y.

In the last analysis the terms rural and urban are qualitative rather than
quantitative. In spite of the apparent paradox, there are rural cities and
urban villages; small provincial cities where the people are largely
rural-minded, and suburban villages of a few hundred people whose
interests are all in the life of the city. But in general, the scope of
the term "country life" as used in this book will be understood to include
the life of the open country, the rural village and most country towns of
8,000 people or less, whose outlook is the sky and the soil rather than
the brick walls and limited horizon of the city streets.

II. City and Country.

_How the Growing City Developed the Problem_

We can almost say the growth of the city made the country problem. It
would be nearer the truth to say, it made the problem serious. The problem
of rural progress would still exist, even if there were no cities; but had
the city not been drafting its best blood from the villages for more than
half a century, we should probably not be anxious about the rural problem
to-day, for it is this loss of leadership which has made rural progress so
slow and difficult.

It is well to remember that the growth of cities is not merely an American
fact. It is universal in all the civilized world. Wherever the modern
industrial system holds sway the cities have been growing phenomenally. In
fact the city population in this country is less in proportion than the
city population of England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, Belgium, Saxony,
The Netherlands and Prussia.

The present gains of American cities are largely due to immigration and to
the natural increase of births over deaths, especially in recent years
with improved sanitation, but for many decades past the city has gained
largely at the expense of the country. Chicago became a city of over two
million before the first white child born there died, in March, 1907.
Meanwhile, in the decade preceding 1890, 792 Illinois rural townships lost
population, in the following decade 522, and in the decade 1900-1910,
1113, in spite of the agricultural wealth of this rich prairie state.
Likewise New York city (with Brooklyn) has doubled in twenty years since
1890; while in a single decade almost 70% of the rural townships in the
state reported a loss. The rural state of Iowa actually reports a net loss
of 7,000 for the last decade (1900), though Des Moines alone gained
24,200, and all but two