' Soci&liallc DOlionB &re apparently making gome utioads atnong Uie ninil population of the American prairie region, where & mecbacicallj organized and staudardized metbod of faimiiig prevails, with k laigi DM ol DMchAikioal appliauces.
The advocates of the new ^^eed have made iittle headway among the rural classes of Europe, whether peasant farmers or farm laborers. The rural proletariat has hitherto proved virtually impermeable.' The discipline of their daily life leaves their spirit undisturbed on the plane of conventionality and anthropomorphism, and the changes to which they aspire lie within the scope of the conventionalities which have grown out of these circumstances of their life and which express the habit of mind enforced by these circumstances.
Without claiming that this explanation is competent to cover the case of socialism in all its bearings, it may be pointed out that this socialistic bias has effectively spread among the people only within the last quarter of a century, which is also approximately the period since which the machine procesa and the mechanical standardization of industry has reached its fuUer development, both as regards the extent of its field and as regards the extent of its technological requirements ; that it is found m vigorous growth only in those communities and partic-
1 So strikliig bu been the failure ot the German BocUlIsbi, for lasUnce, iu tbeir atUmpta upon the integrity of the tanning community, that they have latterly changed their tacUcs, and inal^ad of attemptiog to convert the peasants to a full aociallatic programme, Uie; have turned to measures of compromiae, in ntalcb the cliaracMriatl* and revolutionary faatures of the sociaiistic programme are softened beyond recognition, if not suppressed. The hablu of life, and therafora the habits of thought, of the peasant farmers move on the audent levels of handicraft, pecuniary management, personal coDsequeuce, and prascrlptive coilom.