748 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



that Mr. Lubin's argument in its behalf is without logical founda- 

 tion ; that such a system probably would not permanently maintain 

 the prices of agricultural staples at a higher level ; that under 

 our form of popular goverment this policy could not be carried 

 out with any steadfastness of purpose ; that it is contrary to the 

 financial interests of the treasury ; that it is opposed to economic 

 and social progress ; and that it is hostile to the most economic 

 expenditure of the wealth-producing energy of the nation. 



The importance of tJirift as a remedy for agricultural depres- > 

 sion. Those whose knowledge of the subject is a product of 

 imagination rather than of actual experience are prone to dwell 

 upon the attractiveness of farm life. The pleasures of agriculture 

 have long been a favorite topic with poets ; and even hard-headed 

 business men are frequently convinced, by the familiar pictures 

 of nature's cooperation with the farmer of the growth of his 

 crops and live stock in value while he is asleep that the life of 

 the farmer is one of comparative ease. In marked contrast with 

 such an impression are the stern realities : nature frequently 

 defeats the efforts of the farmer, and his life is spent in per- 

 sistent physical toil. In this routine the women of his household 

 cooperate. They begin with the early dawn a busy round of toil 

 that scarcely ends with darkness. On many farms they not only 

 cook, wash, bake, and care for the house, but also supply the 

 table with vegetables, milk, butter, eggs, and poultry, besides pay- 

 ing for the necessary groceries of the family and for their own 

 clothing out of the products of the garden, dairy, and hennery, 

 which they care for with their own hands. Probably among no 

 class of equal social standing do the women so generally work 

 as hard or contribute as much to economic success. 



The conditions of success upon the farm are probably as 

 well supplied as anywhere among those religious sects known as 

 Dunkards and Mennonites, and nowhere else are the evidences 

 of agricultural prosperity more apparent. But among the mass 

 of our country people, as President Jordan has observed, "a 

 notion has been spreading . . . that the dwellers in towns do 

 ' not have to work to make a living, or do not have to work 

 hard ' ; and the farmer is coming to think that ' the day of hard 



