The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-04-02
OvERCR0wDED CITIES.
why Young Men Forsake the Farm for City
ihfe-A Remedy for the EVIL Sugge sted.

q. NiN 10 h"isuN city III the OIittu
States which does not contain more
people than can get fair, honest living,
10y labor or trade, in the best times.
When times of business depression
come, like those through which we have
passed, and are passing, there is large
class that must be helped, to keep them
from cruel suffering Still the cities
grow, while whole regions of the
country-especially its older portions
are depopulated year by year. Yet the
fact is patent to-day that the only pros
porous class is the agricultural. We
have now the anomaly of thrifty farmers
and starving tradesmen. The agricult-
ural classes of the West are prosperous.
They had good crop last year, and
have received good prices for all their
products; and while the cities are in
trouble, and manufactures are running
on half time, or not running ut all, the
Western farmer has money in his pocket,
and ready market for everything he has
to sell. The country must be fed, and
he feeds it. The city family may do
without new clothes, and n thousand
luxurious appliances, but it must have
bread and meat. There is nothing that
can prevent the steady prosperity of the
American farmer but the combinations
and "corners of middlemen that
force unnatural conditions upon the
finances and markets of the country.
This is not the first occasion we have
had for allusion TO this subject, and it is
not likely to be the last The forsaking
of the farm for city life is one of the
great evils of the time, and, so far, II has
received no appreciate check. Every
young man, apparently, who thinks he
can get living III the city, or at the
minor cesters of population, quits his
lonely home upon the farm and joins the
multitude. Once in the city, he never
returns. Notwithstanding the contine-
ment and the straitened conditions of
his new life, he clings to it until he dies,
adding his family to the permanent popu-
alton of his new home. Mr.. Greeley, i'll
his days of active philanthropy, used to
urge men to leave the city-to go Wes
to join the agricultural population, and
thus make themselves sure of n compe-
tent livelihood. He might as well have
talked TO the wind. A city population
can neither be coaxed nor driven into
agricultural pursuits. 1t is not that they
are afraid of work. The average worker
of the city tolls more hours than the av-
erage farmer in any quarter of the
country. He is neither fed nor lodged
as well as the farmer. He is less indie
pendent than the farmer. He is a bond
slave TO his employers and his condi-
tons; yet the agricultural life has no
charms for him.
Whatever the reason for this may be,
it is not based in the nature of the work.
or in its material rewards. The farmer
is demonstrably better off than the
worker of the city. He is more indie
pendent. has more command of his own
time. fares better ut table, lodges better,
and gets better return for his labor
What is the reason, then, that the farm
er's boy runs to the city the first chance
he can get, and remains, if he can posi-
bly, find there the means of life.
Ii can only be found, we believe, in
the social leanness, or social starvation,
of American agricultural life. The Amer
lean farmer, III all his planning, and
all his building, has never made pro-
vision for life. He has only considered
the means OF getting n living. Every
ing to society and culture-has been
steadily ignored. He gives his children
the advantages of schools, not recogniZ-
ing the fact that these very advantages
call into life new set of social wants.
A bright, well-educated family, i'll lone
" farmhouse, is very different material
from family brought up i'll ignorance.
An American farmers children, who
have had few terms at neighboring
academy, resemble i'll no degree the
children of the European peasant. They
come home with new ideas and new
wants, and if there is no provision made
for these new wants, and they find no
opportunities for their satisfaction, they
VIII be ready, on reaching their majority,
to fly the farm and seek the city.
If the American farmer wishes to keep
his children near him, he must learn the
difference between living and getting a
living and we mistake him and his
not stop over this statement and wonder
what we mean by it. To get a living,
TO make money, to become =" fore
handed this is the whole of life to
agricultural multitudes, discouraging in
their numbers to contemplate. To them
there is no difference between living and
getting a living. Their whole life con-
sists in getting a living and when their
families come back to them from their
schooling, and find that, really, this is
the only pursuit that has any recogni-
ton under the paternal roof, they must
go away. The boys push to the centers
or the cities, and the girls follow them
if they can. A young man or n young
woman, raised to the point where they
apprehend the difference between living
and getting living, can never be salts
fed with the latter alone. Either the
farmers children must be kept ignorant,
or provision must be made for their
social wants. Brains and hearts need
food and clothing as well as bodies; and
those who have learned to recognize
brains and hearts as the best and most
important part of their personal posses
sions, will go where they can find the
ministry they need.
What is the remedy? How shall
farmers manage 70 keep their children
near Them How can we discourage the
influx of unnecessary-nay,b urdensome
populations into the cities We answer:
Nv mo Ein,, aor,.ic11l fula society attractive