ork in a system and with a system
which increases as the human being rises in culture and civilization.
This is the magnet which draws people to large cities, and holds them
there, despite the many drawbacks which naturally adhere to it.

The facility of locomotion and of transportation have made possible an
interchange of commodities which has never been so before. The world
has become one marketplace, upon which the commodities are thrown, and
in which he who is able to sell an article of the same quality at the
lowest rate will have most customers. When grain can be produced in
large quantities in the West, so that it can be sold at a lower rate
in the East than the cost of its production would be there, it is
quite natural that the Eastern farmer must go to the wall, and it is
no wonder he deserts his farm. The less the raw material can be used
in its natural state, and the more our refinement demands a long
process of converting it into a commodity, the more does it require
systematic, organized, skilled labor to perform that conversion. With
sufficient land a few people can raise such an abundance of raw
material that the labor of thousands of people will be called for to
change it into useful articles. It is the system, the developed social
organization, which draws the villager to the city, and as an
illustration I shall point to the sudden and unparelleled growth of
the city of Berlin.

Twenty-five years ago Berlin was not quite as large in population as
is Boston to-day, and its area was much smaller. Berlin is situated in
a sandy, sterile country; so to say, in a desert. There is no
navigable river to connect it with the ocean, nor are minerals or coal
found in its immediate neighborhood. When Berlin was made the seat of
the German government, the first result was that thousands of
government officials were removed from other places to this city; then
the garrison was enlarged. More commodious roads were built to connect
the capital with the provinces. This attracted business men, as well
as thousands whose services in all branches of life were required. The
manufacturer soon followed, and Berlin became in a short time a
commercial centre. Leipsic lost its prestige and Nuremberg its renown.
The organized net-work of labor makes it possible now for a million
and a half of people to live and prosper on that sterile ground. Let
Berlin cease to be the capital of Germany, through any unforeseen
event, and its po