The Digital Library: Rus

“The field covered by such a register has no definite boundaries. In general, it has been the desire to compile compact information about those persons who are now contributing through their achievements to the betterment and advancement of country life. In many cases the decision as to the entry of certain names has been arbitrary, inasmuch as the persons are only incidentally or secondarily connected with rural subjects. It has been the aim to include those persons who are regularly and prominently engaged in rural work as farmers, teachers, investigators, business men, ministers, lecturers, farm agents, authors, editors, rural organizers, administrators, if their efforts are of such a nature as to make them public characters. The volume is designed to be only a compilation of information, not of biographies or recognitions of merit. Each entry is a curriculum vitae, without enlargement or appraisal. […]

“For some years suggestions have accumulated for the preparation of a Who’s Who that will aid to organize the rural work, give it proper recognition, and record the human resources in the country-life movement. Such biographical compilation must constitute an important element in the survey of rural affairs and resources now so much in the public mind. […]

“We should have as good record of the rural range as of the urban range. Rus and urbs together make up the public welfare.” -from “Scope and Plan of the Book” of RUS, Vol. 1 (1918), pp. 3, 5

“The consultant will recognize the title of the book in the Latin word rus, meaning ‘the country’, whence we have the words rural, rustic, and their dependents. The book is not concerned with the poetic idea of rus in urbe, ‘the country in the city’ nor yet with urbs in rure, ‘the city in the country’, but rather with rus in rure, ‘the country in the country’. It is part of the accumulating acknowledgement and inventory of the rural side of our civilization.” -from “Statement” in Rus, Vol. 2 (1920), pg. 4

RUS: Rural Uplook Service, A Preliminary Attempt to Register the Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1918.

Rus: A Register of the Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. Vol. 2. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1920.

Rus: A Biographical Register of Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. By L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. Vol. 3. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1925.

Rus: A biographical register of rural leadership in the United States and Canada. Vol. 4. By L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1930.