AN ideal social life is one in which people can be together when they wish to be together, and alone when they wish to be alone. The better the transportation facilities, the more nearly of attainment is such a condition. The Roadtowners in all thickly-populated sections will be within commuting distance of nearby cities and the attractions of these centers will be open to them. But such social life, even for those who live in the city, is sadly deficient. City people have theaters, libraries, churches and crowds, but they do not have neighbors with common interests. The Roadtowners who get the food at the same kitchen, and hear the same band play, and sell their products co?peratively, and promenade on the same endless roof garden, and send their children to the same instructors, are going to get124 acquainted if they so desire. The entire Roadtown will be in connection by the loud speaking telephone, and folks can call on each other on a stormy night without so much as getting out of their comfortable rockers, but, for that matter, while there will be more to keep a Roadtowner at home, there will be less to keep him from going away from home when he wants to. If anyone is lonesome in Roadtown, it is simply because he has no friends, and if he has no friends, it can scarcely be anyone’s fault but his own.
But the social life of Roadtown will not be limited to city trips and neighborly calls. The Roadtown will have co?perative amusement centers, just as it will have co?perative kitchens and stores. At spots where the Roadtown crosses streams or passes the mountains or the sea shore and at certain distances apart, amusement parks will be located. Here will be the athletic grounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums and the means of entertainment common and uncommon to like resorts. At more frequent intervals in the Roadtown, and so distributed as to give picturesque variety to the125 house line will be museums, art galleries, theaters, lecture halls and dance halls. All such features that are supported by the corporation must, of course, be open to all residents. Organizations that are not for the benefit of the majority of the inhabitants will be supported by their adherents. The halls of the association will be open to all meetings, religious or otherwise, where nonconflicting dates can be arranged.
The Roadtown will offer opportunity for the revival of athletics upon a scale unheard of since the Olympian games of ancient Greece.
Roadtown Athletics.
The Roadtown community, because of the spirit of co?peration and mutuality which will pervade all phases of life, will extend into mature years the institutional patriotism which forms such a large part of modern school and college life. Under such conditions we may expect to see developed a grand series of meets in all manner of competitive arts and sports. The winners of the local meets or exhibitions126 will again compete at the grand athletic and art centers.
The Roadtown will bring the opportunity to indulge in the sports and recreations much nearer the life of the whole people than in the present civilization.
There is no reason why every boy, big and little, should not attend the ball games and athletic meets on the home field as well as the grand finale in which his team participates.
Transportation will cost him nothing, the ball ground will be owned by the community and the hours of Roadtown labor will be set by the will of the worker and not by the greed of the capitalist’s purse.
Education for Old as Well as Young.
Roadtown education will apply to all ages of both sexes. The whole living scheme of Roadtown will be a vast school. The modern school, a place where we send our children to be herded in immense droves under the care of girls who use the teaching profession as a makeshift until an opportunity of marriage arrives, is far from perfection as a means of127 child development. The disciplinarian system of education which crushes out individuality and molds all children in the industrial-political virtue of being bossed, is likely to vanish as a population is freed from economic slavery.
Roadtown will provide instruction for those who wish to learn and citizenship prizes and privileges will go to the educated, and compulsory education and graded schools in time will have no excuse for existence. These are striking statements and I am simply calling attention to the change that I believe will come about naturally and unresisted.
The Roadtown will have to pay county taxes, but on account of its 1,000 population to the mile will influence the location of these schools in Roadtown. At first the use of the present public school methods must necessarily be employed; gradually as the Roadtown gains influence and better teachers are secured the educational system can be adapted more closely to Roadtown life.
In the first place, the Roadtown home will be an enlightened one. The Roadtown library will be a book store house, not a reading-room.128 If the citizen wants a book or magazine he telephones the library and in a few minutes the book is delivered to him by mechanical carrier. The kind of free library we have to-day requires ten cents car fare and much time to get a book.
There will be a library of telegraphone records, which do not have to be duplicated for every household, but one set at a central office will suffice, where one girl can run a complicated programme of music and lectures for many homes.
Eyes to be Used Less and Ears More.
Excessive reading is hard on the eyes and it lacks much of the efficiency that auditory methods have of conveying ideas. Our education has been entirely too much from the printed page and too little from the use of the ear. The Roadtown dictograph and telegraphone will change all this. The child who has not yet learned the letters can be taught to speak German and told stories of nature and history. And in all this education the parent will learn along with the child and become129 fascinated by such a wonderful process. The significance of this telegraphone and dictograph will never be appreciated until we have it in operation. The telegraphone is not a cheap instrument to build, but when operated on a large scale will be extremely economical for each family. From a programme announced in advance a choice may be had from a hundred pieces kept playing at once. More than one wire can lead to each house if desired. The family may be in the drawing-room, listening to grand opera or a lecture on philosophy, and Jimmy may be upstairs, tucked in bed with ear muffs clapped over his curls, being put to sleep by Sinbad the Sailor or the Twenty-third Psalm, according to his mother’s idea of child psychology.
Outside of the visual and auditory library in the home, the second great new feature in Roadtown education will be the home work of the child’s parents. In work room and garden the child will learn what the world is for. About the most pitiable thing imaginable is a child whose parents do not believe in child labor. I do not mean the killing of children in130 mines and mills, but the child labor such as you see on the wholesome farm, where the child does his part along with the rest of the family.
The present system of keeping a child from all work until his body and mind are formed and then plunging him into industrial life is only exceeded in folly and cruelty by the child slavery system commonly known as “child labor.” “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” but all school and play and no work makes Jack a jackass.
The Roadtown child will learn his parent’s occupation, and his uncle’s and aunt’s occupation, and his neighbor’s occupation, and will have more ability to take care of himself when he is ten years old than the present city-bred college man of twenty.
But the community as a whole has some claim on the child’s life and the child’s future as well as the parents—a fact that all intelligent parents will recognize. For this reason instruction outside the family is desirable and will be arran............