The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-29
DEVELOPMENT
 IS TOPSIOED The City, Which Is the Gen.
 Suming Factor, GIVEN ALL ADVAN AGES Of Modern Society While the Country, the Producing Factor, Is Forgot ten-some Timely Sugees-
 tons for improvement.
DDHNEW THINGS BOW YOU ON EVERY FLOOR
GIVEN ALL ADVANTAGES
By NORMAL D. KEMP.


 Exclusive Service of The Survey Press
 Bureau)
 Mr Kemp was secretary to Prof. L. IT Railev who served as chairman of President Roosevelt's Country Life Com mission)
 The record of constructive philanthro- phy in the United States Is remarkable for an almost exclusively city point ol view. Year after year great national ana local organizations lay out programs prepare budgets collect funds, hire expert workers and take account of actual prog ress made-in the cities. Existing con ditions are constantly being probed, dlag- nosed, cauterized, cured or cut orf While new conditions crowd on the outskirts Of the old, waiting their turn. The cities are surely the hospitals for all and sun dry social ills, and their organization staff and equipment are bright with eff1- ciency and use.
 The great pity attending this social vac- cnation, treatment and convalescehee, is the jealousy with which the cities hold on their hospital function and perma- nently house all patients applying.
 It smacks of absurdity to follow our  Social conditions are associated with pop ulation and so must their treatment be. If we continue to cont1ne this treatment to population after it has come to the cities then the resident population Of country districts (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 subsequent cen sus has recorded a steady shift from the country to the cities.
 In 1860 some sixty-fiye per cent. were still in the country, and in 1900 thirty eight per cent. or thereabouts. Whatever may be assigned as the reason for this cityward current of people, the most con- frmed 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.
 Witness the boards of trade and other commercial bodies, civic organizations, religious and educational associations, amusement activities, and every form of social expression that has been invented, each In hundred different cities loosins a torrent of civic pride as with hand on heart they swear there was never another such metropolis. And in each case ev- erybody 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 the raw materials for man. ufacture and trade, while that of cities is to manufacture and trade in these commodities. From the beginning Of the country have demonstrated that they can live, somehow, without the minis trations 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 or ganization of thousands of unselfish peo- pie in this country who deeply concern themselves with the average city mans making-a-living problems, it is worth while to inquire if they are really serious since in their activities they have almost entirely ignored the producing end which is at the basis of everyone's life prob lems Indeed not only have these con structive activities ignored country life and it's business, but they have so mag nified the special problems of city life and have provided for them on such splendid scale as to withdraw practically all at tention from the unsung woes of coun- try life.
 And by their diversity and scope the institutions of the cities put institutional life on such a high plane as seems to have entirely discouraged this form of social expression in the country. It is public information confirmed by the in- quiry and report of President Roose- velt's Commission on Country Life and other authoritative agencies that the peo- pie of the open country are woefully un- organized for any purpose; that their churches schools and such organizations as do exist lack, for the greater part, both body and spirit; that there Is little If any social life and that in practice ambition and progress among country men and women are most generally noted by their departure for the city.
 It must be true that for every manu- featuring and trading man surrounded by healthy social conditions in town. there should be proportionate number of producing men, or part of a man, in equally healthy conditions in the country
 Who Is attending to this business?
 Every national or local organization of persons working for the advancement of humanity which is content to limit It's activities within city gates Is pursuing policy which may eventually perfect a manufacturing and trading scheme, but which makes absolutely no provision for putting 1t into effect through the produc- ton of raw material and for sustaining 1t through the production of food and clothing.
 We are engaged in broad, lasting de- velopment of our national life, yet all roads lead to town, all action is there. all plans are city plans. In the United States the self-governng political unit is caunty, each with a county-seat which is frequently a sizable town or city and for . great part of them these counties are the country in miniature exhibiting with in their limits to a greater or lesser de- gree most of the important, vital phases of our national life.