55° POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



immigrant, in a letter recently published, 2 clearly states the proposition. 

 " In this country there is a great movement against the foreigners and 

 especially those of Latin, Slavic and Jewish origin. The Latin and 

 Jew (altruist and sentimentalist) will give in this country some of their 

 qualities that the northern people don't have. The Americans (egoists 

 and individualists) need some of our blood to change their character 

 in the next generation." There is, however, another side to this 

 question which will be touched upon later. 



The rapid growth of cities has been a marked feature of recent 

 growth and development. The city of to-day is the result of a rapid 

 and unhealthy growth. People have been rudely drawn from a rural 

 environment and quickly sucked into these great uneasy vortices of 

 industry and trade. The ideals, customs and habits of the rural 

 community have gone with them to this new environment, and still 

 cling with great tenacity. Only in recent years have the city dwellers 

 awakened to the fact that they are really dwelling in an environment 

 which calls for new, non-rural rules of action and of association. The 

 nature of the city itself has been modified. It is larger, more crowded, 

 more dependent upon arteries, of trade and transportation, and upon 

 the supplies furnished from the outside. The race must adapt itself 

 to urban conditions as they exist to-day; we must learn to live and to 

 thrive in densely populated centers. If the United States is to con- 

 tinue on its present course of advancement and progress, the city must 

 be made clean, healthy, moral, and it must be well governed. The 

 majority of the successful business and professional men of to-day were 

 born in rural districts. In the past the country has furnished the bone 

 and sinew of the city, and, as a necessary consequence, it has been 

 drained of many of its best and most progressive citizens. The city 

 can not indefinitely continue its parasitic existence. Already one third 

 of our population are urban dwellers. A much larger percentage of 

 our successful and progressive men and women must in the future be 

 drawn from the city-born and city-bred population; hence, the urgent 

 need of improved conditions in our cities. 



The modern city is a mere industrial establishment; but it must be 

 made a cluster of homes. Healthy and wholesome home surroundings 

 can only be obtained through education as to the sanitary and esthetic 

 requirements of urban communities; and these efforts must begin with 

 the child. The cities have been "great sores upon the body politic," 

 because they have experienced such a rapid development that society 

 has been unable to modify itself rapidly and sufficiently to meet the 

 requirements of the situation. A two-fold weakness of our educational 

 system is revealed at this point. The curriculum and the methods of 

 the city school have not been sufficiently modified to meet the require- 



2 Arena, March, 1905. 



