The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-02-28
Rural-Urban Population Shift

There Is an interesting phenomenon awaiting investi-
CATION and explanation by somebody vino can take fig
ures apart and see what's in them. It is the old move
ment Of population between the cities and the farms. The
drift IS particularly puzzMng at this time, when the So
tuition Of the farm problem is under way with the back
ing Of the government.
It used to be that this movement from the rural com
tnunities to the cities and vice versa was almost entirely
cityward. Rural life was too meager to hold the farm
boys as they grew up. and industry and greater oppor-
tunities, II merely in the form of entertainment, exert
ed the pull which produced this shift from the country
and brought on vast increases in the populations of the
urban centers.
Then the gospel Of farm opportunities, the lure Of the
land and the love Of greater individual liberty set up a
counter movement and population likewise began to
shift to the farms while it also flowed from there to the
cities.
There has come out of this a tendency to normally,
TO become settled and to abide in fixed homes, the farm
er on the land and the industrial worker in his city.
This is shown by a decline in both movement of popu-
1ation from the city and the farm as we'll and to the city
and the farm. Neither current flows in the old volume
ct present. Both have been stayed by some factor which
70 far nobody has risen to explain. Perhaps it is in part
due to the strenuous activities which extension services
ore making to keep the boys on the farms-an activity
that expresses itself in the remarkable junior club move
ment among the boys And girls. Perhaps. too. it is due
to the adjustments that are taking place in both agri-
culture and industry. In the stream of these unstable
influences Is no place to swap horses.
Certain Il = that it Is not the small town or village
which Is stemming the drift away from the rural COM
muntty. The very small town is disintegrating and
tends to be absorbed by the larger centers. as Bismarck.
So that the drift to the cities is not as significant as the
figures would make it seem, for the population does not
really leave the farming country-it merely shifts to
larger urban ceuters in the agricultural belts and the
country actually in . large measure retains its people.
The figures for 1929 issued by the bureau of agricul-
tural economics show that 1,8760oo persons moved from
farms to cities last year. Is compared with, 1923,000 in
1D78, lJe7eO0o. In 1927, and q peak of 2,155,000 in 1926.
:The city to farm movement was also smaller. being
placed at l,257ooo persons last year. compared with
l.3l7y0o0 In 1928 and 1,374,0oo in 1927.
Births on farms last year are estimated at 631 900 and
deaths at 2sl, 900. Taking these figures into account
places the total farm population on January l. 1880. at
. decrease Of 100000.
The, bureaus figures for the past year show that in
the New England states $1,000 persons left the farms and
$1,000 returned to farms: Middle Atlantic states. $4,000
from farms, 10000 to farms; East North Central, 275,-
900 from farms, 100000 to farms: West North Central,
$4,000 from farms, 225,000 to farms: South atlantic,
$4,000 from farms, 10000 to farms; East South Gen.
trail, 100000 from farms, 10000 to farms; West South
Central, 33l, 900 from farms. 100000 to farms; Mountain
states, $4,000 from farms, $4,000 to farms; Pacific states,
$4,000 from farms, 5000 to farms.
Births on farms were q to the 1000: deaths were 10
70 the 1000.