proposals, but I strongly advise all those interested in the subject to send for the documents issued by the Association and study them in detail. They involve radical changes, but are by no means unpractical, and I believe would go far to solve the problem.
But excellent as these proposals are they will of course be of no avail unless public opinion is awakened on the subject. That it will be awakened I cannot doubt, when motor-cars become cheaper, when the prejudice against them has died out completely, and when men find, as they soon will, that it is more economical to keep a motor-car, not only than a carriage and pair, but than a horse and trap.
VI
I have already mentioned how an improvement in the roads and the use of self-propelled carriages and carts will have a centrifugal effect on our great cities, and act as a very important factor in putting a stop to the increase in that urban congestion which has marked the last few years. This will of course be a great national benefit, but the dispersal of the town population will be by no means the only gain. Better roads and cheap and fast traction along them should help, and I believe will help, in the creation of a large number of small proprietors and small tenants—a change which all rural reformers desire. The small farmer, whether owner or occupier, will find it easier to get a living if and when the roads are good and easy of use. Competent observers of French life declare that the splendidly made and well-kept roads of France have greatly helped to keep the French peasant on the soil. For example, the Commercial Agent of the United States at St. Etienne, reporting in 1891 to his Government, wrote as follows:—
