"There are many who contend that the nation will never again allow its
rural industry to be neglected and discouraged as it was in the past;
that the war has taught a lesson which will not soon be forgotten. This
view of the national temperament is considered by others to be too
confident. It is the firm conviction of this school that the consumer
will speedily return to his old habit of indifference to national
stability in the matter of food, and that Parliament acting at his
bidding, will manifest equal apathy."
These words, taken from a leader in _The Times_ of February 11th, 1918,
bring me back to the starting point of these ragged reflections. There
will be no permanent stablishing of our agriculture, no lasting advance
towards safety and health, if we have not vision and a fixed ideal. The
ruts of the past were deep, and our habit is to walk along without
looking to left or right. A Liberalism worthy of the word should lift
its head and see new paths. The Liberalism of the past, bent on the
improvement of the people and the growth of good-will between nations,
forgot in that absorption to take in the whole truth. Fixing its eyes on
measures which should redeem the evils of the day, it did not see that
those evils were growing faster than all possible remedy, because we had
forgotten that a great community bountifully blessed by Nature has no
business to exist parasitically on the earth produce of other
communities; and because our position under pure free trade, and pure
industrialism, was making us a tempting bait for aggression, and
retarding the very good-will between nations which it desired so
earnestly.
The human animal perishes if not fed. We have gone so far with our
happy-go-lucky scheme of existence that it has become necessary to
remind ourselves of that. So long as we had money we thought we could
continue to exist. Not so. Henceforth till we feed ourselves again, we
live on sufferance, and dangle before all eyes the apple of discord. A
self-supporting Britain, free from this carking fear, would become once
more a liberalising power. A Britain fed from overseas can only be an
Imperialistic Junker, armed to the teeth, jealous and doubtful of each
move by any foreigner; prizing quantity not quality; indifferent about
the condition of his heart. Such a Britain dare not be liberal if it
will.
The greatest obstacle to a true League of Nations, with the exception of
the condition of Russia, will be the condition of Britain, till she can
feed herself.
I believe in the principle of free trade, because it forces man to put
his best leg foremost. But all is a question of degree in this world. It
is no use starting a donkey, in the Derby, and bawling in its ear: "A
fair field and no favour!" especially if all your money is on the
donkey. All our money is henceforth on our agriculture till we have
brought it into its own. And that can only be done at present with the
help of bounty.
The other day a Canadian free trader said: "It all depends on what sort
of peace we secure; if we have a crushing victory, I see no reason why
Britain should not go on importing her food."
Fallacy--politically and biologically! The worst thing that could happen
to us after the war would be a sense of perfect security, in which to
continue to neglect our agriculture and increase our towns. Does any man
think that a momentary exhaustion of our enemy is going to prevent that
huge and vigorous nation from becoming strong again? Does he believe
that we can trust a League of Nations--a noble project, for which we
must all work--to prevent war till we have seen it successful for at
least a generation? Does he consider that our national physique will
stand another fifty years of rampant industrialism without fresh country
stocks to breed from? Does he suppose that the use of the air and the
underparts of the sea is more than just beginning?
Politically, our independence in the matter of food is essential to good
will between the nations. Biologically, more country life is essential
to British health. The improvement of town and factory conditions may do
something to arrest degeneration, but in my firm conviction it cannot
hope to do enough in a land where towns have been allowed to absorb
seven-ninths of the population, and--such crowded, grimy towns!
Even from the economic point of view it will be far cheaper to restore
the countryside and re-establish agriculture on a paying basis than to
demolish and rebuild our towns till they become health resorts. And
behind it all there is this: Are we satisfied with the trend of our
modern civilisation? Are we easy in our consciences? Have not machines,
and the demands of industry run away with our sense of proportion? Grant
for a moment that this age marks the highest water so far of British
advance. Are we content with that high-water mark? In health, happiness,
taste, beauty, we are surely far from the ideal. I do not say that
restoration of the land will work a miracle; but I do say that nothing
we can do will benefit us so potently as the redress of balance between
town and country life.
We are at the parting of the ways. The war has brought us realisation
and opportunity. We can close our eyes again and drift, or we can move
forward under the star of a new ideal. The principle which alone
preserves the sanity of nations is the principle of balance. Not even
the most enraged defender of our present condition will dare maintain
that we have followed out that principle. The scales are loaded in
favour of the towns, till they almost touch earth; unless our eyes are
cleared to see that, unless our will is moved to set it right, we shall
bump the ground before another two decades have slipped away, and in the
mud shall stay, an invitation to any trampling heel.
I have tried to indicate general measures and considerations vital to
the resettlement of the land, conscious that some of my readers will
have forgotten more than I know, and that what could be said would fill
volumes. But the thought which, of all others, I have wished to convey
is this: Without vision we perish. Without apprehension of danger and
ardour for salvation in the great body of this people there is no hope
of anything save a momentary spurt, which will die away, and leave us
plodding down the hill. There are two essentials. The farmer--and that
means every cultivator of the land--must have faith in the vital
importance of his work and in the possibility of success; the townsman
must see and believe that the future of the country, and with it his own
prosperity, is involved in the revival of our agriculture and bound up
with our independence of oversea supply. Without that vision and belief
in the townsman the farmer will never regain faith, and without that
faith of the farmer agriculture will not revive.
Statesmen may contrive, reformers plan, farmers struggle on, but if
there be not conviction in the body politic, it will be no use.
Resettlement of the land, and independence of outside food supply, is
the only hope of welfare and safety for this country. Fervently
believing that, I have set down these poor words.
1918.
[E] From an essay by the President of the German Agricultural Council,
quoted by Mr. T. H. Middleton, of the Board of Agriculture, in his
report on the recent development of German agriculture.