The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-16
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
washington, D. C.
A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.


ture of a nation rapidly changing.
radically different from what it was a
half a century ago. and even a quar-
ter of century ago. is drawn by the
census bureau as 1t puts forth the re-
suits OF the recent decennial count.
The most striking thing in this pic
ture. of course, is the growing prepon-
derance Of the city population over
that. in the country; and the second
most striking is the growth of the
large cities which have alone swaI-
| lowed up a fourth of the population.
There will presently be flood of
comment on the facts revealed. and
all sorts of interests and parties will
find proof of their contentious in
! them, and glibly explain them to the
last detail AS 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 make
up. More and more the United States
is becoming a country whose people
are of Semitic, Mediterranean and
African origin, while the old Nordic
strains from England, Germany and
These facts are well known to an
lthropologists.
| The America of our grandfathers
was land of blond men of Nordic or
/ lived outdoors, titled the soil, herded
cattle, hunted. fished and sailed the
seas from Arctic to Antarctic. The
America of our grandsons will be a
! heavily populated country of short,
/ dark skinned men, living for the most
| part in the most crowded, complicated
and enormous cities the world has
ever seen, depending on nanufa cture,
trade and commerce for their living.
Headed, Who Knows Where?
America is in the midst of transition
which is rapid, probably inevitable.
and the final results of which no man
can foresee. That our institutions will
have to undergo great changes to meet
| these great changes in our needs al
most any ,fair-minded man could
guess. 1t seems probable that our
leading radicals will soon be behind
the times, just as the radicals of TWEEN
ty-five years ago are being thrown into
the discard now.
But when the prophets and sooth-
sayers try to go beyond such generali-
cations as these, and tell US just where
the country is heading and what it
needs, it is time to add a little salt to
| the discourse.
Take for. example, this amazing
growth of the city population. 1t is
/ predicted that the proportion of Amer
leans who live in cities will this census
pass the so per cent mark That is,
: 4
ton has always been what the census
bureau classes as ruFal-living on
/ farms and in villages. Now more than
half of it is classed as urban, and lives
in the larger towns and cities And
this change is still going on, and has
been rapid and steady. In 1910 only
1853 per cent of the population lived
in cities and in 1900 only 40.5 per
cent
The common wall raised over this
! 81 ~ ~ an
is that the people are all leaving the
country for the city, that no one wants
| to stay on the farm any more, that the
| food supply is declining and that the
cost of living is rising for this season.
] The average citizen has como to pic
ture this movement as an hegira of
country boys. leaving the plow in the
! furrow and the old folks weeping on
1.-THE front porch. hieing him to the city
with its fleshpots and high wages,
/ leaving the nation to starve
Farmers Like the Country.
The reactionaries and nossbacks
! generally treat this movement as a
proof of the declining moral stamina
! of the nation. Nobody wants to stay
on the farm and do a hard days work.
They all think they have to go to the
movies every night and wear a stiff
collar and work only six hours a day.
It's disgusting! (The author of this
| outburst often works one hour a week
clipping coupons off bonds)
| The farmers. on the other hand,
while they paint an equally alarming
picture of this national migration, say
| it is all the fault of our economic sys-
tenn, and that these young fellows are
leaving the farms because they can't
make a living there.
| The farmers are right in their last
/ contention. 7 on can easily prove that
| for yourself by going into the country
districts anywhere and talking to the
/ people. 1t is very doubtful whether
/ any more boys leave the farms now
| adays for the cities, out of a deliberate
| preference for urban life, than have
/ always done So Here and there is
boy born in the country whose great
est usefulness and happiness is natur-
ally found in the city, and he usually
gets there. But if there is one thing
certain about country people, especial
| " men, il is that they like the country.
They like the freedom, the old
clothes the outdoor life, the animals.
AThey do not have to work as hard as
city folk, despite the popular belief
to the contrary. They work hard in
harvest time, but in January they go
coon-hunting.
Why They Leave.
Why, then, do so many country boys
90 TO the cities? Chiefly because
there is no other place for them to
go. Go into any old, settled farming
Talk to a farmer who has four boys.
Three of them, he will tell you, are
going away. The fourth boy will stay
and Inherit the old homestead. Why
don't the others buy farms? For sew
eral reasons. In the first place, the
good farms are not for sale. and they
don't want the poor ones In the sec
ond place. to buy unimproved land
and put 1t under cultivation takes
more capital than they can command.
So the h0vS go TO New York or to
/ Philadelphia ana become automobile
mechanics or electricians, or else they
go west in search of land. But going
west is getting to be a poor expedient-
The greater part of its arabic lands
4 are as crowded as those of the east.
OF its public lands little is left but
desert. Just as the east has its swamps
] and cut-oYers which might be made