PROTECTION IN ENGLAND. 1 29 



more independent of the landlord. Food supplies now 

 invade the markets of Great Britain, from the broad fields 

 of America, India, and the continent, at prices which 

 appal the home producer. But the landlord is the one 

 who looks upon this with the most concern. The cap- 

 italist farmer and the laborer are comparatively free to 

 escape to other occupations. 



Fifty to one hundred years ago, the English farm and 

 English landlords were, as types, peculiar to England. 

 The American farm and the American farmer, as types, 

 were peculiar to America. Their relative conditions in 

 this respect have vastly changed, and with it another 

 striking change has come about. In those days land- 

 lordism in England was all that could be desired by the 

 English landlord, and the landless English farmers, who 

 were able to emigrate, were becoming the typical farmers 

 of America. To-day the English capitalist invests his 

 money in American land to become a competitive agri- 

 culturist, while the average emigrant is not attracted to 

 the land, but comes to swell the other occupations. Al- 

 though such a large portion of our interests are agricul- 

 tural, not more than one to fifteen come as agriculturists.' 



Why these relative changes ? Are we not insidiously 

 bringing upon the small farmers of America what was 

 done to them in England in past times by force ? 



Adam Smith's idea that agriculture, as he saw it in 

 England, was the best of industries, because it supported 

 three classes, was calculated to create an impression 

 hardly correct as an axiom of political economy. 



Intrinsically great as the industry undoubtedly is, it is 

 not able to support an idle class, and when openly forced 



' In 1886, of 117,546 males immigrating into the United States, 

 only 20,528 came as farmers. 

 6* 



