Frostburg mining journal., 1895-10-05

as might De required by the formation
OF colonization companies large and
small.
ITS SPREAD THROUGH THE EAST, NORTH AND
WEST.
Subsequently the plan was present
ed to the public through many of TIE
newspapers throughout the east. north
and west, with the result that there
are to-day, according to Mr.. Livesey's
figures, 10000 people engaged in
farming in pursuance of his sugges-
tions, and the Commissioners of the
District of Columbia have arranged to
give the plan an official trial by plac-
ing 200 families from among the poor
of the District on 1000 acres of com
pletely equipped farms in some por-
tion of Maryland or Virginia, thus
furnishing the first example of State
assistance toward farm reform and
Initiating movement which will be
watched with interest by humanita-
rians and philanthropists everywhere.
1t is singular fact that heretofore
the Southern newspapers have given
less attention to the plan of farm re-
form than those of any other section.
And yet no other part of the Union has
such advantages to offer, nor would
be so sure to bring prosperity to the
small farmer and through him riches
to the State. The lack of labor
troubles and consequent absence of
the problem which forces itself on
the attention of the public elsewhere
are given as accountable for the
apathy but us the South is now en-
tyaUaH n tho ,nl hn.+
organized effort to secure immigration
which she has ever known, it would be
well to give this new movement all
the attention and cooperation to
which its beneticent aims and excel
lent achievements entitle it.
FAR-REACIING AND MoMFNToUs RESULTS.
SO recent movement is the return
of the city man to the farm that the
statistic compilers have not yet gotten
hold of it, and the writers for the
press and magazines are continually
overlooking it. AS long ago as last
October the Southern States editorially
called attention to the inauguration of
such movement, and quoted from
number of papers in the north, west
and south in support of the statement
that very general disposition was be-
ing shown, not only among the industri-
al classes wearied and discontented
with trying privations, struggles and
hard conditions of life IN the cities, to
get out in the cities, to get out in the
country where at least daily bread
and bodily necessaries may be as
sured, but among the wealthier dwell
ers in cities there was also coming a
longing for the gentler strife for exist
ence which is youchsafed the tiller of
the soil. The Livesey farm reform
and the Plngree potato patch plan are
but symptoms of this condition. AS
in every other revolution, the leaders
do not create a new order of things
they simply give lucid and practical
expression to more or less crudely
formed sentiments and feelings which
exist in the masses at that time. And
it is worth the while of those who
write on economic questions to take
note of the fact that the new move
ment Is already upon US and is likely
to be fraught with results more far
reaching and momentous than tho e
which have attended the working out
of any social problem within recent
years.
MR.. FLETCHER AND THE NJ Y. EVENING POST.
1t is interesting in this connection to
revert to an article in the August
Forum by Mr.. H. J. Fletcher, depre-
eating the tendency of population to
concentrate in the cities, and to an
attempted defense of this tendency IN
an editorial reply to the article pub
lished in a recent number of the New
York Evening Post. Mr.. Fletcher had
evidently failed to catch the drift of
the most recent tendency, and his as
sumptions and deductions are all based
on the figures found in the census of
1890, which. by a comparison with the
census of $780, furnished him author
ity for declaring that the populat ton
of the townships is decreasing. that
the tendency is from the farm to the
village. from the village to the town,
from the town to the city, and which
leads him to declare 1T is startling
characteristic of of our period that it
is a period of universal transition in
in which large masses of people, ap
parently against their own interests,
leave the country, where homes are
cheap, the air pure, all men equal, and
poverty unknown, and crowd into
cities where all these conditions are
reversed The growth of the cities
swelS the number of classes most eX-
posed to agitation and discomfort, in
tensities the dangers to be apprehend
ed from social upheavalS, and widens
the growing chasm between the
classes" He says that the student of
social science ''realizes that in times
of social disturbance the great cities
are an ever growing menace to the
public authority and even to the exist
ing social order" The massing of
dense populations means impaired
public health and morals and adds to
crime, which is increasing, like the
cities, out of all proportion to every
thing else"
STATE AID To FARMING IN AUSTRALIA.
SO well recognized is this menacing
condition not only in America, but
wherever there have been periods of
great depression and destltution. that
State aid is being invoked to remedy
the evil by restoring the equilibrium
between town and county, and an
instance of this is pointed out IN the
action of the Australian government,
which is now engaged in drawing off
some of the surplus city population to
colonies established and watched over
by the States.
In his horizon Mr.. Fletcher finds
little hope for the change he longs to
500 but ubop man h va trroyp yvanry