RURAL STATESMANSHIP 197 



ernment ownership of railways is clearly to be one of 

 the great political questions of the period after the war. 

 The issues ought to be clarified now so far as the farm- 

 ers are concerned. The question is not wholly that of 

 abolishing the evils of exploitation through private 

 management, nor the advantages of unification that re- 

 sult from government control. The main issues in the 

 immediate relation between railways and agriculture is 

 largely one of adjusting rates on a basis that will give 

 the largest measure of justice to competing areas or 

 regions of production. This is a most complex and 

 difficult task. It affects consumers as well as growers. 

 For example, the splendid railway refrigerator system, 

 the fast freights and so on, have brought the perish- 

 able fruits and vegetables of the West to the eastern 

 markets. This has been a great advantage to the west- 

 ern producers and possibly to the eastern consumers, 

 but it has undermined eastern agriculture of a certain 

 type. This instance is typical of an innumerable list 

 of cases where transportation, like many other improve- 

 ments, disturbs production. These changes are inevit- 

 able. But if they reduce the profits of large numbers 

 of farmers, protests will be strong and frequent, par- 

 ticularly if government is responsible for the conditions 

 to which the injured farmers object. 



It is improbable that in the near future there will 

 be in America a serious demand for the nationalization 

 of the agricultural land. But there are many evidences 

 that we are already on the verge of a growing demand 

 that the government shall take charge of the task of 

 providing land for tenants and young farmers on better 

 terms than they can secure at present. The increasing 

 extent to which farm lands are passing into the hands 

 of capitalists, either the capitalist farmer or the cap- 



