=Rural Social Life.=--Closely allied to the rural educational problem
is the rural social problem. Motor cars and good roads do a great deal
to eliminate the isolation and lack of social opportunity that has
characterized rural life in the United States. A high order of
citizenship in rural communities is essential to the solution of many
problems of rural economics, and such citizens will not live away from
the social opportunities of modern life. The rural school house and
the rural church may become social centers and local plays, moving
picture shows and lectures and entertainments of other kinds made
available to those who live in the country. Their enjoyment of these
social opportunities will be much more general if the public highways
are at all times in a condition to be traveled in comfort. Good homes
and good schools on good roads are prerequisites to the solution of
many rural problems.

If there is opportunity for those who live in the cities to get some
adequate idea of rural life and the conditions under which farming
operations are carried on it will correct many misunderstandings of
the broad problems of food production and distribution. Reference has
frequently been made to the seeming desire on the part of city people
to get into the country, and, by facilitating the realization of this
desire, a great social service is rendered.

=Good Roads and Commerce.=--That good highways are almost as necessary
as are railroads to the commercial development of a nation is
recognized but, unlike the railroads, the highways are not operated
for direct profit and the responsibility of securing consideration of
the demand for improvements is not centralized. Therefore, sentiment
for road improvement has been of slow growth, and important projects
are often delayed until long after the need for them was manifest.
Movements to secure financial support for highway improvement must go
through the slow process of legislative enactment, encountering all of
the uncertainties of political action, and the resulting financial
plan is likely to be inadequate and often inequitable.

The whole commercial structure of a nation rests upon transportation,
and the highways are a part of the transportation system. The highway
problem can never receive adequate consideration until public highways
are recognized as an indispensable element in the business equipment
of a nation.

During the World War all transportation facilities