PROBLEMS OF COUNTRY LIFE 103 



as a part of our national policy. No preparation is required for 

 their business, nothing is invested, no taxes paid, and no risks 

 assumed except perhaps a slightly, a very slightly, increased 

 hazard of life offset to a considerable degree by easier hours and 

 healthier conditions of work. 



But the citizen farmer who lives in the same community with 

 the miner, whose children grow up with his own, and who is a 

 manager in 'a small way, competing in the labor market, must in- 

 vest in land and buildings, tools and livestock. He must pay 

 taxes and insurance and repairs and veterinary fees. He must 

 work often sixteen hours, seldom less than ten, and he must be 

 on duty day and night, ready always to care for his independent 

 plant all this, and yet in order to receive a labor income equal 

 to that of the soft coal miner, whether citizen or alien, with no 

 preparation, with nothing invested but a pick and shovel, and 

 with no risk involved, the farmer must not only work himself 

 as no professional laborer ever works, but he must also work his 

 children without pay. 



The ultimate consequence of this condition needs no exposition 

 here. By as much as this country could not permanently remain 

 half free and half slave, no more can our democracy endure with- 

 out a national policy and plan that will equalize to some degree 

 at least the income from the land and investment in the most 

 perishable of all equipment on the one hand and the rewards of 

 unskilled labor upon the other. 



But if the profits of farming are so meager, how can we have 

 so many "rich farmers" here and there as to make the term 

 proverbial? The situation to which this question refers will bear 

 analysis. There are many rich farmers, as riches go among 

 common people, but it will be found upon investigation that they 

 belong to one of four classes, mostly unique or temporary : 



First. Exceptional men on large farms or else engaged in 

 some branch of specialized farming which by its nature is limited 

 in its application. 



Second. Men who have inherited their farms and to whom 

 these farms therefore represent a capital investment that cost 

 them nothing. 



Third. Men who have deliberately raised large families in 

 order to have at hand an abundance of unpaid labor, brutalizing 



