The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-13
Allow me to suggest some

field for exploitation with the chance CT
quicker gains.
2. The substitution of machinery for
human labor in so many agricultural pro-
cesses.
3. The application of machinery to man
ufacturlng, processes, which localizes
manufactures in centers OF population
"A. The development of transportation,
whereby it became possible and convenient
for the rustic family toN reach the city
as well as food supplies for practically
unlimited number
You observe that these are mainly
economic facts, and in the light of them
the movement to the city, which is a
world phenomenon, is seen to be the re
suit, not so much of a social or aesthetic
preference, as of an economic compulsion
1t will continue so long as these condl-
lions obtain, until equally powerful
conditions arise to oppose it, Besides
what Is mentioned later, the only check
which is as yet above the horizon Ii
the relation OF the external food supply
To the growing mass. Certainly the mere
preaching OF the charms of the country
side viii limit the rural exodus no more
than the old royal proclamations damned
back the currents which swelled too fast
the pOpuldllon OF LONDON.
THE results Of the drift TO the city
from the point of view of the country
are even more manifest than its causes
The first result is sparseness of the rural
population. l need not remind you that
in this condition the most serious OF orr
rural problems take their rise This is
what renders provision for the religious
and educational needs of the country
districts SO difficult. A second result is
perhaps more disastrous. Not only ire
there a few left, but the average quality
of these few suffers by the fact that he
city appeals with especial force to the
brighter and more eaterprising section OF
the community. And what would the city
do without these bright barbarians from
the woods? They are its life and pass
INTO 1T as so much fresh arterial blood 20
renew its jaded physique. But what
disaster to country life. This policy of
giving its choicest product to the city
without return is a violation Of one of
the primary principles of good farming
and the fact that country life goes ior-
ward at all under this unbroken and
costly drain is the highest possible proof
of its inexhaustible fertility But this
depletion cannot go on indefinitely at al
increasing rate without serious loss to
the totally OF our civilization, to the
country clearly and none the less to the
city, whose very sources OF maintenance
and renewal it inevitably contracts.
1T will not be a cheering task. though
it may be a wholesome one, to look more
particularly at the general situation anu
| recognize the several items which maize
ur for us what may be called
l. THE LOST ESTATE.
And first we must set down the pow
erty of country life itself. Sure good,
says Ruskin, is first in feeding people,
then in dressing people, then III lodging
people, and lastly in rightly pleasing peo-
pie, with arts. or sciences, or any other
subject or thought How much of the sure
good in these several particulars does
the country dweller enjoy, not indeed at
another's hand but at his own? He feeds
| the world, and that is his chief contribu-
ton to its welfare. How does he feed his
own family? 1t must be owned that the
| farmers family is too often underfed, the
food lacks the requisite nutritive value
and palatableness; and this not because
OF niggardliness, but ignorance of foot
stuffs and the modes OF preparing them.
There results low chronic dyspepsia
which adwertises itself in men who are
sallow in spite of their active life in the
| open, and in women who look pinched and
fade prematurely into decreptulc. Now
| whatever the teachers OF ethics may say
there is surely some connection betwean
diet and morals, as there is between diet
and brains; and at this moment am not
entirely decided that the country needs
schools of grammar mere than il need,
schools OF cookery. Dressing is better
done than feeding, some would urge be
cause of the universal quickness of the
| feminine eye for the new fabric and the
new garment and avidity fer the Onn-
present Delineator pattern. As for tie
lodging, the house is often mean and I'M
comfortable enough not Tor lack Of ma
terial but solely for the lack of ih'
proper standard OF comfort. But these
are not the features which mark the
deepest poverty of country life. The
farmer touches bottom when he comes to
the last item in Ruskin's listing of the
sure good How far do the arts Of
sciences or any other subject OF thought
minister to his pleasure? Has the average
farmer heard whether there be arts or
sciences? Or having heard, does he care?
| am afraid that his fair landscape of for
est and field and stream often encom-
passes a sordId and lonely life. and wnat
he cali his contentment is only a stoll
acquiescence in the hard pressure and the
monotony of unbroken toll The most
pathetic figure in this isolated and narrow
life is the farmers wife,
THE inventory of the lost estate must
include also the simple life. Of course,
the great loser here is the city, but so
dominant has the city come to be that
1t Is invading the independence of thr
country to degree and imposing there
rs ideals and standards. Indeed, it has
long been doing so. In the closing years
OF the eighteenth century Cowper noted
the same thing. He says:
: The town has tinged the country; and
the tain
Appears spot upon a vestal's robe,
The worse Cor what it soils.
"One would think that nowadays the
simple life. if not wholly lost. must be
quite effectively buried in the depths OF
he wild wood, at the bottom OF remote
meadows. or in inaccessible coves of the
mountains Indeed | am told that pve-,