44 KUKAL LIFE IN CANADA 



This is the law of the country and has been. Not 

 hers " the thriftless consumers of time." The virile 

 country not only can " bind her sons to exile to serve 

 another's need " ; she " dare not stoop to less." And if 

 for the hour despondent, she is true at the heart to her 

 past. 



The third count in our problem amounts to the ques- 

 tion : Is there a moral strain being placed upon rural life 

 by our present situation ? In this field it is more diffi- 

 cult to glean representative facts and present them 

 fairly. No statistics are available on this aspect of the 

 problem. Dr. W. L. Anderson, in his able volume deal- 

 ing with our problem, writes : " Our argument rests 

 upon the favorable showing of the country as a whole 

 compared with the city as a whole. As tested by the 

 symptoms of degeneracy, the country is in as healthful 

 a state as the city ; where the advantages and wholesome 

 influences of civilization are massed; where education 

 is at its best ; where eloquence finds its opportunity and 

 art gathers its treasures; where wealth gathers all. re- 

 sources and taste has every gratification ; where churches 

 are powerful and every social institution co-operates in 

 the exaltation of human life. That the country is not 

 distanced by the city in social and moral development 

 almost exceeds belief ; or, to use the terms in which we 

 began, the line of averages is at a surprising height in 

 the country."* The question is, however, not one of 

 comparative values in city and country, but of what 

 tendencies are at work in the country. 



Country life of late has made one marked advance. 

 It has socialized, and to a large extent solved, the drink 



* W. L. Anderson, " The Country Town," p. 111. 



