Of course, people are not so ready to agree on the meaning of economic and social facts as on the meaning of facts in the natural sciences. And even when they agree on the facts, they are not so ready to agree on what should be done about them. True, the human element is never entirely absent in any science, but it is far more important here, where it sometimes takes extreme forms of passion and prejudice. That does not relieve any of us of the duty of trying to discover the facts in the scientific spirit and to deal with them wisely. It makes the duty all the more urgent. One of the great solvents of passion and prejudice, which between them have pushed civilization dangerously close to the brink of disaster, is the scientific spirit. I believe that on the whole this book has been written in that spirit. It is a sincere effort to contribute to economic democracy in these United States. But I would also be the first to acknowledge that it has human shortcomings. I should like to think it is a step, even if a halting one, toward that marriage of the social and the natural sciences which I believe can be one of the great contributions of democracy to civilization. HENRY A. WALLACE, Secretary of Agriculture. June 15, 1940. OUR MAJOR AGRICULTURAL LAND USE PROBLEMS AND SUG- L. C. Gray THE CHALLENGE OF CONSERVATION Bushrod W. Allin, Ellery A. Foster Page 398 416 W. R. Chapline, F. G. Renner, Raymond Price ACREAGE ALLOTMENTS, MARKETING QUOTAS, AND COMMODITY 551 BARRIERS TO INTERNAL TRADE IN FARM PRODUCTS STANDARDIZATION AND INSPECTION OF FARM PRODUCTS Page 656 667 |