URBAN AND RURAL LIFE 255 



URBAN AND RURAL LIFE 



By FRANK T. CARLTON 



A T the beginning of the twentieth century, approximately one third 

 ■*-*- of the total population of the United States were living in cities, 

 and were classed as urban inhabitants. A considerable percentage of 

 this twenty-five million human beings are to-day living in crowded and 

 uncomfortable quarters, despite the ' evident fact that there exist in 

 nearly all sections of the nation many valuable abandoned farms and 

 half-deserted villages. The exigencies of manufacture and trade, and 

 the glamor and hurry of city life, as contrasted with the dullness and 

 monotony of rural existence, have gathered this great host of men, 

 women and children into our crowded, smoky, restless cities. In the 

 building of the modern manufacturing and commercial city, everything 

 held dear by the poet and the lover of humanity has been ruthlessly 

 and heedlessly sacrificed on the altar of industry and wealth. Human 

 life and happiness have been overlooked or ignored in the mad scramble 

 for wealth, trade and power. Exports and imports, bank clearances, 

 cotton, sugar, oil, beef, iron and steel, not men, or women, or children, 

 are the important and desirable, even the paramount, considerations. 

 Human health and human weal are thrown in the balance against gold 

 and silver, and are found wanting. The unparalleled growth of cities 

 during recent decades is, in a large measure, to be attributed to modern 

 methods of transportation of goods and people, and of transmission of 

 energy and intelligence. Change the conditions in regard to any one 

 of these items, and the forces which make for centralization or decen- 

 tralization are modified or reversed. Railroads and electric wires, tele- 

 phones and telegraph instruments, rural free delivery and good roads 

 are important factors in the distribution of population. 



Great populations have migrated from country to city; long-estab- 

 lished modes of living are quickly changed; old customs and habits, 

 upheld and cherished by the dearest traditions, are suddenly brushed 

 aside. A race of city dwellers is being developed. On the very thresh- 

 old of a new century these questions are forced upon a reluctant people : 

 Can a nation grow strong, vigorous and progressive if a large per- 

 centage of its population are dwelling in cities? Is city life natural? 

 Is the sharp demarcation between rural and urban conditions conducive 

 to healthful political activity? Are decentralizing tendencies becom- 

 ing noticeable ? 



History records many rhythmic movements in human society. Cer- 



