ABSTRACT
OF all communities, the social constitution of rural districts are the most individuai and the most closely connected with particular historical developments. It would not be reasonable to speak collectively of the rural conditions of Russia, Ireland, Sicily, Hungary, and the Black Belt. Even if I confine myself to districts with developed capitalistic cultures, it is scarcely possible to treat the subject from one common point of view. For a rural society, separate from the urban social community, does not exist at the present time in a great part of the modern civilized world. It no longer exists in England, except, perhaps, in the thoughts of dreamers. The constant proprietor of the soil, the landlord, is not an agriculturist but a lessor; and the temporary owner of the estate, the tenant or lessee, is an entrepreneur, a capitalist like any other. The laborers are partly seasonal and migrating; the rest are journeymen of exactly the same class as other proletarians; they are joined together for a certain time and then are scattered again. If there is a specific rural social problem it is only this: Whether and how the rural community or society, which no longer exists, can arise again so as to be strong and enduring.
