Solving the Economic Problems
of American Farmers

Nicholas Murray Butler

[From a speech delivered at an agricultural conference held at Columbia University. Reprinted from Land and Freedom, April-May 1927]

The drift of population to city centers and the distaste of the younger generation for rural life and the work of the farm, are rapidly bringing about conditions which will gravely affect not only the economic basis of modern life, but also social and educational interests and ideals. Since men must live agriculture cannot be displaced as the basic industry. Therefore the land, in the largest sense of the word, challenges modern scholarship and modern human interest in a score of ways.

A generation ago, Henry George saw this and pressed it upon public attention with marked eloquence and vehemence. His proposed solution for the problems growing out of the land is not one which either economist or public opinion has been disposed to accept. The fact remains, however, that some solution for the problems of the land and its relationship to human life should and must be found.