Cities, as we have seen, naturally develop the democratic principle, and on this and several other accounts are to be considered among the firmest supports of liberty. Well-organized mu nicipal institutions, in which the government is in the hands of the citizens, afford continual nourishment to the spirit of freedom throughout a country.
In the United States a city is an incorporated municipality, usually governed by a mayor, alder men and common council. In many of the States, especially the Eastern, the number of in habitants required for legal municipal incorpora tion is 10,000. In several of the Western States a much smaller number is required. A village or town of 10,000 or more inhabitants is not obliged to become a city, and in several cases places of 20,000 and 30,000 have preferred for local reasons to remain under village govern ment. In the United States cities are generally the outgrowth of villages; one village expands into a town with a population sufficient to as sume the duties of a city; but in several instances, villages near each other have united to form a city, and sometimes cities nearby have united in one municipality, The 10 largest cities in the world are Lon don, New York, Paris, Tokio, Chicago, Berlin, Vienna, Petrograd, Philadelphia and Moscow. The cityward movement is common to all civil ized countries. Not only the great industrial nations — the United States, Great Britain and Germany — but new countries holding vast un occupied territories, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have all felt the influence of the tidal movement that has set in toward urban centres. The explanation is plain and simple. The improvement in transportation facilities, °the inclusion of one farm task after another — weaving, toolmaking, soapmaking, slaughtering — in the scope of the urban factory; the im provement of farm methods and farm ma chinery, making it possible to do the work still left to the farm with fewer hands; the en couragement given to the city as contrasted with the country, with tariff favors; the increasing array of financial and commercial middlemen required as communities become less self-suf ficient and more dependent on world-wide ex changes, rendered the shifting inevitable.° This migration to the cities has been accompanied by great congestion at the centre: in the East Side of New York 600,000 persons are huddled to gether on 1,230 acres; but within recent years there has been a movement in many large cities of factories and residences to the suburbs, when the problem becomes one of transportation from the business centre to the outlying residential districts. The most striking example of a city centre entirely given up to business interests is seen in the historic city of London, which dur ing the day throbs with busy life, and in the night time becomes a city of caretakers.
In 1790 but 3.14 per cent of the inhabitants of the United States lived in cities; New York now contains a larger population than the States of the Union held at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1800 4 per cent were town dwellers; the proportions in 1830 and 1860 were 6.7 and 16.1 respectively. In 1890 the population living in urban places of 2,500 or over was 36.1 of the whole ; in 1900, 40.5, in 1910, 46.3. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, California, Washington, and in all New England States with the exception of Vermont, the urban population predominates ; New York, Chicago and Philadelphia contain about an eighth of the entire population of the United States.
The census of 1910 showed that 96.7 per cent of the inhabitants of Rhode Island lived in com munities of 2,500 and over, 92.8 in Massachu setts, 78.8 in New York and 69.7 in Connecticut. The percentages for the South Atlantic States were 25.4 (19.5 in 1900), for the West Central States 22.3 (15.1 in 1900), and for the East South Central 18.7 (12.7 in 1900). The ratio of increase for the last decade was highest in cities of from 50,000 to 250,000, being 42 per cent. The rate of increase for the entire urban popu lation was 38.5 per cent, as against 11.1 for the rural. A disquieting feature in the last returns is the fall of the birthrate in rural districts.
In England and Wales in 1851, 50.08 per cent of the population lived in towns; in 1911 the percentage was 78 per cent. In 1816 but 2 per cent of the population in Germany resided in cities of over 100,000 inhabitants. In 1910, 54.3 per cent were living in communities of 2,000 or over; the number living in cities of over 100,000 increased by 50 per cent in the last decade. In 1870, 68 per cent of the people were engaged in agriculture; in 1907 only 28 per cent. In France, Belgium and Holland the proportion of town dwellers is about 40 per cent. In Australia about one-third of the population is urban. In the decade from 1900-11 the rural population of Canada fell from 63 to 55 per cent of the whole. Even in the Western provinces, where millions of acres of virgin soil were opened for cultiva tion, the urban population showed a much greater relative increase than did the rural, and came near to the rural in absolute numbers, while in every one of the Eastern provinces with the exception of Quebec, the country popu lation showed a decline.
Much has been said and written upon the immorality of large cities, and it cannot be de nied that they have vices peculiar to themselves; but it must be considered, on the other hand, that they are free from many of those of petty towns, and even of rural districts. The asso ciation of men in masses, when due surveillance is exercised, has an influence distinctly favorable to the maintenance of social order, the impartial administration of justice, and, above all, the sup pression of all petty and local tyrannies, and the maintenance of individual liberties. It is by the influence of cities alone that a sufficient or ganization for the support of education and the means of enlightenment is obtained, even though that organization often fails to penetrate the entire mass of the cities themselves. It is to them that many of the facilities for progress in art and science are due. It is in them that pub lic opinion is formed, and so organized as to act upon the administration, and, even independ ently of direct representation, upon the legisla tion of a country; and although the individual freedom enjoyed in great cities may often tend to license, its general influence in an otherwise healthy community is highly beneficial to the moral tone of the whole. It must, however, be admitted that the democratic spirit in cities is liable to be carried too far, that an excessive growth of large towns might thus prove danger ous to the state. See APPROPRIATIONS, AMER ICAN SYSTEM OF BUDGETS; CITY COUNCILS; CITY MANAGER PLAN OF GOVERNMENT; CITY PLANNING; CITIES, AMERICAN, GOVERNMENT OF; CITIES, EUROPEAN, GOVERNMENT OF; MUNICIPAL