Middletown transcript., 1903-01-10
IMPROVE ROADS
They Should be Fit for Travel
Every Day in the Year
YOUNG PEOPLE AND FARMS

YOUNG PEOPLE AND FARMS
One of the most active exponents o
good roads and improvement OF rural dis
trlcts is Rachel ]. Davidson, physician
OF Flint, Michigan, in her opinion, she
writes to The Detroit Tribune, boys and
girls should and will stay upon the farm
when 1t is as pleasant as elsewhere, but
not before. The country must tax itself
as the city does, and it must change some
OF the laws, customs and traditions. 1t
must make the roads fit for travel every
DAY IN the year, and name, mark, light
and sprinkle them. Number the houses,
ouild wide boulyevards connecting the
township high schools, the county seats,
the parks and along the lakes and rivers,
put leave plenty of room for lawns, flow
ers and benches; have ornamental trees
and shrubs artistically grouped or scat
tered, teaching lessons in forestry, flori-
culture and roadscape art. Put ten acres
or more into the Fairgrounds of the
township high schools. Have co-opera-
tive laundries and bakeries and more
creameries. Build more electric roads.
Put telephone into every house. Have
one telephone company, and have the
rate fixed by the state. Two rural deliv-
cries a day-solid double service-and
one-cent postage. Revolutionize the
schools, from kindergarten to university.
Teach agriculture and manual training in
the township high schools. Have several
courses of university extension lectures
In each township every year. Use the
university and the state travelling IL
braries freely. Let widows control their
children and property as widowers do
now. Have Congress establish a parcels
post and create Department of the
Home, with a woman secretary, who
shall be member of the Presidents Cabi-
net. See that county, state and interna-
tlonal fairs name and mark their streets
and number each exhibitor space. Make
the country one vast park-a wonderland.
Organize county art associations, whose
objects should be to develop roadscape,
township school yard, country park and
county cemetery artists. To have county,
state and international fairs give pre-
miums to the counties and states that
give the best, most appropriate and digni-
fed names to their roads, and that first
complete their marking; to designers and
builders of the longest and most beauti-
ful roads, of model inter-capital, county
seat and township centre boulevards; of
beautiful avenues along our lakes and
rivers; OF country bridges, road markers
and mail boxes; of model schoolhouses,
social halls and other public buildings;
OF convenient and pleasing farm build
ings and grounds; of a model farm, town.
ship, village, block, city, county and
state, and to raise large sums by SUBJ
scription and taxation to invest in such
public Improvements for the sake Of the
children.
I'll fares the land to fastening ills a
prey
Where wealth accumulates and men
decay"
Have several child study clubs in each
township. On or before their fifth birth
day begin paying the children enough
fer their work to cover all their expenses.
Assign their work and fix the rates, Civ
ing certain sum, if it is done pleasantly
and without being told; less, if they have
to be told, and still less if it is not done
pleasantly. Teach them how to use
their money, giving them some liberty
and letting them make some mistakes. |
They will learn that if they keep well |
they lose no time and have no doctors |
bills to pay; that if they are careful of |
their clothes and tools they save still |
more, which becomes their very own.
Rent them some land, sell them some
stock-don'tli lie to them or talk too much
OF their mistakes, remembering that
everybody who does anything makes
mlstakes-and teach them how to make
the most for themselves of what thew
raise. See that their tools are not old,
dull or broken. Help keep them in good
repair. Do not expect them to hire or
buy old tools or buggies or scrub stock
or poor land of relatives if they can do
as well or better elsewhere. Be kind,
courteous, considerate and sympathetic
with them in everything, but especially
with their griefs and losses. Having
done these things, and many more, until
they are twenty-one, do not begin that
lay to take from them what they NAV
have saved.
From their childhood see that they
invest few days several times each year
n city in going through the shops,
chools, colleges, college settlements, art
galleries, libraries, museums, parks and
They should attend all the
'est city lectures, a few good operas and
very few theatres. When they return {
ull of enthusiasm and new ideas and 8
Fant to improve things, do not tell them c
hat what was good enough for their
arents and grandparents is plenty good T
nough for them. @
On Sunday afternoon and once during Q
he week attend the township club,
here there should be good music and y
apers on live topics, which should be
ltelligently discussed. There are but n
fteen years for hard work. Part of the G
me even in these years, and most of the q
me in the others, they should be learn K
lg to think, talk, work, read, study.
isit. travel, investigate and write intel.