The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-04-02
VOLUME 2.
The Overcrowded Cities.

4
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 large class that
must be helped, TO keep them from cruel
suffering. Still the cities grow, while
whole regions of the country,-especial-
ly it's older portions,-are depopulated
year by year. Yet the fact is patent to-
day that the only prosperous class is the
agricultural We have now the anomaly
of thrifty farmers and starving trades
men. The agricultural classes of the
West are prosperous. They had a good
crop last year, and have received good
prices for all their products; and while
the cities are in trouble, and manufacto-
ries are running on half time, or not
running at all, the Western farmer has
money in his pocket, and ready market
for everything he has to sell. The coun-
try must be fed, and he feeds it. The
city family may do without clothes,
and 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 mid
dle-men, that force unnatural conditions
upon the finances and markets of the
country.
IT,. % - She W ha
had for allusion to this subject, and 1t
is not likely to be the last. The forsa-
king of the farm for city life is one Of the
great evils of the time, and, SO far, it has
received 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 returns. Notwithstanding the
confinement and the straitened condi-
tions of his new life, he clings to it un-
til ne dies, adding his family to the per-
manent population of his new home.
Mr. Greeley, in his days of active philan-
thropy, used to urge men to leave the
city-to go West-to join the agricultu-
raj population, and thus make themsel-
YES 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 we'll as
the farmer. He is less independent than
the farmer. He is bond-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 work
er of the city. He is more independent,
has more command of his own time,
fares better at table, lodges better, and
gets a 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?
1t can only ba found, we believe, in
the social starvation of American agri-
cultural life. The American farmer
! in all his planning, and all his building
has never made provision for life. He
has only considered the means of get
ting living. Everything outside of this
everything relating to society and cul
ture-has been steadily ignored. He
gives his children the advantages O
schools, not recognizing the fact thai
these very advantages call into life new
set of social wants. A bright, well-edu
: Gated family, in lonely farmhouse, ii
very different material from a family
brought up in ignorance. An American
, farmers children, who have had few
terms at neighboring academy, resem
BILE in no degree the children of the Eu
ropean peasant. They come home with
new ideas and new wants, and if there il
no pro vision made for these new wants
and they find no opportunities for thei
satisfaction, they will be ready, on reach
ing their majority, to fly the farm ant
seek the city.
Ifthe American farmer wishes to keel
his children near him, he must learn thu
difference between living and getting
living; and we mistake him and his grad
D of culture altogether if he does not stol
over this statement and wonder what W.
: mean by it. To get living, to maxi
money, to-become "forehanded"-this i
r the whole of life to agricultural multi
/, tudes. discouraging in their numbers t.
/ contemplate. To them there is no differ
s ence between living and getting living
g Their whole life consists in gettinl
il living; and when their familie
, come back to them from their schooling
e and find that, really, this is the onl
IS pursuit that has any recognition unde
d the paternal roof, they must go away
e The boys push to the centers or the citie
J. and the girls follow them if they can. !
h young man or young woman raised
l. the point where they apprehend the di
d ference between living and getting liN
t. ing, can never be satisfied with the latte
of alone. Either the farmers childre
Or must be kept ignorant, or provision mu
ne be made for their social wants. Brazil
Id and hearts need food and clothing
OF we'll as bodies; and those who have lear
a. ed to recognize brains and hearts as Il
ut best and most important part of the
lie personal possessions, will go where tbs
"a can find the ministry they need.
IT, What is the remedy How shall ia
he mers manage to keep their children ne
he them2 How can we discourage the i
ar fiux of funnecessary-nay,b cumbersome
ly populations into the cities? We answ'
ed By making agricultural society attra
On tive, Fill the farm-houses with perioc
- Gala and books Establish central rea