counties, the highest rate is in Franklin, of which the city of Columbus is the county seat; but of the Eighteen Counties, seven have a higher rate than Franklin. In Clermont County it is 164, in Scioto 169, in Lawrence 172, in Ross 175, in Gallia 184, while in Pike it is no less than 216,—far larger than for any other rural county in the State. In Hamilton County, in which is the city of Cincinnati, and which is adjacent to Clermont County, the rate of 217 is probably due to the large colored population.

It will be observed, therefore, that in no less than two-thirds of the Eighteen Counties the rate of death from this preventable disease is excessively and indefensibly high.

The number of illegitimate births in the Eighteen Counties is likewise excessive. (See Map 2 and Table A, column 2, pages 28 and 37.) The rate per 100,000 population for the State is 43.9. Of the 28 counties whose rate is above the average, 19, or 68 per cent, are either in the Eighteen Counties or the counties bordering upon them. No less than thirteen, or more than two-thirds, of the Eighteen Counties have an excessive number of illegitimate births. Outside this area and the bordering counties the highest rate for any county is 61, but in ten of the Eighteen Counties it is greater than this. Whereas the rate for the State is less than 44, in Athens County it is 65, in Noble 67, in Scioto 73, in Gallia 76, in Hocking and Monroe 78, in Ross 87, in Pike 89, in Lawrence no less than 113, while in Jackson it is 123, or the highest rate in the State.

It will be noted that these figures cover the counties in which are the large cities as well as the rural counties. But in Hamilton, containing the city of Cincinnati, the rate is only 66, in Franklin, containing the city of Columbus, it is 56, and in Cuyahoga, containing the city of Cleveland, it is only 50.

Illiteracy also, in the Eighteen Counties, is excessive. (See Map 3 and column 3 of Table A.) The per cent of illiterate males of voting age for the State in 1910 was 4.2. There are 29 counties in which that number was exceeded. Of these, fourteen are among the Eighteen Counties, and five border upon them. In Brown County, the percentage is 4.3, in Washington and Noble 4.5, in Monroe 5.4, in Adams 6.9, in Athens and Ross 7.4, in Scioto 7.7, in Gallia 8.1, in Vinton 8.4, in Hocking 8.6, while in Pike it is 10.7, and in Lawrence 11.6.

Among the remaining ten counties whose percentage of illiteracy is above the average it appears (see Map 4, page 30) that in all but three, the percentage of foreign-born persons is large, and that among counties where the foreign born are few, there are, outside the Eighteen Counties, only six for which the percentage of illiteracy is greater than 4.2, and three of these are included in the counties which border upon them.

It will be noted that in this region the number of foreign-born persons is very small. The percentage for the State is 12.5, whereas in the Eighteen Counties it is only 2.3. No less than 53 counties out of the 70 outside of the Eighteen Counties, have a foreign population of more than 2.3 per cent.

In this region, therefore, where there is so high a percentage of illiteracy, of illegitimacy, and of deaths from preventable disease, the people are more nearly pure Americans than in the rest of the State. They compare unfavorably with the people of counties where a large proportion are foreigners. It is true that the cause does not lie in the origin of the population. But the fact that these things are true in the most American parts of Ohio, where we should naturally expect to find the best situation, greatly emphasizes the significance of the conditions disclosed.

It is an additional indictment against those who are responsible that in Mahoning County more than 28 per cent and in Cuyahoga County more than 33 per cent of the population in 1910 were foreign born, yet in these counties, containing the large cities of Youngstown and Cleveland, the moral and social conditions are better than in the Eighteen Counties—a rural section inhabited by our purest American stock.

Such statistical data as are here presented are but as smoke indicating fire. They do not overstate the urgency of the appeal from the unfortunate over-churched and under-ministered communities of this section. Here gross superstition exercises strong control over the thought and action of a large proportion of the people. Syphilitic and other venereal diseases are common and increasing over whole counties, while in some communities nearly every family is afflicted with inherited or infectious disease. Many cases of incest are known, inbreeding is rife. Imbeciles, feeble-minded, and delinquents are numerous, politics is corrupt, the selling of votes is common, petty crimes abound, the schools have been badly managed and poorly attended. Cases of rape, assault, and robbery are of almost weekly occurrence within five minutes’ walk of the corporation limits of one of the county seats, while in another county political control is held by a self-confessed criminal. Alcoholic intemperence is excessive. Gross immorality and its evil results are by no means confined to the hill districts, but are extreme also in the towns.

