The independent., 1903-06-04

olution, had different social organi-
Zation. There the farm was the SO
cial unit; the government, a patri-
arehal despotism-tfe plantation
master ruling a self-supporting COM
munity. Not more than per cent
held negro slaves, and the interstices
in southern economy were filled up
with poor whites" who were crowded
back into the inaccessible mountain
districts, compelled to be self-sup-
porting, trading little, and changing
little till in very recent years.
The Middle West was peopled by
pioneers who were driven out of New
England as the great landed proprie-
tors gobbled up the common land OF
the villages, breaking down New Eng
land feudalism and emerging into ca
pitalism, with manufacturing domi-
nant. These pioneers conquered the
wilderness and their life gave the
fullest opportunity for the develop
ment of individuality, with the closest
dependence upon the social unit-the
neighborhood or community who
Joined in ''raisings,' hlsking bees,
log-rollings, ''frolics," etc.
The Great Plains have very diff
ferent history. Railroads preceded
the settler to a great extent. There
were few pioneers and few pioneer
hardships. In no part of the United
States was the settler, from the start,
SO dependent upon others. He pro-
dnced for sale; sold; and bought to
supply his wants. Zone thing that
astonished me when | came to Ne
braska in 1884 was to see a farmer
haul load of aogs to town-and re-
turn with side OF baconD Instead
of splitting rails says Mr.. Simons,
'.and laying Virginia rail fence from
materials ready to his hand, he was
forced to patronize the barbed-Wire
trust" Instead OF towns arising as
trade routes developed, the trade
routes, in the form of railroads, came
first and their owners arbitrarily de-
cided where the centers of population
should be located" Yet withal the
wonderfully fertile soil, the farmer
on the Great Plains found himself
helpless in the face of the most gi-
gantic financial and corporate forces
the world has ever known"
The Far West has already passed
through three sharply defined eras
% That of Indian domination down
to April II, 1859, when began e.,
Spanish domination at San Diego
lasting SO years, or to April 8, 1922,
when go Mexican pastoral life began
with the independence of Mexico;
then l4) the American commercial
era began, July Z, 1886, and now con-
tinues. Here almost alone can we
find evidences of the permanent sue
! cess Of what is known as bonanza
| farming.
The history OF the Arid Belt, Mr..
Simons believes, "is filled with more
tragedy, and its future is pregnant
with greater promise than perhaps
any other equal eXpanse of territory
within the confines of the Western
Hemisphere. -..
For many years he continues, ut
| was marked upon the maps as a great
| white blank indicating an unhospit-
able desert. Finally as the territory
| bordering upon it became more thick
| 1y settled and the pressure for land
| became ever fiercer, the line OF settle
ments encroached more and more up
on this stretch of apparently worth
less soil. Following the times of oc-
casionally rainy seasons, this line OF
social advance rose and fell with rain
and drouth, like a mighty tide beat
| ing against tremendous wall of the
| Rockies. And every such wave left
behind it a mass of human wreckage
| in the shape Of broken fortunes, de-
/ serted farms and ruined homes"
Lack of space this time prevents a
fuller presentation of the second book.
Mr. Simons finds that zone industry
after another has left the farm and
fed to the great city factory. Cob
bling, spinning, weaving, dyefng,
knitting, sewing have already gone
and butter and cheese making with a
host of other processes OF farm work
are developing into separate indus
tries and joining the great procession
| toward industrial centers."
On the other hand, what work is
left the farmer is done by compli-
Gated machinery and he is obliged to
| learn a multitude of trades almost as
diverse as he formerly pursued, each
4 one growing more and more complex.
| But in marketing his crops he is at
greatest disadvantage, having prac-
/ ticalIy no knowledge as to best meth