THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 21 



Moreover, it is possible to dispute the desir- 

 ability of the remedy. The farm village at best , 

 must be a mere hamlet. It can secure for the 

 farmer very few of the urban advantages he may 

 want, except that of permitting closer daily inter- t 

 course between families. And it is questionable 

 if the petty society of such a village can com- 

 pensate for the freedom and purity of rural - - 

 family life now existing. It may even be as- 

 serted with some degree of positiveness that vthe 

 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 overcome 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 maif 

 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 robbing the farm of its manifest advan- 

 tages for family life. The farmers are being 

 welded into a more compact society. They are 

 being nurtured to greater alertness of mind, to 



v i 



