174 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



gestions of urban opportunity furnished by the city. It is im- 

 portant to recognize that the prosperity of the city requires that 

 it exploit itself in ways that bring people to the city to live, as 

 well as to trade. Better business is obtained by methods of ad- 

 vertising that naturally lead to more people. 



Modern advertising is in itself a supreme illustration of 

 effective suggestion, and its development has been for the most 

 part in the hands of urban interests. Such advertising has 

 forced rural people to contrast their manner of life with urban 

 conditions and often with the result of discontent. They are 

 drawn to the city on special o'ccasions by a luring city publicity 

 manipulated with scientific skill by experts, and often return to 

 their country homes dissatisfied because of false notions regard- 

 ing the pleasures of the city. Of course this is more largely true 

 of young people as they are more open to suggestion. 



Spectacular success is largely dependent upon urban con- 

 ditions of life, and such success obtains public attention. Even 

 in the country the successes talked about are likely to be those 

 made possible by city life. These are given space in the maga- 

 zines and daily papers edited and published in cities, and so they 

 naturally occupy the minds of rural readers of such periodicals. 



The young man who feels the attraction of such enterprise, 

 who wishes to have a part in big things, even if an insignificant 

 part, who craves knowing big business at first hand, receives a 

 suggestion that invites him cityward. When a community is 

 itself represented by some former resident in some spectacular 

 success, it is certain that many young men will question their 

 future on the farm in that locality. Thus the human product 

 of a rural community robs it of its personality resources and 

 the career of the man of fame may continue to act as a tradition 

 long after his death, and still add to the rural migration. 



It is not altogether clear what effect visitors in the summer 

 from cities have upon rural people with reference to city drift. 

 Although a matter of accident, perhaps, dependent upon the 

 character of the city people, and only important in a limited area 

 of the country, summer visitors, nevertheless, must provide sug- 

 gestions that occasionally operate powerfully upon some young 

 people in the country in encouraging their going to the city. 

 Certain facts in some of our New England country towns where 



