The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-10-26
COUNTRY AND CITY.

If the figures given out by the census bu-
reau concerning the relative increase be-
tween the population of cities and country
were the result of normal conditions they
would disclose a danger of alarming proper
tons. However, when the rubbish is brush
ed away there is far less to fear from the
overdevelopment of the cities than the cold
census figures indicate. The census was ia
ken before the frenzy of the war disloca-
ton had died out 1t was taken before the
whole people, keyed to the point of hysteria
during the war, had time to react and
reach normal. 1t was taken at time when
economical war conditions extravaganza,
high living, rotous buying and cheap mon
ey overmastered the individual and drove
him to the places where these were best OBJ
tainable. 1t was taken, moreover, at a time
when thousands of men released from army
service were unable to adapt themselves
to the isolation of country life after two
years of intensified association with large
bodies of men and after seeing world sights
which not one in ten thousand had dreamed
of before.
The census, because of the facts indicat-
ed, is not an index or even a guide to the
relative population of country and city in
periods of normal conditions. The cities
were congested. The country was not nor
mally filled. The drift back to the country
will be slow. When it is completed the in
crease in population in the city still will be
greater than the increase in population in
the country during the 1910 to 1920 de-
cade, for many of those who have deserted
the country for the city will remain. But the
ratio will not approach that which the CEN
sus figures show.
High priced land and low priced products
will be dominating influence in increasing
the population of the city over the country
in the immediate future. The possible ten
ant will seek city job rather than attempt
to make a living on land which carries
high rental because of its high commercial
price. Against this possible drift to the
city is a counter balancing one of drift
to the country of city men in middle life
and beyond The pace set for them in over
developed business may make the struggle
so strenuous that they will prefer the oper
alton of a farm to the conduct of business.
Population will drift countryward with the
change from city business to farm business.
Farming will become a more certain busl-
ness. Even now if the farmers were free
from the tenacles of the marketing octopus
they would be masters of their own desti-
MES. The population to be fed is greater
than it ever has been and the number to
feed it is smaller than it ever has been.
That in sum is the gist of the census report
on city and country population. Even if
there is drift from the city to the coun-
try as indicated the relative ratio of non
productive consumers to producers will re-
main high and a constant market for farm
products will continue. Over-supplles OF
labor will reduce the price of labor how
ever hard organizations may struggle to
prevent it. The same would be true OF pro-
duction, but production will not have sur
plus unless the countryward movement be-
comes a migration.