THE QUESTION OF WHEAT. 9 



volved in the exi3loitiiig of a country for purely commercial advan- 

 tage. As yet in no year has so large a quantity as 1,250,000 metric 

 quintals been obtained from Algeria, and the import shows little 

 tendency to increase. It may be noted that even England obtains 

 little assistance from her colonies in the supply of this one article. 

 In 1896 only one twelfth of the wheat imported came from her pos- 

 sessions, and, eliminating India and Canada, she could obtain hardly 

 enough to meet her wants for a single day. JSTowhere is colonial em- 

 pire closely connected with the question of wheat raising and supply. 

 There is no more instructive lesson in history than a government 

 struggling with the economic inevitable. That this experience is 

 more fraught with failure than with success is not surprising, for the 

 social problems come slowly forward and are well under way to 

 accomplishment before the symptoms are noticed or a diagnosis 

 attempted. The discovery is made by those who have no proper 

 appreciation of the true remedy. It is some interest that feels the 

 pinch, the increasing pressure of the change that always accompanies 

 a social movement. The wish and effort are directed to maintain the 

 conditions as they were, conditions to which the operations of indus- 

 try or commerce were accommodated by long usage. This inter- 

 ested effort, ever conservative, opposes the progress of development 

 on new lines, and too often makes a blind use of whatever instru- 

 ment of defense is at hand. The protection of Government is invoked 

 to stave off the inevitable, and a greater and greater exercise of that 

 protection is invoked as the weight of the necessary change becomes 

 greater. Industries have been wiped out, commerce destroyed, gov- 

 ernments overturned, and peoples impoverished by this unreasonable 

 contest with what is inevitable. ISTatural conditions, the product of 

 land tenures, habits, and national character, have thus far been suf- 

 ficient to preserve the French farmer from that intense crisis through 

 which the English landlord has passed; but the end is not yet. 

 France to-day holds an almost unique position in wheat among the 

 nations of Europe, and it is only misapplied political agencies from 

 within or more intense competition from without that can shake her 

 in this eminence. 



William Pengelly, the Devonshire (England) geologist, who is perhaps 

 best known by his exploration of Kent's Hole, Torquay, while seated one day 

 on a settle at a wayside inn, answered some questions asked him by three 

 day laborers, and got them so much interested in a conversation on stone- 

 bi'eaking that the landlord took notice of the matter. The next morning he 

 addressed the geologist: " I hope no offense, sir; but ef you'd stop 'ere for a 

 foo days or a week, and talk to the men in the evenin's, you shud be wel- 

 come to meat, drink, washijig, and lodging free gratis. I'm sure lots o' 

 men wud come and hear 'ee, and I should zell an uncommon sight o' beer." 



VOL. LHI. — 2 



