The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-30

The cities are the living paradoxes of our
civilization. They contain the million
aires and the paupers, the most learned
and the most ignorant, the best and the
worst that humanity has yet produced.
There are many contributing causes to-
ward their growth, but the main cause
Is doubtless the lure of a citys comforts
and pleasures on the one hand and the
i uninviting, hard. monotonous life under
| generally prevalent rural conditions, on
| the other
Still another very potent influence has
been the dazzle of the immense fortunes
/ accumulated in them by the exploitation
| of labor or land values, that has lured
many from the country. Possibly this
| has been the greatest cause of their rapid
| growth. This influence has become SO
| great as to have caused us to be called
| a money mad people. This false stand
| ard of making the possession of wealth
an end in itself, without regard to the
use for which it Is to be acquired is per-
| haps the greatest cause of the troubles
| that now confront us as people. To
have, without the thought of properly
| learning to use before having, has actu-
ated the strife of our toiling millions
| bent upon city life. A false standard
4
| allied above the ideal, the transient above
| the permanent, money above man, has
| created the countless woes to correct
| which the race must now exert itself.
From Farms to Cities
! This standard has drawn the youths of
our country from the farms, has over
supplied the labor markets of our cities,
depicting those of the country and has
| bighted the lives of those who have at
tanned it, through a narrowing of their
souls within selfish, sordid bounds, while
| 1t has at the same time embittered the
| lives of those who have striven In vain.
Oliver Goldsmith must have been looking
| toward London when he wrote:
I'll fares the land to fastening ills a
prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men de-
cay
There can be no permanent improve
| ment in the status of olK countrymen
| until new ideals are created. We must
cease to worship wealth and material
things, which are the mere instruments
through the proper use of which man is
to be brought into likeness of the God
in whose Image he was created. These
vast material forces given man to bride
and to use must be considered the tools
by properly using which he may build
the temple of his earthly abode along
lines pleasing to his Creator to whose
pleasure, in order to serve his own, he
must conform. We must realize our great
dependence one upon the other and that
what helps or hurts the one member of
a community in some degree helps or
| hurts every other member of that COM
munity. We must learn we are not to
| live upon each other, as following the
| Ia of CIR. Of t,,t ~,
other and to make every one fit to sur
vive. The quality that permits a man to
willingly live in ease at the unjust ex-
pense of his fellow man unfits him for
proper citizenship or as a useful member
| of human society. Such men have never
contributed toward the upward trend of
| civilization. They have been as leeches
| sucking the life blood of those who toll.
We must learn to contribute our utmost
toward the welfare of the society of
which we form a part, realizing that what
| we have is made possible by both them
| and ourselves.
Make Cities Possible
| Thus the cities must look upon the
country districts. Those districts alone
| make the cities possible. They alone fur
nish the raw materials, both in products
and in human life that give permanence
to the city's existence. The city should
| in turn become a clearing house of the
country's energy, a transformer, so to
speak. of the electric current of human
power and ambition that comes in, and
should direct each kind of energy into the
channel it best fits. In serving this pur-
pose the city has a right to live. But not
as it now lives. to corrupt this pure
stream of young manhood and young
womanhood constantly flowing in; to ar
ray them In fratricidal rather than in
brotherly striving: to fill them with false
passions and false ideals. We have in
our cities great men and great women.
but study of city conditions will rather
convince you that these are great In spite
of rather than because of anything the
city has done for them. In most instances
the foundation for their greatness was
laid in the countryside, where sweet COM
munion with nature, the close observance
of her harmonious forces, the freedom of
her fields and forests and the hospitality
of her home developed In them the quail
ties that men and women appreciate by
calling great.
This condition has happened not so
much through the design of anyone as
through the carelessness and neglect of
us all. To correct this serious situation,
to promote labor and protect the toiler at
his toll is the purpose of the County Crop
Improvement Association and Farm Bu-
reau, a plan suggested by the Council
You hear a great deal about the high
cost of living and many are won't to blame
the high tariff for. this. But as sensible
men how can you expect living to remain
stationery while your farms are being de-
pleted of their workers and your cities
filed with those who cannot get work to
do? While producers are growing fewer
in number and distributors greater? Ev-
cry man between the farmer and the pro-
ducer exacts his toll and as the distribu-
tors increase in number the price is
raised to the consumer and lowered to the
farmer. creating a condition that neutral
ICES the law of supply and demand, of
which you once read so much and now
see so little. Yet out of this maelstorm
| of misdirected human energy and false
standards for human conduct it is useless
to try to save the sufferers by the call
of back to the farm Pride of position
| In the city as distinguished from the coun-
| try-is today wrecking and blighting the
| lives of untold thousands of our people.
Attracted by that which glitters and held
| helpless in the grasp Of the city's mag
netic lure they remain TO stare and
starve.
Cities Have Function to Perform
Cities there will always be, if there
| continues country population from
which to grow. These cities have func-
ton to perform, but it does not lie in
keeping aloof from the country, not in
| scorning as it were the steps by which
| they rose. Cities ought to be the clear
| ing houses of nations energy; they
ought to bring together, analyze, co-ordi-
nate and re-distribute the component en-
ergies of community. Instead of think
| ing themselves apart from the country