The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1923-12-20
THE BEST ROAD STORY.
Kentucky High School Girl Gets Four
Years at College for
Telling It.

Herald published a statement from
Harvey 8. Frestone-yes, the man
who makes auto tires at Akron, Ohio
that he would give four-years col
lege course, with all the necessary
trimmings to the high school student
4 who ID write the best essay on "The
Influence of Highway Transport Upon
the Religious Life of My Commun-
ity."
Some 10000 students entered the
contest, and the prize was last week
awarded to Miss Dorothy Louise Rob-
erts, of Harlan, KY, by a committee
made up of the secretary of war, the
editor of the Review of Reviews and
Bishop w. F. Anderson of CINCINNATI.
This is the fourth time this prize
has been annually offered and won,
the first time it was won by Miss
Katherine f. Porterfield, of Weiser,
Idaho.
Miss Roberts, whose essay follows,
is the 17-year-old daughter of Dr. and
Mrs. t. B. Roberts of Marietta, Ohio:
Roads and Religious Life.
The Appian Way, most famous of
Roman highways, was called by Hor
acc Bushnell "the queen of roads. = In
establishing Christianity Paul and
other early Christians made great use
of the 20 famous military roads ra-
dating from Rome. "And so we came
to Rome. And the brethren
came to meet us as far as the
Market of Appius. = And it came to
pass that Rome, having the greatest
road, built later the greatest church.
st. Peters. The greatest church of
Christianity built at the end of the
greatest highway Strange coinci
dencel Here is food for thought
From the very first, the mightiest of
all religions went forward upon the
great highways of travel
The present writer lives in the
mountains of southeastern Kentucky
whore the religious life is backward
and the roads almost impossible. The
purpose of this paper is to show how
these two facts affect each other.
One dislikes to write anything uncom-
plimentary to one Is own community,
but one should study conditions be.
fore suggesting remedies.
A survey of Harlan county shows
AZ churches, with SO ordained and
licensed preachers. Excepting four
churches in the county seat, these are
weak, struggling organizations, To-
Gated principally in mining camps,
served by unframed preachers. These
men, most of whom could with diff
Guilty pass the entrance examinations |
of first-class high school, work at
the mines or elsewhere throughout the |
week, having little leisure for study |
or preparation. Such leadership de- |
velops only religion of the emotional,
irresponsible type.
Statistics from our criminal courts |
indicate that these outlying churches
fail to meet the situation. Recently /
within four days in this locality 1a
persons met violent deaths.
General lawlessness is not in reality
the cause of crime. 1t is only the out
ward symptom. 1t suggests ignor
ance; the people do. not know. With
Slapped vitality and weak morals go
sluggish minds Large families live
in poor, small houses; the death rate
is high. In one school hook-worm
clinic showed 9s percent of the pupils
were afflicted. Religion should not
churches would make such unwhoIe-
some facts impossible Disease, crime,
religion, these exist where people do
lot know what is good in character
'r right in conduct.
If it be true that ignorance explains
he backwardness of this territory,
hen both the church and school are
leeded to eounteract it. Religious
md educational effort here rise and