The Country-Life Movement in the United States

The country-life movement is the working out of the desire to make rural civilization as effective and satisfying as Other civilization. It is not an organized movement proceeding from one center or even expressing one set of ideas. It is a world-motive to even up society as between country and city; for it is generally understood that country life has not reached as high development within its sphere as city life has reached within its sphere. We call it a new subject. As a "movement," or a recognized set of problems needing attention, it may possibly be called new; but in reality it is new only to those who have recently discovered it. It is not a back-to-the-land movement. The country-life movement must be sharply distinguished from the present popular back-to-the-land agitation. The latter is primarily a city or town impulse, expressing the desire of townspeople to escape, or of cities to find relief, or of real estate dealers to sell land; and in part it is the result of the doubtful propaganda to decrease the cost of living by sending more persons to the land, on the mostly mistaken assumption that more products will thereby be secured for the world's markets