CHALLENGE OF NEW DAY 21 



equal freedom, that general consciousness of consent, 

 and that widest participation in power, both economic 

 and political, which is characteristic of democracy." 



Here is the slogan of the New Day complete so- 

 cial reconstruction. Not a mending, patching, repair- 

 ing process, but a rebuilding of human society, a true 

 re-formation. 



These words sound like the theories of dreamers, 

 the visions of quiet students who have never had to 

 hew their way in the world. No; they are the sober 

 voice of wage earners, hand workers, millions of them, 

 who look forward to a New Day for themselves and 

 for others not as a dream but as a goal to strive for 

 at once. This gospel of the New Day was abroad be- 

 fore the war broke out. In our own land the fight 

 against special privilege had taken on new vigor w r hen 

 Mr. Roosevelt as President threw his great personality 

 into the struggle and announced his allegiance to the 

 forces of public righteousness and business morality. 

 The political Progressive movement was fundamentally 

 a revolt against predatory wealth and the entrenched 

 power of a few, and on behalf of the welfare of the 

 many. But the war has driven the longing of the com- 

 mon people ahead a whole generation; it has given 

 them a new power in big affairs; it has even obliterated 

 national lines and shown that people the world over 

 want the same thing a New Day. 



Our special interest lies in an answer to the question, 

 What does the New Day mean for the people on the 

 land, for the farmers of the world? Do they share 

 the vision and can they help build the new society? 

 To answer this question we must first try to discover 



