Failing that consummation, towards which, however, it may be hoped that future events will lead, there seems no reason but timidity and short-sighted frugality to hesitate in choosing the American pattern. [Illustration: LIBRARY OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, WYE.] The more rapidly the method of the travelling book-box spreads into counties in which efficient urban libraries are already working, the sooner will its radical defects appear; common sense and obvious convenience will presently call for the abolition of such anomalies, and insist on a proper utilization of existing resources. The earlier this happens the better, for such utilization will be far more economic than an ineffective system, however cheaply run. The outcome will be something much nearer the goal indicated by the Adult Education Committee in their Final Report.[25] “The hope lies in the recognition of the county market town as the natural centre for the surrounding villages and the gradual development of transport facilities radiating from the market towns.... The development of transport and the extended use of electric power will tend to the decentralization of industry and the movement of firms from the town to the country. It is improbable, however, that town workers will be prepared, in any large numbers--even when the housing shortage is remedied--to exchange urban life for life in the country so long as the latter is without the counterpart of the many and varied activities to which they have become accustomed in the towns.... The rural problem, from whatever point of view it is regarded--economic, social, or political--is essentially a problem of re-creating the rural community, of developing new social traditions and a new culture. The great need is for a living nucleus of communal activity in the village, which will be a centre from which radiate the influence of different forms of corporate effort, and to which the people are attracted to find this satisfaction of their social and intellectual needs. We conceive this nucleus to be a village institute, under full public control.... The institute should contain a hall large enough for dances, cinema shows, concerts, plays, public lectures, and exhibitions. At the institute there should be a public library and local museum. If arrangements can be made for games and sports, so much the better. The institute, in a word, should be a centre of educational, social, and recreational activity.... As the institutes will be used more and more for public and quasi-public purposes, it seems to us that they should be established out of public funds. In the main, the establishment of village institutes should be a national charge. The complicated social and economic questions which we call collectively the rural problem are a matter of the greatest national importance. They do not admit of any simple solution. They need to be approached by many roads; one of the most important is through direct