Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/270

 for the Department. In part, Mr. Michael states as follows:

“Formerly Roumania was a great wheat exporting country, 59.3 per cent of production finding its way onto the Western European market to compete with American-grown grain. This export of grain was possible only because wheat bread eating was restricted to city population and the upper classes, who consumed about 792 pounds per capita per year. Had the peasants consumed a like amount of wheat there would have been little for shipment abroad.

“In all countries in Southeastern Europe, with the exception of Bulgaria, this same condition of affairs obtained—the peasant was undernourished, his diet was without variety, and food that he should have consumed to keep himself in good physical condition was taken from him to meet excessive taxes or exorbitant land rents. He was virtually the slave of the large land owner and the state.

“To-day that is changed, the peasant is beginning to eat bread; after centuries of submerged individuality he is taking his place among his own peoples as a man, despite the obstructions of the great lords and the opposition of the cities. The peasant’s wife is demanding to be better clothed, even buying satins that she calls ‘the cloth that goes swish-swish.’

“The fact that the peasant is eating bread is causing a revolution throughout Southeastern Europe that extends even into Middle Europe. This revolution is better known as the land reform. The peasant, brought to a realization of his power by the great war, demanded enough land on which to produce a decent living for his wife and children. His demand was a threat and he got the land. He has begun to feed his wife and children not only bread, but also meat—a former Sunday luxury. He is growing upon his land the things he wants to grow for his own use…

“All this is having a peculiar effect upon the national economics of the various countries in which he lives. The big estates organized their operations about wheat production as a center, the wheat to be sold for cash and the cash to be expended in the great luxury centers of Paris, Venice, Berlin, but not in the country where the wealth was produced. Consequently these countries were left poor, their resources being pumped out annually to give a few weeks of pleasure abroad to the upper classes…

“Then the great change came. The peasant, who had formerly slaved to produce the exportable grain excesses, began to work for himself and in the interest of his own imme-