466 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



seldom massed. Its members come to town by team or automo- 

 bile or on foot or horseback, do their business without a resting 

 place of their own, stand on other people's streets, in other peo- 

 ple's shops, and over other people's counters. They go back 

 after some hours of absence to their own lands, occupations, 

 and homes. In the village they are aliens, but aliens with a 

 possible title to be conciliated. The embarrassment is on both 

 sides. The farmer pays in so much in trade he feels that he 

 ought to have consideration; he pays so little directly toward 

 the institutions that the village considers that his rights are not 

 compelling. Puzzle, perplexity, and embarrassment obscure the 

 whole relationship and situation; and the universal process of 

 legalized insulation of village and city away from the farm, 

 which has grown up undisputed, with scarcely a hint of abnor- 

 mality, is constantly shadowed by this overhanging cloud of 

 doubt. 



The modern village differs from the modern city mainly in this 

 the village industries are related directly to the needs of the 

 outlying population on the land in addition to the needs of the 

 village population. The city contains industries related to peo- 

 ple scattered over the territory of county, state, or nation. As 

 soon as a village obtains one knitting mill, or a latch factory, or 

 plow works, or iron smelter and the like, whose products go to 

 people who are not otherwise interested in the village, it begins 

 to possess the problems of a city. As this process continues, it 

 becomes less and less dependent upon the agricultural popula- 

 tion within its immediate farm trade zone, and more and more 

 upon scattered peoples of various sorts, who may never see the 

 city. As the small city grows, outstripping its adjoining vil- 

 lages, these villages become more or less consciously satellites 

 of the city. Wholesale needs are met in this city for village 

 merchants, and special retail customers come to buy clothing 

 and furniture from larger stocks. A trade clientele is formed 

 reaching out over a county, or two, or three, of these seasonal 

 or occasional village and farm buyers. This smaller city, then, 

 has a significance for several communities, and becomes an inter- 

 community center. Beyond this is the state center for trade 

 the metropolis, with national importance. 



So long as a small city is agricultural in its clientele, the land 



