American Rural HighwaysAgg, T. R. (Thomas Radford)
Science
American Rural Highways
Agg, T. R. (Thomas Radford)
Roads -- United States
=Rural Education.=--It has become increasingly apparent during the
World War that the demand upon North America for food stuffs is to
become more and more insistent as the years pass. Already the
consumption in the United States has approached quite closely to the
average production and yet the population is constantly increasing.
The time is not far distant when greater production will be required
of the agricultural area in North America in order to meet the home
demand for foodstuffs, and many thousands of tons will be needed for
export. This need can only be met by agricultural methods that will
increase greatly the present yield of the soil. The adoption of better
agricultural methods must of necessity be preceded by the technical
training of the school children who will be the farmers of the next
generation, which can best be accomplished in graded schools with well
equipped laboratories and with suitably trained teachers. The problem
of providing such schools in rural communities has, in some instances,
been solved by consolidating a number of rural school districts and
constructing a well equipped building to accommodate the students from
an area several miles square. An educational system of this sort can
reach its highest usefulness only when adequate public highways
facilitate attendance of pupils. The whole trend of rural educational
progress is toward a system which is predicated upon a comprehensive
highway policy in the district.
=Rural Social Life.=--Closely allied to the rural educational problem
is the rural social problem. Motor cars and good roads do a great deal
to eliminate the isolation and lack of social opportunity that has
characterized rural life in the United States. A high order of
citizenship in rural communities is essential to the solution of many
problems of rural economics, and such citizens will not live away from
the social opportunities of modern life. The rural school house and
the rural church may become social centers and local plays, moving
picture shows and lectures and entertainments of other kinds made
available to those who live in the country. Their enjoyment of these
social opportunities will be much more general if the public highways
are at all times in a condition to be traveled in comfort. Good homes
and good schools on good roads are prerequisites to the solution of
many rural problems.
If there is opportunity for those who live in the cities to get some
adequate idea of rural life and the conditions under which farming
operations are carried on it will correct many misunderstandings of
the broad problems of food production and distribution. Reference has
frequently been made to the seeming desire on the part of city people
to get into the country, and, by facilitating the realization of this
desire, a great social service is rendered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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