The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-01

conclusions, so far as they relate to in
creased and increasing inhabitancy, after
all, ought not of themselves to be SO
gratifying to the national pride as they
are almost universally treated as being.
1t necessarily argues that men and
women of other lands who come among
us find here the conditions to. living out
their lives more in accordance with their
own notions of comfort and happiness,
at least, than in the countries they come
from. And nation of 100OOO,00O people
is, everything else being equal, a greater
and more powerful nation than one of
considerably less population. China is
supposed to have a population of some
4O0,OOO,OOO of human beings; but China is
not regarded as either the happiest or the
most powerful nation in the world at the
present moment.
The American notion that bigness Is
everything has pretty strong hold of
our people. But it is doubtful whether it
is accepted now as it was at any time
in the past half century, that because a
thing is biggest it is best. Individual and
collective virtue and contentment still
count for something with US as with
other nations. The philosophy which re-
CARDS the promotion of human happiness
as the only end to be sought through
preventing systems Of government and
religion has many more adherents today
tkan it ever had before, even among the
American people. We all recognize how
important a part social conditions play in
realizing the sum Of human happiness.
When we learn from the census alb
stracts, for instance, that the trend of.
American population toward city life has
not been at all as marked during the last
decade as during the preceding one, we,
who inhabit the several cities. may regard
the figures as less tickling to our pride
of locality; but the showing is none the
less a most encouraging sign in the de-
yelopment Of American society.
American life becomes more and more
artificial in most of its phases as the
American people grow richer and more
is the product, in some degree. at least, of
the old desire to give as little as possible
of hard labor to the work of accumuat-
ing competency; to approach as near
as may be to the base ideal of living as.
near as one can without work. The real
misery and unhappiness attending daily
;life-nOt the imaginery or .exaggera ted
forms of discontent-are found in the
cities. Today, as forever, in America, as
| elsewhere, the man is best and happiest
who can take living for himself and his
from the soil directly. Every movement
| of American population which is away
from the city and toward the farm is one
which bespeaks a better and nobler fu-
ture for this nation
1t is only necessary to bear in mind
the wonderful advances which are being
made every day toward rendering life in
the country districts something more
spiritual and intellectual in it's tenden-
cies; to make more general and easier
the access to the improved social condi-
tons which mark city life; and to bring
the people closer to the humanizing in
fuenees of religion, literature and art, to
enable the ordinary person to draw many
gratifying conclusions from the great in
ereases in population which the new cen
sus show which will have little to do with
the thought of how greatly the entire
country or any given section or com
munity of it has grown in the past ten
years.