XXIII THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 427 



have led to the failure of the homestead system of the 

 United States : unequal competition, owing to differences 

 in quality and situation of farms, as well as to capitalist 

 farmers, the influence of both having been greatly increased 

 by railroads and other means of rapid communication, and 

 by the growth of great cities offering a practically unlimited 

 market. Added to this there has been the twofold influence 

 of the millionaire and the speculator, ever seeking to buy 

 land, and of the money lender, ever seeking to lend money 

 on land mortgages. These combined influences have led to 

 the almost complete extermination of the statesmen and 

 other small land -owning farmers of England, and have 

 greatly diminished the number and the prosperity of the 

 peasant farmers in France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. 

 The lawyers and money lenders have now absorbed many of 

 the peasant properties of France and Belgium, whose former 

 owners are now tenants, subject to the grinding pressure of 

 rack-rents ; while many others are struggling in the meshes 

 of the mortgagees, as are so many of the farmers in the 

 Western States of America. 



Conclusions from the Inquiry. 



The present inquiry has, I venture to think, established 

 some definite and almost unassailable conclusions as to the 

 fundamental causes which have led all civilized nations into 

 the Social Quagmire in which they find themselves to-day ; 

 and in doing so it has furnished us with an answer to the 

 vital question — What should be our next step towards 

 better social conditions, such as will not render the term 

 " civilization " the mockery it is now ? 



In the first place, we have demonstrated that a perma- 

 nently successful agriculture, in which the food producer 

 shall be sure of an adequate reward for his labour, is 

 absolutely impossible without national or state ownership 

 of the soil, so as to ensure the farmer undisturbed occu- 

 pation at a low but equitably graded rent. 



It is equally clear, in the second place, that the condition 

 of the great body of industrial workers can only be improved, 



