256 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



is true of other countries — that the farmers amor- 

 tize their loans in a shorter time than that provided 

 by the state. The Canadian commission says of 

 the New Zealand experiment: 



"Throughout the country a higher and better 

 civilization is gradually being evolved. The young 

 men and women who are growing up are happy and 

 contented to remain at home on the farm and find 

 ample time and opportunity for recreation and en- 

 tertainment of a kind more wholesome and elevating 

 than can be obtained in the city." 



When the war is over, it is safe to assume that 

 most of the countries of Europe will turn their at- 

 tention to the intensive cultivation of the land. 

 England will endeavor to feed herself instead of 

 being dependent upon America and Denmark. 

 The Russian revolution will open up hundreds of 

 millions of acres of land to the peasants of that 

 country. Germany will undoubtedly extend farm 

 colonization projects successfully started before the 

 war. Canada was already experimenting with this 

 policy as well as with the taxation of land values 

 to break up large estates, and will seek to lure 

 settlers not only from Europe but from the United 

 States. Even Mexico has worked out an agri- 

 cultural programme in some of her states patterned 

 upon the experiments in Europe. All the world 

 will compete for able-bodied men in order to meet 

 the burdens of this war and to re-establish their in- 



