poorest can see the swift revolutions of the city wheels. As a penniless derelict remarked: "Anyhow, I can read the billboards and see what's going on!"

There is, of course, a very charming side of rural life, and one that must be preserved if civilization is to remain sweet and wholesome. But millions have turned away from it. "The proof of the pudding is the eating thereof." Millions born to country pudding have shown their marked preference for city desserts.

No man of our time has done so much to keep alive true love of country life as Ray Stannard Baker, or "David Grayson," as he delights to call himself in his rural moods. He happens to be one of my most valued friends, and I shall later make use of his actual experience to demonstrate my own philosophy of the coming life on the land.

We have now examined the relative advantages of urban and rural life from a number of different standpoints. Our finding is in harmony with the obvious drift of the times. From the Census of 1830 to that of 1920, the race between country and town as rival claimants for the favor of a majority of our people has gone ceaselessly on. Decade after decade the city has rushed ahead, the country fallen back, until by the latest count the supremacy passes to the city. A majority of our hundred million people now dwell in town.

Why? Because

A man can make more of himself in the city than in the country; can earn more money; do better for his children; live in better surroundings; drink deeper from of human happiness. The city draws into its

the cup

insatiable maw the best of all the country producesmen and food alike.

But let it be understood that in all I have said I am speaking of rural life as it is, not as it might be—not, please God, as it shall be.

CHAPTER II

THE LEADING OF THE FALSE GOD- -"PRODUCTION"

A

NEW view of the decline in American rural population, and the continued piling up of the people in urban centers, has begun to gain currency. It has found able spokesmen. One of the most persuasive is Dr. Rudolph M. Binder, head of the sociological department of the University of New York. In a very notable interview, he said: "America only is following other industrial countries in its tendency to group the larger number of its inhabitants in the cities.

"In Belgium and in England this period was passed long ago; Germany knew it about 1910. It is the inevitable drift of all States undergoing transition from agricultural to industrial conditions.

"Normally every country must keep a sufficient percentage of its population in the rural districts to provide enough food for the whole population. This percentage varies according to the state of civilization of a country. In the province of Bengal, India, there was until recently 90 per cent of the total population in country districts.

"Those people, because of primitive implements and transportation, were able to produce just about enough food for themselves. England, at the other extreme, is able to maintain approximately 8 per cent of her people in urban districts.

"In our own country we have had a preponderantly large percentage of population in the country districts as long as means of production were comparatively simple.

"With improvements of implements a smaller percentage of people was needed to produce food for the whole population. This percentage has grown smaller with development of implements, latest of which is the tractor. It has been figured that whereas production of a bushel of wheat once took two hours, the time in 1920 was reduced to eight minutes. I venture to say that time now is shortened by half.

"It is interesting to note notwithstanding over 51 per cent of our people lived in urban districts, the largest bumper crop in our history was produced last year."

In his statement, which disposed of any "back to the farm" movement as impossible, Dr. Binder said if those thrown out of their jobs in the fields by highly developed machinery should attempt to remain in rural districts, producing crops far above the demand, prices would be forced so low that farming would cease to pay. He went on:

"Our capacity for consuming food is limited. But our capacity for consumption of manufactured articles, such as erstwhile farmers turn out instead of vegetables and fruits, is practically unlimited. Three or four square meals a day is our limit, but we may change our coats a dozen times! We may eat only a dollar's worth of food daily, yet we spend a thousand dollars for a single table!"

About the physical aspect of the cityward movement, Dr. Binder had this to say:

"Time was when the city seemed a regular graveyard for her beings. But hygiene and sanitation have been introduced; statistics of the recent war proved that our city boys are equal to the country product in vitality, while surpassing them in mentality."

With his statement concerning the physical and mental results of urban life I am, of course, in perfect accord; it is precisely what we found in the preceding chapter. But, with the rest of his statement—both as to spirit and as to facts, but especially as to spiritI profoundly disagree.

First, the facts: Machinery is relied upon to make good the deficiency of man-power on the farm. America has long had the advantage of superior agricultural implements and machinery; and, as a consequence, leads the world in production per man. But she lags far behind in production per acre, possibly because the machine can not quite take the place of the man in getting the soil to do its best. In other words, we may be dying on the land economically, as well as socially and spiritually, because of an overdose of machinery. At any rate, until labor-saving devices bring our peracre production much nearer the European standard than it is now, we cannot safely disregard the constant loss of man-power on the land and rely on machinery to take its place in the vital matter of food production.

We saw that Michigan lost 46,000 men from her farms in two recent years; that she now has an average of only eleven men and boys for each ten farms. Is it certain-is it even conceivable—that machinery has