SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF TERRITORIAL PLANNING WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY PLAN.

The article discusses the socio-economic aspects of territorial planning, with special reference to the Mississippi Valley plan. The socio-economic approach to the planning of the Mississippi Valley Region--an area that has been characterized as the bread-basket of the U.S.--would seemingly focus primarily upon the social significance of the U.S. agricultural economy. Apart from the curtailment in world markets for the U.S. agricultural exports, the future of farming in the U.S. is affected by the possibilities inherent in the mechanization of agriculture. In spite of the trend toward the concentration of capital, there is, nevertheless, a pronounced trend toward the decentralization of industry, and these trends have a vital bearing on the community life in the localities affected. The social implications of industrial decentralization are portentous. Bringing factories nearer farms will affect the future of agriculture as well as industry, and in turn the educational and general social organizational policies of the communities concerned.