National center for audio experimentation: Old MacDonald sold his farm

As you know not too long ago most Wisconsinites lived and worked on farms like this one. However many of the young people who were born on farms and raised on farms didn't want to live and work on farms all their lives. It seemed to that generation of Wisconsinites the people who lived in cities and worked in industry had easier jobs more money a better way of life. So many young Wisconsinites decided to move to the city. Yes me dad. I want to tell you that I'm going to the city. I think if you supply the old I mean I'm going. To. Work in the city. People that never lived. There. Were. Living.

With. Your sickness. They. Only killed a girl where they can have my own. Thoughts. I thought. Oh my son I never realized you were so I don't approve of what I was like you had all these animals here. God there are water everywhere. Tom. Your father do you want to work at any place in the world. In the City of an industry but a city. Is a suitable wicked place. Oh I know the city has many advantages. We don't have you're on the phone. Wisconsinites began moving from farms to cities when our industries began to

grow creating many new jobs Wisconsinites moved to the cities for many reasons but in general they expected to find easier jobs more money a better way of life. Fairly soon however their children seeking an even better way of life would move out of the city. Back into the country into the suburbs. There they would create a sort of small city version of a farm with plenty of room to ride around and around in circles on a small city version of a tractor. Wisconsin on the move. A Wisconsin School of the air series designed to supplement a study of our state today. Old McDonald sold his farm about some problems of urbanization. In the 1920s many young Wisconsinites left the farm and moved to the

city. They saw the advantages and conveniences of living in the city and working in industry. They sought the convenience of nearby theaters ball games restaurants the convenience of schools libraries and museums the convenience of plumbing electricity and telephones. They also sought the advantages of the city job market where there are many different kinds of jobs. But then industry which had sustained the city by creating jobs for city dwellers began to mass produce the automobile. Now it was the automobile which made the suburbs possible. And the city impossible. Excuse me Dad I wanted to tell you that we're going out into the country. No I mean we're moving for the country like

we do. We have all of them in the suburbs. I thought you left lost your seats. Well I know I lost myself the smell of rain. I've lost my sense of hearing from listening to traffic noise all day and I love my sense of direction driving round the second of all if I look like I want my children to grow up with green brick and steel and glass and asphalt and I live here. Well you're like you've got school everywhere here. Anybody who's anybody in the world works in the city live in a country house is a lot of work. You have to shovel the driveway. Oh. I'm going to get one of those cute little tractors with the blower. Wisconsinites started moving off the farm into the city after World War One.

They started moving out of the city into the suburb after World War Two. Now the idea of a suburb is to combine the advantages of working in the city with the advantages of living in the country. And that's a good idea but it's created a major modern problem which is this. What happens to the country when everybody wants to live there. Right. They're like gentlemen let me show you some of the advantages of living in our beautiful green acres that I want. Is it always this noisy where now we're always building always growing here. Unfortunately building and growing create a little noise none come along gentlemen let me show you this lovely little creature it is small and skinny.

All nails grow tall and strong someday and you'll have the fun of watching them grow. Growth and development that's our motto here in Green Acres. When I see a feller with a bulldozer pushing down trees much bigger than me. Dad all day we're in the way of the road don't you know we had to get those trays out of the way so we could build a road where you know the regulars are growing and developing by pushing down great big creating more inflation and planting things. Anyone's in the knightly Yeah don't start a fight all right all right I can say your father is interested in our growing developing Green Acres community. Yes sir growth fund development that's progress. Not walk around his house here. Isn't it a little odd certainly is a doesn't have plumbing and water. Oh yes indeed. It has its own well and septic tank has like on of my dad. And what about schools or other schools nearby the school bus stops right at the front door like on the bus. Dad please. And other stores and internet is nearby shopping centers and churches are

conveying a 15 minute drive from Green Acres. Mike on the phone where did you stop criticizing everything was fine I just can't figure the separate thought is that what you're telling them. Growing up in the country. But look at your dream it should be part of our bigger not too big to let your country. Take over the course with what they cut down the world to me. If you can build houses then they say Come bring the country to the countryside. Any. More We're going to get my mom about. When Wisconsinites began moving to the outskirts of the city's streets and highways were built to speed the flow of traffic into the city's improve streets and highways allowed more and more people to move farther and farther from the

