The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-22
FUTURE GREAT MEN
 MAY BE OFFERED
Country Boys No Longer Hold a Monopoly on Greatness
CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVED
Better Facilities for Physical and Men tai Development Furnished By Cities-The Rudal Youngster
 Needs More Opportunities.

Needs More OPpoTtunltles'
 The future great men of the United States will be. in the majority of cases, of city birth and upbringing, according to the conclusions of scientific investigators. The traditional advantage which the rn- ral districts have had heretofore as the breeding ground of millionaires aho statesmen is already disappearing In 1a- vor of urban localities, say these skllea students of sociological conditions Alter the lapse of another half century the au- tobiographies of the country's great men will read: He began his life as poor boy in a city tenement" instead or using the present popular phrase, "He started life as a farmers boy" The future poet will have to content himself with the pale faced city boy to the exclusion or the .sbarefoot boy with cheeks of tan"
 For a good many decades now it has been a popular idea, and with good reason, that the country, the rural districts were the source of supply for our big men. Three-ouarters of the present day leaders point with pardonable pride to the fact that they began life on the farm or In a country village. Washington, Jefferson, Jackson. Clay, Calhoun, Sherman, Grant, Tinooln-these are only few of the great Americans who had rural boyhood. But here is significant fact, and one worth noting: Theodore Roosevelt was clty boy; and just as he stands for good oeai that is new in ihis present office, so his metropolitan youth may presage the com ing dominance of the city boy over the country boy Likewise William Il. Tatt was brought up in the city. While single instances do not prove the case, pr. Lu- ther Guliclx, who is probably the best au- thority in the country on the subject, as- serts that city conditions in the last dec ade have so far improved that the average city boy now has better chance in hte than the average country boy.
 There are many reasons for this changed state of affairs, according to hyhlai Reecher Stowe. who discusses the matter in Appeton's magazine. ln the hrst piace he points out the often forgotten fact that during the early history of the United States the country boy predominated nu- mer1ca1lY to a great tAtciAl AcA MY 1'- rle reason that there were few city boys. I1yen after the cities began to grow the country boy was supposed to have a great advantage But now all this is changed, and as result of the new conditions we must look to the cities for our great men of the future. MT, Stowe makes some rather surprising statements in ms aruclei to account for this change. or course the matter of future usefulness depends very largely on the early physical environment and development and there is a good deal of shock for the supposedly heaithlui country in his statement that ''the ar III the poorest tenements is seldom worse than the air in an ordinary tarnhouse during winter The most refuse lttered street of the slums is more sanitary than +he open drain back of the ordinary farm house" and he might have added the pig pen -,4
 That the problem of helping the neglect ed city boy, of giving him the chance at an opportunity, Is by no means lnsoIuDle' even if difficult, is shown by the improve ,nent which makes the foregoing state ment possible. But" says the Appleton article. in accounting In another way for the coming superiority of the cltY boy, ''the problem of the neglected country hoy is much more difficult All these things Organization and work TOT ms pood) take money. There is little money
  uitr. However, the first step toward help ing him Is to realize that he needs help. Therefore the sooner we remove the halo which tradition has given him and see him in the cold light of reality, the better for him. Every county in every state should have a country school athletc league, as has Ulster county, New York. The country boys still form almost half of our boy population. Their very num- hers demand for the good of the nation, that they be not neglected. The pare foot boy with cheeks of tan who has no training other than his home duties and the district school is no match In the sharp competition of modern life for the paler city boy with playgrounds, gymna- si,ims. recreation centers and organized athletic sports
 In a large sense the reasonA for this change in the source of good American citizenship due to the alleged decadence of the country boy may be found in the oId saw which says that all work and no play makes Jack dull boy. It does even more than that and In the long hours of difficult labor which fall to the lot of the average country boy is found a handicap to his proper physical and mental develop ment The average city boy, on the other hand. works during far shorter hours, and the means now provided for his physical strengthening in the shape of playgrounds and gymnasiums are far in advance of those to which the country boy has ac- cess Two decades ago this was not true Then there were less than 50 gymnasums fin New York, most of them either private or expensive. and therefore prohibited to poor city boys, Today in this city there are 250O eymnasiums, most of them public and free. Within the last decade, too have come the playgrounds medical in spection, food inspection, and the like al, of which have tended to make the op- ,,ort,,nitv of the city boy better than that of his country brother.
 There would seem to be good deal of mlsconception about country and city boys et present. Probably nine persons out of ten would laugh at the assertion that country bows are on the average phys ically inferior to city boys. Yet 1t Is made as a result of most careful investi- ratjop. Popular fancy is wrong for the city boy of today is not the pale-faced, hollow-chested, stunted "kid' that he has so long been pictured. In such competi- <iops he tmaerl cifv and country schools as