SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF AMERICAN FARMERS 751 



of similar intelligence, and that bar him from his rightful social 

 place. 



It would, however, be distinctly unfair to the farm community 

 if we did not emphasize some of the advantages that grow out 

 of the rural mode of life. Farmers have time to think, and the 

 typical American farmer is a man who has thought much and 

 often deeply. A spirit of sturdy independence is generated, and 

 freedom of will and of action is encouraged. Family life is nowhere 

 so educative as in the country. The whole family cooperates for 

 common ends, and in its individual members are bred the qualities 

 of industry, patience, and perseverance. The manual work of the 

 schools is but a makeshift for the old-fashioned training of the 

 country-gro\vn boy. Country life is an admirable preparation for 

 the modern industrial and professional career. 



Nevertheless, rural isolation is a real evil. Present-day living is 

 so distinctively social, progress is so dependent upon social agencies, 

 social development is so rapid, that if the farmer is to keep his status 

 he must be fully in step with the rest of the army. He must secure 

 the social viewpoint. The disadvantages of rural isolation are 

 largely in the realm of the social relations, its advantages mostly on 

 the individual and moral side. Farm life makes a strong individual; 

 it is a serious menace to the achievement of class power. 



A cure for isolation sometimes suggested is the gathering of the 

 farmers into villages. This remedy, however, is of doubtful value. 

 In the first place, the scheme is not immediately practicable. About 

 three and one-half billions of dollars are now invested in farm build- 

 ings, and it will require some motive more powerful than that 

 inspired by academic logic to transfer, even gradually, this invest- 

 ment to village groups. Moreover, it is possible to dispute the 

 desirability of the remedy. The farm village at best must be a mere 

 hamlet. It can secure for the farmer very few of the urban advan- 

 tages he may want, except that of permitting closer daily inter- 

 course between families. And it is questionable if the petty society 

 of such a village can compensate for the freedom and purity of rural 

 family life now existing. It may even be asserted with some degree 

 of positiveness that the small village, on the moral and intellectual 

 sides, is distinctly inferior to the isolated farm home. 



At the present time rural isolation in America is being over- 

 come by the development of better means of communication among 

 farmers who still live on their farms. So successful are these means 

 of communication proving that we cannot avoid the conclusion that 

 herein lies the remedy. Improved wagon-roads, the rural free mail 

 delivery, the farm telephone, trolley-lines through country districts, 

 are bringing about a positive revolution in country living. They 

 are curing the evils of isolation, without in the slightest degree 



