274 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



the national government on condition that the routes to be used 

 in carrying the mail should be put and kept in passable shape. 

 Organizations and individuals interested in the extended use of 

 the automobile are promoting both local and inter-community 

 highway improvement. Since so many farmers have become 

 owners of cars, they have the more heartily joined the move- 

 ment for the establishment of good roads. 



The automobile quickens rural life by bringing families and 

 communities into closer and more frequent contact. Distances 

 which once took hours or days to compass by horse or horse- 

 drawn vehicle, now are covered in a few minutes or hours. 

 Could every farmer possess an automobile, the problem of es- 

 tablishing larger and better rural institutions in considerable 

 measure would be solved because transit would be speedy and 

 easy and because the care of teams involved in travel by horse- 

 drawn vehicles would be obviated. 



Rural free mail delivery and the circulating library are effec- 

 tive agencies for reducing isolation. The former places within 

 reach of out-of-town residents the possibility of daily contact 

 with the world of events by means of the daily press ; makes pos- 

 sible more frequent correspondence with friends and relatives; 

 and helps cultivate a habitual perusal of periodical and library 

 literature. In its turn the circulating library brings to neigh- 

 borhoods which command its services the enlivening store of 

 fiction, the inspiration of good literature, and the practical 

 knowledge of the whole range of natural and social science. 



A definite local communitization of rural districts constitutes 

 a further method of mitigating rural isolation. Communitiza- 

 tion takes place to the degree to which the inhabitants of a par- 

 ticular locality think and act together, the alternative, individ- 

 ualization, being most often observed in the country, in that 

 residents of such locality think and act as if they were only indi- 

 viduals. It is highly desirable that people generally, and rural 

 inhabitants especially, should cultivate a neighborhood outlook, 

 appreciate the good results which flow from increased cooper- 

 ation, and set about establishing the agencies for realizing the 

 community spirit. 



