Note 249 — Chapter XXII · Socialism and Agriculture.

Professor Adolf Wagner says in his “Text-book of Political Economy by Rau” that has been previously quoted: “The small farms constitute an economic basis that cannot be replaced by any other institution for a very important part of the population, an independent, self-sustaining peasantry and its peculiar socio-political position and function.” If the author would not idealize the small farmer “à tout prix” to please his conservative friends, he would have to recognize the small farmer as the poorest of beings. Under existing conditions the small farmer is almost inaccessible to a higher culture. He works hard from dawn till darkness and lives like a dog. Meat, butter, eggs, milk that he produces are not consumed by him; he produces for others. Under existing conditions he cannot attain a higher status of life and so becomes an element detrimental to the progress of civilization. He who likes retrogression because it serves his own ends, may desire the continued existence of this social stratum, but human progress demands that it should cease to exist.