Epoch of the Small City 17 



regions of its origin. It has been a process 

 of dump. We are now, however, at the begin- 

 ning of a new species of rural drainage, con- 

 sequent on the wide extension of highway 

 building, of trolly lines, of rural free deliver- 

 ies, of telephones and other local-centering 

 agencies. In other words, we are now enter- 

 ing the epoch of the small city; into these 

 cities the surrounding country now will drain. 

 This will develop new centers of influence, 

 with a consequent shift of the social equilib- 

 rium. This condition is being aided from the 

 city itself in the rapid growth of suburbanism. 

 These new conditions constitute one step to- 

 wards vitalizing the open country, but of 

 themselves they will not reach the open coun- 

 try effectively. 



Among existing rural institutions, the church 

 and the school should have most influence ; 

 yet the rural church is largely inert or lost, 

 and the school is in a state of arrested devel- 

 opment. Following a discussion of abandoned 

 farms in one of the eastern states, a farmer's 

 wife, long a teacher and leader, wrote me the 



