THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF AMERICAN FARMERS 



BY KENYON LEECH BUTTERFIELD 



[Kenyon Leech Butterfield, President of Rhode Island College of Agriculture and 

 Mechanic Arts since 1903, and Professor of Political Economy and Rural 

 Sociology. Since July 1, 1906, President of Massachusetts Agricultural College. 

 b. Lapeer, Michigan, June, 1868. B.S. Michigan Agricultural College; A.M. 

 University of Michigan. Assistant Secretary of Michigan Agricultural College, 

 1891-92; Editor, Michigan Grange Visitor, 1892-96; Superintendent. Michigan 

 Farmers' Institutes, 1895-99; Field Agent, Michigan Agricultural College, 1896- 

 99; Instructor in Rural Sociology, University of Michigan, 1902.] 



THE title of this paper indicates that, for the present purpose, 

 the words " the rural community " have been interpreted to apply 

 chiefly to farmers. Eight millions of our people are classed by 

 the census as " semi-urban." The village problem is an interesting 

 and important field for social investigation, but we shall discuss only 

 the conditions and needs of farmers. 



In America the farm problem has not been adequately studied. So 

 stupendous has been the development of our manufacturing indus- 

 tries, so marvelous the growth of our urban population, so pressing 

 the questions raised by modern city life, that the social and economic 

 interests of the American farmer have, as a rule, received minor con- 

 sideration. We are impressed with the rise of cities like Chicago, 

 forgetting for the moment that half of the American people still live 

 under rural conditions. We are perplexed by the-labor wars that are 

 waged about us, for the time unmindful that one third of the workers 

 of this country make their living immediately from the soil. We are 

 astounded, and perhaps alarmed, at the great centralization of cap- 

 ital, possibly not realizing that the capital invested in agriculture in 

 the United States nearly equals the combined capital invested in the 

 manufacturing and railway industries. But if we pause to consider 

 the scope and nature of the economic and social interests involved, 

 w r e cannot avoid the conclusion that the farm problem is worthy 

 of serious thought from students of our national welfare. 



We are aware that agriculture does not hold the same relative 

 rank among our industries that it did in former years, and that 

 our city population has increased far more rapidly than has our 

 rural population. We do not ignore the fact that urban industries 

 are developing more rapidly than is agriculture, nor deny the serious- 

 ness of the actual depletion of rural population, and even of com- 

 munity decadence, in some portions of the Union. But these facts 

 merely add to the importance of the farm question. And it should 

 not be forgotten that there has been a large and constant growth 

 both of our agricultural wealth and of our rural population. During 



