BACK TO THE LAND 205 



farmers' sons to secure land and the means to cultivate it 

 when they arrive at a marriageable age. Those who have 

 seen for threescore years the ever-increasing flow of boys 

 and girls from the farms to the cities, greater in proportion 

 to the rural population than in any other age, realize the 

 necessity for aid in this direction. While it is true that the 

 farm has contributed largely to the numbers of our success- 

 ful city men, the fact remains that the mass of boys who 

 come to the cities as well as the city born, lack the faculty 

 to grab or save, and fail, while the healthy girls swell the 

 ranks of prostitution, where an average of eight years lands 

 them in a pauper's grave. 



Our soldiers, as well as those of other countries, are not 

 up to former physical standards. Degeneracy, disintegration 

 is apparent in every direction. 



The power of a nation depends on the physical and mental 

 condition of the great mass of people, and to leave the people 

 in ignorance that they may be controlled by the intelligent 

 few who understand their needs and may have their welfare at 

 heart, is a mistake that other nations than Russia have made. 

 The law of the survival of the fittest has wiped out races 

 and nations who have ignored this fundamental law, that 

 all men must progress together. 



A race or civilization with such a basis of farmers as this 

 plan would create would be enduring. 



The nation or race, like the individual, must have intelli- 

 gent organization and live in harmony with the laws of 

 nature in order to survive. Opposition to them means 

 destruction. Cooperation is constructive. 



If we are to profit by this lesson, it is necessary that we 

 improve the conditions surrounding our lower classes. That 

 this is recognized by a large number of leading minds is 



