FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



increase of the population of the country, taking the nation 

 as a whole, the urban increase having been three times as 

 great as the rural increase between 1900 and 1910. In many 

 parts of the country there has for two or three decades been 

 a gradual decrease .in the rural population. Some maintain 

 that America has already gone too far and that there will 

 have to be a migration of people to the country or the nation 

 will be confronted with a very serious situation in the near 

 future. Others, again, are of the opinion, that the nation is 

 still safe and that the migration from country to city can 

 continue much longer, without doing the nation as a whole 

 any grave injury. Taking a middle ground, one may possibly 

 assume that the country is in no immediate danger, but 

 greater efforts must be put forth in the future to maintain 

 the equilibrium between the two populations, or dire results 

 will surely follow. 



Another fact of cardinal importance is this : the cities of the 

 nation must come to have a more sympathetic understanding 

 of the country, so that a more perfect cooperation may be 

 developed between the two populations. There was a time, 

 and that, too, not very many decades ago, when, owing to the 

 miraculous rise of the cities, partially at the expense of the 

 country, rural life sank to a low level. In the early days 

 of this period the city not only preyed upon the country 

 almost as heartlessly as the baron robbers of the feudal days 

 preyed upon the cities of that day, but so great became the 

 contempt of the rising cities for the degenerating country 

 that Rural America fell into disfavor. But fortunately that 

 period is past, never, it is believed, to return again, and rural 

 life is now on the up-grade. The important matter is that 

 there should be a perfect mutual understanding, and that each 

 population should work out its own destiny, having the sym- 

 pathy, the good wishes and the encouragement of the other, 

 since the two ought to constitute a perfect unity. 



A careful study of Urban America and Rural America re- 

 veals at least four major perils in each one. The four major 

 perils of the city are race admixture, inefficient government, 



