THE OUTLINES OF A GREAT PROBLEM.
Fillmore Flagg, seemingly self absorbed, remained silent for some
moments, softly stroking his chin with his strong, shapely hand, his
dreamy eyes with far-off vision intent, apparently noting details in the
hazy borders of the distant landscape. At last, turning to his friend
with a hearty hand clasp he said: "George Gaylord, I congratulate you;
your future is bright; you deserve it, your mother deserves it. The
fates have been very generous with you. I am glad you are content to
accept the good things of life which they bring to you.
"As for myself, my lines of life are cast in swift waters. My
environments, in their reaction upon me from within, seem to develop a
determined will to wrench from the rocks of destiny by ceaseless and
persistent effort, whatever gifts I am to possess or enjoy. Work I must.
Obstacles seem only to stimulate my ambition to overcome them. Yet I am
passionately fond of the beautiful; poetry, music and art in all the
loveliness of its varied forms; they affect me profoundly. This poetic
side of my nature I inherit from my dear, devoted mother--my highest
ideal of all that is good, lovely and angelic in woman. Sadly and often
have I missed her loving tenderness, her watchful care, her beautiful
smile. The shadowy Angel of Death claimed her and bore her from my sight
when I was but four years old. Young as I was at that time, this
beautiful world has never seemed quite so bright to me since.
"My father, Fayette Flagg, was a noble man of sterling worth. He
belonged to a class of thrifty, hard-working, pioneer farmers, on the
broad, fertile prairies of the state of Nebraska. Until the death of my
mother he was happy and prosperous, hopeful, helpful and brave. After
that great blow came to him, he recovered slowly, as from a long, severe
illness and never again was quite so courageous and strong, or as
hopeful as before.
"With the advent of the last decade of the nineteenth century a feeling
of foreboding unrest seemed to brood over the western farmer: blight and
drouth destroyed his best crops just when they seemed to promise most;
farm stock had to be reduced. The good years were few, the bad years
were many. The great strain of carrying a large outfit of expensive
agricultural machinery which on a small farm could be used with profit
only from ten to forty days in the year, began to be felt. The debts,
incurred by the purchase of the machinery, were growing steadily larger.
With each renewal of the mortgage on the farm, came the demand for a
bonus and a higher rate of interest. Meanwhile the price of land and of
all farm products kept on falling, falling steadily year after year.
Only taxes and freight rates from farm to market kept up. High rates of
interest and of freight swallowed up everything and seemed to accelerate
the terrible shrinkage of values. My father found, to his amazement,
that his farm was now mortgaged for more than it would sell for under
the hammer. He gave up the struggle in despair. The savings of a
lifetime, his health, strength and courage all exhausted; his homestead
and farm sold from under him; he lost all hope and in a few short weeks
died, a broken-hearted man. I went to him a few months before the end: I
tried all in my power to save him, but alas! I could do nothing but bury
his body beside that of my mother and come away, filled with the
determination of solving the most difficult problem of a lifetime--a
problem that lies at the very foundation of the permanency of this
republic. 'How to keep the farm lands of America in the hands of the
native farmers of this and the coming generations? How to help them to
help themselves?' The decree has gone forth. The small farm and farmer
must go. They are doomed. A great wave of land monopoly, rolled up by a
large class of very shrewd, far-seeing capitalists, is even now sweeping
across the continent. Seventy-five years hence only a pauperized
peasantry of ignorant farm laborers, bound to the soil as hopelessly as
the slave to the master, will coin their lives of ceaseless, unrequited
toil to swell the rent roll of the non-resident landowner, who, as lord
of the domain, through his heartless agent, will exact his tribute to
the uttermost farthing. Must the sons and daughters of the farms of this
republic come to the bitter heritage of such a life? Surely! We have
already seen the beginning of the end! The sad case of my father can be
duplicated a hundred times or more in almost every county of our western
states. States that are incalculably rich in their magnificent domain of
broad acres of the most fertile land the sun ever shone upon; capable,
when permanently placed in the hands of a properly equipped,
scientifically educated class of people, of producing the food supply of
the world: but under the blight of the monopoly system, history will
repeat itself. Our agricultural interests will languish and wither;
dependent manufactures, and all branches of exchange and commerce, must,
in time, follow. What then will happen to society? To government of both
state and nation? In the face of this appalling situation, how
stupendous the problem! By what effort can a great counter tidal-wave be
set in motion upon whose crest the salt and salvation of the republic,
the sons and daughters of American farms, may be carried safely to the
permanent heritage of the soil they till? As in the past, so in the
future must we look to them for our true reformers, leaders, thinkers
and statesmen. They are endowed by birth, by constant association in
youth with soil and sunlight, fields and grass, green meadows and mossy
brooks and, best of all, doubly endowed by the inbreathing of ozone
laden breezes from mountain and forest, with that rare combination of
nerve, moral, mental and physical stamina, courage and patriotism which
is necessary to preserve this republic and to keep it, ever and always,
a model of progressive excellence for all the nations of the earth. This
means the embodiment by them of more and better mind, that they may do
better, wiser and more dominant thinking; be able to comprehend the sum
of human knowledge to such an extent that they may add to it; to so
understand their lives, and their relations to the Universe around them,
that they may become masters of themselves and their environments--a law
unto themselves--fitting them for a perfect citizenship of a perfected
republic. This most desirable of all accomplishments, requires better
surroundings, more leisure and opportunity for self-improvement, more
money, shorter hours of more remunerative labor--labor transformed from
a hated drudgery to a desirable occupation. Behold, friend Gaylord, you
have before you the outlines of the problem. Can you suggest anything
towards its solution?"
"I can suggest nothing," said George Gaylord; "You have stated the case
with the clearness and eloquence of a Henry George. If what you say is
true, the problem is a very serious one. But are you quite sure the
facts will fully warrant your conclusions? If so, what are your plans
and what have you been doing towards working out this puzzling
question?"
"Oh yes!" said Fillmore Flagg, "I am very sure of my position. The more
I study the question, the firmer my conviction that I have understated
the case instead of overstating it. I am studying the agricultural
question from every possible standpoint and I propose to make it a life
work. Every branch of science may aid me; I must master at least a
portion of each. Since we left college I have become fairly proficient
in surveying and civil engineering; have devoted considerable time to
photography; I am classed as a skilled electrician; I have thoroughly
mastered agricultural chemistry and several of the more important
branches of that interesting and most wonderful science. As you know, I
am very fond of mechanics and of all kinds of machinery. I could not
rest until I had gained a practical knowledge of all kinds of tools and
learned how to repair or construct most kinds of machinery. Two months
ago I completed a general course of study at the Philadelphia School of
Industrial Art, which, for the especial work I have in view, I consider
by far the most beneficial and practicable of all my acquirements. I am
now resting, cogitating and waiting for the golden opportunity which,
sooner or later, must come, to enable me to commence my work."