population was not adopted, but the local draft board unit of 25,000. Moreover, local districts often included portions of rural territory which were, therefore, rated urban. Such as it is, the record shows 528 defects per thousand among rural soldiers, against 609 among the urban. A true division would almost certainly have been in favor of city life, as it was in the Civil War. At that time, however, a vast majority of the people lived in rural districts, while now the major portion dwells in towns. A somewhat clearer light was thrown upon the subject, when considered from another interesting standpoint-that of comparative immunity from certain diseases after entering the Army. In four out of five instances the ultra-urban State of New York stood first, with the rural States last in every instance. Pennsylvania and New England, preponderantly urban, also made an exceedingly good showing. This is not entirely conclusive, because of the racial element that enters into the equation-more of the Eastern urban men being of foreign blood than of those from largely rural States. So far as Secretary Lane's inquiry shed light on those matters, it was strongly confirmatory of the city's claim to superiority on the side of public health and individual physical well-being. It is a superiority inherent in the fundamental conditions of modern urban life. In a word, the drift from country to city is not unfortunate for society, from the standpoint of health. The initial point for every person who wants to make the most of himself is, of course, the schoolroom. Every worthy parent wishes his child to have the best possible education within the limits of his opportunity. It is here we may appropriately begin our consideration of the effect of the cityward movement on the mental development of the American people. The efficiency of the Little Red Schoolhouse is a legend among us; thence have come most of our statesmen, poets, orators, captains of industry-the leaders of our national life. This was certainly true of the day in which a very large proportion of our population was rural, and before the organization of city life arose to the dignity of social science; but the slightest comparison of educational facilities in country and town, as they exist to-day, will convince the reader that the ancient legend is no longer based upon facts. The rural child receives only about 65 per cent as much schooling as the city child. This is due to the slack attendance and shorter school session. The average daily attendance in the country is 67.6 per cent; in the city, 79.3 per cent. The school year in the former is 137.7 days, and in the latter 184.3 days. Conditions vary in different sections, but the rule runs true throughout the United States. City children, of course, usually live near the school building and have abundant means of cheap transportation when it is necessary to go any distance, while country children are widely scattered, and often with no means of transportation over poor roads. During long periods of bad weather they can not go at all. These conditions are perfectly obvious on the surface, and militate powerfully against the best education for rural children. Results are reflected in the higher percentage of illiteracy in country districts. Educational results are largely determined by the quality of teaching. A study of urban and rural conditions on this score is strongly in favor of the city teacher. Country schoolma'ams serve, on an average, only about one year, against the average of 12 years on the part of the city schoolma'am. In the one case school-teaching is treated as a temporary expedientstepping-stone to higher education or some other profession, and often to marriage; in the other, it is regarded as a permanent career. It requires no argu -a ment whatever to demonstrate which condition is favorable to the child. Salaries have something to do with the matter. These are considerably higher in town than in the country. This condition is governed somewhat by the inexorable rule of overhead expenses. It is the large school that can afford to pay the highest salaries because the expense is divided among many more individuals; consequently the higher rewards are held out by the larger schools, which are invariably in centers of population. Urban conditions are also much more favorable to the careful and thorough grading of schools, and the old-fashioned, one-room school can not begin to offer so much to the child as the graded school. Not only is the teacher overburdened with work in the one-room school, but she has no opportunity to specialize and become highly expert in any single department of her work. Here, as elsewhere, the whole trend of our times favors the modern art of specialization; and this is a forbidden art for the country teacher in many instances. For the same reason vocational training, which has become one of the most valuable features of modern education, is difficult, or impossible, in all except the highest types of country schools. On the other hand, it is readily within the reach of the city school, with its large attendance, good salaries, and opportunity for careful grading. Investigation has disclosed a pitiable lack of library facilities in many rural schools throughout the United States, including some of the most advanced and prosperous agricultural sections. Many instances were found where the total library stock did not exceed 50 to 100 volumes, and where these were unchanged for so long as two or three years. City school libraries are far more adequate and enterprising, and they are supplemented by great public libraries which are open to the children. The same influence necessarily governs the character and extent of school buildings in the city and country. The Little Red Schoolhouse is picturesque, but frequently uncomfortable, inconvenient, unsanitary, and at least a generation behind the times. City school buildings, on the other hand, are generally the object of the greatest pride—often of lavish expenditure, and sometimes the last word in architecture, convenience, beauty and sanitary arrangement. One reason that great numbers of men and women have left the country and gone to the big centers of population is because they are thereby enabled to give their children a far better education, and hence a better start in the race of life. It is idle to deny the facts, and equally idle to argue against the parental instinct that demands the best for its offspring. The |