ntrol. They naturally resent the lowering of their standards of
living, and they inevitably resort to industrial strife, to strikes and
disorder. Theirs is the breeding ground of radicalism--for all such
phenomena belong to the towns and not to the country.

By and large, our industries are now in a high state of prosperity. More
favorable hours, more favorable wages, are today offered in industry
than in agriculture. The industries are drawing the workers from our
farms. If this balance in relative returns is to continue, we face a
gradual decrease in our agricultural productivity. If we should develop
our industrial side during the next five years as rapidly as we have
during the past five years, we shall by that time be faced with the
necessity to import foodstuffs to supplement our own food supplies. Some
economists will argue, of course, that if we can manufacture goods
cheaper than the rest of the world and exchange them for foodstuffs
abroad, we should do so. But such arguments again ignore certain
fundamental social and broad political questions. These dangers have
become more emphasized by experience of the war. From dependence on
overseas supplies for food, we will, by the very concern that will grow
in public mind as to the safety of these supplies, soon find ourselves
discussing the question of dominating the seas. Our international
relations will have become infinitely more complex and more difficult.
Unless the League of Nations serves its ideal, we will need to burden
ourselves with more taxation, to maintain great naval and military
forces. But of far more importance than this is that social stability of
our country, the development of our national life, rests in the spirit
of our farms and surrounds our villages. These are the sources that have
always supplied our country with its true Americanism, its new and fresh
minds, its physical and its moral strength. Industry's real market is
with the farmer by the constant increase of his standard of living. We
want our exports to grow in exchange for commodities we need from
abroad, but we want them to grow in tune with our social and political
interests, and to do so they must grow in step with our agriculture.

_In conclusion_ we are in a period of high inflation and shortage of
world production, and consequent abnormal prices. The tide is likely to
turn almost any time. Some of the outrageous margin between the farmer
and consumer will be remedied by the t