The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1912-07-18

vantages. and citunities OF farm
life; by reducing the hardships. drudg-
cry, physical discomfort, and exposure
incident to the farm; and by giving to
the farmers and their families more
of the pleasures and enjoyments OF life
and more time for study, reading, self
culture, and recreation.
Better Facilities for Transportation,
Communication, and Education.
There are three things that will con-
tribute materially to the advancement
Of agriculture The farm must have
better facilities for transportation, bet.
ter means of communication, and bet
ter opportunities for education.
Hon. John Fields. in the Oklahoma
Farm Journal, recently said:
The character and extent Of facil.
tiles for communication, education, and
TRANSFORMATION determine the growth
and progress OF country communities.
These are practical problems, and
the National Government Is in po-
sition to aid in solving them.
Improvement in the means and me-
thods of transportation is one of the
wonders of the ags. But these i'm
proved transportation facilities do not
reach the farm. They do not touch
farm life. We talk of substituting our
merchant marine to develop foreign
commerce. We boast of our internal
commerce, which, 1t Is said, equals the
foreign commerce of all nations. But
we hear nothing Of any movement to
increase our rural co.. "a COM
merce that will develop trade, trans
portation, business, communication, In
| tercourse. and travel between the
farms and the towns and cities. I'M
proved transportation facilities for in.
terurban traffic has been the one great
factor In building up our great cities.
The extension of rural commerce,
must come largely through the I'M
provement OF our public highways. We
are behind other nations in the char.
acter of our public roads. Good roads
are so essential to the extension OF
rural CONVERGE that the National Gov.
eminent should make liberal approp.
riations Cor their improvement. The
House Of Rep esentatives has passed.
good roads measure. Should this
provision bct ONE law, something like
$2o, 90" 900 annually will be taken from
the National Treasury to aid the states
in iriproving our highways. ! voted
for this provision. | did not approve
all the details Of the measure, but I
approved the rolicy Of naiionM aid
'Cr good roads.
We have ever 10000 rural mail car.
riers making daily trips through the
rural districts. This service must be
extended until the daily mail reach, S
practically eve Y one of our 100000
farm homes. The Rural Mail Service
must be made an instrument for the
tontion Of our rural commerce. Our
ru:ll mail calIlers must be utli ;ed to
deyelcp trade, transportation, business,
commerce, communication, intercourse,
and travel between the city and the
country.
The great express companies-con'
stituting a mighty monopoly-musti In
some way be brought in a position
give a larger service to the rural dis
tricts. Whether this shall come
throuh proper regulation and control
of these great corporations, or through
condemnation proceedings and pur'
chase by the Government, or by the
Government establishing an indepen
dent express post, we do not now
know that in some way the farmer
81 the United States are entitled to
have greatly improved facilities for the
transportation Of packages, and that
/ the cypress companies must ne haue
TO serve in much larger way Inc
100000 farmers of the United States
Improved Facilities for Communication
The farm must have improved fa"il
tiles for communication with the out
side world. The isolation of the farm
must be overcome. The social life o
the farm must be brought in touch
with the pulse beat of society in GU
towns and cities. The farm and city
must be brought closer together. Gu
postal service must be extended, i'm
proved, and perfected. The telephone
must go into every farm home. Thu
great telegraph systems must be mac
to articulate with rural telephones. Dis