The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-08-27
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

REOST well-nformed readers are familiar
1V1 enough with the industrial revolution that
began two centuries ago and supplanted the
spinning wheel and freSide by the power spin
ming machines, great factories and industrial
towns. Not so long ago the technOcratS were
thrilling us by observations about new power
age" the coming of automatic machinery and an
| economic future in which all necessary goods
can be produced in a few hours of work each
week.
We are also recently familiar with the first
industrial revolution in agriculture which re-
placed the sickle cradle fail and ox-driven
pillow, by the reaper, binder power thraSher,
combine harvester and thrasher, the tractor and
the gang plow
Very few, however, are aware THAT agricul-
ture is also on the verge Of new industrial
revolution quite as impressive and omInous as
the new power and automatic machinery in the
realm of manufacturing industry. This impend-
ing agricultural revolution is described by Wayne
Parrish and Harold Clark in one OF the most
significant magazine articles which I have read
in many years. 1t appears in the current num-
Der OF Harpers and is entitled Chemistry
Wrecks the Farm"
THIS new industrial revolution in agriculture
i involves at least three major phases: Cd in
tensive cultivation through the use Of the best
known machinery and fertilizers, which will en-
able us to produce all food and other agrlcul-
tural products needed in this country with APP
proXimately one-fifth of the present acreage and
number of farmers now engaged in agriculture
% the even more mOmentous trend toward re-
moving agriculture entirely from the farm and
transferring it to the synthetic chemical plant,
where we will manufacture foods milk fibre, and
the like; and go the well-nigh complete elimi-
nation Of most foreign trade in agricultural
products, since it will be both cheaper and safer
to manufacture the needed agricultural products
at home through synthetic chemical methods.
Erct 1OYfoY Ofn OH 1ict,x
agriculture came away back in 1858 when
William Henry Perkin succeeded in producing
synthetically alizarin which had hitherto been
derived from the madden root cultivated in the
Far East. This discovery withdrew 100000 acres
from the cultivation of the madden root and seri-
ously depressed Eastern agriculture Further rev.
outionary progress in the synthetic dye industry
soon followed.
Chemistry then invaded the textile industry
even more directly through the synthetic pro-
ducton of the silk substitute, rayon. This is
only the start. The chemists have made it vir-
tually certain that cotton, silk and wool will be
largely dominated by syntheticS in the future"
All this means that the land needed to produce
textiles will constantly dwindle as time goes on.
The lumber industry is thrown in Jeopardy by
the possibility of using synthetically produced
plasticS in the place of lumber even of the finest
quality. From the standpoint of science it is now
virtually certain that synthetic rubber will sup
plant natural rubber within less than a decade.
MOST striking and most serious for the fu-
1Vx ture Of the farmer, however has been the
success in devisng chemical methods for manu-
featuring almost all types Of needed foods
cereals. milk products and meat.
Virtually all foods, from wheat and corn to
beans, can be made in the laboratory. The prob
lem was merely to break down the natural food
into its chemical constituents and rebuild these
constituents into new food forms. While this is
not strictly synthetic process it at least trans
fers the making of foods from the farm to the
factory. One of the outstanding achievements
to date has been the manufacture Of butter sub
stitutes."
Even if we wished to derive our meat from
domestic animals, the latter can pe fed syn
thetic foods with complete success