THE PROBLEM OF THE CITY
Professor J.S. McKenzie says "The growth of large cities constitutes
perhaps the greatest of all the problems of modern civilization." While
the city is a problem in itself, creating certain biological and
psychological conditions which are new to the race, the city is perhaps
even more an intensification of all our other social problems, such as
crime, vice, poverty, and degeneracy.
The city is in a certain sense a relatively modern problem, due to
modern industrial development. While great cities were known in ancient
times, the number was so few that the total population affected by city
living conditions was comparatively small. Moreover, the populations of
ancient cities have often been exaggerated. Probably at the height of
its power, the population of Athens did not exceed 100,000; Carthage,
700,000; Rome, 500,000; Alexandria, 500,000; Nineveh and Babylon,
1,000,000. All the great cities of the ancient world practically
disappeared with the fall of Rome. After Rome's fall, Constantinople was
the only large city with over 100,000 population in all Europe for
centuries. Down to 1600 A.D., indeed, there were only fourteen cities in
all Europe with a population of over 100,000; and even in 1800, at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, there were only twenty-two such
cities. But at the end of the nineteenth century, in 1900, there were
one hundred and thirty-six such cities in Europe, representing twelve
per cent of the entire population. Moreover, while in 1800 less than
three per cent of the total population of Europe lived in cities, in
1900 the total urban population was twenty-five per cent. Again, all of
the great European capitals developed their present enormous population
almost wholly within the nineteenth century. Thus, the population of
London in 1800 was 864,000, while in 1901 it had reached 4,536,000, or
in the total area policed, 6,581,000; the population of Paris in 1800
was 547,000, in 1901 it was 2,714,000; the population of Berlin in 1800
was only 172,000, in 1901 it was 1,888,000; the population of Vienna in
1800 was 232,000, in 1901 it was 1,674,000. These figures are cited to
show that from four fifths to nine tenths of the growth of the greatest
cities of the world has taken place within the nineteenth century.
Dr. Weber in his _Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century_
illustrates the striking difference between the urban development of the
nineteenth century and that of the eighteenth century by comparing the
population of Australia in 1890 with the population of the United States
in 1790. Australia in 1890, out of a population of 3,809,000 had
1,264,000, or 33.2 per cent, living in cities of 10,000 or over; while
the United States in 1790, out of a population of 3,929,000 had only
123,000, or 3.14 per cent living in cities. Both countries, it will be
noticed, had about the same total population at the two periods and the
same area, but Australia in 1890 represented in its population the
industrial development of the nineteenth century with its tendency
toward urbanization, while the United States in 1790 represented the
civilization of the eighteenth century with its predominating rural
life.
The Growth of Cities in the United States.--A word about census
terminology will be helpful before discussing the growth of cities in
the United States. According to the United States census, a city is a
place with a population of 8000 or over; a _small_ city is a place
with a population of 8000 to 25,000; a _large_ city is a place with
a population of from 25,000 to 100,000, and a _great_ city is a
place with a population above 100,000. These distinctions are necessary
in discussing the problems of the city, because the problems of cities
change rapidly when the population goes above 100,000. It is mainly the
problem of the great city which we shall discuss in this chapter.
In 1800 there were only six cities in the United States with over 8000
population. Philadelphia was the largest of these, with 69,000, and New
York second with 60,000. These cities contained a fraction less than
four per cent of the population of the United States. In 1900, on the
other hand, there were 546 cities in the United States with a population
of over 8000. Moreover, over thirty-three per cent of the total
population of the United States lived in cities of 8000 and over, while
nearly one fifth of the total population lived in the thirty-eight great
cities. Between 1890 and 1900 the gain in the urban population of the
country was sixty per cent, while the gain in the rural population was
only fifteen per cent. During that decade, in other words, the cities
grew four times as fast as the country districts in population.
Moreover, for that particular decade, the great cities grew faster than
the smaller ones, but since 1900 certain state census statistics seem to
show that the cities from 25,000 to 100,000 population are growing
faster than those above 100,000.
_Distribution of the Urban Population of the United States._ If the
urban population of the United States were distributed relatively
uniformly among the several States, perhaps the problem of the city
would not be so pressing as it is, but the urban population is largely
concentrated in a very few states. Over fifty per cent of the urban
population is found in the North Atlantic states alone. The five states
of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Ohio contain
also more than half of the urban population of the whole country. If we
add to these five states New Jersey and Missouri, then these seven
states contain nearly two thirds of the urban population of the United
States.
