SOME ECONOMIC INTERESTS 149 



farmers of fifty years ago. The farmer and his wife are no 

 longer to be set aside as "from the country." They are people 

 of consequence, and their voices are heard in institutes, in clubs, 

 federation meetings, and at the polls the man everywhere and 

 the woman also in some states. What they say is listened to with 

 respect due to one who knows whereof he speaks. The farmers 

 are coming forward also as members of the state legislature and 

 as governors of states ; and many of those who lead in the national 

 affairs are proud to claim some farmstead as the place of their 

 early training. They are practical politicians, and if less crafty, 

 are less unscrupulous than their associates from the cities. 



But there is another phase of farm life the social import of 

 which must not be overlooked. Along with the increasing 

 wealth, home comforts and influence of the proprietor class, there 

 has been an increase also in the material welfare and general 

 intelligence of farm laborers. But where machine power is used, 

 the laborers have not advanced as rapidly as have the proprietors. 



During the twenty-year period, from 1880 to 1900, the farm- 

 laborer class, in all the states, increased 35 per cent. The farm- 

 proprietor class increased 34.2 per cent. Taking the country 

 as a whole, these classes were evidently keeping a fairly equal 

 pace. But, turning to the seven leading cereal-producing states, 

 those especially using complex and expensive machinery, we 

 find the population was distributed as follows: 



1900 1880 



Proprietors 1,073,011 836,969 



Agricultural laborers 631,740 363,233 



The farm-proprietor class here increased 28 per cent., but the 

 farm-laborer class increased 74 per cent. In 1880, the laborer 

 class constituted only 30.3 per cent, of the total pupulation 

 engaged in agriculture in these seven states; but, in 1900, this 

 class constituted 37.1 per cent, of the population. The difference, 

 (5.8 per cent., represents a loss of 115,984 persons from the farm- 

 proprietor class and an addition of that number to the farm- 

 laborer class. 



The reasons for unequal growth of these two classes of the 

 agricultural population is not deeply hidden. It is the greater 

 advantage that the possessor of a machine has over another who 



