Show 4 CROWDING INTO THE CITIES THERE THE has baa been much comment in the newspapers new papera of late on the crowding of people from the country into the cities citie this thia has hac been go generally brally pictured an an evil to be deplored and it if possible to be checked scribners 18 for may contains an article by thomas curtla curtis clarke the eminent engineer and bridge builder in which an opposite view Is taken we clip from it the following the conflict between city people and those who live in the country is as old as history there always has been an influx from without ut to within so long as the area of cities was limit limited this thi was strongly and successfully rested resisted by the citizens they felt themselves a superior class to the rustics rusti cs the very words urban and rustic rusti cIt tell the story the romans called the outside dwellers villani from which come two words one one of honorable significance villa irvilla and the other perhaps a little modified modified by medi saval veval use villain roman ro n citizens looked down upon the country folk as an new yorker does upon a stray astray from the pines all literature has been tinged by this feeling and both writers and statesmen have continued to deplore the excessive grow growth groothof of cities as an a national ev evaland iland evil and have exhorted countrymen to stay at home telling them how much better off they were in the country observation has taught aught us that this growth of cities is a necessary part of the evolution of our social structure and that it is not a growth at the expense of the country but for the benefit of the country as well as that of the city recent statistical ital shown that cities grow because they absorb the best and not the worst or of the rural population who better their condition by coming to town charles booth the eminent english statistician in his great work labor and life of the people has shown from very extended inquiry that most of those who come to london irom from the country either have work already engaged or have good prospects of getting work and that their condition is generally improved by their change ot of abode the british census of 1890 confirms this in a striking manner by showing that the people of country birth are most numerous in the wealthy qu arlera ers of the city where employment abounds and least numerous in the poverty stricken quarters all this is con conbary to the preconceived opinion that countrymen wander aimlessly to the city and are chiefly tramps or broken down persons |