The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-02-09
70 expend tho money on It's own 40.

4 TO expend tho money on its own no'
count.
For many years tho South has been
paying into the Federal Treasury eiiori,l-i
Gus sums Of money OH the pension a.
count, aud very little Of this money has
come back to us. Tho fair -ininded peo-
pie Of the North recognize this injus-
itice, and At the Educational Conference
at Athens, Gn., two years ago, dis
5tinsuished seditor Of New York mention
ed the fact and snld that 1t was due
to tho South that some OF this money ley
should DO returned fotP educational pnr-
poses. The South Is undoubtedly cntt-
tied, so far as Justice goes, to every DOL DOL
llar TINT the Federal government may de-
eide to appropriate for her benefit.
But that Is not The main Question. Mr..
jefferson the fatherfof Democracy, was
always opposed to Capitalization IN what
over form it might appear, and always
dcplored the fact that tho people were
being drawn from the rural districts to
the towns and clties He Gid not pc
,levc In the upbulding Of great cities
at the expense Of the rural districts,
holding that cities were den,oralizlng 70
tho people, while country life promoted
health and happiness, good morals and
Democracy. He believed that the ends
OF Democracy would be served and the
human race benefited, the more evenly
the people were distributed throughout
the land. IVA g
But In spite OF Mr.. Jeffcrson's theory,
steam and electricity Nave had the eff
feet to mass the people In tho cities 70
tho detriment OF the rural districts.
Steam and electricity have proven to DO
tho greatest centralizing forces Of the
age. our cities have grown enormously
and have improved accordingly, but It
must be confessed that this growth ana
this Improvement have been largely at!
tho expense of|the rural districts The
ineoplei have left the country and flocled
t. the cities s
+ The great problem, therefore, Is what
means Gun be employed to deccntralize
the population, to draw the surplus pop
5ulation from the cities and locate It III
tho country. The electric lines have
done something in this direction, and arc
destined to do much more. Since their
advent, there has been q notable increase
in tho suburban population OF the cues,
md tho more these lines are extended,
tho greater the tendency to move away
from the ocongested. sections of the cities
snd locate in the broad areas OF tho
suburbs.
But these electric lines necessarily have
their limitations. They arc doing GOOD
work as far as they 60. But they nrei
by no means a sufficient OFFSET TO the
steam roads, which tend, as VIC nave
said to centrnlzc the population me
,roblem of Capitalization Of population
is to be solved, If solved at all,i'by tho
construction of first-class macadamzed
roads throughout the length and breadth
Of the land II Virginia, for example,
were threaded with such roads, her lands
would rapidly be taken up, the populpar
ton would be moro evenly distributed
and all tho rural districts Of the Com
n,onwealth would take on now life
Il is not necessary to argue that from
every point Of view, and, notably from rom
n Democratic point Of Wow, as held by
Mr., Jefferson, such a contamination were
devoutly to be wished. Therefore, road
building is a matter of government con-
Germ. and should be the work Of govern
ment. local, State and national. .