THE STORY OF BREAD 



17 



without cutting off the supply of bread, just as the 

 slaves worked the plantations of the South while 

 their masters were away with the army of the 

 Confederacy. 



Having played its part in putting a stop to the 

 war, the reaper continues to work for peace. Busy 

 people are prosperous, and prosperous people are 

 happy, and busy, happy, prosperous people do not 

 go about with chips on their shoulders. 



The reaper removed the hobble from man's right 

 to the pursuit of happiness. It drove drudgery from 

 the farm, and released two-thirds of the population 

 for the shop, the store, and the office. 



And so, to make a long story short, as everybody 

 says but the story teller, the wheels of industry were 

 set in motion, modern business was born, and com- 

 merce reached its arms around the world. American 

 civilization pushed westward at the rate of thirty 

 miles a year, and older nations awoke to greatness 

 Railroads came, cities were builded, and inventions 

 multiplied. 



Every tall building is a monument to cheap bread, 



James J. Hill has said that " Land without popula- 

 tion is a wilderness, and population without land is 

 a mob." And he might have added that both land 

 and population without cheap bread are famine and 

 death. 



Were it true to-day, as it was a century ago, here 

 in the United States, that ninety-seven out of every 



