CHAPTER VI 

 ADJUSTING OLD IDEALS TO NEW CONDITIONS 



WE have now scanned the wide field open to domes- 

 tic expansion and considered the methods by which it 

 may be conquered and occupied by the masses of our 

 people. We have observed the character of institutions 

 which are growing up in conformity to the physical con- 

 ditions and environment of the West, and have dwelt 

 upon the amplification and extension of these industrial 

 and social principles as the means of planting a wide- 

 spread civilization in the vast regions to be colonized in 

 the future. 



It remains to ask ourselves these vital questions : Do 

 these methods and institutions accord with the traditions 

 and economic ideals of the dominant race ? Are they 

 suited to the changed conditions under which we livo 

 and to the fateful struggle between machinery and capi- 

 tal on one hand and individual man on the other ? 



We have dealt with our subject almost exclusively 

 from the stand-point of agriculture. It has been truth- 

 fully said that " the farmer is the only necessary man." 

 Agriculture is the foundation of civilization. The insti- 

 tutions of every people are chiefly influenced by the man- 

 ner in which the soil is owned. The race which sprang 

 from the Saxons has always clung closely to the ideal of 



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