cities as a result. Cities began to sprawl across the landscape until the suburbs of one city but the suburbs of another city without any countryside in between. Now as you know more than half of the people who live in Wisconsin right now live in the south east region. Experts say that the population of this area will grow by a million people in the next 25 years. In other words very soon the area will need to build another city the size of Milwaukee and where will that new city be built on the countryside between the present cities of course. That's where the land is. The countryside which is today cornfields and pastures will soon be houses shopping centers and schools. And this growth is inevitable. It cannot be stopped. But some Wisconsinites are wondering if our present methods of growth and development are

adequate for this future growth and development. Because the fact is in a democracy the growth and development can be somewhat haphazard and disorganized. All right. They're not going to learn that you know Buffett has got the couple and the woman and they can make all that regular land line. And I'm going to. Let. Them know that the middle of the hall way and then. You're out of the locker room to the wall more than. You want the one long line but right next door. It might be a little annoyed

by a roll of the bottom of. It. A little knot of dollar man that I pointed out there but whether or not there ought to be a law against people developing gravel but I got a feeling I'll get along. Will mean a lot now and what they can do on their own. Get up among the three. You've got the pretty green driving in the backyard. Again we don't have anyone to get married on the other. I don't like my. Plan. You. Are limiting everybody bring in the. Land. MARKET AND IT. May be what you want to do is go by where they count. Everybody wants. The laws which tell people what they can and cannot do on their own land

are called zoning ordinances and in our democracy a zoning ordinances are pretty controversial. Yet cities do have many zoning ordinances. One kind of ordinance controls the type of building which can be built in certain areas. It reserves certain areas for houses other areas for industries. Still other areas for office buildings and store. It's going to sedate a person may not do anything he wants to do on his own land but in the country in most rural areas there were no zoning ordinances in the country. You can still do just about anything you want to on your own land and that works out fairly well when the countryside is divided into widely scattered farms. But when housing developments spread out over the countryside and people continue to do anything they want to do on their own land.

Conflicts are bound to develop. What. Billboard I know building you're building a billboard on the front in the middle of our beautiful bringing your development your building built you can't do that I can't do it when you don't want to go I. Don't want to want to do right now I've been nothing but a billboard will ruin the looks of our lovely community. Oh no give me a lovely little going ugly billboard. Well let me put it that way for your sake I'll try to make it pretty available here and there ought to be a lot of I can't go through that on American advertising makes a great American standard of living possible. You're going to build a large you're going to advertise against our great American

standard of living in our great American economy and you know what we call people. Again our economy one of them. I'm sorry about the gravel pit. If I had owned that land I wouldn't have opened a gravel pit next to your house. But I don't own the land next to your house where that other developers developing a gravel pit. So why are you picking on me little boy. Because I think there ought to be a law. And that's the message I'm going to put on this big bill. I want you to see that my own limited freedom to do anything I want on my own land is bad for you. Bad for this community. I want you to start doing something to get some the zoning laws out here in the country. When you do I think my billboard down. All right you'll win. But look here. We'll work very hard to get zoning laws against gravel pits and against billboards all right but we won't do anything to get zoning laws against houses OK because you wouldn't want anybody to limit my freedom to do anything I

want do on my own land which is what you have. So winning ordinances laws which tell people some of the things they can and cannot do on their own land are quite common in the city. Quite uncommon in the country but many Wisconsinites think that zoning is the only way to create order and beauty from the haphazard development which is going on all over our countryside. Zoning laws in the country would reserve certain areas for parks and recreational facilities. Certain areas for improved highways certainly other areas for industries and business. Rural zoning is being discussed in many areas of Wisconsin where urban sprawl is taking

over the countryside. However in America any law which limits the freedom of anybody is bound to be much discussed and any law which tells an American what he can and cannot do on his own land is bound to be regarded as limiting freedom. This is natural because Americans have always believed in the land. And because Americans have always had so much land the idea that America might run out of land in some areas sometime soon is impossible for many Americans to believe. But in the southeast region of our state a few Wisconsinites are studying the problem of squeezing in a million more people in the next 25 years and those who have accepted the challenge are working on a plan now thinking about these questions. What happens to the country when everybody wants to live there.

How can growth and development be organized to create beauty and harmony. And how should the freedom of a fuel be limited so that the many may benefit. The need for answers to those questions is rather urgent because growth and development do not stop while people think and plans. And if growth and development continue at the present right there will be no need for a plan because one continuous city will stretch from Milwaukee Wisconsin to Gary Indiana with no countryside in between. This Wisconsin School of the air program was written by Claire councilor narration by Ed Burroughs with technical direction by Don vaguely. The program was produced in binaural sound by the National Center for audio experimentation a

project of the University of Wisconsin and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.