nication with the outside world, for the
mail routes follow the good roads.

"A great deal has been said, and properly so, in regard to the influence
of good roads upon education. In the convention held at Raleigh, North
Carolina, the account of which I had the pleasure of reading, great
emphasis was placed upon the fact that you can not have a school system
such as you ought to have unless the roads are in condition for the
children to go to school. While we are building great libraries in the
great cities we do not have libraries in the country; and there ought to
be a library in every community. Instead of laying upon the farmer the
burden of buying his own books, we ought to make it possible for the
farmers to have the same opportunity as the people in the city to use
books in common, and thus economize on the expense of a library. I agree
with Professor Jesse in regard to the consolidation of schoolhouses in
such a way as to give the child in the country the same advantages which
the child in the city has. We have our country schools, but it is
impossible in any community to have a well-graded school with only a few
pupils, unless you go to great expense. In cities, when a child gets
through the graded school he can remain at home, and, without expense to
himself or his parents, go on through the high school. But if the
country boy or girl desires to go from the graded school to the high
school, as a rule it is necessary to go to the county seat and there
board with some one; so the expense to the country child is much
greater than to the child in the city. I was glad, therefore, to hear
Professor Jesse speak of such a consolidation of schools as will give to
the children in the country advantages equal to those enjoyed by the
children of the city.

"And as you study this subject, you find it reaches out in every
direction; it touches us at every vital point. What can be of more
interest to us than the schooling of our children? What can be of more
interest to every parent than bringing the opportunity of educational
instruction within the reach of every child? It does not matter whether
a man has children himself or not.... Every citizen of a community is
interested in the intellectual life of that community. Sometimes I have
heard people complain that they were overburdened with taxes for the
education of other people's children. My friends, the man who has no
children can not afford to live in a community where