The Country-Life Movement in the United StatesBailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
History
The Country-Life Movement in the United States
Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Country life
Of course, temporary or local relief may be secured by organizations of
producers here and there, or of consumers here and there (probably
consumers can attack the problem more effectively than producers), and
by the establishment of public markets; but no organization can
permanently handle the question unless the organization is all the
people.
The present agitations against middleman practices and stock-market
gambling ought to compel Congress to pass laws to correct the evils that
are correctable by law, and the organizations then should keep such
touch on the situation that the laws will be enforced.
It has been suggested that the superabundant middlemen go into farming;
but no one can compel them to go to farming, and they might not be
successful farmers if they should attack the business, and the farming
country might not need them or profit by them,--for it is not
demonstrated that we need more farmers, although it is apparent that we
need better farmers.
_It is the business of government._
It is the business of any government to protect its people. Governments
have protected their countries from invasion and war, but the greatest
office of government in modern times is to develop its own people and
the internal resources of its realm. We are beginning to protect the
people from the over-lording of railroads, from unfair combinations in
trade, and from the tyranny of organized politicians. It is just as much
the business of government to protect its people from dishonest and
tyrannous middlemen lying beyond the practical reach of individuals. The
situation has arisen because of lack of control; there is no conspiracy
against the farmer.
It is said that competition will in the end correct the middleman evil,
but competition does not correct it; and competition alone, under the
present structure of society, will not correct it in most cases because
"agreements" between traders restrict or remove competition: the
situation does not have within itself the remedies for its own ills.
When we finally eliminate combinations in restraint of trade, the
middleman abuses may be in the process of passing out. It is to check
dishonesty on the one hand and to allow real competition on the other
that I am now making suggestions.
_Must be a continuing process of control._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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