THE SOCIAL SIDE OF FARM LIFE 403 



One of the latest movements in country life legislation per- 

 tains to the creation of new types of territorial districts. The 

 legalizing of consolidated school districts, in shapes fitted to 

 topographical conditions; and the forming of high school 

 districts which unite village or city limits to surrounding farm 

 territory for an educational democracy are among the efforts 

 of rural life to stretch its boundaries in order to accommodate its 

 expanding institutional consciousness. 



New types of municipality. One state has actually em- 

 powered its rural people to create a new type of rural munici- 

 pality out of any number of school districts. This statute stands 

 as a weathervane, showing the way the wind is blowing. A 

 desire for an easier position, for a better attitude for working 

 together, for a broader base for social operation and for selec- 

 tion of the right people to cooperate with, this is the meaning 

 of the uneasy twisting and wriggling of rural populations. 



In another state, villages have for many years been enabled 

 by law to build and maintain by tax a community house ; like- 

 wise cities; also the rubber-stamp square townships. But 

 certain farm population groups lying in parts of two or more 

 townships also desired community houses. So a bill was framed 

 and introduced into the legislature, permitting parts of town- 

 ships to be formed into a municipal district for the building and 

 maintenance of a community house; not only parts of town- 

 ships, but parts of townships along with a village or city ; and 

 even a ward of a city alone, or along with parts of one or more 

 townships. The only requirement is that the territory shall be 

 compact, at least sixteen square miles in area, or containing a 

 population of at least 500 persons. 



Rural planning and land policies. " Rural planning " is a 

 present popular subject for debate in legislative halls. A state 

 commissioner of rural planning and county boards of rural 

 planning form the heart of the program. The commissioner 

 of rural planning should be a specialist on the aesthetic side of 

 country life. He should see the streamside possibilities, the 

 country park sites, the scenic effects which could be worked 

 into the highway system. Standards of landscape beauty for 



