676 Presidential Addresses 



governmental movement of recent years has resulted 

 in greater immediate benefit to the people of the 

 country districts. Rural free-delivery, taken in con- 

 nection with the telephone, the bicycle, and the 

 trolley, accomplishes much toward lessening the iso- 

 lation of farm life and making it brighter and more 

 attractive. In the immediate past the lack of just 

 such facilities as these has driven many of the more 

 active and restless young men and women from the 

 farms to the cities; for they rebelled at loneliness 

 and lack of mental companionship. It is unhealthy 

 and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense 

 of the country ; and rural free-delivery is not only a 

 good thing in itself, but is good because it is one 

 of the causes which check this unwholesome ten- 

 dency toward the urban concentration of our pop- 

 ulation at the expense of the country districts. It 

 is for the same reason that we sympathize with and 

 approve of the policy of building good roads. The 

 movement for good roads is one fraught with the 

 greatest benefit to the country districts. 



I trust that the Congress will continue to favor 

 in all proper ways the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 

 tion. This Exposition commemorates the Louisiana 

 Purchase, which was the first great step in the ex- 

 pansion which made us a continental nation. The 

 expedition of Lewis and Clark across the continent 

 followed thereon, and marked the beginning of the 

 process of exploration and colonization which thrust 

 our national boundaries to the Pacific. The ac- 



