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Another heavy blow in the '80s was deregulation of rail, truck, bus and airline service, along with the breakup of the Bell system. These changes permitted corporations to abandon service or increase rates in thousands of small towns. H.E. ("Ned") Valentine, owner and editor of the Clay Center Dispatch (circ. 3,800), finds the outcome ironic: "Both Presidents Carter and Reagan espoused small-town American values. Both were admired for it. But Carter's deregulation program, amplified by eight years of Reagan, has taken its toll here."
Clay Center's once-a-day bus service along two-lane U.S. 24 stopped two years ago. The bus carried mostly the poor and elderly to see their doctors or relatives an hour away in Manhattan. Bus service also meant that the town's two florist shops could count on daily deliveries of fresh flowers. And repair shops could often get same-day emergency shipments of spare parts. Although the town's cooperative grain elevator still has access to a working railroad spur, weeds surround the tracks. Reason: the Kyle railroad has added a $750- per-car surcharge to the standard rate, forcing the cooperative to haul its grain 17 miles by truck to a main railroad line.
While deregulation has brought lower prices and better services for many Americans, it has not worked out that way for residents of sparsely populated areas. Most economists would argue that the old system subsidized small-town Americans by requiring companies to provide services at a loss to such areas, but the U.S. traditionally saw rural development as worth the price. Says Jack Tierce, an administrator at the Kansas state corporation commission: "The transportation system of the U.S. was based on moving people from the densely populated East out West. Now it is driving people from rural areas into metropolitan areas." Cities get better service simply because customers are more concentrated and thus more profitable to accommodate.
The indirect costs of deregulation are adding up. Moving grain by truck instead of rail increases the rate at which highways and bridges are being degraded. Says Tierce: "In the long term the public is going to pay the price, and rural America will pay a terrible price."
Clay Center's aging population is symbolized by the skyline of the federally financed senior-citizen housing on the town's west side. The eight-story red brick apartment buildings are the only high-rises on the horizon. "Our big industry is Social Security," says Thomas Lee, president of the Union State Bank. "Fully one-third of our checking accounts are senior-citizen deposits." The aging process has also led to a leadership vacuum, as older business people retire from civic life. And the town's young people show no inclination to stay. When a visitor asked a class of 20 Clay County high school students how many would stay in town or return after college, not a single hand went up. Volunteered their teacher: "They're not being shy."
Rural planners contend that communities need a critical mass of at least 2,500 citizens to survive. The shrinkage of America's small towns will only accelerate as young people continue to leave to find better jobs, even though some retirees have migrated from the big cities to rural areas in search of peace and quiet. Although their money is welcome, older people often fail to see the need for economic development, particularly if it means higher taxes.