It will be noticed that these states with a large urban population are
the great manufacturing states of the Union. The proportion of urban to
rural population indeed is a good index to industrial progress. The
states with over half their population urban in 1900 were, Rhode Island,
81 per cent; Massachusetts, 76 per cent; New York, 68.5 per cent; New
Jersey, 61.2 per cent; Connecticut, 53.2 per cent. States with more than
one fourth of their population urban were, Illinois, 47.1 per cent;
Maryland, 46.9 per cent; Pennsylvania, 45.5 per cent; California, 43.7
per cent; Delaware, 41.4 per cent; New Hampshire, 38.6 per cent; Ohio,
38.5 per cent; Colorado, 38.1 per cent; Washington, 31.9 per cent;
Michigan, 30.9 per cent; Missouri, 30.8 per cent; Wisconsin, 30.7 per
cent; Louisiana, 29.3 per cent; Montana, 27 per cent; Minnesota, 26.8
per cent; Utah, 25.2 per cent. It will be noticed that only one of these
states with the population more than one fourth urban is distinctively
southern, namely, Louisiana. This is due to the fact that heretofore the
South has been largely agricultural in its industries, consequently only
a few of the great cities of the country are found within its borders.
There are but few countries in Europe that come up with the most urban
of our American states. Certain countries of Western Europe, however,
equal the most urban of our states, and the following countries have at
least one quarter of their population urban: England and Wales,
Scotland, Belgium, Saxony, Holland, Prussia, and France. The most urban
of our states, however, such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New
York, surpass all European countries in the number of their population
living in cities, with the exception of England and Wales. This again is
due to the fact that certain of our states have specialized in
manufacturing industries more than any European country, with the
exception of England and Wales.
Before leaving the statistics of the growth of cities, it is worth our
while to note that certain great urban centers are developing in this
country which promise to show, even in the near future, the most
extensive urbanization of population known to the world; for example, a
line of cities and suburban communities is now developing which will in
the near future connect New York and Boston on the one hand and New
York, Philadelphia, and Washington on the other hand. Thus in a few
years, stretching from Washington to Boston, a distance of five hundred
miles, there promises to be a continuous chain of urban communities with
practically no rural districts between them. In a sense, this will
constitute one great city with a population of twenty millions or
upwards. Other urban centers, though not so extensive, are also
developing at other points in the United States. At the end of the
twentieth century it is safe to say that this country will have at least
a dozen cities with a population of over one million. Moreover, so far
as we can see at the present time, there is no end in the near future to
this growth of the urbanization of our population; for the causes of
this great growth of cities seem inherent in our civilization. Let us
see what these causes are.
Causes of the Growth of Great Cities.--There may be distinguished two
classes of causes of the growth of cities: (1) general or social causes,
and (2) minor or individual causes. It is the social causes, the causes
inherent in our civilization, which are of particular interest to us.
Among these social causes we shall place:
1. _The Diminishing Importance of Agriculture in the Life of Man._
Once agriculture was the all-embracing occupation. Practically all goods
were produced upon the farm. Now, however, man's wants have so greatly
increased that the primitive industries of the farm can no longer
satisfy these wants, and in order to satisfy them men have developed
large manufacturing industries. Moreover, fewer men are needed on the
farms to produce the same amount of raw material as was produced
formerly by the labor of many. This has come about mostly through
labor-saving machines. The invention and application of labor-saving
machines to the industries of the farm has made it possible to dispense
with a great number of men. It is estimated that fifty men with modern
farm machinery can do the work of five hundred European peasants without
such machinery. Consequently, the four hundred and fifty who have been
displaced by farm machinery must find other work, and they find it
mainly in manufacturing industries. Again, the scientific and
capitalistic agriculture of the present has much the same effect as
labor-saving machines. They have greatly increased agricultural
production and at the same time lessened the amount of labor. The
opening up also of new and fertile regions which were very productive in
the nineteenth century had a similar effect.
Every improvement in agricultural industry instead of keeping men on the
farm has tended to drive them from it. Scientific agriculture carried on
with modern machinery necessarily lessens the need of a great proportion
of the population being employed to produce the foodstuff and other raw
materials which the world needs. Hence it has tended to free men from
the soil and to make it possible for a larger and larger number to go to
the city. Therefore the relatively diminishing importance of agriculture
has been one of the prime causes of the growth of the cities in the
nineteenth century; and so far as we can see this cause will continue to
operate for some time to come.
