American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-04-03
Why the Cities Are OvercrOWded.

HERE IS udTuly u CITY In the Oulteu
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 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 de-
populated 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 starv-
ing tradesmen. The agricultural classes
of the West are prosperous. They had
good crop last year, and have received
good prices for all their product; and
while the cities are in trouble, and manu-
factories are running on half time, or not
running at all, the Western farmer has
money in his pocket and a ready market
for everything he has to sell. The coun-
try must be fed, and he feeds it. The
city family may do without new 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.
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
received no appreciate 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 confine-
ment and the straitened conditions of his
new life, he clings to it until he dies,
adding his family to the permanent pop
ulatIon of his new home. Mr.. Greeley.
in his days of active philanthropy, used
to urge men to leave the city-to go
West-to join the agricultural popula-
ton, and thus make themselves sure of a
competent livelihood. He might as well
have talked to the wind. A city popula-
ton 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 indie
pendent than the farmer. He is bond
slave to his employers and his condi-
tions; yet the agricultural world 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 at table, lodges better,
and gets better return for his labor.
What is the reason, then, that the farm
or fn cit hp CT cba 70
he can get, and remains. if he can posi-
blv find there the means of life?
1t can only be found, we believe, in
the social leanness, or social starvation,
of American agricultural life. The
American farmer, in all his planning,
and all his building, has never made pro
vision for life. He has only considered
the means of getting a living. Every
thing outside of this-everything relat-
ing to society and culture been
steadily ignored. He gives his children
the advantages of schools, not recogniz-
ing the fact that these very advantages
call into life il new set of social wants.
A bright, wclleducated family, in lone
ly farmhouse, is very different material
from a family brought up in ignorance.
An American farmers children, who
have had a few terms at "A neighbor ne
academy, resemble in no degree the chill
dren 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 nc
opportunities for their satisfaction, they
will be ready, on reaching their majority
| to fly the farm and seek the city.
Ii the American farmer wishes to keeI
| his children near him he must learn the
| difference between living aid getting !;
living; and we mistake him and his