16 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



farm machinery, while the telephone, the trolley, 

 the motor-car, and the railroad have made com- 

 munication easy, transportation cheap, and life in 

 the comitry far more attractive than a generation 

 ago, certain things are happening to agriculture that, 

 unless checked, will inevitably bring about condi- 

 tions similar to those in Great Britain, where four- 

 fifths of the people live in the city while the country- 

 side is denuded of people, and the food supply of 

 43,000,000 people is brought in from the United 

 States, Canada, Australia, South America, and 

 Denmark. 



Among the outstanding facts bearing on the sub- 

 ject are : 



One — a rapid, unprecedented increase in the 

 price of food 



Two — a stationary production or substantial fall- 

 ing off in the gross amount of food produced. 



Three — a wide-spread sense of discouragement on 

 the part of farmers, a discouragement which is justi- 

 fied by conditions. 



Four — a rapid increase in the population of our 

 cities as compared with the rural population. In 

 1900 the urban population of the United States was 

 31,609,000. Ten years later the number had in- 

 creased to 42,623,000, an increase of 34.8 per cent. 

 During the same period the rural population in- 

 creased from 44,384,000 to 49,348,883, or an increase 

 of 11.2 per cent. 



