2 6o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The formation of a numerous and influential suburban type of 

 people may, therefore, be anticipated for three reasons: the introduc- 

 tion of new methods of transmitting and distributing power; an in- 

 creasing demand for goods of a varied, unstandardized character; and 

 the development of scientific intensive agriculture. The development 

 of such a social type may be hastened by appropriate legislative action. 

 The city will gradually take on many desirable rural characteristics; 

 and, on the other hand, the country will receive the benefits of many 

 hitherto purely urban conveniences. The characteristic rural and 

 urban types will present fewer dissimilar and discordant features. 

 Decentralization — the merging of the urban and rural into the sub- 

 urban — only can remove the well-known antagonism between the in- 

 terests of city and country. State political machines have been con- 

 structed upon the foundations laid and cemented by this mutual 

 antagonism and distrust between the city man and the farmer. True 

 representative government breaks down and becomes a farce in the 

 face of such an unfortunate situation. This line of demarcation may, 

 as the suburb grows, be expected to fade away until the two types 

 blend into the suburban; and then the forbidding menace to our 

 democratic institutions caused by the distinct and often divergent 

 interests of country and city will be, in a large measure, removed. 

 Legislative power can not initiate or suppress such a social and in- 

 dustrial movement, but it can accelerate or retard such a tendency. 



