meeting, as every member of the community has a share in the
discussions and planning for the general welfare. This influence
in rural life has been lacking in new communities in recent years.
In the great movement of people westward with its profligate
disposal of public land, settlement became migratory and
speculative. Every man was expected to look out for himself. Rural
neighborhoods became separated into social and economic strata.
There was the nonresident landowner; the influential resident
landowner; the tenant, aloof and indifferent to community
improvements; and, below that, the farm laborer who had no social
status and who in recent years, because of lack of opportunity and
social recognition, has migrated into the cities where he could
have independence and self-respect, or has degenerated into a
hobo.

At Durham, for the first time in American land settlement, the
farm laborer who works for wages is recognized as having as useful
and valuable a part in rural economy as the farm owner. The
provisions made for his home are intended to give to his wife and
children comfort, independence, and self-respect; in other words,
the things that help create character and sustain patriotism. The
farm laborers' homes already built are one of the most attractive
features of the settlement; and when the community members gather
together, as they do, to discuss matters that affect the progress
of the settlement, or to arrange for cooperative buying and
selling, the farm laborer and his family are active and respected
members of the meetings.

From maps in school histories study the claims of the seven states
to western lands.