20 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



as has occurred in nearly every great civiliza- 

 tion which has disappeared. 



American agriculture had been developed on 

 a basis entirely different from that of any pre- 

 ceding great nation because from the outset 

 the American farmer has been a citizen in equal 

 standing and opportunity with the merchants, 

 the traders and the manufacturers. This meant 

 that a continued growth of commercial and 

 industrial America, if accomplished by reaching 

 out to distant countries for food, would be 

 accompanied by the decline of the American 

 farmer to a lower grade of living. In most 

 other countries the farmers have been held in 

 a peasant class, subservient to a ruling com- 

 mercial class. 



The American farmer has been peculiarly 

 jealous of his large part in the development 

 of the Republic and from the outset we have 

 regarded equal opportunity and chance of 

 achievement as a cornerstone of our growth. 

 Consequently, when conditions arise that fore- 

 cast a decline in agriculture the American 

 farmer is prompted to immediately interpret 

 it as a reaction which mil affect the nation as 

 a whole. 



The rapid commercial and industrial growth 



