Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1910-12-22
RURAL TELEPHONES
AND The SOUTH.
Interesting Description of the Pdt Played
by The Rural Telephone in the
Affairs of the South.


Allen, of Atlanta, Georgia, read before
the twelfth annual convention of the
Southern states association commission
ers of agriculture and other agricultural
workers in the senate chamber of the
Georgia state capitol a short time ago
Among other things. Mr.. Allen said:
'Iu no part of the world can finer SD
pies be raised than in the mountains of
Southwest Virginia or North Caroline,
but we had TO go to Utah and Oregon to
learn how. 1t is generally conceded
that Florida oranges and grapefruit
equal or excel those from California,
but we had to go out there to learn how
to pack AT d market them. South Caro-
lima can 81 her fingers at The famous
corn belt o. the middle west, and if
there were championship belt, would
give any state run for the money on
the basis of the average yield per acre
planted, but it is within few years
that such corn crops have been raised
here.
at is not alone in growing and mar
keting crops that the South has to learn
from other sections. There are other
things which tend quite as much to i'm
proving conditions and making country
life sufficiently attractive for people to
live there for other purposes than Sc
curing bare living.
1T is generally recognized that ma
tion's wealth comes from the produc
tiveness of her fields. Any movement
that tends to increase their fertility, or
to improve conditions in the open coun-
try so as to turn the stream of popula-
ton away from instead of into the
cities and congested manufacturing
centers should receive constant encour-
agement.
1.-TWO things which have done most
to hamper the South have been lack of
adequate transportation facilities aud
adequate means of quick communica-
tion. The three things which will most
quickly overcome these handicaps are
good roads, rural free delivery and uni
versal telephone service.
"Of these three, the telephone by
rights stands first. 1t is the one most
accessible in all sections of the country,
whether near a large city or away off
from the railroad, ten or twenty miles
from the county seat where there is
only small settlement or group If
farms. To receive the benefit of the
good roads, you must hitch up team;
you must wait for the whistle of the r.
F. d. man to get your papers and let
tiers; but with telephone 10 the house,
a turn of the crank puts you in touch
with points far and near.
eff telephone is necessary in a large
city, where distances are short and peo-
pie accessible, how much more neces-
sary is it in the country, where farms
are far apart and the average roads
poor in good weather and almost impass-
able in bad weather?
"On January l. 1905, there was to-
tai of 102, ,666 telephone stations in the
six Southern States of Virginia, North
Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Ala
bana. It is difficult to estimate how
these stations were divided between ex-
change and rural subscribers, but it is
probable that of the total number, only
about per cent, or 5, 100, were located
outside of exchanges. On January /,
1910, the grand total of telephone sta
tions in the same territory had increased
to 2SS, 1863, of which approximately
36,7 are rural stations. This shows
an increase in rural stations alone of TAO
per cent in five years. The year 1910
is showing a greater proportionate
growth than any previous period, the
gain in farmer line stations alone for
the first ten months being approximate
ly Is, 600 stations and the total of all
stations on November l, 1910, being
$4,000.
Probably the first and most direct
appeal of the telephone is to the farm
er's wife. She has less opportunities
of getting away from home than other
members of the family; she sees fewer
new faces and eceives fewer new ideas,
SO that anything which will serve to
break the monotony of her life is vel
coined as Godsend. And the amount
of visiting which can be done over a
long rural line is truly surprising. All
of the neighborhood news spreads along
the wire even quicker than the grape
vine telegraph" could tell it, and dur
ing bad weather or Oh cold winter
nights, the ''voice in the box" is agreat
comfort.
Besides its social side, though, an
other and even greater appeal the tele-
phone makes is as an aid in emergen-
cies. 1t is a watchdog that never
sleeps. but that is always ready to sum-
mon assistance in any crisis. Many
cases of where telephone has saved q
life come to my attention.
'But it is in other and more practical
ways that the real value of the tele-