126 THE GREEN RISING 



northward to fatten upon the "bad lands" of 

 Montana and elsewhere as a preparation for the 

 Chicago markets. 



In the meantime the country was settling up 

 rapidly. The inducements of the railroads and the 

 government and the discovery of valuable mineral 

 ores in certain parts of the West made this sec- 

 tion of the country attractive, both to the adven- 

 turer and to the pioneer farmer. Many of the ad- 

 venturers were rough fellows and some of them were 

 lawless and indifferent to property rights. But grad- 

 ually the orderly element of the population gained 

 supremacy and legitimate methods of production 

 succeeded the adventurous practices of the early 

 days. There survived, however, a spirit of initia- 

 tive and self-reliance which dominated throughout 

 the Middle West. 



Psychological and Social Effects 



In the meantime important psychological changes 

 were taking place. Mark Sullivan has described 

 these changes as a "mood of irritation." 7 He traces 

 this emotion to the unconscious realization that the 

 available supply of free land had been reached. 

 "The average American," says Sullivan, "who had 

 been able to look out on a far horizon of seemingly 

 limitless land, now saw that horizon close in around 

 him in the shape of the economic walls of a different 

 sort of industrial and economic organization, walls 



T See Our Times (1926), Chap. 8. 



