National Affairs: Urban Drift

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Hackneyed among debating societies is the topic: Resolved, that city life is preferable to country life. But last year more than 3,000,000 U. S. citizens held personal debate on the question and two times out of three the city won.

Last week the U. S. Department of Agriculture reported that 2,155,000 persons moved from farms to cities in 1926. Only 1,135,000 moved from cities to farms. Farm births exceeded farm deaths by 371,000, leaving a net farm loss of 649,000 people, enough for a new city the size of Pittsburgh.

Secretary of Agriculture Jardine, not surprised by the size of the 1926 city ward migration, reiterated his warning that deflation of the farming population, while natural enough after the War period of inflation, has now gone far enough; must soon cease if the U. S. is to feed itself in future.