SOME NEXT STEPS 183 



to break down some time, because the world lives upon goods and 

 not upon money. It has already broken down in unhappy Russia, 

 and we have before us there a concrete example of the way in which 

 such a system will finally return its people to the land for the means 

 of bare subsistence. 



Now to a people in this desperate condition it would be good 

 bolshevism to nationalize the land and regard it solely as a means 

 of producing the cheapest possible food, regardless of the home life 

 it might and ought to support. We even had a beginning of this idea 

 in our own country lately when a bill was proposed in Congress for 

 taxing the land for the relief of unemployment. Any movement in 

 this direction will not only destroy agriculture as a home-making 

 occupation but it will remove from the people the highest incentive 

 to labor. A man will work for nothing as he will work for a home 

 to shelter his wife and little ones. He will work for this as he will 

 not work even for life itself, and the home-building incentive in this 

 country must be preserved to the utmost if we would remain a free 

 and prosperous people. It is to matters of such far-reaching import 

 as these that our economic studies in colleges and experiment stations 

 must be directed, as well as to the problems of the individual farmer. 



Another cause of the gulf that is forming between the country 

 and the town lies in the field of credit, and it arises from the fact 

 that many capitalists fail to appreciate the financial side of farming. 

 The New York Journal of Commerce^ for example, opposes all plans 

 for long-term credit to farmers upon the ground of its undue absorp- 

 tion of capital. Under date of December 30, this Journal expresses 

 itself editorially as follows: 



"The credit supply of this country is not something to be dis- 

 tributed by 'sections' or 'interests.' . . . It is the joint possession of 

 the community to be cautiously and soundly used for the benefit and 

 the assistance of all and to be distributed to those who are in position 

 not only to employ it for sound and economic purposes but to return 

 it intact when they agree to do so. This pledge cannot be complied 

 with by those who wish to use their borrowings for making long- 

 time investments, or in the carrying of agricultural products on 

 speculation." 



Repeatedly since that date this journal has given voice in one 

 form or another to the same contention, entirely ignoring the fact 

 that upon other pages of the same issue appear advertisements for 

 and records of transactions in municipal and industrial bonds running 

 to periods as remote as 1998 and all possible dates between. Agri- 



