THE CRISIS IN AGRICULTURE 17 



tices for patriotic motives, they were met by the 

 rebuff that others too had suffered and any 

 remedy must be universal in application rather 

 than to be applied to any specific industry. The 

 more the farmers insisted, the more there de- 

 veloped a criticism that a selfish class interest 

 was involved rather than one that was funda- 

 mental to prosperity in all lines. 



From the time of the Armistice through 1919 

 and 1920 there was a growing and more deter- 

 mined protest from farmers and agricultural 

 leaders that things were not right with the farm 

 industry and remedial measures on a national 

 scale must be attempted. Our older observers 

 compared this protest with that which occurred 

 succeeding previous wars and were inclined to 

 dismiss the matter as merely a repetition of the 

 unrest that follows in the wake of war. 



But American agriculture was in a new posi- 

 tion. The period of expansion in new areas 

 was practically at an end. Further expansion 

 must be made by improvement in efficiency on 

 the part of the individual worker on the land 

 and not merely through expansion in numbers 

 or in areas. 



For ten years statisticians had been noting 

 the change in the trend of affairs in that Ameri- 



