CHAPTER XVII 

 THE EMBARGO ON FARMING 



Up to the present we have been discussing dis- 

 tribution, the conditions which prevail in the mar- 

 keting of food, and the effect of the many monopoHes 

 which have forced themselves into this field on the 

 cost of living as well as upon agriculture. From 

 this point on we shall consider production; why 

 there is not more food produced; why men do not 

 go out to the land; why boys and girls drift to 

 the city with no compensating drift back to the 

 farm. This is, of course, the most important ques- 

 tion. For the United States could feed itself and 

 almost feed Europe if our opportunities were utilized 

 as they should be, or as they are in some parts of 

 Europe. 



Many persons have come to the conclusion that 

 the decay of agriculture is inevitable, that we can- 

 not check the drift of people to the city, a drift that 

 has been going on all over Europe as well. They 

 say the city is so much more attractive than the 

 comitry, it has so much more to offer that people 

 will, of com'se, go to the towns. There are some, 

 too, who feel that society really gains by the change 

 that is going on. There can be little real life in 

 isolated groups. The city is the civilizing agency, 



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