AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 761 



modern reformer. " The general appearance of comfort and well- 

 being almost everywhere . . . indicates a disposition to live for 

 the present rather than to sacrifice the present to the future." 

 The masses are seized with a passion for the enjoyment of the 

 material comforts of life, and it no longer suffices simply to com- 

 mend to them the virtues of patience and forbearance. This 

 revolution in the thinking and conduct of men has undoubtedly 

 contributed greatly to the disquietude of the age. 



Hand in hand with the growth of democracy and a spirit of 

 this-worldliness, the rationalistic tendencies of mankind have be- 

 come stronger. The spirit of inquiry is being scrupulously applied 

 to every phase of life. " Truth for authority and not authority for 

 truth " is the spirit of the age. The tendency is to discard that 

 which will not stand the test of reason, and with the growing 

 intelligence of man this tendency has become more and more 

 marked. Obviously, a society permeated with this spirit is destined 

 to be in a continual state of ferment. 



Nor should the important role played by modern means of 

 communication be overlooked. Never before were all the various 

 facilities for interchange of thought so efficient and abundant. 

 But for this fact the democratic and rationalistic spirits and 

 all the factors productive of discontent would be largely stripped 

 of their power. No one who has an idea to express need lack a 

 vehicle in which to convey it to the world. Every phase and 

 condition of life is reflected daily in the press. Much of modern 

 discontent is due to a desire for improvement, and without a 

 knowledge of present conditions this desire can have no intelli- 

 gent basis. The explanation of much of the unrest of the age, 

 therefore, is not that social conditions are inferior to what they 

 formerly were, but that the public, through the medium of the 

 telephone, the telegraph, and the printing press, is made ac- 

 quainted with the terms of existence which everywhere obtain. 



As to American life in particular, the unrest so characteristic 

 of it is in part due to the very wholesomeness of social and eco- 

 nomic conditions. Probably in no other country is society in so 

 much of a flux, or the mobility of the individual units so marked. 

 There is a constant movement going on from below upward and 



