134 KURAL LIFE IN CAE^ADA 



social life on the farm must be built up. The new social 

 satisfactions must be linked with the new economic co- 

 operation. . 



The rural telephone is having almost revolutionary 

 effects in answering social need. There is a local tele- 

 phone company for Augusta and Edwardsburg town- 

 ships, with central exchange in Spencerville, whose cap- 

 ital is provided solely by our farmers, and whose board 

 of directors is composed of farmers. It has already 

 placed telephones in over five hundred homes, and is 

 rapidly extending. And again this is to be noted: the 

 social benefit arises through an instrumentality intro- 

 duced not for our social but for business purposes. In 

 this it is typical of all real betterment. Rural mail de- 

 livery is also affording help, although upon intellectual 

 rather than upon social lines. From the village of 

 Spencerville five delivery routes radiate, serving ap- 

 proximately four hundred homes. Another local insti- 

 tution of a genuinely social character is the agricul- 

 tural fair. The township one held in Spencerville is 

 the year's chief visiting day for hundreds of households. 

 And again we notice that this instrumentality has been 

 maintained in social efficiency by remaining true to its 

 agricultural character. Those fairs in neighboring 

 towns which commercialized their attractions, depend- 

 ing upon hired entertainment for drawing power, are 

 dying or dead ; this and similar ones depending upon 

 interest in farm products and handicrafts are growing 

 in patronage. 



'The country is lacking in healthful recreation. Play 

 is almost unattainable in country schools under present 

 conditions. We have many hundreds of schools with an 

 attendance too small to secure efficiency along any line. 



