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.
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