FkbruaPvY 19, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



285 



non-competing crops, to the size of the 

 farm best suited to the farmer, and to the 

 questions of ownership, tenantry and forms 

 of rental. 



Where intensive culture is desired, the 

 renting of land on the shares naturally 

 gives way to a cash rent system which re- 

 quires careful regulation if the best inter- 

 ests of all are to be conserved. As com- 

 petition for the use of land grows more and 

 more keen all of these questions become of 

 vital importance to the farmer, and of real 

 significance to the country as a whole. 

 The study of the past experience and pres- 

 ent practises of older countries, England 

 and Germany, for example, is helpful; but 

 it is of vital importance that the student 

 of these problems be thoroughly familiar 

 with conditions at home. 



Evolution of Agriculture in the Middle 

 West and its Social and Economic Sig- 

 nificance: Eugene Davenport, State 

 College of Agriculture, Urbana, Illinois. 

 This paper, after describing agricultural 

 conditions in the west and pointing out 

 radical changes both in the farm and in 

 the farmer, concluded as follows : 



1. Agriculture is eminently profitable 

 and the farmers are not to be reckoned as 

 among the poor of the earth. 



2. Farming, as now being organized, is 

 not exhausting the fertility of the soil, but 

 is on a permanent basis and, therefore, the 

 future of the industry and its people is 

 practically assured. 



3. That it is raising the value of lands at 

 a rapid rate, thus making the man and not 

 the acre the unit of farm value, the acre 

 being worth its capitalized income. 



4. That it is becoming too difficult an 

 occupation, especially on the better lands, 

 for men of inferior ability lacking in spe- 

 cial knowledge and training. 



Relation of the Family to the Labor Prob- 

 lem: Rev. John W. Day, Church of the 

 Messiah, St. Louis, Mo. 

 We must recognize the importance of 

 the part played by the home in the making 

 of the labor problem and the influence it 

 may have in the working out of the prob- 

 lem. The reply made by John Mitchell to 

 the inquiry whether the 'lives of the wives 

 and children ' of the men he had condemned 

 as traitors to the laborers' cause because 

 they worked independently of the union, 

 ought to be made unendurable, was : 



'I think those wives and children had 

 better ask their fathers.' 



In this significant reply there is the as- 

 sumption of a superior loyalty than that 

 to the family. The union claimant asserts 

 therein that the real interest of the family 

 lies in absolute subordination to the union. 

 The union disclaims responsibility for any 

 harm that may come to the outside family 

 through its action. The welfare of the 

 family can only be considered through its 

 subjection to the union organization. 'Let 

 tlie fathers answer that question' means 

 that the family can not command their 

 central loyalty, that the union acknowl- 

 edges no duty to the family as such, but 

 only to the family as a part of itself. The 

 union thus becomes the modern feudal lord 

 whose protection the family must obtain 

 in vassalage and may disregard only at its 

 peril. 



It is obvious that where this principle 

 is accepted the influence of the family in 

 the unionist conflicts will be to sharpen 

 feeling and heighten purpose. A motive 

 stronger than loyalty to a class, stronger 

 than trade fidelity, stronger than patriotism, 

 is thtis vitally connected with any cause the 

 union may espouse. This must be an un- 

 reasoning attitude, and must have the un- 

 equaled force of sentiment. The associa- 

 tion of idea,i is immediate and inseparable, 

 and the strtngth of the union must be 



