254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cultural goods, the product of cities, occupy the space between the 

 indefinitely extended sides of an acute angle. 



Hence it is that the future belongs to the non-agricultural sphere, 

 for we may assume an indefinitely rising standard of living among all 

 classes. Non-agricultural goods and occupations are bound to increase 

 their lead over straight agriculture commensurately with advancing 

 civilization, which implies the acquirement of more wants of acceptable 

 type. Were man but to feed and sleep the case were different. Inas- 

 much as population, urban and rural, must be correlated with the pro- 

 duction of goods and corresponding income there is reason for believing 

 that the drift toward the occupations at present largely local to cities 

 must be accepted as a final decree of civilization. 



It is true, of course, that the farm is the source of many materials 

 which enter into manufactured articles. But where manufacturing 

 processes are superimposed on agricultural production, the selling price 

 of the final product is rarely divided at all equally between the farm 

 and the factory. A farmer sells a hide for about the sum received by 

 the department store for a purse. Whole wheat breakfast foods return 

 the farmer one cent to 11^ cents for other industries, the wool in a 

 suit of clothes returns the grower $1.84, while the finished suit is sold 

 by the tailor for $50. Wherever finishing processes are applied to raw 

 farm products, whether in the case of Saratoga chips or peanut candy, 

 the division of the final selling price is usually overwhelmingly in favor 

 of the non-agricultural industries. 



Unquestionably in many cases the division is unfair. The farmer 

 does not get enough and other participators get too much. Consider- 

 ing the unflagging labor for long hours on the farm and the almost 

 desperate struggle waged on many a farm for income, it is beyond doubt 

 that the exploitation of the farmer has been equaled by nothing except 

 the factory system at its worst or the institution of slavery. When one 

 considers that a real cabbage must be sold by the farmer for cents while 

 an artificial rose will sell for dollars the irony of the farmer's position 

 is manifest. A steer sold by the farmer for $80 is served in fashion- 

 able restaurants for $2,500. The current division of values between 

 farm and city industries is one of the monstrosities of civilization, the 

 correction of which would steady the flow of population to cities, per- 

 haps even suddenly check it for a period, but in view of the nature of 

 human wants the ultimate dominance of city occupations can not be 

 gainsaid. 



Assuming a tendency toward correlation between agricultural and 

 urban wealth and population, it is interesting to note the relative stand- 

 ing of city and country at the present time. Is the national population 

 divided between country and city in proportion to the division of 

 wealth ? 



While the last census gives the rural population as 53.7 per cent, of 



