Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1904-07-07
THURSDAY, JULY 7.
THE FARMER AND THE TROLLEY

| tuCIcdsluS tcuucuCy DdCh W tHe
Farm" none is more patent or po'
tent than the probable effect of the
facilitation of communication caus
ed by the extension of the suburb
and inter. urban traction systems
The isolation of the farmer, enforc.
ed by the very circum 81 ances of his
situation, has contribute power.
fully to fonent and augment the
discomfort OF the Dung people in
particular with remaining rural
residents. In the pioneer days. be
TO the wah," and even long after
that might, conflict. the farm and
the village, yes, and the county seat
were not 80 much unalik, each 9th.
er as the the march of civiiizatiou'
has made them. One merged into
the other 80 iinperceptibly that the
youth Of the farm found few special
advantages 10 attract then to near
er settlements.
Soon, however. came the rapid ex-
pansion of The factory system, gath
ering into ever growing greater es-
ia blishments the Industries of con-
siderable sections, of vast regions.
of the entire country. In the twenty
years ending with 1870. the numb Der
of manufactures reported in the
United States census increased by
los per cent, the average numbe of
employees by lis per cent, the total
wages paid by 225 per cent. under
protection compared with free trade
and the total value of products by
315 per cent. Compared with these
figures, we find in the census of
1910. after another interval, this
time of thirty years, there was the
same ratio of gain in the number of
manufacturing esta blishments, be-
ing 105 per cent. The number of
employees, in spite of the tremend-
Gus advance in the use of labor sav.
ing machinery, showed a still great.
er growth, the rate of gain being
17s per cent, giving an aggregate
of 5,7l9,137 employees in American
factories. Greater still was the
gain in wages. being 253 per cent,
the total payments reported for the
year being So, 735 OOOO 900 in wages and
salaries. This rate of gain was
much greater than that in the value
of products, the latter being POS per
cent. for the thirty years, wit total
production in the census year alone
of more than $l3,039.OOO,OOO.
All these things have combined
to make a tremendous pull upon
the boys and girls from the farm
into the cities. The incessant de-
mand for more workers, backed by
the increasing wages, and stimulat-
ed by the glittering prizes for the
favorites of fortune, has caused the
country youth to flock into the CEN
ters of population with amazing
avidity. While the growth of the
cities has been largely augmented
by the massing in them of millions
of the immigrants from all coun-
tries, yet the tide of the flower of
our own young people towards the
cities has been very marked, as
shown by the census.
In 1850, il was thought remarka-
BILE that percentage of American
people living in cities had increas-
I'd nearly one half in ten years, or
from s.5 to 12.5 per cent, but in the
next twenty years, ending with 1870,
he proportion of city population
gained twice as much, going up to
'0.95 per cent. In thirty years more.
comparing the periods already
compared, the increase kept up, so
hat the proportion of city popula-
ion in 1900 was s1.1 per cent. In