men and their families have no schools, churches, or clubs at convenient distances, and arc compelled to pass their days in a dreary round of unrelieved toil.
It is a serious question what the future has in store for the wheat belt populations. If all the power used on these farms were machine power, then the cultivators as well as the owners could perhaps live in the towns, using the auto for rapid transit to and from the home and farm. But as yet much of the power used is supplied by horses or mules which require attention early and late and winter as well as summer. The breaking up of the large holdings is in some sections not to be expected for many years. In some cases the wheat lands will probably be degraded into pasture lands as their soils deteriorate. In others the natural remedy, a permanent agriculture of more intensive character, will apply.
The large towns. Life in the larger towns and cities of the Northwest is undergoing rapid development due primarily to a splendid period of growth which has brought, with increased wealth, a multitude of new social and economic problems. The solution of these has sometimes proved too difficult for the people acting under their democratic city charters. In such cases the population has been factionalized and social contfitions are consequently bad.
Most frequently the causes of disruption have been the liquor question and corporation control of utilities. Within the past two years all three of the Northw^estern states have adopted state prohibition laws, which
