2 WHAT IS THE LAND QUESTION ? 



What is the Land Question ? 



The fundamental question is whether the 

 best use is being made of the soil, and this 

 question has two aspects, which are closely- 

 connected but not the same. They are popu- 

 lation and production. That is to say, we 

 may regard agriculture as an occupation and 

 judge it by the population it maintains, or as 

 a means of production and judge it by the 

 amount of food it produces for the whole com- 

 munity. These are the fundamental ques- 

 tions because they have to do with life ; and 

 the final aim of all effort, whether individual 

 or social, is life itself — its preservation and 

 increase in quantity or quality or both. 

 Mankind always praises the preservation, the 

 increase, and the improvement of life, and 

 condemns the opposite. The complaint about 

 agriculture is that as an occupation it fails to 

 maintain life both in quantity and quality, 

 and that as a productive agency it might do 

 more to feed the nation than it does. Some- 

 times stress is laid on the one and sometimes 

 on the other ; but they are generally regarded 

 as involving each other more or less. Just at 

 present the former complaint seems to be 

 more prominent. If the rural population were 

 increasing in number and improving in 

 quality there would be no land question, or 

 none in the sense of an acute political issue. 

 What catches the ear is the cry that rural life 



