The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-15
MANY PROBLEMS IN ONE.

Underlying all the great social and
economic problems of our time is the
congestion of city population, the tend
ency to seek in the cities assurance Of
wealth or relief from monotonous con-
ditions of life. AT the same time the vast
advances in material wealth which the
world is making are made possible in
great measure by this same tendency.
1t is as old as human nature itself, and
it will doubtless continue as long as hui
man nature itself lasts. Could the con-
ditions of urban life be made such that
all the great advantages which come
from close contact with ones fellow
creatures would be attended in some
measure however restricted by the as
sociations, habits and environments
which are peculiar to country life, the
brItalities of the life of the poor in the
cities might in time find some consid-
cradle relief.
Numberless as are the attractions which
life in big communities possess to the
average person, there are still number
less thousands of men and women all
over the world who refuse to give up
the natural blessings which are to be
found beneath a cloudless sky, amid
green fields and beside the running water
All natives of the British islands are
more or less familiar with the spectacle
of industrial migration which IS presented
to view each succeeding year through the
thousands of Irish peasants who leave
their own country to reap the harvest
in England and Scotland The month of
May finds them flocking to the steamers
leaving the Irish ports. They come most
ly from the north and west. and Septem-
Der again sees them returning home,
their mission performed, richer by per-
haps ten or fifteen pounds, British money,
which each man has saved by the most
! arduous self-deniaI
Years ago these wanderers from home
used to arouse great bitterness in the
minds of the British artisan and lahorer.
Today they are looked upon as valuable
agents toward solving one of the great
| est problems of modern times, one which
plaques British as it does American
thinkers and the ultimate solution Of
which will mark an epoch in human
prcgress-the problem of congested city
life
The Irish peasant is no mere sodden
semi-barbarian. He knows what works
toward his own moral and spiritual well
fare. He knows what are regarded as
the good things of life. He knows they
are denied to him, as they have been
denied to his ancestors fer genera lions;
but he endures the loss of them, and
| finds himself content when he has real
lied degree of temporal blessing which
| the average American would naturally
regard as representing sheer privatfon.
| A fair proportion of these people finally
give up the effort to remain on the sol
| that bore them and seek refuge finally
| in England or America; but it so hap
pens chiefly when some influence appears
to disturb the settled tenor of the family
| life of him or her who emigrates. How
is this disposition to be explained? A
writer in the London Saturday Review
some time ago presented the following
view of it,
.'These unprogressive Celts are content
with conditions of life that the English
wor1ingman despises. They do not de-
| mand fresh meat, nor even salt meat
daily; they house themselves little better
than their cattle and in many places
| and strive after ces tain things to which
| the English worlkingman is Indifferent
| They desire clean air. and the familiar
| in half conscious pleasure, Is a man s
| or the features of his wife; they desire
| to perpetuate old associations; they de-
an atmosphere where their own faith is
| the faith of every one; and most Of all,