20 KURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



the towers, Dr. James W. Robertson, in a masterly plea 

 for the conservation of our agricultural resources, " is 

 not only an occupation which some individuals follow 

 for profit: it is a great national interest determining 

 in a dominant way the fortunes of this nation and the 

 opportunities and the character of the population. So, 

 while the improving of Canadian agriculture primarily 

 concerns the farmer and his family, it affects the status 

 of Canada, its outlook and its destiny."* Any wide- 

 spread movement or persistent tendency which affects 

 the status of the rural population is therefore a matter 

 of concern to all, whether dwelling in city or in 

 country, who have at heart the national welfare, 

 and consequently sets a task for the Home, the School, 

 the State, and the Church. Such a problem is given 

 by the changing relations of city and country life. The 

 rapid growth of urban population in comparison with 

 rural is a phenomenon so pronounced, so widespread, 

 and so persistent as to arrest universal attention. 



The report of the Board of Social Service presented 

 to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 

 Canada in 1911 called that church's attention with 

 emphatic force to the problem of the city. That report 

 was an outcome of a two years' study of the situation — 

 a study not only of the down-town problem, but of the 

 up-town problem as well; not only of the congested 

 centre, but also of the suburb. It stated in terse terms 

 that the problem exists ; asserted that in Canada it is 

 just emerging as one of the most urgent of national 

 questions; and claimed that it is the problem of the 

 twentieth century. A fuller study of the situation 



* Commission of Conservation, Canada, III, p. 89. 



