Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1922-03-10

tf1f1I Is at present in favor of the city; Tor
NM the first time In history more than
NllU one half of people are urban
WV dwelers.
NV The home shortage reaches the
~ timated total of 2,000,0O0 The SEN
ate committee on reconstruction es
Inmates that five billion dollars needed to build
homes.
The abandonment of farms, an old story in New
England is also becoming 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 IL 1871 to 1922 and $4,000 men have
left its farms.
In such conditions any man who has a helpful
suggestive message should have attentive
dence. William E. Smythe author of 1.-THE Con-
est of Arid America" Constructive Democracy"
has written a book with the title, city Homes
Country Lanes Philosophy and Practice Of
Home-ina- Garden" (The Macmillan company.
w York, 1920. He believes in 1.-The Garden
tty"-in suburban communities with small gar
zen for every home. Following some of the
points he makes, without regard to the context:
am optmist. l believe the world is going
TO be a better world for our common humanity
In the next decade-the next generation-the next
centufy--than ever before in the long history of
the race And believe the next passion of man.
kind will be for the sol-that there shall take
occasion by the hand and make the bounds of free
dom wider yet" But, If there is to be transition
In the life of the land-if forms of industry
and society to emerge-then this will be due
10 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,
j sound no note of peSsmism, but rather the note
of hope, of confidence of boundless faith In what
the future is to bring forth. l know the land is
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 life we must
clearly understand that the old life has failed and
uhu hoc ofIal No.. ~
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 1t? 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
can make more of himself In the city
than in the country more 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 nav 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 1t 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
soutely 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 we will
become dependent upon overseas imports of bread
and meat and other staple foodstuffs.
Fifteen years before the peril Of famine may
hang like black shadow 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-increasng burden
"And it is fifteen years we have In which RI
evolve and put in operation an agricultural noljcv
which shall save from the fate of Europe"
Fifteen momentous years, big with the fate of
American civilizatonl
True, must be fed; but man does not live by
bread alone. 1t is neither wise nor necessary that
we should be fed under system of agriculture
that destroys the home on the land abolishes non.
ular proprietorship, creates a nation of tenants
cripples individual initiative, shackles the spirit
of family independence and degrades the charac
ter of our citizenship These are the swift and
consequences Of rural depopulation on one
hand and the growth Of congested cities on the
other.
AS in the past half century the country has beer
the nursery Of the city, In the next half century
the city will be the nursery of the country The
movement Will not be Back to the Land" but
Forward to better things than men have ever
known In the past Production, important as Il
is, will be merely incidental to the evolution Of
higher forms of social AMI economic ife with 9
great deal Of emphasis family llfe-its hearth
stone restored its affairs reghted.
These things will come TO pass because the,
are essential to the preservation and continued
development Of democracy in America.