The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-15


falling in love and getting married and
raising children, and all that sort of
thing" said Postmaster jenkins, as
he assisted Col. Monroe with his
coat and placed a chair near the stove
for Judge Sawyer. You said last
week that rapid transit was the remedy.
I've been thinking about it ever since,
and blamed if 1 can figure it out.
asked Flanagan the brakeman"
What did Flanagan say?" asked
Col. Monroe, with a twinkle in his
eye.
HE said it was easy" replied Jen-
hns. He said that with rapid transit
people could get to the divorce courts
quicker. Is that the answer" The
postmaster looked doubtfully at the
Colonel.
Flanagan is facetious," laughed
Col Monroe. 1.-THE problem is to
get our young folks before a preacher
and not before divorce judge. Let
me light a cigar and I'll attempt to
explain"
Col. Monroe rendered a well-worn
case to Judge Sawyer. and both smoked
for few minutes in commended silence.
Il presume I'm confirmed optimist,"
the Colonel said. At cannot convince
myself that everything is going to the
bad, or that this old earth of ours is
whirling in the wrong direction. Given
fair show, the average man or wo-
man will do the right rather than the
wrong thing. Despite all the croakers
to the contrary, this Is a fact Jus
tice and kindness are normal instincts,
and crimes are bred only amid artificial
surroundings. Therefore, whenever 1
see any considerable faction transgress-
ing a natural or moral law 1 hesitate
to blame them as individuals, but look
about for the condition or institution
which is to blame. Show me general
tendency towards misdoing and I'll
name to you faulty condition or an
imperfect social institution"
Am / to. infer that you consider
marriage faulty institution asked
the judge, looking searchingly at Col.
Monroe.
"on the contrary, Pm it's staunch de-
fender and certainly should be-" was
the reply. II will come directly at the
point desire to make. In my opinion
the stupendous growth of our cities
at the expense of the country districts
is responsible for the decadence of mar
riage and the decrease in the American
birth rate. In 1890, out of each one
thousand of the population, only thir-
ty-four lived in cities. A hundred years
later 29l out of each thousand We're
crowded in cities, and to-day the
number is at least 800. There was no
cry of race suicide a hundred years
ago. No statesman foresaw that a
time would come when nearly one
third of the people would be massed
around factories All this has hap
pened because of the perfection of the
machines. Like huge magnets, the
massed factories have drawn thou
sands from the farm, stacked them in
to tenement houses and apartment
buildings, until one small block con-
tains the population of a rural county.
And as the factories increased in size
and number, the tenement houses have
lowered higher, The modest dwelling
with its lawn and flowers has disap-
peared. In such an environment,
where the sky is seen only as Il rift
between solid walls of masonry, crime,
ignorance. disease and pauperism have
increased, and marriage, between
Americans at least, has decreased.
The poorer class of emigrants is con-
tent to raise "a family In such an en-
vironment, but not so with the young
man who was raised on a farm, or
who once knew the delights Of life
nature"
Foreigners don't care where they
live or what they eat," declared Post
master Jenkins. 'There'd ought to be
law passed keeping out all foreign
ers and sending back what's over
here"
Your remedy is rather dras-
tic" remarked Col Monroe. 1--WE OBJ
served before this that the more con-
sentative a man imagines himself to
be the more radical is his remedy, when
he deems one necessary. The emigrant
has little to do with this problem. The
machine evolved it, and the machine
will solve it. Some day a poet will
write, an epic on the machine and i'm
mortalize his name"
HE will probably compose 1t on a
typewriter" said Judge Sawyer, smil-
ing. Can you imagine a typewriter
epic, colonel" esfft
Hardly laughed Col. Monroe.
That's a very bad Joke. and I'm sur
prised at you, Judge. But let me con-
tinue. The people have massed in the
cities and near the factories because
they had to. Consider the strides that
transportation has made in this coun-
try Fifteen years ago there were no
means of urban transit other than
horse-cars available 70 the working
man, and these conveyed him to no
POINT where he could secure cheaD
rents. He, therefore, had to live with
in walking distance of his factory. or
II clerk, within easy reach of his
store or Office. This fact is responsible
for the geogra phical plan on which the
average American city is constructed.
There is a nucleus of factories, stores,
Office buildings and public structures
surrounded by two well-defined con-
centric areas. The poorer classes occu-
py the inner one and converge towards
the center. Surrounding them are the
various grades of the well-to-do,
stretching away to the open country.
In most cities the prosperous have their
eyes, ears and nostrils offended when
ever they are compelled 10 pass
through the squalid zone which sepa-
rates residential property from produc-
tive wealth. Thus we have a center
with three circles drawn from II. The
first includes the business quarter and
large part Of the manufacturing
and employing district; the second
limits the distance within which the
workers can 60 back and forth from
work, and the third Is the residential
section OF the property class and their
higher saiaried employees and retainers.
There are various notifications OF this
plan and the edges are serrated, but
al large cities are modelled on II. Do
/ make myself plgin2"
IS understand you perfectly" said
Judge Sawyer. "and confess that