Country life movement

It was sponsored by President Theodore Roosevelt and led by Professor Liberty Hyde Bailey.

This philosophy held that rural lifestyles espoused certain moral values which were a positive influence on urbanites.

[3] The third group affiliated with the movement consisted of farmers who sought to bring technological progress to their profession.

This group promoted agricultural extension and attempted to bring industrial reforms to American farms.

[7] Special efforts were made to reach the rural South and remote areas, such as the mountains of Appalachia and the Ozarks.

The traditional method of placing the burden for maintaining roads on local landowners was increasingly inadequate.

With the coming of the automobile after 1910, urgent efforts were made to upgrade and modernize dirt roads designed for horse-drawn wagon traffic.

Congress appropriated $75 million over a five-year period, with the Secretary of Agriculture in charge through the Bureau of Public Roads, in cooperation with the state highway departments.

The rapidly increasing speed of automobiles, and especially trucks, made maintenance and repair a high-priority item.

[10][11] Rural schools were often poorly funded, one room operations taught by young local women before they married, with occasional supervision by county superintendents.