1 8 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



British Labor Party, regarded by all true liberals as 

 one of the great social documents of any period, is all 

 but silent with respect to the rights and duties of farm- 

 ers in the new social order. Yet the food problem of 

 Great Britain is vital. Germany's aid to agriculture 

 was the bed rock of her power to fight. If Russia is 

 ever redeemed, it will be achieved through the educa- 

 tion and organization of her peasantry, which con- 

 stitutes more than seventy-five per cent, of her popu- 

 lation. The Balkan states are nothing but rural prov- 

 inces. China and India are largely rural. 



IS THE FARMER REALLY COMING TO HIS OWN? 



Thus the war has once more brought to the fore this 

 age-old query. It has shown us in America particularly 

 both the great, splendid strength and the serious, 

 menacing weakness of our farming and our farm life. 

 We must pause to discover whether the American 

 farmer is moving upward in his place in society or 

 gradually sinking in the scale. Is it to be easier or 

 harder for his sons to buy land and to make a fair 

 profit from it, than it was for him or for his grand- 

 father? Whither? This is the big question in our 

 rural affairs. Is the farmer even holding his own? 

 The American farmer has been a great exception to the 

 century-old rule that u he that holdeth the plow . . . 

 shall not understand the covenant of judgment, nor be 

 sought for in the council of the people. " But in the 

 New Day, in which we devoutly hope and fervently 

 pray that we may have an end of economic serfdom, 

 can we preserve this yeoman, this well-bred, highly in- 

 telligent, individually effective citizen, the American 

 Farmer? 



