The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-04

Lure of Independence is at Last Les sening the Fierce Competition for
 Jobs and Opportunities in New Re- gions Are Working Miracles in Many Regions.
 | Chicago. Oct. Alas the stupendous
 growth Of urban population in the i United States at the expense of rural
 reached the turning point? When Washington was president only 3.4 per cent. of the four million people were in cities; to-day at least 35 per cent. of Uncle Sam's 9O,o00,00O people are in
 cities. But an era of change is noted the country over; the overcrowded
 cities are sending forth armies of people as settlers to the t'new coun- try" the rural life again is potent. "The cities are overcrowded; the re-
 action has begun" declared Herbert
 October. "A new America is in the
 making. The next ten years will see
 century of progress squeezed into a decade Cost of living has so increas-
 ed-the struggle and the striving and
 the back-break and the heartache. for
 the right to exist. have bred a revolu-
 tion. s |
 '"The; great chances no longer lie among the crowds. but where the crowds are in the making. America
 has become land -mad-the sanest ma d. ness that ever stirred a people. Men
 are leaving spots where building lots
 are sold by the foot and are bringing the same price into country where it will command acreS-where they can live in the open-where there are no fences to ambition-where they can plan a bigger future for themselves and for their children.
 IT. the realization that he is entitled to more out of life than the mere right to exist through it. Competition for every post from entry-clerk to factory foreman is so intense that his immedi- ate earning powers are limited by the long string of men ahead, and his in- creases are controlled by a longer string of men behind who are willing to underbid for the bigger potts.
 Figures tell how the urban fpopula- Washington, how the crowdirig of the cities has gone on, the urban percent age of the total in 1790 having grown slowly from 34 to 6.7 per cent. in 1880, when the United States boasted 12,- 6,020 people. to 16.1 per cent. in 1860. to 20.9 per cent. in 1870 and to 33.1 per cent. in 1900, when population, reached 75, ,46S, 900. From 130,000 people in cities in 179O, the urban residents have in- creased to 25,000,080 in 1900 ti
 There was never a time when a young man, had less show in the. old towns and where he had bigger play for ability than he will find in the new irrigated and drained lands, and in the hitherto inaccessible ranch sec tions now available for culture, be- cause coming of the railroads has made feasible their development" MT. Kaufman continues in his review of the situation in the Wouans World. ''The same opportunity which lay be- fore the first settlers of Iowa and Kansas exist to-day in Florida, in Louisiana. in Texas, in New Mexico, in Oklahoma. in Southern Missouri, in Arkansas in Southern Alabama, and in the superb orchard and grain coun- 1 tries of the Northwest. The same chances without the same hardships 1 and privations which the other genera tion underwent-crude transportation | a rude sod-hcuse. unutterable loneli- l ness for the women, and years and 1 years of uncertainty before the silver | lining turned.
 This is another century, another l era. and things are being done in an | other way. The railroad and the har- vester the needle and the thread of civilization, are stitching a new robe | for prosperity. In their trail are and builder. Wherever the smoke of a locomotive is seen there follows the smoke of communities.
 The farmers wife no longer lives in exile. starving for the sight of friends. with DO recourse and no re- source to break the blank blindS lone ly stretches. Sfe does not feel the one. with their maturity. her. boys and | girls will leave her side to seek a better and a bigger future in dis