762 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



from above downward. Each man, no matter into how humble 

 a condition born, has a chance, and knows he has a chance, of 

 rising ; and where he will be found later on in life cannot be 

 predicted from the status of his birth. These conditions, however, 

 give rise to hopes, involve the possibility of disappointment, and, 

 therefore, contain within themselves the germs of discontent. 



Moreover, the energies of the nation have been 'absorbed for 

 more than a generation in industrial expansion. Material develop- 

 ment has been so sudden, the industrial activities and relationships 

 of men have so greatly enlarged, that problems of an economic 

 character have arisen more rapidly than they have been solved. 

 The process of redefining the rights of individuals in their new 

 relationships, of adjusting the legal framework of society to cor- 

 porations, trusts, and all the complex phenomena of modern life, 

 is necessarily slow. Meanwhile, the issues which in times past oc- 

 cupied the public mind have disappeared. Political and religious 

 freedom have been largely attained. The question of slavery was 

 settled a generation ago by an appeal to arms. Men's minds are 

 left free to deal with problems of social and economic import. 

 At the same time the rapid increase of population and a rising 

 standard of living intensify the competitive struggle of life ;. and 

 whatever influence the public domain may have exercised in 

 lessening the intensity of this struggle is now largely a matter 

 of the past. 



The farmer's discontent is in part a manifestation of these 

 general conditions so prevalent in the nineteenth century in all 

 Western civilizations. The wants of the rural population, in 

 common with those of nearly all classes of society, have developed 

 more rapidly than the means of satisfying them. The social 

 requirements and customs of the times demand a larger outlay 

 for dress, amusement, jewelry, travel, education, and even funeral 

 expenses. Owing to the great variety which such classes of wants 

 assume when they are once indulged, the higher standard of living 

 in agricultural communities, far from contributing to contentment 

 of mind, has probably had just the opposite effect. And the more 

 luxurious style of life found in cities, especially the ostentatious 

 display of those who have risen suddenly to wealth, makes the 



