s, and an unnatural craving is
created for an environment of excitement, a life reveling in noise and
change. Business, eager for gain, exploits this demand for stimulation,
and social contagion spreads the restlessness of our population. The
urban possibilities for stimulation are advertised as never before in
the country by the press with its city point of view, by summer
visitors, and by the reports of the successes of the most fortunate of
those who have removed to the cities. In an age restless and mobile,
with family traditions less strong, and transportation exceedingly cheap
and inviting, it is hardly strange that so many of the young people are
eager to leave the country, which they pronounce dead--as it literally
is to them--for the lively town or city. It is by no means true that
this removal always means financial betterment or that such is its
motive. It is very significant to find so many farmers who have made
their wealth in the country, or who are living on their rents, moving to
town to enjoy life. May it not be that a new condition has come about in
our day by the possibility that there are more who exhaust their
environment in the country before habit with its conservative tendency
is able to hold them on the farm? One who knows the discontent of
urban-minded people who have continued to live in the country can hardly
doubt that habit has tended to conserve the rural population in a way
that it does not now. And one must not forget the pressure of the
discontent of these urban-minded country parents upon their children.
The faculty of any agricultural college is familiar with the farmer's
son who has been taught never to return to the farm after graduation
from college. That the city-minded preacher and teacher add their
contribution to rural restlessness is common thought.

In the city the sharp contrast between labor and recreation increases
without doubt the appeal of the city to many. The factory system not
only satisfies the gregarious instinct, it also gives an absolute break
between the working time and the period of freedom. In so far as labor
represents monotony, it emphasizes the value of the hours free from
toil. This contrast is often in the city the difference between very
great monotony and excessive excitement after working hours. It has been
pointed out often that city recreation shows the demand for great
contrast between it and the fatigue of monotonous labor. So great a
contrast bet