INTRODUCTION 3 



The agrarian revolution in eastern and southeast- 

 ern Europe has resulted in a redistribution of land. 

 Large estates have been broken up and redistributed 

 to peasant owners, sometimes on a basis of individual 

 enterprise or on some form of socialistic or com- 

 munistic plan. Fortunately agrarian activities in 

 this country have never been promoted with this 

 end in view. All farm movements in this country 

 have had for their motive "the establishment by 

 law of conditions more favorable to the use and 

 occupation of land." This distinction between agra- 

 rianism in this country and in certain parts of 

 Europe is important. It should be observed that in 

 the countries of western Europe the motives of 

 agrarian movements have been somewhat similar to 

 those of the more recent farm movements in the 

 United States. 



The outstanding social movement of the post- 

 war period has been the rise of agrarianism in al- 

 most every civilized country of the world. G. K. 

 Chesterton, the well known English writer, has 

 called this the "Green Rising." "The Green Rising 

 is a peasant movement/' says he, "where the Red is 

 a proletarian movement." The agrarian revolution 

 started in Russia with the overthrow of the Roman- 

 off dynasty, and since the close of the Great War it 

 has swept over all the countries of Europe, and in 

 some instances has influenced conditions in many 

 parts of the United States. The so-called "Green 



