If it were true that only the worthless portion of our country population passed into our cities to perish in the struggle for existence, which is so fatal in city life, we should on the whole have reason to congratulate ourselves.

But this is not so.

The main body of those who pass into city life are in fact the cream of the native population of the country, drawn by advantages chiefly economic.

They consist of large numbers of vigorous young men, mostly between the age of twenty and twenty-five, who leave agriculture for manufacture, or move into towns owing to displacement of handicrafts by wholesale manufacture.
Sec.6.Effect of the Change on National Health .-- This decay of country life, however much we may regret it, seems under present industrial conditions inevitable.

Nor is it altogether to be regretted or condemned.