Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-09-21

The next three places in this list are
held by farm states-Minnesota and
North Dakota tied for fifth position,
with one motor vehicle for every fur
teen persons, and Montana next with
one out of every fifteen. And so it
goes down the list of states.
What is the national significance of
this? A look backward will bring out
the answer, as seen by motor vehicle
experts Everybody knows about the
outstanding rural problem-"Th Iso-
lation of the Farm" For forty years
it has been a leading topic in all dis
cussions for the amelioration of farm
life. Many times the problem seemed
on the eve of being solved. There was
the railroad. 1t was intersect the
country until no isolation would be
left Then came the telephone. 1t
was to knit the countryside together
By wire and long distance conversation
and thus Danish isolation. Next came
rural mail delivery. 1t was to make
the change by the delivery of daily
papers at the farmers door, by estab-
fishing continuous touch with the city
and the outside world.
Each did effect a decided change,
but the problem of lonesomeness of
farm life remained. Telephoning at
first afforded a few thrills, but still
there was no place to go, nobody to
see except the same old faces, Mary
Jane, Ed and Reuben. Many of the
best boys and girls, those with the
most life in them, with the yearning
to adventure beyond the little eddy Of
a village community, continued to
leave the farm for the city. They
came back home once year and
wondered how the other people there
stood the monotony of it all for twelve
months on end
In 1880 20 IL per cent f our pop
ulation was urban. In 1910 the gain in
urban population had risen to 1853 per
cent. From 1880 to 1910 the gain in
urban population amounted to 1879 per
cent, that Of rural population to 80 per
cent. The most significant result of
this tendency to concentrate in cities
was falling off in the per capita
production of foodstuffs. In the ten
years centring around 1880 we pro-
duced 8 1-2 bushels of wheat per capita.
In the ten year years centring around
1910. the output was III bushels per
capita.
This relative change in urban and
rural population took place in the face
o. many abor-saving devices for the
farm, such as the reaper, the riding
pillow, and the gasoline engine, weak
ening to some extent the theory that
it was the burdensome work and the
length of the hours that made fahm
work distasteful. Then came the in
PRODUCTION of the idea that the heart
Of the trouble was social, and that it
would be solved only by the extern
sion of social organization in the farm
communities. Neighborhood societies,
Improvement societies, and commun-
lily circles followed in large numbers.
They helped, but the old lonesomeness
still cast its shadow over the farm.
No one hit upon the actual cause.
The trouble woth the farm was three
miles an hour-three miles by horse
ard buggy or two by team and wagon.
Even the best social ideas would not
work at such rate of moving about.
This rate of three miles an hour limit
ed the size of the community, set
bound on the number of people one
would meet in the course of a lifetime
Twelve miles is a long drive by horse
and buggy, and that was about the
radius of the farm families social
life: the actual neighborhood life was
restricted to about four miles from
home Six miles was a good way to
so to church; seven or eight miles
would be attempted for a social party.
In this small district one got to know
all the people we'll, all their virutes
and all their peculiarities, all their
IDEAS, so that an observing person