Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, citizens of the United States maintained a bias against big cities. Most lived on farms and in small towns and believed cities to be centers of (144) crime, poverty and moral degradation. Their distrust was caused in part, by a national ideology that farming was the greatest occupation and rural living, (145) to urban living. This attitude prevailed even as the number of urban dwellers increased and cities became an essential feature of the national landscape. Gradually, economic reality overcame ideology. Thousands (146) the precarious life on the farm for more secure and better paying jobs in the city. But when these people migrated from the countryside, they carried their fears and suspicions with them. (44)