The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-04-26

ioying the inestimable services Of
great sanatorium for the treatment
of tuberculosis which belongs to the
commonwealth.
II Is common report among men
that are acquainted with the publish
ing business in all parts of the coun-
try that no so-called rural press any
where in the United States excels that
of Vermont, and that, as a matter OF
fact. the Vermont press is far and
away above the average in the stand
ard OF its journalism and in it's type
graphical excellence.
Some of the states in the Union
that can show tremendous increases
in population, or population at a high
er average per square mile than that
of Vermont, cannot begin to show the
character of modern municipal util-
tiles that are the rule, town by town
village by village, city by city, right
here in this little rural state. All the
principal places have modern water
supply, sewerage system, and street
| lighting. say nothing of FIRE protection
and other similar things, and the
smaller places are falling into line
steadily year by year.
So far from being decadent, the
past six years has been a remarkable
revival of interest in Vermont's edu-
cational system and perhaps the most
substantial and far-reaching improve
ments in this important matter that
have been made in the history Of the
state have been made in his period
and are still incubating, for that mat
ter This little state has not only
excellent collegiate institutions and
public and parochial schools of all
grades, with normal schools, academ-
| les, etc, of rank, but IL is one of the
few states to have in force a system
Of expert school supervision that ex-
tends into the remote rural regions,
even. and has already accomplished
wonders in bringing the school sys-
TEN of the state into a harmonious
and cooperative institution of untold
possibilities for the advance of the
social order and the unlfcation of a
people in common ideals and ambit-
| ions. There are comparatively few
towns in Vermont that do not have
public library. Does that look like
decadence?
When one at distance reads of the
awful isolation of rural Vermont
towns and the dreadful loneliness of
the people that dwell therein, no ac-
count is taken of the fact that the
Vermont farmer of today that is the
farmer worthy of the name, is fast
installing telephones and electric
lights and odds and ends of physical
comforts that his ancestors never
dreamed of, that he is turning his
mind toward the automobile as an ex
peoted convenience one of these days
and that in the meantime the rural
free delivery of mail brings to his
table daily larger assortment of
current literature and informing read
ing matter than most people in Boston
city think they have time to glance
at.
1t is true that the tendency of popu-
lation in Vermont is away from the
countryside and toward the villages
and cities, but so 1t is all over the
/ United States. for that matter. But
for all that, higher farming a spec
ialized and intensive farming is TAX
| ing the place of the old agriculture
| utIt anu NtIulbhls iul iutIh are HldhiuR
more money out, of special crops and
orcharding, say nothing of the old
standby dairyng. than mary a stats
tician than can juggle figures to
beat the band.
The trouble is largely that when
these critics of ours undertake to es-
innate conditions in a state most of
them have never seen. they carry over
into their analysis the preconceived
notion that Vermont is. distinctively
an agricultural state whereas the truth
is that less than 81 per cent of the
inhabitants ten years old and over
engaged in agriculture. The real
truth is that Vermont Is an industrial
state and that progress and develop
ment along industrial lines here have
mot only been enormous, proportion.
ately, in the past twenty years, bit
are growing at a rate that some day
will make some sister New England
states sit up and take notice This
article has already gone too far TO
permit the discussion of the figures
showing this industrial achievement,
but they are readily available to such
an authority with statistics as Mr..
Rossiter.
! This is only generalization and