NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE: “This here Progress, it keeps on,” as HG Wells made Mr Tom Smallways observe 40 years ago. One must leave it to the philosophers to define “progress.” To most of us it implies the substitution of the new for the old, resulting in the short-circuiting of time, distance, and energy. Thus, on the farms the motor-tractor displaces the horse-drawn plough, the electric torch the hurricane lamp, the rotary pump the hand-worked pump, the motor-mill the windmill, the motorcar the pony and trap, the motor-bus the carrier’s wagon, &c.
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But probably the most revolutionising factor throughout the last half-century has been the ordinary safety bicycle. Electric power is not yet enough for life and work, however potent for death and destruction. Muscle still counts and will continue for long to do so. In Lincolnshire the work of the farm labourer, the ditcher, the hedger, the road-mender, the drainage-worker, the market gardener, the builder, the errand-goer, the policeman, the student, and the teacher could not go on if it were not for the ubiquitous “bike.” I know two octogenarians who use it. A farmer’s wife, who, since the age of 16, has delivered mails for 40 years, makes her morning round on it. Picture the effects of a universal strike of those who use it for work alone!
