Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/500

 486 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

In support of this suggestion it must be understood that the country has been constantly supplying the city with much of its mate-rial, and thus building up the city population at its own use. The population that joins the march to the city is upon the whole of superior character, while the vicious that go are comparatively few. The popular notion that all rogues go to London is not to be followed by the supposition that the country is the chief source of supply for city criminality and pauperism. The thorough investigation of Mr. Charles Booth, in London, shows that the country population is quite free from criminal conditions and characteristics for the first generation, and that it is only in the second generation, under the influences of bad economic and social conditions in which the fierce strug- gle for existence occurs, that social deterioration is noticeable.

In the peopling of the great West this struggle for existence, and, indeed, for place and position, has always been observable among the poorly equipped for life. There have marched, side ide, in the conquest of the West, the strongest, most ener- getic, and the best, along with the vicious, idle, and weak ; in fact, with the worst of the race. The movement of populations always carries with it a social residuum. The constant shifting of population and of conditions tends to increase and make per- manent this helpless class. While the pulsating life of the city may feel more quickly the evil results of a sudden economic change, the country is not free from its evil influences. As a rule the food supply is not lacking in the country, and seldom it is that people suffer from hunger ; but the weakening conditions are there. Many suffer from under vitalization and lack of proper sanitation. The weakening tendency of isolation and monotony is as evident as are the effects of urban over-crowding.

If the city has its paupers and criminals, the country has its tramps and vagabonds. The tramp has become a perpetual hanger-on of town and country life. As a rule he likes the city environs best, but he can be found everywhere. The tramp family is of comparatively recent development. Everywhere in the West may be seen the covered wagon drawn by poor horses and conveying from place to place a family group that lives