2. _The Growth and Centralization of Manufacturing Industries._
This is perhaps the most vital cause of the growth of cities. The great
city, as we have already said, is very largely the product of modern
industrialism. Improved machinery, improved transportation, and enlarged
markets, together with the increased wants of men, not only have made
possible a great growth of manufacturing industries, but also these same
factors have tended to centralize manufacturing industries in the
cities. Let us note briefly why it is that manufacturing industries are
grouped together in great cities rather than scattered throughout the
rural communities. In centralizing manufacturing plants in cities,
certain industrial economies are secured, such as: (1) economy in motor
power, whether it be water or coal; (2) economy in machinery--it is not
necessary to duplicate machines; (3) economy in wages--one
superintendent, for example, can oversee a large plant; (4) utilization
of by-products--when many factories are grouped together by-products,
which are sometimes more valuable than the main products, can be better
utilized. (5) There is economy in buying raw material and in selling
finished products when many factories are grouped together. For all
these reasons, along with the further reason that those who labor in
factories must live close to them, manufacturing has been a prime cause
of the modern city, and, so far as we can see, will continue to further
urbanize our population in the future.
3. _The Increase of Trade and Commerce._ Between different
communities there developed during the nineteenth century, upon the
growth of better transportation, a great increase of trade and commerce,
for along with the better transportation went a specialization in
industry, on the part of both communities and classes. The modern city
is often largely a product of modern transportation. We find all the
great cities located at natural breaks in transportation. The cities of
the Middle Ages were largely centers of trade and commerce where goods
were distributed to various minor centers. The modern city has not lost
this characteristic through developing into an industrial center. On the
contrary, the status of the city in trade and commerce makes it at the
same time a valuable center for the development of manufacturing
industries. The break between land and water transportation is
particularly favorable to the development of large cities. Thus, we find
New York located where goods shipped to Europe must be transferred from
land to water transportation; Chicago, located at the head of the water
transportation of the Great Lakes; St. Louis, at the head of the
navigation of the Mississippi River. Only Denver and Indianapolis among
the great cities of the United States in 1910 are not located on a river
or some other navigable water.
_Minor Causes._ These are the chief social causes of the growth of
cities, and, as we have seen, they are wholly industrial in their
nature. Undoubtedly the modern city is a product of modern industry.
Certain non-economic factors may also enter into the growth of cities,
but these are of but slight importance; such are the greater
intellectual and educational advantages which the city offers, the great
opportunities for pleasure and amusement in the city and the like. Such
minor and individual causes have had but little part in the growth of
the great cities of the present.
Social And Moral Conditions Of City Life.--Certain social conditions in
our cities are worthy of attention in order that we may understand the
effect of the city upon social and racial evolution.
1. _City Populations have a Larger per Cent of Females than Rural
Populations._ All of our fifteen largest cities, except three,
contain a larger per cent of females than the states in which they are
located. Thus New York state has 50.37 per cent of its population
female; New York city, 50.56 per cent; Pennsylvania, 49.29 per cent of
its population female; Philadelphia, 51.18 per cent; Missouri, 48.38 per
cent of its population female; St. Louis, 49.51 per cent. In towns of
the United States of more than 2500 population the per cent of females
is 50.03, while the rural districts of the United States have only 48.08
per cent of their population female. The cause of this is perhaps to be
found in the fact that in cities there is always a larger infantile
mortality among males than among females, and that in towns there is a
larger proportion of female children born than in the rural districts.
2. _People in the Active Period of Life, from Fifteen to Sixty-five
Years of Age, predominate in the City_. According to Dr. Weber, out
of every 1000 individuals in the United States as a whole there are 355
under fifteen years of age, 603 between fifteen and sixty-five, and 29
above sixty-five years of age. But in the great cities there are only
299 under fifteen years of age, and only 29 above sixty-five years of
age, while 668 are of the age between fifteen and sixty-five years. (In
both cases the age of three in a thousand was unknown.) The cause of the
predominance of those in the active period of life is undoubtedly due to
the immigration into the cities from the country districts. This makes
the life of cities more energetic and active, more strenuous than it
would otherwise be.
3. _The Great Cities in the United States have over twice as many
Foreign-born in their Population as the United States as a whole_.
This has been sufficiently discussed under the head of immigration.
4. _The Birth Rate is higher in the Cities than in the Rural
Districts._ This is primarily due to there being more women of
child-bearing age in the cities. In the United States it is also due to
the presence of so many foreign-born in the cities. The marriage rate is
also higher in the cities than in the rural districts. The following
statistics based on a thousand population show the relative difference
between the cities and the rural districts of the New England States in
marriage rate, birth rate, and death rate for 1894-95:
Marriage Rate Birth Rate Death Rate
Boston........................ 23.10 31.24 23.23
Cities over 50,000............ 18.89 29.72 19.49
Rural Districts............... 13.77 21.76 17.38
5. _The Death Rate in Cities is also higher than in the Rural
Districts_, as the above table has just shown. This is undoubtedly
due to the poor sanitary and living conditions of large cities.
