Cook: City and Country 



115 



LAND-HUNGER OF FARMERS 



Not abstract reasoning, but concrete 

 perceptions of the relations of agricul- 

 ture to other forms of human activity 

 are needed. No doubt it was the 

 economic classification of agriculture as 

 an "industry," along with urban occu- 

 pations, that led Karl Marx and Henry 

 George to deduce their belief that 

 private ownership of land should be 

 abolished and production controlled 

 by the State, in order to cure urban 

 poverty and degeneration. Socialism 

 and the single-tax are urban theories, 

 and have the wrong psychology in rela- 

 tion to agriculture. George argued, 

 of course, that his single tax program 

 would encourage farming by making 

 land more readily available, and that 

 the farmer's "main interest is that of a 

 producer, not that of a landowner," 

 but farmers are not attracted by "the 

 idea of virtually making land common 

 property," or of becoming tenants on 

 public lands controlled by urban offi- 

 cials. A more subversivs proposal 

 could hardly be aimed against our 

 system of civilization than that of 

 taking land away from farmers and 

 treating it as public property, to be 

 managed from the city. 



Many primitive civilizations have 

 developed without land-ownership, but 

 none of the more advanced civilizations. 

 The land-hunger of the farmer is a 

 normal and beneficial instinct closely 

 related to other constructive and home- 

 making instincts, and of fundamental 

 importance in developing and main- 

 taining civilization. If the city man 

 "fights better for a home than for a 

 boarding-house," so the farmer will 

 fight better for his own land than for a 

 tenant holding, and has more interest 

 to maintain the fertility of the soil and 

 add permanent improvements. What 

 advantage could come to the city by 

 making the farmer less interested in his 

 work, or in his home and surroundings? 

 The proposal of Marx, that agriculture 

 be carried on by the forced labor of 

 "industrial armies," shows the nature 

 of his interest and information of the 

 subject. The urban reformers do not 



see the fundamental difference between 

 the rural use of land and the abuses 

 that arise from urban control of land 

 and exploitation of agriculture. Instead 

 of seeking for constructive improve- 

 ments of our land tenure system, 

 socialism proposes to abolish at once 

 all of the customs and institutions of 

 private property, with only chaos to 

 expect, as in Russia, where the original 

 Marxian theory is being applied. So- 

 cialism appeals to the proletariat 

 through the misery-loves-company feel- 

 ing, the Schadenfreude of the Germans, 

 who specialize on this sentiment. It 

 comforts the deprived to believe that 

 the rest of the world is coming rapidly 

 to the same estate, and that the whole 

 system of existing civilization is soon 

 to be destroyed by a grand interna- 

 tional upheaval. 



Marx dwelt upon the tendency of 

 centralized industrial systems to class 

 conflicts, and eventually to urban 

 proletariat control, but before that 

 stage can be reached in America our 

 farming population must give place to 

 a passive rural peasantry, as in Russia 

 and Central Europe. That the urban 

 proletariat will know how to restore 

 agriculture after our present industrial 

 system has decayed, seems a vain hope. 

 Sending out soldiers to raid the peas- 

 ants may be the only way to get food 

 for the Russian cities, but certainly 

 is a poor way to get more crops raised ! 

 Agriculture must be wrecked as well as 

 the urban industries, in order to "get 

 free and begin over." 



Conservatism is not the chief obsta- 

 cle to agricultural progress, but lack 3f 

 the enlightened interest that would find 

 practical solutions of the problems. 

 Paths that are once opened may be 

 followed to any length, but new paths 

 require careful seeking. Each of the 

 nations finds problems of its own, in 

 attempting to escape from conventional 

 ideas and systems. In France extra 

 burdens are laid upon agriculture by 

 the habit of subdividing land into small 

 parcels, 150 million parcels and less 

 than 9 million owners, according to a 

 recent report. It is easier to see the 



