PROGRAM OF RECONSTRUCTION 233 



made to educate consumers to intelligent use of food as 

 well as the utmost effort to avoid waste. 



The farmer stands ready to revise his plans, if neces- 

 sary, in order to meet this new departure in the world's 

 agriculture. He recognizes the increasing degree in 

 which non-producers of food and other soil-grown prod- 

 ucts are dependent upon him. He sees in this inde- 

 pendence solemn obligation laid upon him as the trustee 

 of the soil, the steward of an adequate food supply. 

 He realizes his duty not only to grow food, but to grow 

 it with utmost economy and skill, and to be mindful that 

 he does not waste those resources of soil fertility which 

 are a permanent asset of society. But the farmer in- 

 sists that he shall receive a fair return for his capital 

 and labor. The demand for cheap food should not be 

 carried so far as to produce a class of farmers who 

 suffer from wholly inadequate incomes. The farmer's 

 right to a living wage is as valid as that of any one else. 

 Consumers should realize the economic conditions of 

 the profitable production of food; few of them appre- 

 ciate the unquestioned fact that they have been " living 

 off the unrewarded labor of farm women and children." 

 While the economic task of supplying the world with 

 food must be considered as a whole, the producers 

 should have both full consideration and proper repre- 

 sentation in all those discussions and organized ar- 

 rangements that deal with the problem as a unit or with 

 any part of it. 



ACCESS TO THE LAND 



A true democracy requires that the man who tills the 

 land shall control the land he tills. Control involves 

 not merely the welfare of the man who for a brief time 



