THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 17 



RURAL ISOLATION 



Perhaps the one great underlying social diffi- 

 culty among American farmers is their compara- 

 tively isolated mode of life. The fa rmer's 

 family is isolated from other families. A small 

 city of perhaps twenty thousand population will 

 contain from four hundred to six hundred 

 families per square mile, whereas a typical 

 agricultural community in a prosperous agricul- 

 tural state will hardly average more than ten 

 families per square mile. The farming class is 

 isolated fromjDther classes. Farmers, of course, 

 mingle considerably in a business and political 

 way with the men of their trading town and 

 county seat; but, broadly speaking, farmers do 

 not associate freely with people living under 

 urban conditions and possessing other than the 

 rural point of view. It would be venturesome 

 to suggest very definite generalizations with 

 respect to the precise influence of these condi- 

 tions, because, so far as the writer is aware, the 

 psychology of isolation has not been worked out. 

 But two or three conclusions seem to be admis- 

 sible, and for that matter rather generally 

 accepted. 



The well-known conservatism of the farming 

 class is doubtless largely due to class isolation. 



