LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE 35 



we find seeking advice in the questions-and- 

 answers column of a middle- west farm weekly. 

 He has a capital of five thousand dollars and 

 he would like to know what section of the 

 country offers him the best advantages for 

 farming. This editor this is an actual in- 

 stance replied : 



"If you have no more than five thousand 

 dollars I would not advise you to attempt 

 farming." 



Note, the editor did not ask the correspond- 

 ent to state what his training and experience 

 had been if, in other words, he possessed the 

 qualifications to fit him for the business he 

 purposed to enter. Instead, he dismissed the 

 inquirer who probably represents a million 

 of his kind as he would dismiss a mechanic 

 too poor to buy tools. 



There is a tremendous gap (not so much 

 one of years as of rapidly changing conditions ) 

 between the viewpoint of this practical and 

 experienced observer of latter-day conditions 

 and that of Horace Greeley less than two 

 generations ago. 



It is the difference between land which has, 

 in an incredibly short time, become capital, 

 demanding its tithe and land as we knew it 



