WIDER OUTLOOK

Shannon News, 2 March 1928, Page 4

WIDER OUTLOOK

WHAT THE MOTOR-CAR IS DOING

Under the heading "The Motor Car Makes a New 1 Countryside," the Melbourne "Herald" recently published an article that deserves re-printing. All over Australia and New Zealand and all over the world, the motorcar is making a new countryside. Those little towns which once were ail sufficient to themselves and which looked for no trade outside their own boundaries are, by reason of the new mobility, rapidly becoming a part of the general scheme of things. Their insularity is being broken down, and the change is doing them and the whole community a vast amount of good. i The ideal state is one in which the people are of a single mind and heart. That condition has not yet been altogether achieved here or in any other part of the world A community is built up of many isolated sections which are more or less at loggerheads with one another. It is* only when they have a .common interest or are faced with a common danger that they achieve unity. The war taught us that. But whereas we are capable of single-mindedness in the face of a common foe, we have yet to learn how to unite in the ideals of peace. The motor-car is showing, us the way to promote unity and mutual development. It is at present doing more for communal harmony than any other agency devised by man. It is compelling the two halves of the community to mingle, and is making the one better known to the other. It is accomplishing in the way of unity what no other agent has yet been able to perform. Because the motor-car with its occupants goes far afield at week-ends it is creating a new rural life. It is making towns of what were once villages It is forcing city standards on the country, because the city man will be satisfied with nothing less. The little community which was once satisfied with itself and its surroundings is learning that it is a part of a greater concern, and that there are certain things it must do and aspire to become a real part of the whole. Th country is beginning to discover that opinions expressed round the parish pump are not the last thing in polities'; and the city is finding that the point of view of the country demands'attention. A wider horizon ha* ucen opened up everywhere, and the local problem is no more the only problem. These changes are being effected, not by strenuous propaganda, .but through the material agency of trade. The übiquitous motor-car has not only shifted people, but has transferred business. The city man who takes the toad at week-ends is demanding the standards of the city in the country. He takes with him money for the purchase of his needs As a consequence, country towns have begun to eater for him. Newer and more up to-date hotels are springing up i« tural areas. 'Commodities which the travelling population demands are being stocked for sale. The country so: vice station is ready to supply the travelling city motorist with the things he needs; and the roadside vendor of marketable commodities lias become a regular institution. All these things make tor unity and understanding. It has often been said that better and quicker communications will bring about peace of the world. Mobile populations are undoubtedly the best, because intermingling creates understanding. If quick transport is a factor in uniting a single country, it must also have its value in the wider sphere of in ternational affairs. Unity, like charity must begin at home. When we have created a solid feommunity through the modern process of travel, -we are ripe for that greater understanding which will bring peace wdiere once tlie shadow-of war always lay.