ABSTRACT
Opposed to the theory that democracy is to be attained through a class war is the theory that the attainment of democracy will result from a national adjustment. Without an excess of wealth no democracy on a large scale was possible, however much men might dream dreams or voices cry aloud in the wilderness. The bases for such a surplus were not laid until the economic and political revolutions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries destroyed the decentralized feudal structure and called forth nations and a national economy. The motive force of modern ethics of social improvement reveals itself in a sense of disequilibrium between social wealth and a residual misery of large sections of the population. American agriculture has not only fed our growing population, but it still permits vast exportations of grain, flour, and meat products.
