Rural Mail Delivery.
—The development of the Rural Mail Delivery and its relation to the better roads movement has been touched upon in [Chapter V]. It will only be necessary to say here that the psychological effect of a daily mail upon the inhabitants of the rural districts has been most remarkable. Through its means these people are no longer isolated, they know daily what is transpiring in the world; they are thinking of the great questions of finance, politics, and what not, at the same time as their fellows in other parts of the country. The nation is thus more or less unified, the country dweller looks and thinks of himself as an integral part of the whole. Rural mail, telephone, the automobile, modern home conveniences and, now, radio telephony are rapidly making agriculture one of the great and desirable professions. The rural home need no longer be a place where there is nothing but ten hours’ work and six hours’ chores. The farmer of to-day, with his daily paper, his market reports, his books and magazines, his furnace-heated and electric-lighted house, his automobile ready at hand, is better off, more independent, and should be more happy and contented than those who dwell in the murky city.