The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-20
THE LASH HOMES
 0F OLD ENGLAND Appalling Exodus From Vil-
 lages of Country INVESTIGATE CAUSE 500,654 Depart in Ten Years Time. Many of the Villages Are
 Considered Practically

From the London Chronicle.
 The decrease of the rural population, call it what you like, and explain it as you like, Is great national calamity W. E. Gladstone.
 For nearly half a century the popula- tion of rural England has been steadily declining. During the 10 years 1S91-19ol 5o0,654 persons left the villages for indus. trial districts, for America and the Col onies The detailed figures of the last census period, 1910-1911, are not yet pub lisbed, but these will, without doubt rec ord similar exodus. It is one thing to give these figures in bulk and another to realize their individual significance. To visualise them 1t is necessaryssto visit home after home in village after villagee, and see the dry bones of statistics live.
 Take for example story we heard in cottage in Norfolk. There are nine sons: the eldest Is afflicted with blindness and has not been able to work for 12 years. The second son is employed as a gardener in Lincolnshire, the third as a laborer in Norwich. the fourth works on the railway line, the fifth is team man on the land, the sixth and seventh have emigrated to Australia, the eighth has just started work as an engine clean CT in a railway works, and the ninth Is a coal hawker. The or v or left on the land is the team nan. In the summer he begins at 9s} m, and has to work on Sunda- :, for part of the day His wages a,e 15s week. the lowest of all the sors earnings. The others earn from q 4 week upwards, and the two sons In Australia have sent home glowing re- ports of their success in gaining employ ment on the railway at wage of 9s. Cd. day. They have to rough 1t, as they are cutting the railway through the bush, but they feel they, have reached land of promise and some realization.
 A Dead Village
 Take next the case of Bristol docker with whom we talked "f was born," said he. "in Somerset village, now prae- tical1y dead; all my schoolmates are either working, like myself. in some town or have gone to Canada. l have five brothers and all have migrated to the towns, one Is a 'cabby,' another butch CT, the third mineral water salesman, the fourth baker, and the fifth fried fish dealer. Three of my cousins who came from the same village are employed by the Midland Railway company, and of our next door neighbors, one son is a collier in Wales, and another docker in London"
 We found parallel to the lockers story when chatting with roadmender in Gloucester, who bore his 67 years with cheerfulness. He told us that he had Il children, nine of whom were still living; of these six were sons; three were in Wales, working in brickyards and on the railway line, fourth was serving in Egypt as soldier. the fifth was employed in the railway works at Swlndon, whilst the sixth was in London .m ,.
 In the case of a Kent family, seven sons had survived: one of these was a. policeman, another a fireman in an cleo tric fire station, another a laborer In a brewery, another a blacksmith, another a market gardener. whilst two work on the land in a neighboring village. Agri- cultural wages being higher in Kent probably explains why two are still work Ing on the land.
 This decay of village life was clearly brought out by Lord Eversley in the Sta tistical Soclety's Journal in 1907 He there gave summary of the census figures re- lating to the agricultural population from 1861 to 1901. which showed that the ac- tual decline of male agricultural employ ment (men and boys) in Great Britain was from 1,657,000 in 1861 to 1,236,O00 in 1901, or In England and Wales alone, from 1.449,00O in 1861 to 1,079,G00 in 1901.
 MT. Roxby gives figures for the areas