4 THE GREEN RISING 



Rising" has been in progress in this country for 

 several years and today important economic and 

 social changes are being brought about through its 

 influence. 



"In a sort of awful silence," says Chesterton, "the 

 peasantries have fought one vast and voiceless 

 pitched battle with Bolshevism and its twin brother, 

 Big Business, and the peasantries have won. . . . 

 All sorts of recent events have shown the way the 

 tide is driving; the paying-off of mortgages in France 

 and Belgium; the predominance of the agricultural 

 plains in America; the rise of the popular party in 

 Italy; and the sudden concessions in Ireland." 

 While it is incorrect to refer to American farmers 

 as peasants, Chesterton's description of what is 

 happening is not an overstatement of the facts. 



Agrarianism is not a new thing in the world. 

 Most countries of Europe have experienced from 

 time to tune up-risings of the peasant farmers when 

 social and economic conditions became intolerable. 

 Most of the agrarian revolutions of former centuries 

 grew out of land tenure. The evolution and modifi- 

 cation of land tenure policies produced four numer- 

 ous and powerful classes landlords, farm mana- 

 gers, peasant proprietors, and agricultural laborers. 

 Most of the agrarian revolutions of the Middle Ages 

 and early modern period resulted from conflicts be- 

 tween the economic and social interests of these 

 classes. It is impossible to understand the economic 

 aspects of the agrarian movement in Europe today 



