sentation of farmers.

Great apostles of the

newer gospel, such as Maude Royden, are not heard by the country people.

This unfortunate omission of rural interests is well illustrated in the case of peace propaganda. No population group is more peaceloving than the farmers; none suffers more from the ravages of war; none could be more easily mobilized for deeds of justice between nations, for none has a keener sense of justice. There is, however, no effort, so far as I can discover, either to reach the farming classes of the world with the messages of peace, nor to seek their support for the methods that may bring peace.

Significance of the Rural Group

Allusion has already been made to the fact that the major part of the world's population is made up of tillers of the soil. It is these men and women that must furnish the world's food supply. They meet the primary wants of man. There can be no city, no industry, no civilization, except as their hands and their skill and their sweat wring food from Mother Earth. There is no substitute thus far that

science, or invention, or business organization, or legislation has found for this elemental, vital contribution of the farmers to society.

The world of men has always been attracted by the glitter of gold, and even to-day we relish revelations of new material wealth that can be put to the use of man-gold and silver and precious stones and iron and coal and oil. But each of them and all of them thrown together are worth but a fraction of the value of the greatest natural resource of all, the soil. And the maintenance of the fertility of the soil is in the hands of the farmer. We may legislate to conserve water power; we may attempt to control the output of oil, but the only way by which society can guarantee food to future generations is to guarantee that the millions and hundreds of millions of farmers shall have the skill and purpose to conserve soil fertility.

Farming, moreover, is still the largest single industry in the world. Indeed, it is still the largest single industry in the United States, if we consider only those values that are added to products directly by the industry itself. The agricultural industry does not have the spectacular features of the huge manufacturing

plants. We have in agriculture no body of 75,000 employees under the control of one man. Nevertheless, on their scattered farms, in their quiet way, as they meet the spring sowing and the autumn harvest, the farmers of the world are the managers and the laborers in the largest industry of mankind. And their contribution is not merely to the food supply. They furnish also the larger fraction of raw materials for the various forms of manufacturing; the transportation of products to and from the farm is one of the great items in the service of all types of communication; a large share of the freight carried across the seas is directly or indirectly the product of the farm

ers.

Perhaps, man for man, the farmers are not as heavy buyers as are wage earners-they are more nearly self-sustaining. Nevertheless because of their huge numbers and by reason of rapidly increasing demands for machinery and other implements used in their business, as well as to supply the household needs which are common to them as to others, the farmers of the world constitute an immense consuming class, and their consumption power reacts im

mediately upon manufacturing, transportation, commerce, finance. It has been said that if you could make it possible for each Chinese farmer to buy one more cotton suit a year than he now uses you would revolutionize the business of cotton goods manufacture.

The great fundamental quest of the twentieth century is the attempt to secure more democracy. Without entering upon any discussion of this profound term, we may safely assert that as democracy develops, masses of men exercise more and more influence. For generations to come, therefore, the farmers of the various countries and the farmers of the world as a whole are sure to play an increasingly important part in determining industrial, political, social, and international policies. I should like to discuss this matter more at length if time permitted because I regard this argument as one of the most important of all in making sure that our rural civilization is adequate to meet the demands of the age.

Without putting one's self under the charge of being sentimental and of idealizing the farmers, I think it may also be safely said that on the whole the morals and ideals of rural

people form a real contribution to the world's good. I believe sincerely that there are qualities of mind and heart engendered by the rural mode of life that do to some extent prevail in national life but that should, to a far greater degree, be made effective in the common moral issues of mankind.

And so for all these reasons we may not with safety omit the rural people and rural interests in the making of a Christian program for our world.

The "Rising Tide" of Agrarianism

Quite apart from these general considerations that may be argued as reasons for including farmers in the task of making the world Christian, is the fact that we are witnessing what is undoubtedly the most formidable agrarian movement in all history. In the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1922, Mr. Louis Levine in a significant article on "Communists and Ploughshares," states that "the reconstruction of Russia depends basically upon the reconstruction of her agricultural industry and of the economic and social relationships in which this industry is to be carried