The State of Voluntarism in Rural Society -- A Theoretical Construction of the Problem.

Voluntarism, a concept rooted in the Puritan Ethic, is that ethos which assigns welfare functions for persons without adequate means to voluntary agencies, and voluntarism along with cultural pluralism must be curbed if exodus of the rural farm population is to be mitigated. With the exception of the Old Age and Survivor's Insurance Program, the majority of welfare measures perpetrate voluntarism emphasizing the concept of ownership security and sustaining the Puritan Ethic which maintains that ownership is the most virtuous protection against misfortune, old age, unemployment, physical handicap, and illness (presumably a larger welfare program suited to agriculture is not needed -- migration will take care of the failures). Present agricultural programs are also far too liberally penetrated by voluntarism, for farm and ranch operators are permitted to vote whether they should or should not participate in a compulsory program, which in times of price and income depressing surpluses leads to over emphasis on voluntarism. It is also in the interest of urbanites to curb voluntarism, for they become the inheritors of the dispossessed migrants from rural areas. It is imperative, therefore, that rural communities begin to function as an interacting, coordinated whole and that they are supported in this by national policy action, Federal legislation, and finding. (JC)