RAPID TRANSIT. 785 



RAPID TRANSIT. 



LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. VI. 

 By CARKOLL D. WEIGHT, A. M., 



UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. 



WE have seen that the population of cities is rapidly gaining 

 in proportion to the increase of population in the whole 

 country, and also that this growth in cities is largely suburban 

 in its character. The suburban growth is fed from without and 

 from within. As business is extended, and the room and area 

 formerly occupied by people are taken for great mercantile houses 

 and for manufacturing, the population of such areas is sent out 

 to the suburbs of necessity, while many seek suburban residences 

 as a matter of choice. From without the suburban population is 

 augmented by the rush to cities from the country. Owing to the 

 improvement in methods of agriculture, by which production 

 from the earth becomes in some sense a manufacture, a less num- 

 ber of persons is required for agricultural purposes than of old. 

 The question is often asked why, if population increases, there 

 is not an increasing necessity of supplying food products ; and if 

 there is such a necessity, why can great numbers be spared from 

 the rural districts to engage in the business undertakings of the 

 cities ? Improved methods of production offer an answer to this 

 question, the result being that the labor of the country not being 

 in so great demand, even to supply the vast increase required in 

 food products, seeks remunerative employment in centers of pop- 

 ulation. As the contraction of labor through invention goes on, 

 the expansion of labor through invention grows to a greater ex- 

 tent ; and it is probably true that through inventions, or through 

 great industries which have come into being in recent years, a 

 larger number of people are employed relatively than are deprived 

 of employment through improved methods. The great indus- 

 tries associated with electrics, railroad enterprises, the building 

 of new kinds of machinery, and the absorbing in various ways of 

 laborers in occupations not known until within a few years, ena- 

 bles manufacturing centers to furnish gainful work to those com- 

 ing from the country, where, relatively speaking, they are not 

 needed. These people take up their residence in the suburbs, 

 though they may find their occupations in the crowded areas of 

 the cities themselves. The question of rapid transit in cities, 

 therefore, becomes one not only of great interest in the study of 

 the movement of population at the present time, but one of prime 

 necessity for the consideration of municipal governments. It is 

 something more than a question of economics or of business con- 

 venience ; it is a social and an ethical question as well. 



VOL. XL. — 53 



