THE FEEDING OF THE NATION 11 



cently the Non-Partisan Farmers' Alliance of the 

 Northwest periodically appear in politics, make a 

 gallant fight, and then their members settle down 

 to a kind of political despair? What is the matter 

 with our food supply? What is the trouble with 

 agricultui'e as a profession? To what is the high 

 cost of living really attributable and with it the 

 health of our children and the lowered standard of 

 living of our people as well ? 



It cannot be that this problem is insoluble. It 

 cannot be that a civilization that can perfect wire- 

 less telegraphy, the flying-machine, and the modern 

 battle-ship ; that can organize science to systematize 

 warfare — it cannot be that a people who are able 

 to perfect medicine and whose discoveries have 

 speeded up science in every realm of hfe is impotent 

 before this, the greatest social problem of aU, the 

 feeding of the people. There must be knowable 

 economic reasons which underlie the discourage- 

 ment of the farmer and the decadence of his indus- 

 try. It must be possible to trace the economic 

 forces at work to their source, and after ascertaining 

 the proximate causes for these conditions to correct 

 them by constructive political action. We have done 

 this in industiy. We have produced the dollar 

 watch, the $350 automobile, marvels of mechanical 

 and engineering skill. Electricity has been made 

 the servant of man, aiding him in a million ways. 

 The power of Niagara has been harnessed and is 



