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Show AFRICAN MINES AND AMERICAN FARMS. Recently the American Farm Bureau Bur-eau Federation, as part of its campaign cam-paign to promote paved farm-to-market roads, presented a play over the radio which graphically pictured a 'condition that is seriously retarding: agricultural progress. The play dealt with two young Americans who discover, in the interior inter-ior of Africa, the world's richest mineral min-eral deposit, only to find it is worthless worth-less because there is no means of transportation to the coast. The hero of the play then returns to his home "somewhere in Agricultural Agricul-tural America" and finds that the farmers in his community are in practically the same position. They arc cut off from the outside world by a barrier of mud which makes it impossible for them to profitably market their products. The problem is finally solved by the establishment of a rural road committee. This play is not so exaggerated as it may seem. There are 3,016,281 miles of road in this country, of which 2,390,144 miles are of plain, old-fashioned old-fashioned dirt. Five million of the 6,250,00 American farmers are cut off from their markets during several months of the year by impassable roads. This condition is intolerable in a country which prides itself on being the world's greatest industrial power. Agriculture, most basic of all industries, indus-tries, deserves the prosperity that paved roads can bring. |