Casco Bay breeze. [volume] (South Harpswell, Me.) 1901-1917, 1906-08-02
sessss 600 O00oooeo

What is known as the urban move
ment, the movement of people from
the farms to the cities and towns.
has long been one OF the recognized
perils OF the country. 1t is an an
Client danger. Men from the earliest
period have drifted toward the cities.
Aristotle's wissst remark was. per-
haps, the observation that man was
born to be a citizen, that is the deni-
zen OF and the active worker in a city.
That also is what civilization means
the transforming OF men into citi-
zens. 1t was Paul's proud boast that
he was the citizen OF no mean city.
There is no doubt that in our ciyili-
ration and in our culture the city is
the centre, the heart
1t was the genial Cowper's opin-
ion that the country was the better
place. for the quaint reason that
God made the country. and man
made the town." A little common
sense would have told him that Il
was precisely for this reason that
man preferred the city. The usually
wise Lowell also had a ridiculous no
ton on the subject. He wrote. "Be-
fore man made u citiaens, great ma
ture made US men," He forgot that
until man had made himself a citizen
he was only half a man. primitive.
savage. barbaric. The city was and is
absolutely necessary. It illustrates
a great economic law, that of combi-
nation. Just as commerce must
cor<bine to achieve its highest and
best results, SO man must combine in
order to realize himself, to attain
the best Of which ne is possible.
work OF developing man in its human
hothouses: there Is now some danger
that the tendency Il men to flock to
the big towns will resell. in the i'm
poverishment OF many countries and
In dertiment to the race. The cities,
like all o,her recsptacles, are limited.
They cannot be made to contain more
than their just measure. and in the
-verc-owded cities We see nature re-
tracing her evolutionary processes.
and denaturing men, making them
anemic. degenerate, weaklings, with
nut the rcd blood OF a vigorous life.
I'D sinking into decay The cities
en- hold only their allotted share,
an :, after all, these must be SUD-
pr; Led By the country. The culture
and the civilization OF this day and
OF every other time rests and has
rested uron the farm. The :oss OF
stout and prosperous farming class.
as Goldsmith pointed out-though
1t had been observed before-"when
once destroyed, ca- never be sup
piled" No country can be self-sus-
tanning or therefore really prosper
Gus, without independent, thrifty,
prosperous farmers. The ideal con-
dition would be one in which there
were cities crowded with culture
Bostons. Athens, Parises-surround-
ed by gardens and farms; the Gull
tured life Of the metropolis of wealth
and fashion and art, much of its best
results reflected in the homes Of in
dependent planters. constituting but
the flower OF our civilization.
But, in the meanwhile, the bows
are leaving the farms. Why? that
Is the question that L. II. Bailey.
Director OF the College of Agricul-
ture OF Cornell University, asks in
the July Century magazine. and does
not definitely answer. He tries to
get the deserters from the ranks
OF the farm to answer II, but their
reasons are not at all satisfactory.
For instance. forty per cent of them
say that they left the farm because
1t was not remunerative. Seventeen
per cent. replied that they left be-
cause the farmer is under distinct
social disabilities" One-fifth, or
twenty per cent. offered as one rea-
son for getting away from the farm
the excessive hard work.
The investigator seems a little
surprised by the result OF his efforts.
He concludes his article by saving.
nave no purpose at present to