agriculture possible and distant commerce profitable; meanwhile serving as
main arteries of communication, with a constant influx of fresh world
thought and life.

The interurban trolleys are doing much that the steam roads cannot do,
connecting vast rural sections which hitherto have been aside from the
beaten paths of life. The relative cheapness of building these electric
lines, and the less expense for power, equipment and maintenance make
their further extension probable as well as necessary for years to come.
Their frequent trips, the near approach to thousands of farm homes, their
short stops and low rates make them particularly serviceable for country
people. "No king one hundred years ago," says Dr. Roads, "could have had a
coach, warmed in winter, lighted up to read at night, running smoothly
with scarcely a jolt, and more swiftly than his fastest horses. Through
the loving providence of the heavenly Father, his poorest children have
them now."[15] It is too early yet to estimate rightly the contribution
the trolley has made to the new rural civilization. It has doubtless
lessened in some respects the prestige of the village and especially of
the village stores; and has brought in some evils, but it has interwoven,
with its rapid shuttles, the city and the country, vastly enriching
country life with broadened opportunity and making thousands more
contented to live in country homes, because of lessened isolation as well
as developing the suburban village, the most rapidly growing of all
communities in America to-day.

_The Rural Postal Service_

The day of the moss-back who went for his mail once every week, the same
day he got shaved and sold his butter, is gone forever, so far as most of
our country is concerned. To-day about 20,000,000 of our rural neighbors
receive their mail at their own farms, delivered by Uncle Sam's
messengers; and this great change has occurred in a decade and a half. In
1897 $40,000 was the appropriation by Congress for the experiment in rural
free delivery. In 1909 the expense was about $36,000,000, and on June 1 of
that year there were 40,637 rural routes, nearly all of them daily
service. This rural army of the civil service is almost as large as the
whole military force of the country and possibly quite as useful. It is
rapidly driving from our rural homes the specters of ignorance,
superstition, provincialism and prejudice, and the positive good
accomplished cannot be estim