6. _The Physical Condition of City Populations_. Measurements by
Dr. Beddoe and others show that the stature and other measurements of
men of the great cities of Great Britain are far below those of the
rural population. The latest English commission to investigate the
conditions of city life also reports that the population of the British
cities at least shows marked signs of physical deterioration.
7. _Mental and Moral Degeneracy in our Cities_. (1) A larger number
of insane are found in our cities than in the rural districts. In the
United States as a whole there were in 1890 seventeen hundred insane per
million of population, while in the cities of over 50,000 there were
2429 insane per million.
(2) The suicide rate is much higher in the cities than in other
districts. In general the suicide rate in the United States seems to be
two or three times as high in our large cities as in the rest of the
country.
(3) Poverty and pauperism are much more common in our cities than in
rural districts. About one third of the population of great cities may
safely be said to live below the poverty line, while in such cities as
New York and Boston from ten to twenty per cent of the population
require more or less charitable assistance during the year.
(4) The amount of crime in the cities is about twice as great as in the
rural districts.
(5) Illegitimacy in the cities is from two to three times as great as in
rural districts, and it is well known that vice centers very largely in
our cities.
All these facts show that mental and moral degeneracy is much more
common in our urban population than in our rural populations, and that
the biological and moral aspects of our city life present pressing
problems.
8. _Educational and Religious Conditions in Cities._ We have
already seen that illiteracy for the native white population is much
less in our cities than in the rural districts. This is undoubtedly due
in the main to the better facilities for education in our cities, and it
is here chiefly that we find the bright side of city life; for the
cities are not only centers of the evil tendencies of our civilization
but are also the centers of all that is best and uplifting. The urban
schools in general are open much longer than the rural school, the
attendance in them is better, and the teaching is much more efficient.
In 1890 the urban schools held 190 days in the year, while the rural
schools held only 115 days. The attendance in the urban schools was
seventy per cent of the enrollment, while in the rural schools it was
only sixty-two per cent. Besides the schools, of course, must be
mentioned many other educational facilities to be found in our cities,
such as in connection with social settlements, lecture and concert
halls, theaters, libraries, art galleries, and museums,--all of which
the city has practically exclusively.
The census of 1890 included a religious census, and it seemed to show
that on the whole religious conditions were better in our cities than in
the country districts. In cities above 25,000 the church membership was
37.9 per cent of the population, while it was only 32.85 per cent of the
total population. Again, in cities above 100,000 it was 39.1 per cent of
their total population, although in the four largest cities--New York,
Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis--it was only 35.6 per cent of the
total population. [Footnote: The special religious census of 1906, the
results of which are not yet fully published, shows an even greater
preponderance of church membership in cities.] Some recent studies,
however, while not extensive enough to justify a conclusion, seem to
indicate that in some of the largest cities the church is losing its
hold, and that more and more the population of our largest urban centers
is becoming churchless, if not without religion. Even if this is so,
however, it also remains a fact that the various religious denominations
put forth their best efforts in these largest urban centers, and that
more is being done for the people religiously and morally in these
centers than perhaps for any other portion of the world's population.
Proposed Remedies for the Evils of City Life.--The proposed remedies for
the evils of city life are well worth attention, not only that we may
understand the problem of the city better, but also that we may
understand social conditions in general better. Of the remedies which we
shall discuss it may be said that four are foolish and two are wise. The
foolish ones are those that try to check the growth of the cities; the
wise ones are those that recognize that the cities are here to stay and
must be dealt with as permanent and even increasingly important factors
in our civilization.
(1) The first remedy is to make agriculture more attractive and
remunerative. This is a good thing in itself, but, as we have seen, it
will not check the growth of the cities; rather, every improvement in
the conditions of agriculture in the way of making it more productive
and remunerative will drive more to the cities.
(2) A second remedy, akin to the first, is to make village life more
attractive. Like the first remedy, this is good in itself, but it is
hardly probable that it will stop the growth of cities; rather, it might
be urged that village improvement will give people a taste of the higher
comforts and conveniences to be found in cities and will tend to send
them to the city.
(3) The third proposed remedy is to colonize the poor of the cities in
the country. This has been especially advocated by General Booth and
other leaders of the Salvation Army. This plan, however, cannot do much
toward helping solve the problem of the city. It is a difficult thing to
get the poor in the city adjusted again to rural life, and the
probability is that in many cases they would be worse off in the country
than in the city. Moreover, the vacant places they left would soon be
filled by others, and in general the whole plan seems to be against
man's instincts as well as against the social forces of the time.
