Highways and Highway Transportation

by George R. Chatburn

It will be a good thing to have the farms near large centers of population divided into smaller tracts whereon by intensive cultivation can be supported many families. Here there is always a demand for garden products which by means of a small car, or through the agency of motor express lines, can be marketed daily. It does not require a very great deal of land to support a poultry farm from which there will be a continuous income. By diversifying crops something will be coming in at all seasons.

Good roads and the automobile not only make it possible to diversify farming but make the home life in the country less monotonous. No trouble to go after supper 12 or 15 miles to the town to take part in civic affairs, to attend a lecture, watch the movies or go to church. No extra horses need to be kept for these purposes, neither are the farm horses deprived of their rest. While the swift ride through bracing air rests the weary farmer after his day’s toil in the fields and gives new life to his faithful spouse upon whom the lonesomeness of isolation lies the much more heavily.

Salesmen have in great numbers provided themselves with automobiles large enough to carry their samples. With these they can make many more towns than when they were compelled to depend upon trains and the small-town livery stables. The result is either a wider territory or more frequent calls upon customers.

Hotels, during the summer season, especially, if located on one of the popular cross country roads, are seldom without tourist guests. Nina Wilcox Putnam[170] states that from Washington westward the “wily tourist will always wire ahead for rooms, and preferably two days ahead. The truth is that the best places to stop are not nearly large enough to accommodate the crowd.” Speaking of these hotels she finds them well equipped, clean, and well cared for. There is no doubt but that the automobile tourist traffic has had its effect, too, upon them. Each spring they clean and spruce up with the idea of securing as much of this traffic as good service reported by the camaraderie of travelers all along the way will bring to them.

Mention has been made of the country people going to the larger cities to market their products and purchase goods wanted. It is not considered at all unusual for country and small town people to auto 30 miles to patronize the large department stores in the city. If a trade which satisfies both trader and tradee is beneficial and of economic importance to both then this would seem to be a good thing. The selling of the goods is beneficial to the store-keeper because he makes his profit. The trader has a large variety to select from and having made a voluntary selection is satisfied, because he or she may secure exactly what the city cousin gets.

But what is to become of the business of the country store-keeper? How is he to get along? The best thing he can do is to put upon his shelves goods of a standard quality. His rents and overhead are less than those of the city competitor; he, therefore, can sell at a less profit. This is so true that the writer has known of city dwellers going to the country store for these standard articles. Such interchange while of economical importance is also sociological in differentiating between city and country merchandising and in bringing together in a new way the city and country dwellers.

Consolidation of Rural Schools.

—The people of the United States have been justly proud of her public schools. No one has ever considered them to be perfect, but the influence exerted upon the minds of the growing children has been wholesome. The very life of a republic depends upon an educated citizenry. With thorough education along right lines there is no reason why the nation should not live forever. To obtain such an education as is commensurate with right living and with the upbuilding and maintenance of our government and civilization requires that every means at hand should be utilized. The broadening, informational, and unifying influence of the automobile should not be underestimated. Edison’s theory that the movie should supplement the textbook because visual education is remarkably interesting and effective, needs more than a passing thought. The instruction which the young people receive from parents, from associates, from newspapers, magazines, and miscellaneous books, from civic organizations of various kinds, and from Sunday school and church cannot be overestimated. Neither should be forgotten the vast and important education which comes through the hard knocks of experience.

An illustration of what the public schools may do for the preservation of the country can be drawn from the history of the Great War, the worst and the fiercest the world has ever seen. During that war the patriotism of the people shone forth with undiminished luster. The response to the President by the citizenry of the country, whether of his own or opposite political faith, by every honest organization, public or private, by business and professional men, by Congress and legislatures, was all but unanimous. This surprising unanimity was, no doubt, due to the influence of the public schools. The public schools have always inculcated patriotism and loyalty, and these lessons were potent as was evident because even before the draft many young men with Teutonic names took their places with others whose forebears were of other nationalities as well as with those of long-standing American descent. Therein went astray one of the guesses of the enemy, namely, that our Teutonic citizens with their children would prove more loyal to the “fatherland” than to democratic America. The lessons of patriotism the children brought home from school, the stories of Valley Forge and Yorktown, of Gettysburg and Appomattox, were communicated to their parents and penetrated deep, so that only a moiety of our foreign born element could be classed with the enemy. Thus have the public schools in this great melting pot of the world been the conservators of liberty.

The effect of the public school upon the ideals of peace is no less than that upon their state of mind during war. Every day examples are so plentiful they need not here be mentioned. Suffice it to say that it should be made possible for all the young people to come under the influence of the public school learn the American’s Creed, and be steeped in the symbolism of the flag that stands for true democracy.