100 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



It is to general causes, indeed, that one must turn 

 before trying to find the local circumstances which 

 aggravated the unrest in the United States, or at 

 least appeared to do so. The application of power 

 first steam, then electricity to machinery had 

 not only vastly increased the productivity of man- 

 kind but had stimulated invention to still wider 

 activity and lengthened the distance between man 

 and that gaunt specter of famine which had dogged 

 his footsteps from the beginning. With a con- 

 stantly growing supply of the things necessary for 

 the maintenance of life, population increased tre- 

 mendously: England, which a few centuries be- 

 fore had been overcrowded with fewer than four 

 million people, was now more bountifully feeding 

 and clothing forty millions. Perhaps, all in all, 

 mankind was better off than it had ever been before; 

 yet different groups maintained unequal progress. 

 The tillers of the soil as a whole remained more 

 nearly in their primitive condition than did the 

 dwellers of the city. The farmer, it is true, pro- 

 duced a greater yield of crops, was surrounded by 

 more comforts, and was able to enjoy greater lei- 

 sure than his kind had ever done before. The 

 scythe and cradle had been supplanted by the 

 mower and reaper; horse harrows, cultivators, and 



