The semi-weekly messenger., 1906-10-26

The Hope of the Democracy" Of which
the Literary Digest says:
mot long ago there appeared in
this column a review of DR.. Freder-
lex c. Howe's book The City; The
Hope Of the Democracy Mr.. Ander-
son might not inaptly have named
his work The Rural District; The
Hope Of the Democracy 1t does not
deal with the country town in the
accustomed sense of the term, but
with the farm; and it is an energetic
and largely successful effort to show
that the cityward hegira of recent
years has not resulted in the deteriOr-
alton Of rural society to anything like
the extent many contend. but on the
cOnrary is ultimately bound to nave
a beneficial effect
DR.. Josiah Strong, in his introduc-
ton to Anderson's book, thus puts
his main thesis:
'While the author recognizes the
loss of the old country aristocracy, he
calls attention to the fact tha the in
dustrial revolution has also driven
the lowest stratum Of society from
country to city Families run out
both at the top and the bottom of the
social scale. l is the great middle
class which from the point of view
of the evolutionist constitutes the
hope of society; and it is precisely
this class which remains in the coun-
try. The author, therefore, concludes
and very justly, that there is no sci
ha
that the rural population is under
fatality of evil. The future depends
almost wholly upon the power OF ell
virpnment, upon education, upon COM
merce. upon vangelization, upon par
ticipation in the great movements OF
the age"
The digest continues:
From this it will be inferred. and
correctly, that Mr.. Anderson, with all
his optimism, seeks to disguise neither
| from himself nor from his readers he
| self-evident fact Of local degeneration
in many rural districts, and the ne
oessity Of applying certain remedies
of bringing about, here and there,
social reconstruction. But he stoutly
contends, reinforcing his argument
bv statistics, by biological analogles,
and bv much else, that where reform
is needed reform will be achieved
and that the country town as Whoie
/. is even now in a healthy condltlcn
despite the heavy strain put upon II
by the superior attractions of he city
and by the demand Of the city fol
workers"
Treating this subject OF The tu'
tire of the Farm from a more loca
standpoint, l see much reason tol
hopeful view of this future
from the conditions of the present
which I shall place in contrast Witf
those existing in 1870. Taking tiF
group composed of the counties o1
Cumberland, Robson, Moore, Harnet
and Sampson, in that it is almost
wholly homogeneous to this day. anc
there are not here the causes OF .loca
degeneration in some Of the rural dls
tricts' of this people, nor DO tnel
{, personal and civil lives stand IN neeS
of "social reconstruction.
We come upon the farmer OF 1917
five years after the close or the clVi
wartime long enough to accompllsi
much. but not long enough to rehab1l
itate a country Frustrated and desc
lated. Or to rebuild homes out OF emp
ty rockets, especially with the ter
, rible machine of Reconstruction SUI
grinding up the f1otsam and jetsam o
great revolution into material 10
rebuilding the subjugated states. \
this time Cumberland county had
niece of about thirty miles Of the OIL
Western Coal Fields r. r. traversln
it's extent; Moore a few miles stretc'
!, of the same road; Robes n sectlo'
of the Carolina Central r. H.; Har
nett and Sampson not line or rail-
wav. Throughout all this immens
area of nearly 5000 square miles
there was not more than three dali
mail lines, and not more than tWelv
I lines running weekly, afterward
!. changed to semi-weekly. The boon
, this day is the quick dissemination
news and reading over the countr.
the daily rural free mail delivery ha
: not then been dreamed Of
The farmer took his county week.
paper, or that of the adjoining couI
ty if his own did not support on
.knd ION one of his trips to TO"
/ bought Blum's Almanac while he w
D getting a bottle of cholera medicine
the drug store. He had d few oooi
at home which he read and re-rea
when not too sleepy-for this was
=. barbarian that l am writing aDou
nor the SON of a barbarian. He ma
have been captain, and brave on
or even Of higher rank in the Col
- federate army; he may have been
college student when he enlisted for Il
war; If he had lived on the farm a
6 his life he had grown up und
- healthy social, moral and religious Il
fuences But, in truth, his physic
organism was under such an exhaus
9 ing strain; the daily grind to me
the pressing demands of the farl
- and the mere bodily needs OF b
: household, was so incessant that Il
mans mind was stagnsnt, only sta
nant, not asleep. The time was COZ
ing when he was to move h1mse
Alright. He saw his state transfelrs
s from the command Of a military sa
{, I cd 10 ho fnna0r