128 THE GREEN RISING 



ning of those political issues which had to do, in one 

 form or another, with 'dividing up/ or with curbing 

 those who had much. 



"The end of free land was the largest one of those 

 causes which, in the years preceding 1900, gave rise 

 to a prevailing mood of repression, of discomfort, 

 sullenly silent, or angrily vocal. Opulent America, 

 generous, full-teated mother, was beginning to wean 

 her children, and they were restless. It is doubtful if 

 any considerable portion of those who were fretful 

 recognized this intangible, inexorable thing as the 

 cause of it. It took tune to pass from easy-going 

 assumption that our land, our forests, all our na- 

 tural resources were unlimited, to uncomfortable con- 

 sciousness that they were not. The average Ameri- 

 can, more readily visualizing a personified cause for 

 his discomfort, dwelt more upon causes that pro- 

 ceeded from persons, or organizations of persons 

 corporations, 'trusts/ or what not. There were such 

 causes. But they were minor compared to the ending 

 of the supply of free land." 



Socializing agencies produced profound effects on 

 the individualism of the frontiersman of a generation 

 ago. The new physical conditions which have accel- 

 erated socialized effort in the West are nowhere 

 more clearly outlined than in the following words of 

 Professor Frederick J. Turner: "The pioneer farmer 

 of the days of Lincoln could place his family on a 

 flatboat, strike into the wilderness, cut out his clear- 

 ing, and with little or no capital go on to the achieve- 



