RURAL AMERICA 



course most of the roads being built are paid for by the 

 farmers themselves. But to a greater extent than ever 

 before are the several states going into the business of con- 

 structing highways, and these are being built largely at state 

 expense. And since many of the states have urban popula- 

 tions that are greatly in excess of the rural populations, it 

 can readily be seen that the cities are paying the larger 

 share for the very roads that bring the farmers into touch 

 with the urban centers and thus make their products more 

 valuable because of the improvement in transportation facili- 

 ties. Besides, the likelihood is that the Federal Government 

 will in due time have a financial part in the construction of 

 some of the roads of the country, and this, too, will accrue 

 to the advantage of the farmer. The nation has entered the 

 automobile era, the slogan of which is good roads. The auto- 

 mobile era is making a new epoch in the national life, and if 

 it does nothing more than give the nation good roads it will 

 have served a good purpose for the fifty million people of 

 Rural America. At the present time, the several political 

 subdivisions of the forty-eight states expend annually in road 

 work $174,035,083, the total road mileage of the country is 

 2,273,131, and of this mileage almost n per cent has been 

 improved. 



K. Economic Cooperation 



The spirit of cooperation is beginning to permeate the 

 whole of Rural America. There is an increasing tendency to 

 cooperation in all activities. One scarcely finds a county, 

 for example, that does not have its local mutual insurance 

 company, and many counties have a number of such com- 

 panies. The time is likely to come when the insurance idea 

 will have been so widely adopted that one can protect himself 

 against almost all hazards found in the open country. In 

 recent years, rural telephone companies have become quite 

 numerous, with the result that there are few sections any- 

 where that do not enjoy perfect telephone service. One also 

 finds here and there cooperative arrangements for securing 



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