his indicates in some
widely different sections of the country an apparently better prosperity
in the open country than in many country towns. Similarly in several
states, the larger towns between five and ten thousand population have
netted a loss in the last decade, as in New York State, although the
smaller villages have on the average prospered.

_The Need of Qualitative Analysis of the Census_

We must not be staggered by mere figures. A _qualitative_ analysis of the
census sometimes saves us from pessimism. Someone has said "Even a
_growing_ town has no moral insurance." Mere growth does not necessarily
mean improvement either in business or morals. It is quite possible that
some of the "decadent" villages which have lost 15% of their population
are really better places for residence than they were before and possibly
fully as prosperous. It depends entirely on the kind of people that
remain. If it is really the survival of the fittest, there will be no
serious problem. But if it is "the heritage of the unfit," if only the
unambitious and shiftless have remained, then the village is probably
doomed.

In any case, the situation is due to the inevitable process of social and
economic adjustment. Changes in agricultural method and opportunity are
responsible for much of it. Doubtless farm machinery has driven many
laborers away. Likewise the rising price of land has sent away the
speculative farmer to pastures new, especially from eastern Canada and the
middle west in the States to the low-priced lands of the rich Canadian
west.[2] The falling native birthrate, especially in New England, has
been as potent a factor in diminishing rural sections as has the lure of
the cities.

"In the main," says Dr. Anderson in his very discriminating study of the
problem, "rural depletion is over. In its whole course it has been an
adjustment of industrial necessity and of economic health; everywhere it
is a phase of progress and lends itself to the optimist that discerns
deeper meanings. Nevertheless depletion has gone so far as to affect
seriously all rural problems within the area of its action.

"The difficult and perplexing problems are found where the people are
reduced in number. That broad though irregular belt of depleted rural
communities, stretching from the marshes of the Atlantic shore to the
banks of the Missouri, which have surrendered from ten to forty per cent.
of their people, within which are many localitie