CHAPTER IL 

 Economic Causes of Depletion. 



Our survey of the rural problem thus far lias been an 

 essay in social description. The science of Sociology 

 would bid us now proceed wdth social interpretation in 

 order to advance later to social construction. 



The decrease in rural population is not due to the 

 departure from the country of farmers alone. The 

 decline of two other classes contribute to the general 

 result. First the village crafts decayed, and now village 

 commerce is waning. 



A village forty years ago was industrially a better 

 place than now. Each hamlet had its corps of trained 

 and skilled workmen with sturdily independent homes, 

 making the rich contribution to community life that 

 skilled craftsmen bring. The essential industries were 

 everywhere represented. The village had a fairly self- 

 sufficing economic life. Spencerville fourteen years ago 

 supported two tailors. My acquaintance with the 

 locality is just sufficiently long-standing to have seen 

 this handicraft disappear. Other tradesmen have gone 

 since then, the shoemaker being the last to leave — 

 within the present year. The flour-mill also has re- 

 cently been dismantled of its machinery, and convertec^ 

 into a feed-supply depot for the produce of distant mill- 

 ing companies. My memory of the village where boy- 

 hood's years were spent, Ormstown, situated amidst the 



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