(4) Administrative decentralization may be mentioned as a plan adopted
by some state legislatures to prevent the growth of cities, that is, to
scatter the state institutions through the rural sections of the state
instead of locating them in the cities. On the whole, this is a foolish
plan. The cities will not be checked in their growth by this, while on
the other hand it is the cities which most need the presence of the
state institutions.
(5) The most important remedy for the cure of the evils of the cities,
and one which meets these evils on their own ground, is what has been
called "improved municipal housekeeping"; that is, the supervision and
control by the city of all those things which are used in common by the
people. The idea is that the city is not in its social conditions
comparable to the rural community; rather it is more like one big
household, and it is necessary, therefore, that there be collective
housekeeping, so to speak, in order to keep those things which the
people use in common at least in good order. This has also been called
"municipal socialism." It is not socialism, however, in the strict
sense, for it does not advocate the ownership in common of all capital,
but rather municipal control of public utilities. We cannot enter into
this large subject, upon which many books have been written; to a few of
these the student will find references at the end of this chapter. Here
it is only necessary to say that all of this civic improvement implies
that the city must own or control adequately its sewer system, its water
supply, its streets; that it must control the housing of the people, the
disposal of garbage, the smoke nuisance, general sanitary and living
conditions; that it must provide adequate protection against fire, an
adequate park system, an adequate free school system, with public
playgrounds for children, free libraries, free art galleries and
museums, municipal theaters, public baths, and gymnasiums.
All of this is of course a species of socialism in the sense that it is
collective control of the conditions of living together. It advocates,
however, that the city should take over only those things that are used
in common. The trouble with this so-called municipal socialism is that
it presupposes a pretty high degree of intelligence on the part of
people. Whether or not a municipality shall own and operate its own
street railways, electric light and gas plants, is largely a question of
the development of the social consciousness and intelligence in that
particular community. In some communities such municipal undertakings
have been made a success; in others they have failed. But it is evident
that with a large mass of people living together the common conditions
of living must be subject to intelligent collective control if human
life and character are to have a proper environment in which to develop.
(6) The last remedy proposed for the evils of the city is the
development of the suburbs through rapid transit. This is already being
rapidly accomplished in many of our larger cities. The solution of the
mechanical problem of rapid transit will probably, in other words, tend
greatly to relieve automatically the present congestion which we find in
many of our large cities. Probably the best form of such rapid transit
is underground electric roads, or subways. Transportation upon these
roads must be made cheap enough to enable workingmen to live at a
distance from their labor. With the solution of the problem of rapid
transit it should be possible to scatter a city's population anywhere
within a radius of thirty miles. But it would be a mistake to think that
rapid transit alone will solve the problems of city communities.
Stringent regulation by law of sanitary and housing conditions and, as
has just been said, of all the things used in common, is necessary to
put order and healthfulness into that vast household which we call a
modern great city.
In conclusion we would emphasize again that the era of the city is just
beginning; that a larger and larger proportion of our population must
come to live in the cities, and that, therefore, the city will dominate
the society of the future. Hence, humanity must solve the problem of the
city if social progress is to continue. And the problem is by no means
insoluble. Man is not yet adjusted to city life. The city is so new even
to civilized man that he has carried into it the habits which he
practiced in isolated rural communities. These are the sources of
trouble in our cities, and, as we have already seen, new adjustments
have to be made by individuals in order to secure harmonious social
relationships under the crowded conditions of the city. The city
requires, therefore, a higher degree of intelligence on the part of the
individual than the rural social life, and a great part of the solution
of the problem of the city must come through the development of such
higher intelligence and morality by means of education. At any rate, it
is foolish to decry the city or to attempt to stop its growth. That is
impossible and, we think, undesirable. The ideal social life of man has
never been the isolated life of the rural community. The city has always
been in a sense man's ideal, as is shown by the fact that nearly all
attempts to depict a perfect human society have been pictures of cities.
Man's ideal, as Dr. Weber says, is not the city or the country, but the
city and the country blended, and this is what the city of the future
should become. No doubt the time will come when present cities will be
looked back upon with horror, as we look back on eighteenth-century
cities. The city of the future need not present any of the hideous,
disagreeable, and unwholesome aspects of our present cities. The city
can be made, through science and morality, a place in which human beings
may find their ideal society.
SELECT REFERENCES
_For brief reading:_
WEBER, _Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century_.
WILCOX, _The American City_.
ZUEBLIN, _American Municipal Progress_.
_For more extended reading:_
FAIRLIE, _Municipal Administration_.
HOWE, _The City: the Hope of Democracy_.
PARSONS, _The City for the People_.
ROWE, _Problems of City Government_.
STRONG, _The Challenge of the City_.