Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-09-14
A Different Country
BY Frederic J Haal<in


ture Of nation rapidly changing, radical
ly different from what it was . half a
century ago, and even a quarter of n
century ago, is drawn by the Censis
Bureau as it puts forth the results of the
recent decennial count.
The most striking thing in this picture,
OF course, is the growing prcponderance
OF the city population over that in the
country; and the second mort striking ~
the growth Of the large cities which have
alone swallowed up fourth Of the popu-
lation.
There will presently be food Of com
ment on the facts revealed, and all sorts
Of interests and parties will find proof II
their contentious in them, and glibly
explain them 10 the last detail. As a
matter of fact, no one knows just what the
changing character Of our population
means.
And IL is changing not only in the way
OF its life, but in its human makeup. More
and more the United States is becoming n
country whose people are Of Semitic,
Mediterranean and African origin, while
the old Nordic strains from England,
Germany and Scandinavia are steadily
declining. These facts are well known 20
anthropologists.
The America of our grandfathers was
land Of blond men Of Nordic or so-called
Anglo7Saxon blood, who lived outdoors,
titled the soil, herded cattle, hunted,
fished and sailed the seas from Arctic 70
Antarctic. The America Of our grand
sons will be heavily populated country Of
short, dark-skinned men, living for the
most part 10 the most crowded, cornplicat-
ed and enormous cities the world has ever
seen, depending on manufacture, trade
and commerce for their livings
HEADED, wao Knows wHyHx7
America is in the midst of transition
which il rapid, probably inevitable. and
the final results Of which no man can
foresee. That our institutions viii have
10 undergo great changes 70 meet these
great changes in our needs almost any
fair-minded man could guess. IL scerns
probable that our leading radicals u-1l
soon be behind the times, juxt "a the radi-
Gals Of 25 years ago are being thrown into
the discard now.
But when the prophets and soothsayerr
try TO 90 beyond such generalizations az
these, and tell US just where the country
is heading and what il needs, it is time 10
add little salt 70 the discourse.
Take for example. this amazing growth
OF the city population. IL - predicted
that the proportion Of Americans who
i've IN CLUES Will kffiS CfnstH DfsN fNf Dt
per cent mark. That is, heretofore more
than half the population has always been
what the Census Bureau classes az rural
living on farms and in villages Now more
than half of it IS classed "a urban, and
lives in the larger towns and cities And
this change is stall going on, and has been
rapid and steady. In 1910 only 453 per
cent Of the population lived IN cities and
IN 300 only 40 IS per cent
The common wall raised over this state
Of affairs m editorial and cartoon u that
the people are all leaving the country for
the city, that no one wants 70 stay on the
farm any more, that the food supply II
declining and that the cost Of living Il RS
ing for this reason. The average citizen
has come TO picture this movement "A an
hegira Of country boys, leaving the plow IN
the furrow and the old folks sweeping on
the front porch. hieing him 70 the city
with it's fesh-pUts and high wa ges, leav-
ing the nation TO starve.
FARMERS LIKE THE COUNTRY.
The reactlonaries snd mOssbacts
generally treat this movement "a proof
OF the declining moral stamina OF the
nation. Nobody wants 70 stay on the
farm and do hard days work. They all
think they have 70 go to the movies every
night and wear q stiff collar and work only
SIX hours a day. It's disgusting The Z
author of this outburst often works one
hour q week clipping coupons Of bonds Z
The farmers, on the other hand, while 4
they paint an equally alarming picture OF /,
this national migration, say il Is all the /
fault of our economic system, and that Z
these young fellows are leaving the farms
because they can't make living there.
The farmers are right IN their last con- I
tention. You can easily prove that for 1
yourself by going into the country dis I
tricts anywhere and talking TO the people. I
II is very doubtful whether any more /
boys leave. the farms nowadays for the /
cities. out of deliberate preference for /
urban life, than have always done 80. 1
Here and there Is boy born IN the country 1
whose greatest usefulness and happiness /
is naturally found in the city, and he /
usually gets there. But if there Is one 4
thing certain about country people, 1
men, il IS that they like the 4
country. They ike the freedom, the old 1
clothes, the outdoor life, the animals. I
They do not have to work as hard as city 4
folk, despite the popular belief 70 the I
contrary. They work hard in harvest
time, but in January they go coon
hunting
WHY THEY LEAVE.
Why, then, do 50 many country boys
go to the cities? Chiefly because there i
no other place for them TO 90. Go into
any old, settled farming district, such as
Eastern Maryland Talk 70 3 farmer who
has four boys. Three of them, he viii tell
you, are going away. The fourth boy viii
stay and inherit the old homestead Why
don't the Others buy farms? For several
reasons. In the first place the good farms
are not for sale, and they don't want the
poor ones. In the second place, to buy
land and put it under culti-
sation takes more capital than they can
So the boys go to New York or 70