Graver Peril, Heavier Odds
"Graver Peril," "Heavier Odds."—The well-known writer Jacob A. Riis, recently remarked in a popular magazine:— “Each generation sees the rush away from the land grow, sees the cities swell, with the same part ever in graver peril by the teeming crowds; sees character and individuality struggling with heavier odds. I do not know whether we are tending. I hope and believe we are safe, for I believe God made this nation for greater things than He has yet wrought with it.” Mr. Riis hopes against all promise; believes against all evidence. Like other good patriots, his wish is father to his belief. The great swelling cities with their increasingly unnatural conditions are imperiling all national life, and crushing out individuality. Those will be grand characters for God who resist the awful current.