An essay from 1942 says all of America loses when small towns struggle; modern essayist says that warning is just as relevant today

In 1942, The Atlantic published an essay by Arthur Morgan about why all Americans should care when small towns struggle; modern Atlantic writer Brian Alexander looks back on that essay with a melancholy eye and discovers that "at a time when many small towns are in crisis—facing economic decline, drug addiction, despair—when economists and pundits recommend giving up on small towns, telling their populations to abandon their homes to find economic opportunity elsewhere, Morgan’s 75-year-old plea remains a trenchant warning."

Morgan said that big-city dwellers should worry about the fate of small towns because "controlling factors of civilization are not art, business, science, government. These are its fruits. The roots of civilization are elemental traits—good will, neighborliness, fair play, courage, tolerance, open-minded inquiry, patience." Those traits are best passed on to future generations in small towns, and from there outward. "To erode small-town culture was to erode the culture of the nation," Alexander summarizes.

Morgan, the Tennessee Valley Authority's first chief and former president of Antioch College, believed the nation's salvation lay in small communities with regional industries, sustainable agriculture, and free enterprise that benefit the common man. And though some of his essay's predictions didn't pan out, he got a lot right. It's a fascinating read worth your time.