194 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



if farming were organized as is industry on large 

 units of land in which individual ownership were 

 merged as it is in the trusts and corporations. 



It is possible that some such organization will be 

 the ultimate form of agricultm'e when individual 

 property has given way to collective ownership. 

 But such an organization is a long way off, and the 

 working out of such large-scale farming will only 

 come after efforts have been exhausted to redeem 

 agriculture along lines with which we are familiar. 



And before we abandon the old organization of 

 agriculture, or condemn the farmer for leaving the 

 land we should be satisfied that he is really leaving 

 the farm from choice, and is not being driven from 

 it by conditions that can be corrected. And there 

 is evidence enough that men really want to be farm- 

 ers, and that they will go to the land by millions 

 if it is made reasonably easy and profitable for them 

 to do so. But they must have some hope that they 

 will be able to make as decent a living as they can 

 in the city, and that they will not lose the results 

 of their efforts through exploitation by the many 

 predatory interests that surround the farmer and 

 make agriculture the precarious industry that it is. 



Even without such assurance millions of men re- 

 main in the country under what are almost intol- 

 erable economic conditions. There are 5,000,000 

 agricultural workers or farm-hands in the United 

 States whose position is certainly far from attrac- 



