404 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



But he does not pursue this point, and does not show 

 how any of the remedial measures suggested can possibly 

 raise the price of farm-produce ; and unless this is done, 

 the farmer's condition, though it may be somewhat 

 ameliorated, will never be raised to the degree of comfort 

 and security which ought to be enjoyed by those whose 

 labour provides the food of the community. 



Let us then try and get at the root of this question. 

 Why is it that the degree of comfort and safety of the 

 American farmer has, during the last fifty years or less, 

 so greatly diminished ? What is the cause of the strange 

 phenomenon of food being sold by its producers at such 

 low prices as to be unremunerative to them ? It is 

 evident that these prices are determined by competition. 

 How is it that in this particular business competition has 

 forced prices down to such a point as to be permanently 

 unprofitable ? The causes that have brought this about 

 are clearly twofold : the absence of the equalizing power 

 of rent, and the competition of capitalist or honanza 

 farms. Why this is so will now be explained. 



Owing to the almost universal custom in America 

 (until recently) of purchase rather than rental of land, 

 and the wide-spread interests involved in real-estate 

 speculation, the true nature of rent, as thoroughly worked 

 out by the political economists of Europe, is quite un- 

 known except to the comparatively few who have made a 

 special study of the subject. It is therefore necessary to 

 show, in as clear a manner as possible, its economic 

 importance, and that it is really the key to the whole 

 problem of American agricultural distress. 



The Social Importance of Bent. 



Rent is the equalizer of opportunities, the means of 

 giving fair play to all cultivators of the soil in the 

 struggle for existence. Farms differ greatly in value, 

 from two quite distinct causes : the fertility of the land 

 itself, as dependent on soil and climate, is one cause ; 

 situation, as regards distance from a railroad or from a 

 market, is the other. Let us suppose one farm to produce 



