Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-23
Shall We Be Forced Back to the
land"?

Lana!
Here is something worth giving
your careful attention. 1t is big
subject and somebody is going to do
| lot of thinking about it--so much
! thinking that a solution will be found
for one of the greatest problems OF
the age Perhaps you saw it in the
Youths Companion. but if you did not,
we want you to see it here:
Every business man does his best to
| forecast the future, and to prepare for
the changes that are sure TO come.
SO should we deal with the great
business of the human race-its own
support upon the earth. Men OF
| science know that to regard the fairly
! abundant present is not enough; we
must look to the perhaps less album
dant future, and plan for it. The
population of the world is increasing,
! the resources of the earth are either
decreasing or becoming insufficient.
We are exhausting the coal fields and
we shall soon need more wheat than
our wheat lands now supply. In 1898,
| Sir William Crookes said that the an
nual yield would be just enough ito
supply the increase of population
among bread eaters until the year
| 1897; but although the annual yield
| has increased, ye are not much better
off than We were then. These facts
must in the long run lead to two
things: intensive farming, by which
the yield to the acre can unques-
| tionably be increased and the sub
stitution of electricity engendered by
water power for coal in manufactur-
ing.
| In an address before the British AS
ISOLATION for the Advancement OF
| Science, Prof, Fl. n. Dickson gave
some interesting speculations as to the
vast economic changes that such
seemingly slight shift in the direction
of human effort may bring about.
| Intensive farming would call workers
by the thousands back to the land"
! The use of electricity engendered by
water power in manufacturing would
take thousands of other workers from
the cities, and scatter them along. the
! brooks and rivers. There would be ..
great movement of population from
| the city to the country. There
would be an end to the great factory,
to the great manufacturing center, and
to the great city-except when, like
London or New York, 1t was a great
seaport. There would ensure a more
even distribution of the population,
and with it new prosperity for the
country. Science would be called
upon to meet new needs. 1t would
have to supply greater ease, swiftness
and variety in modes of Transports
ton; it would have to perfect and
multiply the small machine.
OF course. such a scattering of the
population could not take place with
out some hardship and loss; but we
have the right to hope that if it should
come about, ii would be to the adj
vantage of mankind. The skilled
craftsman living in the country and
working in the small factory could
not fail to be better off than the I'M
known unit in the great factory whose
home is in a slum. The farmer with
a multitude of little centers of popu-
lation all round him, with more hu-
man beings to share his work and
to supply him with more varied and
constant social life, could not fail to
be better off also. The present in
dustrial regime has had many draw
backs; perhaps the new regime, if il
comes, will give us more evenly dis
trtbuted population of happier human
beings.