Smyrna times., 1904-01-27

DELAWARE farmers are not the only
ones deploring the lack of interest in
farm work and the rush to the cities
of their boys. Out west the condition
is even more pronounced and in In
diana the State Board of Public In-
struction has made u valiant attempt
to stem the tide of Indiana boys
flowing in greater numbers every
year into Chicago. 1t has issued a
circular letter to all the teachers in
the State, calling attention to the
alarming extent of such emigration
and urging them to exert all their in
fuence against it.
cit will be a sad day for our nation
al life," says the board-and it is
right-'when ali the young farmers
move to town and the small, well-cul-
tivated homesteads give way to big
landed estates. The rush of popula-
tion to the cities is truly one of the
most serious menaces to our national
life, but thus far no way has been
found to check it. It had no existence
until after the war. In 1850 only
about twelve per cent. of the inhabi-
tants of the United States lived in the
cities. The war unsettled the minds
of nel who Heretofore had been
contented to remain in their b )mes,
aud accordingly the census of 1870
showed that fewer people continued
satisfied with farm life, for the per-
centage of urban population had risen
-ta nearly twepty;one per cent. Since
then 1t has Steadily grown until in
1900, more than thirty-three of every
100 Americans were living in cities.
"The tendency is even stronger
than it seems, for in the past few
years much has been done to remove
or mitigate many of the causes of
complaint against the farmers life.
Railway building has brought the
most remote districts into touch with
the national centres of trade. Trolley
lines have gridironed all the Middle
West, and Indiana especially. The
rural free delivery system has given
the farmer a daily mail service, and
by means of the telephone he is en-
rapport with all the world. Besides
all this, we have had a succession of
fat years, so that the farmer is now
prosperous beyond all precedent.
Nevertheless, all this has not kept
the young on the farm where he was
born. As soon as he was old enough,
he made his way to the nearest large
city, where, sleeping in unsanitary
and cramped quarters, eating un-
wholesome and adulterated food in
cheap restaurants, and working IN un.
accustomed ways harder than any
farmer has to work, he managed al
the sacrifice of all the independence
and self-respect of his manhood tc
make a precarious living. And fol
what good?
''Let the thousands of joylesi
boarding houses that line decaviua
streets and the other thousands Of
fimsy and stuffy flats occupied by peo
pie who are getting their existenc,
on the installment plan-let these
answer. What is the fascination tha-
keeps their tenants chained to th,
wheel of urban poverty, toll, hard
ship and obscurity III an ugly anc
depressing environment BENJAMIN
Franklin said that it was hard cas-,
indeed when you could not find rea
son for doing what you wanted to do
But who that might be his own mas
ter on his own farm can give a reason
for wanting to exchange his lot foi
degrading slavery in large city.
Reason or no reason, such are th,
facts, and there seems to be no chanc,
OF altering them at present. It il
possible, however, that the Indian,
boards idea of informing the farmer,
children of the drawbacks of life i,
the city and impressing their youns
minds with the idea that life IN tb.
country is much more to be desired
may in time have a good effect. II
any case, this is a matter that deserves
the most serious thought on the par
of all patriotic citizens.
SMYRNA will soon enter the seaso,