The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1906-05-04
Tlrr City ann tlrr Gnuntry
GlnHrr Tngftlrrr
By MAI. GEN. WILLIAM A. BANCROFT.
President of Boston Elevated Railway Co.

1NE very apparent reason for the fockng OF the youth OF
the country to the city has been the remoteness OF the farm
from the capitals and centers Of civic and industrial acdvi-
4 ty. The imagination OF the boy on the farm was stmu-
~ lated by stories of the great things that one may see and
R@NH share in the city. For him the city was a far-off land OF
AE@E promise, to be thought of only in connection with the idea
W Of the remuneration OF the farm life forever.
- OF course the city continues to flourish in large part
through the accessions of such rural population, and the
men and women who have developed the cities and made them richer
and greater have come chiefly from the country. 1t is usually tound'
however, that when the country youth has achieved the degree OF sue
cess which he started out to attain, as a man he longs to be back on
the land-the soil, which is the real nourisher of humanity.
While the city has profted by drawing on the country population
it has suffered by congestion through the addition to its numbers OF
those who ought not to have left the farm, or, having left it, should
have returned when their dream Of success in the city failed to come
true.
The agency which has done the most effective work, and which IS
looked to for far greater and more effective work in the future toward
the correction Of the evils of congestion in the city and to redress the
balance of population in the country, is that OF increased and perfected
facilities for transportation. These have brought the city and the
country closer, and have enabled the country man to get a more cor
rect view of urban life and to weigh much more nationally its ad-
vantages and disadvantages. They have brought to the vicinity OF the
farm many Of those attractive conditions OF city life which once were
so remote. swift, comfortable and brief travel now will transport the
inhabitants of the farm into the midst Of urban activities.
With the closer communion Of city and country which tranSporta-
ton and telephone facilities provide, the work on the farm is made
less laborious and more productive through the adoption OF the best
methods of agriculture and the most modern tools and implements,
In his business practice the farmer, the successful one at least, in these
days, is a city man with urban forms and customs. The farmers boy
no longer needs to leave home and settle in the city to reap success;
he can do business with the city, according to the urban method OF
sale and exchange, flourish and thrive II he has the ability, and be a
successful man Of both the city and the country. City men have found
it profitable to invade the field of the agriculturist, and to establish re
munerative business in the country on the patronage OF city customers.
The great mission OF transportation and communication as agents
of civilization has been to bring together in closer and quicker rela-
lions hitherto remote sections and regions. This is the MISSION to
which they are to be devoted in the future with even more remarkable
success than in the past. Upon the development of transportation
and communication depends the solution IN part OF many problems OF
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