The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-06-23
THE TROLLEY CAR As A SOCIAL FACTOR
BY KARL EDWIN HARTMAN.

THE TROLLEY CAR AS A SOCIAL FACTOR.
BY KARL EDWIN HARTMAN.
The farmer and the small-town
dweller of the so-called Middle West
have, within the past seven years,
experienced an intellectual and a
physical Transformation. Their lives
have been so subtly changed that to-
day they regard their former condi-
ton somewhat as the average man of
middle age regards his little boyhood.
This / have from many farmers them
selves with whom I have spoken.
And the transformation has come as
direct result of the extraordinary
interurban trolley road development
which within the years stated has so
enmeshed the Midwest that to-day
one may go almost anywhere from
place to place in electrically operated
cars traversing the highways.
The economic benefits which the
farmer has received from the trolley
car that passes his dooryard-bene-
fits that include not so much his own
transportation as facility in shipping
his produce to the nearest town pos
sessing a market and in return receiv-
ing freight at his door-have been
pointed out. But deeper than these
benefits in molding the life and con-
duct of the Mid West farmer and
small-town dweller is the direct social
benefit accorded.
The country trolley has placed the
farmer in immediate and continuous
touch with the terminal town. From
a condition OF social isolation he has
been made, almost unconsciously at
times, positive factor in community
life. Conscious of his unfamiliarity
with urban conditions, prospective
visit to the city formerly meant a
week or more of discomfort in anticis
patton. To-day the farmer, dressed
like a business man, alights from the
interurban trolley in the center of,
say, Detroit, goes as briskly about
his business as any townsman, finishes
it, takes the second trolley back, and,
in perhaps an hour and half, drops
from the rear platform of the car at
his own front door. Again, uncon-
sciously he has absorbed the brisk
city way of doing business. He has
perceived the effectiveness of it and
how applicable the system is to the
farm work, the one work that never
ends. The result is that by the very
fact of his adoption of business prin-
ciples in the conduct of his farm he
has pro6ted immensely.
Within the past month I spent an
hour with a farmer living along the
right-of-way of a trolley line operating
between Detroit and Jackson, Michi-
gan. My friend is farmer; he is
nothing else; his farm is his busi-
ness. Once it was not, to my person.
al knowledge.
"Place has picked up good deal
since you were last here, eh 7" he
said with enthusiasm. "Just shows
you how little thing may give you
the necessary push in the right direc-
tion," he went on. IT was about
discouraged two years ago you re-
member, when they were out getting
the right of way for this part of the
trolley line. One day 1 dropped into
a commission house on River street
in Detroit and the proprietor let fall
word about all the farmers having
gone in so deep for sugar beets that
market garden stuff was scarce. That
night my boy and I talked it over.
We had had an idea that sugar beets
would prove profitable, but-well, to
make long story short, we cut out
the beets,' as John says, and that
field over there is green corn that's
lettuce over there; that's an acre of
pieplant, and there's couple of acres
of early onions. Next year we're
going to put celery into that swamp
land over there. Ofcourse we couldn't t
handle the stuff so we'll if it were not
for the trolley. The freight rate is
low and there's a switch ten rods up
the road where freight car can stand
while John and 1 load it."
One August afternoon, seven years
ago, I rode into the country with a
friend who was bent on securing a
right of way for a proposed electric
line between two towns in Michigan
thirty miles apart. I recall distinctly
the objections raised by one, say
Wattles, whose land so lay that the
road, if built, would cut two rods
from his front yard. He protested
that such a road would destroy the
villageof Wells. which lay mile and
half to the east, frighten all his stock
AND kill all his children. And it was
only by paying him two prices for the
two rods of barnyard that his acqui.
escence to the plan was gained. Three
months ago I saw Wattles in the post
Office at Wells. never heard man
"boost trolley proposition" as he
did that line that ran across his door.
yard.
Ever frighten any of your stock r.
asked.
"Nawp' he replied with disgust.
Ever injure any of your children p
Certainly not"