Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-03-24
NO. r..
Misfellaneons.
THE OvERCROWDED CITIES.

States which does not contain more peo-
pie than can get fair, honest living, by
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 a 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 prosperous class is the agricultu-
raj. We have now the anomaly of thrifty
farmers and starving tradesmen. The
agricultural classes of the West are pros
porous. They had a 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 at all, the West
ern farmer has money in his pocket, and
a 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 a thousand luxurious ap-
pliances, 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
mddle-men, that force unnatural condi :
tons 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, it has re-
ceived no appreciable check. Every
young man, apparently, who thinks he
can get living in the city, or at the
minor centers Of population, quits his
lonely home upon the farm and joins the
multitude. Once in the city. he never re-
turns. Notwithstanding the confinement
and the straitened conditions of his new
life, he clings to it until he dies, adding
his family to the permanent population of
his new home Mr.. Greeley, in his days
Of active philanthropy, used to urge men
to leave the city-to so West-to join the
| agricultural population, and thus make
themselves sure OF a competent 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 average farmer in any quarter of
the country. He is neither fed nor lodged
as well as the farmer He is less inde-
slave to his employers and his conditions;
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 independent, has
more command of his own time fares bet
ter at table. lodges better, and gets bet
ter return for his labor. What is the rea-
on, then, that the farmers boy runs to the
| city the first chance he can get, and re-
mains, if he can possibly find there the
means of life
1t can only be found we believe. in the
social leann, IS. or social starvation, Amer
| lean agricultural lie. The American far
mer, in all his planning, and all his build
ing, has never made provision for life. He
has only considered the means of getting
a living. Everything outside of this
everything relating to society and culture
has been steadily ignored. He gives
his children the advantages of schools,
not recognizing the fact that these very
advantages call into life new set of So
cial wants \ bright, well-educated FAM
| lily, in a lonely farmhouse, is very differ
ent from family brought up in ignorance
An American farmers children, who have
had Il few terms at neighboring acadia
my, resemble in no degree the children of
the European peasant. They come home
with new ideas and new wants, and there
is no provision made for these new wants
and if they find no opportunities for their
satisfaction, they will be ready. on reach
ing 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
| living; and we mistake him and his grade
of culture altogether if he does not stop
over this statement and wonder what we
mean by it. To get living, to make
money, to become Observation-Disclosures is
the whole OF lie to agricultural multi
tudes. discouraging in their number to
contemplate. TO them there is no differ.
ence between living and getting a living;
and when their families come back 10 them
FROM their school. and find that, really,
| this is the only pursuit that has any recog-
milton under the paternal roof, they must
90 away. The boys push to the cen
ters or the cities, and the gir's fol-
low them if they can. A young man
or Il young woman, raised to the point
where they apprehend the difference be-
tween living and getting living, can
never be satisfied 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
possessions, will go where they can find
the ministry they need.
What is the remedy? How should
farmers manage to keep their children
near them? How can we discourage the
influx of unneeessary-nay burdensome-
populations into the cities? We answer
By making agricultural society attractive.
Fill the farm-houses with periodicals and
books. Establish central rcading-rooms
or neighborhood clubs. Encourage the
social meetings of the young. Have con-
certs, lectures, amateur dramatic associa.
tions. Establish a bright, active, social
life, that shall give some significance "a