200 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



when they can make more money and enjoy greater 

 comforts in the city. 



This is one obstacle to agriculture. This is one 

 explanation of why we do not produce more food. 

 The earth is closed against labor. 



Men in the mass are always trying to satisfy their 

 needs along lines that are easiest. By something 

 like telepathy they know of the avenues of effort 

 that are most remunerative even when those op- 

 portunities are in far-away Alaska. And the end 

 of the centuries-long movement to the land, which 

 has been going on since the discovery of America, 

 is not wholly due to the attractiveness of the city 

 or its comforts and pleasures; it is due rather to 

 the fact that the land is now closed against the 

 worker by the speculative prices that act as an em- 

 bargo against him. 



