GIG 



THE AMEBIC AX MUSEUM JOURXAL 



day's work can never be that of the farmer. 

 There are wider ranges of the population in 

 which unemplo^Tuent is not a major prob- 

 lem. Nor am I convinced that its "demo- 

 cratic control of industry" would be much 

 more than its control in the interests of la- 

 bor and urbanism. 



Hot, again, does the "common ownership 

 of the nation's land" provide a solid founda- 

 tion. The piroduction from the earth does 

 not rest on the same natural necessities as 

 does the manufacture of commodities in the 

 workshop. The ownership of land provides 

 the program that in the industries is sup- 

 jjlied by the organization. We shall find the 

 peasants of Eussia dissatisfied after a time 

 with any plan of public ownership of all 

 farm land; the farmer naturally desires to 

 own his farm. Such private ownership does 

 not carry the menace to .society that may be 

 carried by organized or corporate industries. 



The Problem 



Xow we are ready to agree, I trust, that 

 we have before us a politico-social question 

 of the first magnitude. The problem is not 

 measurable by statistics (nothing expresses 

 so little, and obscures so many facts, as fig- 

 ures). The trouble with society is its en- 

 mities and antagonisms. For fifty years, the 

 great antagonism has been between capital 

 and labor. This problem still overshadows 

 all others. We think we begin to see solu- 

 tions in the legacies of the war. But there 

 arises another antagonism, between the con- 

 sumer and the producer. This has grown 

 with our urbanism and with our relative 

 neglect of the rural civic and social problem. 

 If the consumer and the producer develop at- 

 titudes of hostility to each other, it will in- 

 volve the whole of society and split it wide 

 open. It will raise an agrarian question of 

 far greater danger than the political agra- 

 rianism of some of the other countries. The 

 immediate task before us is to put these 

 great questions before the consumer with 

 fairness, sympathy, and all candor. If we are 

 to make the most of our responsibilities, here 

 or anywhere, we must come into harmony on 

 the question of the supply of food. This 

 means a real cooperation in spirit and in 

 practice V^etween the producer and the con- 

 sumer, with a determination on both sides 

 to avoid the hateful enmities that have riven 

 society in the name of capital and labor. 



The Application 



Today we celebrate at an experiment sta- 

 tion. What is its relation to our problem? 



Its primary function is to aid in the in- 

 creasing of jiroduction hj contributing 

 knowledge and the confidence of science. 

 While we are feebly debating the ways of 

 getting cheap food, we are running straight 

 into the problem of obtaining food enough 

 at any price. We cannot forever scatter 

 over the earth and jjick up our supplies. La- 

 bor is becoming mobile, agricultural labor 

 with the rest; it goes where rewards are 

 greatest, and this means that rural laVjor 

 goes to cities and to industries; the great 

 government-controlled industries of war time 

 and thereafter will hasten this movement. 

 Democracy, for which we are fighting, will 

 release the serfs anrl unchain the castes; the 

 land may suffer. Population is increasing. 

 The standards of life are rising. The main- 

 tenance of armies utilizes great tracts of 

 land that might produce crops. The people 

 waste their supplies. We look to new areas 

 of virgin land to make good our needs, but 

 this only defers the issue and breeds incom- 

 petence in the people; it is a weakening pol- 

 icy. 



This skill must be paid for. If we are to 

 educate the farmer to greater effectiveness 

 as an occupationist and to increase his train- 

 ing as a citizen, we must see that he is able 

 to get the value of his education and to have 

 the essential advantages of life. Bather 

 than try to force down the cost of farm sup- 

 plies to old levels, we must remember that 

 these old levels have often been too low and 

 that our problem now is to place them 

 where they belong in relation to other values. 



To develop skill in the farmer requires in- 

 stitutions with good equipment, the best and 

 ablest investigators and teachers, freedom 

 of these ofiicers to devote their best efforts 

 to their work rather than to be diverted by 

 governmental interferences, patience on the 

 jjart of the people to wait for results that 

 come only in their due time and season. 

 You say this costs money. Yes, much money. 

 You would not appreciate the work if you 

 clid not pay what it is worth. We are now 

 destroying property and supplies. I suppose 

 that more money and treasure are being ex- 

 pended this day in destruction than have 

 Vjeen appropriated for agricultural research 

 in the history of the world. We have not yet 

 passed the destructive phase of our evolution. 



