rural population, resulting upon these and other causes of
secondary nature, is sharply expressed in the statistics on population.
Within the eight old provinces of Prussia, the proportion between the
rural and the city population revealed, between 1867 and 1890, the
following progression:--

Year. City Population. Country Population.
1867 7,452,000 16,568,000
1890 11,783,000 18,173,000
---------- ----------
Increase 4,331,000 1,605,000
= 58 per cent. = 9.7 per cent.

The rapidity is obvious with which the city is surpassing the country
population. But the situation is still more unfavorable to the country
if the fact is considered that 148 communities, with from 5,000 to
40,000 inhabitants, and aggregating a population of 1,281,000 strong,
are included in the rural but really belong to the industrial districts.
They are essentially proletarian villages, located near large cities.
Furthermore, 647 communities, with from 2,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, and
aggregating a population of 1,884,000, are likewise included in the
rural, while, to a perceptible degree, they belong to the industrial
districts.

Similar conditions exist in Saxony and Southern Germany. In Baden and
Wurtemberg also the population of many districts is on the decline. The
small farmer can no longer hold his head above water; to thousands upon
thousands of them the fate of a factory hand is inevitable; they enter
the field of industry; and, with the help of their families, they
cultivate during leisure hours the plot of land that may still be
theirs. At the same time the large landlord's hunger for land knows no
bounds; his appetite increases the more peasant lands he devours.

As in Germany so are things developing in neighboring Austria, where
large landed property has long ruled almost unchecked. The difference
there is that the Catholic Church shares the land with the nobility and
the bourgeoisie. The process of smoking-out the farmer is in full swing
in Austria. All manner of efforts are put forth in order to push the
peasants and mountaineers of Tyrol, Salzburg, Steiermark, Upper and
Lower Austria, etc., off their inherited patrimony and to drive them to
relinquish their property. The spectacle, once presented to the world by
England and Scotland, is now on the boards of the most beautiful and
charming regions of Austr