The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-18
From the New York Sun.

N FEW years ago it seemed as if W7 the United States had passed
 [ through the period of rapid growth in population and wealth which every country of great natural resources errerences in it's formative stages. So far as most mon could foresee, progress in the future would be comparatively slow Iii keeping with tae prospects of a na- tion which had reached the age of eco- homie maturity. The countrys main in- dus.ry was agriculture. The best of the public lands had been taken up for set t.ement. The time was past when an im- migrant with few hundred dollars could claim a farm in the west and in twelve month or two count himself debt free Eomesteader The wave of foreign immi- grafton was subsiding and the percentage oi gain in population was smaller than 1t had ever been before during the in- dependent existence of the United States.
 Hardly. however, had the possibilities e agricultural expansion been explained when the nation turned it's surplus capi- tai and energy into manufactures. The
 inventive genius which had led the world in the creation of labor saving devices for filling the soil was now directed to- ward the improvement of implements related to the forge and the loom. New machinery and new administrative turing industry was completely reorgan- ized with a view to cheapner1 and ef- rciency of production, and American manufacturers were enabled to underbid competition in the great markets abroad. Our exports of manufactured articles mounted rapidly. The demand for labor originating in the new industrial expansion restored the flood of foreign immigration.
 Foodstuffs formed a declining proportion Of the nations exports, and 1t became
 apparent that the United States must eventually take rank in the markets of the world as a manufacturing instead of as an agricultural country. The rich gran nry of the west will presently be hard taxed to furnish subsistence for our own
 industrial population. It will have no surplus of golden harvests to freight abroad.
 The direction which the countrys eco- homie development has taken in the last ten years has introduced another epoch Of phenomenal material progress. Popula-
 tion is once more increasing at an astounding rate But the distribution of
 the gain is different from that which
 prevailed when agriculture was the na-
 tons main source of growth. The vol
 ume of immigration during the past four
 years has never before been equaled. The
 nearest approach to it was in 1881 to 1884.
 Then a majority of the immigrants made
 the fertile farm lands of the west It's destination. Now majority settles in the manufacturing and commercial centers, chiefly in cities of th, a-ss rank, like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. The bigger the city. the bigger the accretion of population. Three-fourths of the immigration Is through the port of New York, and one-third of those who land here seek and find employment in this city.
 The circumstance that manufacturing and commerce are absorbing a larger relative share of the nations industrial activities implies an increasing concen- tration of population. Every stage in the progress of economic development away from agriculture has hitherto made city folk of country people. The first
 United States census. in 1790. found one thirtieth of the population living in urban communities. By the close of the last century the proportion had risen to one-
 third. Yet the tendency toward city life has only begun to be strongly felt in the United States In manufacturing and commercial England three-fourths of
 the population lives in urban places. feeling of uneasiness and apprehen- sion is spreading because of the influx of foreigners into our principal cities. The true source of danger, however, is not SO much the presence of alien ethnic elements as the rapid and excessive growth of the center of population. The
 gravest problems which confront our cities lie primarily in the field of sani- tation and engineering. The Jew and
 the Italian of mature age who come here in search of religious. political and econ
 omic independence throw their weight on the side of law and order. It is the reneration-of whatever stock, native or foreign-born and bred in the slums that
 leans toward vice and crime. The slums are responsible for most of the evils pe- culiar to city life. But with proper reg ulation of building construction and housing conditions and with adequate provision of cheap transportation there would be no room for the growth of slums
 An effective remedy for the overcrowd- ing in our cities is to be found not in attempts to divert immigration to the country, but in efforts to arouse public