RURAL DEPLETION 43 



the cause of the exodus, blight comes, not because of the 

 exodus, b\it of abiding conditions. The country can 

 obey the maxim, " Send forth the best ye breed," pro- 

 vided that she "' take up the White Man's burden '' ; 

 can " bind her sons to exile " if it be " to serve another's 

 need." That call '* comes now, to search your man- 

 hood," not to impair it. What is needed is intense life 

 — not labor, but life — upon the farm itself, so that the 

 country shall not become the b^nvay. The highway 

 must lie free for all through city and country alike. 



This is the law of the highways, 



This is their gospel made plain, 

 Let the laggards keep to the byways, 



And the weak and the halt remain, 

 Where the hurrying tides shall heed not, 



And the eyes of the world shall not see. 

 The weaklings of life that we need not. 



In these paths where the strong must go free. 



Age decrepit, and youth 



Streaked with age ere its prime. 

 The crafty side-trackers of truth, 



The thriftless consumers of time, 

 Mere shadow-shapes of man, 



And woman worn to a shade, 

 These do the highways ban, 



And with iron brows upbraid. 



This Is the law of the highways. 



This Is their gospel writ wide, 

 Let the souls that are formed for the byways 



Keep clear of our strenuous tide. 

 For patience we have not. nor space, 



For the weak, or the halt, or the blind, 

 For the aged that cannot keej) i)ace, 



Nor the eyes that are looking behind.* 



• J. C. M. Duncan, In Thr Witntaa, Montreal. 



