p. 7 | A National Evil

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 2, 1908

A National Evil

BRITISH publicists are renewing their assertions that the British race is rapidly deteriorating, and are giving warning that the days of the British empire will soon be numbered unless something is done to restore the old-time strength, hardiness, and virility. Investigations have been made to get at the cause of this physical degeneracy, and the investigators are laying the blame upon the present-day rush to the cities. Sixty-seven per cent of the population of England is found in the cities, and the last census showed an increase of fifteen per cent in the migration to the cities over the previous ten years. Poisonous air of overcrowded cities, evil associations, the increase of liquor drinking among women, these are contributory causes of the all-to-evident deterioration in size and strength. But these are not conditions that are found in Britain alone. The same tendency is manifested on this side of the Atlantic. The Washington Post says, editorially:—

Is there no warning here for the United States? If the British degeneracy is caused by the flocking of the people into the cities, will not Americans be affected injuriously in the same way in due time? The tendency to herd in cities is very marked in this country. It may have its individual merits, but in its effect upon the whole people this tendency is demoralizing in several ways. . . . It is a condition that is getting worse. In good times it was bad, but in bad times like the present it becomes a menace. Both in its immediate effects and in its effect upon the stamina of the people, the rush to the cities is a national evil.

Our people have heard this warning from other sources in the past before the result of the tendency was so apparent. Surely, we have no business now in the cities unless we are engaged in giving God’s last warning to those who dwell there. The iniquities of Sodom and Gomorrah are duplicated in every large city in the world, and even the smaller cities and the larger towns in very many instances have shown themselves apt students and ready imitators of the evil practises of the great cities. Men of the world see the danger and cry out against it, but are powerless to sweep back the tide.