IMPORTANCE OF RURAL INTERESTS 



nities alone, but is important to the entire 

 Republic. For its continuance and strength 

 the whole nation requires that the rural 

 classes should thrive. As these classes are, 

 so is the state. 



In the United States the conjunction of 

 virile population with boundless natural 

 resources has created wealth with a rapidity 

 never before attained. Then right in the 

 midst of this incomparable development 

 mankind reached the world's limit of free 

 arable land. For the first time in history it 

 became impossible to acquire fertile soil by 

 simply traveling to it. As the population of 

 the globe was meantime increasing by leaps 

 and bounds, the disappearance of free ara- 

 ble forced a rise in the values of all agricul- 

 tural land within reach of markets, giving 

 to our wealth a new and incalculable acces- 

 sion, since our arable land, all of it near cen- 

 ters of population, was at once vaster, richer, 

 and in better cultivation than that of any 

 other nation. Thus the principle of un- 

 earned increment has wrought, with our 

 energy and industry and with our country's 



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