15 



We hear much complaint about the drift of population from rural 

 districts to our cities. Under the first census only three per cent of our 

 population were classified as urban. Under the last census forty-six per 

 cent of the population resided in cities and towns as classified under the 

 census regulations. There are reasons why this tendency persists, and 

 with those reasons we must deal, if we would counteract that tendency. 

 Some of the reasons cannot be counteracted, some of the reasons ought 

 not to be counteracted. There are others, however, which are temporary, 

 which are artificial, and which ought not to obtain, and which ought to 

 be arrested, or which ought to be counteracted. 



There are many means which we can employ to encourage the 

 residents of the rural districts to remain and not to join in this procession 

 or in this mad rush from the farm to the factory, from the country to the 

 city. 



Now, here is another fundamental problem which I will raise at 

 this point, not with the view of submitting an ultimate solution. The 

 population must grow if the nation is to increase in strength and greatness 

 and, I may add, in glory. We must not aspire to be a stationary people, 

 but a growing and multiphdng people. In our problem the factor of 

 population is an increasing factor. The pressure of population upon the 

 means of subsistence must increase, and this raises what has been known 

 as the Malthusian theory. This pressure of population upon the means 

 of subsistence will increase until hunger and famine are threatened, if not 

 realized. In this country today we have only about thirty people to 

 the square mile. In Belgium there are more than five hundred people to 

 the square mile. In taking invoice in analyzing this problem, we must 

 deal with the factor of population as a constantly increasing factor, for 

 none of us would consent to that factor becoming fixed or becoming 

 stationary. 



Now, the area of land is a fixed factor. It does not increase; it 

 cannot be made to increase. There are variable factors, how^ever, which 

 are subject, in a large measure, to our control, and w'hich must be con- 

 trolled if we are to meet the requirements of an increasing population. 



Fertility is not a fixed factor, but it is really subject to our manage- 

 ment and subject to increase. Tillage, improved tillage, is not a fixed 

 factor; it is a variable factor. It is one that can be influenced bj- the will 

 and by the activities of man. 



Upon these factors, then, we must concentrate our intelligence and 

 our energy. There ^ve must find the solution of our problems. There 

 yve must relieve the pressure of population upon the fixed land area and 

 upon the means of subsistence. It w^as declared about two hundred years 

 ago that tillage was fertilization. 



Now, our mines and our forests ought to be conserved. The con- 

 servation of our forests is one of the great national problems, which is 

 entitled to that deep solicitude and attention which it has received during 



