Evening star., 1939-04-30
By Thomas r. Henry.

its principal structural features from the
centripetal influence of steam"
Then came electricity. Theoretically.
since it can be transported over great
distances, 1t should have tended to break
up the concentration. In some respects it
has, but up to the present. because of its
use for power for elevators and for urban
transit, on the whole 1t has increased
congestion through making possible the
skyscraper and the overdeveloped, con-
gested central business district.
At the end of the Revolution there was
no town in the United States with
population of $4,000. Not until 1920 was
there city of more than 100000. Sixty
years later New York first boasted of
million.
Five of More Than 1000, 900 Now.
Today there are 80 American cities
with populations of more than 100000
Five of the Nations 3,l65 urban com
munities boast of more than 100000
At the end of the Revolution only abod:
per cent of the American people were
city dwellers. This has grown to almost
so per cent. Nearly 80 per cent live in
cities of more than 100000. Even this
does not tell the whole story. Vast num-
bers live on the outskirts of cities-for
example the people of Arlington County
and nearby Montgomery and Price
Georges Counties. The same condition
obtains around every large city. To all
purposes these are populations of city
dwellers, although they are not so listed
livelihoods in cities and depend upon
cities for their marketing, amusements
and public utilities.
BY 1890 there weer nearly Is times as
many rural dwellers in the United States
as in 1870, but there were more than 800
times as many urban dwellers. Even of
the country folk, fewer and fewer are
farmers. They tend to congregate in
fairly large towns, many of which just
miss being classified as cities, although
they incorporate most of the features of
urban life.
This is not, the committee points OUT,
peculiarly American phenomenon. The
same development has been in progress
throughout Western Europe. With the
coming of the machine the cities have
had prodigious growth. But, says the
report, while the Old World grew by
degrees over period of many centuries
from town economy into its present ur-
ban cast, this country started as will
derness on the outskirts of civilization
and took the leap from primitive agri-
culture to mature urbanism in little more
than single century.
Revolution in Living.
"The figures on the extent and rapidity
of urbaniZation in the United States,
dramatic as they are, fail to convey the
full significance of what the rise of
cities has done to our civilization. The
crowding of an increasing number and
proportion of our people into relatively
restricted areas has meant for them a
revolution both in the way of living
and in the ways of making living, and
has in turn been reflected in the changed
character of our national life. The de-
gree of concentration of large part of
our urban population into few great
metropolitan areas is indicated by the
fact that 96 leading metropolitan centers
of the United States, occupying only IL
per cent of the land area of the Nation,
contained in 1880 nearly As per cent of
the total population and 68 per cent of
its urban inhabitants.
1.-THE city Is also the workshop Of
American civilization. In 1929 there were
concentrated in 155 counties, containing
the larger industrial cities, 647 per cent
of all the industrial establishments, "a
per cent of all industrial wage earners,
8O7 of all salaried officers and employees.
Moreover 1873 per cent of all wages and
82.9 of all salaries in the country were
paid in these counties.
Strange as it may seem, however,
this dramatic change in our national
life and the product that has emerged
the city-have not been adequately rec
ognized by the Government, nor has
the citizenry become fully aware that
the urbanization of the Nation calls for
explicit consideration of the city as an
entity. Compared to the attention that
has been devoted to agriculture and the
rural phase of American life, that part
of America which is symbolized by the
city has been almost completely neg
lected and has never fully emerged into
our national consciousness"
The average American city today eon-