s.[5]

The transformation of European peasants into mill hands and miners in
America is to be ascribed partially to the fact that land was not
available to them when they arrived in this country. Either they did not
know where the land which awaited a cultivator was located, or they had
not enough money to buy such land, or they lacked credit needed to
undertake operations in clearing and preparing new land, or they were
ignorant of American farming conditions. Some seemingly insurmountable
reason prevented them from following their desires and calling.

This occupational change has resulted in loss to this country. The
experience in agriculture of these large numbers of men, coupled with
their ability for the hard manual labor required in truck gardening, in
intensive farming, and especially in the opening up of new land, has
been wastefully cast aside. The significance of such loss is clear in
view of the fundamental importance of agriculture in the nation's life.
About two thirds of the area of our country is uncultivated as yet, and
the one third that is cultivated is worked extensively rather than
intensively. Furthermore, native Americans and even old-time immigrants
avoid hard pioneering work in the wilderness since they can find
opportunities of lighter work and better returns elsewhere, on already
established and "paying" farms.

Aside from economic loss there has also been a loss in social values.
The desire of a large number of immigrants to establish permanent rural
homes and to become citizens here has gone to the winds. Instead of
scattering over the country and mingling with the native population,
they have been driven to the congested cities and have formed there
Little Polands, Little Italies, ghettos, etc., remaining almost
untouched by American influences. Both the economic and the social loss
might have been averted to a considerable degree if the nation had had
an effective land policy and if it had come to the aid of the immigrants
in distributing and settling them on the land.

The certainty in the mind of an immigrant that there is a stake in the
land for him, and his confidence that in the acquirement of his stake he
gets a square deal from all concerned, are more important from the
viewpoint of Americanization than the actual acquirement of any
settlement on land; for not all immigrants desire to own a piece of land
and work on it, and not all who desire to can actually do so. Other
conside