Adams County was made notorious because in the 1910 election nearly 2,000 persons were disenfranchised for selling their votes, and there is convincing evidence that it does not stand alone. Of course there are many communities in this region where conditions are better, such as the area immediately affected by the admirable and effective work of Rio Grande College. But there is just as little question that the general deplorable condition of the Eighteen Counties, ascertained through the personal investigations of Mr. Gill, and confirmed by wide correspondence and the statistical data here summarized, is true.

The bad economic, as distinguished from the moral, conditions in the Eighteen Counties are largely due to sterility of soil, and to the fact that many of its hillsides are too steep for profitable cultivation. It is often contended that economic conditions affect religion and morals, and there is much truth in that contention. But it cannot be held that steep hillsides and sterile soil of themselves produce conditions such as are here described. Merely to state such a proposition is to refute it. Moral and religious poverty must bear at least as much of the blame as poverty of the soil. (See Maps 8, 9, and 10, and Table A, columns 8 and 9.)

The total value of farm property falls below 15 million dollars in but 21 of the 88 counties of Ohio. Of the 21, all but 6 are among the Eighteen Counties. (See Map 8, and Table A, column 8.) In Adams, Athens, and Monroe Counties, the value of farm property is only 10 million dollars each; in Morgan 9, in Meigs and Scioto 8, in Gallia 7, in Hocking and Pike 6, in Jackson and Lawrence 5, and in Vinton only 4.According to the United States Census the value of farm property in Ohio increased nearly 60 per cent from 1900 to 1910. There were only ten counties in the State in which farm property had not increased more than 25 per cent during that period. Eight of these are among the Eighteen Counties. (See Map 9, and Table A, column 9.)

According to the Census of 1910, there were only 13 counties in Ohio whose land was valued at not more than $25.00 per acre. All of them are in the Eighteen Counties. (See Map 10.) In the remaining five the land is valued at not more than $50.00 per acre. It becomes impossible, therefore, to avoid the question whether the character of the soil determines the character and destiny of the people who are born upon it.

Attention should be directed in passing to the fact that the low value of the land is due in part to the failure of the people who live upon it to develop and use the natural resources which are available. In some of the poorest regions in the Eighteen Counties an occasional farmer is making a good living from the soil, although his land by nature is no better than that of his poor neighbors. As a rule the agricultural opportunities of the region are neglected. For example, little fruit is grown, although both climate and soil in much of the region are very favorable to fruit production.

But it remains true that the natural conditions as a whole are not as favorable for agriculture, as they are to the north and northwest; and it is an unquestionable fact that the character and condition of the earth’s surface has a relation to the physical, intellectual, social, and moral conditions of the people who live upon it. Undoubtedly this is as true in southeastern Ohio as it is elsewhere. Poor soil, as a rule, does not hold upon itself the most enterprising families so tenaciously as good soil, and for that reason we might fairly expect the people of these districts to have less vigor and less initiative. On such soil it is therefore more difficult to sustain thriving churches, and so the moral and religious life may be more prone to decline.

But soil conditions by themselves cannot demoralize a people. They can do so only where the church is failing to do its work. The natural conditions of soil and climate are by no means worse in the Eighteen Counties than in many other areas where fairly good moral conditions are found. They are no worse than they were in the parish of John Frederick Oberlin, nor in many fairly prosperous New England communities of to-day. Even where moral, economic, and other conditions are bad, communities usually respond quickly to the work of a well-equipped resident pastor, as the experience of home missionaries abundantly proves.

In the first parish served as pastor by Mr. Gill, the soil and the people were very poor. The moral conditions, because of a church situation very similar to that of the neglected communities of southeastern Ohio, were bad. But the response to the work of a church which gave good service was all that could have been anticipated. Even the economic conditions were notably improved as a result of the church’s work, while the moral change in the community was striking, rapid, and enduring. Men familiar with home missionary work regard such results as normal.

Where the conditions are as unfavorable as they are in the Eighteen Counties, it is unquestionably the duty of the church as a whole, and especially of the churches of the prosperous districts, to assist the weaker churches not only with supervision and advice, but also by helping to provide well-trained and well-equipped ministers, thus guarding against the ravages of an ignorant and untrained or unworthy and insincere ministry.

The people of southeastern Ohio will undoubtedly be as responsive to good church work and as ready to follow good religious leadership as the people of similar regions elsewhere. Such work and leadership for many years, at least, they have not had. (See the next chapter.) Their ecclesiastical and religious conditions are such as afford no ground for expecting better social, moral, and physical conditions than those actually found to exist. Surely we cannot accept these conditions as inevitable until the church shall at least have made a serious effort to test the possibilities and learn the results of carrying out a live and modern program.