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CHAPTER XIII 



A SUMMARY OF RECENT PROGRESS 



In some respects the most notable recent 

 advance in rural matters consists in the improved 

 means of communication in rural districts. The 

 country is relatively isolated, and it is this isola- 

 tion in its extreme forms that is the bane of 

 country living. Undue conservatism, lack of 

 conformity to progressive views, undue promi- 

 nence of class feeling, and a tendency to be less 

 alert are things that grow out of this isolation ; but 

 better means of communication decrease these 

 difficulties, and the last few years have seen a 

 remarkable advance in this respect. For 

 instance, the rural free mail delivery system is 

 only ten years old, and yet today there are more 

 than twenty-five thousand routes of this character 

 in the United States serving possibly twenty 

 million people with daily mail, a great proportion 

 of whom before had very irregular mail service. 

 Results are patent and marked. Time is saved 

 in going for mail; market reports come daily; 

 farmers are more prompt in their business deal- 

 ings; roads are kept in better shape; there is an 



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