ion. If human enterprise
and invention and thrift lessen such limitations, the world is better off.

The great mass of farmers, who think more of their homes than of property,
will suffer little from lower prices of land unless such low prices result
from a general lack of thrift and of adaptation to new circumstances.
While the changes in price which affect reduction of rent values do
require readjustment of plans and methods, the farmer who keeps in touch
with the world's work will not suffer, but gain, in the general
advancement. In many instances, the low condition of farm property is due
to unthrifty neglect of farmers in whole neighborhoods. Bad roads, short
schools, weak fences and poor stock are as often a cause as an effect of
low prices of land. Whole regions in our country suffer in this way from
unthrift, whatever the price of farm products or of lands.

_Farms in the United States._--These are under conditions best suited to
attend the general thrift of the world in every way. Ownership is not
complicated in any way with magisterial duties or prestige or entailment,
as in England. It is not so distinctly hereditary as to embarrass
agriculture by extreme subdivision of farms, as in France and other
portions of Europe. It is in no danger of combination into great estates
under absentee landlords, as in Ireland. Its laws of transfer and guaranty
are growing more and more simple and direct, while protection to homestead
rights is strong. Farmers themselves have such responsibility in state and
nation as to make their genuine interests felt everywhere, and no system
of caste can make them a peasantry, as in most of the Old World. Indeed,
the farmer in every region makes his farm; and the enterprising, educated
farmer of the next generation in our country will find in himself the
forces at work to give value to his land. The speculative movement in land
holding will be outgrown when genuine farm homes are more prized for their
welfare than for their wealth; but this very welfare will maintain a
stable value in lands.

PART III. CONSUMPTION OF WEALTH.

Chapter XXIII. Wealth Used By Individuals.

_Wealth to be consumed for welfare._--The only economic motive for the
accumulation of wealth is its use in promotion of welfare. While the old
maxim says, "A penny saved is worth two gained," every one recognizes the
penny as absolutely worthless except in view of some utility to be gained
in spending