THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 15 



existing side by side with either a peasant regime 

 or a landlord-and-tenant system? Yet would 

 we expect from either system the same social 

 fruitage that has been harvested from our 

 American yeomanry ? 



We conclude, then, that the farm problem 

 consists in maintaining upon our farms a class 

 of people who have succeeded in procuring for 

 themselves the highest possible class status, not 

 only in the industrial, but in the political and 

 the social order a relative status, moreover, that 

 is measured by the demands of American ideals* 

 The farm problem thus connects itself with the 

 whole question of democratic civilization. This 

 is not mere platitude. For we cannot properly 

 judge the significance and the relation of the 

 different industrial activities of our farmers, and 

 especially the value of the various social agencies 

 for rural betterment, except by the standard of 

 class status. It is here that we seem to find the 

 only satisfactory philosophy of rural progress. 



We would not for a moment discredit the 

 fundamental importance of movements that 

 have for their purpose the improved technical 

 skill of our farmers, better business management 

 of the farm, and wiser study and control of 

 market conditions. Indeed, we would call 



