OPENING UP THE LAND 235 



land, in the values, in fact, which society itself has 

 created. On the other hand, everything that labor 

 produced would be free. It would be untaxed by 

 the city or the State. 



The freeing of the land from speculation will also 

 bring about that condition of fluidity of labor re- 

 ferred to earlier in this chapter. Men will be able 

 to leave the city who are weary of city life with 

 something of the ease with which they now leave 

 the farm. The man with a few hundred dollars 

 can then have a fling at farming with but little 

 risk. And with cheap land working in co-operation 

 with cheap credit supplied by the farm-loan boards 

 the chief obstacles to the tenant, the agricultural 

 worker, and city dweller will be removed and men 

 will be able to pass to the land almost as easily as 

 the country-bred boy now passes to the mill or the 

 factory. Then society will have a wonderful fluidity. 

 Men will no longer live in fear. They can go to the 

 land if they choose to do so. They can look forward 

 to old age with courage and equanimity. 



Under such conditions, too, the farm would soon 

 lose its isolation. Farm colonies such as are being 

 developed in many countries would be the natural 

 form of organization. Men would live close to- 

 gether from choice, as they do in the farming vil- 

 lages that are found all over Europe. For the iso- 

 lated farm is traceable to the fact that men are 

 always seeking to get as much land as possible. 



