Omaha daily bee., 1915-10-24

than those who dwell In rural districts;
city life Is more healthful than that of
the country.
city DwcIIers Healthy.
1T is Just as true, however and start
lingly significant In view of the preceding
statements that most of our best human
material for the cities and for the nation
must still come from the country If
rural America is still to be a satisfactory
nusery for human life. 1t must be made
healthful and attractive 1t must furnish
a generous fraction of the best of the
population, and it must provide conditions
favorable for the cultivation of the best,
at least so far as the biologic and all
the fundamental qualities Of life are con-
cerned.
THE problem. then, of bringing about
sufficient improvement in the healthful-
ness of rural life to provide a worthy
birthplace and nursery for the best HUI
man stock, is not simply a problem of
the rural school, of the farm or of rural
life in general, but 1t is a great, press
ing problem of the nation affecting ma
tional safety, national prosperity and ma
tional perpetuity.
Best stock IL Drawn.
1.-THE most important reasons for the
present physical inferiority Of the people
in the country are the following
artificial selection. during the last
half century especially, has drawn much
of the best human stock from the coun-
try TO the cities. Before that time the
tide in the movement of population ap
parently carried more good human ma
terial to the rural regions than away
from them.
THE second reason for the physical
inferiority of country people in general
is that the science and art of human
living, of conserving and improving hu-
man health and general human welfare,
have advanced much more rapidly in the
cities than in the country districts. The
problems of safety and comfort as af-
fected by congestion of population and
many other conditions OF urban life, have
thrust themselves upon human attention
and have received much consideration
The art of human care has progressed
much more slowly in the country. The
father in the city spends on the aver
age a larger percentage of his in
come for the welfare of his family and
Of his children than does the father on
the farm, The farmer relat ely raises
everything else more carefully and, as
a rule, more successful than his chill
dren.
As to Sanitary Conditions.
''The third condition which helps to
explain this astonishing inferiority of the
country child is the environment. The
country home and the country school are,
on the average. less sanitary and health
full than the city home and the city
school. 1t has been assumed that be-
cause the country child has all the feat
ures of the country he is, of course, sur
rounded by fortune and wholesome con-
ditions. But the possession OF all out
doors is far from enough. The farmers
home is, as a rule unsanitary in many
respects 1t is often terribly unventilated
and the jewellers in the house are fed
many hours a day with bad air. Country
water and food are less wholesome than
water and food in the city. The stand
ards of living on the American farm,
when tested by the accepted principles
of sanitation and hygiene. are alarmingly
defective.
THE rural school, from the standpoint
Of health and general fitness for its i'm
portant use, is the worst type Of building
in the whole country, including not only
all types of buildings used for human
beings, but also those used for live stock
and all domestic animals. Rural schools
are on the average. less adequate for
their use than prisons, asylums. aims
houses, stables, dairy barns, pig pens,
chicken houses and dog kennels are for
their uses.
Art of Human Welfare.
Another reason for the relative de-
terioration Of the quality and standards
of rural life. or at least a slower progress
in the art of human welfare in the coun-
try. as compared with the city, is to be
found apparently in rne fact OF alb
sentee ownership. At the present time 90
per cent of the farming lands IN Illinois
are controlled by absentee landlords; or,
1t may be stated in this way, so per cent
OF the land is titled by tenant farmers.
This seems undoubtedly that the average
Intelligence and consciousness of re-
SDOnSibilitV ia ralattveTxy Isss