THE RURAL PROBLEM 47 



through schools and colleges and experiment stations 

 and extension service and farm bureaus, that will reach 

 effectively and practically the entire farm population. 

 We should develop the habit of reading and study with 

 a better system of rural public libraries. Continuation 

 schools must be provided for the boys and girls who 

 are no longer all the time in school, but who ought to 

 keep up their schooling much longer than they do. 

 And in general, we must stimulate the masses of farm- 

 ers to closer study not only of their own problems, but 

 ^ of the problems of the New Day. 



Rural Government. How can we make local gov- 

 ernment more efficient, more honest? Probably we 

 can do more for the people of the community through 

 the local machinery of government. We already sup- 

 port schools and build roads. Can we not furnish 

 other facilities of community life? Can we not make 

 legislation, both in state and nation, more in keeping 

 with the needs of rural improvement? 

 i Health and Sanitation. We need a large program 

 of education for farm people, especially those in less 

 prosperous regions, in the full meaning of personal hy- 

 giene, the very best care of the body, the very best die- 

 taries, and in public health, in order to stamp out epi- 

 demics, secure care of sewage, restrict the spread of 

 contagious diseases. In many ways these things are 

 much more difficult to handle in the country than in the 

 city. 



Recreation. This is one of the great lacks of coun- 

 try life. We need a more adequate play life for the 

 young and a thoroughly satisfying social life for the 

 adults. We must bring into the country some of those 

 legitimate opportunities for pleasure that people of the 



