The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-08

The record of constructive philan-
:,hropy in the United States is remark
able from an almost exclusively city
ootnt of view. Year after year great
national and local organizations lay
out programs, prepare budgets, COL
sect funds, hire expert workers, and
lake account of actual progress made
in the cities. Existing conditions
are constantly being probed, dag
aosed, cauterized, cured or cut off,
while new conditions crowd on the
outskirts of the old, waiting their
turn. The cities are surely the hos
pitals for all and sundry social Ills,
and their organization, staff and
equipment are bright with efficiency
and use.
The great pity attending this social
vaccination, treatment and GONZALES
cence, is the jealousy with which the
cities hold on to their hospital func-
ton and permanently house all pa
tients applying.
1t smacks of absurdity to follow
our present course to its logical con-
sulsion. Social conditions are assocl-
ated with population, and so must
their treatment be. If we continue to
eonine this treatment to population
after it has come to the cities, then
the resident population of country
listricts-which is generally thought
TO be a good thing-will shortly be
exhausted. For sooner or later all
social conditions need treatment. AS
backing up this course of reasoning
the population statistics of the United
States are good to quote. At the time
of the adoption of the constitution
eight or ten per cent. of our citizens
lived in towns and cities. Every sub
sequent census has recorded a steady
shift from the country to the cities.
In 1850 some sixty-five per cent.
were still in the country, and in 1900
~.thirty-eight per cent. or Whereabouts.
Whatever may be assigned as the rea-
son for this cityward current Of peo-
pie, the most confirmed optimist can
scarcely find in the last decade any
new conditions in the country itself
to reverse the flow, and probably
never before in the history Of the
world have the lure and promise of
cities so subtly and effectively shared
the guileless country dweller. Wit
ness the boards of trade and other
commercial bodies, civic organiza-
tons, religious and educational asso-
Citations, amusement activities. and
every form of social expression that
has been invented, each in a hundred
different cities loosing a torrent Of
civic pride as with hand on heart
they swear there was never another
such metropolis. And in each case
everybody is urged to come and stay
and to judge for himself.
Speaking by and large the function
of the open country is to produce
food. clothing and raw materials for
. manufacture and trade, while that of
cities is to manufacture and trade in
these commodities. From the begin
ming of time the people of the country
have demonstrated that they can live,
somehow, without the ministrations
of the town. But on the other hand
the people of the town have never
dared to risk the contra experiment,
though we seem impatient to look
into the matter. :
In view Of the splendid spirit and
organization of thousands of unset
fish people in this country who deeply
concern themselves with the average
city mans making-a-living problems,
it is worth while to inquire II they
are really serious, since in their &C
tivities they have almost entirely ig-
nored the producing end which Is the
basic problem Of ,everyone's life prob
lens. Indeed not only have these
constructive activities ignored coun-
try life and Its business, but they
have so magnifed the special prob
lens of city life, and have provided
for them IN such splendid scale, as to
withdraw practically all attention to
the woes of country life. And by their
diversity and scope the institutions