The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-02
POOR A HELP TO CITIES.
DONpF TRY TO SEND THEM TO
TARMs. shTs PROF. eUNToN.

- 1SNN 49,
arte % Have the Pssr owe Thsir Homes.
Whenever times are hard ana manual laborerr
have their wages cut or are thrown out Of en-.
ployuaent the CRY goes up:
"Bend them to the country. There they can
raise their own food on their own ground, can
v their own little homes and will be much
better OF in every way"
But II ends mostly in talk. for there 10 no or
ganiEAtion which can colonize the poor in rural
districts, and Il 10 doubtful II they would 20.
sven n they could be made legally to leave the
cities.
There II enc man in New York who thinks
that they ought not to DO sent to the country.
He 10 Prof George Gunton, President Of tho
0unton Institute Of Social Economics and Po-
Mtical Science, and editor of Gunton's Maya
Gtae. He says that tho poor help the clties and
the eities help the poor, and ho has no patience
with schemes for getting rid of them. He be-
lievos that all efforts to move the poor into the
country are not economical, and, furthermore,
ere impractioable and impossible.
When asked by q Sun reporter to mako known
tds objections TO moving the poor into the coun-
J ~. and his reasons for thinking them q benefit
70 the cities and tho cities . benefit to thom,
Prof. Gunton said:
EN- almost every depression in tho cities we
look for relief by sending people to the country.
Mat II probably due to the fact that there is o
constant tendency Of population to longest in
! the cities. There is q reason for this; It is be-
cause people would rather live in the city.
Whenever we see a tendency in society that
keeps mp for generations, we may know
Shero 10 something in 1t, whether you can
poe ft or mot. Population does not tend
toward China from Europe. nor to southern
Europe from here. except on pleasure trips. We
1 rec that the. migratory tendency of population
II from tho lowest points Of civilization to the
higher. 1t is from the lower parts Of Europe to
che higher and to the better parts. At one time
there was such n tendency Of continental labor
all except French-toward England that they
have several times discussed u law restricting
nmmigration.
eft has been tho problem for half a dozen CEN
&uries to keep people from going to London, but
they will always 60 to London. Ever since tho
time Of Richard III. people have done so. l
might except Manchester or Liverpool, or some
few other largo oities. but they keep drifting
toward London. Tho reason for that is, In the
airst place, because In the large cities there are
moro opportunities fog mis6t people to pick
up the stray shillings, and In q city like that
there are thousands of them, thousands of
misit people. In the rural country there is
NO money, there is no variety, there are
no amusements. You have your little
Aot, and you squat on 1t and grow your
potatoes and cabbages, and must be content
with that, for you havo no other opportunities.
In the city there are, on the contrary, constant
opportunities for picking up stray ~shillings.
Tho next fact is that most people would much
rather live in the city. The reason is that when
they once get to the city there is moro life.
moro variety, more amusenents, and they come
In contact with moro people and see moro new
fhings than they do in the country. Tho con-
sequence is that tho trend keeps right on. No
matter what statesmen say or what ministers
say or editors say, and they all rail about peo-
pie leaving the farms and coming to the city, the
trend keeps on.
dwG Atkinson has gotten up colonization
schemes to go into the country. tax along q
man as cook, and have q small heaven on C. H.,
and he could not get q dozen people to go with
him II the land wero free. The reason is that
they have learned city life, and they have
learned o city occupation. Take. for instance. q
carpenter who Is out of work. He may be ex-
pert at csrpenterinS. but no is q Ounce at farm
ing, and we suggest sending him back almost to
the predatory stage. He will starve before
he will try to do farming. about which
he knows SO little. This is attributed
20 his perverseness, but it is not his perverse.
mess at all. It Is the fact that 70 arc trying to
net him on a lower rung in the ladder OF civiliza-
tion, to put him in an environment that has less
of the attractive in it. There has never been
power among statesmen or in religious i'm
pulses. or even opidcmics to disperse popula-
tion. 1t Is a reversal Of the order of social
tendency. it Is like trying to push back tho
times. Tho main reason for this tendency is
that 1t moves toward the point OF highest oppor-
tuntt .c,.,,v tho HIGHEST min. ., onnor,nn,.v
out doubt there is nothing like it anywhere on
the earth; that Is. taken in its entirety. One
! S TSq nSa Efe e and .9 p sey, eTEis s'f IS New Sg ih Yo Ihe c 3fw:;
But. take 1t oil in all. high rents and everything,
sae Pr promise MopS OF eSG I6biftins t fre3 op aSs ooenna,i tr
to another, and what can be obtained for the
dollar We earn. all are probably greater in New
York than in any other spot on the earth. There
are plenty Of places where one can get q living
Tyithout working SO hard, but i will be a
lf o man will live on corn and potatoes and
pork. and raise them In his own yard, he will
nomad. 1t Is the social life. not the mere eating,
that people get in a city. and it is a peculiar
will foreRo the qualification of certain higher
social wants. That is true of the very poor, as
well as of those who are richer, and it Is true of
Fake, for instance. any class like the en-
Sosition where it will be necessary that
they must forego having q newspaper,
Mhs win t b In S"n Ssve for no th S1Sks to S Wh'F fc
the theatre, and they are obliged to be content
With ono suit Of clothes; :, and they , would go
any one OF those luxuries. If a rich man is re-
duced in circumstances. say from 4 million to u
I0OuUAuu u year III ItVIIl Nv VI " ~ rHolI
OF food, nor of ordinary clothing and a place TO
sleep. but tho whole community will come and
OtmpathiZe with him because lie will have to
36rego the qualification Of his social taste. /
will say, therefore, that II is an economic i'm.
possibility to get people to leave the cities and
70 on farms. Further, it would be an actual
disadvantage TO civilization.
H'If IL wero easy TO get the people to leave the
cities and dispense with every return of indus.
Etial depression or of a little enforced idleness;
tie economists and the capitalists would all
agree that the people should be shipped out on
e farms as a means ~ OF Escaping what they think
easy way of solving a social, problem. For in,
eIancelthere is n strike and a lot OF people are out
RESULT would be to make, the reducing OF
wages, easy. Bring this alternative TO the
s. like moving in the line OF least resistance.
They would take that way, OF cutting the Cor
dian knot. II VIC should ship the laborers
away from the educating influences which
make for civilization. away from all the cnvi-
ronment that cultivates and stimulates and
6roadens. practically we shOnld vino ont the