River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1922-03-09


u NSMNlL, lance scarcely be overestimated
WSNIyKkl5 have taken place, are taking place,
sANA are about to take place.
TNET' The race between city and country
tGsGl is at present in favor of the city; for
\NHI the first time in our history more than
NlIH one half of people are urban
VlV dwellers.
W The home shortage reaches the es-
W timated total of 100000 The sem
ate committee reconstruction es-
Inmates that five billion dollars needed to build
homes.
The abandonment of farms, an old story in New
England is also becoming an old story in the Mid
die West-one of the garden spots of the world
In Michigan in two years the vacant places have
grown from II S3I to 1922 and 10000 men have
left its farms.
In such conditions any man who has helpful
or suggestive message should have attentive
audience. William e. Smythe author of "The Con-
quest of Arid America Constructive Democracy
ETC.. has written book with the title "City Homes
on Country Lanes: Philosophy and Practice Of
the Home-ina-Garden' (The Macmillan company,
New York. 1921. He believes in 1.-THE Garden
City"-in suburban communities with small gar
den for every home. Following some of the
points he makes, without regard to the context ::
am an optimist believe the world is going
to be a better world for our common humanity
In the next decade-the next generation-the next
century--than ever before in the long history Of
the race AndsI believe the next passion of man
kind will be for the so-that there we shall 'take
Occasion by the hand and make the bounds of free
dom wider yet" But, IL there Is to be transition
in the life of the Iand-if new forms of industry
and society are to emerge-then this will be due
to the fact that the old life the land has failed
Is breaking down, and is doomed to pass away
That is what believe to be true. In saying So
1 sound no note of pessimism, but rather the note
of hope, of confidence, of boundess faith in what
n 7 LAM c
to be the healing and the saving of the people
of our people and of all the peoples. There Is no
other refuge.
But before we can build the new life we must
clearly understand that the old life has failed and
why it has failed. Then we must proceed to dis
cover the principles upon which the and better
life is to be founded. In doing So must we not
inevitably draw nearer to the Divine Purpose in
making the goodly earth and setting man in the
midst of it? And shall we not thereby evolve the
Spiritual Man of the Soil, who, conscious Of his
partnership with God, enters at last into his true
dominion?
majority of our hundred million people now
dwell in town.
Why? Because
A man can make more of himself in the city
than in the country; can money; do bet
ter for his children live in better surroundings;
drink deeper from the cup of human happiness.
The city draws into its Unsuitable the best of
all the country produces-men and food alike
But let 1t be understood that in all have said
am speaking of rural life as it is, not as 1t
might be-not, please God, as it shall be.
The conclusion reached by the highest govern
ment authority is that, allowing for all the ma
chinery and improved methods we have or are like
ly to have, another Is years will see America abb
solutely dependent upon the outside world for
food To quote Mr.. Cline:
Fifteen years is the period of grace given us,
unless conditions change materially before will
become dependent upon overseas imports of bread
and meat and other staple foodstufs.
Fifteen years before the peril of famine may
hang like black shadow over the land!
Fifteen years before keeping the ocean-ways
open TO our food ships may be vital TO our nation
al life, calling for ornaments which would be an
ever-increasing burden!
And it is fifteen years have in which to
evolve and put in operation agricultural policy
which shall save us from the fate of Europe"
Fifteen momentous years, big with the fate of
American civilization
True, we must be fed ; but man does not live by
bread alone. Il is neither wise nor necessary that
we should be fed under a system of agriculture
that destroys the home on the land abolishes pop
uar propriet0rship, creates nation of tenants
crpples individual initiative, shackles the spirit
of family independence, and degrades the charac-
Ter OF citizenship. These are the swift and
sure consequences of rural depopuation on one
hand, and the growth of congested cities the
other.
AS in the past half-century the country has been
the nursery of the city, in the next halfcentury
the city will be the nursery of the country The
movement will not be s'Back to the Land" but
Forward to better things than men have ever
known in the past Production, important as it
is, viii be merely incidental to the evolution of
higher forms of social and economic life, with a
great deal of emphasis on family life-its hearth
stone restored; it's affairs relighted.
These things will come to pass, because they
are essential to the preservation and continued
development of democracy In America.