Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/185

Rh and innovations which improve the social condition of the country people all tend to increase the wants of the rural communities, to raise their standard of living and hence to increase the real wages of the dwellers in those places. Here stands revealed one of the positive forces which is stopping the drift of population from country to city. The standard of living of the rural population has been lower than that of urban communities. The wants of the farmer have been few and simple; but better facilities for communication, for travel and for intercourse with his fellow men are improving his social and economic condition. Those who have been most ambitious, whose standard of living has been the highest, have been forced, of necessity, to migrate first to the town and then to the city or to forego the gratification of their wants and desires, both material and social. The hours of labor have been very long in rural communities, not only for the farmer, but for the women and children as well. Little leisure has been allowed the farmer and his wife in which to develop new wants. New inventions, new methods and better opportunities to reach markets for buying and selling are decreasing the necessity for long hours and are giving the farmers better social and intellectual advantages. All forces which gradually improve the social, moral, intellectual or economic condition of the farmers as a class tend to improve their standard of living and will in turn decrease the rate of migration from country to city.