g. Similarly, our chances for investment in
agriculture and in railroad and industrial companies being lessened,
capital would be forced to find an outlet in other countries,
especially in semi-developed lands to which European capital flows.
The rate of interest would fall, big risks would be taken, and if
American investments were endangered by unrest or disorder in the
backward country, our government would intervene. We should have no
choice and could afford no scruples. Given such a fall in our
agricultural product, the country would become imperialistic and
bellicose, and there would be not the remotest possibility of our
taking the lead in a policy to promote international peace.

The hypothesis is far-fetched, but exactly the same result would follow
if instead of our agricultural product dwindling, it remained constant
while our population grew. If our population increased 100 per cent.
and our agricultural product remained stationary or increased only
twenty or forty per cent., it would be impossible to maintain our
present relation to the world. We must uphold a certain, not quite
constant relation between our agricultural (and other extractive)
industries and our {176} population if we are to keep out of the
thickest of the European complications.

A secure basis for a policy of non-aggression lies therefore in the
development of home agriculture.[3] It is not, however, to be expected
that the proportion of farm workers will remain constant. In the
United States this proportion has steadily fallen. Of every thousand
males in all occupations 483 were engaged in agricultural pursuits in
1880 as compared with only 358 in 1910.[4] But despite this relative
decline agriculture did not become less productive. More horses and
more agricultural machinery were used, and fewer persons were able to
perform the same amount of work.

What is more significant than the number of persons employed is the
amount of land available for agriculture. Until 1900 we were in the
extensive period of American farming, during which an increase in the
population was met by an increased farm acreage. From 1850 to 1900 our
population increased from 23 to 76 millions, but our farm area
increased almost as fast and the improved farm area even faster.[5]
During the decade ending 1910, however, a strong pressure of population
upon American agriculture became obvious. In these ten years the
country's population increased 21 per