anged the
relationship between the townsman and the farmer. A sketch of their
former mutual relations will make my meaning clear. Within the last
century every town relied largely for its food supply on the produce of
the fields around its walls. The countrymen coming into the weekly
market were the chief customers for the wares of the town craftsmen. In
this primitive state of trade, townsmen could not but realise the
importance to themselves of a prosperous country population around them.
But this simple exchange, as we all know, has developed into the complex
commercial operations of modern times. To-day most large towns derive
their household stuff from the food-growing tracts of the whole world,
and I doubt whether any are dependent on the neighbouring farmers, or
feel themselves specially concerned for their welfare. I do not think
the general truth of this picture will be questioned, and I hope some
consideration may be given to the conclusions I now draw.

In the transition we are considering, the reciprocity between the
producers of food and the raw material of clothes on the one hand, and
manufacturers and general traders of the towns on the other, has not
ceased; it has actually increased since the days of steam and
electricity. But it has become national, and even international, rather
than local. Town consumers are still dependent upon agricultural
producers, who, in turn, are much larger consumers than formerly of all
kinds of commodities made in towns. Forty-two per cent of materials used
in manufacture in the United States are from the farm, which also
contributes seventy per cent of the country's exports. But in the
complexity of these trade developments townsmen have been cut off more
and more from personal contact with the country, and in this way have
lost their sense of its importance. My point is that the shifting of the
trade relationship of town and country from its former local to its
present national and international basis in reality increases their
interdependence. And I hold most strongly that until in this matter the
obligations of a common citizenship are realised by the town, we cannot
hope for any lasting National progress.

Whatever be the causes which have begotten the neglect of rural life, no
one will gainsay the wisdom of estimating the consequences. These are
economic, social, and political; and I will discuss them briefly under
these heads. There are three main economic reasons w