126 The State and the Farmer 



Application of public money. 



Again, the agencies that will develop the 

 institutions of the open country will rest on 

 a type of mind of town folk quite as much 

 as on the activity of the country folk. The 

 town folk should consider it to their interest 

 that the drainage cityward does not go too 

 far. The town must recognize its obligation 

 to the agricultural country. In New York, for 

 example, 85 per cent of the taxes are paid by 

 Greater New York and Buffalo, notwithstand- 

 ing that there are probably a million farm 

 people in the state, and a farm property valu- 

 ation of much more than one billion of dollars. 

 But this great fact constitutes no reason of 

 itself why these cities should control the dis- 

 tribution of the tax money of the state, or 

 even of all the tax money that they themselves 

 contribute; for the wealth of the cities did not 

 originate in the cities. A good part of it has 

 come from farms in New York state and else- 

 where. The farmers have given the city traders 

 an opportunity to trade, and often to make 

 more money in the mere trading than the 



