62 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



rate of 173, against a general rate of 72 in the registration area. 

 I may say in passing that Virginia, Kentucky, and North Car- 

 olina are the only southern states in the registration area, and 

 that 24 states are all told still on the outside. 



Town rates are higher than country rates in twenty-one states, 

 largely because the steady coward drift of country people in- 

 troduces into the organized life of American towns an element 

 that is slow to learn the lessons of social adjustment. On the 

 other hand, the high spirited retreat into inaccessible coves be- 

 fore advancing civilization. They climb into the high levels of 

 the Great Smokies in Haywood, Swain, and Graham, where they 

 settle personal difficulties in the highland style of primitive 

 times. These counties lead the mountain region in homicide 

 rates. These are the people, by the way, among whom Kephart 

 dwelt and who colored his impressions of our entire mountain 

 civilization. But just as might be expected, three of our low- 

 land counties have just as fearful records. No, our Highlanders 

 are not peculiar even in their fierce and fiery individualism. 

 Human life is just as safe west of the Ridge as east of it. 



4. Kephart urges that the mountain people cannot pull to- 

 gether, except as kinsmen or partisans. "Speak to them of com- 

 munity interests, try to show them the advantages of coopera- 

 tion," says he, "and you might just as well be proffering advice 

 to the North Star. They will not work together zealously even 

 to improve their neighborhood roads. ' ' But these are the faults 

 of sparsely settled rural populations in the mountains and on 

 the plains alike. Nothing could be worse, for instance, than the 

 country roads of southern Illinois in the bad winter seasons. 

 Failure to organize and cooperate is the cardinal weakness of 

 country people everywhere. 



True, there were no improved country roads in four counties 

 west of the Ridge on January 1, 1915 ; but also, four neighbor- 

 ing counties in the Albemarle country fall into the same category. 

 Thirty-one of our counties in 1914 had ten per cent, or less of 

 their public road mileage improved. Seven of these were west 

 and twenty-four were east of the Blue Ridge. Five mountain 

 counties are among the forty counties that made the best show- 

 ing in the State in improved public road mileage in 1914. 

 Avery, a mountain county with no improved roads in the last 



