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THE CRAFTSMAN IDEA

that affords the greatest opportunity for all-round development, but also a permanent competence. To bring about such a condition is the end and aim of the whole Craftsman idea. We call it by that name because we have been the first to formulate it in this country. But it is in the air everywhere. It is taking shape in several of the European countries in the form of government appropriations for the reestablishment and encouragement of handicrafts among the people, government schools for the teaching of various crafts, and government exchanges to look after the question of a steady market. In Great Britain and Ireland the same thing is being done by private enterprise, partly as a matter of social reform and partly as an effort of philanthropy. But in this country conditions are different. We have no peasant class and almost the only people in need of social reform, or of philanthropic efforts in their behalf are the vast hordes of immigrants who pour into the country each year and too often find it difficult to adjust their lives to American conditions.

THE people to whom the Craftsman idea makes its appeal are the better class farmers who own their farms, workers in the city who are able to get together a little place in the country and build up a permanent home, and the better class of artisans who desire to escape from the routine of factory work. That such people are taking a keen interest in the question of life in the country and that farming is rapidly being restored to its former status as a desirable occupation is evidenced by the encouragement given to the widespread activities of the Department of Agriculture, which is doing so much to bring about better and more economical methods of cultivating the soil. We have plenty of proof that these efforts do not fall short in the matter of results, for all over the country there is a growing appreciation of the possibilities that lie in intensive agriculture and a desire to learn something of modern scientific farming. We most heartily endorse all that is being done along these lines; but we go a step farther because we maintain that the whole standard of living must be changed before there can be a return of natural conditions to our lives. For example, we have been accustomed of late years to an artificial scale of income and expenditure, and the prices of the most ordinary necessities of life have risen so high that it takes all the average man can do to make ends meet. This is both wrong and unnecessary, but a natural consequence of artificial conditions, and we maintain that the only way to correct it is to put ourselves in a position to realize that, in permitting our lives to be ruled by false standards and inflated values, we have lost sight of the principle that economy means wealth. When we regain this simple and reasonable point of view, we will find no difficulty in admitting that comfort and happiness in living do not depend upon the amount of money we can make and spend, but upon pleasant surroundings and freedom from the pressure of want and apprehension; and when this truth is brought home to the affairs of daily life, the work of establishing natural standards is done.
Therefore we advocate a return to cultivating the soil as a means of obtaining the actual living,—that is, of looking to garden, grain-patch, orchard, chicken yard and pasture for the vegetables, fruits, cereals, eggs and meat consumed by the family. If properly cared for and cultivated according to the modern methods that are now everybody's for the learning, a little farm of five or ten acres can be