money, the problem is already being solved. It is certainly a
question of values--in aims and means.

=Facilities.=--Many inventions might be utilized on the farm to better
advantage than they are at present. But people live somewhat isolated
lives in rural communities and there is not the active comparison or
competition that one finds in the city; improvements of all kinds are
therefore slower of realization. Values are not forced home by every-day
discussion and comparison. People continue to do as they have been
accustomed to do, and there are men who own large farms and have large
bank accounts who continue to live without the modern improvements, and
hence with but few comforts in life. A greater interest in the best
things pertaining to country life needs to be awakened, and to this end
rural communities should be better organized, socially, economically,
and educationally.

CHAPTER II

THE URBAN TREND

In the preceding chapter we discussed those forces at work in rural life
which tend to drive people from the farm to the city. It was shown that,
on the whole, up to the present at least, farm life has not been as
pleasant as it should or could be made. Some aspects of it are
uncomfortable, if not painful. Hard manual labor, long hours of toil,
and partial isolation from one's fellows usually and generally
characterize it. Of course, there are many who by nature or habit, or
who by their ingenuity and thrift, have made it serve them, and who
therefore have come to love the life of the country; but we are speaking
with reference to the average men and women who have not mastered the
forces at hand, which can be turned to their service only by thought and
thrift.

=Cityward.=--The trend toward the cities is unmistakable. So alarming
has it become that it has aroused the American people to a realization
that something must be done to reverse it or at least to minimize it. At
the close of the Revolutionary War only three per cent of the total
population of our country lived in what could be termed cities. In 1810
only about five per cent of the whole population was urban; while in
1910 forty-six per cent of our people lived in cities. This means that,
relatively, our forces producing raw materials are not keeping pace with
the growth and demands of consumption. In some of the older Atlantic
states, as one rides through the country, vast areas of uncultivated
land meet the view. The people have gone to t