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Wages seem higher in the city. To the few who are most successful they may be, but the majority of city dwellers do not live better than those whose homes are in the country, for high cost of rent and other necessary expenses use up the earnings of all except the fortunate few. Working hours in most trades and professions seem short, but workers cannot own nor control their tools and they are subject to enforced idleness during slack times and to loss occasioned by class struggles known as strikes and lock-outs. There can be no eight-hour days on the farm during crop seasons, but the efficient farmer need not in normal times work more hours during a year than his average city brother to earn a much better living. With the improvement of country roads and general use of automobiles there is no reason to fear the lure of the city. The farmer will visit the city just as the city dwellers spend their vacations in the country. All need acquaintance with both.

Villages and Small-City Problems. The small urban community has many of the same problems as the open country. Both share the same limitations inseparable from the cooperation of small instead of large groups. World stirring events are not occurring daily but, for that matter, very few in the great city have more to do with these than do those who live in the village. All know about these chiefly through newspapers. Much of what seems to make a difference between city and small town is mere noise, bustle, and nervous confusion which the smaller community is fortunate to be without. Two problems of co-operation are noticeably difficult in small cities.

1. Taxes for Civic Improvement. The typical small town includes in its population a large number of retired farmers. With the independence of rural life these find it hard to unite

in supporting civic affairs. They have not been accustomed to paved streets, and sidewalks, street cleaning, or a city water supply. Also, having retired, their income is seldom one which increases. Most small cities encounter discouraging set-backs in raising tax rates for municipal improvements, even in the support of adequate schools.

2. Law Enforcement. Law enforcement is likely to be lax in all small communities. "Keep off the grass" must be obeyed in the city or there would be no grass; in the village no great harm is done if half the people do not see the sign. Again, officers elected are always acquaintances and frequently relatives of those who disobey laws, and they dislike to offend their neighbors. It is well known, for example, that compulsory attendance laws are not usually well enforced. No American small community would tolerate government in such matters by officials from outside, such as was characteristic of the French villages described earlier in this chapter; knowing that law enforcement is in its own hands, the small city cannot shift this problem to any other branch of government. Here, as everywhere, government will be as strict as the people really wish it to be.

Summary and Rural Outlook. In this chapter it has been shown that American rural development has followed the pattern of the English free governing community rather than of the French or other European village. Because of unlimited space, resources, and inventiveness, our rural life has been unique in its freedom and opportunity for contented living. There is no reason for fearing that our rural communities will ever become like those in less fortunate countries. Instead, the rising intelligence of those in other lands who dwell in the same house with their cattle, is causing them to discard these age-long habits, which seem so crude to us. We

might even say that their rural life is becoming Americanized.

Many country people will move to the city as they have always done. The cities need them and improved farm machinery substitutes city-made implements for man power; the proportion of rural dwellers thus becomes much less, as it has done in most farming states for many years.

Those who live in the country will solve their problems as bravely as the home builders of earlier days met their very different but not easier tasks. In the solution of rural as well as city problems we are sure to find that the welfare of one cannot long conflict with the best interests of the other. Neither city nor country will long be without grave problems and "Only those deserve freedom who can achieve it every day."

Suggested Activities.

1. Make a list of officers in your community. Interview as many as you can. Learn:

(a) For what particular work each is responsible.

(b) The length of his term of office.

(c) How citizens may co-operate with him in his work.

2. Study the farms in your community. Compare any differences between the "owned" and rented farms as to:

(a) Size of crop yield.

(b) Conditions of buildings.

(c) Scientific care of the soil.

3. What is the early history of your community? Learn from one of the oldest settlers how the spirit of co-operation was shown in early times through “barn raisings” and “quilting parties."

4. Choose sides and debate one or more of the following questions: (a) Resolved, that the country is a better place to live than the city.

(b) Resolved, that the farmer who does not read Bulletins issued by the United States Department of Agriculture and the State Agriculture College cannot properly be called a scientific farmer.

(c) Resolved, that improved rural schools can best be brought about through consolidation and transportation.

Study Questions.

1. What are some of the differences between villages in America and in Europe?

2. What are the important causes which have led to growth of the town in or near which you live?

3. Name five small cities which owe their size and importance almost entirely to railroad connections.

4. "Our town cannot be prosperous unless the surrounding country is." Prove that this statement is true.

5. Describe differences between early New England villages and French villages in America. How was each governed?

6. Why do American farmers live in isolated houses instead of in villages as rural people do in most other countries? What are the advantages of each plan?.

7. What is meant by "the self-supporting rural community?" Show how specialization in farm crops prevents a community from being self-sufficient.

8. Why is it harder for a poor man to become the owner of a farm than it was when Franklin said he could live in the woods? (See Page 17.)

9. What is meant by exploiting the soil? What crops exhaust the soil very quickly?

10. Show how co-operative marketing helps both producer and consumer of rural products.

11. If a loaded truck or wagon becomes stuck in an impassable road the one who is hauling goods at once pays what is sometimes called a "mud tax." The same tax is also collected when five hours are required to make a reasonable three-hour journey, or when a one ton load is carried by a team and wagon which should be carrying two tons. Give other examples of paying a mud tax.

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Intelligent reading of this chapter requires understanding of the expressions as used on pages indicated. Discuss them with your

teacher.

Trade and Industry the Life of Cities. All great modern cities owe their expansion to trade and industry. Examination of a world map shows that every important urban center has developed where abundant supplies of raw material may be made available, and where a large population is dependent upon its commerce. Navigable rivers, harbors, canals, or railroads may be looked for in every case.

A City Age. How large the cities of the ancient world were no one knows. They seemed very great to those of the time who wrote about them, but without street cars and the use of modern inventions, it is difficult to see how more than a half million inhabitants could be crowded into a single community. The largest city in the United States has a population of more than five millions. There are sixty-nine large cities as classified by the United States Census Bureau, that is, those having more than one hundred thousand inhabitants; and when we consider the people living in the medium sized cities of from twenty-five thousand to one hundred thousand

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