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"BACK TO THE FARM! " 151 



tention of their homes may be affected in any way by their 

 continuance in the Company's employ. 



No one can doubt the stimulating effect of such a 

 community upon all the farms and all the farmers in 

 its vicinity. 



Every such settlement of the country not only bene- 

 fits the laborers and employees of the factory, but also 

 stimulates and encourages the enterprising farmer. 

 When man in his wisdom has spread over the surface 

 of the land somewhat more evenly than at the present 

 time, there will no longer be isolated spots, producing 

 melancholia and even insanity in their lonely inhabi- 

 tants. The city is not a place of production, but only 

 of exchange, and the wise city of the future will not in- 

 vite factories of a productive nature, but will exclude 

 them. Unfortunately the great rivalry between cities 

 to-day is not so much for the welfare of their individual 

 citizens, the education of their people, wise and eco- 

 nomic nutrition, libraries and museums, but simply 

 for population. The classification of cities for legal 

 and other purposes is made solely on the basis of their 

 total population. Thus by act of the legislature we 

 have cities of the first class and cities of the second 

 class in which the division is made on the basis of the 

 number of inhabitants. The keen rivalry among cities 

 to lead in the number of their population is well known. 

 One may cite, for instance, the competition between 

 Minneapolis and St. Paul, between Philadelphia 

 and Chicago, and just now between St. Louis and 

 Boston. Even New York aspires in the near future 

 to rival London not in the kind and character of its 

 people, but in numbers alone. So far as can be 

 seen, this sort of rivalry is destined long to continue. 

 Even in the capital of the country a movement is on 



