THE NEW DEMOCRACY 223 



friendliness, common dealing and mutual understand- 

 ing in American farm life that is not duplicated any- 

 where else. In a typical and prosperous farming re- 

 gion, say of the Middle West, we get as much democ- 

 racy in the social sense as we will ever get anywhere. 



We must recognize that the last decades have, how- 

 ever, seen the beginnings of a possible stratification of 

 farmers which may soon become a real menace. Its 

 sharpest challenge is the widening chasm in wealth, in- 

 telligence and interest, between the fortunate and effi- 

 cient farmer of high-priced fertile land, and the dis- 

 couraged, transient tenant who tries without capital, 

 without credit and sometimes without either intelligence 

 or foresight, to make his living from the soil. 



Will farmers use experts? This is one of the most 

 important questions in a democracy. The old idea of 

 democracy stressed the notion that all men are equal. 

 Consequently the average man might be considered ca- 

 pable of performing all the offices of democracy. This 

 doctrine has a powerful hold upon the American 

 farmer. It is born in part of a wrong idea of democ- 

 racy and in part of good sense. Democracy does not 

 level all men to the same talent some have ten tal- 

 ents and some have but one. It is mischievous to hold 

 that the man without special fitness or even without 

 special training can do a certain.piece of work as well 

 as the one who has fitness or training or both. In 

 other words, the expert or specialist is just as important 

 in a democracy as he is in a highly organized autocratic 

 state. On the other hand, specialists are fallible and 

 sometimes narrow. The farmers are using experts 

 probably more freely on the whole than is any other 

 group of people. The agents of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture and members of the staff of 



