Evening star., 1933-03-26

In the last 20 years changes have
taken place in the manner in which
Americans employ themselves, and these
changes show how rapidly the Nation
Is being transformed from its original
character into an altered common
wealth. In the older countries OF Eu-
rope the man born O farmer Is likely
to remain q farmer, through his pos
terity, for many generations. In
France, for example, there are families
farming exactly the same acres their
forbears farmed a thousand years ago.
The fields over which the Crusaders
tramped were in possession Of the same
families when Louis Tvs men came
marching by. Napoleon's men came
and departed and the soldiery Of the
World War. The descendants Of the
husbandmen of centuries ago still delve
in the same soil.
There are farms in England in pos
session of the same families which
held them when Doomsday Book was
inscribed. On those farms today are
the descendants of the swineherds and
the yeomen who saw the Wars Of the
Roses.
The same rule applies, anciently, to
other callings. AL over Europe are to
be found families Of hatters, weavers,
dyers, drapers, miners, goldsmiths,
workers in leather, shipwrights and
their forbears learned hundreds Of
years ago. In many cases the work
is being done on the same premises
where great-great-grandfathers car
ried it on.
In Asia the continuity Is even less
interrupted. The same families have
followed the same callings since the
dawn Of recorded history. While these
circumstances do not appear to indi-
cate much initiative, much progress,
still they have the merit Of solidity 1t
is largely due to the tenacity of these
working families that warriors can
trample over the world and, when peace
comes. leave things but little altered
The work goes on.
Swifter Tempo in America.
While SO little change Is seen in the
older countries from generation to gen.
GRAFTON and even from century to CEN
tury In America q swifter tempo has
been set. While 1t Is true that, in
some sections, there can be found farm
ers whose families have been tilling
the same acres for q century or two
that Is the exception. There has been
more change in American occupational
grouping in the last 20 years than
has occurred in some older countries
in q thousand.
The big change, Of course, has been
in the agricultural field. The move
ment from the farms to the cities may
be said to have begun when the Nc
Cormick reaper and binder and sue
cessive labor saving farm implements
made their appearance on the American
scene. Americans are highly adaptable.
They are prone to seize upon innova-
tions. Even though mechanical farm
ing equipment has been known now
for many years, there are places in Eu-
rope where the hand scythe and the
sickle still are employed to harvest
grain; where the inventions Of even the
last century have not yet been adopted
But here as machines. even the early
primitive machines, were acquired
workers began to drift away from the
farms and into the cities. The move
ment accelerated through the later
years of the nineteenth century and
when the twentieth dawned there was
continuous procession from field to
urban factory.
The Bureau Of the Census shows
that in 1910 there were 10.56l ,685 men
and ! SOC, ,624 women, or a total Of Ia
388,309, employed In agriculture. BY
1920 the numbers had sunk to TO-
665,8l2 and by 1880, the last census
period. to 10,471 ,998. Had the census
been taken q year or two earlier the
number probably would have been