Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-12-26
The Drift of Population.

The United States Census Bureau estimates that
forty and ninetenths per cent of the countrys in
habitants now live in cities of more than eight thou
sand as against thirty-eight and nine-tenths per
cent in 1910 1t will not do to jump at conclusions
from these figures until they are supplemented by
more detailed information The first inference would
be that the ctyward drift which popular lecturers
so long have deplored continues and even in
creases at disquieting rate But careful, COM
prehensive survey might show that while the urban
population grown rapidly in the past six years.
the number of persons engaged in farming mas
grown also and that considerably larger percent
age of young men and women sticking to the
farm.
Certain it is that rural life is more engaging,
more satisfying richer in human interest and
broader in life-opportunities than it was decade
ago. Thanks to the telephone and the R. F. D..
the average farm home is no longer isolated but
is in daily touch with the world and has the town
constantly at CALI The Journal carries the tidings
of two hemispheres to thousands of farm fresides
within comparatively little while after the events
have occurred. The latest developments in the
war the latest discoveries in science and achieve
ments in industry, the notable thought and deeds
of the day are borne the country just as to the
city home for few pennies.
Rural miles are much shorter than they used
which have given anything like due attention to
highway development. Trips that once consumed
day can be made now in few hours This
means great deal to the business interests of the
farm; IT reduces the expense of hauling and market
ing, and where truck crops are concerned creates
new opportunities But 1t means just as much IL
not more to the social side of farm life, for it
brings the people of district closer together and
ables them to plan and work for their common good.
The strongest and subtlest force for upbuding the
best interests of any community, rural urban, is
the feeling of neighborliness. 1t is that after ALL
which begets the spirit of public enterprise and
operation which builds and maintains good schools
and fosters all the virtues of good citizenship.
Country folk always had the neighborly impulse,
more strongly perhaps, than town folk; but never
before were they able to express it freely
as in this time of continually improving roads and
ease of travel. The school house and church as
we'll as the homes of friends nearer by many
hours, so that the opportunity for public gather
ings is much more frequent. The interests and the
atmosphere thus created make the country at once
more progressive and more attractive.
Telephones mail facilities and good roads, all
making for easy communication, are only few of
the factors at work to enrich and iumine the hui
man side side of farm life. But those three, to-
gether with the influences to which they give, have
wrought changes which in some parts OF the
country amount to nothing less than a transforma-
ton One would say then, despite the census esti-
mate, that more people probably staying con-
tentedly on the farm now than ten twenty years
ago. and that the advantages of rural life be-
| coming steadily more pronounced.
1t cannot be denied, however, that the drift of
population from country town has given rise to
| number Of vexing problems The higA cost Of liv-
ing is due partly to the fact that enough people
are on the land, producing food supplies This year
| the Irish potato crop far from sufficient to
| meet the home demand. Yet. the country's re-
sources, If duly developed, would yield a potato
crop ample for domestic needs and great exports
| well.
While some of the staple harvests have kept
fair pace with the growth of population, others
have not. Especially marked has been the decrease
| in food animals-not simply relative, but an abb
| solute decrease. In the decade ended 1909 the
number of cattle fell from fifty million to forty-one
million head; the number OF sheep from sixty-two
| million to hfty-two million; and the number of
hogs from sixty-three million to ffty-eight million
The tendency continued downward until 1914 Since
then there has been a perceptible increase in in
terest in animal husbandry. But the results, TAX
ing the country a whole, not yet sufficient to
| bring any appreciabe relief in the high cost OF
meat.
| The problem of production, it Is true, must be
solved by improved methods as we'll by in
crease in the number of producers hundred
efficient farmers worth more TO the nation than
| ten thousand who are not industrious skilled
In the long run, however, 1t will happen that the
| greater the rural population, the greater the
country's supply of food. Hence the far-reaching
| Importance of every Improvement that tends to
| keep people on the farm and to draw them there